A few questions to lose belly fat

roosterman71

I'm 6', and weigh 85kg. I've been using MyFitnessPal for a while and it says I need to eat 1960 calories a day to cut 0.25kg per week. Which I can do pretty easily, but I ain't dropping the weight. This goes against a test I did one day in work which said I'd need 2400kcal just to maintain myself!

I do 2 days running (8km each, avg. <5min/km), and a gym glass (weights, core, cardio - a bit of a mixed bag) at least twice a week, sometimes 3. And if time and weather allows, I'd do a cycle (min 50k at the weekend too). Obviously, on these active days I can eat more according to the app (I use a HRM so the calorie count in MFP should be accurate enough as it's linked to Garmin Connect)

Few questions on the MyFitnessPal app:

1. When entering food by weight, is it the cooked or pre-cooked weight you enter?
2. Is the premium membership worth it?

I suppose ye wanna know what I eat each day! Usually it's something like this:
Breakfast
Porridge with milk
Pumpkin, chia and sunflower seeds
Blueberries if I have them here
Maybe a bit of honey 1/2 times a week

Snack
A banana or soda bread, butter and jam/fried egg

Lunch (normally after run/gym)
Salad bowl - lettuce, peppers, broccoli/carrot/nut mix, bulgar wheat, scallions, boiled eggs, cold chicken
Whey protein shake

Dinner
Chicken breast
Something from this list: Quinoa/Veg/Sweet Potato/Beans/Pasta/Rice
The odd evening then might have pasta bolognaise

Weekends are a bit of a mixed bag due to the mother being in charge of me food!
I won't lie, I do nibble a biscuit or 2 after my dinner. But only if it's doesn't put me in the red on MFP!

So what can I do to lose another 2/3kg and tone up a bit more?

Zillah

roosterman71 wrote: »

So what can I do to lose another 2/3kg and tone up a bit more?

Eat slightly less than you are!

You could easily be under-estimating your portion sizes in MFP, for example. Do you weigh your food? Your exercise might also be burning less than you think it is.

You could also ditch the classes (which from what I have seen are basically glorified cardio) and do some proper resistance training. Help you build some more muscle and increase you overall calorie needs.

marialouise

If you're not losing, you're intake is too high. It doesn't matter what MFP says you should eat, the number is just a guide and if you are not losing on 1960, you need to lower that number. Maybe bring it down to 1850 or 1800 and see how you get on after 2 weeks.

Are you weighing everything? Porridge to the gram, the butter as part of your snack, whey powder, chicken breast, measuring your milk to the ml?
To answer your question, I would weigh everything raw or uncooked. The nutrition information on a packet of chicken fillets or oats is only for 100g raw and I don't know how I could weigh it after and calculate it. I know there are loads of foods like "baked potato" in MFP but why not just weigh it before you cook it and be done with it I say! What the Premium features are that you think are necessary, I never upgraded and wouldn't bother.

Also what did you select for activity level? I would set it to sedentary and then use the Garmin information to see calorie usage.

How bad is the weekend? Do you still log everything? Calories in Vs Calories out, it doesn't really matter what mum is making if you're not having too much of it! It sounds like you are careful if you are logging the biscuits, and that's excellent if you can fit them into your calorie goal, that's the whole point of it all, well done!

Weight loss will come from your diet, and if you lift weights you will maintain muscle while losing fat and when the fat is reduced you will appear toned, voilà ! So take great care with the diet and get a good exercise programme going. Also you can't reduce fat from a particular area, so it just has to come off everywhere and you might only notice it on the belly after significant weight loss so don't be discouraged. Try not to focus too much on the scales but use progress photos and measurements also to give you an idea of your progress.

bladespin

Don't count exercise calories into your diet and load up, just consider then a bonus defecit.

roosterman71

Thanks for the info so far. There's a few questions I can answer, but I'll do that later. Just havin a cuppa here. Been out lugging around 50kg bags of fertilizer for the morning so a bit thirsty now!

marialouise

roosterman71 wrote: »

Thanks for the info so far. There's a few questions I can answer, but I'll do that later. Just havin a cuppa here. Been out lugging around 50kg bags of fertilizer for the morning so a bit thirsty now!

Did you measure and log the milk? :P

New Goat

marialouise wrote: »

Did you measure and log the milk? :P

Not a laughing matter :pac:

Depending on how many cups of tea/coffee per day and how milky it is this can add up to a sizable amount of calories, which over a long period of time could contribute to quite a bit of weight gain.

bladespin

New Goat wrote: »

Not a laughing matter :pac:

Depending on how many cups of tea/coffee per day and how milky it is this can add up to a sizable amount of calories, which over a long period of time could contribute to quite a bit of weight gain.

