I must be doing something wrong. Advice?

Sparlingo

You've been given a lot of sound advice - please don't just dismiss what people are saying just because you've said you "don't see" how eating more would help anything. If you look at the weight loss tickers of some of the people who have patiently responded to you, you will see that these people have experience. They've been there and here is what I'm reading to be the *consensus* among them:

- you are a healthy body weight. It is possible that you have disordered thinking about your body.
- your goal weight is unhealthy and underweight
- if you are unhappy with your body composition and want to lose fat, focus on lifting and eating at maintenance
- eat more!!

Oishii

Two things come to mind reading everything the OP has to say.

Firstly, get a second opinion on your BF%. If it was hand-held or scales based it is unlikely to be accurate and a gym has a vested interest in making you feel fat so that they can sell you the solution. Try military BF% calculators for another, free guesstimate, or splash out on a DEXA reading. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Secondly, that 'thick' feeling may be water weight, from a combination of your muscles mending themselves and being on your feet all day. Pre mfp I'd never considered this and thought my muscles had grown enormously when it was just water.

Finally, some research suggests fat distribution is important too. Try a waist:hip ratio calculator for another measure of health.

KarenJanine

As plenty before me have already said, if you're looking to decrease your BF% you need to eat more (especially protein) and strength train.

You will not get "thicker" or bulky unless you eat a considerable calorie surplus and a long time. Building muscle is hard work, especially for women.

Read this: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Staci dropped to an unhealthily low weight then learned more about nutrition and lifting and gained muscle (and scale weight) but looks leaner and better than ever.

thefatgramma

YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU ARE IS PERFECT. A QUOTE FROM YOGA CLASS. SERIOUSLY IF YOU ARE ONLY EATING 1000 CALORIES A DAY YOUR METABOLISM HAS SHUT DOWN YOUR BODY IS HOLDING ON TO EVERY BIT OF FOOD BECAUSE IT IS STARVING. YOU NEED TO THINK FUEL NOT FEAR OF WEIGHT GAIN. YOU SHOULD BUMP UP YOUR CALORIES AND ESPECIALLY IN THE PROTEIN AREA. TAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF AND TRY TO ENJOY YOUR LIFE MORE IT GOES FAST TO FAST TO WASTE TIME ON WORRING.

TavistockToad

you wrote almost exactly the same post last august.... and i am sure you got the same answers... but you have carried on what you were doing and now here you are again... doesnt that tell you something?

ladyraven68

Hi I think you have some numbers wrong too. Your BMR should be higher than that based on your age? I would think it would be 1300+.

What you need to do is to keep a SMALL deficit whilst doing everything you can to hang onto your lean muscle mass. You need to eat more protein and use those muscles. Reduce the treadmill/cardio and do more resistance/weight exercises. If you eat below your BMR you will not be doing yourself any favours. Your body will try to hang onto the fat stores.

You will NOT bulk up if you put on more muscle. You can't diet your way to a toned body.

At the gym, when they were taking measurements and such, I was at a lower weight and technically 18 years old, because my birthday was at the end of the month, so I'm not sure if it would have changed much by now. It seems as though even if I believe for the most part I am taking in enough calories, It seems as though I just tend to gain more weight throughout the week. I feel like if I eat more than what I'm eating now, i'll just be setting myself back further because at the end of the day, each day, i feel like... thick, and like, it's a weird feeling but I don't think eating MORE would help me much.

What kind of resistance and weight training exercises would you recommend? I am most concerned with my stomach and thighs and butt.

Which do yo ureally want? low Body fat, or low weight?

Aiming for the low weight has meant you have been losimg your lean mass along the way, and you will just end up a smaller version of what you are, and still with the higher body fat than you would like.

In order to decrease your bodyfat % you are going to have to increase your lean mass - and that means weight training.

This is how you achieve 17% body fat,
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/903628-one-year-of-barbells-and-ice-cream-my-story-so-far-pics
eating sufficient calories to fuel your body, sufficient protein to maintain your lean mass, and strength training.

HartJames

You are treating yourself as though you are obese when in fact you are well within normal range for weight and body composition.

People who are obese CAN drop a lot of weight by eating extremely low calorie + working out. It's not recommended or endorsed by myself but they will drop a lot of initial weight and the scale is the most obvious indicator at that point. YOU are not obese, very overweight or overweight even.

Once someone is within a normal or even overweight range for body fat, things change. If you are not eating enough protein (your protein calculations have little to do with daily reccomended allowances so look online to calculate your true needs) you will start to cannibalize the muscle you have, that's the small losses you see on the scale but not in the mirror.

Not good. You will replace that muscle lost with harder to lose fat as soon as you slip up, which you will because you are not eating a sustainable amount of calories.

Strengthening muscle and lowering body fat % (and increasing lean mass) will get you to your goal, a body you are happy with- not a number on the scale.

This will happen ONE way, lifting weights, eating a great deal more (build up slowly) and not using the scale to monitor your progress as you will just get discouraged.

Research the science behind what everyone is telling you, obviously you don't understand

Throw away your scale

Calculate your BMR and TDEE

Get calculation of your protein needs and in ease into that amout immediately

Get your body fat measured again

Start increasing your calories to 20% below your TDEE

Lift weights, correctly and as heavy as you can lift (to failure)

Use cardio if you want, best as a warmup for weights

Stop concerning yourself with "feeling thick" it's called having food in your intestinal track of retaining water, both natural occurrences that will fluctuate, or sometimes too many starchy carbs can cause this. Drink a ton of water and take a stool softener if it bothers you.

Good luck.

sherrymccall

You do not need to worry about losing weight. It would be much healthier for you to fix the body fat % by making more of your body into muscle.

To make muscle, you will need more protein: nuts, beans ad yogurt.

Lift heavy things, take a body sculpt class, or get resistance bands (cheapest option)

I am not happy with how my body is. I believe that if I cut down 10lbs or so and increase muscle mass, I'll be happier with the results. I don't want to have the same amount of fat on my body now, I would rather slim down and then tone up. Weight lifting makes me nervous because I don't want to become thicker, I want to become leaner.

You are eating too little..
Period.

As a vegetarian you need to increase your protein intake, as well as your overall calorie intake. I was a ****ty vegetarian for years, i know how it is..
You work a on your feet job you are constantly moving around, you need more calories to sustain yourself, as you say yourself you are very hungry.. that means you need to eat..

From what I've researched, I need the caloric deficit. I believe that if I increase my calorie intake any more, i will gain weight from it. My job is retail, so I'm just strolling through the isles most of the time and then standing the rest of the time, so.. Not too intense.

^^^ What you just said is so wrong. You're starving yourself. At your height, 90 -100 lbs is borderline underweight. I'm agreeing with everyone else BUILD SOME MUSCLE it will actually lift and hold whatever fat you have so that it is not flabby, and make you firmer, more defined. It would take YEARS of heavy - heavy lifting to make you look bulky, you'd also have to be eating in the 3000+ calorie range. So stop starving yourself, eat at least 1500 cals, get some lean protien, like spinach, alfalfa, edamame, etc. and work those muscles!

it's not borderline underweight, IT IS UNDERWEIGHT. i;m 5'1 and got down to 95lbs, i was underweight at 97lbs. i am now a healthy weight of 105lbs and eat 1800 calories to maintain my weight.