Weight loss help

Like Lietchi said, “toning” just means building more muscle mass. For someone who only weighs 156, it’s unrealistic to expect to lose 30 pounds yet gain muscle. Muscle is denser than fat. As you gain muscle, you will gain weight, not lose it.

A muscular 5’4” woman isn’t going to weigh only 126 pounds. That seems unrealistic to me.

As you lose fat and build muscle, your weight will probably stay about the same because the weight you had in fat will be replaced by muscle.

Hitting an arbitrary number on the scale shouldn’t be your goal. Changing your physique and improving your fitness level should be your goal. Simply losing 30 pounds won’t necessarily help you with that and might even work against it. You should focus less on weight and more on other more meaningful metrics like your body measurements and how much weight you can lift.

Colorado_Mama wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

I’m just going to say that everyone is different so you need to find what works for YOU. To the poster saying 1800 cals is too high to lose weight - I’m 5’3.5 and I lose weight on 1900 a day ( I maintain on c2100 - 2,300). To the poster saying you can’t be muscular at 124 pounds; i weigh 119 and am just under 5’4 - I am muscular.

We are all different, so you need to be consistent for a while - try 6 weeks - then take stock and see what is happening, whether you need to reduce or increase calories.

THANK YOU! I wasn’t looking for criticisms or anything, just advice. I have been told multiple times that 1800 calories is sufficient and that eating too few calories is worse for me than better. So I think I’ll just have to figure this out on my own. Ideally I think losing the weight first then focusing on building muscle is best and that’s all I wanted advice on.

The best thing you can do to start is be scrupulously honest with yourself about your food intake, so record EVERYTHING. Your protein intake needs to be high (sounds like you have that covered) and weight training will help you to preserve muscle whilst you lose weight. Is it possible to build muscle whilst losing fat? Yes, to a certain degree, but you don’t have a tonne of weight to lose. So track your food carefully, check your stats every 6 weeks or so (think you’re female - usually we say 6 weeks for women as our hormonal weight fluctuations can confuse things), and - you might also want to keep a “food satiety diary”. I quickly realised that I need carbs to lift so I had to adjust my macros, others prefer a high fat diet. How I feel influences how much I can lift.

Once you’ve got near your target weight you can evaluate how much muscle you’ve gained / how much you want to gain. I lost the fat I was carrying then seriously started trying to get stronger, but I did it via recomp as I personally didn’t want the fat. I still do recomp really, as in I eat at maintenance and am trying to get stronger. It’s a long slow journey but I enjoy it, and I am defo still getting stronger.

Hope that helps!

Colorado_Mama wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

I’m just going to say that everyone is different so you need to find what works for YOU. To the poster saying 1800 cals is too high to lose weight - I’m 5’3.5 and I lose weight on 1900 a day ( I maintain on c2100 - 2,300). To the poster saying you can’t be muscular at 124 pounds; i weigh 119 and am just under 5’4 - I am muscular.

We are all different, so you need to be consistent for a while - try 6 weeks - then take stock and see what is happening, whether you need to reduce or increase calories.

THANK YOU! I wasn’t looking for criticisms or anything, just advice. I have been told multiple times that 1800 calories is sufficient and that eating too few calories is worse for me than better. So I think I’ll just have to figure this out on my own. Ideally I think losing the weight first then focusing on building muscle is best and that’s all I wanted advice on.

It's not an either/or. I endorse the advice that in your situation, slow fat loss (small calorie deficit) plus strength training would be the best route to your goals. Keeping the muscle we have is important, as it's slow and difficult to (re-)gain, and you might even gain some muscle in a small calorie deficit, since it sounds like you may still be relatively new to strength training?

If starting both things at the same time is too daunting, sure, it's fine to start by figuring out the right calorie level, and when that's routine - month-ish, maybe - maybe start gradually adding the strength training. But it sounds like you're doing both now, anyway? If it's not feeling unsustainable/extreme, I think you're doing fine, now.

If you stick with your 1800 for at least one whole menstrual cycle, so you can compare bodyweight at the same relative point in at least two cycles, that should let you know roughly what your actual average calorie deficit is (lose 1 pound per week = about 500 calorie daily deficit, or use that to estimate fractions thereof). The possible bump in that road is that if you're losing quite slowly, the routine multi-pound water weight fluctuations can possibly hide fat loss progress on the scale for more than one month . . . a thing I've demonstrated to myself in actual practice!

I'd also endorse the comment that 1800 isn't necessarily too many calories - I'd lose slowly on that, even if eating exercise calories on top of that, at 5'5", currently 129 pounds, age 67 and female (also hypothyroid, but properly medicated for it). It will be too many calories for some women, too few for others: In a month or two, you'll know how it works for you.

Also, the idea that any woman can't be muscular enough to look "toned" at 5'4" and 126 pounds . . . nah. Admittedly, overall build matters: It might be too low a weight for a muscular woman who has wide hips, wide shoulders - takes more skin and muscle to span around those wider inches - or larger breasts, let alone all of the above. My profile photo is of me at 5'5", in the 120s pounds somewhere. I'm no bodybuilder (by far), but I'm not completely un-muscular either, I think. For sure, bodybuilder levels of muscularity might imply a slim/lean look at substantially higher weight, but that level of muscularity doesn't seem to be what most women mean by "toned".

Best wishes!

