Lightweight but 'fat'

09-13-2003, 09:22 PM

Hi, got a problem I need some help with!

I'm a 21 year old male. I'm 5' 8", 141 pounds and have a 31 inch waist. My problem is that I appear to have a very high % of body fat. I have fat on my stomach and have some love handles, and have that 'roll' of fat on the sides of my chest under my armpits. If i lean forward my stomach has those flabby rolls itself. If you were to see a picture of me you might think I'm a very heavy-set person but I'm not

I used to weight 160, dropped down to 130 with some dieting help (just lowered the calories to 1600), then recently went back to 140. I thought the problem of my appearance might be from not enough muscle mass so I started to eat more recently while doing weight lifting

I am not sure if that is the right thing to do though. I just want to lose this remaining fat on my body, but I'm already 140 isn't that pretty light weight? How much more fat can I lose? I'm just baffled on what to do, to either eat less and excercise/weight light to lose the fat, or to eat more and excercise/weight lift to get more muscle mass to maybe replace the fat (I say the eat more option because that's what I thought you needed to do to build muscle)

I'm thinking a bout doing Atkins. Basically my overall question is this- how does someone who is lightweight on the scale lower their body fat %? I just want to look decent! I can do anything but I just don't know WHAT to do- I tried the eating less thing, took me down 30 pounds but still my apperance is the same

Help! Please let me know if you need any more details, I am REALLY going insane on what to do!

[This message has been edited by Shma (edited 09-14-2003).]

09-14-2003, 08:45 AM

hi there...welcome to the board! i am really not an expert but i can tell you your weight seem s to be right even if not a little low for you so you definitely do not need to lose any more weight.

i would suggest doing things to promote lean tissue build up (if i said that correctly)
like some weight training and getting more protein you might also look into CLA that is what a few of us are taking. it is naturally found in dairy and red meats. CLA promotes lean tissue and has shown to reduce body fat. in combination with the other two, you should see some good results. do some research on it first though so you can decide if it is right for you.
this is just my opinion from things i have read...i hope that this is somewhat helpful to you...i just wanted to make sure you got some kind of response...
Good Luck!!!

09-14-2003, 09:16 AM

A good idea would be to monitor your body fat. Local gyms may offer the service for a nominal fee. Alternatively, you can buy a hand-held body fat monitor. There's debate as to how accurate they are, but they should be if nothing else a good way to track up and down movements in body fat, so you can tailor your diet accordingly.

What are you eating on a typical day, and what is your typical workout like?

Considering your current weight and goals, I would advise against a low cal/low carb diet.

09-14-2003, 11:36 AM

Typical days meal for me:

Breakfast- lowfat turkey sausage, eggs, whole wheat toast

Lunch- whole-wheat sandwhich, salad

Dinner- chicken breast, veggies, whole-wheat roll/bread

Then in between each meal I'd have a snack (so 6 times a day I eat), like a protein shake etc. With each main meal I'd have either non-fat milk or water. Then once a week I relax and just eat whatever. All in all thought it's about 1800 calories a day. For excercise I alternate each day between cardio and weights. Cardio for me is usually a 20-30 min run, then use free-weights on do upper body one day, legs the next time etc.

I feel healthy and do sports as well and can keep up with everything, but for some reason it doesn't pay off appereance wise. Like you suggested maybe I should ditch the carbs and try that? If I do what should my calorie intake be then?

09-14-2003, 03:21 PM

It looks like you've probably got the protein covered, but it appears you're low on calories, carbs, and fat. For the fat, fish and flax oil are a good idea. For the carbs, a high cal meal replacement (instead of the protein shakes) would be good, as would some more good grains like brown rice. Creatine and glutamine products would also give you a carb boost, as well as making the most of your workouts.

You could probably get away with 2500 calories, but since you have recently lost weight, you want to be careful you're gaining muscle and not fat, which is why monitoring body fat changes is a good idea. A boost in calories may initially be hard, but you're going to find it difficult to gain muscle unless you do so.

The exercise program should be good, assuming it's intense enough, always with the goal of more weight, exercises that mix things up, and improvements in runs (boosting speed and/or distance).

Lightweight but 'fat'

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