I'm not losing body fat, is it my diet?

RosieMaherx
RosieMaherx Posts: 31
in Food and Nutrition
I'm 5"4, 19 and 165 lbs. Im about 27% body fat . I want to get down to about 17-19%. I'm not too bothered about how much I weigh, I just want to feel comfortable in my skin and be able to wear anything I want!
I run for 40 mins about 3-4 times a week on different terrain (unfortunately I live on a hill, so anywhere I go i'll find an incline). I also started insanity and I'm on day 9. I've been running for about 3 months now, although I'm noticing huge changes in my fitness level, there are barely any changes to my body. My legs and arms have became more muscular, but I don't seem to have lost any body fat whatsoever. The scales also haven't budged!
I've tried weighs in the gym, doing both arm and leg sessions and this has just made me feel and look even bigger.
My family are veggie so I will only eat veggie food when im at home but i will eat chicken and fish when i"m out. I drink 3L of water most days and i hardly ever drink alcohol.
If you could please please help me with either my diet or where im going wrong it would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
    I would focus on general weight loss first. Then if your fat percentage is still high, switch to a high protein, low carb diet.

    You need to figure out how much of a calorie deficit you need to create and track your food. Even vegetarian dishes can be high calorie if they contain large amounts of cheese and nuts.
  • MG_Fit
    MG_Fit Posts: 1,143 Member
    An open diary or more information on your food intake would be helpful.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    I'm 5"4, 19 and 165 lbs. Im about 27% body fat . I want to get down to about 17-19%. I'm not too bothered about how much I weigh, I just want to feel comfortable in my skin and be able to wear anything I want!
    I run for 40 mins about 3-4 times a week on different terrain (unfortunately I live on a hill, so anywhere I go i'll find an incline). I also started insanity and I'm on day 9. I've been running for about 3 months now, although I'm noticing huge changes in my fitness level, there are barely any changes to my body. My legs and arms have became more muscular, but I don't seem to have lost any body fat whatsoever. The scales also haven't budged!
    I've tried weighs in the gym, doing both arm and leg sessions and this has just made me feel and look even bigger.
    My family are veggie so I will only eat veggie food when im at home but i will eat chicken and fish when i"m out. I drink 3L of water most days and i hardly ever drink alcohol.
    If you could please please help me with either my diet or where im going wrong it would be greatly appreciated!

    Seeing as I doubt you built a ton of muscle doing cardio, the more muscular appearance is prob due to dropping bodyfat

    Also water retention can mask fat loss, so the scale won't move for a little but you did indeed lose fat. Scale weight isn't always indicative of body comp changes
  • EmmaFortune1994
    EmmaFortune1994 Posts: 1
    just because there's not a drop in the scales doesn't mean that you haven't lost weigh as your getting stronger your mustles are getting a heavier mass! and if you notice that your muscle are getting bigger than you must have lost weight or else you would weigh more.
  • jamiesillimandunn
    jamiesillimandunn Posts: 270 Member
    I would say ( though I'm far from pro here ) keep going with insanity ...I noticed it concentrates a lot on muscles !! I know because my muscles are COMPLETELY sore after them and ARE growing ! I notice below my breast line is thinning dramatically so I may even have an ab or two show up soon :) insanity is not only cardio but uses your body to build muscle as well ...eating lots of protein to fuel your muscles is key, and lean muscle outweighs fat any day !! Feel free to freind me we can motivate eachother in our insanity venture !! :!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    How did you get your body fat calculated? 27% body fat seems low for 165 lbs for 5'4" .
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!

    How much were you lifting?
  • brdnw
    brdnw Posts: 565 Member
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!

    you could just be doing the wrong weight training..it depends what you were doing + reps and sets, what excercises, etc.., you should def see a difference if you were committed for 2.5 months
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    How did you get your body fat calculated? 27% body fat seems low for 165 lbs for 5'4" .
    Although 165lbs at 5"4 seems a lotttt, to look at me, you wouldn't think I was that overweight. I've played hockey and netball since I was 12 and I used to do a lot of weigh training in the gym for a long period of time so my legs and arms are quite muscular. I just seem to store fat on my stomach and hips. I've measured myself and put it into a body fat calculator.
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!

    you could just be doing the wrong weight training..it depends what you were doing + reps and sets, what excercises, etc.., you should def see a difference if you were committed for 2.5 months

    It depends. I don't do much free weigh training for my arms. But on machines anything between 35-55kgs. For my legs I do lunges, squats and then other machines in the gym. I've had sessions written up for me by the personal trainer in my gym but I've been told the information I've recieved is wrong! So I just don't know what to do!!
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    I do super sets? So I use 2 different machines, alternating between the 2 doing between 8-12 reps 3 times on each. I do 8 exercises in total per session. I just felt like I was building muscle and not losing any body fat.
  • jfrankic
    jfrankic Posts: 747 Member
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!

    If your TDEE is 2446 and you are eating 1600 per day, that is a 45% cut. Only the morbidly obese can get away that huge of a deficit. Increase calories. Take TDEE-15%, so eat around 2000 a day. Increasing calories should help shed some fat.
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    how many cals do you eat per day? what sort of a deficit are you on?

    i lost a load of bodyfat doing insanity on TDEE - 10%. put on 2lbs of weight though, so dont worry about the scales!

    you might also want to rething strength training after insanity, you say you tried it? for how long? you need to stick to a new routine for 4-6 weeks before you can say it doesnt work
    I eat around 1600 a day with a net intake of around 1200. My TDEE comes out at 2446.

    I did weight training last year for about 2 and a half months, I honestly didnt see a difference. The summer before that I ran every day, and lot a lot of weight but it jut doesn't seem to be coming off this time.

    Thankyou for your help!

    If your TDEE is 2446 and you are eating 1600 per day, that is a 45% cut. Only the morbidly obese can get away that huge of a deficit. Increase calories. Take TDEE-15%, so eat around 2000 a day. Increasing calories should help shed some fat.

    Okay, I'll try that out, thanks. Should I cut down carbs and eat more protein or?
  • jfrankic
    jfrankic Posts: 747 Member
    Oh gosh, you will get all kinds of answers on here about low carb vs high carb! Do you have any medical reason to cut out or reduce carbs? If not, don't cut them out. Carbs are very beneficial, especially with Insanity. Make sure you get enough protein: approx .8g x your bodyweight. With eating 2k a day, you have plenty of room for lots of protein and carbs....and fats!

    You could look into carb cycling at a later time, but it won't be a good fit with Insanity. You need carbs for fuel and energy. Carb cycling is great with a 3-4 day a week strength training program. For now, just be sure to eat enough calories, hit your protein and enjoy some pancakes when you have a hankerin'. :wink:
  • RosieMaherx
    RosieMaherx Posts: 31
    Thanks haha! I'm finding it hard to get protein into my diet because I'm veggie, but I'll try! Thank you for your help :)

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