Frustrated With Inability To Shed Body Fat

marktina9767

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**EDITED FOR CLARITY

Long body fat rant here; I’m just frustrated. I’m using a burner for personal reasons.

I’ve been into fitness since my high school days (I’m in my late 40’s now), but I’ve never been able to shed body fat. I’m currently around 16% at 83.9146 kg/185 lb, and it’s not like I’m looking to get super low. At this point, I’d be happy to drop even 1%.

There’s a history of heart disease and type 2 diabetes on my paternal side. A big part of me wanted to shed the excess fat comes from wanted to avoid those issues.

I work out 4 days a week, and get 10k to 12k steps per day. I track my macros and weigh my portions as if it’s a religion. I’ve tried all the diet methods - low carb, low fat, high carb, high fat, intermittent fasting, body building style, etc.

Back in 2021, I was able to drop down to 168 from around 185. It was completely miserable, as I was eating about 1700 kcal a day - I had no energy, I felt weak in the gym and I had a quick fuse with people. I did a reverse diet for a couple of months and then returned to what I had been doing using the same percentages macro wise, but probably closer to 2000 kcal. I wasn't seeing much progress, so I turned to a nutritionist.

I’ve worked with this nutritionist for the last 14 months. It is essentially a IIFYM plan; with that said I typically eat pretty clean. Breakfast always includes fruit; some times Greek yogurt or cottage cheese; eggs; rarely a sugar-free cereal.

Lunch is typically some kind of meat on a salad; carrots; some broccoli/cauliflower; more fruit; Greek yogurt if I didn't have any for breakfast.

Dinner is typically also a protein and veggies. Post workout is where I will have a protein supplement and some good carbs, like a cup of oats.

I started out with a daily intake of 2200-2300 kcal (170-180 p, 100-150 c 100-110 f), adjusting monthly depending on how well things worked. In the first couple of months I dropped a little weight but not much in the way of BF, so adjustments were made after each follow up to see what might work. Currently I'm shooting for about 2150 kcal a day with my macros at 150 P, 275 C, and 50 F.

These are likely numbers based on TDEE. I've use this as a calculation in the past and in discussions with the nutritionist about my level of activity we've always aimed to be in a deficit. When I've talked about adding more cardio, the nutritionist would always insist on adding in some additional calories.

I’ve had lab work done, which all comes back normal. My PCP says I should be glad to fall in the normal range for BMI (which we all know is a terrible metric). Yes, of course, I’m grateful to be in good health and strong, but I’m living this lifestyle, investing my time, effort, and money. It’s a frustration that I haven’t been able to find a way to overcome this obstacle.
 
@marktina9767 First, I'd stop seeing that nutritionist if they're not helping you. Your lab work came back clean. Lacking any sort of metabolic or hormonal disorder, there's nothing for a medical professional to assist you with.

Second, calories in has to be less than calories out. That's how you burn fat. Diets reduce the calories in. Exercise increases the calories out. Everything boils down to this equation unless you have a metabolic disorder.You've told us about how much you're exercising. Sounds great - wouldn't alter this part of the equation yet.

So what're you eating? You haven't touched on that. You've said you've tried various diets but not for how long or what progress/changes you've seen while on them.

You need to aim for a caloric deficit. A pound of bodyfat has about 3500 calories in it. If your body operates on 1500 calories a day baseline plus an extra 500 calories from your exercise, then 2000 calories on average will maintain your status quo. Reducing that to 1600 calories will see you lose about a pound every nine or so days (400 calories * 9 days = 3600 calorie deficit a week). Keep a food journal using a scale and the nutrition label on whatever you're eating. Don't eat things you cannot easily track because it'll throw off your numbers.

Some people try to hasten this by operating at an extreme deficit, but that's not maintainable. Your body will start cannibalizing muscle and organ if it thinks it is being too calorie starved, so operate at a maintainable, healthy deficit until you see the results you want.
 
@parmabandit Wanted to follow up on this - it's only been 3 weeks, but wanted to share.

After reading through what you shared I dropped my cals from 2150 to 1950. I also found that I may have been measuring my protein intake wrong, weighing the meat after it's cooked. So two adjustments to my diet. I've also added some running into my step count.

My I dropped about 2.5 pounds the first week, but I know that deficit wasn't enough to account for that loss. The first weigh it was likely a bit of a false flag. Since then I've weighed in every 5 days and the average remains the same. weight≠bodyfat
 
@marktina9767 200 calories less a day means you'll be burning off a pound in about 2.5 weeks. So at this point you'd have burnt off around one pound of bodyfat. If you're putting on muscle as well, then you'd have gained it back.
 
@parmabandit I get that and appreciate your feedback - I was just wondering if I should give what I'm currently doing a little more time before before I look at making adjustments.
 
@parmabandit sorry, not trying to be obtuse. I'm getting my 1950 from 150 P, 225 C, & 50 F. Here's a typical day of eating:


Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Post WO/Snack

Cottage CheeseBanana
deviled eggOikos YogurtAppleBaby-Cut CarrotsBreaded Chicken Tenderloin BreastsBerries (mixed)Broccoli Slaw
Venison, GroundStreet taco flour tortillasMexican Style RiceCookies, Thumbprint
Chocolate Protein ShakeOld Fashioned Oats

Protein: 26.00Carbs: 21.34Fat: 10.00Calories: 279.36
Protein: 42.11Carbs: 101.50Fat: 15.30Calories: 699.55
Protein: 37.99Carbs: 47.35Fat: 11.34Calories: 414.94
Protein: 40.00Carbs: 58.00Fat: 7.50Calories: 459.50
 
@marktina9767 That's all looking solid. If you keep it up, you will see results. Your doing a workout and not eating much, so your body composition is likely changing to put on more muscle which will gain you weight, but that's healthy. Muscle burns more calories while in a resting state, so your daily consumption will go up and you'll burn more every day.

Keep it up and report back in ~3 months.
 
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