Struggling to lose the last pounds of fat.

Nephelys
Nephelys Posts: 27 Member
edited July 2023 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everybody !

To say I'm struggling is an understatement.

For the background, I'm a woman and I weighed 90 kilos (200lbs) at my highest, and I lost it all without any help, making a few mistakes during the process (by cutting calories a lot, until I was down to 500/800 kcal a day, but at the time it worked like a charm). I reached a weight I consider healthy and normal at 63/65kg(140/144lbs) for a 1m67 (5'5.75). I've also gained muscle in the process. I've been maintaining that for 7 years (I think?). I've never gained any weight back, apart from a few variations of 5kilos, which I consider normal. However, I'm having a hell of a time getting down below that, and yes, I've still got some fat to lose, clearly.

By some miracle two years ago I managed to get down to 57kg (126lbs) and I still had a few kilos of fat I wanted to lose (and I was also more muscular at the time). Ideally, I'd like to be at 20% fat, which I think I'll be able to achieve if I get to 55kg (122lbs).

Today I'm 65kg (144lbs) and I've been back on a very strict diet and a fairly intense workout program for 50 days and I'm stagnating stagnating stagnating. I must have lost maybe 300 grams...

I have an office job, I'm a web developer, I sit on my *kitten* literally all day lol, so unfortunately, really, inactive. (but I go there by bike which is 40 min a day), I'm a woman, not very tall, with a very slow metabolism, and with time, I figured out that 1700/1800 was my maintenance.

I'm currently at 1300/1400kcal per day, I work out 6 times a week:
-3 full cardio sessions of 1 hour (and it's relatively intense, I'm at 170 bpm the whole time)
-2 full strength training sessions (I started strength training 3 years ago and even though I've been moderately assiduous, I don't want to lose everything I've spent so much time building up, so I'm obliged to maintain strength training sessions to keep a bit of muscle mass)
- and one "mixed" session (moderate cardio and full-body strength training).
And I also try to do at least 5,000 steps a day on top of everything else.

And I don't lose a thing. I've been counting my calories since I started my diet, which was 10 years ago, so I'm familiar with it, I count absolutely every ingredient and weigh everything. I cook all my meals, never eat out, no processed food. So this counting calorie thing is as reliable as it gets. The problem doesn't come from that.
At this point I don't know what to do... it's so frustrating and discouraging. If I ever miss a day at the gym (because I'm too tired or I've got my period, for example), I feel guilty all day because it will slow down the already painfully slow process even more.

Sorry for the long post, I don't know how to keep it short lol. And thank you to those who will take the time to read and maybe reply too! :)

PS: I've already done low carb, keto, fasting, omad and omad + keto (worst thing I've ever done, clearly not for me) and none of it has had any significant results. I understand that it can work for some people, but that's not my case. And I don't want to have to make my diet even more rigid - it's complicated enough as it is to stay at 1400kcal a day and I'd like to still have a little pleasure in eating and not restrict absolutely everything that brings me a little joy (i.e. fruits and a square of dark chocolate).
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Replies

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,788 Member
    Take a step back. Recognize the progress you've already accomplished!!! Know that you are at a healthy weight. Those last few pounds can be excruciatingly low. Double down on your tracking, make sure you're accounting for every calorie. You can do this, but yeah, those last few are the most difficult ones. And then you have to decide whether it's worth it to go through all the work forever to maintain the 120.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,206 Member
    What if you ease up on the cardio and lift heavier weights? Do a program that progressively strains your muscles, 3x a week?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    csplatt wrote: »
    What if you ease up on the cardio and lift heavier weights? Do a program that progressively strains your muscles, 3x a week?

    Another vote for this. See also recomp: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

    And here is one woman's results with that:

    https://www.chron.com/life/health/article/My-Sweat-Life-blogger-Kelsey-Wells-posts-photo-8468124.php

    p5qloqbowtxl.png
  • janet2030
    janet2030 Posts: 12 Member
    Carnt understand why its stopped working for you but obviously something is off.
    Im 5ft 3..ive gone from 9st 9 to 8st 11 in 7 weeks on around 1400-1600 a day on adverage.
    I gym 6 days a week, cardio, resistance and weights. I know you say your tracking and have done for a while

    However your clearly not in a deficit, you carnt be or youd be loosing

    Ive also heard some people dont track drinks i dont know if you do or not but they should be added. I had to calm my coffees down as it was adding 100s
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    I used MCT's and polyphenols the last few weeks of contest to help get fat down to lowest levels.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,656 Member
    Others have commented on why your loss might be slowing and whether you should be thinking of recomp so I won’t comment on that (except to say another vote for recomp!). BUT - you mention 20% body fat. I don’t know your age but it’s worth noting that women generally need higher body fat than men and 20% is not sustainable for everyone. The lowest I got down to was 15%, I reckon I’m now at c23%. 15% definitely had an impact on my hormones and given my age (49), even 20% might not be great. I have a lot of muscle for my size but also a fair amount of fat (for comparison’s sake I am 5’3 and 56kg). Aesthetically I’d like to have a lower body fat, but for my sport and health I’m in a good place.

