Why aren't I loosing body fat?

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  • imzsaifie
    imzsaifie Posts: 10
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    I was just about to ask what activity level should I put I have it as active at the moment but maybe that's not right? I gym 3-4 times a week but I work in an office then spend the majority of the day sat down. I am going to change my goal weight to 110lbs And see if that makes a difference
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    imzsaifie wrote: »
    I was just about to ask what activity level should I put I have it as active at the moment but maybe that's not right? I gym 3-4 times a week but I work in an office then spend the majority of the day sat down. I am going to change my goal weight to 110lbs And see if that makes a difference

    Activity level should not include exercise.
  • slaite1
    slaite1 Posts: 1,307 Member
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    Search through the threads to see the difference between NEAT and TDEE. But basically you either set it to sedentary and add back in exercise calories. Or you figure out your TDEE (there's online calculators) and deduct 500 calories or so. Someone else can explain it better. But active with an office job is probably not accurate.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    slaite1 wrote: »
    Are you sure you put your stats in correctly? Sounds kind of high. I'm 5'7" and 150#. To lose just .5 lb a week MFP sets my goal to 1760 calories-and that's at lightly active.

    ditto here
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    imzsaifie wrote: »
    I was just about to ask what activity level should I put I have it as active at the moment but maybe that's not right? I gym 3-4 times a week but I work in an office then spend the majority of the day sat down. I am going to change my goal weight to 110lbs And see if that makes a difference

    Activity level should not include exercise.

    x2
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    imzsaifie wrote: »
    I was just about to ask what activity level should I put I have it as active at the moment but maybe that's not right? I gym 3-4 times a week but I work in an office then spend the majority of the day sat down. I am going to change my goal weight to 110lbs And see if that makes a difference

    Activity level should not include exercise.

    Exactly this. You do not include exercise in your activity level setting, that would get logged separately. Or calculate your TDEE and set that as a custom calorie limit and then do not log your exercise.
  • imzsaifie
    imzsaifie Posts: 10
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    I calculated my TDEE and it came up as 1937 Calories, does that sound about right?
  • Texas_boi
    Texas_boi Posts: 10 Member
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    blankiefinder wrote: »
    Texas_boi wrote: »
    With all these replies; If MFP tell you to eat 1700 calories and you just can’t or don’t is that as harmful as it implies? Once I add my exercise it adds 600 calories but it’s hard for me to meet that number, with snacks and protein shake. But I don’t want to stop working out or not add the exercise part.

    @Texas_boi that is really a completely different question, you might want your own post as to not confuse the OP's post, but I will answer it here. If you are weighing your foods and logging accurately, then you should eat back part of your exercise calories. This answer also depends on what you have set as your goals by the way. If you have set your weight loss goal at 2 lbs per week then you already have a 1000 calorie deficit built in per day and you should eat back more of your exercise calories. If you have your deficit set at 1 pound per week or less, you can eat back less of your exercise calories. If you're having trouble eating enough calories, with a large deficit, I would hazard a guess that you are not weighing your foods, and are eating more than you think.

    Thanks it never downed on me to weigh it, I was eyeing it and going by the package
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    Texas_boi wrote: »
    blankiefinder wrote: »
    Texas_boi wrote: »
    With all these replies; If MFP tell you to eat 1700 calories and you just can’t or don’t is that as harmful as it implies? Once I add my exercise it adds 600 calories but it’s hard for me to meet that number, with snacks and protein shake. But I don’t want to stop working out or not add the exercise part.

    @Texas_boi that is really a completely different question, you might want your own post as to not confuse the OP's post, but I will answer it here. If you are weighing your foods and logging accurately, then you should eat back part of your exercise calories. This answer also depends on what you have set as your goals by the way. If you have set your weight loss goal at 2 lbs per week then you already have a 1000 calorie deficit built in per day and you should eat back more of your exercise calories. If you have your deficit set at 1 pound per week or less, you can eat back less of your exercise calories. If you're having trouble eating enough calories, with a large deficit, I would hazard a guess that you are not weighing your foods, and are eating more than you think.

    Thanks it never downed on me to weigh it, I was eyeing it and going by the package

    My $10 food scale was the best $10 I've ever spent.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    imzsaifie wrote: »
    I calculated my TDEE and it came up as 1937 Calories, does that sound about right?

