Having trouble losing (lower) stomach fat

2

Replies

  • alpear
    alpear Posts: 19 Member
    Please talk to your doctor or a nutritionist about healthy weight loss. 500-1200 calories is extremely unhealthy. You are starving your body and can do damage.
  • annabel92
    annabel92 Posts: 77 Member
    Please up your amount :(

    You may feel fine now, but eating 500 calories a day can cause side effects such as hair loss, nausea, fatigue etc., and more serious issues such as brain hemorrhage and strokes.

    Stay safe!

  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    alpear wrote: »
    Please talk to your doctor or a nutritionist about healthy weight loss. 500-1200 calories is extremely unhealthy. You are starving your body and can do damage.

    Will do damage *

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Eva_M97 wrote: »
    Eva_M97 wrote: »
    malibu927 wrote: »
    The fat will come off from some places later than others. For you, it sounds like that will be the stomach. Just keep doing what you've been and it will happen.

    That 500-1200, is that your deficit per day or the calories you're consuming?

    The calories I'm consuming, sorry for the confusion. So it looks like I'm just being too impatient :/

    you're massively under eating

    But I don't feel weak or anything? I mean how would I be out there runnning around every morning after 3 and half weeks if I was undereating that much ? And I do feel myself getting stronger and having better endurance.

    Hun, you need to eat more! Your body needs food, especially for the activity you're doing. You can only lose so much body fat in a day and the rest is muscles and other useful stuff. You don't want to lose muscles as they keep you not only lean, but also prevent osteoporosis and other bad things. Btw, your heart is a muscle too. You don't want to burn energy out of THAT muscle.

    OP, did you read this? When you lose weight, you lose some fat and some lean muscle mass (everyone does). When you under eat, you lose more of your lean muscle mass in proportion to fat. *You don't want to do this!* It's incredibly hard to rebuild. Please stop saying you feel fine... the damage is being done regardless.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,373 MFP Moderator
    Eva_M97 wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    Massively under eating and over training is going to be a recipe for disaster. It will likely cause your body to lose more muscle (which means you aren't losing as much body fat); cutting body fat and maintaining muscle is what makes people look lean. Excessive calorie cuts can lead to a host of issues; hair loss, skin issues, gallbladder issues, etc.... Also, why are you doing cardio 7 days a week while lifting 5 days? What are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? What would you like out of exercise?

    :/ wow sounds bad but I don't feel bad? In the beginning goal was to lose weight , but now I'm also looking to start running, in my strength workouts i mainly do legs and some core training to support my running goals. Atm I can jog/run about 20min straight, which isn't much but a lot more than the 1 minute I could struggle to jog when I started.

    Issues take time and you may not even feel all of the effects. You won't know if you are losing muscle, but without adequate protein and resistance training, you are bound to increase the loss over normal rates (muscle is correlated to metabolism, leanness and strength; it also prevents things like osteoporosis.

    I'd recommend that you follow a structure lifting routine. Since you like lower body focus, something like strong curves (It's a 3x full body routine). By following a structured program will prevent muscle imbalances and you will see greater improvements in shorter periods of time.
  • xylia1225
    xylia1225 Posts: 15 Member
    That 1200 calories estimated by MFP is the BARE MINIMUM your body needs to continue functioning normally if you do literally nothing but sit and breathe all day. If you eat less than that, your body starts to break down, decrease its metabolism, etc. It's going into starvation mode, trying to be more efficient (a bad thing for bodies to do, even though we usually think of "efficient" as a positive word). You may feel fine for now, but you're doing damage to your body.

    Please consult a doctor, registered dietitian, or some other qualified professional to assess a HEALTHY fitness and nutrition plan for you.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,292 Member
    You should not have said how much you eat on here. If someone says they do something unhealthy on here then the thread will get derailed from the original point.
    As for your actual question the fat comes off from all over your body and there is no way to control the places that you lose it. So long as the number on the scale is lower than when you started then you are losing weight and eventually you will lose the fat from around your waist.

