Doctor says I don't need to lose anymore weight :(

So, I'm 40 years old, 6' 2", and at 189 lbs. I work out every day but Sunday. 30 Day Shred 4 times a week, and jogging twice a week.

I drink lots of water, I don't eat much processed junk at all, eat lots of fruits and veggies, and have my protein intake up to around 25%. I am on the high healthy range of the BMI scale.

I just got my physical today, and my doctor doesn't think I need to lose any more weight. She thinks the BMI scale expects people to be a lower weight than they should be. I asked about the spare tire I still want to lose, and she thinks that will happen if I keep working out, without a calorie deficit.

I know she's my doctor, but I still wanted to see what you guys thought.

Thanks for any feedback!
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Replies

  • MTBrob
    MTBrob Posts: 513 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.
  • ObtainingBalance
    ObtainingBalance Posts: 1,446 Member
    Doctors don't care if you're a bit chubby -- As long as you are healthy enough...

    If you want to tone or lose more, do it. Don't get out of a healthy BMI though. Do what you feel is best. I think 189 sounds fine considering how tall you are! But if you want to lose a few more; go ahead. Not like it would make you sick or anything.


    :) Good luckk~
  • Americanpeanut
    Americanpeanut Posts: 17 Member
    I agree with your doctor. It'll definitely happen, just keep up the good work (and by good I mean wow, amazing!) Change your stats to a maintenance level and you'll get lean muscle. Have fun and good luck!
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.

    Exactly what I was going to say!
  • Agree with 2 prior posters. Back off on the cardio a bit and add some weight lifting.
  • trustymutsi
    trustymutsi Posts: 174 Member
    Thanks guys.

    What scares me is I already changed my calorie intake from 2 lbs lost a week to 1 lb lost a week, and I gained 4 lbs! Now, I know that could be because of a range of reasons. Maybe it's muscle? Maybe I didn't poop yet? Who knows. It still makes me nervous to up my calories AGAIN :(
  • MTBrob
    MTBrob Posts: 513 Member
    If you eat at maintenance, and work out consistently 5-6 days a week, pound out every work out you will see the results you want.

    Change doesn't happen in your comfort zone..
  • The operative word is 'need', you may not need to lose weight but if you want to lose the spare tire you have to lose more body fat.
  • Mistyblu08
    Mistyblu08 Posts: 580 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.

    THIS:)
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.
  • VanessaGS
    VanessaGS Posts: 514 Member
    Really for your height I think you should weight more. My boyfriend is 5'-10" and weight about 195. Really I think all you should concentrate on is toning. Losing weight won't necessarily help you lose the tire. Trust me I got down to 105 and I was just a smaller version of my 125 self. My mistake was I was just doing cardio and not toning. Toning is what you need.
  • JustJennie1
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,749 Member
    BMI is the most ridiculous measurement of how fat or thin someone "should" be. There was just an article out that said the BMI scale was way wrong. It OVER estimated the healthy range for fit people and UNDERESTIMATED it for obese people so someone who was fit had a BMI in the high range and someone who was clearly obese was deemed "acceptable".
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
    The operative word is 'need', you may not need to lose weight but if you want to lose the spare tire you have to lose more body fat.

    This. There is a difference between need to lose more and can lose more.

    I'm well into what is considered a healthy weight and body fat for my stats, but I WANT to do better and be more athletic.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    6' 2" & 189 sounds pretty close to where you want to be (I'm 5'10" and my doctor thinks 180 is about right for me, according to the BMI charts I'd still be in the "overweight" zone..)
  • trustymutsi
    trustymutsi Posts: 174 Member
    Well, I'm definitely not in my comfort zone :)

    I COULD do the 30 Day Shred instead of one of the days of cardio, but the last time I did 30 Day Shred every day, I inured myself. Maybe I could replace the cardio with JUST weight lifting?

    Is it possible to do some good weight training without a lot of equipment? Right now I have a dumb bell set.
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
    So, I'm 40 years old, 6' 2", and at 189 lbs. I work out every day but Sunday. 30 Day Shred 4 times a week, and jogging twice a week.

    I drink lots of water, I don't eat much processed junk at all, eat lots of fruits and veggies, and have my protein intake up to around 25%. I am on the high healthy range of the BMI scale.

    I just got my physical today, and my doctor doesn't think I need to lose any more weight. She thinks the BMI scale expects people to be a lower weight than they should be. I asked about the spare tire I still want to lose, and she thinks that will happen if I keep working out, without a calorie deficit.

    I know she's my doctor, but I still wanted to see what you guys thought.

    Thanks for any feedback!

    Ummmm you received viable medical advice from a medical doctor.... you should stick with the medical doctor... MFP is not a medical resource-related website. Sorry, but, I wouldnt ever rely on MFP when my doctors have advised me of things to follow/not follow...

    I would be flippin' THRILLED if my doctor said that to me if I was at that point of my journey to just maintain..

    You should be celebratin'!
  • Dude, Im 6'1" tall and if I weighed 189 I'd be malnourished, I'm trying to hit that number but I will definitely be underweight...lol..I agree with the majority of posters here, time to get the muscles built up, there is such a thing as skinny fat, tone tone tone.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    It is YOUR choice, your body, you are in charge. Do what you want. Doctors don't have all the answers. When I got down to 10% my doctor said okay stop now! LOL Mainly, listen to your own body. You know when you are healthy. If you are healthy, feel great, have strong workouts, enjoy life, then you are OK with less fat. The main thing when you get lean is to have hormone levels checked once a year (usually it's best to see a natureopathic MD for this, in my humble opinion). But I am older so it is more of an issue. My DXA scan showed I am way "under fat" but at 51.5 years old I am as healthy as can be and strong as ever, and my bone density is that of a 30 year old.
  • sherisse69
    sherisse69 Posts: 795 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.

