help to fix diet/how to tell if I've burned fat not muscle?

ajc1309

I'm 23, female, 5ft 3 and I've been on a diet and exercising on an exercise bike for about 3-4 months. I've lost 2 and a half stone (about 35 pounds I think) but I've only lost about 2 or 3 inches from my stomach, hips and legs, about 1 inch from my arms. I was 13 stone (186 pounds) now I'm 10 and a half stone (147 pounds).

I've been eating around 700 to 800 calories a day and burning 130-200 on the bike (according to the built in computer thing). I know now that that's very bad but when I started dieting, I had no idea that it would be that bad for me. I'm now afraid that all I've been losing is muscle, which I don't want because I really want to lose the fat. I'm also afraid that if I start eating around 1300 calories a day, I'll put all the weight back on. Can someone help me out with this?

I don't have access to a gym or anything.

I really want to fix my diet and lose fat the healthy way.

mamasmaltz3

I am mainly replying so this can be bumped to the top so you can get some better advice than me, lol.

My first thought is that you are not going to gain all your weight back at 1300 calories unless you have a severely damaged metabolism. But, even if you have slowed your metabolism by eating extremely low calories your body should respond in time by raising your metabolism if you feed it proper nutrition and exercise. Which for me is the most concerning thing about extremely low calorie diets. It is really hard to give your body all the vitamins and nutrients it needs to be healthy.

sarahslim100

Sorry not sure. Maybe a dietitian or personal trainer can help?

mgobluetx12

The only way to know for sure (calculators online that figure out your LBM and such are often inaccurate) would be to find a doctor or someone with a way to measure your lean body mass/water weight/fat percentage. Then you will know how much muscle you have and if your weight loss is causing you to lose fat or muscle.

envy09

You're going to probably gain weight if you've been eating at an extreme calorie deficit (you have been), and then decide to eat the proper amount of calories. Hold on! It's not all bad news. You will lose the weight after your metabolism has got itself back on track.

You probably have lost some lean body mass, but you can gain it back by eating right and getting enough protein in your diet. If you're working out and eating at a calorie deficit, then you'll lose the fat, so don't worry so much about that.

meshashesha2012

you dont need a gym to preserve muscle. start looking into doing body weight exercises : things like push ups, pullps, lunges, squats, pistol squats, etc.

also considering how low you are eating and the fact that you arent dong anything to preserve your muscle, i would say yes, your body is catabolizing more muscle than you probably want. another big clue is that you've lost all that weight but very little of it is making an effect on your tape measurements or clothing sizes.

i know different people are different but i've lost anywhere from 20-32 pounds (depending on the day i weight myself) and i've lost 5 pant sizes and 1 top size, and it's pretty evident that i'm mainly losing fat.


so my advice would be to eat more calories, eat more protein and start doing some bodyweight exercises to preserve your lean body mass

dare2love81

Definitely start eating more STAT! And you might gain until your body adjusts and trusts that you're properly fueling it, but it'll come back off. Go get a set of dumb bells and do some workouts at home. Or even lifting gallons of milk works. Be creative. You don't need a gym membership to lift weights. Also, like previous posters mentioned, body weight exercises will help as well. But whatever you do, EAT.

mamaDaisyJ

I would suggest bringing your calories up by 100-200 a day until you are at a good intake. And yea, get ready for a little gain, but I don't think it would be too much, and it will come back off too. You might try some resistance bands, pilates, or I hear the kettlebell rocks for toning and building lean buscle, though I haven't tried it yet.

ilinx

Try to up your calorie intake gradually, like 100 or 200 calories more every one or two weeks. That may help to prevent gaining back most of what you've lost. You will by no boubt gain back some, but just like the others said, you'll probably lose it again once your metabolism has adjusted. The adjusting might take some time, depending on how long you've been eating at such a great deficit and how/what you've been eating before.

You should definetly try to build up muscle again. You don't need access to a gym for that. Check out pilates (I recommand blogilates.com, Cassie has some serious *kitten*-kicking workout as well as introducing beginner videos), yoga (maybe Tara Stiles?) and especially calisthenics ('You are your own gym" by Mark Lauren is awesome).You can do all this at home without having to buy expensive equipment. You could do this 3x a week for 20 or 30 min (at the beginning and later on do more) in addition to doing your cardio 3x a week. It would be good if you had at least one rest day and more beneficial if you wouldn't do strength and cardio on one day (maybe something like monday: pilates, tuesday:cardio, wednesday:yoga, thursday:cardio, friday: you are your own gym, saturday: cardio, sunday:rest?).

