Loosing Fat

Soccer67mfp

So I have been eating high protein and changing my lifestyle/ eating a lot. I have been trying to hit my macros everyday. My main goal is to loose body fat and then gain muscle and maintain it. I do club soccer 3-4 times a week and go to the gym and lift weights/core. I limit myself to 1 sweet a day. I cannot seem to loose any body fat. Especially around the stomach area, which is my main goal. Any tips/help? Thanks

mmapags

What are your calories and is your calorie allowance a calorie deficit. If you are not losing weight/ fat you are not in a deficit.

Soccer67mfp

@mmapags I was undereating, as 185 lbs only eating 1,400 calories and working out. But then I added 500 calories, and lost 3 lbs. but now I am currently eating 1,800. How do I know how much I burn in a day. And I gained those three lbs back.

mmapags

Plug your numbers in here and it will give you your maintenance calories. Set a goal for weight loss, eg. 1 lb per week and MFP will give you your calories. MFP uses the NEAT model, so, you add back in intentional exercise calories. At 185 and 1800, I would guess you are in a deficit. Possibly too much of one and cortisol is causing water retention and masking fat loss. Do you eat more on days you play soccer and weight lift?

Soccer67mfp

@mmapags I tend to eat the same every day. Even off days.

mmapags

Are you using a food scale and weighing everything and logging it? How long has it been since you lost weight? If your calories are accurate, you may be underfueling. You should be showing a loss if they are. But I've had periods where my weight didn't move for 6 weeks while sticking to plan. Then a kilo drop over 2 days.

Did you plug your numbers in to MFP? What did that tell you?

Soccer67mfp

@mmapags I have been logging for a little over 7 weeks and have never lost any weight. Is there anywhere I can reassess my calories.

jbartos2920

So I hit a weight that I found difficult to get past (twice 175lbs. So I decided to make a change(s)... increased my exercise to increase my calorie deficit. I run so I doubled my weekly mileage 15 to 30 and varied pace adding HIIT. Bam the weight started coming off again 162lbs. Next I add resistance training and bam loss of fat and add bulk (waist line continues to shrink) Then I added food tracking over the last month and the improvement continues 155lbs. Bottom line change things up because your body will get efficient at the activity you do regularly and burn less. Eat your macros and look at calories intake. I’m in better shape at 47 than 27 and weight less than when I ran a marathon.

AnnPT77

Your body doesn't get more efficient and burn significantly fewer calories doing the same activity, at the same intensity, for the same duration, at the same body size. As your body gets smaller, it burns slightly fewer calories. But the same amount of work (in the physics sense of work) burns roughly the same number of calories at constant body size. A compact car drives more miles than a big SUV on the same amount of gas over the same road. But the compact will burn about the same amount of gas on Thursday as it did on Tuesday, on the same route.

As you get fitter, the activity feels easier. As you get fitter, your heart pumps more blood per beat so your heart rate gets lower during the same activity, so a heart rate monitor may estimate fewer calories, but that's inaccurate.

Changing up calories eaten (reducing them, or tracking them accurately instead of roughly) can result in better weight loss. Doing an exercise that burns more calories overall can result in better weight loss. Being fitter may mean that you can comfortably exercise at higher intensity and burn more calories per minute, so get better weight loss exercising for the same amount of time, or allow you to exercise for a longer duration or more frequently and burn more calories (without excess fatigue during the rest of your day, so burn more calories via exercise.

But efficiency at an exercise is a very small factor, for most activities, if a factor at all.

OP will get the best benefits from tracking intake more carefully, and consistently eating the amount MFP suggests.

OP, go back to the guided setup in MFP, fill it out as accurately as practical, and tell it you want to lose a pound a week. Then eat the calories it recommends for 6-8 weeks, plus a rational estimate of your exercise calories. Track your calorie intake meticulously, ideally with a food scale if possible. (Food scale isn't essential for everyone, but it can be a great diagnostic tool if you aren't achieving the results you expect.) If you have "cheat days" or off days of any sort, do your best to log those, too.

FWIW, I lose (slowly) on 1800 plus exercise, and I'm a 5'5" 64-year-old woman who weighs around 135 pounds. While I'm a good li'l ol' calorie burner for my demographic, you're heavier, possibly taller, probably younger, equally female (according to your profile), quite active, so I'd expect you to lose on an accurate 1800 when you're not eating back exercise, and probably if you did.

Water weight fluctuations can confuse things, so make sure you're comparing your weight at the same point in two (or better 3) different menstrual cycles. Many women's hormonal cycles cause water weight fluctuations that can temporaily mask losses on the scale, but comparing the same point in different cycles will help with that.

Best wishes!

mmapags

As Ann said above, do the MFP guided set up. I've asked a couple of times if you've done that but you haven't answered that question. Also, again, are you using a food scale and weighing everything to insure your intake calories are accurate?

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sijomial

jbartos2920 wrote: »

So I hit a weight that I found difficult to get past (twice 175lbs. So I decided to make a change(s)... increased my exercise to increase my calorie deficit. I run so I doubled my weekly mileage 15 to 30 and varied pace adding HIIT. Bam the weight started coming off again 162lbs. Next I add resistance training and bam loss of fat and add bulk (waist line continues to shrink) Then I added food tracking over the last month and the improvement continues 155lbs. Bottom line change things up because your body will get efficient at the activity you do regularly and burn less. Eat your macros and look at calories intake. I’m in better shape at 47 than 27 and weight less than when I ran a marathon.

Bolded is a myth, and potentially harmful myth, propagated by the diet and fitness industries constantly trying to sell new routines and diets.