Need some tips/advice on diet and losing belly and waistline fat
boco77
Posts: 7 Member
I’m male 39, 5ft 8 and weigh 166lbs which at the moment is borderline overweight for my stats I think. My goal is to be about 145-150lbs which is a healthy weight for me acccording to my stats and bmi.
Anyway I’ve lost 24lbs since start of April. I lost similar amount a couple years ago but put it back on simply because I started eating bad foods again and started indulging and stop caring about my weight Lots of junk food, takeaways etc. I knew I gained as anyone would with the foods I ate.
So this year I decided to lose it again. However this time I’m planning to keep it off by just making permanent lifestyle changes. I can lose weight quite easily through willpower and mostly eating a calorie deficit and eating much healthier foods. Been losing around 1.5lbs a week which is a healthy balanced amount. I usually have between 1100-1300 calories a day and I can get by with this amount quite easily. Don’t feel hungry if I eat certain foods at the correct times. I’m pretty much intermittent fasting if I didn’t have green tea in the mornings. But this method works for me personally.
I definitely feel better losing weight not as tired, more energy etc too, but main problem I’m having trouble losing fat on my stomach and waist. It still sticks out and my waist on the sides of my stomach feel flabby still. I’m just wondering if I’ll ever lose from this region? Losing all this weight feels like it’s not making any difference in shrinking my stomach and waist line. Even if I reach my goal of 145-150lbs I’m worried I’ll still have a belly. I mean my goal is just over a stone away so I can’t see how my belly will go completely in the next 15-20lbs? If I dropped more than 145lbs I’d be underweight, But also I can’t remember when I was last below 160lbs so maybe I will lose that stomach fat at 145-150lbs? I can definitely fit into clothes better with my weight loss but I’d like to fit into my medium sized work shirts even better by not having my belly and waist stick out especially when sitting in the office lol.
I’ve never been a gym person until this year since April. So now I go to the gym about twice a week and do mostly treadmill for 20 min. I can do about 1 mile in 12:30 min with a heart rate of 155-160bpm according to Apple Watch. Not sure if that’s good but it’s improved since April where it used to be 16min to reach that distance. It may not seem like much but it’s better than nothing, I usually run about 1.5 mile total before I’m too knackered to do more but again this is an improvement because I could barely manage half a mile in April lol. Since last week I also added some light weights/resistance after running in reps of 10 about three times using the various resistance machines at the gym. That’s all I can manage right now. My arms were so sore the next few days after last week lol. I’m planning to go more to the gym too than just twice a week but it’s just finding the time.
Diet
I’ve never been a breakfast person so in the mornings I just have a green tea maccha to kick start the day (I put some stuff in it too that helps boost metabolism) the green tea comes to about 120 calories. I might have a couple of coffees or teas at work (no sugar semi skimmed milk).
Again I’m a light lunch eater and hate being full at work. At lunch I usually have a high fibre drink like this one to keep me from feeling hungry:
https://www.upandgo.co.uk/products/drinks/milk-chocolate/
I’m thinking of substituting this lunch drink and have Huel for lunch instead, but I really dont know if it would make any difference in the long term as they’re both fairly similar, Huel seems to have better ingredients but also has more calories.
When I get home I eat a pear or banana to keep me going until I make dinner around 7:30pm.
The dinner is my main meal of the day and usually consists of a chicken breast and veg, or cous cous and chicken, or salmon. Basically a healthy dinner that isn’t too processed. I steam my portions of veg and the chicken itself isn’t breaded or covered in that breaded crispy stuff it’s proper chicken with seasoning, e.g Cajun chicken breasts. I try to avoid breaded stuff but occasionally have cod fillets or toast on Fridays or weekends. Apart from takeouts I’ve cut out all extra salt and have no sauces in my foods. I’ve never been a sauce person tbh.
By doing the above I’ve managed to lose weight and continue losing it. It works. I’m not bored of the diet. I enjoy my evening meals. I consider what I eat as normal and not really a diet per se just a lifestyle change. I track everything in MFP. Obviously I have the occasional binge days once or twice a month where I will get a takeaway or eat out, but you gotta have these and indulge and enjoy those cravings too sometimes.
My only problem is belly fat and waist really.
Anyway I’ve lost 24lbs since start of April. I lost similar amount a couple years ago but put it back on simply because I started eating bad foods again and started indulging and stop caring about my weight Lots of junk food, takeaways etc. I knew I gained as anyone would with the foods I ate.
