Continue weight/fat loss or recomp?

gdfrew
gdfrew Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm male 6ft and currently 73.2kgs. (11st 8) so for my height I'm Almost ideal weight. But the fat is still pretty much on the bigger side. I'm skinny fat as I've heard. I've lost nearly 19kgs in the last 6 month so I've actually found the weight loss almost easy to be honest. Fat loss on the other hand hasn't really moved from the mid section at all. And is bugging me deeply. I keep upping the resistance training but finding it difficult due to no gym. Will be joining one start if next year if covid allows me to. I do light jogging and plenty of walking everyday over 10,000 steps so cardio is fine. I have dumbbells and resistance bands at home and do bodyweights and a few compound movements. I don't want to be underweight but need to lose quite a lot of fat? I think I'm around 25%bf but not entirely sure.
Not brilliant pics. Hope they are OK. Snap caught a bad face moment haha

Any suggestions would be great. Open to anything

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Replies

  • angelexperiment
    angelexperiment Posts: 1,917 Member
    Cut carbs it’s what they do for body recomp.
  • angelexperiment
    angelexperiment Posts: 1,917 Member
    Or if and omad I’ve seen dramatic results as in seeing abs for the first time.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    Willing to do more resistance training?
    A lot can be done with body weight and some dumbbells and bands.

    And very minor deficit of 250. Use past rate of loss with accurately logged eating diary to get idea how close daily burn was.
    That would allow some maxing out the muscles you got while slowly losing a tad more fat.
    Then when you can't make progress in strength, time to eat at maintenance and keep moving forward to gain more muscle.

    I echo this sentiment. I would suggest a good recomp to a lower body fat. When you start seeing the abs, then bulk. From what I have read, the leaner you are before a "gaining" phase, the better the nutrient partitioning one gets. Good job on the weight loss. I would suggest a very low deficit maybe 100-250 or eat at close to maintenance as you can. Lift in a progressive overload system. That can be done with bands and limited equipment, especially if lifting is a novel stimulus. I mean you could bulk now, but be prepared to gain some BF. JMHO
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    oh, one last thought.... if you choose the recomp route, the one macro I would optimize is protein. I have seen protocols by Dr. Bill Campbell and Dr. Jose Antonio. They range anywhere between 1.6g -3.3g per Kilo of body weight. There is some evidence that higher protein intakes help with body recomp.
  • mariomicro
    mariomicro Posts: 74 Member
    1) It is a fact that you cannot spot-reduce fat. It will come off from where your body decides it will come off first.

    2) It is also a fact that, if you are a) in ketosis and b) fat-adapted and c) in calorie deficit, then you will lose visceral fat before any other body fat.

    3) Not all abdominal fat is visceral fat. Some of it is just loose skin, especially after losing a lot of weight (common phenomenon). Loose skin is the hardest part of the journey and probably the nastiest.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Check out this link for a list of programs and see what you can do with what you have.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    I agree with heybales and sijomial, would maybe do a hair under maintenance, so you are recomping but in a slight deficit. Make sure you get plenty of protein.
    Main thing will be to lift and not cut calories too low. You want to stay just under maintenance to really see see fat loss but still make some muscle building progress. Then you can either maintain or bulk when you are a bit leaner and join a gym again.

    Also I would not recommend you cut carbs down or do keto or anything like that. If you want muscle building carbs are your friend.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    gdfrew wrote: »
    I'm male 6ft and currently 73.2kgs. (11st 8) so for my height I'm Almost ideal weight. But the fat is still pretty much on the bigger side. I'm skinny fat as I've heard. I've lost nearly 19kgs in the last 6 month so I've actually found the weight loss almost easy to be honest. Fat loss on the other hand hasn't really moved from the mid section at all. And is bugging me deeply. I keep upping the resistance training but finding it difficult due to no gym. Will be joining one start if next year if covid allows me to. I do light jogging and plenty of walking everyday over 10,000 steps so cardio is fine. I have dumbbells and resistance bands at home and do bodyweights and a few compound movements. I don't want to be underweight but need to lose quite a lot of fat? I think I'm around 25%bf but not entirely sure.
    Not brilliant pics. Hope they are OK. Snap caught a bad face moment haha

    Any suggestions would be great. Open to anything

    During my three years living at yoga retreat centers I met a lot of people who were lean and had more muscle definition from bodyweight alone*, so it certainly can be done, however it does take a lot more time than using weights.

    What does a set of chest press look like for you - weights, reps, how often per week? I suspect that even though you keep upping the resistance, it remains insufficient to get the aesthetic you want.




