When you made the decision to stop focus in lbs and moved to losing fat

raven56706
raven56706 Posts: 918 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Curious to hear your stories on this. I'm currently on a Macro recommended for an intense workout.

So far i am 190 and looking to lose 10 lbs. Just dont know if i should focus so much on the lbs and focus more on the fat. But unsure if there is a certain time to work on this.
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Replies

  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,025 Member
    I think you'd need expensive scans to be sure just how much actual fat you're losing. The body will always slightly vary a few pounds based on water weight, how much food you have in your system, etc. If you're wanting to shed fat to tone or reveal muscle, you may want to look into recomp which is slightly different from straight weight loss.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,486 Member
    edited May 2018
    How do you feel about your progress and the way you look and feel in the mirror, in your clothes etc. Is 10 pounds going to get you to your desired goal?

    I stopped 6 pounds shy of my goal weight as I was still retaining higher body fat and was getting under muscled and dropping more pounds was only going to exacerbate that. I weigh more now than the weight I stopped at so I have more than shifted focus from scale weight to other things like gym performance, my running and building/maintaining muscle, etc..

    There is no time frame unless you set one. You could recomp (add in a tiny deficit if you want) and carry on meeting your goal.
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,158 Member
    I guess I got to a point where it was less about the what the scale said and more about how I looked and felt? So it wasn't a question of pounds vs. fat but scale weight vs. appearance and fitness.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,811 Member
    Do you mean work on body composition? I think if you start to get close to your goal weight and aren't seeing the progress you hoped for, it might be time to think about focusing more on lifting and muscle retention for those last 10lbs or recomposition depending your situation.

    I would say as soon as I started lifting my focus shifted away from the scale to focusing on muscle retention and building. Since I am closer to my aesthetic goal, I focus on other measures of progress. I use the scale to tell me if I am losing, maintaining or gaining. The number itself really doesn't mean much to me anymore.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    Shouldn't we start out focusing on fat and not just lbs? I don't know many people who really want to lose muscle, right?
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    briscogun wrote: »
    I guess I got to a point where it was less about the what the scale said and more about how I looked and felt? So it wasn't a question of pounds vs. fat but scale weight vs. appearance and fitness.

    Again, I think it's better to start with focusing on the appearance than on the number on the scale. No one sees the number but you.
  • raven56706
    raven56706 Posts: 918 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    raven56706 wrote: »
    Curious to hear your stories on this. I'm currently on a Macro recommended for an intense workout.

    So far i am 190 and looking to lose 10 lbs. Just dont know if i should focus so much on the lbs and focus more on the fat. But unsure if there is a certain time to work on this.

    You worry a lot, don't you? All of your posts seem to be about the minutia. Trust the process.

    well thats just the thing. Right now my focus is getting to 180lbs. Once i get there, i want to switch to weights more.

    Right now i am doing the following:


    Weights: 2 times a week. one day of full upper body and another day for legs

    Cardio: 6 days of 60 minutes on my Peloton Bike.

    Its just for me, just unsure if now is a better time to switch or whatever. And no i am not a worry nugget so much. Its just i want to make sure I'm not fighting a stagnant battle.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    raven56706 wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    raven56706 wrote: »
    Curious to hear your stories on this. I'm currently on a Macro recommended for an intense workout.

    So far i am 190 and looking to lose 10 lbs. Just dont know if i should focus so much on the lbs and focus more on the fat. But unsure if there is a certain time to work on this.

    You worry a lot, don't you? All of your posts seem to be about the minutia. Trust the process.

    well thats just the thing. Right now my focus is getting to 180lbs. Once i get there, i want to switch to weights more.

    Right now i am doing the following:


    Weights: 2 times a week. one day of full upper body and another day for legs

    Cardio: 6 days of 60 minutes on my Peloton Bike.

    Its just for me, just unsure if now is a better time to switch or whatever. And no i am not a worry nugget so much. Its just i want to make sure I'm not fighting a stagnant battle.

    What changes at 180 pounds that makes it the time to focus on weights more?
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    raven56706 wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    raven56706 wrote: »
    Curious to hear your stories on this. I'm currently on a Macro recommended for an intense workout.

    So far i am 190 and looking to lose 10 lbs. Just dont know if i should focus so much on the lbs and focus more on the fat. But unsure if there is a certain time to work on this.

    You worry a lot, don't you? All of your posts seem to be about the minutia. Trust the process.

    well thats just the thing. Right now my focus is getting to 180lbs. Once i get there, i want to switch to weights more.

    Right now i am doing the following:


    Weights: 2 times a week. one day of full upper body and another day for legs

    Cardio: 6 days of 60 minutes on my Peloton Bike.

    Its just for me, just unsure if now is a better time to switch or whatever. And no i am not a worry nugget so much. Its just i want to make sure I'm not fighting a stagnant battle.

    But we've answered that before, right? Lift now. Lift yesterday, actually.