So this year I decided to lose it again. However this time I’m planning to keep it off by just making permanent lifestyle changes. I can lose weight quite easily through willpower and mostly eating a calorie deficit and eating much healthier foods. Been losing around 1.5lbs a week which is a healthy balanced amount. I usually have between 1100-1300 calories a day and I can get by with this amount quite easily. Don’t feel hungry if I eat certain foods at the correct times. I’m pretty much intermittent fasting if I didn’t have green tea in the mornings. But this method works for me personally.
I definitely feel better losing weight not as tired, more energy etc too, but main problem I’m having trouble losing fat on my stomach and waist. It still sticks out and my waist on the sides of my stomach feel flabby still. I’m just wondering if I’ll ever lose from this region? Losing all this weight feels like it’s not making any difference in shrinking my stomach and waist line. Even if I reach my goal of 145-150lbs I’m worried I’ll still have a belly. I mean my goal is just over a stone away so I can’t see how my belly will go completely in the next 15-20lbs? If I dropped more than 145lbs I’d be underweight, But also I can’t remember when I was last below 160lbs so maybe I will lose that stomach fat at 145-150lbs? I can definitely fit into clothes better with my weight loss but I’d like to fit into my medium sized work shirts even better by not having my belly and waist stick out especially when sitting in the office lol.
I’ve never been a gym person until this year since April. So now I go to the gym about twice a week and do mostly treadmill for 20 min. I can do about 1 mile in 12:30 min with a heart rate of 155-160bpm according to Apple Watch. Not sure if that’s good but it’s improved since April where it used to be 16min to reach that distance. It may not seem like much but it’s better than nothing, I usually run about 1.5 mile total before I’m too knackered to do more but again this is an improvement because I could barely manage half a mile in April lol. Since last week I also added some light weights/resistance after running in reps of 10 about three times using the various resistance machines at the gym. That’s all I can manage right now. My arms were so sore the next few days after last week lol. I’m planning to go more to the gym too than just twice a week but it’s just finding the time.
Diet
I’ve never been a breakfast person so in the mornings I just have a green tea maccha to kick start the day (I put some stuff in it too that helps boost metabolism) the green tea comes to about 120 calories. I might have a couple of coffees or teas at work (no sugar semi skimmed milk).
Again I’m a light lunch eater and hate being full at work. At lunch I usually have a high fibre drink like this one to keep me from feeling hungry:
https://www.upandgo.co.uk/products/drinks/milk-chocolate/
I’m thinking of substituting this lunch drink and have Huel for lunch instead, but I really dont know if it would make any difference in the long term as they’re both fairly similar, Huel seems to have better ingredients but also has more calories.
When I get home I eat a pear or banana to keep me going until I make dinner around 7:30pm.
The dinner is my main meal of the day and usually consists of a chicken breast and veg, or cous cous and chicken, or salmon. Basically a healthy dinner that isn’t too processed. I steam my portions of veg and the chicken itself isn’t breaded or covered in that breaded crispy stuff it’s proper chicken with seasoning, e.g Cajun chicken breasts. I try to avoid breaded stuff but occasionally have cod fillets or toast on Fridays or weekends. Apart from takeouts I’ve cut out all extra salt and have no sauces in my foods. I’ve never been a sauce person tbh.
By doing the above I’ve managed to lose weight and continue losing it. It works. I’m not bored of the diet. I enjoy my evening meals. I consider what I eat as normal and not really a diet per se just a lifestyle change. I track everything in MFP. Obviously I have the occasional binge days once or twice a month where I will get a takeaway or eat out, but you gotta have these and indulge and enjoy those cravings too sometimes.
My only problem is belly fat and waist really.
3
Replies
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Unfortunately, you can't selectively lose fat from any particular part of your body. That's known as 'spot reduction', and it doesn't happen. You gain/lose fat according to your genetic fat distribution pattern and no diet, supplement or exercise can change that.
The problem is that fat is inert and has no contractile properties like muscle, so it can't be exercised - and when you exercise the muscles beneath the fat, it has no effect on the fat above them because they're not 'connected', per se. You can make the muscles stronger and/or larger, but the only way to lose the fat is by calorie deficit (consuming less calories than you expend), and being patient.
Unfortunately for many people (and especially for guys), the belly/midsection is the first place fat deposits show up when you gain weight and the last place they go from when you lose (Google "android fat distribution" for further) - and we don't have any control over that. Eating "clean" or "healthy" has nothing to do with it, exercise has nothing to do with it - it all comes down to eating less calories than you burn. Of course your diet should be reasonably balanced/nutritious, but eating or not eating any particular foods won't influence where you gain/lose fat.