Possibly but it would more likely hinder weight loss, these are the little things that can sabotage your progress.

It might sound hard work but start off by weighing and measuring everything, it'll give you a good idea of proper serving size and help for calorie/macro guesstimates later on, it won't take you long to learn what's what.

marialouise

I know it's not a laughing matter! I was using the post as an opportunity to remind the OP once again of the importance of weighing everything, for the exact reasons you said..

roosterman71

Zillah wrote: »

Eat slightly less than you are!

You could easily be under-estimating your portion sizes in MFP, for example. Do you weigh your food? Your exercise might also be burning less than you think it is.

I do weigh my food, when and where possible. I've been doing it a good while now so I'm fairly confident any estimations wouldn't be wildly inaccurate (within 10/20g - I have actually tested this by estimating and then weighing!)

Zillah wrote: »

You could also ditch the classes (which from what I have seen are basically glorified cardio) and do some proper resistance training. Help you build some more muscle and increase you overall calorie needs.

I ain't ditching the classes. They are more than cardio. There is weights in every session, also working on presses, squats, dead lifts, etc. I'm definately stronger and fitter than I was before I started those classes, and my waist has got smaller. Weight still the same though but I'm not too stressed about that. Happy to stay the same weight and replace fat with muscle, but wouldn't mind dropping another 2/3kg, if nothing else it will help me peddle up mountains!

marialouise wrote: »

If you're not losing, you're intake is too high. It doesn't matter what MFP says you should eat, the number is just a guide and if you are not losing on 1960, you need to lower that number. Maybe bring it down to 1850 or 1800 and see how you get on after 2 weeks.

On non training days, I'd be below the 1960. I'm just a little worried that it's 500 below the estimates for my BMR each day, which according to any and all calculations for a fella like me, it's 2400 of a BMR. Then on training days, I would eat a little more plus the whey protein shake to get back some of the extra kcal.

marialouise wrote: »

Are you weighing everything? Porridge to the gram, the butter as part of your snack, whey powder, chicken breast, measuring your milk to the ml?

As I said, when I can. I have a good digital scales that I use for breakfast and dinner. Lunch is estimated, unless I bring it in with me to work. Weekend is nearly always estimated.

marialouise wrote: »

To answer your question, I would weigh everything raw or uncooked. The nutrition information on a packet of chicken fillets or oats is only for 100g raw and I don't know how I could weigh it after and calculate it. I know there are loads of foods like "baked potato" in MFP but why not just weigh it before you cook it and be done with it I say! What the Premium features are that you think are necessary, I never upgraded and wouldn't bother.

Thanks for that. I was mixing and matching for no apparent reason. For example, I'd weight the pasta/rice raw, but the chicken cooked! I'll move to pre-cooked weighing.

marialouise wrote: »

Also what did you select for activity level? I would set it to sedentary and then use the Garmin information to see calorie usage.

Sedentry. I've a desk job so on my backside all day. I still hit around 6,000 steps on these days from general pottering around. I have the lowest activity profile set on MFP

marialouise wrote: »

How bad is the weekend? Do you still log everything? Calories in Vs Calories out, it doesn't really matter what mum is making if you're not having too much of it! It sounds like you are careful if you are logging the biscuits, and that's excellent if you can fit them into your calorie goal, that's the whole point of it all, well done!

It's not bad, just different food. For example, breakfast is wholemeal bread and a banana. Dinner is good old fashined grub - bacon/stew/chicken with veg and spuds. Probably a bowl of fruit salad too. Supper then is often a couple of fried eggs, beans, bacon and bread. Most of the weights are estimated I admit.

marialouise wrote: »

Weight loss will come from your diet, and if you lift weights you will maintain muscle while losing fat and when the fat is reduced you will appear toned, voilà ! So take great care with the diet and get a good exercise programme going. Also you can't reduce fat from a particular area, so it just has to come off everywhere and you might only notice it on the belly after significant weight loss so don't be discouraged. Try not to focus too much on the scales but use progress photos and measurements also to give you an idea of your progress.

The thread title is a bit misleading I guess, but thats the main place where the bit of fat is hanging around. As I said, I'm stronger, fitter and leaner than last year, it's the last bits I want to get rid of.

bladespin wrote: »

Don't count exercise calories into your diet and load up, just consider then a bonus defecit.