    This may be true... but a large % of loss will come from fat with a smaller deficit. OP, get adequate protein, eat enought (set your goal to lose 2 lbs/week if you have 75 lbs to lose, 1.5 if 50-75, 1 if 15-50, and 0.5 if 10 or less) eat some exercise calories back, and do some strength training to help retain muscle so most of your loss comes from fat.
  • jennit1801
    jennit1801 Posts: 14 Member
    I agree with the above comments about undereating. Eat more of the good stuff -- veggies, healthy fats and lean protein. Eat small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved up too!
  • Sunna_W
    Sunna_W Posts: 744 Member
    You are running on adrenaline - and you are at risk for a serious crash.

    Think about it in these terms: What if you woke up one day and life as you knew it was over, due to some natural or man made disaster? Food was scarce and you were forced to do heavy labor or flee for your life. This is what your body is doing right now. It's working and you "feel just fine" because your body is designed to do this in "survival mode". This is not a tenable, long term solution for weight loss. Eventually, your body will turn on you and will begin to hold on to each and every calorie and weight loss will cease and in some cases reverse.

    There are a lot of hormones that work in concert to keep you functioning. https://www.yourhormones.com/homeostasis-systems/

    When you restrict food the body can only compensate for a short period of time before things start to break down.
    https://www.katheats.com/is-adrenal-fatigue-making-you-fat
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    Basically at that level of cals you're going to lose muscle, it depends, do you want to lose weight regardless to get a number on the scale, or lose fat, get healthy and look good in the mirror, seriously if the answer is the former you may as well chop off a leg it's the same thing, basically damaging your body for an arbitrary scale number as fast as you can. If you want a healthy body you need to fuel your burns and slow down your loss. Take care hun and please take the advice given, people aren't trying to sabotage you they're trying to stop you from hurting yourself. xxx
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    You should not have said how much you eat on here. If someone says they do something unhealthy on here then the thread will get derailed from the original point.
    As for your actual question the fat comes off from all over your body and there is no way to control the places that you lose it. So long as the number on the scale is lower than when you started then you are losing weight and eventually you will lose the fat from around your waist.

    The thing is people need to know the information of why someone isn't succeeding otherwise any advice is pointless, if someones doing something unhealthy chances are that's why they're not getting the body they desire. x
  • princeofmind
    princeofmind Posts: 95 Member
    Sunna_W wrote: »
    You are running on adrenaline - and you are at risk for a serious crash.

    Think about it in these terms: What if you woke up one day and life as you knew it was over, due to some natural or man made disaster? Food was scarce and you were forced to do heavy labor or flee for your life. This is what your body is doing right now. It's working and you "feel just fine" because your body is designed to do this in "survival mode". This is not a tenable, long term solution for weight loss. Eventually, your body will turn on you and will begin to hold on to each and every calorie and weight loss will cease and in some cases reverse.

    There are a lot of hormones that work in concert to keep you functioning. https://www.yourhormones.com/homeostasis-systems/

    When you restrict food the body can only compensate for a short period of time before things start to break down.
    https://www.katheats.com/is-adrenal-fatigue-making-you-fat

    The last part you said about the body stopping to lose weight or even gain it is just not true.
    If you're saying that 500 calories a day is not enough to maintain function then how can a person gain weight from it? Weight loss wont stop at all. If a person keeps eating that much they will lose weight until they have nothing left to lose and then die.
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    Eva_M97 wrote: »
    Savyna wrote: »
    From my experience I felt horrible after 5 days of eating about 300-600 calories (a long time ago when I was afraid to eat and thought 1200 was too much). I was in college and just felt like death on that 4th night. I don't understand how someone could eat as little as you say you are, workout as much as you say you are and feel perfectly fine.

    Unless you are weighing everything with a food scale I believe you're eating much more than you think you are. You don't have to eat so little to lose weight; that was the best thing I learned this time around. I'm much more happier and healthier (mentally and physically) realizing that.

    There might be differences between people on this ? Maybe it's about getting the right macronutrients

    no - it doesn't work like that. the whole point is you CANNOT get your macros (or micros) without eating enough calories.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
    Sunna_W wrote: »
    You are running on adrenaline - and you are at risk for a serious crash.

