Advice body fat reduction
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alexsusanu
Posts: 20 Member
Hello to all,
Would like some advice please about body fat and abs. Started to log in MFP and changed my diet since beginning of January this year (32 days to be precise).
I dont feel Im seeing any reduction in body fat and kinda pisses me off. I can feel my belly is a bit more flatten but still a lot of fat (I think Im at 22% body fat). Any type of advice is much appreciated, to see if Im going in the right direction or not.
Will attach two pics from day 1 and from day 30.
My calorie intake is 2400 per day, set to lose 0.5kg per week. Doing 5x5 program, 3 times a week.
Would like some advice please about body fat and abs. Started to log in MFP and changed my diet since beginning of January this year (32 days to be precise).
I dont feel Im seeing any reduction in body fat and kinda pisses me off. I can feel my belly is a bit more flatten but still a lot of fat (I think Im at 22% body fat). Any type of advice is much appreciated, to see if Im going in the right direction or not.
Will attach two pics from day 1 and from day 30.
My calorie intake is 2400 per day, set to lose 0.5kg per week. Doing 5x5 program, 3 times a week.
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Replies
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Are you losing weight? If you're losing weight, you're reducing BF%.
At .5 Lbs per week, it's going to be a very slow reduction of BF. It's not an exact thing, but I estimate that I lose about 1% BF for every 2 Lbs more or less...so 10 Lbs to get a reduction of about 5%.1 -
Yes, I set to lose some weight.
I set it to 0.5kg a week because of the 5x5 program. If I set it to 1kg per week, I feel Im not getting enough calories/energy for the day, specially on the working out days.1 -
You can see a very visible difference between the two pics. However, I don't think you are even close to 22% even in your second picture. You look fluffier than I did when I started my cut and I was at a conservative 26% (maybe a tad higher, lol). Also, during the first month it is quite common that half if not more of any weight you have lost is simply water weight from glycogen depletion and reduction in carb intake.2
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Possible. That machine from gym I use for body fat sometimes throws up stupid numbers.
Any advice where I can tweak my diet or maybe gym workout?
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Just keep in a calorie deficit and keep protein at around .8g per lbs of lean body mass. If you are doing a 5x5 that focuses on compounds it will help prevent some muscle loss.1
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Visually you're starting at the above 25% range.
There is nothing wrong with your goals or exercise or *visible progress*.
Dude: it's only been a month! You're doing absolutely fine!6 -
alexsusanu wrote: »Possible. That machine from gym I use for body fat sometimes throws up stupid numbers.
Any advice where I can tweak my diet or maybe gym workout?
Personally, I think around .5kg a week is pretty solid weight loss (cwolfman confused your .5kg with lbs). You can try a slightly more aggressive deficit - but I'd be sure to keep protein relatively high but don't undershoot your fat macro - fill in whatever you have remaining with carbs. See how you feel, but if you start losing strength it may be a sign that you went too aggressive. The more fat you have to lose the more aggressive you can be with your deficit. However, the "safe" approach you will see talked about most is moderate loss of .5kg (1lb) a week.
Most people go through a certain phase where you will look worse before you look better. Basically a smaller version of what you started with... but honestly, you look much improved in the second pic.1 -
Yes doing the 5x5
At the moment I have proteins at 60%, carbs 20% and fat 20%. Which translates to 300 grams protein, 100-150 carbs, 100-150 fat; something like that.
Fat mostly fish, tuna.
Carbs mostly fruits and lately a bit of rice, sweet potatoes.1 -
Visually you're starting at the above 25% range.
There is nothing wrong with your goals or exercise or *visible progress*.
Dude: it's only been a month! You're doing absolutely fine!
Haha thanks. Im mostly ‘worried’ so to say because I was trying to lose body fat before as well but didnt work out.
Ok fair enough before was much my mistake because I was eating everything and thinking working out at the gym will solve it.
So Im looking to see if Im going in the right direction or tweaking here and there.
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Just keep in a calorie deficit and keep protein at around .8g per lbs of lean body mass. If you are doing a 5x5 that focuses on compounds it will help prevent some muscle loss.
Yes doing the 5x5
At the moment I have proteins at 60%, carbs 20% and fat 20%. Which translates to 300 grams protein, 100-150 carbs, 100-150 fat; something like that.
Fat mostly fish, tuna.
Carbs mostly fruits and lately a bit of rice, sweet potatoes.0 -
You're over-doing the protein to no particular benefit.
Anything over 150-175-200.... is already in the plenty range.
I would personally move the rest over to carbs... especially if I was timing them to fuel my exercise!1 -
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You're over-doing the protein to no particular benefit.
Anything over 150-175-200.... is already in the plenty range.
I would personally move the rest over to carbs... especially if I was timing them to fuel my exercise!
He's cutting. During a cut you need MORE protein than you would bulking or during maintenance.
"1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (2.2 g/kg of BW) per day has been a bodybuilding rule of thumb for decades. Higher levels of protein intake, usually in the range of 1.2 – 1.5 grams per pound of body weight (2.6 – 3.3 g/kg BW) per day, are commonly recommended when “cutting” to lose fat."
I agree, 300 is probably a bit high - but then again, he didn't mention how much he weighs.
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jseams1234 wrote: »You're over-doing the protein to no particular benefit.
Anything over 150-175-200.... is already in the plenty range.
