To feel ashamed, embarrassed and not know how to fix this?

[Avatarthewayofwater]

I've taken the image from Google as I'm far to embarrassed to take a picture of myself.

Any weight I gain goes on my stomach and due to emotional binge eating I find myself here.

I did have ultrasound scans to check nothing underlying was going on, but no its visceral fat and only I can get rid if it.

The problem is I've changed my diet completely and calorie counting and eating healthy along with exercise. Yet nothing has changed stomach wise.

I'm so self conscious and I can't wear normal clothes because I constantly look pregnant.

Even at the gym I hide in a big hoodie so no one can see.

It's making me depressed and I don't know how to get rid of the stomach fat.

Has anyone else been like this and managed? I had a c section years ago and have an underactive thyroid if that makes any difference.

Please be kind...

Building muscle takes quite a while.

But other things can impact what you see on the scales. How much salt you have had, how much water you have had, if you have been to the loo, where you are in your monthly cycle.

You may even need to tweak what you eat. As you go and try different things. That does always mean reducing calories though.

Before I started managing my pcos through diet the scale go up 5lb in the days before my period. Then the next week, after my period, it would go down 6 or 7lbs. I hadn’t actually put on 5lbs of fat then lost 7lb of fat. Now I don’t see that anymore, it’s steady losses with no huge up or downs.

Yes muscle weighs more than fat. I'm not so much about the weight more about clothes feeling looser and just looking a bit different/better. If black coffee, green tea and water for times of hunger.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fforever-fit.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F10%2F14908169_1353615998004605_967856966566949527_n.jpg&tbnid=Zt9wHr47ibcgTM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fforever-fit.ca%2Fmuscle-vs-fat-which-weighs-more%2F&docid=TIX4Dqjt7s7zqM&w=640&h=611&hl=en-GB&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim
For visual image re muscle and fat.

That makes sense. I don't feel any different but it's only been a week.
I feel less sluggish though. And I'm slowly getting used to the aching muscles.

Today's session was hard. The PT said I need to have more protein. Annoyingly my watch didn't track my heart rate during my session so I have no idea how many calories I burnt.

Also MFP is having issues with Samsung Health at the moment and is duplicating all exercise so I'm having to be careful when reading what I should be eating back.

Why are you eating calories back?

There are biological limits to the muscle building, though...

I think I have worked out that if you are a "healthy" weight female, ~25% of your weight is fixed. It's hair, skin, guts, brain, heart, bones, liver, blood... you cannot change this. It's your minimum mass excluding skeletal muscle & body fat.

As a female, our minimum healthy body fat % is >= 15%. 25-27% is "average" body fat % when at a healthy weight, btw. If you have skeletal muscle mass < 30% of your mass, then you've got sarcopenia: badly too little muscle mass. So healthy plausible % that can adjust (relative %s of each) for combined fat & skeletal muscle mass is 60% of your total mass (in scenario of having a healthy BMI). Most women at a healthy weight are ~ 40-50% SMM.

The topic intrigued me because some people say they are "very muscly" as to why they have a high BMI, then I started thinking "Well how muscly can a woman get to be anyway, short of taking steroids?"

Of course heavy but fit people are muscly, hauling that extra weight around makes them extra strong. But it doesn't mean that they could have hugely more muscle mass when they are huge because.... the % SMM is also limited by height (and possibly age). There are limits to how much muscle a skeleton can hold. In other words, the very fit gal who is 40 kg overweight has a muscle mass (kg) that no more than the maximum she could possibly carry even if she was 40 kg lighter, there is a biological limit to how much muscle mass your body will create/carry, regardless of your other numbers.

At least I think that's how it all works. Totally happy if someone is more knowledgeable.

I'm waffling on because any claim that fat people must have low muscle is untrue, on the other hand, the idea that a lot of that fat could convert into muscle: also likely untrue. It's even very possible to lose muscle mass in process of slimming.

Because mfp tells you to.

I have just checked my first weigh in thing that shows muscle, fat etc and actually muscle is more than fat.
I'm not too sure what my aim is for those though?

But has your PT or anyone else told you to?

If MFP is set to 500cal deficit. Then you work off another 200cals but eat it back you deficit is still only 500cals. So still in the same place. Not that exercise should only be for weight loss. But you would still be in the same deficit.

The only time I have seen people eating back the calories is when are actively trying to put on weight. So body builders who have finished competing for the year, will eat the calories back to being their body fat up again. Then concentrate on building the muscle before cutting for the next season.

Plus fitness trackers are know for being wildly inaccurate, especially when it comes to calories burnt. So you could be, eating enough back to stop any weight loss.

Sorry thats what I mean. If I burn 200 calories I can then eat an extra 200 calories on top of my daily total.

So my daily recommends I eat 1,400 calories a day to lose 0.5kg a week which has been recommended. So if I did a 300 calorie work out I'd eat a maximum of 1,700 calories that day.

Mfp then still says I'm in a defecit.

Have I got my wires crossed with what you think I meant?