[ETA:] As the two posters below me said, you're eating far too few calories. You're not eating enough to nourish a 12-year old, which is only going to make your problem worse because you can lose more lean mass (muscle) by doing that, which only increases the 'skinny fat' look. Eat at a reasonable deficit, make sure you're getting enough protein and get on a good strength training program.10 -
Fat will come off eventually, the less weight you have to lose the slower it's going to come off. But being a guy you shouldn't be dipping below 1500cal. Women shouldn't go below 1200 it's not doing you any good going lower than the minimum for women. When you get to goal weight and still not happy with your overall form, look into recomp.6
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you cant spot reduce fat comes off where it wants when it wants . you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.heart rate has nothing to do with fat loss either. you are eating too little for a male as well the minimum is 1500 calories and thats for someone very short,sedentary.elderly or a combo of the 3. only thing that really boosts metabolism is exercise. there are no foods that do it,not enough to see a difference anyway.
you are at a decent weight for your height so I would probably look into doing whats called a recomp which means eating maintenance calories and finding a progressive lifting program,but that takes time to do and results are slow .link to recomp thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest
link to progressive lifting thread-https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you
recomp will help you to lose fat while building some muscle. you eating so little means that you most likley lost a lot of lean mass which gave you a skinny fat look(flabby areas while at a healthy weight) if you continue to lose the weight you probably will still have the belly. If you dont want to do a recomp, a small bulk may also be something you want to look into along with the progressive lifting routines. small bulk would be eating 250 -500 calories above maintenance as that would make fat gains less than a big bulk would.1 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »you cant spot reduce fat comes off where it wants when it wants . you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.heart rate has nothing to do with fat loss either. you are eating too little for a male as well the minimum is 1500 calories and thats for someone very short,sedentary.elderly or a combo of the 3. only thing that really boosts metabolism is exercise. there are no foods that do it,not enough to see a difference anyway.
you are at a decent weight for your height so I would probably look into doing whats called a recomp which means eating maintenance calories and finding a progressive lifting program,but that takes time to do and results are slow .link to recomp thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest
link to progressive lifting thread-https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you
recomp will help you to lose fat while building some muscle. you eating so little means that you most likley lost a lot of lean mass which gave you a skinny fat look(flabby areas while at a healthy weight) if you continue to lose the weight you probably will still have the belly. If you dont want to do a recomp, a small bulk may also be something you want to look into along with the progressive lifting routines. small bulk would be eating 250 -500 calories above maintenance as that would make fat gains less than a big bulk would.
At the moment my body fat is about 24.5% according to Fitbit Aria scales. It was 30% in April before the weight loss. So when this drops to 20% or below I’ll see how my body looks and I should hopefully have my waist and stomach flatter and leaner.
3 -
Sounds like you've got it all figured out. Good luck.4
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CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »you cant spot reduce fat comes off where it wants when it wants . you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.heart rate has nothing to do with fat loss either. you are eating too little for a male as well the minimum is 1500 calories and thats for someone very short,sedentary.elderly or a combo of the 3. only thing that really boosts metabolism is exercise. there are no foods that do it,not enough to see a difference anyway.
you are at a decent weight for your height so I would probably look into doing whats called a recomp which means eating maintenance calories and finding a progressive lifting program,but that takes time to do and results are slow .link to recomp thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest
link to progressive lifting thread-https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you
recomp will help you to lose fat while building some muscle. you eating so little means that you most likley lost a lot of lean mass which gave you a skinny fat look(flabby areas while at a healthy weight) if you continue to lose the weight you probably will still have the belly. If you dont want to do a recomp, a small bulk may also be something you want to look into along with the progressive lifting routines. small bulk would be eating 250 -500 calories above maintenance as that would make fat gains less than a big bulk would.
At the moment my body fat is about 24.5% according to Fitbit Aria scales. It was 30% in April before the weight loss. So when this drops to 20% or below I’ll see how my body looks and I should hopefully have my waist and stomach flatter and leaner.
Quite sure many body fat scales are inaccurate, I think it's only dexa scans that are pretty accurate in measuring body fat. Odds are you've lost some muscle mass with all the under eating you've been doing (and no it won't be immediately noticeable, doesn't mean it's not happening). Hope you're keeping your protein up.4 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »you cant spot reduce fat comes off where it wants when it wants . you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.heart rate has nothing to do with fat loss either. you are eating too little for a male as well the minimum is 1500 calories and thats for someone very short,sedentary.elderly or a combo of the 3. only thing that really boosts metabolism is exercise. there are no foods that do it,not enough to see a difference anyway.
you are at a decent weight for your height so I would probably look into doing whats called a recomp which means eating maintenance calories and finding a progressive lifting program,but that takes time to do and results are slow .link to recomp thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest
link to progressive lifting thread-https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you
recomp will help you to lose fat while building some muscle. you eating so little means that you most likley lost a lot of lean mass which gave you a skinny fat look(flabby areas while at a healthy weight) if you continue to lose the weight you probably will still have the belly. If you dont want to do a recomp, a small bulk may also be something you want to look into along with the progressive lifting routines. small bulk would be eating 250 -500 calories above maintenance as that would make fat gains less than a big bulk would.
