A Sad Realization.

I wish my husband would read this thread. He is down 50 pounds (around 163) and he looks GREAT, in clothes. He says he can't stand how he looks naked and he doesn't know what to do. People are cautioning him not to lose much more or even any more weight because he is starting to look too thin. He wants to go for 10 more pounds in hopes that he will lose all the belly fat. My husband is VERY stubborn though, sometimes to a fault, and he THINKS he knows this or that and doesn't like to research things or try things out. For instance, I just went through and did all the calculations on my BMR and TDEE to set my calorie intake correctly... I was feeling LOW ENERGY and OVERLY TIRED all the time on 1200/day. Come to find out, my BMR is just under 1400 and my TDEE is 2100... based on my calculations I should be eating about 1600/day, but of course I'm afraid to go up to that level from 1200 so I've baby stepped my way up to 1400.... time will tell...

Anyhow...
Thanks for sharing!!

He will not lose all that belly fat at least not right away or by losing another 10 pounds. In 2011, I stayed at 190 pounds basically for the entire year. The differences I see in pictures taken at the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 are very dramatic for no weight loss. You could see it in the "belly fat" and other fat. I'm now down to 172. Guess what, still some belly fat. Another 10 pounds is not going to make another difference. Sometimes it takes a while to have the bubblewrap move around

Here is something else. If you've become accustomed to yourself looking a certain way, it can be tough to see yourself in a different way. Now it is easier for me to see myself in the context of my lighter weight because much of life has been spent at a weight of less than 185 pounds. But for the 10 years or so where I was over 200 pounds and finally up to nearly 250, I began to view myself through the "fat context." It has taken me a while to get back to seeing myself through the "thin" lens, again.

Even worse is the loose skin (particularly with age). Gone is the tight stomach skin of years ago. The other day I was doing my pushups without a shirt and I looked down to see this skin (where the fat is also still present but I can only "pinch an inch") hanging from my stomach. My thought was "what the hell is this?" I realized that even as trim as I look standing up, the effects of being overweight have taken their toll on parts of my body. Fortunately (and unfortunately as well) I am the only one that has to see that.

Your story sounds much like the beginning of this inspirational tale, which I've seen linked elsewhere in the forums. She is where I'd love to get to, and her story might offer you some hope too.

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

Wow! That is amazing! Thank you for sharing, well worth the read!!

That's what I'm doing. But hopefully, some of those in my former mindset will read this and make their own journeys much easier and more enjoyable. I'm not just b*tching to b*tch. Just trying to put it out there that excessive cardio + undereating = a frail, weak, squishy body.
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I'm so glad you posted this! I'm a newbie and would never had known any of this had you not of put yourself out there and shared. Thank you! I'm sure it couldn't have been easy. My muscles thank you too

thanks for sharing!
that's exactly why i joined this site i'd much rather be losing fat slowly than losing muscle and being smaller but less defined

I was a body builder ten years ago. I had awesome abs. I did handstands and cartwheels and upside down pressups. I was proud of how heavy I could lift and quite confident in the "boys area" of the gym. Skip ahead ten years: I do a little resistance, not much. I run about once a week, and I eat at a deficit. Since I started this journey I have almost lost the ten pounds I wanted to lose. I can't lift this year for medical reasons. I am frail and weak, and I probably do fit that awful label: " skinny-fat". But I choose to be proud! I believe that running does strengthen muscles, I believe that losing mass is healthy for me, Next year may or may not be a muscle building year, either way I am learning and feeling good on many different levels. We are all on a different journey. I guess I'm writing this, too, to remind myself that I'm ok too.

Cathe Friedrich workouts.

You can start with beginner level workouts for cheap from ebay, or start with some of her newer ones and modify.
Almost every workout of hers uses weights or resistance bands and builds muscle in some way.
she even plans out rotations- suggested schedule of workouts for a month or even 3 months at a time.
you can use her workouts, or sub in what you have already, just keep in mind the type of workout/intensity and so on.

The bright side of this is, now you just have gaining muscle to focus on.
your body isn't fighting itself, and you'll be able to measure your progress.

I started going down this path last year. Now I'm being more patient. I'm glad this thread is getting attention.

fine, then work out and build muscle now.

You may be missing a major point here - do you realized how long it will take to rebuild the lost muscle?

Thanks for the advice. Anyone have tips for maintaining muscle?

Eat at a reasonable caloric deficit, strength train (full body workout 3 x a week), 1g protein per lb of LBM.

great post OP

remeber that even thoug re building muscle is difficult, it's also lost of fun
eat TDEE or slightly above, lift heavy, rest, repeat
you will get there

People get too hung up on BF% and wanting to get it measured all the time when this only confirms what you already see in the mirror everyday anyway.

QFT

Good post and self awareness.

The big picture is that it isn't just about either weight or body fat percent.

Neither weight nor bf% truely equal a way to always improving esthetics, health and fitness. While losing weight or improving bf% can be excellent ways of getting to a better position with respect to those 3 elements the original post clearly shows a case where just losing weight can have negative results.

Looking at three questions:

How much do I want to weight?
What body composition do I want to have?
How fit and healthy do I want to be?

You really want to ask them together.
There are bad solutions everywhere: Weight loss without fitness? Composition without health? Fit but obese?