I AM SKINNY FAT: Please share advice on how I can lose more than 1 pound per month (not a typo).
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UTLawGirl
Posts: 11 Member
Short version: I need advice on how a naturally small person can lose weigh when (1) cutting additional calories is not an option and (2) regular exercise only leads to a loss of one pound per month.
Long version: I am 5’0” and have always have had a very small frame. For much of my life I was a 00 (yup, that is a real size) and stayed around 90 pounds, give or take. I never had to diet or deprive myself, that is just where I naturally settled (I know, I'd hate me too, but please keep reading).
Occasionally I would start to increase to 95-100lbs range. I know that sounds extremely small, but on my tiny frame it made me look like I was 4 months pregnant. I would manage the weight with a balanced diet and exercise routine. However, because I am small and a vegetarian, I could not really reduce my caloric intake without being unhealthy (I will not go below 1,200 a day and compromise my health). Due to having to rely almost exclusively on exercise, the best I could really hope for was losing 1 pound a month—and I was ok with that. No matter the types of exercises I have tried, my results have remained the same.
I am now 38 and am getting married in less than 10 months. I am also at the heaviest I have ever been (109-113lbs). To give you context, this is a 20-25% increase from where I have been almost all of my adult life.
I have been fairly sedentary for the last 6 months due to my work schedule, but will begin a full fitness routine in February (yay!). I will be doing Hot Yoga (flow) 5-6 days a week for 60 minutes, a restorative yoga class (to give my body a break mid-week), and hiking twice a week. I have done this routine before and absolutely loved it. It takes time to get results, but I feel amazing in the process and I genuinely love both activities. *BUT* I also increase my caloric intake to support this workout and feed my body . . . which takes me right back to only losing about 1 pound a month. (Yes, I know I am also gaining muscle, but the results don't really show up in my waistline).
I want to get back down to my natural size (where I was for almost 2 decades of my life) and get close to 95 pounds for my wedding. So, I need to double my past consistent results. My extra weight (which all goes to my belly) now makes me look like I am 5-6 months pregnant and I am very embarrassed by it.
So, my question for all of you who have dealt with a similar issue: What did you do to lose weight in a safe/healthy way when cutting calories isn't possible and you are already working out several hours a week? How do you work with the parameters you've been given?
Based on responses I've seen to past questions of this nature by others: Please do not make comments about my small size, BMI, or suggest I have an eating disorder. Those comments are not supportive or productive and have nothing to do with my question. I have been small all of my life and my natural frame is very healthy under 100 pounds. Where I am now, however, is not healthy. I have been living with my body for 38 years and I know it much better than you think you do from reading a few paragraphs about me. I am just looking for people who have similar experiences and might share some of their success stories. It takes guts to reach out for help like this, so please, positive answers only.
Long version: I am 5’0” and have always have had a very small frame. For much of my life I was a 00 (yup, that is a real size) and stayed around 90 pounds, give or take. I never had to diet or deprive myself, that is just where I naturally settled (I know, I'd hate me too, but please keep reading).
Occasionally I would start to increase to 95-100lbs range. I know that sounds extremely small, but on my tiny frame it made me look like I was 4 months pregnant. I would manage the weight with a balanced diet and exercise routine. However, because I am small and a vegetarian, I could not really reduce my caloric intake without being unhealthy (I will not go below 1,200 a day and compromise my health). Due to having to rely almost exclusively on exercise, the best I could really hope for was losing 1 pound a month—and I was ok with that. No matter the types of exercises I have tried, my results have remained the same.
I am now 38 and am getting married in less than 10 months. I am also at the heaviest I have ever been (109-113lbs). To give you context, this is a 20-25% increase from where I have been almost all of my adult life.
I have been fairly sedentary for the last 6 months due to my work schedule, but will begin a full fitness routine in February (yay!). I will be doing Hot Yoga (flow) 5-6 days a week for 60 minutes, a restorative yoga class (to give my body a break mid-week), and hiking twice a week. I have done this routine before and absolutely loved it. It takes time to get results, but I feel amazing in the process and I genuinely love both activities. *BUT* I also increase my caloric intake to support this workout and feed my body . . . which takes me right back to only losing about 1 pound a month. (Yes, I know I am also gaining muscle, but the results don't really show up in my waistline).
