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I am a 30-year-old, 5'8" male. I started off at 140 lbs now I am hovering around 133.4 lbs. 130 lbs is my target weight. I don't want to lose any weight after that. I am already looking skinny overall, but my belly fat hasn't decreased even a bit. For my height and age, I can only lose 9 more pounds before being considered underweight. According to this calculator

This is what I am eating every day:

Breakfast

1 packet of oats, 1 tsp sugar, 2/3 cup milk

Calories: 200

Lunch and Dinner

Indian curry + 1/3 cup rice(measured before cooking) + 1 tbsp Indian pickle

Calories: 600

All in all my total calories intake per day is 1400.

Excercise

Once a week, I lift weights for an hour, I ride the exercise cycle for half an hour. I can visually see that I am gaining muscles. My biceps, calf muscles, chest area, shoulders and back all look thicker and a tad bit muscular.

According to this calculator, I should be losing around 1 lb of fat per week. And I have been losing 1 lb of fat per week as expected. But I haven't lost a single of my belly fat.

Also, my weight goes up drastically even if I eat let's say roughly 300 to 400 extra calories just one day out of 7 days. So I have a feeling that the weight I am losing is not permanently lost. What can I do to fix this situation?

Weight vs time enter image description here

Aditya
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1 Answers1

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I had this same issue. stubborn fat like belly fat and love handles are the very last to go. Also because insulin sensitivity is a thing, your insulin resistance becomes a factor later on during a diet which can affect stubborn fat. Here is an article that really gets into the details although you could probably read up on a lot more.

Here are some tricks you can do:

  1. Plan your carbs around your workout, and go low carb the rest of the day. you should still intake the same amount of carbs, but you should eat protein and vegetables all day up until before and after your workout, then go crazy. for your diet, it might mean eating eggs and vegetables for breakfast, lunch as usual, workout, a a pre and post workout shake with simple carbs, and a post workout meal with complex carbs(can be dinner depending on schedule)
  2. Try to completely cut out excess sugar and unhealthy saturated fat. This means getting rid of that tsp of sugar in your oatmeal and making sure your curry is homemade.
  3. Quit trying to lose weight - yes, this can work. You can try to just cut excess sugar and fat, and overtime your insulin resistance might improve, losing stubborn fat. In the meantime you can focus on other goals.
  4. Carb cycle - Eat low carbs on non training days, and high-moderate carbs on training days.
  5. Intermittent fasting(This is argued among some if it works) You can try this diet plan which will make your body go without food for 16 hours on somedays, improving insulin sensitivity.
  6. Fasted training (Again, argued by some) - working out on an empty belly can help.
  7. Taking 1-2 one hour walks - can burn mostly fat instead of carbs, and is low intensity so it won't affect your workout.
  8. From looking at your diet, it seems very low in calories, 1200 is usually the bare minimum before your body starves, so with the workouts you're doing, you are probably starving in a sense with only 1400, which will force the body to actually hold onto stubborn fat, as the body is meant for adapting for survival, it will lose muscle and gain fat to reduce calorie needs. Make sure to get plenty of vitamins and minerals, leafy greens, a variety of different complex carbs, healthy fats, and proteins. Having the same foods every single day, especially when you eat curry and rice twice a day, can devoid you of nutrition slowly.

Edit: If you suddenly eat an extra 400-500 calories at the end of the week, yes you will gain weight at first, but this is temporary. You should eat more calories in general, and your body will reset.

Measure your bodyfat accurately by using calipers, not by just weighing yourself, you can't guarantee if you are losing fat or muscle. Measure and weigh yourself only once a week, typically in morning before breakfast.