No I get what you are saying

1400cal gives (as an example) 500cal deficit

Your monitor says you burned 300cals during your work out so you eat 1700cals.

So despite working out you still have a 500cal deficit. About 1lb a week loss (average).

But your monitor could be out by quite a bit. So you end up in less than 500cal deficit.

So you are in a deficit, but the exercise won’t help speed up any fat loss. Exercise is still good and worthwhile though.

But while muscle does burn calories faster than fat, it’s not a huge amount more and you don’t gain pounds of muscle a week.

As I said, it’s not something that most people would do when trying to lose fat.

You can eat those extra calories if you feel you really need to but you don’t have to. If you do make sure you really need them and not just because you can. And. Are sure it’s good stuff. Protein etc.

To build proper muscle, you need to be eating in a surplus. You will building a little some though your workouts, but proper muscle takes time with the right amount of nutrition and being in a surplus like I've mentioned. Ditch the scales. Take pictures. You need to eat protein as I've mentioned many times to rebuild the muscle fibres that you are breaking down. Go and buy yourself a tub of Whey and start making a protein shake to drink straight after your workouts.

Ah I didn't know you are not always meant to eat back the calories. I thought that was needed to be healthy enough for the workouts.

I do need more protein I agree. Not a huge fan of the shakes but have been recommended some gel flavour things that you mix with your water. Going to order then next time I get paid.
For now I can add more peanut butter in the morning but that's probably not a healthy source.

Do you know what your tdee is?

Tdee? Do you mean the calories I need to eat each day to stay the same?

Even though I've been eating my calories, I've been waking up in the night feeling quite hungry. Is that because of not enough protein?

My PT weighed me on a Renpho scale and I just know if I eat 1,430 calories per day that will put me at a deficit to lose 0.5kg per week.

At the moment I would just concentrate on that. Get used to doing that.

if you are hungry in the night it may well be lack of protein. Have some hard boiled eggs in the fridge and have them if you are hungry in the evening. Or a Babybel. Make sure your evening meal has enough protein.

I do better when I'm in work as it's planned. I have my overnight oats everyday though.
Totally missed lunch today so have eaten to babybel lights. That's on top of 2 I had before the gym this morning.

Had overnight oats after the gym.

For tea will be having chicken tikka on skewers. With roasted veg and maybe some rice or something.

I would guess your tdee came out at around 1900.

yes you maybe hungry, at night, because you aren’t eating enough protein.

It’s hard to give advice as I don’t want to confuse you even more. And it we would need to see your food diary etc.

Speak to the PT about eating back your calories. I assume your PT also has some background in nutrition.

I also wouldn’t use Peanut butter to up your protein. Due to the fat content (almost similar to protein) it would use up a lot of calories but not give the protein boost you need. Fat isn’t the enemy at all. But you want something with a higher protein to fat content to really get your protein levels up.

Thank you. My PT does have nutritional knowledge.
I'd be happy to share my diary via PM if you wanted a proper look. I can crop out my username.

I'd agree to ramp up the protein too. It isn't easy at first
Do you eat tuna in spring water? That's about 100 calories a can and 25g protein. Also I don't know how much your yoghurt costs but suspect it more costly than own brand Greek youghurt (the imitation Fage stuff from most supermarkets) and that's about 10g protein per 100g (my internet patchy as away and can't check easily). I have protein yoghurt - 20-25g per pot of protein and you can usually get 4 for £3 somewhere. Berries are good - defrost overnight or out them in your overnight oats - lower sugar than many fruits.
Also maybe chicken or turkey sausages? You can have a pile of those for not that many calories and they feel like a substantial meal.
Presumably you are on 'lean' whey protein- about 20g protein for 100ish calories- the best price I've seen for diet whey is b and m and there and home bargains do low cal whey drinks ready made for 75p - £1 which are 20g protein 100ish calories - I keep a couple in the boot of car for if I'm ever stuck somewhere and hungry.

Mentioned prices as it can be costly

Protein for me makes a vast difference to feeling full throughout the day.

Very best wishes for your journey

That’s up to you. But while I spent years in the fitness industry, body building, kick boxing and had a Food company in the fitness industry, I am not really qualified to give individual advice.

i can help support with general tips like with the peanut butter, as an example.

i don’t want to confuse you further.

Protein is really key for me in stopping me feeling hungry. I adjust my carb/protein balance on MFP to account for that - so more calories from protein, fewer from carbs. That works really well for me. I eat a lot of eggs!

OP you are doing brilliantly. Well done :)

When you work out your TDEE and it asks you about your activity levels it accounts for that in the number it gives you so you shouldn't then eat those calories back. There is a way to turn off exercise calories in mfp so I highly recommend you do that.

The other thing I'd say is be careful with your protein ideas as you really need to be having complete sources of protein. Essentially this means animal proteins so as your not veggie or vegan it's your meat fish and dairy, and whey protein powder. Peanut butter is not a complete source of protein and is just super high in calories.

Your commitment to change is fantastic and I love how you are engaging and taking advice and learning along the way. I wish you all the success!