    *Some of these yogis were vegans, and eating tons of carbs - keto is definitely not necessary. I'm all for keto if people like this way of eating and it helps them create a calorie deficit, but losing weight was not what you struggled with and changing up your diet is not where you should focus your energy.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    The above consensus advice is the good answer to your question: Good strength program ASAP, faithfully performed; tiny calorie deficit; good nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein); any eating schedule/style that makes you happy and easy for you to sustain while getting the nutrition.

    If your goals are at least partly appearance related, as it sounds like they may be, I'm going to add a "cranky but caring old granny" type of observation that you didn't ask for.

    You posture is contributing somewhat to it looking like you have relatively more body fat than you actually do. Your appearance will improve if you work on that. Specifically, two things:

    1. You have a bit of the posture that so many do these days from using phones, computers, etc.: Shoulders are rounded a bit forward, head and chin are pushed forward. While this is a thing you can just work on explicitly, there are specfic exercises that help loosen tight places, and strengthen weak places, and make it easier to achieve a more erect posture and straighter neck. One technical name for this is "postural kyphosis". Ruder common names - which I don't like - are "nerd neck" or "iHunch". (I'm just putting these terms in as possibly search terms for more info.)\

    If you work at a computer a lot as part of your job (or do something similar that could create/reinforce this posture), then you might benefit from adjusting your workspace in some way to allow/encourage better posture. If you require visual correction (glasses, contacts, etc.), then making sure your prescription is proper can also be a minor help.

    2. Another common posture that often accompanies the forward-head configuration is too much curve in the lower back. I can't see whether your posture includes this, because of where your elbows are in the photo, but I'm thinking you might, from other indications. One technical term for this would be "postural lordosis". It's possibly a bit more common among men who have been at an excessive body weight, in a configuration where a good bit of fat is held in the belly area, because the weight in front pulls the spine forward; being relatively unfit while overweight may increase the chances. However, it can happen to anyone. (We sometimes see it here in young women striving via posture for the "prominent booty" look.) There are also exercises to improve this postural habit.

    The combination of these two things tends to increase the appearance of belly prominence more than either one alone. The lower spine curve pushes the belly area forward in more of a convex C shape, and the forward head/shoulders kind of press down from above, and increase the outward curve.

    You look like you're still fairly young (context: I say this as someone who's 65!). Either or both of these issues can increase risk of back pain/problems as we age, so they're worth working on for pure health reasons, in addition to the appearance implications.

    I know you didn't ask about this, so I hope this comment isn't offensive. I don't mean it that way. At my age, I have some unfortunate experience with habits that may bear undesired fruit at a later age, so I'm going out on a limb here and offering this advice.

    Best wishes!
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    mariomicro wrote: »
    1) It is a fact that you cannot spot-reduce fat. It will come off from where your body decides it will come off first.

    2) It is also a fact that, if you are a) in ketosis and b) fat-adapted and c) in calorie deficit, then you will lose visceral fat before any other body fat.

    3) Not all abdominal fat is visceral fat. Some of it is just loose skin, especially after losing a lot of weight (common phenomenon). Loose skin is the hardest part of the journey and probably the nastiest.

    sgk1x5kyus8j.jpg
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    Ignore the nonsense about cutting carbs and IF or OMAD or whatever other clueless drivel was spewed by someone without a clue

    Listen to heybales and sijomial.

    Also, remember that gaining muscle takes TIME. You are male, so maybe you can hit two lbs of muscle gained a month, but that would be under perfect conditions, so you should expect less, probably closer to one lb.
  • gdfrew
    gdfrew Posts: 45 Member
    edited November 2020
    Wow I'm very impressed with some of the advice on here.

    To answer a few questions.

    sijomial I will make sure I hit the protein goals and train as hard as I can. Unfortunately I'm in Scotland so our leader decided to do things backwards from the rest of the UK. So gyms open middle of December at the earliest I think.

    Kshama2001 3 sets of 10-12 reps of around 8kgs with dumbbells I could do a bit more with some better equipment like an inclined bench press or even the machines at the gym I guess.


    Annpt77
    I take no offence in any way, your advice is sound and only ment in a positive way I can see that. So yes Ive had problems in the past with my posture so your spot on there. I'm currently seeing a chiropractor so believe me that's an improvement from a few months ago. I need to strengthen my neck and lats he said any exercise that includes pulling rather than pushing. My work is fairly active job so that's not a problem I think it's been years of bad diet increasing weight and overall just lazy posture. Especially text neck as it were. I'm all for the health aspect now so I'm making sure I get everything as good as I can do. Health comes first and then appearence a close second. If you can also give any tips on how to improve the posture ill take your advice on that as well. Sounds like you know your stuff

    I'm glad you cleared up the skin issue or non issue as it were I was almost starting to panic there.

