fat storage

cpadron85

I am 5'5" 180 lbs . I eat high protein, healthy fats, and carbs from quinoa or whole wheat bread. i carry all my weight in my mid section. i just started eating small meals through out the day. around 1600 cal. a day. im still at 180. any pointers??

yirara

yes, what you eat and when doesn't matter for weight loss. Calories is all that matters. The rest is for general health and satiety. Also, you can't chose to lose fat on your mid section. It comes off where it comes of.
A couple of questions: for how long have you been at 1600 calories, and what rate of loss did you chose?
How are you measuring your calorie intake?

cmriverside

cpadron85 wrote: »

I am 5'5" 180 lbs . I eat high protein, healthy fats, and carbs from quinoa or whole wheat bread. i carry all my weight in my mid section. i just started eating small meals through out the day. around 1600 cal. a day. im still at 180. any pointers??

What do you mean, "high" protein? Why?

Weight is about calories but you do need fats and fruits and vegetables for fiber and nutrition.

You also say you're eating "around" 1600. I would think you can easily lose on 1600 IF it's actually 1600. what is your daily activity like? Do you work or go to school or take care of a family? What about purposeful exercise. If you're not doing so already, I suggest you start logging food as accurately as you can.

Here's a good guide for using the FOOD diary here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

AnnPT77

cpadron85 wrote: »

I am 5'5" 180 lbs . I eat high protein, healthy fats, and carbs from quinoa or whole wheat bread. i carry all my weight in my mid section. i just started eating small meals through out the day. around 1600 cal. a day. im still at 180. any pointers??

By coincidence, I'm your height (5'5"), and started pursuing weight loss at about your weight (I was 183). I'd been a vegetarian for over 40 years at that point, eating whole grains, lots of veggies/fruits. For the then-preceding roughly 12 years, I'd been very active, training pretty hard 6 days most weeks, even competing as an athlete. Like you, the bulk of my body fat was central body.

I'd echo yirara's questions: How long have you been at 1600 calories, and how precisely are you accounting for those calories?

At the outset of a new eating/activity routine, it can take 4-6 weeks to see the effect accurately.

Calorie counting can be a good weight loss method, for those it suits, but it's not the only method. Using it effectively can be enhanced by precision, especially when not seeing expected results (over a multi-week time period).

When I first started losing weight, I was rough-counting calories. After a period of time, my results started to slow down, and I joined MFP to log and track more carefully. Weight loss resumed at a good pace, eating "the same" number of calories. (Obviously, it wasn't the same number - it was that it was more accurate when I logged in detail.)

I'm not saying that applies for you, but when you say "around 1600", that makes me wonder about precision, whether there are so-called "cheat meals" or "cheat days" in the plan, and that sort of thing.

My personal belief is that the number of meals or timing of meals has little impact on weight loss rate, unless it affects a person's ability to stick with reduced calories long enough to see meaningful weight loss. Some people feel more full and satisfied with many small meals, others with a single daily meal, and others everywhere in between.

Once I settled into a process I could sustain for the many months required, I found it possible to lose weight at a reasonable pace, reasonably consistently. Much of that weight loss was eating 1400-1600 calories daily (plus all exercise calories in my case), but I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner, so that may not be true for all at our starting height/weight.

If calorie counting is the method of choice, it's helpful to be reasonably accurate and consistent - perhaps you already are. For any weight loss method, it's important to assess success over weeks, and for adult women who aren't in menopause to compare body weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles, because hormonal water weight fluctuations can be Just That Crazy. (Some women only see a new low weight once a month, although that extreme is rare.)

Best wishes for success - it's achievable!