I want to get back down to my natural size (where I was for almost 2 decades of my life) and get close to 95 pounds for my wedding. So, I need to double my past consistent results. My extra weight (which all goes to my belly) now makes me look like I am 5-6 months pregnant and I am very embarrassed by it.
So, my question for all of you who have dealt with a similar issue: What did you do to lose weight in a safe/healthy way when cutting calories isn't possible and you are already working out several hours a week? How do you work with the parameters you've been given?
Based on responses I've seen to past questions of this nature by others: Please do not make comments about my small size, BMI, or suggest I have an eating disorder. Those comments are not supportive or productive and have nothing to do with my question. I have been small all of my life and my natural frame is very healthy under 100 pounds. Where I am now, however, is not healthy. I have been living with my body for 38 years and I know it much better than you think you do from reading a few paragraphs about me. I am just looking for people who have similar experiences and might share some of their success stories. It takes guts to reach out for help like this, so please, positive answers only.
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Replies
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Are you comfortable with posting a picture?4
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Losing 1 pound/month at your stats is just perfect. You shouldn't lose much faster if you want to keep your muscle mass. However if you are not happy with your fat/muscle ratio, you should consider doing strength training as well, so even at a bit higher weight you would look much thinner than you feel now.25
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Good question. I think so. I asked my fiance to do some "before" photos in the morning for motivation. So I can post one then.0
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Strength training is a good suggestion. Thank you.
Usually I don't mind the slow progress, but the thought of being embarrassed of my body on my wedding day is weighing on me (pun only slightly intended). I don't want a "crash diet" or a magic pill, I am willing to put in the time and effort. But even pushing it to 1.5 lbs a month would make a monumental difference. I've never really reached out to a community like this before, so I'm hoping there is something I am missing that could be of benefit.2 -
Recomp time.6
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Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings4 -
Might I suggest instead of trying to reach a historical ideal you shoot for a new look that takes advantage of your maturity and natural vitality.
My granddaughter fought off the freshman fifteen by increasing her dancing hours and she has been gratified by getting herself some visible abs.20 -
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Weightlifting. There is an article on this site that I read yesterday about that. If you don't have weights do push ups, chin ups, sit ups, squats and the like. This will help!1
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A note on weightlifting - while I do this myself, and think everyone who is physically able should do some form of strength training, and it can definitely help one get the body they want, it can also make the scale go up, so it is important to not freak out about that. I gained 7 pounds (water retention) when I started weight lifting again a few years back. It took a few weeks to come back off.
See how this woman looks fitter in the picture on the right, where she was 18 pounds heavier than the picture in the middle?
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kshama2001 wrote: »Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
I have not used the diary in a while (I am just now getting back into the routine) but this is a snapshot from an average day. This does not show my exercise (75 minutes of hot yoga) which burns 400-600 calories depending on which calculator you believe:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/utlawgirl?date=2017-02-063 -
kshama2001 wrote: »A note on weightlifting - while I do this myself, and think everyone who is physically able should do some form of strength training, and it can definitely help one get the body they want, it can also make the scale go up, so it is important to not freak out about that.
Oh yes, I totally understand that. Part of my "before" pictures will include measurements to I can have a better way to check my progress.0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
I have not used the diary in a while (I am just now getting back into the routine) but this is a snapshot from an average day. This does not show my exercise (75 minutes of hot yoga) which burns 400-600 calories depending on which calculator you believe:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/utlawgirl?date=2017-02-06
Are you weighing the olive oil? Your entry says 1 T, but I know sometimes people weigh a tablespoon's worth and use the T entry. Probably not weighing the apple won't make a big difference, but definitely weigh high calorie foods like oil, and might as well just get into the habit of weighing everything.
If you need convincing about this, someone will be along with the video that shows how much less accurate cups are than weighing.
