Gym goer gaining body fat

[CraftyC]

I am 5ft female, 33 years old, 9st 8lbs, size 10, but have a body fat of 38.6%. I have ost about 4lbs in 2 months. The body fat is up from 36% at the start of October. I have been going to the gym twice a week which I never did before, cut my alcohol down (2 bottles of wine a week to maybe 1 bottle), I prep low calorie lunches, have the same 280 calorie breakfast and eat about 1400 calories a day, I have a moderately active but quite stressful teaching job. I don't have a sweet tooth at all. I can go weeks without eating chocolate. I cook everything from scratch, all home cooked sauces and veg in every dinner. I don't understand how I am gaining body fat and barely losing any weight. It's driving me mad. Could there be a medical reason? I did have basic bloods done about 8 weeks ago and I am quite anaemic but now on iron tablets. But everything else is fine. I do have some uterine cysts that don't cause me much bother.

I am feeling very disheartened. I really want to get the body fat down but my efforts are going in the opposite direction. Even my fitness freak husband is baffled. He keeps saying "it has to be the machine" but 2 machines have said the same thing. Any ideas?

More protein OP, no cornflakes, try eggs, bacon or porridge, Greek yogurt with berries and a little honey.

I never feel particularly miserable. I do love food though. I try to cook a lot. I find once I eat about 1300 I don't feel desperately hungry but below that I do. It's taken a lot of feeling hungry to figure that out. I hate the guilt though. A mince pie now makes me feel like I have failed especially when I am seeing no results despite not following the recommended calories and going to the gym in my very limited free time. I hate it really. I look at others who eat way more than me and don't suffer for it. Every time I have a one meal slip up I gain 4lbs and i am not joking. Now that is what is making me miserable.

If you work in a fairly sedentary job it’s bloody hard to get more than 10,000 steps in a day! I don’t know where this idea came from that 10,000 steps isn’t much 😳

Can you find some exercise you enjoy more? Classes or something? I’d kill to be your size and I think it’s a real shame that this body fat figure has become such an obsession 😢

I have had 3 machines tell me the same thing. It's so high. I don't understand. I look quite slim. I know people can carry excess fat around organs but 38% is mad high. Itd in the morbidy obese range of body fat, but i am 9st 8 and a size 10. This is why I am quite worried about it.

I have missed where you are a perfectly acceptable size - so this shouldn’t be about fat loss but muscle gain.

https://www.jamessmithacademy.com/macro-calculator/

Is a much better calculator, if your diet isn’t supporting muscle growth, which I suspect it isn’t because you’re eating too little, you will only waste muscle as your body favours fat stores (because it thinks there’s a famine). You have to nourish your body to grow muscle and get stronger.

I am happy with my size, that's the weird thing. I am more concerned that I am not internally very unhealthy which worries me. I think it was more a shock when the figure came up first in October.

I don’t think that the exercise you’re doing, 2x week is enough for a significant difference to occur. You’d need to increase it to 4 or 5x week, or alternatively introduce weight training into your gym routine.

I also think that your daily calorie intake might be too low? Try increasing to 1500-1600 cals. You need to make sure you’re eating enough for the exercise to have it’s full effect.

Also up your protein. Try adding boiled eggs to your diet (for breakfast for example) and having extra protein for dinner (two portions of chicken), drink lots of water.

It sounds like you’re doing really well though and the weight is coming off. Don’t focus on body fat too much, just pay attention to how you look and feel. When the weigh/fat comes off you’ll definitely notice!

The exercise will be doing wonders in protecting your health so don't stop! However it's less effective for weight loss. That's all about calorie deficit and nutritional balance. You sound like me, small with a relatively sedentary job so the number of calories needed to maintain weight is minuscule. A bottle of wine a week would definitely tip me over.

I don't trust those scales at all. I think calipers (used by someone who knows what they are doing) are more accurate.

I'd also start measuring your thighs, hips, waist and biceps. I guarantee that you will have lost cms.

Your body can’t just “adapt” to a calorie deficit and stop losing weight it’s basic physics that if you burn more calories than you eat you’ll lose weight. And you will gain muscles in your legs arms and stomach from running (just not as much as lifting). As the op loses weight it’s natural that she will run further or faster, as he is doing the right thing by checking that her heart rate is high during her runs and as long as she keeps that in line cardio will remain effective. You could say the same about a basic strength routine, if you never increased reps or weight it would have limiting benefits.

it’s also been shown by many studies that running damaging knees is a myth- it’s actually protective of them. It’s just more likely that runners will notice problems than a someone who doesn’t run. Again you could say the same about weights, very easy to damage yourself if you don’t use correct form but that doesn’t mean it’s damaging. I pushed myself on leg press once and twanged something in my back. Hurt like fuck but doesn’t mean leg press is dangerous.

