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?

You need calipers to measure body fat accurately.

Do weights and drop the cardio. If you are walking /getting steps in you don’t need it. But having said that two sessions a week will have absolutely no impact on your weight, your body will just save those burned calories somewhere else.

Your diet sounds pretty high carb and low in protein. Honestly weight stuff is 80/90% diet. Your body never has to burn fat because you're constantly feeding carbs. Your breakfast is very low in protein.

I would focus on getting enough protein for weight loss, there are many calculators out there, and having either a very low carb breakfast or a low carb dinner.

I would absolutely take up the offer of a PT and get a decent heavy weights routine in for the 2 workouts a week that you can do. Maintaining muscle mass and bone density is essential as we age (again, the importance of protein). Your muscles are your metabolism, so if you aren't working to maintain and build them you will end up putting on weight incredibly easily.
Maybe the PT could do you up a diet plan too?

Get at least 10k steps a day. Start measuring your waist, hips, upper arm and middle thigh with a tape measure every month and track your progress.

Honestly, though, get the PT. Get the structure and stick to it. It's not that you're incapable of doing it by yourself, but having someone more experienced and qualified outlining what to do gives you the confidence to really go for it. When I was working stuff out for myself I always wobbled and ended up inconsistent because there's so much conflicting information out there.

But I only have 2 evenings a week where I get 1 hour free so ... how does anyone with jobs and kids get more time to themselves than that? Weight loss is only for people without kids and a job?

This poster is wrong. You can do a lot in those two sessions. Concentrate on building muscle through weight bearing exercise and higher protein in your diet.

I do it by using a gym with a creche/kids club. Also on my lunch breaks. I WFH though which makes it easier.

I’d really encourage you to get a PT. It’ll change how you feel about the gym forever. Honestly it’s a game changer.

Also, more lean protein in your diet.

If you're losing weight but not fat percentage then I would say it's the machines.
Please don't overthink it.
They are not great machines at identifying. I take it with a pinch of salt always.

Run twice a week, ignore those who say don't. And if you can get some weights at home- then do that too. Then, when life isn't as busy, you can look at heavier weights at the gym.
Be kind to yourself. It literally sounds like you live well. I'm not sure why you're being picked apart on this thread

I say this as someone whose husband is a PT. Who runs twice a week and weight trains.
I eat 1600-1800 calories a day and I've managed to lose 5 kg in the last 8 weeks.
I also drink wine. Probably 2 bottles a week.
Its balance.
Weight training probably helps with higher calories for me

You’d get more nutrients by eating the Cornflakes box than the cornflakes. And fewer calories Have a couple of eggs for breakfast.

And eat more fibrous colourful vegetables: broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes.

Your diet needs more lean protein. There are some calculators that show you calories for protein. Have a look at those and see what you can add in to your diet.

Although two sessions of lifting heavy with a progressive overload gradually getting towards failure (as you get more experienced) will build muscle.

But not with 2kg dumbbells!!

Some PT sessions will pay for themselves in tne long run in the knowledge and confidence you’ll gain. Talk to a PT NOT about losing weight, but about learning the major compound lifts to build strength.

Learn how to lift with a barbell. Learn to do aback squat, a deadlift, a bench press and an overhead press. Start with just the bar. It weighs 20 kilos. Then work on progressive overload. Think about it over a year of this and keep adding a small amount of weight each fortnight or so.

Also work with a PT on an interval training pattern. You can start with 45 seconds on going as hard/fast as you can, 15 seconds off. You can run, do a SkiErg, burpees, row, whatever. But you should work at about 8-0 RPE (rate of perceived effort) each time.

Over 2 x 1 hour sessions maybe plan your sessions like this (others will make other suggestions)
Day 1
warm up by doing your treadmill walking but just get warm.

Then do back squats and maybe lat pull downs. Do 5 sets of each exercise (after a warm up set of just the bar), with 6-8 reps in each set. As you get a heavier barbell, you can do fewer reps. The final 2 reps of each set should puff you out. Rest for 2 minutes between each set.