    Long winded way of saying more muscle (on me personally) = less visible fat. Think about the health aims as a woman in addition to appearance and go slowly to get there.
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  • Nephelys
    Nephelys Posts: 27 Member
    csplatt wrote: »
    What if you ease up on the cardio and lift heavier weights? Do a program that progressively strains your muscles, 3x a week?
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    csplatt wrote: »
    Another vote for this. See also recomp:

    Hi ! thanks for your answer

    I already do heavy weight training. Before I started doing cardio again (I also wanted to improve my cardio in general, because having a small heart murmur, I don't have very good cardio in general and as soon as I stop I easily lose my progress) I did 4 strength training workouts a week (2 upper body; 2 lower body). I hadn't noticed any big difference in terms of fat loss. It was a program made by a coach friend who knows what he's doing (his physique speaks for itself), so in theory it was a good program.
  • Nephelys
    Nephelys Posts: 27 Member
    edited July 2023
    janet2030 wrote: »
    Carnt understand why its stopped working for you but obviously something is off.
    Im 5ft 3..ive gone from 9st 9 to 8st 11 in 7 weeks on around 1400-1600 a day on adverage.
    I gym 6 days a week, cardio, resistance and weights. I know you say your tracking and have done for a while

    However your clearly not in a deficit, you carnt be or youd be loosing

    Ive also heard some people dont track drinks i dont know if you do or not but they should be added. I had to calm my coffees down as it was adding 100s

    I mean everybody is different.. so what works for you doesn't mean it'll work for me. And I don't know if this is your first diet or not because that counts too. The more you put your body through dieting phases, the less responsive it becomes. For example,my boyfriend, who's never been on a real diet, just needs to drop 300 calories a day, without adding any physical activity, and he'll lose 2 kilos very quickly and easily.
    When I say I have an ultra-slow metabolism, I'm not exaggerating, maybe it's also out of whack with all the restrictions I've put it through. I don't know.

    In terms of liquids, I only take 100ml of orange juice in the morning which I count, and that's it. The rest is water or just tea (no sugar or anything), so no calories.
  • Nephelys
    Nephelys Posts: 27 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    I used MCT's and polyphenols the last few weeks of contest to help get fat down to lowest levels.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Hi ! thanks. I'll look into that! How much of each do you consume per day?
  • Nephelys
    Nephelys Posts: 27 Member
    edited July 2023
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    Others have commented on why your loss might be slowing and whether you should be thinking of recomp so I won’t comment on that (except to say another vote for recomp!). BUT - you mention 20% body fat. I don’t know your age but it’s worth noting that women generally need higher body fat than men and 20% is not sustainable for everyone. The lowest I got down to was 15%, I reckon I’m now at c23%. 15% definitely had an impact on my hormones and given my age (49), even 20% might not be great. I have a lot of muscle for my size but also a fair amount of fat (for comparison’s sake I am 5’3 and 56kg). Aesthetically I’d like to have a lower body fat, but for my sport and health I’m in a good place.

    Long winded way of saying more muscle (on me personally) = less visible fat. Think about the health aims as a woman in addition to appearance and go slowly to get there.

    Hi thanks for your answer !
    I'm 32. I know it's sometimes unsustainable and not necessarily the best in terms of health, but really it's more of a personal goal. I want to see what my body would look like if I could achieve that. And from there, see if it's worth it and how feasible it is for me to maintain it. Mostly, I'd like to get to a point where my abs are slightly visible, and to do that, I need to get down low. I'm not a "naturally thin" person, I've got suite a large build. You know, endormorph type.
    But before I get below 20%, I'd have to lose those 5 kilos I put on a few months ago lol.
    I'm going to think about recomposing my training, I hate doing cardio in the gym (it's bored the hell out of me), so I wouldn't mind getting rid of some cardio sessions and replacing them with strength training.

    And if that's you in your profil picture, you look fantastic!! I don't know what fair amount of fat you're talking about haha! Especially at 56kg with lots of muscle, there can't be much fat left :).

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