Ask me anything about fat/weight loss....

tripod271

Let the search begin!

janet0513

I posted this elsewhere but maybe you can help.

My weight loss has slowed way down and I am looking for some advice. I have my settings set on sedentary and I let my fitbit track all my activity and make the adjustments. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week and do weights and cardio (recently switched to free weights vs machines), on the off days I walk. I do a 10 min walk or stationary bike before weights. I lift for about an hour and then I do another 30-40 min of cardio. I add good resistance to the cardio machines and try to add several "sprints" in as well. I have a pretty sedentary job and although I have lost 50 lbs, I still have 100 pounds to lose. I have also switched to a 40/30/30 ratio instead of the MFP standard setting. I probably get more water than I even log. I weigh and measure as much as I can but I don't log some 0 calorie drinks unless they contain sodium but these are rare.I think that I eat fairly healthy except on special occasions (like last night) and rarely eat sweets. Any advice?

TheOfficialEpic

I posted this elsewhere but maybe you can help.

My weight loss has slowed way down and I am looking for some advice. I have my settings set on sedentary and I let my fitbit track all my activity and make the adjustments. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week and do weights and cardio (recently switched to free weights vs machines), on the off days I walk. I do a 10 min walk or stationary bike before weights. I lift for about an hour and then I do another 30-40 min of cardio. I add good resistance to the cardio machines and try to add several "sprints" in as well. I have a pretty sedentary job and although I have lost 50 lbs, I still have 100 pounds to lose. I have also switched to a 40/30/30 ratio instead of the MFP standard setting. I probably get more water than I even log. I weigh and measure as much as I can but I don't log some 0 calorie drinks unless they contain sodium but these are rare.I think that I eat fairly healthy except on special occasions (like last night) and rarely eat sweets. Any advice?

First of all, eating healthy and eating for fat/weightloss are two different things. You can gain weight on anything if you eat enough, and you can lose weight on anything if you eat too little. Just back down on the calories a bit every week until you start losing again. Weight gain/weight loss is a simple energy balance equation. Take in more than you burn, gain weight. Take in less than you're burning, lose weight. Don't make it too complicated.

RiverDancer68

Ok. First, can a person figure out their body fat % without the help of a trainer or high tech equipment? Are the online "calculators" correct? I would love to know what my % is, but really don't want to have to spend a fortune to find out. Secondly, I only do 2 forms of exercise, one is hot Vinyasa Flow yoga (at Core Power), the other Irish Dance. Do I need to add anything else to this? I do 4- 5 hour long yoga classes per week and two 3 hour dance classes per week. I went from 155lbs all the way down to 125, then gained back to between 135-140lbs (intentionally, after being told that I looked ill). I am 5'9" and my measurements are 36 27 36. I want to drop back down to 130, but don't want to look unhealthy. Will changing up my exercise routine enable me to drop the weight while still looking healthy? And, what would be the best thing to add to my routine? I eat about 1800-2000 (sometimes more) cals per day also, and I am a vegetarian. I am sure I could figure this out myself, but it is nice to get and expert opinion :drinker:

Lemme guess....the person that said you looked unhealthy probably weighed more than you, didn't they? What matters is how you think and feel about your body. 125 is a GREAT weight for a 5'9 female. It's very lean, but a very healthy lean too. At 5'9 you could go as low as 115 before I would say you might be getting a lil' too low.....that's about VS model size by the way. On a side note, if you DO decide to go back to the 125, you can always add a little bit of weight back in muscle mass if you just want to "fill out" more. For that, I would recommend weight training as you're not gonna put on a lot of noticeable size with yoga or dance. Hell, my ballroom coach is 6'1 and MIGHT weigh 150 pounds soaking wet.

Thanks for the advice! And, yes the person that told me I was too thin was significantly larger than I was at the time. It mde me feel very self conscious, actually. I worked really hard to lose weight, and get into shape, and then was told that I looked "ill." I think that some people don't like it when their friends decide to make life changes (especially when they don't join you in making those changes). I will look into my local Rec center, they have an amazing weight room, and trainers. And, btw...Irish Dance is hard core :laugh:

twoboys2012

Hi there .. firstly your a legend doing a great thing here

Secondly I would like to know how to reset my metabolism and where to start from there? I have been low on cals and higher on cals and feel like i have been all over the place. Now very very confused.

