Hello, I'm a 21 year old man and I'm a sucessful story of weight loss. I have lost 60 pounds in 4 years and I look like a completly diferent person. But since I got this far I want to go until the end. It seems that a small portion of fat still remains and that makes me feel horrible. I have like 10 pounds more than I should and this stuborn last pounds are still here for 2 long years. I'm going nuts trying to find a way to remove it, because I can't stand the pressure of dieting even harder, I already had to go through alot to loose all this weight. I train cardio stuff 6 days per week, 45 minutes everyday and some weight lifting so I won't loose muscle.
Once I went on a vacation and I stoped exercising. Then the body seemed to loose fat everyday, 'cause I could touch my leg and feel the muscle harder than ever, without that fluffy stuff around. And I was eating normally, without diets, but not too much or fat stuff, just like always, but no exercise.

Then I went back to my normal life, and after 3 days of exercising I noticed that I was getting fatter, or better, I could feel that fluffyness back all around my body. And the weirdest thing, is that I wasn't getting heavier, just "fluffier".

So my questions are....does exercise dilates/swells fat? Is there a solution to remove this last pounds? Does weight lifting really works by itself (without cardio interfiring) on fat removing?

Two long years have passed and I'm going nuts, I don't understand about metabolism anymore, even tough I won agaisnt it in the past.

First of all CONGRATS on your weight loss so far... welcome to 3FC

The last 10# are always the most difficult to loose, and as you progress those last 10# may stay but because you are weigth training they will be good lean muscles. For example since January I have lost 0# but my size 8 pants are very loose and I have lost 1 inch on my chest, waist and hips, I am much happier with those stats than the 10# on the scale, because that's about as much as I'd like to see the scale go down too, but it hasn't happened and really that's ok, because I want to be healthy and not a number on the scale...

Cardio or weight lifting? That is one of your questions... I say both are of equal importance, IMHO....

Does exercise dilates/swells fat? No, but what weight lifting does do is plump up your muscles, this is what you may be feeling when you go back to working out after a break or vacation.

I hope this helps, someone else I'm sure will come along and a much better explanation as to why this may happen...

Hi and welcome

What you can try is alternating cardio and weight-lifting sessions; you anyway need one day of rest between weight-lifting sessions, so might as well put the cardio in-between, so that these days aren't lost ("rest" of course doesn't mean "doing nothing", just not pushing your muscles like you do during strength training). I'm not sure if it can make the last 10 pounds go, but if they become 10 pounds of muscle, you'll be looking leaner no matter what, so it's all good

I agree – you need cardio AND weights to get those last ten pounds off. If you just diet, or diet and only do cardio, the weight you lose is going to be about half fat and half muscle. That's bad because the end result will be a slower metabolism and a flabby body. Building muscle while you’re losing weight will keep your metabolism up (muscle burns calories) and get you a lean, tight body when you reach your goal.

The fluff that you describe when you exercise can’t possibly be fat. Trust me, exercising will NOT make you fatter! It’s got to either be pumped muscles, like Ilene said, or water retention in sore muscles after a workout. As a matter of fact, my weight will usually go up by a pound or two after a good leg workout just due to water retention in my muscles.

It’s OK to do both cardio and weights on the same day so long as you do the weights first (or split up into separate sessions of weights and cardio). And it’s OK to do weights on consecutive days so long as you’re working different muscle groups each day. Kery’s right that muscles need to rest for 48 hours before you work them again, so a lot of people ‘split’ their muscle groups into separate days. For example, I do a five-day split of back, chest, arms (bi’s and tri’s), legs, and shoulders and frequently lift weights on back-to-back days. But I end up working out each muscle group only once a week so it has plenty of time to rest and recover before I work those muscles again.

Have you ever had your body fat % checked? That might give you a much better idea of how much fat is left to lose and how much muscle you currently have to burn off those calories and keep your metabolism up. Something to consider …

Heh, I'm much more relieved to know that that fluffiness in only retained water. I thought my body had some kind of problems moving fat. Yesterday my legs had less 3 inches! Even my friend said "what the **** happened to you?".

I only started to notice this after my last vacations. I did nothing but to sit around and I got some lean legs. But I got 2 extra pounds in those vacations even thought I looked better, very contradictory.

Probably after tomorrow my legs should be back to normal if I don't do any cardio.

The thing is that, I don't notice this on other people. Does this has something to do with the quantity of Carbohydrates/Protein diary intake? I normally eat more carbohydrates. I'm always afraid of proteins 'cause it always comes with some fat.
Or does it have something to do with salt? I heard it retains liquids or something like that.