JBanx256 wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

I’m just going to say that everyone is different so you need to find what works for YOU. To the poster saying 1800 cals is too high to lose weight - I’m 5’3.5 and I lose weight on 1900 a day ( I maintain on c2100 - 2,300). To the poster saying you can’t be muscular at 124 pounds; i weigh 119 and am just under 5’4 - I am muscular.

We are all different, so you need to be consistent for a while - try 6 weeks - then take stock and see what is happening, whether you need to reduce or increase calories.

^^^ wise words. I prepped for a photoshoot -meaning got EXTREMELY lean (unhealthy/unsustainably low bodyfat) - on ~1700 cal/day (EXACTLY 2 days did I dip below that).

I'm 5'4" as well, also muscular, but significantly heavier (maintaining at ~150; my maintenance calories are currently hovering in the ~3500/day range).

Everybody (and every body) is different.

One more vote for this. I can't say what the OP needs in terms of calories or what her body would be like at a particular weight, but I am 5'3" and I went from 149 to 112 eating no less than 1800 a day. I am quite muscular. It's definitely possible.

JBanx256 wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

I’m just going to say that everyone is different so you need to find what works for YOU. To the poster saying 1800 cals is too high to lose weight - I’m 5’3.5 and I lose weight on 1900 a day ( I maintain on c2100 - 2,300). To the poster saying you can’t be muscular at 124 pounds; i weigh 119 and am just under 5’4 - I am muscular.

We are all different, so you need to be consistent for a while - try 6 weeks - then take stock and see what is happening, whether you need to reduce or increase calories.

^^^ wise words. I prepped for a photoshoot -meaning got EXTREMELY lean (unhealthy/unsustainably low bodyfat) - on ~1700 cal/day (EXACTLY 2 days did I dip below that).

I'm 5'4" as well, also muscular, but significantly heavier (maintaining at ~150; my maintenance calories are currently hovering in the ~3500/day range).

Everybody (and every body) is different.

And there was me thinking you are a heck of a lot taller than me as you lift SO much more than me! Gives me hope I might get stronger and more muscular in time 😀

Colorado_Mama wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

I’m just going to say that everyone is different so you need to find what works for YOU. To the poster saying 1800 cals is too high to lose weight - I’m 5’3.5 and I lose weight on 1900 a day ( I maintain on c2100 - 2,300). To the poster saying you can’t be muscular at 124 pounds; i weigh 119 and am just under 5’4 - I am muscular.

We are all different, so you need to be consistent for a while - try 6 weeks - then take stock and see what is happening, whether you need to reduce or increase calories.

THANK YOU! I wasn’t looking for criticisms or anything, just advice. I have been told multiple times that 1800 calories is sufficient and that eating too few calories is worse for me than better. So I think I’ll just have to figure this out on my own. Ideally I think losing the weight first then focusing on building muscle is best and that’s all I wanted advice on.

Keep the muscle by strength training now - or there will only be more fat under the fat you lose!

When you have excess fat and starting strength training is about the ONLY time you might possibly gain some muscle while losing body fat and weight.

Don't just become a smaller version of current self - have some muscle to show when the fat is gone!

Colorado_Mama wrote: »

Thank you for this. Super helpful. I always thought if I didn’t lose any pounds on the scale but gained muscle in its place, that would be ok but I’m finding the scale numbers still bother me. No clue why either. I am already feeling stronger and happier just not “smaller”. It’s dumb I know lol

I'm thinking you may have been given some 1 liners before that don't help the situation:
"you probably aren't losing weight because you are gaining muscle"
"muscle weighs more than fat so probably gaining that"
"you are turning fat into muscle"
probably some other similar ideas.

All false.
If only it was possible to gain muscle so fast as to offset the rate that fat can be lost.
As a woman - especially no where near.
Also when first starting resistance training, there is no muscle added until you've tapped out what you've got. And form improvements can have you increasing weight on the bar while that's happening.
You could have many weeks of progressive training and the body has no need to even add muscle yet.

If you aren't losing scale weight there can be several reasons.
1) Gaining water weight - most exercise encourages the body to store more glycogen in the muscle for future muscle usage - that stores with attached water. Or increased blood volume due to increase vessels to get oxygen to all these muscles being used now or for sweating - increased water. Or repair from a hard workout, inflammation with water.

2) You aren't actually eating in a deficit (if it's not water weight) - you aren't eating less than you burn.
Many times that is overestimating how much you think exercise burns, or you burn daily - though it can be sloppy food logging too underestimating calories in.

3) You are too severe with calorie restriction and body is adapting after some loss, you feel more tired, more cold, workouts feel hard but that's only because you don't have energy to truly do them hard, you rest more, less spontaneous activity. In essence body adapts to have you burn less, and during this state cortisol increases and along with it water weight. Slowly adding 20 lbs of water weight can hide a lot of scale fat weight lost. And cause more stress for most people.

And that's why scale weight by itself is not a great measurement - add several body part measurements to the tracking.
1 & 3 you'll still see measurements go down because you are losing fat weight. Water weight is generally all over.
3 is just a bad state for the body to be in though, the how low can you go with a diet level is no good if there is lots to lose, because not only stressed already, but eating less and less to keep it going just adds more stress. Body in that state will usually break eventually to recover. Nothing like being laid up for weeks with an injury!

Keep going for that stronger - helps so much in everything.