Exercise/Weigt Loss/Maintenance Advice

nxd10

This is actually a question for my husband, who uses MFP but not the forums. I know there are a lot of really serious workout people here - I am not one of them.

My husband was around 60 pounds overweight. He lost 40 pounds through strict diet, got ill, lost a foot of his intestines, and regained 25. For the last year he's been logging on MFP, for the last month he's been logging consistently.

He teaches tai chi and does tai chi 1-4 hours a day. During the last several years his body composition has changed from basic middle aged guy to rock hard muscle everywhere. I swear he has muscles in his eyebrows. He has gone down clothing sizes and looks markedly thinner.

There is no fat anywhere on his body except his gut. He has a big gut. With the added muscle it carries forward like an in-shape pregnant woman. All the love handles, etc. have disappeared as he's gained muscle - it's solid. But there is a lot of 'bacon', as he calls it, there.

Problem: he has been on a pound a week deficit and hitting his marks for at least a month - and probably more. He has lost NOTHING. If anything, he's gained four pounds (no change in how he looks). Abdominal fat is BAD. Not just because it looks bad, but because it's unhealthy. He eats healthy, low processed, home cooked foods in reasonable quantitaties. He even gave up beer because he is sensitive to gluten.

With the gain in muscle it is hard to say whether the problem is that the oldest fat is just the last to go and it will eventually come off. Or whether his yo yo weight (it's done more than I've described over the years) means that he needs a steeper deficit to lose.

Any thoughts for those of you who do a lot of working out?

KateK8LoseW8

If he's not losing weight, he's eating too many calories. Period. Whether that's because he's underestimating his food portions, overestimating his calorie burns, or both, he's eating too many calories. Some ways to make sure you're being more accurate are weighing all of your food portions in grams with a digital food scale and wearing a heart rate monitor during exercise. If he finds that his food and exercise logging is accurate according to those measures, he simply needs to decrease his calorie goal.

nxd10

His exercising tracking is now coming from a Fitbit, which I've found to be accurate. Inaccurate logging can always be a problem.

abadvat

His exercising tracking is now coming from a Fitbit, which I've found to be accurate. Inaccurate logging can always be a problem.

Fitbit estimates the calories burnt - it is not that accurate!

katznkt

Sounds like he does need a steeper deficit. Probably because his current deficit isn't what he thinks.

nxd10

Slower than average metabolism and underlogging certainly what it would be for me. I don't understand this whole body recomposition thing. I am also wondering whether some of the heart drugs he takes also slow calorie consumption - they both regulate how fast his heart can go and also change how bodies burn fat, so your muscles feel exhausted when you work them.

BTW he uses the fitbit to count steps - and just counts tai chi as steps, not as exercise, so it should be under, not over-estimating it. Since when you're doing serious tai chi in low stances you' wind up exhausted and drenched with sweat, it's not the same as a slow stroll, which is what the steps count it as.

shirleygirl910

The scale is not an accurate measure when you are that close to goal. If he is putting on more muscle the scale can stay the same or go up, but that doesn't mean he is eating too much. Sometimes we plateau, but that doesn't mean we are doing anthing wrong. Sometimes your body is trying to adjust. Be proud of your husband. Encourage him to be healthy, and if he is worried about his progress, have him go see his doctor.

Yes belly fat is the most unhealthy, if it is visceral fat, meaning under the muscle. Visceral fat is around the organs, and that is why it is dangerous.

PaytraB

I think it's great that he's a tai-chi instructor. I am currently learning tai-chi and am just at the stage where I'm beginning to pay more attention to "form" and doing it correctly and I feel the difference in my belly muscles.

I don't know if I believe the # of calories burned for tai-chi in the MFP exercise section so I half the time I actually do it when I enter onto MFP. I don't have a fitbit to compare calories burned with MFP's but if the fitbit is high and your husband is "eating back" his calories burned, this may be a problem.

Sorry to hear that he's had a rough health year. Hope this year is a better one for him.

PaytraB

BTW he uses the fitbit to count steps - and just counts tai chi as steps, not as exercise, so it should be under, not over-estimating it. Since when you're doing serious tai chi in low stances you' wind up exhausted and drenched with sweat, it's not the same as a slow stroll, which is what the steps count it as.

Just saw this. It doesn't sound like he's over-estimating his calorie burn.
I know what you're talking about with "you wind up exhausted and drenched in sweat". When I'm doing it (more) correctly, I'm sweating and huffing & puffing.
If he's doing all thing right, then maybe it'll just take longer for those last few pounds to come off. Monitor it for another few months and see if there's a difference in his weight and/or appearance.