So don't eat extra on training days? That goes against a lot of what I read where they say to up the intake (of good food obviously) on these days

marialouise wrote: »

Did you measure and log the milk? :P

Estimated! It's usually around the 20ml of milk per cuppa

bladespin

roosterman71 wrote:

So don't eat extra on training days? That goes against a lot of what I read where they say to up the intake (of good food obviously) on these days

If you boost intake (particularly carbs) then you're building, that's great if it's your goal but if it's to loose weight then you'll slow the process significantly by doing this.

Steer55

weighing food imho must be a real pain. I lost two stone last year just from cutting out fry ups, cakes, all confectionery, cut way back on the beer and watched my breads and potato intake. i lost it all within two months and since then I have maintained my weight with regularly walks and a following a healthy diet, very similar to the op above, albeit with smaller potions.

OP try substituting the tea with lemon or green teas, cut way back on your sugar intake, if hungry try some of those lower fat cheese triangles on one or two ryvita crackers, make yourself a pot of homemade blended veggy soup, its powerful stuff at keeping the hungry pangs away minus the bread of course.

You doing great by the way!

roosterman71

bladespin wrote: »

If you boost intake (particularly carbs) then you're building, that's great if it's your goal but if it's to loose weight then you'll slow the process significantly by doing this.

Interesting. I thought after reading up that you'd carb up before your workouts. SO more carbs in the morning if training at lunch time for example, and after that higher protein and fats for the rest of the day. Have you a link where you get yer info? I'd be interested to read it and see can I learn something!

Steer55 wrote: »

OP try substituting the tea with lemon or green teas, cut way back on your sugar intake, if hungry try some of those lower fat cheese triangles on one or two ryvita crackers, make yourself a pot of homemade blended veggy soup, its powerful stuff at keeping the hungry pangs away minus the bread of course.

You doing great by the way!

Bread is mainly a weekend thing. So maybe 6/7 slices over the 2 days. Can't see myself cutting back on the tea. Only get the 1 cup a day (after dinner), plus a coffee in the morning break at work. Rest of the time it's water, but probaly don't drink enough (~1l/day). I don't normally get too hungry for snacks, and I'd be fair stubborn anyway and say to myself it's only an hour or 2 till meal time and I'd tough it out!

bladespin

roosterman71 wrote:

Interesting. I thought after reading up that you'd carb up before your workouts. SO more carbs in the morning if training at lunch time for example, and after that higher protein and fats for the rest of the day. Have you a link where you get yer info? I'd be interested to read it and see can I learn something!

Google leangains, increase intake on worling days, decrease on non training days, beautifully simple but it's a building program.

marialouise

Steer55 wrote: »

weighing food imho must be a real pain. I lost two stone last year just from cutting out fry ups, cakes, all confectionery, cut way back on the beer and watched my breads and potato intake. 

Well done on your weight loss. I lost three stone by weighing food, because I had already cut out confectionary etc and wasn't getting anywhere, so to each their own! 
OP about eating back exercise calories, you don't need to eat all of them back. You sound very strong willed with being able to tough it out until meal time, hunger is usually the enemy of anyone on a diet! If you're dieting you can use your exercise as a calorie deficit, or maybe just eat back 50-75% of the exercise calories if you're really hungry. As long as you're getting enough nutrients throughout the day and not feeling weak or extreme levels of hunger, you don't necessarily need to eat that much more on the exercise days. 
Also are you clear on the difference between BMR and TDEE? BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate and this is what your body would need to sustain you in a coma. Then as soon as you're up and about, moving and exercising and going about your day, you have your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. I suspect the 2,400 is your TDEE and this is the number you would require to maintain your current weight. Your BMR is probably somewhere closer to 1800, so I wouldn't worry about eating too few calories if you're eating around 1850. There's nothing wrong with eating this close to your BMR for a little while. Also 0.25kg a week is a really slow weight loss which is great, it's sustainable and achievable (so many people opt for the 1kg a week and then wonder why it won't work), but it's also possible that it's so slow it's almost barely noticeable for you, so again maybe just create a tiny bit more of a deficit, if you can, and see how that works for you. Well done on everything so far

Zillah

roosterman71 wrote: »

Happy to stay the same weight and replace fat with muscle, but wouldn't mind dropping another 2/3kg, if nothing else it will help me peddle up mountains!

You're at the point where you need to decide which. Go on a significant calorie deficit and drop body fat, or increase intake and build more muscle. You can kind of do both at the start but once you get your newbie gains you need to pick one or the other.