    I agree with this!
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
    Well, I'm definitely not in my comfort zone :)

    I COULD do the 30 Day Shred instead of one of the days of cardio, but the last time I did 30 Day Shred every day, I inured myself. Maybe I could replace the cardio with JUST weight lifting?

    Is it possible to do some good weight training without a lot of equipment? Right now I have a dumb bell set.

    You Are Your Own Gym has a nice book and iPhone app. All of the exercises are done with body weight and common household items.
  • nursewhitman
    nursewhitman Posts: 24 Member
    I agree with your doc.
  • fwalz3
    fwalz3 Posts: 31 Member
    Your BMI for your height and weight just put you into the healthy range. So, no, you don't NEED to lose any more weight but you have plenty of room to play with if you still have some areas that you want to lose weight in.
  • korygilliam
    korygilliam Posts: 594 Member
    Same as most of the responders, just curious of what your body fat % is. BMI is an outdated, but easily understood and calculated tool, so is still used.

    If you are just starting strength training, don't get frustrated at the 3 pounds you gain in the first week...this is just from swollen muscles and other things that happen when you first start stressing your muscles. It will go away (it is only water, not fat...nor muscle)

    Slowly increase your calories to your maintanance level, don't throw them all in at once. Add a couple of hundred calories every week or two. (Who knows, you may even lose more after increasing your calorie intake...seen it before on others and on myself)
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.

    I agree with this guy^^^^ and your Doctor. Your at a healthy weight and weigh loss is not the only way to transform your body. You need some serious strength training and weight lifting. 30 day shred is more geared towards women...I would ditch that and hit the weights hard. Up your protein a wee bit too!


    *****you're. duh it's early and i'm still drinking my coffee:wink:
  • karrielynn80
    karrielynn80 Posts: 395 Member
    Thanks guys.

    What scares me is I already changed my calorie intake from 2 lbs lost a week to 1 lb lost a week, and I gained 4 lbs! Now, I know that could be because of a range of reasons. Maybe it's muscle? Maybe I didn't poop yet? Who knows. It still makes me nervous to up my calories AGAIN :(

    what everyone else said + ignore the scale (hide it if you must) and start measuring. you'll notice a difference in how you fit in ur clothes & start to see that stomach tightening up in no time. I don't agree to cut down on cardio tho - i just recommend making sure it's HIIT cardio that is constantly challenging your body & eat back as many calories as possible.
  • gshoemaker06
    gshoemaker06 Posts: 264 Member
    What's your body fat %? It seems like you are in a healthy BMI, but you could still have a high body fat %. I would mainly focus on adding strength training (like most of the other people have said)
  • FatDadSlim
    FatDadSlim Posts: 497 Member
    I'm 6ft /164Lbs, and i still have my spare tire!
    How? because i don't lift, i know i should but i just cannot get motivated to do so :indifferent:

    If you really want to rid yourself of that tire, listen to the others and Lift. (i know i should), cos you got a lot of weight to shift yet if you just go the cardio route, and TBH i'm not so sure that it will ever dissapear with cardio alone even if i got down to -120Lbs!
  • kuger4119
    kuger4119 Posts: 213 Member
    Well, I'm definitely not in my comfort zone :)

    I COULD do the 30 Day Shred instead of one of the days of cardio, but the last time I did 30 Day Shred every day, I inured myself. Maybe I could replace the cardio with JUST weight lifting?

    Is it possible to do some good weight training without a lot of equipment? Right now I have a dumb bell set.

    Your own body provides plenty of resistance for most exercises. I would say that a guy should have 15 lb, 30 lb and 50 lb pairs of dumbbells if he doesn't want a full gym. You can do just about any exercise that you would do at the gym and be able to get good results with those. As far as the weight goes, it all depends on you. You are probably at a weight where switching to maintenance mode would do you some good. You need to go a couple weeks at a new diet range to see what your body is really doing. If I go to the gym and work out hard, I will gain a couple pounds in water weight for a day or two. The problem with pushing the diet thing too far in order to get rid of a spare tire is that you will lose muscle along with fat.

    To really get super toned, you may need to bulk up 5-10 lbs (hopefully healthy muscle) and then do a shred routine....rinse and repeat.
  • Alex_is_Hawks
    Alex_is_Hawks Posts: 3,499 Member
    My Advice...


    Listen to your doctor... begin eating at maintenance level.. Change up your work outs with more weight training and less cardio.. This will cause you to gain weight in the form of sexy lean muscle.. That spare tire will be gone.

    Exactly what I was going to say!

    I support this too!!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    Well, I'm definitely not in my comfort zone :)

    I COULD do the 30 Day Shred instead of one of the days of cardio, but the last time I did 30 Day Shred every day, I inured myself. Maybe I could replace the cardio with JUST weight lifting?

    Is it possible to do some good weight training without a lot of equipment? Right now I have a dumb bell set.

    Drop 30DS like a bad habit. There are much better programs out there for fat reduction (P90X, Chalean Extreme, Strong Lift 5x5, etc..). All include heavy weight training which means higher fat loss and less muscle loss. And you won't bulk up if you aren' t eating a surplus. I agree with others, set your goal to maintenance and make a deficit through exercise and up you protein to 40%