    SO MUCH THIS!! Yesterday is the best day to start a good progressive strength program, Today is almost as good. But tomorrow? That's a bad idea.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    For me the mindset switch came when I'd gained back up into the mid 170s after getting down to <160lbs for our wedding. I knew I could get back down to that weight but I didn't appreciably like how I looked there versus at 15lbs fatter and knew I needed to do something different if I really wanted to like how I looked in the mirror. So, at 26 I started lifting and got hooked. Like @stanmann571 and @quiksylver296 said, don't hold off until you hit a certain weight to start lifting, I wish I'd started years earlier.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    For me the mindset switch came when I'd gained back up into the mid 170s after getting down to <160lbs for our wedding. I knew I could get back down to that weight but I didn't appreciably like how I looked there versus at 15lbs fatter and knew I needed to do something different if I really wanted to like how I looked in the mirror. So, at 26 I started lifting and got hooked. Like @stanmann571 and @quiksylver296 said, don't hold off until you hit a certain weight to start lifting, I wish I'd started years earlier.

    Same.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited May 2018
    I went into maintenance 18 months ago at 160# and 16% BF. My weight/BF% in Mar dropped to 155# and 8%. BF% was measured by hydostatic testing which I do quarterly.

    This was only a 5# weight loss over all but about a 12# loss in BF weight and a 7# gain in LBM. So, there was a "recomp" of 7# (BF to LBM) and a pure fat loss of 5#.

    Of course, there was a lot that went into doing this in terms of diet and exercise.

    I ate and continue to eat a relatively high protein diet averaging 1g protein per day.

    I lifted heavy 3-5x/wk doing ONLY the 4 main compound lifts and the 3 main upper BW exercises to maintain/build LBM during the 1st 12 months.

    And in the last 6 months, I reduced the lifting in days/reps/wt and rowed 10k meters/day at a moderate endurance based pace for an hr/day to burn cals in order eat more & increase protein and other nutritional intake by about 550 cals/day.

    Don't know and can't say if this will work for anyone else. This is just what worked for me.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Set your goal to lose 0.5-1 lb/week, get adequate protein, and take part in a progressive lifting program. If you only lift 2 days/week I would suggest 2 full body days. check out stronglifts 5x5 and do it 2 days a week instead of the perscribed 3 days. Or reduce cadio to 3-4 days a seek and follow the program as designed.

    Are you training for a biking event? If so, keep that up and do the 2 day full body, if you are not training for an even, you may want to reduce cadio and increase strength to 3 times a week full body.
  • raven56706
    raven56706 Posts: 918 Member
    erickirb wrote: »
    Set your goal to lose 0.5-1 lb/week, get adequate protein, and take part in a progressive lifting program. If you only lift 2 days/week I would suggest 2 full body days. check out stronglifts 5x5 and do it 2 days a week instead of the perscribed 3 days. Or reduce cadio to 3-4 days a seek and follow the program as designed.

    Are you training for a biking event? If so, keep that up and do the 2 day full body, if you are not training for an even, you may want to reduce cadio and increase strength to 3 times a week full body.

    nope just like riding my spin bike. Sorry if my stuff wasn't clear. Yes i only do 2 days of weights. 1 day is upper body and second day is lower body.

    to follow this style of method, do i just use IIFYM to calculate my macros or is there an even better one?
  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
    One day, I just realized that a number on the scale is so arbitrary and has nothing to do with how fit I am. So, I want to get fit, whatever weight that is.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    Just make sure it isn't a cop out - giving up on a weight goal because it's hard and then using inexact methods to measure BF% with less frequency. One reason to use weight is that nearly everyone has a device at home to measure it with reasonable accuracy and consistency. The BF% on scales or handheld devices are a joke.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    I made the decision to focus on fat and muscle and not lbs from the beginning. Lbs could be anything. Water, muscle, bone mass or fat. A training program that develops or keeps muscle mass and a reduction in body fat are obviously best IMHO. If you like to ride, ride. But don't short change yourself on muscle mass.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    raven56706 wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    Set your goal to lose 0.5-1 lb/week, get adequate protein, and take part in a progressive lifting program. If you only lift 2 days/week I would suggest 2 full body days. check out stronglifts 5x5 and do it 2 days a week instead of the perscribed 3 days. Or reduce cadio to 3-4 days a seek and follow the program as designed.

    Are you training for a biking event? If so, keep that up and do the 2 day full body, if you are not training for an even, you may want to reduce cadio and increase strength to 3 times a week full body.

    nope just like riding my spin bike. Sorry if my stuff wasn't clear. Yes i only do 2 days of weights. 1 day is upper body and second day is lower body.

    to follow this style of method, do i just use IIFYM to calculate my macros or is there an even better one?

    I always concentrated on fat loss rather than just weight loss.
    In fact I would have been happy to stay the same (over) weight if I could have added 30lbs of muscle instead of losing weight but that wasn't feasible.

    I doubt you are achieving anything useful with your odd choice of a 2 day split. Fiddling about with macros when your training is woefully inadequate is focusing on the wrong area completely. Your diet supports your training and it's your training you should fix first.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    If you're just doing two days make them both full body so you are hitting all the muscle groups twice a week.
  • andreascjonsson
    andreascjonsson Posts: 433 Member
    Ive always been more focused on fat but i take weight in consideration too and lastly i measure myself. I think everything togheter makes for a good standpoint on how my bulk/cut is going.
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