    So on a end note, on the mfp app should I change my plan from lose 0.5lbs/week to now maintenence weight? And concentrate on body recomp with more weight training
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Slightly nuanced answer regarding weight loss or weight maintenance.....

    If you were able to train consistently and effectively in a gym I'd lean more towards doing a classic recomp while maintaining weight. As a young and under-trained man you are primed to make rapid progress.

    But with sub-optimal equipment and exercise routine I really think you should go for a slight deficit to at least work on getting your bodyfat down while doing the best you can as regards muscle building. (You can manually set a calorie goal as well as the more clumsy changing of rate of loss BTW.)
    I got very good results from recomp with a 1lb/month weight loss in my 50's but my situation was different to yours (much older, far more training years but also returning to a previous training level).

    With where you currently are bodyweight training will still be effective, try to work the major muscle groups with compound lifts/exercises where you can as you get a lot more return on your efforts.
    It's too tempting when you only have light dumbbells to spend too much time doing inefficient isolation lifts working small muscles.
    For example press ups will be plenty of muscle stimulus for you right now, you can also improvise with heavy household objects while doing squats etc. etc..
    Be creative.

    There's bodyweight routines in the link @sardelsa posted if you want more structure.


  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    You could lose a little bit more while being very serious with the strength training.
    So lowest weight loss rate.
    Keep progressing on the strength - when it makes no advancement in intensity (weight, volume, ect) then you have maximized current level of muscle.
    Switch to maintenance then - log your workouts so truly eating at maintenance.
    Keep progressing, now calling on body to make more muscle, and use remaining fat stores undesired.
  • MidlifeCrisisFitness
    MidlifeCrisisFitness Posts: 1,106 Member
    Bodyweight can be great. Nothing wrong with pushups and squats. Start with a challenge and see what you can do.

    The perfect push-up form
    https://youtu.be/IODxDxX7oi4
  • gdfrew
    gdfrew Posts: 45 Member
    Thanks again people. I hear you all loud and clear. More effort required with the weight training. I'll mix it up with bodyweight and compound movements. I also have the resistance bands that I've found good as well.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    gdfrew wrote: »
    Wow I'm very impressed with some of the advice on here.

    To answer a few questions.

    sijomial I will make sure I hit the protein goals and train as hard as I can. Unfortunately I'm in Scotland so our leader decided to do things backwards from the rest of the UK. So gyms open middle of December at the earliest I think.

    Kshama2001 3 sets of 10-12 reps of around 8kgs with dumbbells I could do a bit more with some better equipment like an inclined bench press or even the machines at the gym I guess.


    Annpt77
    I take no offence in any way, your advice is sound and only ment in a positive way I can see that. So yes Ive had problems in the past with my posture so your spot on there. I'm currently seeing a chiropractor so believe me that's an improvement from a few months ago. I need to strengthen my neck and lats he said any exercise that includes pulling rather than pushing. My work is fairly active job so that's not a problem I think it's been years of bad diet increasing weight and overall just lazy posture. Especially text neck as it were. I'm all for the health aspect now so I'm making sure I get everything as good as I can do. Health comes first and then appearence a close second. If you can also give any tips on how to improve the posture ill take your advice on that as well. Sounds like you know your stuff

    I'm glad you cleared up the skin issue or non issue as it were I was almost starting to panic there.

    So on a end note, on the mfp app should I change my plan from lose 0.5lbs/week to now maintenence weight? And concentrate on body recomp with more weight training

    That (speaking to the bolded) sounds perfect. I don't have specific advice - I feel like rowing improved my posture, but that was with good professional coaching, access to boats, and a machine at home, so that's not really a route that generalizes. I also got personalized input from a competent, credentialed, science-oriented massage therapist, and a university-based osteopathic physician who specializes in such issues, so none of that really generalizes to others, I think. Well, I guess the generalization is "consult sound experts", but it sounds like you're working at that already.

    I don't know whether anyone else can recommend *specific* exercises on YouTube or the like, but I know there are lots there (that's why I include the varied terminology, so you could do some searches). Look for advice/exercises from credentialed physical therapists, or the like. Since you have a chiro, you could find some internet sources, and review the exercise ideas with him/her to get some personalized feedback.

    Best wishes!

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