Reached goal weight but can still pinch fat - now what?
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whmscll
Posts: 2,254 Member
I am 59 years old, 5’4.5” tall and just reached my goal weight of 122 pounds. I have been lifting for almost a year (progressively heavier but verrrry slowly adding weight). I eat 100-122 grams of protein a day. I look good but still have 2 inches of fat I can pinch on my waist and back, “bat wings” on my arms and a bit of dimpling on my thighs. I got a dexa scan when I weighed 136 (May 2019) and it showed 28.9% body fat. No idea what it is now. I would really like to lose the fat on my back, arms and thighs.
Should I continue to maintain a slight deficit while continuing to lift? Or should I eat at maintenance and recomp?
Should I continue to maintain a slight deficit while continuing to lift? Or should I eat at maintenance and recomp?
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Replies
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Lift heavy and lift hard! Well, that my solution to everything. Lol best wishes ma'am9
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Congrats on hitting your goal weight!
If you want to lose weight, then stay in a deficit. If you want to maintain your weight but build muscle and reduce fat, recomp.
It's really up to you, but keep in mind that you can't spot reduce. If you lose weight, there's no guarantee that your body will burn the fat where you want it to be burned from. Recomp generally makes people happier with their appearance at this point.
Either process would be quite slow, so whichever you decide, it's going to take patience and commitment.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p15 -
Unless your muscle mass has changed dramatically (unlikely even with lifting), your body fat % would be in the 20%-21% range now, based on your dead results.
That’s not athletically lean, but it’s also at the point where it takes increasingly greater effort to continue to lower it.
As you know, you cannot “spot reduce” fat, and the way your body stores fat is genetically determined.
So you can try to continue lowering body fat—you lose fat over all of your body, but it would reduce the “trouble spots” as well.
Personally, I think at this point a recomp journey would be the better choice. Look to build and shape your body with more muscle and take whatever incremental fat loss occurs along the way.
This will also take time and effort, but at least in the end you have some muscles to show for it rather than just a lower body fat level that you will struggle to maintain.5 -
I wonder if you lost say 5 pounds it might make quite a big difference to what you see in the mirror. How do you feel about bulking and continuing with your lifting?
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Like everyone else, this really ends up being a "what do you want" kind of situation. If you're not happy with your bf%, then go ahead and lose a little more and see if it helps. If you would like to put on more muscle (regardless) then a recomp may be a great option.
Personally, if I'm at my goal and still have more fat than I'd like, I'm more likely to recomp, but my situation is a bit different too. I did more of a recomp for the better part of two years, and this year decided to start dropping the weight (I had a badly atrophied leg after an injury and wanted to build back what I could on that). Due to all the lifting, I think I *may* have more muscle mass than I used to when I was previously at my "goal" so my goal weight right now is pretty flexible once I'm down another ~15 pounds. After that, how my body looks and feels will determine my goal weight.
For reference, I'm 41, F, 5'7" and my goal is 128-132 (ish, give or take).
Nothing wrong with adjusting your goals as you go!2 -
As long as you're focused on fat loss and not just weight loss, you should be fine doing either. Now that you're at your goal weight, do you have an image in mind for how you'd like to look? If so, use that to determine what the next phase should be.4
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I was just wondering about this last night. I’m a year younger than you and about 4 inches shorter and I’m aiming for 8st 3lbs (115lbs), so that’s probably a similar height adjusted weight, if that makes sense. It’s a weight I stayed at through my late twenties and all through my thirties and I was comfortable and looked acceptable, (even to me, and we’re all harsher critics of ourselves than anyone else!).
But now, 20+ years later, is that still going to be a weight I feel ok at, or am I going to be disappointed and have to go lower to get rid of the last lumps and bumps? I pretty much figured that I’ll look ok with clothes on at that weight and really, at almost 60, how many people are going to see me undressed! So I decided that if/when I get there I’m going to be ok with it!1 -
I am the same height as you and as I was reading the general BMI charts and was wondering why I felt so pudgy at 123-129 though this should be normal. Then I read the General Fitness stickie, "BMR and TDEE Explained for Those Needing a Guide" I went to the website http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/. I was 114/115 most of my life until 7 years ago when I gained 10-15 pounds. Well, honestly I knew this instinct-fully but I am small boned and when I went to that site and provided additional measurements it confirmed I should be 114-118.0
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Congrats on hitting your goal.
If you aren't satisfied, consider going by fat % to get down around 20-22%, just doing whatever has been working for you so far. At that point if you don't like the distribution of the remaining fat you can go to a plastic surgeon or dermatologist and look into those fat-freezing technologies to whittle down spots that are out of proportion.12 -
I got to my goal weight in my 50's too.
