Need to lose body fat, not weight, stuck at 15.5%

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Susan V said:
Try tracking your fat and keep it to around 30-35% but also pick foods that have the right kind of fat - like fatty fish, nuts, avocados etc.
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What do you mean by tracking your fat? After my dinner I'm up to 882 calories, 62 fat, 9 carbs, 67 protien. The graph shows that at 65% fat. Are you saying that my 62 grams of fat is 62x9 = 558 of my 882 calories? That would seem terrible.

If that is the case then I need to start picking up some foods without as much fat in them. Also, if that is the case, I thought that eggs were supposed to be good to eat but one egg is 70 calories - 40 of them from fat...

I'm obviously missing something big here.

Update:
Total for today, 1369 calories: 54% fat, 8% carbs, 22% protien, 16% alcohol (3 beers!). Guess I need to get that fat% down some huh?
 
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To figure your calories from fat: Fat Grams X 9 divided by total calories. 54% of calories from fat is VERY high. Even with consuming really good fats I rarely go over 35% of my calories from fat. Fat may not make you fat, but when you are consuming that much - it can't be good. Eggs are okay to eat, so are lots of other high fat foods - but it should not be the majority of what you eat. Start choosing leaner foods - more whole grains, vegatables, fruit, nuts, fish, chicken, turkey.
 
Just eat how you normally eat so we can figure out what your average intake is.

From there we'll work on building a new diet.
 
While I can certainly agree with eating normally to get a good baseline, I don't see a reason to not cut back on the fat at the same time. By that I mean, a lot of these foods I have at the house are low carb items that I've been eating for 5 weeks now. I'm going to make a stop at the store and pick up a few of the things that I used to eat. For example, instead of low calorie low carb yogurt, I used to eat low calorie low fat. I won't change much though until after we assess my current dietary intake.

That fat number sure was a shock! The bunk analog scale works pretty good too, although not as pimp as a digital one.

I thought you would like to know that my chest and arms are a little sore from the other days workout. Some areas on my back too where I have never done a standing overhead press or a deadlift. I look forward to my next one on Tuesday.
 
Yeah, I'm not planning on doing anything sneaky and eating all pink salmon and lettuce for the next week.
 
Usually when it says 83% fat, that is based on the "requirements" for a 2,000 calories diet. So if you're doing 2,000 calories a day... 85% of your daily fat intake is in that item. Those things can be kinda silly though. I focus more on the kinds of fats... monounsaturated and polyunsaturated being good, trans fats and saturated fats being bad.
 
nc_bmac08 said:
Usually when it says 83% fat, that is based on the "requirements" for a 2,000 calories diet.
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Fitday does it that way for micronutrients, but not macronutrients. So if it says 83% fat, that would mean 83% of the calories you've consumed so far are from fat, not that you've eaten 83% of your allotted fat calories for the day.

I really wish it would let you set targets and show variances for macronutrients. Something like "you need 150 calories and 10g of protein to meet your targets for today."
 
Ok, I've been tracking it for a week now. I have been picking up lower fat or no fat food items and mixing them in there to try to get the fat% down. I think I may need to get that number down drastically? What information from the fitday site do I need to paste in here?

Here is the little graph that it shows for the week:

f_fatm_8f8e5dc.jpg


I can tell you one other unusual thing that has been occurring this week. My weight each morning has been fluctuating less than ever. By that I mean it has been 135.5 to 136.5 and the body fat between 15.5 and 15.8%. Previously there was usually a 2 pound fluctuation (or more) and a 1% or more body fat fluctuation.

I have also started doing one or two 30 minutes hiit sessions a day at the gym (once at lunch, once in the evening), while still doing some long slow cardio on other days.
 
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I'll say this without devling into the nutrition...

I'm not going to keep offering advice if it's going to fall on deaf ears. This is in response to the 1-2 sessions of HIIT per day.
 
Not everyone feels the same way I don't believe when it comes to what types of cardio to do for maximum fat loss. Rather than continue to do slow cardio (heart rate of 105-115) for an hour a day, never breaking a sweat, I have chosen to throw in some higher intensity cardio for small periods of time, 20-30 minutes. When I do these sessions my heart rate ranges from 110-120 during slow segments to 130-140 during high segments. I definitely work up a "sweat" doing this. I am still doing the long slow cardio every other day.

I see no downside of trying this out.

I assume that I need to pick up some leaner meats to eat, eat more fruits vegetables, etc to get my fat% down to 20% or less. Hopefully someone can clue me in if this is a good approach or not.

Thanks!
 
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pcm2a said:
Not everyone feels the same way I don't believe when it comes to what types of cardio to do for maximum fat loss.
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What people 'feel' means absolutely nothing to me.

Nor should it to you.

This isn't about what people feel. It's about recoverability while dieting; managing fatigue. Two sessions of HIIT per day is simply idiotic. Period.

Rather than continue to do slow cardio (heart rate of 105-115) for an hour a day, never breaking a sweat, I have chosen to throw in some higher intensity cardio for small periods of time, 20-30 minutes.
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HIIT doesn't last for 30 minutes.

When I do these sessions my heart rate ranges from 110-120 during slow segments to 130-140 during high segments. I definitely work up a "sweat" doing this. I am still doing the long slow cardio every other day.
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It doesn't sound like you are doing HIIT.

I see no downside of trying this out.
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Do real HIIT twice per day while dieting for a month and come back and tell me how you feel.
 
