So you want a nice stomach

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Replies

  • angelgonemad88
    angelgonemad88 Posts: 67 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »
    1. Change your goal to lose 1 pound per week. You should get more calories and you'll likely end up where my method puts you for intake.
    2. You have to find a way to challenge your muscles during weight loss or you'll lose lean mass. Meaning out of every 10 pounds you lose you'll only lose 6-7 pounds of fat. That means you have to lose more weight in the long run. Some form of resistance training is going to help your bones as you age as well. It doesn't matter if you only do body weight or resistance bands, but you seriously need to consider doing something. Take a look through the maintaining section for skinny fat stories.
    5. Absolutely no way of knowing how long it will take for you to see results. It really depends on how well you stick to everything and where you are starting out.

    My goal is already set at 1lb/week which takes me to 1,300 calories. To be honest, I was using another app until today which gave me a 1,600 calorie allowance which I was struggling with. So 1,300 calories a day is going to be horrific for me.

    I attend an aerobic class once a week which does involves some weights/resistance band work..but I am guessing I will have to do this more than once a week? Will go check out the skinny fat stories, thanks.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »
    1. Change your goal to lose 1 pound per week. You should get more calories and you'll likely end up where my method puts you for intake.
    2. You have to find a way to challenge your muscles during weight loss or you'll lose lean mass. Meaning out of every 10 pounds you lose you'll only lose 6-7 pounds of fat. That means you have to lose more weight in the long run. Some form of resistance training is going to help your bones as you age as well. It doesn't matter if you only do body weight or resistance bands, but you seriously need to consider doing something. Take a look through the maintaining section for skinny fat stories.
    5. Absolutely no way of knowing how long it will take for you to see results. It really depends on how well you stick to everything and where you are starting out.

    My goal is already set at 1lb/week which takes me to 1,300 calories. To be honest, I was using another app until today which gave me a 1,600 calorie allowance which I was struggling with. So 1,300 calories a day is going to be horrific for me.

    I attend an aerobic class once a week which does involves some weights/resistance band work..but I am guessing I will have to do this more than once a week? Will go check out the skinny fat stories, thanks.

    Do you count your exercise calories and eat those?
    Resistance training should probably be done at least twice per week. Once is better than nothing.
  • angelgonemad88
    angelgonemad88 Posts: 67 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »

    Do you count your exercise calories and eat those?

    I try not to. I try to stick to the allocated calories..but if I'm hungry I sometimes do eat more calories than allocated which I guess would be my exercise calories?

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »

    Do you count your exercise calories and eat those?

    I try not to. I try to stick to the allocated calories..but if I'm hungry I sometimes do eat more calories than allocated which I guess would be my exercise calories?

    If you are exercising MFP's method expects you to add the exercise, which increases your calorie goal. Most days I'm guessing that would put you at around 1600 calories for total calorie intake.
  • robininfl
    robininfl Posts: 1,137 Member
    aargh I am so close I can taste it, but have not been able to crack this. This will be long, hang on.

    I'm starting to lift once a week, do (power) yoga 5x/week (like the previous lady, I do much better in an organized group than trying to work out by myself) and getting stronger all the time, jog 2 or 3x a week for about 30-45min.

    My waist does not want to firm up.

    I came from skinny, not fat - gained weight to a healthy bodyweight while continuing exercise and now at 136lb and 5'9" 35-29-37 my legs and arms are as big as I'd ever want them, (smaller would be fine with me too but I like being able to do pushups/pullups, etc) and they look and feel lean and defined, my shoulders look how i want and I think that body fat is around 20% based on caliper, visual, bmi, and the handheld machine, so I am not really sure that lower bodyfat is a reasonable goal, I am 48 years old and 20% seems pretty lean and fit to me, but I am built lean by nature - small boobs and narrow, light bones, etc. so maybe that's more than I need?

    I feel kind of like there is nowhere healthy to go but bigger, and don't want to be any bigger. Skinny, my waist looked good, legs too thin but I like that fine. Now 15lb up, legs and butt look better, arms are stronger, I am stronger all over and in better shape, better proportions but waist holding more fat than I am comfortable with.

    Not looking for perfection or to change my body type, I have had lots of kids and would expect some slackness simply due to skin not snapping all the way back; but if I had a 28 inch waist when skinny I feel like I should be able to have it now. I absolutely think the difference between the 27 to 28 when skinny and the 29 to 30 now is fat more than muscle.

    My plan is to continue to eat to maintain 135lb, deadlift and squat, hip thrusts and calf raise with weights but not do upper body isolation exercises (curls, etc) just continue with the yoga as I am happy with the progress in upper body strength and size already. Then to keep measuring my waist and see what happens.

