Losing body fat, why so hard?

Losing body fat, why so hard?

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Discussion

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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dontfollowme said:
I've just got the my fitness pal app and my target is 1200 calories per day. This is proving quite tricky so far - I have used all my calories already today frown

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/racinglikea...

Edited by dontfollowme on Sunday 7th October 14:40
Need to open up your diary.

Also, it's set at 1200 a day because your deadline is too close... presumably you have a lot to lose?

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Go do some exercise, earn your dinner!

I'm also on 1200 net, and finding I struggle to eat that little. I often find I need a ride on my bike or a session on the cross trainer to balance the books.

Still, it seems to be working. I set out to lose 21lb in 7 weeks, which I didn't think I would achieve. I've actually lost a bit over 17lb with one week to go, so with a big push this week I might hit it.

dontfollowme

1,158 posts

232 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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I'm 70kg looking to get down to 65. Carbs are my weakness.

Diary here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/racinglikea...

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
quotequote all
dontfollowme said:
I'm 70kg looking to get down to 65. Carbs are my weakness.

Diary here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/racinglikea...
If that's all you're looking to lose, then aim for 1700 and don't torture yourself over it. 1200 is what very heavy users are advised to aim for.

pilchardthecat

7,483 posts

178 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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at 70 kg and 1200 calories you will be losing 3 pounds of muscle for every pound of fat you drop

johnnyBv8

2,417 posts

190 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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pilchardthecat said:
at 70 kg and 1200 calories you will be losing 3 pounds of muscle for every pound of fat you drop
Shouldn't do if you're active and keep the muscle demand high - keep the protein levels up, and do 2-3 weights sessions a week.

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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pilchardthecat said:
at 70 kg and 1200 calories you will be losing 3 pounds of muscle for every pound of fat you drop
Can I ask what you base that on?

Rikk

128 posts

150 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Tesco - Large White Bap, 2 bap (95g)
Don't eat processed carbs(white flour), very naughty, granary/brown something like that for you body to actually digest.

a311

5,789 posts

176 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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dontfollowme said:
Carbs are my weakness.
To be honest looking at your food diary it's not the carbs that are your weakness just some of the choices and snacking. You've still got to have a life which is why at the moment I really restrict myself through the week but let up a bit at weekends but also have my main cardio workout too.

1200 cals is a low target to stick to compared to my 1800. Do you like cooking? This makes it easier, try to cut out the bread especially if it's white. My main meals of the day revolve around lean protein and usually low carb. Normally I have a heap of roasted veg, mixed salad, or greens with chicken, fish or red meat.

As I said in a previous post MFP goals seem low, so you could afford to let up. I soon got put off eating few hundred cal chocolate bar when for me it's about a 3 mile run to burn off!

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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I see this research cited a lot, which appears to show that extreme calorie restriction and hard exercise did not result in muscle loss until body fat was < c. 5%?

http://jap.physiology.org/content/77/2/933.abstrac...

5potTurbo

12,482 posts

167 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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Hoofy said:
dontfollowme said:
I'm 70kg looking to get down to 65. Carbs are my weakness.

Diary here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/racinglikea...
If that's all you're looking to lose, then aim for 1700 and don't torture yourself over it. 1200 is what very heavy users are advised to aim for.
Loads of food's not logged, either.... no dinner on a couple of occasions, then only Golden Shred marmalade for dinner?
Make sure you keep a constant log of the food you're eating. I'm using weightlossresources, and whilst they tell me I should eat at least half my exercise calories gained, I'm still sticking to ~1,600-1,700 cals./day, and losing ~1kg/week.

Mind you, I'm considerably heavier than you!

BMWBen

4,899 posts

200 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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Loving all the science. It's pretty simple. st loads of medium intensity cardio.

Not even nearly enough in your programme if you're trying to burn fat.

Come back after 3 months of cycling at least 120 miles every week wink

pilchardthecat

7,483 posts

178 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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otolith said:
pilchardthecat said:
at 70 kg and 1200 calories you will be losing 3 pounds of muscle for every pound of fat you drop
Can I ask what you base that on?
Mostly empirical evidence from my own very extensive experimentation, validated with some scientific papers.

Take my own anecdotal example - i dropped from 200lbs to 160lbs, 38" waist to 30" doing lots of cardio and dieting variously between 60 and 90 percent of my maintenance calories. It worked pretty well to begin with, but once i got below about 18% body fat i was losing a lot of lean mass, probably about 50/50 by the time i was at 15%.

The lower my fat % got, the worse the ratio of muscle/fat loss became.... i tracked this stuff very closely, the last 10lbs of total body weight looked like this.

At 170 lbs i was about 9% = 15lbs fat, 154 lbs lean
At 160lbs i was about 8% = 13lbs fat, 147 lbs lean

Which is 7lbs of muscle lost for 2lbs fat.

Cardio has it's uses - general CV health and fat loss if you are very overweight to begin with (ie 20%+ body fat for a man), but it is hugely over-rated as a fat loss method if you are fairly lean to start with


otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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Interesting. I'm not losing much lean mass, according to the bioelectrical impedance fat measurement from my scales (which I don't really trust for anything beyond curiosity). 17lb in six weeks by diet and cardio has lowered my body fat % from around 25-26 to around 18-20, depending on how vindictive the scales are feeling. I don't look or feel as if I'm losing lean mass, but then I'm not a body builder and I'm not trying to maintain a higher muscle mass than my normal activity would support.

I think perhaps that if you are trying to become very lean with more muscularity than your day job requires, you need to worry a lot more about these details.

pilchardthecat

7,483 posts

178 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
otolith said:
Interesting. I'm not losing much lean mass, according to the bioelectrical impedance fat measurement from my scales (which I don't really trust for anything beyond curiosity). 17lb in six weeks by diet and cardio has lowered my body fat % from around 25-26 to around 18-20, depending on how vindictive the scales are feeling. I don't look or feel as if I'm losing lean mass, but then I'm not a body builder and I'm not trying to maintain a higher muscle mass than my normal activity would support.

I think perhaps that if you are trying to become very lean with more muscularity than your day job requires, you need to worry a lot more about these details.
As i said, above 18-20% body fat it works pretty well.

Let us know how you get on from 15% down

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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To be honest, 15% fat should put me at a healthy sort of weight, so I doubt I will try to push it much lower.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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otolith said:
To be honest, 15% fat should put me at a healthy sort of weight, so I doubt I will try to push it much lower.
At 20%, you'd be fairly healthy. smile

As for avoiding losing lean muscle mass, throwing around heavy weights helps, I understand but you need to eat more eg 1700+. For CV work, I've been juggling kettebells and wielding barbells in a menacing fashion for the last 3 months and don't think I'm losing LMM or strength.

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
At 20%, you'd be fairly healthy. smile
My BMI is 26.5, and I'm not a "company director", so I think the body fat percentages my scales spit out need to be treated with a bucket of salt. I think 15% on my scales should correspond to a "normal" BMI.

Flibble

6,470 posts

180 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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BIA scales aren't absolutely accurate for body fat, however if used correctly (take readings at same time of day, and after same amount of food/water intake) then they are consistent so you can see whether your body fat is going up or down at least.