I am 5ft4
199lbs
female
32yrs
exercise 2.5hours a week, basically 30 mins 5x/wk (I burn 250-400cals each time)
2 days cardio, 3 days jillian michaels dvd

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

A reset. Just take a couple days and don't count ANYthing. Enjoy life. Spend time with your family. Don't exercise. Just relax. Afterwards set yourself around 200-300 calories above bmr. After a week goes by reevaluate. If losing, then great. If not, then cut 100 calories out of each day. Reevaluate again at the end of the next week. So long as you're losing, don't cut more. This is where most people go wrong and screw their metabolisms up. Simple cuts don't haywire the body. Going from 2,000 calories a day to 1,000, and 90 minutes of exercise a week to 5hours and the body is like "What the bloody hell is going on here?!! Protect. Protect. Protect. Protect." This is where immune systems go down, hormones go crazy, and metabolism goes to ****e. The slower the cut, 99x out of 100, from my experience with clients, the stronger their metabolisms in the end, and the more healthier they look in the end....AND the more options we have available to get rid of that last few inches.

Thank you so much ....

When i eat 200-300 above my BMR do i also eat back my exercise cals on top of that or just ignore them???

koutroulakis

bump for later

Kkmama

This is a fantastic thread. Thank you for taking the time to answer everyone's questions...

I have been playing with the same 10 pounds for the last year, literally! Last June I was 198. Today I am at 194. I actually got down to 189 for a bit (a minute or two!) back in the fall. I am active at least 5 days a week. I have done P90X, 30 Day shred, etc. Walk a lot (can not do high impact due to knee issues... wait list for knee replacement surgery). I am always within my calories. I have tried to up them to 2000 with no results and down to 1430 still with no results and I am stumped. What do you suggest I do? I still have at least 40lbs if not more to lose. I was told every pound I lose will result in 4 pounds of pressure on my knee, which is the driving force for me. And of course good health!

Presently I have MFP set to 1660 cals with eating my exercise calories which is usually somewhere around the 350 mark.
I am 5' 9"
Almost 45!
Weight: 194
Body fat: 41%!!!!! According to my scale, ouch!

Thank you for taking the time to give me some advice.

Sincerely,
Christina

I truly appreciate your time that you are using to help us.

Somethings not right. I'm gonna say either the calorie calculations you're adding are being tallied wrong or haven't been consistent enough. Depending on stress levels also your body COULD be fighting you, but this is very rarely the case. I have yet to find a client who after I've taught them how to count haven't been able to consistently lose. But some who initially thought they were counting correctly were not, and others still were missing a lot of hidden calories.

I weigh all my food. Yes, sometimes I have bit of a splurge on occasion but am baffled as to what to do. I walk at least 4 days a week for 40 mins each time, at a pretty good pace, no time for dilly dally! But I am not lifting weights right now, should I? I know your answer will be yes on that one!

jarrettfam

Bump for later!

neti_call

I hope I'm not too late to this party. I've been playing with the same 5 lbs for 6 months. Started my weight loss journey about a year ago after my last kid was born, but I've been active and a gym rat my whole life. I'm sick to death of trainers telling me to eat 1100 cals and drink 2 protein shakes a day. I want to lose weight eating REAL food. I aim for 1200-1500 calories a day, lots of lean protein. I'm 5'4 and weigh 155. I work out 5 days a week and hit it HARD. I usually kill between 500 to 1000 cals a day. I'm in really great shape as far as fitness goes, but I can't get this damned weight to come off. I'd love to be about 140. I am careful about measuring food, too, so I'm pretty sure my calorie count is right.
I am just coming back after a couple of weeks of being discouraged and I need to fix this. Please help?

edited to add my body fat is 32.5%
Horrible. Something needs to be done!

mandy9808

Having a hard time losing????? Im 5'6 157-159 pds. Did low carb for for 4 years and have done low cal and low carb diets for last year. I think i have been eating 1200 calories or less for a long time. So changed my calories to 1450 this week with the shred video using 10 pound weight. Scared to raise calories to much sacred of weight gain. And I really want to lose weight without gaining. Needs direction??