    Is this reasonable? Can I expect anything to improve from here? I am not sure how to define improvement, I know what I want (the waist I had when skinny, the butt I have now) but do not know if that is possible. I don't have strength goals beyond being able to do the pushups, pull-ups, deadlift my body weight, hold arm balances, I want functional strength and better bones if possible, but workouts I can maintain for a lifetime, not heroic stuff.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    robininfl wrote: »
    aargh I am so close I can taste it, but have not been able to crack this. This will be long, hang on.

    I'm starting to lift once a week, do (power) yoga 5x/week (like the previous lady, I do much better in an organized group than trying to work out by myself) and getting stronger all the time, jog 2 or 3x a week for about 30-45min.

    My waist does not want to firm up.

    I came from skinny, not fat - gained weight to a healthy bodyweight while continuing exercise and now at 136lb and 5'9" 35-29-37 my legs and arms are as big as I'd ever want them, (smaller would be fine with me too but I like being able to do pushups/pullups, etc) and they look and feel lean and defined, my shoulders look how i want and I think that body fat is around 20% based on caliper, visual, bmi, and the handheld machine, so I am not really sure that lower bodyfat is a reasonable goal, I am 48 years old and 20% seems pretty lean and fit to me, but I am built lean by nature - small boobs and narrow, light bones, etc. so maybe that's more than I need?

    I feel kind of like there is nowhere healthy to go but bigger, and don't want to be any bigger. Skinny, my waist looked good, legs too thin but I like that fine. Now 15lb up, legs and butt look better, arms are stronger, I am stronger all over and in better shape, better proportions but waist holding more fat than I am comfortable with.

    Not looking for perfection or to change my body type, I have had lots of kids and would expect some slackness simply due to skin not snapping all the way back; but if I had a 28 inch waist when skinny I feel like I should be able to have it now. I absolutely think the difference between the 27 to 28 when skinny and the 29 to 30 now is fat more than muscle.

    My plan is to continue to eat to maintain 135lb, deadlift and squat, hip thrusts and calf raise with weights but not do upper body isolation exercises (curls, etc) just continue with the yoga as I am happy with the progress in upper body strength and size already. Then to keep measuring my waist and see what happens.

    Is this reasonable? Can I expect anything to improve from here? I am not sure how to define improvement, I know what I want (the waist I had when skinny, the butt I have now) but do not know if that is possible. I don't have strength goals beyond being able to do the pushups, pull-ups, deadlift my body weight, hold arm balances, I want functional strength and better bones if possible, but workouts I can maintain for a lifetime, not heroic stuff.

    The only way to get what you want is to build muscle where you want the firmness (butt and legs) and lose body fat to reduce your waist. You may find that even if you dropped body fat, due to bracing your core in yoga moves and lifting your waist may not drop by much. 20% is fairly low, but many women find they don't have that firmer core look until 18% and some not until 16%.
  • robininfl
    robininfl Posts: 1,137 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »

    The only way to get what you want is to build muscle where you want the firmness (butt and legs) and lose body fat to reduce your waist. You may find that even if you dropped body fat, due to bracing your core in yoga moves and lifting your waist may not drop by much. 20% is fairly low, but many women find they don't have that firmer core look until 18% and some not until 16%.

    This can happen if i continue to maintain at this weight? Slow progress in the right direction is A-OK with me, not in a hurry, it's small adjustments now.

    And yeah, I know it will not likely ever get to what I think perfect (or that my idea of visually perfect does not align with my health goals), and that the increase may be muscle not fat even in my waist. Though I am pretty sure it's fat, that's just where it goes on me.

    Meh, maybe I will just continue to pursue the athletic goals and try not to worry about the looks. Because whatever the result, it needs to fit into my lifestyle, if that makes sense. It may not be worth it to me to try to maintain an unnatural leanness when my body wants to be like this and I feel good.

    Thank you.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    robininfl wrote: »
    usmcmp wrote: »

    The only way to get what you want is to build muscle where you want the firmness (butt and legs) and lose body fat to reduce your waist. You may find that even if you dropped body fat, due to bracing your core in yoga moves and lifting your waist may not drop by much. 20% is fairly low, but many women find they don't have that firmer core look until 18% and some not until 16%.

    This can happen if i continue to maintain at this weight? Slow progress in the right direction is A-OK with me, not in a hurry, it's small adjustments now.

    And yeah, I know it will not likely ever get to what I think perfect (or that my idea of visually perfect does not align with my health goals), and that the increase may be muscle not fat even in my waist. Though I am pretty sure it's fat, that's just where it goes on me.

