Skinny & flabby?

brainzap · April 2013

So I am 5'8 and my weight fluctuates between 118-122. I look skinny in my clothes but I have a bit of belly & thigh fat which I am not pleased with. How can I get rid of it?

Lyadeia · April 2013

This is what we call "skinny fat." I used to be there, so I know how annoying it is to be at a healthy weight and still have a high body fat percentage.

Fixing this issue takes time, but it can be done!

First, since you are at a low weight already, you don't want to have a large calorie deficit or else you risk losing lean body mass while trying to shed the fat. But, you can't get out of the deficit, cause that's the way you lose it. I would suggest finding a decent TDEE calculator to determine what your calorie needs are for maintaining your weight, and then subtract a small amount from that, about 10-15%. I wouldn't advice eating less than TDEE-15%, and you might find it better to eat closer to TDEE-10%.

Second, if you are not already weight training, now is a good time to start. Weight training will prevent lean mass loss while in a calorie deficit, and it will also tighten up some areas so when your body fat percentage goes down, you will look tight, lean, and "toned."

I wouldn't overdo it on cardio either. You actually don't need to do any at all unless you just want to. That only increases your calorie burn allowing you to eat more food, but many women tend to overdo cardio and under-do the weight training...which ultimately leads to the situation you are in now.

Good luck!

FluffyMcNutter · April 2013

Essentially, you are a relatively low weight for your height, but your body fat % is higher than you want. Unless there is some miracle out there that I don't know about, the only way for you to lose BF is for you to either lose weight and also weight train so that you don't lose any more Lean Body Mass, or you can gain muscle mass. The only way to gain muscle is to eat at a calorie surplus (with nice high protein levels) along with weight training. There is also the tiniest bit of possibility that you could gain some muscle while not at a surplus if you haven't ever weight trained or haven't in a long time (aka Newbie Gains).

So you can start lifting weights and do nothing else differently and hope you tighten up, or you can bulk and cut - because I don't think you need to actually lose any weight...right?

To bulk and cut, there are a lot of people around here who can help you more than I can, but these are the basics as I understand them: Figure out your body fat %. There are a lot of ways to do that and a lot of them aren't very accurate. You can search on here or google for your options. Figure out what you like/want to do/whatever...I even think there is a group here that will look at your pictures and guess...and from what I hear, that is as accurate as anything else...and free.

Eat at a small surplus, make sure you're getting lots of protein, weight train, gain weight that is muscle, fat and water for a set amount of time (you'll need to specifically talk to people who bulk and cut to figure all of that out). Then, you'll eat at a deficit to cut the BF. You'll continue to weight train and eat lots of protein, and then your body will start to shed some fat. Rinse and repeat until you're happy to maintain.

While bulking and cutting doesn't scare me as much as it scares a lot of other people, I'd probably still try just weight training and doing everything else normally at first. Do some research about bulking and cutting while you're doing that, just in case it doesn't work. Then, if it looks like that's what you'll need to do, you'll have a lot of information about it and know how you want to do it.

I wish there was a magic wand that we could all wave to turn fat into muscle, but there just isn't. You have to earn muscle gain and fat loss. Unfortunately, muscle loss and fat gain seem to happen without much effort.

Wetcoaster · May 2013

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Shelly

Thanks for the laugh......reported though.

AbsoluteNG · May 2013

Try intermittent fasting to see if it helps.

ecw3780 · May 2013

lots of weights. Low fat, low carb, high protein. I wouldn't eat at a deficit either. Your body burns carbs, then fat, then protein. If you eat at a deficit, and don't eat enough protein it will cannibalize your muscles and leave you looking doughy, but show a weight loss. It sounds like you don't need to lose weight, you need to swap fat for muscle.

sarahz1442 · May 2013

This is what we call "skinny fat." I used to be there, so I know how annoying it is to be at a healthy weight and still have a high body fat percentage.

Fixing this issue takes time, but it can be done!

First, since you are at a low weight already, you don't want to have a large calorie deficit or else you risk losing lean body mass while trying to shed the fat. But, you can't get out of the deficit, cause that's the way you lose it. I would suggest finding a decent TDEE calculator to determine what your calorie needs are for maintaining your weight, and then subtract a small amount from that, about 10-15%. I wouldn't advice eating less than TDEE-15%, and you might find it better to eat closer to TDEE-10%.

Second, if you are not already weight training, now is a good time to start. Weight training will prevent lean mass loss while in a calorie deficit, and it will also tighten up some areas so when your body fat percentage goes down, you will look tight, lean, and "toned."

I wouldn't overdo it on cardio either. You actually don't need to do any at all unless you just want to. That only increases your calorie burn allowing you to eat more food, but many women tend to overdo cardio and under-do the weight training...which ultimately leads to the situation you are in now.

Good luck!

She's already underweight. I wouldn't suggest eating at a calorie deficit at all. That would result in losing more weight which is a bad idea.

SerenaFisher · May 2013

Lift weights. If that scares you, there are cardio work outs that you do with weights. I'd suggest going to the gym to lift though, but that's me.

SerenaFisher · May 2013

And yes, no calorie deficit, obviously what you are eating currently is keeping you at a in healthy range weight, in fact I would suggest eating what you normally do, and then eating the calories you burn back from any work out you should choose to do.