Also, it is quite likely that you will have more success once you start logging scrupulously.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
I have not used the diary in a while (I am just now getting back into the routine) but this is a snapshot from an average day. This does not show my exercise (75 minutes of hot yoga) which burns 400-600 calories depending on which calculator you believe:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/utlawgirl?date=2017-02-06
Are you weighing the olive oil? Your entry says 1 T, but I know sometimes people weigh a tablespoon's worth and use the T entry. Probably not weighing the apple won't make a big difference, but definitely weigh high calorie foods like oil, and might as well just get into the habit of weighing everything.
If you need convincing about this, someone will be along with the video that shows how much less accurate cups are than weighing.
Also, it is quite likely that you will have more success once you start logging scrupulously.
Happy to link it: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p12 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
I have not used the diary in a while (I am just now getting back into the routine) but this is a snapshot from an average day. This does not show my exercise (75 minutes of hot yoga) which burns 400-600 calories depending on which calculator you believe:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/utlawgirl?date=2017-02-06
Do you have a food scale? If not get one, you will want to weigh ALL of your food that contains calories. This can be a big difference with no wiggle room left in the amount of calories you have to work with.
10 months will allow you to get a great start on doing recomp. Edited for reference: Skinnyfat is a term coined for someone that is under muscled and retains a higher body fat than desired).You will be able to take great advantage of building muscle being a newbie to strength training. Read up on it here..
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p12 -
Unfortunately I can't really weigh for lunch, but getting a scale for home is a good idea.
When I am fully committed I am pretty religious about entering the data (or eat the same thing every day and know what I'm getting). Unfortunately, the 1-pound-a-month is when I am closely tracking my diet and exercising daily.1 -
Unfortunately I can't really weigh for lunch, but getting a scale for home is a good idea.
When I am fully committed I am pretty religious about entering the data (or eat the same thing every day and know what I'm getting). Unfortunately, the 1-pound-a-month is when I am closely tracking my diet and exercising daily.
Do you eat out for lunch? Can you/do you meal prep your lunches?
If you want to make changes in weight/physique it will come down to precision in your calorie counting and exercise (strength training will make the most aesthetic changes)2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Well, to lose weight you have to either eat less or burn more. I wouldn't want to eat less than 1200 calories either. So your only option is to exercise more.
However, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
I have not used the diary in a while (I am just now getting back into the routine) but this is a snapshot from an average day. This does not show my exercise (75 minutes of hot yoga) which burns 400-600 calories depending on which calculator you believe:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/utlawgirl?date=2017-02-06
That burn for yoga seems high for someone your height and weight. (Note: I am a yoga teacher and have taken the spectrum of Restorative through Hot and Ashtanga.)
Is it a vinyasa style yoga with heat, or more static? If a flowing sort of yoga, when you use the Calisthenics option from the MFP cardio database, how many calories do you get for 75 minutes?
Eh, couldn't wait - I put in your stats and got these:
I use the light/moderate Calisthenics option when I am doing Sun Salutations and things of that nature and hatha yoga for gentler yoga.7 -
I have tried it both ways: Making a healthy veggie salad at home and walking down the street to a salad bar. I've found that I spend about the same amount of money, but I waste much less food at the salad bar. I also enjoy the break to walk a few blocks in the middle of the day.
I could be persuaded to go back to making my own (I make a mean and yummy salad) if it would make a difference. The ingredients (for the most part) are generally the same.0 -
I have tried it both ways: Making a healthy veggie salad at home and walking down the street to a salad bar. I've found that I spend about the same amount of money, but I waste much less food at the salad bar. I also enjoy the break to walk a few blocks in the middle of the day.
I could be persuaded to go back to making my own (I make a mean and yummy salad) if it would make a difference. The ingredients (for the most part) are generally the same.
I've been where you are, not quite as short, but the struggle all the same. The food scale, being diligent in your weighing of food, needed meal prepping, etc in order to meet goals.
All of this is process, it will be up to you how much you want or can commit to it to reach the goals you have outlined.
edit: don't be swayed that a salad you buy eating out is the same or contains the same calories as what you would make at home. I've eaten salads that are real calorie bombs while eating out, dressing alone can pack the calories on a salad. Best of luck to you!5
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