    Think about it in these terms: What if you woke up one day and life as you knew it was over, due to some natural or man made disaster? Food was scarce and you were forced to do heavy labor or flee for your life. This is what your body is doing right now. It's working and you "feel just fine" because your body is designed to do this in "survival mode". This is not a tenable, long term solution for weight loss. Eventually, your body will turn on you and will begin to hold on to each and every calorie and weight loss will cease and in some cases reverse.

    There are a lot of hormones that work in concert to keep you functioning. https://www.yourhormones.com/homeostasis-systems/

    When you restrict food the body can only compensate for a short period of time before things start to break down.
    https://www.katheats.com/is-adrenal-fatigue-making-you-fat

    The last part you said about the body stopping to lose weight or even gain it is just not true.
    If you're saying that 500 calories a day is not enough to maintain function then how can a person gain weight from it? Weight loss wont stop at all. If a person keeps eating that much they will lose weight until they have nothing left to lose and then die.

    Water weight doesn't take calories.

    Look at the distended stomachs of famine victims. They're maintaining a certain weight, but continuing to lose muscle and bone and hair.

    Metabolic damage is real. There are phases of starvation... and one of them involves regaining some of the lost weight.
  • princeofmind
    princeofmind Posts: 95 Member
    Sunna_W wrote: »
    You are running on adrenaline - and you are at risk for a serious crash.

    Think about it in these terms: What if you woke up one day and life as you knew it was over, due to some natural or man made disaster? Food was scarce and you were forced to do heavy labor or flee for your life. This is what your body is doing right now. It's working and you "feel just fine" because your body is designed to do this in "survival mode". This is not a tenable, long term solution for weight loss. Eventually, your body will turn on you and will begin to hold on to each and every calorie and weight loss will cease and in some cases reverse.

    There are a lot of hormones that work in concert to keep you functioning. https://www.yourhormones.com/homeostasis-systems/

    When you restrict food the body can only compensate for a short period of time before things start to break down.
    https://www.katheats.com/is-adrenal-fatigue-making-you-fat

    The last part you said about the body stopping to lose weight or even gain it is just not true.
    If you're saying that 500 calories a day is not enough to maintain function then how can a person gain weight from it? Weight loss wont stop at all. If a person keeps eating that much they will lose weight until they have nothing left to lose and then die.

    Water weight doesn't take calories.

    Look at the distended stomachs of famine victims. They're maintaining a certain weight, but continuing to lose muscle and bone and hair.

    Metabolic damage is real. There are phases of starvation... and one of them involves regaining some of the lost weight.

    Look at people with anorexia.
    And if you're on about the "pot belly" seen sometimes on starving people in Africa from what I found the reason is "A “pot-belly” develops because of lax abdominal muscles and, in some cases, an enlarged liver."
  • Eva_M97
    Eva_M97 Posts: 49 Member
    jennit1801 wrote: »
    I agree with the above comments about undereating. Eat more of the good stuff -- veggies, healthy fats and lean protein. Eat small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved up too!

    I will reevaluate my diet, I know I keep saying I feel normal since I'm not hungry during the day and get the feeling of a full stomach after a meal but as some said that might just be bc my body is used to it and goes into "starvation mode"? I don't really know how much more can I eat but maybe a little by little by increasing the portion size, id still like to keep the carbs low like 20-30g per day , and I'm kinda concerned about the fats :/ but I guess I can increase them a little bit and protein ofc. anyway, thanks
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    Eva_M97 wrote: »
    jennit1801 wrote: »
    I agree with the above comments about undereating. Eat more of the good stuff -- veggies, healthy fats and lean protein. Eat small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved up too!

    I will reevaluate my diet, I know I keep saying I feel normal since I'm not hungry during the day and get the feeling of a full stomach after a meal but as some said that might just be bc my body is used to it and goes into "starvation mode"? I don't really know how much more can I eat but maybe a little by little by increasing the portion size, id still like to keep the carbs low like 20-30g per day , and I'm kinda concerned about the fats :/ but I guess I can increase them a little bit and protein ofc. anyway, thanks

    what you are doing here is not "starvation mode" - it is simply starvation.