Except I found that the goal weight that was right for the younger me wasn't appropriate for the older me.
By far the quickest way to improve your BF% is through losing weight. You could experiment by slowly losing a bit more and seeing if you prefer the way you look at a lighter weight.
But really both your options "Should I continue to maintain a slight deficit while continuing to lift? Or should I eat at maintenance and recomp? " are good options and neither commit you to that course of action indefinitely.
Maintain for a couple of months and then reassess was what I did, might be right for you too?8 -
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Congratulations on arriving at your goal weight, you must be proud of yourself and rightfully so.
My body fat declined post maintenance. I ate at a slight deficit while continuing to train as I have and still do. I’m a big fan of running and workouts that are timed and I’m always trying to beat the clock, over time, so the workouts tend to be anaerobic. This works well for me. I continue including walking for 60 minutes when I can because they’re effective too.
Do as you’ve done and keep marching forward.3 -
How much weight did you lose in total? Excess skin could also make you look flabbier than you actually are.5
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BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »
@BarbaraHelen2013
My original goal was 175lbs (my favourite adult weight but that was in my 20's, I got fat in my 30's).
I cut in a series of small steps and reassessed each time I got to the new goal and settled on roughly 164 - 168lb range although that's changed over the years as I added muscle and/or changed fitness goals
That relatively small change had a very marked change on appearance and body composition.1 -
As a bit of background.
5’1, 66yo.
Started at age 54 weighing 130 with a goal of getting back to my previous weight of 100-105.
I’ve maintained at 100-105 for the past ~10yr doing a recomp/maintain/decomp (life has interrupted things at times).
OK, with my background out of the way, on to you.
In all honesty I would go with a recomp for at least 6 months, and preferably a year. Then re-examine your weight goal.
Why?
Your skin will continue to adjust for up to ~2yr, so some of the wobble will go.
As you get a little older your skin, the whole organ not just the epidermis changes and can, with little fat beneath it, start to look striated. (Ask me how I know
)
So a little fat (in my mind), once skin has recovered and muscle is supporting it, isn’t a bad thing.
As you are post menopausal you hormones have shifted (to a certain extent) your fat storage from subcutaneous to abdominal/visceral.
This means if you lose those few extra lbs then decide you want to add on a few lbs, be it a straight weight gain or a slow bulk (it is harder, though not impossible to bulk post menopause) there will be a higher fat to muscle ratio gain and that tends to be abdominal fat, not all over subcutaneous.
And lastly, a lower weight/body fat recomp could leave you with too little fat to draw on to achieve optimal muscle gain.
In my mind going for a recomp now, and hopefully adding a little muscle as well as strength, will mean you have a better muscle to fat ratio if you decide to drop a couple of lbs down the road, but I think a year of steady recomp will leave you with a body you are happy with.
Just my rambling/observations on my experience as I have aged and recomped at a lower BMI.
(Sometimes wishing I had known then what I know now, even though I love my now)
Cheers, h.12 -
ryanmichaelhorn wrote: »How much weight did you lose in total? Excess skin could also make you look flabbier than you actually are.
I only lost 18 pounds. Some of what I’m seeing might be loose skin, since skin loses elasticity with age, but there is definitely fat under there as well. I appreciate all the feedback. I think I will try recomp (eating at maintenance and continuing to lift), as I don’t really want to get much smaller (it’s already a bit sad that some of my favorite clothes that I’ve worn for decades, like my leather jacket, are now too big).
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ryanmichaelhorn wrote: »How much weight did you lose in total? Excess skin could also make you look flabbier than you actually are.
I only lost 18 pounds. Some of what I’m seeing might be loose skin, since skin loses elasticity with age, but there is definitely fat under there as well. I appreciate all the feedback. I think I will try recomp (eating at maintenance and continuing to lift), as I don’t really want to get much smaller (it’s already a bit sad that some of my favorite clothes that I’ve worn for decades, like my leather jacket, are now too big).
Well, you can wear a sweater under it and make it a colder-weather jacket 0 -
I’m by far no expert but lifting weights completely changes everything- I mean like a good/frequent/consistent hypertrophy program (heavy enough to go 2-3 from failure but 8-20 reps in increasing sets- with a scheduled deload). Give yourself at least a year, eat at maintenance or slightly above- see what happens. I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised.1
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@Lolalikeslolagets what programme are you using?
I have been running AllPro which is in the 8-12 rep range and have had nice results. (They would be good but life keeps interrupting)
Cheers, h.0
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