Starvation Mode/ Calorie Deficit/ Losing weight

SHBoss1673

I am in a bit of a different goal situation now....I am not so much trying to lose weight as I am trying to lose some fat and replace with muscle mass. and basically trying to stay at my current weight but with lowered fat %,...but....since I am trying to lose that fat I am burning alot of cals everyday and trying to also increase muscle mass....not easy to me....so what I am doing is burning avg of 900 cals and eating as clean as I can with a low deficit...I think if you burn more with exercise and eat good quality calories the shift will happen

what I see here with alot of people is a too heavy emphasis on total calories and not on quality of calories,,,,quality of the calories isnt discussed much...some will say since they have calorie room for a snack it is ok to eat cookies and such....I am not saying deprive yourself of a cookie...but if you eat that stuff you are not moving forward with a lowered fat% but at best, maintaining.......

for me, it is no longer about the caloric limits so much as it is quality of the calories and exercising to get my metabolism at a nice steady burn rate

Very true Dave. It's tough to gain muscle while in deficit. You can, but not like if you're at a surplus.
If it helps, I gained about 5 lbs in the last 2 or 3 months, while dropping my BF% from 13% to 11%.

Course, the skin around my stomach refuses to tighten up, but I realize that will take months if not a year or so. Sad that I have to wait a year for abs (visible abs I mean), but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying. Keep at it, you're doing it right!

72lori

Banks, funny you should mention skin. Is there hope for it to tighten over time? I've lost 40 pounds, about 10-15 from where I want to be. While I don't have hanging skin, I am not totally thrilled wih the lack of tightness of it either! I am exercising, strength training and cardio and eat pretty clean. Yes, I know I'm not 20 anymore..... 36. If it'a matter of time, I've got that! If it's a matter of never, it's a little discouraging! After all the hard work, who wants saggy skin?

SHBoss1673

Banks, funny you should mention skin. Is there hope for it to tighten over time? I've lost 40 pounds, about 10-15 from where I want to be. While I don't have hanging skin, I am not totally thrilled wih the lack of tightness of it either! I am exercising, strength training and cardio and eat pretty clean. Yes, I know I'm not 20 anymore..... 36. If it'a matter of time, I've got that! If it's a matter of never, it's a little discouraging! After all the hard work, who wants saggy skin?

it should tighten up some, it takes forever but it will happen. That of course depends on how much skin there is. If it's really saggy, then it probably wont come all the way back, in that case surgery is the only option (an extreme one, but...)