Skinny fat! Please help!

lyndso11

To be honest Im not doing much cardio at all... I dont enjoy it as much so I guess thats why! Im currently doing around 30 mins on my core/cardio day once a week and around 10 mins of HIIT around twice a week. Im guessing this isnt enough! x

That's plenty of cardio if it's something you don't enjoy and you don't have a goal to do any running, cycling, swimming events. Cardio isn't necessary to accomplish your goal, it can just make creating a deficit a little easier.

Just to reiterate, unless you're using a food scale and weighing/measuring everything as much as you can, you don't really know if you're eating that little. Also, the 1200 that MFP recommends is NET, not TOTAL. You should be eating back exercise calories but since MFP tends to overestimate those it's a good idea to start with eating back 50%, see what happens to the scale and your measurements, check your energy levels and adjust from there. Eat back less if the scale isn't moving much, eat back more if it's moving more than a pound a week.

Or go to the link I posted and follow those instructions for determining calorie and macro goals. Judging by your stats and assuming that outside the gym you are sedentary, your TDEE is probably between 1800-2000 calories, your BMR is about 1350. That would put you at being able to still lose weight at an ACCURATELY tracked 1500+ calories. Since you're concerned about your compensation, adequate protein is also going to be an important factor.

When you say eating back, do you mean for example if i burn up 100 calories in the gym then i can eat 1300? I assumed that was what i should be doing?

Also when you say MFP over estimates calories burned do you mean that if MFP say youve burnt 100 youve actually burnt 80?

Sorry for all the questions, Im a newbie! xx

SingingSingleTracker

To be honest Im not doing much cardio at all... I dont enjoy it as much so I guess thats why! Im currently doing around 30 mins on my core/cardio day once a week and around 10 mins of HIIT around twice a week. Im guessing this isnt enough! x

It's not really question of is it enough or not. I was just suggesting that you could use cardio as a tool to reach your goals a bit quicker in terms of the calorie burn to help with the deficit.

So on your days of not lifting, to fire up and keep the metabolism burn going, something in the neighborhood of at least 30-35 minutes of cardio (jogging, cycling, brisk walking, swimming, etc....) could really help trim those few pounds of fat. And it does not have to be high intensity cardio, it can be done well - especialy in Zone 2. And then be very conservative with how many calories were burned and also be conservative with how many of those calories you eat back (not all of them!). The main thing is to keep the furnace burning (hence my previous link to Scooby's video and web page who explains it well).

Easy break down of those cardio training zones is like this...

1. Old lady pace
2. Chatty pace
3. Feel good hard
4. Feel bad hard
5. I am going to die
6. Flat out

SingingSingleTracker

also you cannot add muscle and lose body fat at the same time.

Wrong. You need to have a Scooby snack: http://scoobysworkshop.com/gain-muscle-lose-fat/

PJPrimrose

. "Most bodybuilders will get close to that but that's only for competition, they don't stay at that for extended periods of time. Also, if it's not a hydrostatic test or a DEXA scan, it's probably a wildly inaccurate measurement of body fat."

Good to know! That really is frightfully low.

Nice2BFitAgain

To be honest Im not doing much cardio at all... I dont enjoy it as much so I guess thats why! Im currently doing around 30 mins on my core/cardio day once a week and around 10 mins of HIIT around twice a week. Im guessing this isnt enough! x

I disagree - this is enough cardio combined with your weightlifting. Keep working it. You'll see results.
If you are on the MFP 1200 plan...you should be eating back some of your calories burned during workout, preferably in protein.