Confused. How do you burn fat without losing weight?

fevermaps
fevermaps Posts: 162 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 5'4, 25 years old and 122lb and i am quite happy with that but i am quite flabby round the midsection. I do resistance training most days and my arms are much more toned but my stomach is still flabby! I don't want to lose weight if i can just tone up the problem areas and lose the body fat.

How do i do it? I am confused. I am eating around 1400 net calories a day. Help please! I have searched the forums for answers but i am confused!

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    What does your resistance training consist of? If you're just doing a bunch of isolation work with light weights, high reps, you're not going to accomplish a whole lot in RE to "toning". Look into full body compound lifts...heavy weights. By heavy (relative) I mean 3x 8-12 reps (where you are close to failure on the last rep) for some hypertrophy (i.e. toning) or 3x5 for big strength gains.
  • fevermaps
    fevermaps Posts: 162 Member
    What does your resistance training consist of? If you're just doing a bunch of isolation work with light weights, high reps, you're not going to accomplish a whole lot in RE to "toning". Look into full body compound lifts...heavy weights. By heavy (relative) I mean 3x 8-12 reps (where you are close to failure on the last rep) for some hypertrophy (i.e. toning) or 3x5 for big strength gains.

    I do squats and lunges and dumbbell cleans and dumbbell rows and other exercises. (just an example) I feel that the weights i have at the moment are just enough otherwise i would probably give myself an injury.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    You need to build muscle. Eat at a slight surplus of calories, max out on protein and lift heavy.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I lost body fat without losing weight just by concentrating on fitness. I used Turbo Fire plus body weight exercises primarily. My BF% dropped and I lost a few inches, even though I gained a couple of pounds.

    I didn't really worry about calories much, I just tried to keep stick to healthy food most of the time and use hunger as a guide. And I added a scoop of protein powder most days because I tend to not get enough from diet.
  • donnacervelli11
    donnacervelli11 Posts: 109 Member
    What does your resistance training consist of? If you're just doing a bunch of isolation work with light weights, high reps, you're not going to accomplish a whole lot in RE to "toning". Look into full body compound lifts...heavy weights. By heavy (relative) I mean 3x 8-12 reps (where you are close to failure on the last rep) for some hypertrophy (i.e. toning) or 3x5 for big strength gains.

    I do squats and lunges and dumbbell cleans and dumbbell rows and other exercises. (just an example) I feel that the weights i have at the moment are just enough otherwise i would probably give myself an injury.

    Do you do any isolated stomach resistance exercises? Planks are excellent for building core strength (which tones stomach muscles)
  • fevermaps
    fevermaps Posts: 162 Member
    What does your resistance training consist of? If you're just doing a bunch of isolation work with light weights, high reps, you're not going to accomplish a whole lot in RE to "toning". Look into full body compound lifts...heavy weights. By heavy (relative) I mean 3x 8-12 reps (where you are close to failure on the last rep) for some hypertrophy (i.e. toning) or 3x5 for big strength gains.

    I do squats and lunges and dumbbell cleans and dumbbell rows and other exercises. (just an example) I feel that the weights i have at the moment are just enough otherwise i would probably give myself an injury.

    Do you do any isolated stomach resistance exercises? Planks are excellent for building core strength (which tones stomach muscles)

    I do planks and all of those things. So main advice is to up my calories and keep resistance training?
  • fevermaps
    fevermaps Posts: 162 Member
    You need to build muscle. Eat at a slight surplus of calories, max out on protein and lift heavy.

    How heavy? I'm not sure how many calories i should be eating!
  • bgelliott
    bgelliott Posts: 610 Member
    You need to build muscle. Eat at a slight surplus of calories, max out on protein and lift heavy.

    How heavy? I'm not sure how many calories i should be eating!

    You said you eat 1400 now, up that to 1600 and see how it affects your body.
    EDIT: make sure they are clean calories though, not junk

    Lifting heavy means that you don't hurt yourself but it's a struggle to get the last couple of reps in on a set.
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
    I think of being fat as like wearing a snowsuit. You can build all the muscles you want, but if you're wearing a snowsuit you won't be able to see them. If you want visible abs then you'll have to get your body fat percentage down. They say abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.
  • carrieous
    carrieous Posts: 1,024 Member
    obvious answer is to eat more.
  • carrieous
    carrieous Posts: 1,024 Member
    You need to build muscle. Eat at a slight surplus of calories, max out on protein and lift heavy.

    How heavy? I'm not sure how many calories i should be eating!

    2000
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
    If you don't want to lose any more weight, why are you eating at a deficit of 1400 cals? To lose fat you need to build muscle. To do that you need to lift heavy and eat more.

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