Re: Losing Fat--Frustrated

[Guest guest]

If you're not losing fat it means you're not creating a consistent calorie

deficit. The Tanita is usually 5-7% high. I entered you numbers into the Hussman

BMR calculator assuming you're more like 28-30% body fat. According to that, you

should be eating 1100-1510 calories a day for maximum fat loss. It's not

necessary to count calories or use nutrition software religiously. Just do it

for a few days to get an idea of what your portions should look like, then you

can eyeball it. You can check out your portions and calories using a site like

http://fitday.com/ or http://www.calorieking.com/foods/ .

If you're doing BFL and not getting the results you want then here's what to

look at:

portion sizes

free day

carb choices

exercise intensity

If you're inadvertently eating more like 1,500-1,800 calories a day and some of

the other variables are off, you can find yourself in accidental maintenance

mode. There's nothing really wrong with that. Some people prefer to take it slow

and make BFL a healthy lifetime habit instead of really cracking down hard for

12 weeks. Everybody is different. If your goal is to drop 20 or more pounds then

the most important thing is to create a consistent calorie deficit every week.

Bump your daily activity up a little and drop the calories just a little until

you hit your stride.

Losing Fat--Frustrated

I understand that losing fat and building muscle simultaneously don't go

together.

Keeping that in mind, and knowing that I must first lose a bunch of fat, how

do you

go about that, especially in terms of what you eat?

I'm really frustrated because I've done BFL quite religiously for months at a

time, and

I'm obviously getting hard muscles, but the fat doesn't go. I know you can't

go too

low in calories, it seems that you can over-do it on the exercise end, but I'm

left with

frustration because I don't know where to go with this. I eventually lose

steam

because nothing much happens.

I'm 5'8 " and currently weigh around 160. Years ago I was mostly around 130 to

135,

and that was a good weight for me, not too thin at all. Since my son was

born (17

years ago, I'm ashamed to say), I've not gotten back below 150 to 160, which

is too

heavy for me. I've got a Tanita body fat scales (which I have my doubts

about), and it

keeps registering me at about 35% body fat, which I frankly find hard to

believe. I've

measured with calipers, but can't seem to get consistent results with that.

Maybe I'm

one of those " skinny Fat " people....not that I'm skinny, but according to that

35% level

I guess maybe that's true with me. Being tall, I guess I carry fat a bit

better than a

shorter person would.

I tried Atkins a year ago, and actually lost more weight (and some fat, too)

with about

5 weeks of that than I've lost with anything else. However, I don't like to

eat that way

and am reluctant to do it again, especially since I need more energy to do the

intensive exercise of BFL. I do think my biggest challenge is the nutrition

side of

things, but what to do about it?

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the input! This calorie level thing is a big issue for me, I think.

I had my

RMR tested with the Body Gem, which claimed my RMR caloric rate was 1800. If I

understand all that correctly, that's what I would burn just for basic essential

functions, and not moving around all day. So if I lower my eating a bit and

factor in

exercise, the Body Gem computer program came up with about 1400 calories per day

for me to eat in order to create the deficit to lose about 20-25 lbs in 12

weeks. I can

fairly easily keep my calories to that, and in fact, many times I end up under

that

amount. Which has led me to comtemplate the idea of UNDEReating as a fat loss

stall....although I sort of doubt that because I'm not consistently under. But

I do

wonder about the 1400 calories...if I should lower it to 1200 or so. I work out

very

intensively, so I'm not worried about that end of things. I do think you might

be right

about ending up in " maintenace mode " , though. Maybe I need to address my diet

more closely...measuring everything and really watching portions. I also think

I'm a

person that must eat little or NO bread. I know Bill reluctantly

allows it in

limited amounts. I mentioned having weight loss success on Atkins...due to the

nature of the food you could eat, and with zero bread and only 20 or fewer carbs

per

day, I was hard pressed to even manage 800 calories a day. But I definitely

lost

weight....I bought some jeans back then which I STILL can't get into!

Carola

> If you're not losing fat it means you're not creating a consistent calorie

deficit. The

Tanita is usually 5-7% high. I entered you numbers into the Hussman BMR

calculator

assuming you're more like 28-30% body fat. According to that, you should be

eating

1100-1510 calories a day for maximum fat loss. It's not necessary to count

calories

or use nutrition software religiously. Just do it for a few days to get an idea

of what

your portions should look like, then you can eyeball it. You can check out your

portions and calories using a site like http://fitday.com/ or http://

www.calorieking.com/foods/ .

>

> If you're doing BFL and not getting the results you want then here's what to

look at:

>

> portion sizes

> free day

> carb choices

> exercise intensity

>

> If you're inadvertently eating more like 1,500-1,800 calories a day and some

of the

other variables are off, you can find yourself in accidental maintenance mode.

There's

nothing really wrong with that. Some people prefer to take it slow and make BFL

a

healthy lifetime habit instead of really cracking down hard for 12 weeks.

Everybody is

different. If your goal is to drop 20 or more pounds then the most important

thing is

to create a consistent calorie deficit every week. Bump your daily activity up a

little

and drop the calories just a little until you hit your stride.

>

>

>

>

> Losing Fat--Frustrated

>

>

> I understand that losing fat and building muscle simultaneously don't go

together.

> Keeping that in mind, and knowing that I must first lose a bunch of fat, how

do

you

> go about that, especially in terms of what you eat?

>

> I'm really frustrated because I've done BFL quite religiously for months at

a time,

and

> I'm obviously getting hard muscles, but the fat doesn't go. I know you

can't go

too

> low in calories, it seems that you can over-do it on the exercise end, but

I'm left

with

> frustration because I don't know where to go with this. I eventually lose

steam

> because nothing much happens.

>

> I'm 5'8 " and currently weigh around 160. Years ago I was mostly around 130

to

135,

> and that was a good weight for me, not too thin at all. Since my son was

born

(17

> years ago, I'm ashamed to say), I've not gotten back below 150 to 160, which

is

too

> heavy for me. I've got a Tanita body fat scales (which I have my doubts

about),

and it

> keeps registering me at about 35% body fat, which I frankly find hard to

believe.

I've

> measured with calipers, but can't seem to get consistent results with that.

Maybe

I'm

> one of those " skinny Fat " people....not that I'm skinny, but according to

that 35%

level

> I guess maybe that's true with me. Being tall, I guess I carry fat a bit

better than a

> shorter person would.

>

> I tried Atkins a year ago, and actually lost more weight (and some fat, too)

with

about

> 5 weeks of that than I've lost with anything else. However, I don't like to

eat that

way

> and am reluctant to do it again, especially since I need more energy to do

the

> intensive exercise of BFL. I do think my biggest challenge is the nutrition

side of

> things, but what to do about it?

>

>

>

>

>