4rgl

Ok so i have another question.
Im 5'1 and currently 130lbs.
I set my goal weight as 110 and once ive reached that plan on working on adding muscle.
My question is how do i know when to stop losing weight and adding muscle?
Is 110 a reasonable place or should i lean out even more before thinking about working on muscle?
Maybe asking this question using bf percentage would make more sense but i have no idea where im at right now.

weigh2go577

Stats:
Female
5'4"
247.4 lbs.
was eating 1900 PLUS my exercise calories, been gaining weight. My BMR is 1864, my TDEE is 2500.
When I ate 1600 calories PLUS exercise calories I was losing weight...that worked for me, but the whole "must eat BMR" confuses me, is that FOOD or NET, because if it's "food" and not "net" I am getting that with the 1600 Net calories.
I make sure I walk 10,000 steps a day, and calculate 500 calories for that (1600+500 =2100 food eating), would you say that's enough??? It seemed to always work, but I also hear about eating and NETTING your bmr (which for me would be 1864) but I wind up gaining and it's so frustrating for me. :-/

Microfiber_wechange

What is fat?.....Stored energy. If you are not ingesting enough calories to maintain it, then it gets burned. So who is going to need more calories to maintain their weight, a 300 pound person or a 200 pound person? Obviously the 300 pounder. So say the 300 pound person decides to diet down. He loses 50 pounds. What it takes to maintain himself at 250 is less than what he needed at 300(all things equal). Because of this, what may have been a deficit at 300 pounds, might be maintenance now that he is 250. If that is the case then he will most likely need to readjust his calories lower to continue to lose. I myself, when I start a cut, my maintenance is usually around 3,000+ calories a day just sitting on my bum.....towards the end it drops as low as 2,250. Make sense?....

Wow!! Absolutely makes sense :flowerforyou:

philfinallyfit

Wow. I am in complete agreement with those who elevate what they have found in your answers in this thread above any other source for weight loss and fitness. People aren't just saying it when they say that this is the best thread they have ever read on the subject. When I read those comments, I resonate with them; I second their emotion. You have a rare blend of "applied intelligence" that is informed yet street-level in its composition. I'd venture to say your heart and mind (read: soul) is in the same great shape that your phyisique clearly is.

My takeaway from all that I have read (and I have read it all) from you is that I need to lean out first (using basic calorie info) and then seek to add muscle. I am wondering if that is that possible for me at 56 years of age. I want that to be true mind you, but I get this fear that, in order to go down in weight class, I will lose my muscle tone for good; a sort of later-in-life muscle atrophy. I started at close to 250 lbs, and am presently at 236. I wonder, given my build, knowledge of my own body, and personal history, if leaning out for me might mean going down to like 155, then seeking from that lean base to add 10-15 lbs. of muscle.I am eating 1,550 calories a day (no possibility of hidden cals) and have recently build up to where I am running 6 days per week on a high school track for 2 miles without stopping.

Knowing that you are going to advise me to do this with the necessary weekly evaluations, I want you to tell me if I am on the right course. I've been overweight/obese for as long as I can remember, and it's high time for that to change. From some other research and personal knowledge of my own body, I THINK I can be at 165 lbs. by January 1st, a sort of inverted New Years Resolution. I am confused a bit about "refeed"...as a recovering food abuser I read "gorge". I know you will say just a few hundred over my then-adjusted-if-and-as-it-is-still-working-for-me target of 1,550 daily calories.

Thanks for the help. And to help you, and given that I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of horse flesh, I'd like to plant a seed of thought in your fit soul...You should consider the prospect and future of taking your rarified gift of helping people in this arena to the next level. Methinks you have a following here, and that this could only grow, but only if a larger world were to be exposed. I appreciate your help in advance, even as I appreciate your help already.

TheOfficialEpic

Hi there .. firstly your a legend doing a great thing here

Secondly I would like to know how to reset my metabolism and where to start from there? I have been low on cals and higher on cals and feel like i have been all over the place. Now very very confused.