At the moment my body fat is about 24.5% according to Fitbit Aria scales. It was 30% in April before the weight loss. So when this drops to 20% or below I’ll see how my body looks and I should hopefully have my waist and stomach flatter and leaner.
scales like that are inaccurate when it comes to body fat percentage. maybe posting pics and someone can help you on where they gauge your fat percentage at. trying to lose more weight at the calories you are taking in is going to be a disaster and you arent going to like how you look down the road. the lower you keep your calories the more lean mass/muscle you will lose and possibly less fat will be lost as well.5 -
I'm actually starting to wonder if belly fat is a thing and associated with stress. You have a lot of worry and unnecessary things going on there.
No foods are bad; eating too many calories over time makes you gain weight.
Everybody can lose weight quite easily through willpower. The challenge is keeping it off, and that requires a change of habits and attitudes (and possibly food environment) so that you're not relying solely on willpower.
usually have between 1100-1300 calories a day doesn't mean much; your average, real intake is what determines weightloss. Your weightloss testifies to an average deficit of 680 calories per day.
Meal timing is up to preference; don't use it to add to the challenge of eating less, which is challenging enough in itself.
You will lose fat from your belly too when you lose weight. But you can't decide where it comes off.
You're not officially underweight until you reach 122 pounds; 131 pounds is BMI 20 and the cutoff for people with eating disorders.
Exercise is good for you, but building up strength and stamina takes time.
You don't boost your metabolism, and nothing you eat or drink alters your metabolism.
MFP is not the food police. You can eat what you like.
A healthy diet is balanced and varied.
Restraint leads to disinhibition.5 -
My Apple Watch says on average I’m burning between 2000-2200 calories a day when I check the Activity app. Is Apple Watch accurate? I don’t think I’d be burning that much because if I was I’d be losing more weight a lot faster surely at only having 1100-1300 calories a day. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be burning many calories over 1500 probably more like 1700 as I’m not very active unless I go to the gym.
I’m a bit worried now though after reading all these comments about losing lean muscle and having a skinny fat look.
What can I do to not lose lean muscle yet still have weight loss? And get rid of skinny fat look if I do indeed even have that look. Just eating more calories? Or do I have to eat more protein? I eat a lot of chicken throughout the week.
When I was about 25-27 years old I had a much flatter stomach and waistline and I definately didn’t have a skinny fat look back then. And I was about 147lbs back then.0 -
It's not a question of accuracy, but of relevancy.My Apple Watch says on average I’m burning between 2000-2200 calories a day when I check the Activity app. Is Apple Watch accurate? I don’t think I’d be burning that much because if I was I’d be losing more weight a lot faster surely at only having 1100-1300 calories a day. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be burning many calories over 1500 probably more like 1700 as I’m not very active unless I go to the gym.
You burn calories 24/7, just by being alive. A male your age, height, weight, burns 1617 calories in a coma. You're not in a coma, obviously.
The amount of fat on your body determines how fast you can lose. That, plus how optimally you set your calorie target, and how diligently you stick to it, determines how fast you will lose.
Your weight trend (a loss of 1.5 pounds per week), which has revealed a true average calorie deficit of 680, subtracted from the midpoint of what your Apple Watch says your calorie burn is (2100), gives you a 1420 calorie average intake, which is lower than the minimum recommended for a male, and way too low for someone at your size and activity level, but not as disturbingly low as 1100-1300.
Eating enough, but not too much, and a healthy diet, including enough protein, and being active, will give youI’m a bit worried now though after reading all these comments about losing lean muscle and having a skinny fat look.
What can I do to not lose lean muscle yet still have weight loss? And get rid of skinny fat look if I do indeed even have that look. Just eating more calories? Or do I have to eat more protein? I eat a lot of chicken throughout the week.
When I was about 25-27 years old I had a much flatter stomach and waistline and I definately didn’t have a skinny fat look back then. And I was about 147lbs back then.
the flattest stomach your genetics will allow.6 -
I have an Aria and recently had a dexa, and my BF came in at 1% less than the Aria.1
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