    Meh, maybe I will just continue to pursue the athletic goals and try not to worry about the looks. Because whatever the result, it needs to fit into my lifestyle, if that makes sense. It may not be worth it to me to try to maintain an unnatural leanness when my body wants to be like this and I feel good.

    Thank you.

    Yes, it's called recomposition. You maintain weight and lift weights to improve your lean mass while reducing body fat.
  • lovetolose20
    lovetolose20 Posts: 29 Member
    I like #4. Cardio is good for the heart!
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 3,519 Member
    edited: 2 - Personally, I am not into weight lifting and don't want to be a body builder and don't enjoy those types of exercises. I just want to lose the extra pounds from my tummy/hip area. Plus I am not a fan of just using gym equipment, I prefer to be a in a class with an instructor motivating me, otherwise I get lazy. :(

    Look for classes that have body weight exercises and resistance work. Some gyms have body flex/body pump type classes they are good for cardio and light lifting. I like classes too, but learned to use dumbbells at home to supplement my fitness classes.

    Sorry we don't get to choice where the fat comes off, the muscles show up after the fat is removed, you can tone up an area by using the muscles in those area you mentioned but results are minimal until the fat is removed.

    Good luck
  • angelgonemad88
    angelgonemad88 Posts: 67 Member
    edited: 2 - Personally, I am not into weight lifting and don't want to be a body builder and don't enjoy those types of exercises. I just want to lose the extra pounds from my tummy/hip area. Plus I am not a fan of just using gym equipment, I prefer to be a in a class with an instructor motivating me, otherwise I get lazy. :(

    Look for classes that have body weight exercises and resistance work. Some gyms have body flex/body pump type classes they are good for cardio and light lifting. I like classes too, but learned to use dumbbells at home to supplement my fitness classes.

    Sorry we don't get to choice where the fat comes off, the muscles show up after the fat is removed, you can tone up an area by using the muscles in those area you mentioned but results are minimal until the fat is removed.

    Good luck

    Thanks! I attend a class once a week that includes dumbells and resistance work but other classes with this type of work is always on at wrong time/day.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    How accurate of a guess is the Scooby calculator for determining a tdee? My minimum workout week is: pole for 1 hour with PT, 1 hour of weights with PT (split in 2 days), and 1 hour of light cardio (on weight days also split over 2 days). On good weeks, when my schedule allows it, I can get in another 60-90 minutes of pole at home.

    Scooby gave me around 1650-1850 (this is with a 15% cut), and I just to be sure I'm fueling my body and not losing muscle, but not eating over bc I don't want to gain, I'm trying to lose. I don't mind eating more at all.

    Currently, I'm 139-140lbs and 5'1. I have my activity set on MFP as lightly active bc on most days I can hit 10k steps (Saturday and Sunday are the hardest days for me to make this goal), and MFP gave me a goal of 1570 (to lose .5 a week), and I would eat 1/3 of the exercise calories back.

    I know for TDEE you're supposed to eat the same amount daily, but on light/no workout days, can I drop it down to the 1600s and on heavier workout days bump it up to the 1800s? Or does that defeat the tdee purpose?
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    jdhcm2006 wrote: »
    How accurate of a guess is the Scooby calculator for determining a tdee? My minimum workout week is: pole for 1 hour with PT, 1 hour of weights with PT (split in 2 days), and 1 hour of light cardio (on weight days also split over 2 days). On good weeks, when my schedule allows it, I can get in another 60-90 minutes of pole at home.

    Scooby gave me around 1650-1850 (this is with a 15% cut), and I just to be sure I'm fueling my body and not losing muscle, but not eating over bc I don't want to gain, I'm trying to lose. I don't mind eating more at all.

    Currently, I'm 139-140lbs and 5'1. I have my activity set on MFP as lightly active bc on most days I can hit 10k steps (Saturday and Sunday are the hardest days for me to make this goal), and MFP gave me a goal of 1570 (to lose .5 a week), and I would eat 1/3 of the exercise calories back.

    I know for TDEE you're supposed to eat the same amount daily, but on light/no workout days, can I drop it down to the 1600s and on heavier workout days bump it up to the 1800s? Or does that defeat the tdee purpose?

    @jdhcm2006 I would use a few different calculators and find the average. The Scooby calculator has always been a bit low for me and others are high. There's one I originally had on here that was pretty close, but I changed it due to the additional pages being confusing.