I am 5ft4
199lbs
female
32yrs
exercise 2.5hours a week, basically 30 mins 5x/wk (I burn 250-400cals each time)
2 days cardio, 3 days jillian michaels dvd

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

A reset. Just take a couple days and don't count ANYthing. Enjoy life. Spend time with your family. Don't exercise. Just relax. Afterwards set yourself around 200-300 calories above bmr. After a week goes by reevaluate. If losing, then great. If not, then cut 100 calories out of each day. Reevaluate again at the end of the next week. So long as you're losing, don't cut more. This is where most people go wrong and screw their metabolisms up. Simple cuts don't haywire the body. Going from 2,000 calories a day to 1,000, and 90 minutes of exercise a week to 5hours and the body is like "What the bloody hell is going on here?!! Protect. Protect. Protect. Protect." This is where immune systems go down, hormones go crazy, and metabolism goes to ****e. The slower the cut, 99x out of 100, from my experience with clients, the stronger their metabolisms in the end, and the more healthier they look in the end....AND the more options we have available to get rid of that last few inches.

Thank you so much ....

When i eat 200-300 above my BMR do i also eat back my exercise cals on top of that or just ignore them???

Don't exercise on the reset days. Relax and give your body a break.

TheOfficialEpic

Ok. First, can a person figure out their body fat % without the help of a trainer or high tech equipment? Are the online "calculators" correct? I would love to know what my % is, but really don't want to have to spend a fortune to find out. Secondly, I only do 2 forms of exercise, one is hot Vinyasa Flow yoga (at Core Power), the other Irish Dance. Do I need to add anything else to this? I do 4- 5 hour long yoga classes per week and two 3 hour dance classes per week. I went from 155lbs all the way down to 125, then gained back to between 135-140lbs (intentionally, after being told that I looked ill). I am 5'9" and my measurements are 36 27 36. I want to drop back down to 130, but don't want to look unhealthy. Will changing up my exercise routine enable me to drop the weight while still looking healthy? And, what would be the best thing to add to my routine? I eat about 1800-2000 (sometimes more) cals per day also, and I am a vegetarian. I am sure I could figure this out myself, but it is nice to get and expert opinion :drinker:

Lemme guess....the person that said you looked unhealthy probably weighed more than you, didn't they? What matters is how you think and feel about your body. 125 is a GREAT weight for a 5'9 female. It's very lean, but a very healthy lean too. At 5'9 you could go as low as 115 before I would say you might be getting a lil' too low.....that's about VS model size by the way. On a side note, if you DO decide to go back to the 125, you can always add a little bit of weight back in muscle mass if you just want to "fill out" more. For that, I would recommend weight training as you're not gonna put on a lot of noticeable size with yoga or dance. Hell, my ballroom coach is 6'1 and MIGHT weigh 150 pounds soaking wet.

Thanks for the advice! And, yes the person that told me I was too thin was significantly larger than I was at the time. It mde me feel very self conscious, actually. I worked really hard to lose weight, and get into shape, and then was told that I looked "ill." I think that some people don't like it when their friends decide to make life changes (especially when they don't join you in making those changes). I will look into my local Rec center, they have an amazing weight room, and trainers. And, btw...Irish Dance is hard core :laugh:

Haters gonna hate. Sad, but there are what I call "closet" haters out there. You lost all that weight and it made them feel insecure and guilty. To make up for this they say things to you like "oh you don't need to lose weight, you look fine" or "you're too thin". Even worse when they try to push their garbage food on you. Tell'em to kick rocks, and leave you the hell alone.

TheOfficialEpic

This is a fantastic thread. Thank you for taking the time to answer everyone's questions...

I have been playing with the same 10 pounds for the last year, literally! Last June I was 198. Today I am at 194. I actually got down to 189 for a bit (a minute or two!) back in the fall. I am active at least 5 days a week. I have done P90X, 30 Day shred, etc. Walk a lot (can not do high impact due to knee issues... wait list for knee replacement surgery). I am always within my calories. I have tried to up them to 2000 with no results and down to 1430 still with no results and I am stumped. What do you suggest I do? I still have at least 40lbs if not more to lose. I was told every pound I lose will result in 4 pounds of pressure on my knee, which is the driving force for me. And of course good health!

Presently I have MFP set to 1660 cals with eating my exercise calories which is usually somewhere around the 350 mark.
I am 5' 9"
Almost 45!
Weight: 194
Body fat: 41%!!!!! According to my scale, ouch!

