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Not losing weight on 1200 diet and exercising

I am a 34 year old who is 5’7” with a very narrow frame. I started my health and fitness journey back in January eating 1200 calories/day and doing the Insanity workout. I had great results dropping 6 pounds (from 120 to 113-114) after the second month. I’m now doing a hybrid of month 1 Insanity and the Brazilian Butt lift workout, still only eating 1200 calories/day. I was hoping to lose a couple more pounds of pesky fat that collects around the back of my thighs, but haven’t lost any weight in about 2 weeks (I’ve even gained weight, now at 114.8). I would think that the calorie intake alone would assist with that, but even working out on top of that (burning about 300 calories during a workout), I’m stuck at over 114. I am measuring my food and feel satisfied during the day, but it just seems crazy that I should have to drop my calories intake anymore. What am I doing wrong? Here’s what I typically eat during the day if it helps:

 

breakfast- protein shake (198 calories)

lunch-skyr yogurt with 1/4 cup granola and 2 sliced strawberries (211 calories)

snack-2 clementines (70 calories)

dinner-whatever I cook for my family (allowance of about 720 calories)

*if I have any leftover calories after dinner, I’ll eat a bowl of cereal or something

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9 REPLIES 9

Let’s do some math: at your starting weight of 120 lb and your height, your BMI was 18.8, which is (was) very low to begin with. This makes the case for a slow weight loss (assuming any loss of weight is necessary at all) rather than a fast one. At your current weight of 114, your BMI is 17.9, which is technically underweight. Yes, you did mention you have a "very narrow frame" and you have some "pesky fat" around the back of your thighs, but the truth of the matter is you are probably quite lean by any reasonable standard. So getting even leaner than that is much trickier than if you started as an obese or overweight person.

 

Your calculated BMR is 1250, so by eating 1200, you’re not eating enough to support your basic requirements, even if you had no activity at all. However, you chose to engage in Insanity workouts, which are just what the name implies (no idea what the "Brazilian Butt lift" is, but I’ll assume it’s something similar in terms of intensity). The combination of a very low intake and a very high activity level is in effect a crash diet that potentially results in a lot of stress (precisely what you want to avoid, since stress inhibits fat loss).

 

My suggestion would be to stabilize your weight at the current level rather than push it lower, to increase your intake and reduce the high-intensity workouts. I’d also replace some of the high-intensity aerobic exercises by some resistance training (e.g. weight lifting) as well as low-intensity activities like walking (burns more fat without stressing your body). You can resume your weight loss later on if deemed necessary, but with a more gentle approach, giving it enought time.

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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This is all super helpful...thank you! The Brazilian Butt lift is basically strength training focusing on your thigh and butt area. My problem is that my upper body is very boneyards and I have a hard time building muscle there. And my lower half, while not “fat” by any means, is where if I do have fat, it tends to collect. Too bad I can’t just move that stubborn fat to my shoulders and arms haha. Can I ask you then, how many calories you recommend I should be eating every day? 

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*boney not boneyards lol

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@nicober87 wrote:

This is all super helpful...thank you! The Brazilian Butt lift is basically strength training focusing on your thigh and butt area. My problem is that my upper body is very boneyards and I have a hard time building muscle there. And my lower half, while not “fat” by any means, is where if I do have fat, it tends to collect. Too bad I can’t just move that stubborn fat to my shoulders and arms haha. Can I ask you then, how many calories you recommend I should be eating every day? 


Strengthening those areas will certainly help make them more shapely. There are areas that are the last to drop fat. Those can be very stubborn. And getting those to go might put you at a BMI that's lower than what's best. So I think everyone has areas that just hang onto fat. Except for maybe @Dominique he's pretty ripped. 🙂

 

I notice women tend to work out the lower body quite a bit, as that's where they're strongest. But it's really important to do something like overhead press to build some balance. As a man, I have the opposite issue.

 

@Dominiquecan answer the calories question.


If you moved the fat to your arms, you'd just have fat arms. 😉 But I'm sure there's somewhere in California that you could get that done.

Work out...eat... sleep...repeat!
Dave | California

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@nicober87 wrote:

how many calories you recommend I should be eating every day? 


It all depends on your activity level. I would use the Fitbit estimate for calories burned and take – say – 400 calories from that. So if you burn 2200 per day in average, you would eat 1800. See what the scale says (give it enough time, so as to eliminate the impact of your hormonal cycle, for instance, and use averages) and adjust if necessary. 

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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@nicober87 wrote:

My problem is that my upper body is very boney and I have a hard time building muscle there. 


Then I’m probably the male version of your physique <lol>, just check what I mean here. And I can relate  with regards to having "stubborn" fat, even at sub-20 BMI. I tend to collect it in my mid-section (love handles).