It is quite possible that what I am doing could differ from some technical definition of H.I.I.T. What I did was google HIIT, read a few articles, then googled things like "HIIT elliptical", "HIIT treadmill". What I found was people doing varying cardio exercises but one thing was pretty common. The cardio would invole doing a few minutes of low intensity cardio, followed by a few minutes of high intensity. Back and forth for 20-30 minutes. This is what I have started doing. This is extremely different from what I have been doing for a long time at the gym. I suspect that different is what I need too.

I also have read various articles that state that two sessions of cardio (i.e. 2x30 minutes) at different times of the day provides better results than 1 hour of cardio. Obviously this may or may not be correct, but I see no harm in sometimes doing 2 sessions and sometimes doing one. Remember, I was already doing 45-60 minutes of slow cardio during lunch 3 days a week (at work) and then 6 days a week at the gym weights or cardio.

Since I obviously have no idea what type of cardio will provide the best results for me, but I know for certain that 1 hour of slow cardio a day will not, I will try mixing things up. I will not be doing 2 sessions of 30 minutes every day, but some days I will. 30 minutes of what I am calling (or incorrectly calling) hiit is about all I can handle at one time. After that I have to just do some slow treadmill walking.

Hopefully a mixture of eating less fatty foods and changing up my cardio will trigger additional fat loss. Getting that fat% down to 20% will be a real challenge. I read some people saying to keep it under 30% and some under 20%. I am also really enjoying the new workout plan, and look forward to seeing how things progress as I increase my weights periodically.
 
Steve said:
It doesn't sound like you are doing HIIT.
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I have to really do some intense stuff to get my heart rate up above 140 at the gym. I don't know if thats normal or not, but I assume it was due to the fact of hitting the gym for such a long period of time. If I set a cardio machine at a high level to where it will definitely strain my body, and possibly injure myself, I can get it up to 150-160, but I don't see any benefit of ever doing that. Sometimes doing abs I check my heart rate (via a watch) and it will be up around 150 breifly.

I think doing the cardio that raises my heart rate multiple times over a 30 minute period to 130-140, rather than 60 minutes of 110, should help burn some fat. Do you think this is an incorrect assumption? At 110 I will never break a sweat.

Have a great night!
 
pcm2a said:
It is quite possible that what I am doing could differ from some technical definition of H.I.I.T. What I did was google HIIT, read a few articles, then googled things like "HIIT elliptical", "HIIT treadmill". What I found was people doing varying cardio exercises but one thing was pretty common. The cardio would invole doing a few minutes of low intensity cardio, followed by a few minutes of high intensity. Back and forth for 20-30 minutes. This is what I have started doing. This is extremely different from what I have been doing for a long time at the gym. I suspect that different is what I need too.
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HIIT is classically the alteration between low intensity and high intensity cardio. However, the high intensity portion is max effort; meaning, all out sprinting.

You aren't doing this.

What you are doing would be termed 'interval training.'

I'm not sure why you think this is something you "need."

The benefit of interval training over steady state is simply that it allows you to tap into higher intensity thresholds then you otherwise would be able to do using steady state. For example, you couldn't run at 85% of max HR for 45 minutes; 75% would be more reasonable. But maybe you could set up an interval session where you do the high intensity intervals at 85% and the low intensity intervals at 65% for 45 minutes.

I also have read various articles that state that two sessions of cardio (i.e. 2x30 minutes) at different times of the day provides better results than 1 hour of cardio. Obviously this may or may not be correct, but I see no harm in sometimes doing 2 sessions and sometimes doing one. Remember, I was already doing 45-60 minutes of slow cardio during lunch 3 days a week (at work) and then 6 days a week at the gym weights or cardio.
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I understand this. What you aren't understanding is recoverability as I've discussed it time and time again. If you're a fan of spinning your wheels, by all means tell me now. I'll just zip on out of here and let you have your fun.
 
having adequate protein levels accessible for the large muscle groups at all times rebuilds muscle tear down from muscle stress. the carb stores within the body (liver-generated) are approx 400-600 calories... this is where that 15-20 minute window comes from. the pancreas and liver are the "machines" that process the fuel for your body to work. keep them as healthy as possible for life!!!!

mix it up and keep the body fooled!

nourishment and intake frequency
5-6 times per day. 200-300 cals per
-complex carbs 200-300 grams,
-protien-75-100 grams, milk, eggs, tuna, oats, etc.
-fiber 30 grams
-fats eggs, meats, poultry, etc. 75-100 grams
-veggies... go to town. this is where the "glue" of the nutrition comes in to play

cardio at run, cycling, swimming, climbing, marching... heart rate 150-160 at least 1-2hrs per work out.


age: 50
weight: 160
bf%: 8-10%
 
yeah-muscles use up a lot of energy.the more muscle you have,the more calories you have to take in to pretty much function.building muscle increases the basal metabolic rate.that pretty much means the you will burn more calories to function.you can choose to believe it or not,it is your choice
 
I really think you did something wrong here, I am your exact height, and started off at 210 pounds 32 Body Fat august before last (so approx. 12 months) Now I am 152 and 8 percent body fat ( I got it tested). I have a decent 6 pack. I don't see how you aren't a skeleton at such a low weight. If you went from 180s to 130s...you lost about 50 pounds and only 8 percent body fat? You hosed yourself and ate your muscle away. Work on the muscle and EAT! Make a protein shake with 2 percent milk before and after workout and that is an easy way to increase calories without having to think about it too much. If you aren't working out that day, then have one.
 
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