    The purpose of using the TDEE method is to allow people to eat fairly evenly across the week. TDEE takes into account your exercise already, so exercise is counted as 0 calories burned. TDEE is an average of total calorie burn for the week split evenly across the days. MFP's method gives you more calories on exercise days. If you want to calorie cycle like that it is up to you. You're basically just merging MFP's method with the TDEE method.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »
    jdhcm2006 wrote: »
    How accurate of a guess is the Scooby calculator for determining a tdee? My minimum workout week is: pole for 1 hour with PT, 1 hour of weights with PT (split in 2 days), and 1 hour of light cardio (on weight days also split over 2 days). On good weeks, when my schedule allows it, I can get in another 60-90 minutes of pole at home.

    Scooby gave me around 1650-1850 (this is with a 15% cut), and I just to be sure I'm fueling my body and not losing muscle, but not eating over bc I don't want to gain, I'm trying to lose. I don't mind eating more at all.

    Currently, I'm 139-140lbs and 5'1. I have my activity set on MFP as lightly active bc on most days I can hit 10k steps (Saturday and Sunday are the hardest days for me to make this goal), and MFP gave me a goal of 1570 (to lose .5 a week), and I would eat 1/3 of the exercise calories back.

    I know for TDEE you're supposed to eat the same amount daily, but on light/no workout days, can I drop it down to the 1600s and on heavier workout days bump it up to the 1800s? Or does that defeat the tdee purpose?

    @jdhcm2006 I would use a few different calculators and find the average. The Scooby calculator has always been a bit low for me and others are high. There's one I originally had on here that was pretty close, but I changed it due to the additional pages being confusing.

    The purpose of using the TDEE method is to allow people to eat fairly evenly across the week. TDEE takes into account your exercise already, so exercise is counted as 0 calories burned. TDEE is an average of total calorie burn for the week split evenly across the days. MFP's method gives you more calories on exercise days. If you want to calorie cycle like that it is up to you. You're basically just merging MFP's method with the TDEE method.

    Thanks for the advice @usmcmp. I will look at a few calculators and go with the average.
  • sarabushby
    sarabushby Posts: 784 Member
    Perhaps not the right thread but since we're on the subject, does anyone have an opinion on whether it is better to eat the extra calories the day that you do the exercise or the day afterwards when you're effectively recovering? As mentioned above MFP adds it to the day you're working out but for example I'm often more hungry the day after if I have had a tough session the night before.

    My goals are improved fitness & muscle gain as my weight is now stable thanks to MFP but I train to race Triathlon, typically doing 6-9hrs cardio per week over 5-6days.

    Thanks in advance if anyone has thoughts on if you're better to spread your calorie consumption more evenly rather than peaks and troughs?
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    sarabushby wrote: »
    Perhaps not the right thread but since we're on the subject, does anyone have an opinion on whether it is better to eat the extra calories the day that you do the exercise or the day afterwards when you're effectively recovering? As mentioned above MFP adds it to the day you're working out but for example I'm often more hungry the day after if I have had a tough session the night before.

    My goals are improved fitness & muscle gain as my weight is now stable thanks to MFP but I train to race Triathlon, typically doing 6-9hrs cardio per week over 5-6days.

    Thanks in advance if anyone has thoughts on if you're better to spread your calorie consumption more evenly rather than peaks and troughs?

    @sarabushby I haven't seen any definitive studies on it. You might want to start a thread in the debate section asking if there are benefits one way or the other.
  • secondlane
    secondlane Posts: 20 Member
    bump
  • myheartsabattleground
    myheartsabattleground Posts: 2,040 Member
    Amen
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    Bump

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  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    Needs a bump.
  • islandgrl14
    islandgrl14 Posts: 22 Member
    great information. bump.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    This could use a fresh bump.
  • Camish911
    Camish911 Posts: 150 Member
  • rontafoya
    rontafoya Posts: 365 Member
    Good list, except cardio is not necessary. I got to 10% bf at 47 with zero cardio, but I agree with the rest of the list.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    rontafoya wrote: »
    Good list, except cardio is not necessary. I got to 10% bf at 47 with zero cardio, but I agree with the rest of the list.

    :laugh: Everyone has an issue with the cardio point. It is not necessary. Some people may find it helpful, such as a short female who would like to eat more. Or someone who would like the added cardiovascular benefits of cardio (above and beyond what lifting can do to improve cardiovascular health).
  • lexi3500
    lexi3500 Posts: 346 Member
    Wow u look great
  • lexi3500
    lexi3500 Posts: 346 Member
    Yes I want a nice stomach . How u do it ?
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    lexi3500 wrote: »
    Yes I want a nice stomach . How u do it ?

    @lexi3500 read the first post, it's got all the information you'll need: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1