Then the rest of your session, do interval training: choose maybe 3 cardio exercises that you can move between easily - say: burpees, SkiErg, assault bike or treadmill.

Then do 45 seconds as fast as you can. In the 15 second rest, move to the next station. Do maybe 2 or 3 rounds - so 6 or 9 minutes , then rest for a minute. Then go again. Keep going for as long as you’ve got time for. Maybe 3 lots of 3 rounds? My PT calls this metcon - metabolic conditioning. I would do about 10 rounds of this sort of thing in a training session after doing strength work.

Second day:
Deadlifts and bench press - sets and reps as above.

Then another metcon session maybe with different stations. Focus on exercises that get your heart rate over the Zone 2 into max heart rate and that are functional - in addition to burpees, SkiErg, treadmill try dumbbell thrusters, wall balls, burpee broad jumps, box jumps. These will all challenge your whole body.

Ye unfortunately no creche will take my 6 year old and I am a teacher so I don't get lunch breaks. All I have is the 2 hours. I tutor 2 evenings a week, my husband runs 2 evenings a week, and I do a course one evening a week. Then I need to prep meals, clean the house, try to keep the one or two friends i do have, get the kids to their hobbies, and sometimes sit down for 30 minutes 😆

Mine has a kids club and creche. On a Saturday and Sunday they do 9-10 and/or 10-11 in clubs whilst I work out. They also have clubs every evening 5.30 for a hour or two hours on a Friday. The clubs run until 10 years old. They’re really good. It’s expensive though. I justify the expense as otherwise I wouldn’t work out. Don’t forget cardio can be a walk with the kids and their bikes.

@YellowAsteroid yes 👏🏻 you need to learn how to build muscle and make the most of your workouts. Random workouts don’t achieve much. I see a PT for form and variety but my DH did bodybuilding back in the day so he’s been good for teaching me about the muscle groups etc.

Sounds like your DH needs to step up todo more of the household work and share the care of your DCs!

Get yourself a decent set of adjustable dumbbells and work out at home. Two or three 30-minute sessions, or 10-15 minutes 5-6 times a week.

Start with 4-5 kg and work your way up to 8-12 kg. Check out Caroline Girvan.

Some people here 🤡 Yes the body adapts so well that I keep losing weight on 2500 a day as a long distance runner and I’m already pocket size 🙄

Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for everyone. It obviously doesn't work for some people. And what's wrong with building muscles? Every stiudy says it's great for health esp women at peri and menopausal age. And to build muscle mass is so essential for metabolism.

Me too - but the mileage I was doing was way beyond typical and tipping me into athlete level. Also fucked my knees (well one).

Huh? I was talking about people saying that exercising has no impact to the amount of calories you burn because the body magically adapts

But some do more than others, once your body get to certain exercise/diet balance. It's not a simple in/out thing as most people assume.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/

Having said that, cutting calories further is often not a sustainable process, and if nothing else, strength training will improve body composition and therefore reduce body fat at the same weight.

Did you actually read the paper? It says that for a given activity, energy expenditure is the same for both types of people (inactive vs active).

Average daily energy expenditure of traditional Hadza foragers was no different than that of Westerners after controlling for body size. The metabolic cost of walking (kcal kg−1 m−1) and resting (kcal kg−1 s−1) were also similar among Hadza and Western groups. The similarity in metabolic rates across a broad range of cultures challenges current models of obesity suggesting that Western lifestyles lead to decreased energy expenditure.

Even though they do a lot more hunting/foraging they are still eating not a huge amount of calories? The point is that they adapt.

Yes just like I adapt by increasing my daily intake by over 1000 calories. The point was that despite running for years I didn’t magically start to sustain my activity level on fewer calories like you claimed. Im just clarifying that the paper you keep bringing up says the exact opposite of your claim

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25824106/
Scientists concluded differently. Anyway, apologies for sending in links without double checking, I was distracting myself from work. Well done on your distance running, it's obviously served you well.