I would personally move the rest over to carbs... especially if I was timing them to fuel my exercise!
He's cutting. During a cut you need MORE protein than you would bulking or during maintenance.
"1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (2.2 g/kg of BW) per day has been a bodybuilding rule of thumb for decades. Higher levels of protein intake, usually in the range of 1.2 – 1.5 grams per pound of body weight (2.6 – 3.3 g/kg BW) per day, are commonly recommended when “cutting” to lose fat."
I agree, 300 is probably a bit high - but then again, he didn't mention how much he weighs.
Im 90kg now (maybe 89kg, havent weighted myself for 10 days).
Started at 94kg about 33 days ago.0 -
He is also in the overfat/new lifter category so has sufficient body fat to tolerate the 500 Cal cut he is in which is not coming up to over 25% of his TDEE given that it appears his TDEE is estimated at 2900+
Furthermore, 1g per lb of LEAN MASS is more than 2x RDA and has very small difference from 3x RDA in terms of results when it comes to lean mass retention. I.e. you are REALLY hitting the margins by the extra protein you're proposing. At 90kg and 25% body fat 150g fulfills 1g per lb of lean mass.
Extra carbs before/after exercise are also anabolic and possibly help increase exercise performance (amount of work done during the session).
P.S. I didn't need to know how much he weights to know that 150g is generally speaking sufficient for most people. OK: you REALLY want to push it because MO-PRO, then eat up to 200... I'm easy.
But you may want to consider that a balanced diet usually trumps most unbalanced ones and treats are good too!4 -
He is also in the overfat/new lifter category so has sufficient body fat to tolerate the 500 Cal cut he is in which is not coming up to over 25% of his TDEE given that it appears his TDEE is estimated at 2900+
Furthermore, 1g per lb of LEAN MASS is more than 2x RDA and has very small difference from 3x RDA in terms of results when it comes to lean mass retention. I.e. you are REALLY hitting the margins by the extra protein you're proposing. At 90kg and 25% body fat 150g fulfills 1g per lb of lean mass.
Extra carbs before/after exercise are also anabolic and possibly help increase exercise performance (amount of work done during the session).
I see. Then I should start increasing carbs a bit and decrease proteins.
The only reason I decreased carbs so much and increased proteins was because: when I eat carbs I feel hmm fluffy, heavy. But that is most likely my fault eating bad carbs and/or not near the workout sessions.0 -
OP, I agree with the above. You have made clear progress in the above pics, but still have a way to go. I'd suggest taking measurements (eg hips, stomach, chest) as another way of tracking your progress, that way you can see some form of improvement through either visual differences, weight loss or decrease in size.
I have personally found that progress through any of these metrics is enough to hang on to when searching for motivation to push through a tough point in the diet.
Keep going as you are, and when your weight stalls out for a week or two, then reduce calories by 100 per day, or add in a little cardio a couple of times a week. I'm sure you'll get lean in no time
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OP, I agree with the above. You have made clear progress in the above pics, but still have a way to go. I'd suggest taking measurements (eg hips, stomach, chest) as another way of tracking your progress, that way you can see some form of improvement through either visual differences, weight loss or decrease in size.
I have personally found that progress through any of these metrics is enough to hang on to when searching for motivation to push through a tough point in the diet.
Keep going as you are, and when your weight stalls out for a week or two, then reduce calories by 100 per day, or add in a little cardio a couple of times a week. I'm sure you'll get lean in no time
thanks. Do you think 100 calories a day deficit would be sufficient in that case ?
Gotta take measurements manually.
Dont want to rush much, but how long do you reckon would take me to see the abs somewhat defined ?
Not expecting 3 months but having a date of some sort makes me wanna push it more0 -
jseams1234 wrote: »You're over-doing the protein to no particular benefit.
Anything over 150-175-200.... is already in the plenty range.
I would personally move the rest over to carbs... especially if I was timing them to fuel my exercise!
He's cutting. During a cut you need MORE protein than you would bulking or during maintenance.
"1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (2.2 g/kg of BW) per day has been a bodybuilding rule of thumb for decades. Higher levels of protein intake, usually in the range of 1.2 – 1.5 grams per pound of body weight (2.6 – 3.3 g/kg BW) per day, are commonly recommended when “cutting” to lose fat."
I agree, 300 is probably a bit high - but then again, he didn't mention how much he weighs.
I have seen no evidence that this is true, it's just bro science as far as I can tell. You might have a slight increase in protein requirements, but I have yet to see research that suggests that any of us here actually need the .8g/lb level let alone beyond that. The basic point is that a person who is completely sedentary requires .4g/lb each day for replenishment and the most we can increase protein synthesis to is double that i.e. .8g/lb. Thoughts are that beyond that level might help the immune system in ways that we haven't detected yet but are not useful for skeletal muscle synthesis or replenishment.
Now, is it a problem going to 1g/lb or even 1.5g/lb? No, unless you have some medical condition, but it's not necessary to shoot for. I was able to maintain over 90% of my muscle on a rapid cut on far less than .8g.lb on a previous cut.7 -
Visually you're starting at the above 25% range.
There is nothing wrong with your goals or exercise or *visible progress*.
Dude: it's only been a month! You're doing absolutely fine!
This^! C'mon man. We're talking 32 days. Reducing body fat is a long term project. The progress is not going to be earth shattering in 32 days.4
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