Op honestly it sounds like you are doing great and i would ignore that %. When the weight loss plateaus or you are bored of your gym routine is when I would think to make changes.

What were the machines? Have you checked again since October and has it come down?

Unless you're literally eating high processed fatty diet and drinking excessively then I'm surprised for that number.

I would say 28% would be more reasonable.
Put a goal in mind, work towards - whole foods, lots of protein, more weight training. And then end of january if it hasn't come down then investigate further

That’s not true re adapting - your metabolism can become more efficient. There’s a lot of evidence surrounding this - ref the book I mentioned above. Look at metabology.

@aodirjjd you are out of date, unfortunately. It's now well established that the human body seeks to maintain an equilibrium in burned calories.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/

archive.ph/C0O65

Still many questions left unanswered but calories in/calories out is defunct. That's not to say that many overweight/obese people wouldn't benefit from eating less and moving more, nor that a healthy diet and exercise isn't brilliant for your overall health. But for people of a healthy weight it's harder to lose weight just by increasing calories burned through exercise.

Completely ignore what your scales are telling you about body fat - they’re known to be wildly inaccurate.

@WinterBird24 You sound very knowledgeable. What is the book? I’ve scanned through your posts but can’t see it. Thanks

The bottle of wine will be undoing your calorie deficit.
I am similar height to you and stick to 1200-1400 to lose weight. A bottle of wine would un do the weight loss for the week.

I checked in October and it was 36% and now, 8 weeks later, it's 38%. I don't eat crisps, sweets, drink fizzy drinks, eat pizza, have takeaways, snack, eat chocolate bar the odd small bar maybe twice a week. I never have. I have always eaten like this. I have never been overweight. This is the heaviest i have ever been and its leftover from 2 pregnancies. Kids are 4 and 6.. This is why i am so confused and concerned. I shouldn't have that level of fat but multiple machines have said the same thing. It makes no sense but it's there.

It's literally my only vice. Seriously? I have to slog through life and have nothing to enjoy ever?

You need to have your macros worked out with a focus on protein intake whilst maintaining a calorie deficit. 1g of protein for 1lb of your target weight is what I work towards. I gym x3 per week but weight train rather than cardio. I have dropped 1 stone and 10cm of my waist in 10 weeks. Don't be intimidated by a PT they will help you gain confidence in the right excercises.

There is a lot of misinformation on this thread from people who are well-meaning but misinformed.

If you are already slim and have lost weight on a low fat, calorie-restricted diet you should look at your macros and eat more protein in tandem with doing more weight bearing exercise to build muscle. You may even put on weight doing this but you will lose body fat and gain muscle and your shape will change - you'll likely lose cms off your measurements. You don't need to eat low fat to lose body fat. And you definitely don't need to eat low carb.

Weight bearing exercise is really good for women because it helps build bone density.

Doing lots of cardio exercise can be counter productive because it makes you hungry and it can be more difficult to maintain a diet.

You absolutely can make a difference with two gym sessions a week but you need to work smarter. Concentrate on lifting weights and bodyweight exercises not running on a treadmill.

Muscle does not weigh less that fat. A pound of fat and a pound of muscle each weigh a pound.

Factor in the calories from the wine you drink and look at your weekly overall calories and macros. If you are in calorie deficit and hitting your protein goal you'll lose weight without losing muscle mass.

I follow a US dietician Danielle the Dietician on Instagram. She's a qualified dietician (not a nutritionist - anyone can call themselves that and peddle nonsense) and advocates lifting weights for women. She gives lots of tips without you needing to sign up to anything.

This is the book re metabology https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/0241450284?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow

Id also really recommend Chris Van Tulleken re UPF and diet more generally.

I drink red wine, low carb, low insulin response 👌🏻 you don’t have to be perfect OP.

I'm getting physio for a tendon issue at the moment. I had a really painful night after my Christmas Do when I drank white wine (about a bottle). My physio said that white wine is often associated with inflammation. OP it may be that your wine consumption is causing inflammation rather than fat gain.

I'd keep the wine tbh. You have accounted for it in your calories.

My take - your diet is way to carby. Tot up your protein for a few days. I think about 40g needed for health and I doubt if you are near that tbh.

It's all very well losing weight but presuming that your weight loss is all fat is probably wrong if you are not at least supporting your muscles with protein.

Protein is also satiating.

Basically you seem to want to body recomp - lose fat and gain muscle.
Muscle needs protein to grow.
Yes you'll get folks telling you chickpeas have protein but they also have a lot of calories per g of protein compared to say tuna/eggs/ chicken

2 sessions of weights a week will help (3 would be better but just do what you can)- I'd drop the cardio in the gym unless you really enjoy it and concentrate on weights. Get your steps up however you can - it doesn't need to be all in a long walk.

If you are not confident in the gym, a lot of progress can be made with weights machines if you get a program made.

A bottle of wine is 650 calories so it won't undo a week's deficit