Help on losing fat

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GaijinAdrian
GaijinAdrian Posts: 47 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I spent this year trying to lose fat and have not succeeded. It's mostly fat around my abdomen, love handles and a bit on my legs. I ran 4 times a week and I had a good diet yet I didn't lose anything at all. Quite the opposite, I gained ten pounds in 2015 but the thing is my clothes still fit so I don't know where the extra ten pounds went. I want to begin 2016 with the goal of losing fat but I don't know what to do since running didn't work for me.
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  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    It's not that running didn't work for you, it's that you didn't eat at a calorie deficit. It doesn't matter how "good" your diet is; you have to eat at a calorie deficit to lose weight. Also, running four times per week isn't really that much if the rest of your day is spent sedentary. It's very easy to undo any deficit you may have built from running if that was the case. Exercise is great for you, but your calories in versus calories out are going to be the biggest components of your weight loss.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    A good diet doesn't always = weight loss. Eating in a deficit = weight loss. In order to lose weight, you should focus more on how MUCH you're eating. Exercise is for physical fitness, tho it does provide some padding for your deficit.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Please read the sticky posts at the top of each MFP forum. They will give you lots of info on where to start and how to progress. Running is not one of the suggestions for fat loss, although it will help with your fitness.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    losing weight starts in the kitchen. .
  • Aziiz69
    Aziiz69 Posts: 4 Member
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    Try intermittent fasting
  • GaijinAdrian
    GaijinAdrian Posts: 47 Member
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    That's just it! I've eaten at a calorie deficit and it didn't work
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    That's just it! I've eaten at a calorie deficit and it didn't work

    Then you weren't in the deficit you thought you were. How were you tracking your food? Did you eat back exercise calories?
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
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    How where you tracking to determine if you where at a deficit ? Where you using a food scale ?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    1. are you logging everything you eat?
    2. are you eating back 100% of exercise calories?
    3. do you use a food scale?
    4. are you using correct MFP database entries?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    That's just it! I've eaten at a calorie deficit and it didn't work

    no, you were not in a calorie deficit if you gained ten pounds.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    Aziiz69 wrote: »
    Try intermittent fasting eating in a calorie defict

    fixed it for you.

    IF is just a tool to get into a deficit. If you do IF and are not in a deficit then you will not lose weight.
  • GaijinAdrian
    GaijinAdrian Posts: 47 Member
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    I logged everything here on mfp and I ate back only half my exercise calories. In not sure what else I can do beyond this. It's what everyone does isn't it?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    I logged everything here on mfp and I ate back only half my exercise calories. In not sure what else I can do beyond this. It's what everyone does isn't it?

    do you use a food scale?

    are you using correct MFP database entires?
  • ultrahoon
    ultrahoon Posts: 467 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    That's just it! I've eaten at a calorie deficit and it didn't work

    Then you weren't really in a deficit. It is literally impossible to eat in a deficit for a year and not lose weight.

    Open up your diary, eliminate generic entries 'medium' sized things, stop using measuring cups and switch to scales, be tight with your logging, and the weight will come off.
  • GaijinAdrian
    GaijinAdrian Posts: 47 Member
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    No I don't use a food scale And I read the post about correct entries so thanks for the tip. I mostly measured my food in cups and all but never by weight.
  • ultrahoon
    ultrahoon Posts: 467 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    No I don't use a food scale And I read the post about correct entries so thanks for the tip. I mostly measured my food in cups and all but never by weight.

    This would be the first place to look at then, good that you're open to it! Human beings are generally quite bad at estimates, so for most of us, switching to using a food scale is quite eye opening.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    I logged everything here on mfp and I ate back only half my exercise calories. In not sure what else I can do beyond this. It's what everyone does isn't it?

    If you logged everything accurately (including exercise) and ate back 50% of exercise calories, then you could have your activity level set to high. If your activity level is set to sedentary, then you probably aren't logging accurately.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    No I don't use a food scale And I read the post about correct entries so thanks for the tip. I mostly measured my food in cups and all but never by weight.

    that is your problem right there.

    cups and eyeballing can be off by as much as 30 to 50% on the high side. Assuming a 30% error rate on a 2000 calorie diet would mean that you would be off by 600 calories a day, or 4200 a week.

    get a food scale and weigh everything for three weeks and see what happens.
  • xllcasper
    xllcasper Posts: 1 Member
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    Try intermittent fasting it's easy and convenient you fast for 16 hours and eat all your calorie in 8 hour window i have lost 2 kg in a week give it a try
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    GaijinAdrian wrote: »
    No I don't use a food scale And I read the post about correct entries so thanks for the tip. I mostly measured my food in cups and all but never by weight.

    They only cost £10, they aren't expensive and are eye opening.

    As an example I just ate a sausage meat stuffing ball at lunch time. It said it was 250 calories and 50g in weight. It weighed 57g. So that was 35 calories in just that one part of the meal.
    Slices of bread I find are always way over what they should be as well.

    It sounds like you've found your answer. It would be good if you can update with how you are getting on :)

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