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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@nicober87 

 

I think everyone had said pretty much the right things so I haven't nothing to add to what Dominique had already outlined.

 

Personally, I think you are on the brink or maybe perhaps past the brink of doing something wrong in your diet.

 

What I am seeing here is a diet focused on more protein intake and less calories plus some intense workout; if insanity and your Brazilian butts workout gave me that impression, then I think you are probably on more of a caloric deficit than it is safe to be.  Your BMI to me indicated that you are already on the precipice of underweight or maybe already underweight because what you are describing; difficulty of gaining muscle mass and bony upper body features are a sign of undernutrition or malnutrition.  Malnutrition or under nutrition is basically an inadequate amount of nutrients, vitamins and the macros and a person tends to focus on eating too much of one or a few things and less calories.  And with the craze in everything "Protein" however, a person may not have protein energy deficit, but some dietary deficiencies because they lack the balance of the other food macros, because they cut them out -- namely carbs because carbs is the enemy!  Carbs isn't the enemy, but because the focus on specific macros and low calories cause people to shun carbs and hence get themselves in undernutrition.  And because consuming a lot of protein can curb your appetite and make you feel full, it also prevents a person from consuming the other necessary nutrition and vitamins causing the person not only to lose body fat, but also muscle tissue.  The upper body is usually the first thing to go (think those people now starving in Venezuela before a certain sitting president lost weight and low upper body muscle mass/tissue).  Bony features; bony skinny face and more prone to dry skin and feeling cold more than often if you haven't felt them already.  The so called crash diet works because it encourages losing of body fat, muscle tissues by letting the body convert them (muscles into glucose for fuel).  Malnutrition also discourages cell growth and repair, so it doesn't matter how much weights you do, because there's no cell growth, there is no muscle growth.  What are you telling me so far and thus far is what I had commonly seen in patients (I work in nursing).  Patients who are on the verge or are malnourished.

 

The lower body parts are usually the later to go as the butt areas are comprised of 3 muscle groups;  the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus are big muscles and the fat surrounding them and people usually go to the extreme and restrict their caloric intake even more, thus promoting even more undernutrition which is not a good thing to do.  Since your internal organs are also composed of muscles, the body doesn't know and doesn't care.  It takes what it needs and consume what it must to keep your brain and central nervous systems alive, so literally you can have the body literally eating you from the inside out.  This is what you see from people who work as super models.  You can try to be as thin as sticks as like them, but they don't stay in that body forever.  Usually, they do this for a specific job or work and then they go back eating enough calories so they are not malnourished.  Same with athletes who work themselves so thin with such low body fat that it is only meant to allow them to compete more effectively to win, but during their down days (when not competing), they go back to their normal weight with a higher than sub 20% body fat.  You are NOT MEANT to be in the sub 20 body fat forever and certainly you are not meant to be in the sub 15 BMI forever either.  Unfortunately, magazines and the diet industry tell you that you must and you need to for some certain look or certain acknowledgement as though looking abnormally thin makes who you are, rather than your contribution to the community and service to society than promoting self-interest.  I work in nursing who are taking care of people who were former body builders and models and now, as they are older, have all the usual body problems and ailments that you expect when you force your body to shape like you need to fit through an eye of the needle.

 

Anyhow, I'm not trying to scare nor dissuade people to do whatever they like to do with their body.  After all, it is all of you who helped fund our jobs, our health care and lots of clients who need us to fix your bodies.  But if you break something internally; which most people do when they go extreme dieting, there is no reliable medical treatment and technology that can fix those broken parts.  

 

Sorry to sound so hawkish, but I just see way too many of these issues crop up because some diet guru and fad tells you that it is safe.  And yet, it's always you that ends up paying whatever medical bills that comes next. 

 

A balanced diet with enough calories and a set of strength training, resistance training and mild cardio workout had always been the staple of good health, good muscle growth and low body fat sustainable for many years of life for any individual.

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Suppose you eat right, follow a diet, exercise well, and do not lose weight. In that case, you may have problems with hormones. You need to see a doctor about this problem because losing weight is primarily influenced by the hormonal background of the body. For example, I had some problems with hormones, and because of this, I could not get rid of fat on my sides. Then my plastic surgeon advised me to enlarge my buttocks and, at the same time, get rid of fat. I did so, and by the way, I made such a request to this clinic https://gartnerplasticsurgery.com/brazilian-butt-lift-nj/  .

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Remember, weight loss isn't the end-all-be-all. Some progress is measured in inches, not pounds.

Personally, if your concerned to do more, replace the cereal calories with something healthier. The source of the calories is just as important as the number of calories. Consider using nuts for a good source of protein (which seems to be missing - breakfast shake aside), and healthy fats.

CharlesKn | Mid-Atlantic, USA
60+, strength and cardio
Charge 5, Android, Windows

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