Need some insight on losing weight with 23% BF

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loladoe
loladoe Posts: 2 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I've been training for a year now. I do strength a few times a week, 4x a week yoga + daily minimum of 6-7K steps in the sun.

After some anxiety medication, my body changed a lot. I gained a lot of fat, I used to be super fit. My body fat % went from 21% to 39% and I gained like 40 pounds.

Fast forward two years, my BF% is back down to 23% and I feel strong. But I wanna get leaner.

I have an appointment with a nutritionist in 3 weeks. I am recording my food on a scale. The only way I'm losing weight is by starvation 1200 calories a day (7 days a week) + all the exercise I am doing. I am also a vegan and super health freak. I eat things like kale, spinach, drink collagen etc.

Right now I'm still 73 kg 165lbs at 5'5" with a 23% body fat percentage. My ideal weight is 58kg (128 pounds). I missed wearing the things I like. I look overweight it's bothering me.

Has anyone been in a similar position? I'm seeing a nutritionist soon but is starving the only way to go? I have anxiety and when I don't eat well I feel weak. I need to eat like 500 calorie meals 3x a day to feel my best and be productive.

Replies

  • jenncornelsen
    jenncornelsen Posts: 969 Member
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    Just curious if you are still on that same medication?
  • loladoe
    loladoe Posts: 2 Member
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    Not the same. But I am on different medications. The ones I am currently taking are weight neutral and there is no possible way I can stop them.
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,092 Member
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    Hey. I’m not in the same position as you anxiety wise but we are similar body fat percentage wise I would say ( although my measurement is only on one of those in body scanner things which are not accurate)

    I’m 136 pounds or 61 kg at 5 ft 8.5. I would literally be chewing my arm off if I had to eat 1200 and I would be losing 2 pounds a week. Starving yourself is not sustainable and there should be no need to be feeling famished all the time when you are dieting.

    First off are you weighing and logging absolutely everything? And have you checked a the mfp entries you are using with the ones in the usda database? Logging inaccuracies are the typical reason why people aren’t losing or aren’t losing as quickly as they want.

    IMO it’s best to have a conservative goal of .5 lbs a week loss rather than be starving. So maybe try that.

    You could open up your diary so people can look at it and help you trouble shoot.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,603 Member
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    Since you're eating 1200 Cal I will assume you are female as the lowest for a male would be 1500.

    Now, I've never seen you so I have no way of knowing if your numbers make sense.

    As an example I am not a particularly strong/trained male in his 50's who is about 10lbs lighter and 2.5" taller than you and at about the same 23% fat percentage (which puts me barely in the normal fat % category for my age).

    Thus, to hit a number such as 23% as a female who is 10lbs heavier and 2.5" shorter you would have to have hit the gym pretty hard.

    Which brings us to the fact that 23% for a female is substantially leaner than "normal"/"acceptable" and is very much so in the "fit" category.

    So if you're already lean and fit... how do you square the circle of trying to lose 15kg of weight? Being so much lighter doesn't sound that it would be an ideal weight for you.

    As to the rest of it: eat more and lose slower.

    You are trying for too large of a deficit and this is affecting your movement the rest of the day by making you feel week and anxious thus reducing your actual caloric expenditure and reducing the deficit you are trying to create.
  • Anabirgite
    Anabirgite Posts: 501 Member
    edited September 2019
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    Not understanding MFP at first I started with eating 1200-1300 calories, I stalled, felt tired, struggled working out and had trouble sleeping. I discovered reading these message boards and evaluating my food diary I was eating very little protein ( I thought I was eating lot) and eating too little calories. I upped my calories and protein, and shockingly lost weight. Good Luck
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    edited September 2019
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    How are you calculating your body fat percentage? The only accurate way to determine your body fat is via a DEXA scan or hydrostatic weighing, aka dunk tank.

    23% for a female is pretty fit. Are you planning on competing in some type physique competition? Here's a visual chart to help you determine how accurate that "23%" is for you.

    5v7cc1ard4ev.png
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
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    Your numbers do not add up. if you are in fact at 23% body fat, losing 36lbs at a 2:1 fat to muscle ratio would put you at 10.5% which is below necessary levels assuming you are a female. So either your goal weight is way too low for your current muscle mass or your body fat% measurement is way off.

    I I am 5'5" and around 25% BF right now at 150 and have a fairly muscular physique with a bit of fluff. Maintenance levels are around 1800-2000 calories depending on exercise. I can lose at 1600. But I am not losing daily or even weekly depending on hormone and water fluctuations. Its something I have to track at equivalent times in my cycle over an entire cycle (month). So it will take 4-5 weeks of consistent eating and weighing before I can accurately assess whether I am losing or not. When you say you can only lose on 1200 calories I suspect you are either not recording everything, or you are not giving your body enough time to show progress. If you are happy at 1500 calories, then stick to that for a whole month and see how much weight you lose and use that to estimate your maintenance and lass levels form there.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    I have my best results with Leangains which is calorie/carb cycling.

    I find that eating low calories (1200) 4x/week is way easier when I get to eat more food (1700) the other 3 days.

    It's still calorie reduction, but for me it's more sustainable.
  • elfin168
    elfin168 Posts: 202 Member
    edited October 2019
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    starving is not the way to go. it will make you hungry and tired, you will lose muscle mass, your anxiety will INCREASE. it is extremely unlikely that you will not lose weight if you eat more. it will take longer but more of it will be fat and it will be easier so you will actually enjoy the process. i would recommend eating around 1400 -1500 calories a day until you see the nutritionist. log and weigh accurately and make sure you eat back most if not all of your exercise calories. also aim for a high protein intake of around 1g/0.75g of protein per pound of body weight.
    eat more complex carbohydrate and make sure you are eating enough fat to fuel your body.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
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    loladoe wrote: »
    I've been training for a year now. I do strength a few times a week, 4x a week yoga + daily minimum of 6-7K steps in the sun.

    After some anxiety medication, my body changed a lot. I gained a lot of fat, I used to be super fit. My body fat % went from 21% to 39% and I gained like 40 pounds.

    Fast forward two years, my BF% is back down to 23% and I feel strong. But I wanna get leaner.

    I have an appointment with a nutritionist in 3 weeks. I am recording my food on a scale. The only way I'm losing weight is by starvation 1200 calories a day (7 days a week) + all the exercise I am doing. I am also a vegan and super health freak. I eat things like kale, spinach, drink collagen etc.

    Right now I'm still 73 kg 165lbs at 5'5" with a 23% body fat percentage. My ideal weight is 58kg (128 pounds). I missed wearing the things I like. I look overweight it's bothering me.

    Has anyone been in a similar position? I'm seeing a nutritionist soon but is starving the only way to go? I have anxiety and when I don't eat well I feel weak. I need to eat like 500 calorie meals 3x a day to feel my best and be productive.

    FYI, if you are in the US anyone with no training/education in the field can call themselves a nutritionist. If you want to talk diet issues see a registered dietitian.

    Best of luck.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,416 Member
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    GaryRuns wrote: »
    How are you calculating your body fat percentage? The only accurate way to determine your body fat is via a DEXA scan or hydrostatic weighing, aka dunk tank.

    ^^This.

    According to my scale, I'm at 41% body fat. I'd be having a panic attack about that if I didn't look like the 27-29% picture and know that bioipedance devices are notoriously inaccurate.

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