New Year Goals 2024 - Lose fat and inches!!

BodyTemple23

Hi MFP Community,

I'm preparing for my next phase of fat loss goals. I lost about 17 pounds this year, and I still have noticeable belly fat (about 6 inches to lose), flabby arms, flabby back, etc. I have a total of 12 inches of fat to lose overall.

My goal is to lose about 0.7lb—each week. I plan to eat about 1400 calories and create a deficit of about 300-500 calories daily.

My workout regime would be cardio for 30 minutes (low to moderate intensity), abs, and yoga for 30 minutes 4x/week. Weights 2x/a week. I have been inconsistent but fairly active until now with a mix of spinning, Zumba, and yoga classes. Weight training 2x/week.

I'm 135 pounds, 5'3 height, medium frame.
Motivation is high. I'm in high spirits.

What I need from fitness experts is the following:

Yes, this plan sounds great.
No, make adjustments because you are in a different phase of weight loss now.

I'm looking for positive, thoughtful, and expert comments.

AnnPT77

I understand and believe you when you say you still have visible fat to lose, yet 135 at 5'3" is not technically overweight (just under overweight BMI at 23.9). It's your call, but if I had relatively little to lose, and was at 135, plus planned a fairly challenging fitness regimen, I wouldn't personally try to lose as fast as 0.7 pounds a week. (In similar circumstances, I didn't do that, in fact. I chose to lose slower than half a pound a week. It was pretty painless.)

Caveat: I'm not a "fitness expert". I'm a long-time masters (old-person, not high-performance) athlete with some coaching training in my sport, and I successfully lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight, have stayed at a healthy weight for 7+ years since . . . so not flat out naive in this realm, either. I also can't say whether you'll find this positive or thoughtful, but I'm shooting for honest and kind, to the best of my meager ability. (I'm also just full of gratuitous opinions, so be forewarned. .)

One factor in my commenting as above is that when in a healthy weight range (which theoretically, you are), and committing to improving fitness, losing fat quite slowly will be likely to give a better long term appearance result, not to mention health payoffs. Your strength training being well fueled - nutrition AND calories - will likely give you better performance and appearance/health results.

You don't mention a weight goal (which I think is a good thing - I think it's good to evaluate how we feel/look as loss proceeds). Just for discussion, if you were to lose to just above technically underweight (BMI 18.6), that would be 105 pounds at 5'3". (Most women don't prefer their appearance at a BMI that low, but details of build matter.) So, let's say at most 30 pounds to lose, maybe more like 15-20? That's not huge.

You don't mention your age, but if you're 30, a reasonable TDEE calculator (Sailrabbit) suggest that your sedentary TDEE would be somewhere in the 1600-1700 range. Repeating: Sedentary.

Spitballing, your cardio might burn 125-130 net calories per session, abs/yoga maybe 65 per session, weights maybe 80. (That might be a little generous, but I don't think it's crazy high.) It will also matter if you have a non-sedentary job, or a busy life of home chores and such.

Do you plan to eat those calories back, as you estimate them, or do you plan to eat at the flat 1400?

Let's say
* sedentary TDEE of 1600 x 7 days = 11,200
* cardio at 125 x 4 days = 500
* yoga/abs at 65 x 4 days = 260
* weights at 2 x 80 = 160
* TOTAL: 12,120 divided by 7 days = 1731

If you eat the flat 1400, and don't have any non-sedentary stuff in your life (sedentary would be a fair bit fewer than 5000 daily steps, among other things), you then have the 300-ish deficit, which is a little over half a pound a week. That would be a reasonable loss-rate target IMO, but it's not 0.7 a week. Perhaps I've overestimated your age, underestimated your daily life calories, estimated the exercise more conservatively, or am missing something.

If it were me, I'd shoot for the 0.5 pounds loss per week (and accept slower). That can take a while to show on the scale amongst normal daily water-retention fluctuations (which I'm sure you're familiar with from your previous excellent weight loss). A weight trending app might help (Libra for Android, Happy Scale for Apple/iOS, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). Even they can be misled when there's a slow loss rate, IME. (I use Libra for Android.) For sure, results over a couple months (couple of menstrual cycles if you have them) would tell a clearer story, better than starting estimates.

I will take your word that the planned exercise schedule isn't an over-do for your current fitness level. However, if you start feeling fatigued or showing symptoms of overdoing/overtraining, I'd suggest you cut back and phase in the full schedule more gradually. Over-exercise can be counterproductive for weight loss (because we move less in daily life when we're fatigued); and it can be counterproductive for fitness (because recovery is when the magic rebuilding happens).

Just my opinions, though.

TL;DR: Plan mostly great, maybe adjust target loss rate a little slower to maximize long term appearance/fitness/health outcomes.

Best wishes!

BodyTemple23

@AnnPT77, thank you for your kind and honest comments, as always! You are my hero! Please know I have always appreciated and valued your comments and have considered them seriously.

MFP can be a mixed bag of responses when you seek advice, as you may have experienced. So I just wanted to preempt by saying positive, expert comments, etc.

I'm 44 years old and have my regular monthly cycles. I'm in no hurry to lose weight. I plan to lose about 15 pounds in the next 5-6 months. But I'm not married to that number. This is what I "think" will help me lose the extra fat. If all noticeable fat disappears in the next 10 pounds, I will stop. In fact, I lost 17 pounds over 10 months this year. It was a bit frustrating, to be honest, but I made sure I was eating healthy and focused on nutrition as best as I could. I have a hard time losing weight, so rapid weight loss is never on my agenda. I believe it comes at a cost.

I'm looking to improve my energy levels, build muscle, and increase cardio capacity while losing extra visible fat. This is my priority.

Per your response to my earlier post, I created a deficit of 172 calories daily. I was eating about 1400 calories most days while working out regularly. I don't believe I was eating back all my exercise calories. I have several weight loss plateaus this year, so the math never works for me.

I just plan to eat healthy. I eat home-cooked vegetarian meals 95% of the time and rarely eat out unless I socialize. I'll focus on protein with tempeh, eggs, Greek yogurt, beans, and protein powder.