Hope I could help.Take what you need from my advice and adjust it to your needs and interests. You will fix this, don't worry. it just might take some time and effort.

ilinx

Oh.Perhaps swimming would be good,too.Burns a lot of calories while building up muscle..

zombilishious

Eating more is definitely healthier. Focus on trying to eat as much food that is not processed as possible. You might see a temporary weight gain when you increase your calories, but give yourself a month and it will start to drop again.

ajc1309

Thanks everyone. I have a couple more questions.

If slowly up my calories to 900 this week, 1000 next week etc, how much roughly do you think I'll gain?
and if I can see visible differences and other people can in the way I look, does that mean I've at least lost some fat? I've had family members be genuinely shocked when they've seen me lately. The bones in my wrists now stick out, my fingers are now tiny, I can feel my ribs and shoulder bones, my clavicles are now visible and I have a definite defined jawline now when before I almost had a double chin. The whole 2 and a half stone can't be all muscle can it?

ajc1309

Also there's a definite difference in my before and after pictures.

psuLemon

Based on your exercise and stats you can probably eat upwards of 2300 calories a day before gaining fat. Also based on your stats you should be closer to 1800 calories a day. Now the issue you will run into is you have probably suppressed your metabolism due to not eating right. I would definitely try to get up to 1600-1800 over the next few months to stabilize hormones and work on cutting fat... not weight. Weight training will be the most effective way of doing that so look into adding weight training or getting some resistance bands.

mmapags

Based on your exercise and stats you can probably eat upwards of 2300 calories a day before gaining fat. Also based on your stats you should be closer to 1800 calories a day. Now the issue you will run into is you have probably suppressed your metabolism due to not eating right. I would definitely try to get up to 1600-1800 over the next few months to stabilize hormones and work on cutting fat... not weight. Weight training will be the most effective way of doing that so look into adding weight training or getting some resistance bands.

This is the best advice you've recieved so far. Additionally, based on how little you were eating, you can be sure that you lost some muscle mass. Following the advice above will prevent that from continueing.

ajc1309

Thanks.
I'm not bothered about being toned and muscular, the only thing that bothers me about losing muscle is that that means I'm losing less fat. I really want to lose fat and look more petite.

The thing that really frustrates me is that I haven't lost many inches, I've lost about 3 inches and 2 dress sizes. I was in a size 16, now I'm a size 12. I should be less than that if I've lost 2 and a half stone shouldn't I?

psuLemon

Thanks.
I'm not bothered about being toned and muscular, the only thing that bothers me about losing muscle is that that means I'm losing less fat. I really want to lose fat and look more petite.

The thing that really frustrates me is that I haven't lost many inches, I've lost about 3 inches and 2 dress sizes. I was in a size 16, now I'm a size 12. I should be less than that if I've lost 2 and a half stone shouldn't I?

Well there is a strong chance that you lost up to 50% of your weight from muscle. But now that you know that, correct it. Start to add another 100 calories a week until you hit at least 1600 calories. Then you will have to sit there for a month and then probably up it to 1800. But adjust your macro's and work on heavy weight training. This is where you will see the greatest changes in your body. In fact, throw the scale away. When you up calories, you also up carbs which will increase the amount of glycogen/water stored. I generally see up to 5 lbs of extra weight. Increasing protein and fats can help eliminate some of the water weight if you are worried.

ajc1309

so what if I upped my calories to about 900 this week, alternate pilates and maybe water bottle weights (like I said, I don't have access to a gym for any kind of weight training) and going on my exercise bike.

so it would be
monday: bike
tuesday: pilates & weights
wednesday bike

etc
would that help me lose fat and gain some of my muscle back?

ajc1309

sorry to bump, I really need help with this. I want to get this sorted asap.

mmapags

At 900 calories it's likely you will continue to lose muscle mass. You need to get it up to about the 1600 that psulemon referenced as soon and is reasonably possible. Even at that, you won't gain muscle. You will preserve muscle in all likelyhood. To gain muscle, you have to be eating in a calories surplus (over TDEE) to fuel the growth of the muscle tissue.

ajc1309

honestly I don't think I can eat that much... I struggle to eat 900 calories, I will push myself to about 1300. I don't think I even ate that many calories before my diet, the weight started dropping off when I started exercising on my bike. I'll admit I never exercised before my diet.

I'm fine with just maintaining my muscle, as long as I'm burning fat.