Gaining only in my belly???

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magsoh19
magsoh19 Posts: 2 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hello. I have finally got a personal trainer the past few months and he has been trying to grow my booty and legs because I have lower back weakness. Now I probably have the flattest booty you have ever seen on a girl so I am not expecting to actual grow one. Anyways he upped my calories to 1900 a day 3 weeks ago with basically nothing but hard core weight training. Since then I have not gained weight on the scale but I have my belly flab now than I did after I had my second son. I am not afraid of gaining a little weight but the weight isn't the case I am literally gaining it all in my belly. Any suggestions? BTW I am 33 years old, 5'6", now 137 pounds I workout 4-5 days a week weight lifting with maybe 1 HIIT day, and I always hit about 10K to 11K steps a day. I was eating about 1400 calories a day and maintain but always hungry. Thanks again.

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  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
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    where you put weight on is entirely genetic, same as how and where the fat will come off.

    It sounds like your trainer is trying to give you a calorie surplus to build muscle through a recomp or bulk. Generally this is going to give you a bit of fat that you will have to work off at the end to reveal the newly gained muscle.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    You're sure it's fat and not a "food baby"? (Silly question, I know, but it has to be asked.)

    It would be very unusual for a woman of your height to maintain her weight on 1400 calories/day when working out and getting 10K steps/day. I'd double check the accuracy of your logging. The usual things to check: that everything is being logged (including drinks, sugar/cream/milk in coffee, "tastes" when cooking or off other people's plates), that solids are being weighed not eyeballed or measured with cups, that the right entries are being chosen from the database (some are wildly wrong - I looked for grilled salmon the other day and the highest calorie option had three times the calories of the lowest calorie option!). If you were underestimating your intake when you were maintaining at "1400", you are probably also underestimating your intake when eating "1900". I'm not saying that's definitely the problem, but it's likely.

    As for the "it's all on the stomach" part, I can't help there. The body gains fat wherever it wants and it loses it wherever it wants. If I could make my body selectively take fat off my stomach, I'd be a very happy woman!
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    edited June 2017
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    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    where you put weight on is entirely genetic, same as how and where the fat will come off.

    It sounds like your trainer is trying to give you a calorie surplus to build muscle through a recomp or bulk. Generally this is going to give you a bit of fat that you will have to work off at the end to reveal the newly gained muscle.

    a recomp is done while eating at maintenance so you should not gain weight/fat eating your maintenance calories. you lose fat doing a recomp not gain it. if you are you are eating in a surplus which would be considered a bulk.
  • heatheranna2016
    heatheranna2016 Posts: 3 Member
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    Have you incorporated natural probiotics into your diet? It might help!
  • mlinci
    mlinci Posts: 403 Member
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    I also wonder if your numbers are off? We have similar stats, I'm 5'5.5 and 139 lbs and I walk about 11,000 steps a day - my maintenance is just over 2000 calories. I'm also older than you at 41.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited June 2017
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    heatheranna2016 wrote: »
    Have you incorporated natural probiotics into your diet? It might help!

    Probiotics do not offer any help for where fat is gained on your body. They could possibly be helpful if the culprit was just gastric bloating, but they do not affect fat partitioning. As others have already said, where you gain fat is determined by your genetics. And for many people, the midsection/belly is the first place it goes on and last place it comes off.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Could be you're just freaking out about eating more calories and maybe imagining the belly fat.

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    With those stats there's something not right if you maintain on 1400 cals.
  • its_me_april
    its_me_april Posts: 57 Member
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    It may have been a bit too big a jump for your body (from 1400 calories / day to 1900). Give your body time to regulate and get accustomed to the higher calories. You could also be holding on to water if you are new to weightlifting. Are you eating a lot of salt or much higher carbs than you were eating? That can also cause bloat / water retention. I say give it another month at least, your body should adjust and hopefully let go of some of what is most likely water weight. Good luck
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    As posted on your other thread, there's something not right if 1400 is maintenance given your stats.
  • SLLeask
    SLLeask Posts: 489 Member
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    Could you be pregnant..? that'll cause your belly to grow!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,397 MFP Moderator
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    So you have upped calories and not gained weight. Then its not fat. If you increased carbs, it might be added glycogen but you also had fat loss if weight didnt change. Also, there might some inflammation from lifting. Or its perception. Its possible you are seeing improvement in other areas which make your stomach look worse.
  • Candyb38
    Candyb38 Posts: 44 Member
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    I have noticed that if I do a lot of ab work my stomach gets that bloated look for a few days. It could be that.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
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    Good news is you went from 1400 to 1900 calories and have not gained any weight in 3 weeks. That means that your maintenance calories are higher than you thought. If your goal is to increase muscle I would expect your trainer to increase your calories until you are slowing gaining. I wouldn't worry about the belly flap for now, fact is you're not gaining weight therefore you're not gaining fat.

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