    I'm not sure, it depends on your workouts, but to lose, you would eat 10% to 20% less than that, depending on your desired rate of loss. I would go with the 20%, weigh ALL your foods, and monitor your losses over the span of 4-6 weeks, then adjust.

    If your goal is more of a recomposition than weight loss, you will need to eat around maintenance and lift heavy, less cardio.
  • imzsaifie
    imzsaifie Posts: 10
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    Too lose it suggested to -20% which then puts me at 1550 calories.

    I will do so thanks for your help ☺️
  • terar21
    terar21 Posts: 523 Member
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    What are you trying to "shift" exactly? What changes do you feel like you need to make in your body? Stronger? More muscle? Slimmer?

    I'm 5'2" 118. Down over 25 pounds and 115 is my goal. My focus is body fat percentage as well so my goal is to hit 115, maintain it through the summer with continued heavy lifting to see some small recomp, and then go into a calorie surplus for adding muscle (i intended to go straight into a bulk once hitting my goal but I'd rather not bulk through summer).

    My point is, you may want to really evaluate your goals and plan of action when trying to lose weight when you're already in the healthy range. Often times, being within the "healthy range" and dropping lower isn't going to get you the results you want.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    OP - fat is going to come off from where it wants to come off…but given that you are already at a smaller weight, I think you would benefit from either eating at maintenance and doing a recomp or setting MFP to .5 pound per week loss and adding in a heavy lifting program like strong lifts, new rules of lifting for woman, or starting strength…(that is if you want to lift heavy)..

    I would also say.

    Log everything you eat into MFP
    get a food scale and weight all solids and as man liquids as possible…



  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
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    imzsaifie wrote: »
    I haven't logged consistently much.

    I have updated myfitnesspal goal and it now says I need to eat 1,700 calories do I then need to burn 1,700 calories a day in order to burn fat?

    If u havent logged consistently then you truly have no idea what your exact calories daily are. Until you start weighing and measuring all your foods ,and logging them daily and accurately, then nobody here can help you to see where you've went wrong. You must log everything you consume and must weigh and measure everything!! Otherwise, you are wasting your time
  • imzsaifie
    imzsaifie Posts: 10
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    Maybe that's where I am going wrong, I haven't been logging consistantly but I am going to do so from now on.

    Thankyou to people who have posted helpful comments
  • ravikrishna
    ravikrishna Posts: 51 Member
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    Till now I've lost exactly 20 kgs and need to reduce another 12 kgs. Believe me, fat loss, happens with Calorie deficit and calorie deficit only. Out of this 20kgs lost, much of the time, I never hit any gym and just control my food intake, even though, I don't count the calories now. I've come from 38" size jeans to 30" size jeans now.
  • scottacular
    scottacular Posts: 597 Member
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    imzsaifie wrote: »
    i am really struggling to loose body fat around my lower stomach and hips!

    I go to the gym 4-5 days a week and do an hour workout which includes HiTT cardio and weight training I also do yoga twice a week! I eat sensibly in the week concentrating on my sugar intake. On the weekends I am not a cautious, I do drink alcohol nearly every weekend although I did just give up alcohol for 40 days for lent!

    I am seeing no changes on my body and I still have body fat that I need to shift! Where am I going wrong?
    Help!!!

    Hi there (I'm trying to start off by being nice, this is difficult for me),

    I'm just going to cover some key points here:

    1) You can't spot reduce where the fat comes off your body, you can only reduce it in general and eventually everything evens itself out.

    2) Quantity of gym sessions isn't as important as quality, in fact the better your gym sessions are generally the less time you need to spend there. But going there almost every day isn't a negative, just a thought.

    3) Sugar intake is irrelevant, macros intake is vital. You need to figure out how many carbs, fats and protein your body needs to function efficiently to burn fat. Eating 'sensibly' is overly vague, you need to know exactly how much of everything you are taking in. A calorie deficit is key, also eating plenty of fibre and drinking lots of water helps your body to...shift things.

    4) The alcohol will more than likely be having a negative impact, it does tend to have a lot of calories for zero nutritional value. I'm not saying give it up, but you may need to moderate your intake.

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