Thank you for taking the time to give me some advice.

Sincerely,
Christina

I truly appreciate your time that you are using to help us.

Somethings not right. I'm gonna say either the calorie calculations you're adding are being tallied wrong or haven't been consistent enough. Depending on stress levels also your body COULD be fighting you, but this is very rarely the case. I have yet to find a client who after I've taught them how to count haven't been able to consistently lose. But some who initially thought they were counting correctly were not, and others still were missing a lot of hidden calories.

I weigh all my food. Yes, sometimes I have bit of a splurge on occasion but am baffled as to what to do. I walk at least 4 days a week for 40 mins each time, at a pretty good pace, no time for dilly dally! But I am not lifting weights right now, should I? I know your answer will be yes on that one!

You say you're presently at 1660 cals and that you eat back your exercise cals which is "somewhere" around 350. A lot of things I don't like with that. The big thing I don't like is the "somewhere" part. I'd reco just to stop eating back your calories from exercise. Odds are that estimate you're getting is WAAAAAY off. And if that's not the case, then you're just consuming too many calories plain out.

TheOfficialEpic

I hope I'm not too late to this party. I've been playing with the same 5 lbs for 6 months. Started my weight loss journey about a year ago after my last kid was born, but I've been active and a gym rat my whole life. I'm sick to death of trainers telling me to eat 1100 cals and drink 2 protein shakes a day. I want to lose weight eating REAL food. I aim for 1200-1500 calories a day, lots of lean protein. I'm 5'4 and weigh 155. I work out 5 days a week and hit it HARD. I usually kill between 500 to 1000 cals a day. I'm in really great shape as far as fitness goes, but I can't get this damned weight to come off. I'd love to be about 140. I am careful about measuring food, too, so I'm pretty sure my calorie count is right.
I am just coming back after a couple of weeks of being discouraged and I need to fix this. Please help?

edited to add my body fat is 32.5%
Horrible. Something needs to be done!

" I am careful about measuring food, too, so I'm pretty sure my calorie count is right." Yes it is!....If your goal is to MAINTAIN! If you're not losing, then you're taking in too many calories. You're missing the big picture I keep talking about. As you diet down, you are going to need to readjust calories as necessary. A person may start at a certain amount of calories for a deficit, but as they diet down....eventually that same caloric level will eventually become maintenance because it takes more calories(all things equal) to maintain a heavier person. Depending on your LBM, 1500 is pretty high for a cut given your stats. Many professional bikini and physique competitors go as low as 1200 stat, and that is with next to NO subcutaneous fat on their bodies save their bums! As for having protein shakes, if you can get your protein from real food, then why take them?....It's a supplement! I MIGHT have 2-3 shakes a week, but if I can get real food, I'm gonna go for the real food every time. Hope this helps yeh.

TheOfficialEpic

Having a hard time losing????? Im 5'6 157-159 pds. Did low carb for for 4 years and have done low cal and low carb diets for last year. I think i have been eating 1200 calories or less for a long time. So changed my calories to 1450 this week with the shred video using 10 pound weight. Scared to raise calories to much sacred of weight gain. And I really want to lose weight without gaining. Needs direction??

Most likely need to go lower. And add in a refeed once every two weeks where you go slightly over maintenance. I'd reco 1200 on your diet days and 1800 on the refeed day. Also look into how accurately you're counting. EVERYthing you put into your mouth counts. Don't leave any room for guesswork.

TheOfficialEpic

Ok so i have another question.
Im 5'1 and currently 130lbs.
I set my goal weight as 110 and once ive reached that plan on working on adding muscle.
My question is how do i know when to stop losing weight and adding muscle?
Is 110 a reasonable place or should i lean out even more before thinking about working on muscle?
Maybe asking this question using bf percentage would make more sense but i have no idea where im at right now.

At 5'1 you could hit 100 even and still be easily healthy. As far as when to stop though, that's up to you. I could say 115, but then you look in the mirror at 115 and say you still want to go leaner. Same answer if you were to ask in regards to bodyfat percentage. I have a hispanic client who is decently lean, but won't go leaner because she does want to lose her luscious bum and thighs. We all have to decide ourselves how we want to look and how far we want to go.