And I don't know where should I have my fat % checked. But my % would change big time from now to tomorrow. Weird...

What may be happening to you is ''muscular atrophy'' which means that your muscle shrank from disuse ... To me that's not good... The reason you may have gained 2# may have been water retention from eating different foods from the restaurants on your vacation, they cook with more fats and salts than most health conscious people would...

Just my 2 cents...

A couple of other things ... yep, salt/sodium does cause water retention in a lot of people. Eating a lot of carbs will also make you retain water - each gram of carbs holds on to 3 to 4 grams of water. More carbs = more water retention. That's why people lose a huge amount of 'weight' when they first start on low-carb diets. Cutting down on carbs means less water is retained and the scale goes down. But it's not fat - it's just playing with the amount of water in your body. And you gain it all back as soon as you eat carbs again, so it's a fake weight loss.

Don't be afraid of eating protein, especially if you're lifting weights. You need protein for muscle building and repair. Protein will also help keep you fuller for a longer time. Not all protein has a lot of fat with it - think about choosing lean proteins, like chicken breast, turkey, fish, seafood, egg whites, cottage cheese, lean beef etc. And you need some fat in your diet anyway ...

A gym should be able to check your body fat percent for you - is there one you go to? Body fat % shouldn't fluctuate much from day to day since it measures the amount of fat in your body (not water) and that doesn't change quickly.

Good luck to you!

Thanks for explaining.
One more question.
We need about 1500 to 1800 kcal everyday on a day right? What if I eat 1000 calories in the morning and 500 or 800 during the rest of the day? And what about the kind of calories? Will I get fatter if I eat 1500 kcal of cookies instead of if 1500 kcal of fruit or vegetables (for example, it's not like I would)?

I think that it doesn't really matter when you eat your calories. If you have a calories deficit at the end of the day, you will lose fat. That said, it may be better to spread your calories out more evenly through the day so that you don't get that "I've starving!" feeling at the end of the day and end up doing some late night desperation snacking.

I also believe that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. You can get as fat if you eat 3000 calories of carrots a day as if you ate 3000 calories of chocolate. However, spending your calorie allotment for the day on sensible foods rather than hersey bars you are more likely to feel full thoughout the day. I mean, do you really think you could eat 3000 calories in just carrots in one day? Doing some quick calculations I come up with 3000 calories of carrots being at just under 16 *pounds* of them. Meanwhile, to get 3000 calories from chocolate, you need to eat just 1 pound, 5 ounces of the stuff.

Obviously, this is an extreme example. But since you can eat alot more of lower caloried food, I think this is probably a better way to go if you are looking to lose.

In terms of weight loss, you are correct that "a calorie is a calorie". HOWEVER, how you feel and look on the inside and outside is really determined by the quality of the food that you put in your body. You can lose weight on 1200-1400 calories worth of soda and cookies a day. You['ll feel terrible and be pretty unhealthy by the time you reach your goal weight. Don't bother resistence training, you won't build muscle anyway If you eat the same number of calories of nutritious, unprocessed foods well balanced between protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats, you will be far healthier, look better, and be able to build and maintain muscle.

Breaking up your meals into frequent mini-meals (every 3 hours or so) keeps your body receiving the nutrients it needs and ensures that you don't flood your system with more food than you can use.

Mel

It's funny - I know that technically a calorie is a calorie and that's what I tell all my clients ... but in my own (entirely unscientific) experience, I can eat more calories of healthy, nutritious food and maintain my weight than if I were eating junk food. For example, if I'm hungry at night and choose to eat an extra meal, I can usually get away with something like oatmeal and egg whites and not show a gain. But if I ate an equal number of calories of chocolate chip cookies, my weight would be up the next day. I suspect it's a reaction to sugar because it always seems to spike my weight up? Or maybe I'm just ?

Well, in my own experience... Junk food makes you feel full for less longer, as your body doesn't need to pour lots of resources/time into digesting them - why, it's already so processed, what's left in them? So it's also an open door to various snackings throughout the day. It probably doesn't help, along with the carbs retaining water. (Except McDo food for me; it always makes me feel so bloated and "full of fat" that I can't eat anything at the end of the day if I ate some at noon Which is a very bad feeling, and makes me avoid it like the plague.)

I totally agree that a calorie is a calorie, but that it's best to eat from healthy foods no matter what. Perhaps some people can lose weight by eating only junk foods in amounts of 1200-1500 calories a day, yet imagining what their triglycerids and LDL-cholesterol levels will then be in a few years from now is pretty frightening. Nah. It's not worth it, really. And Mel is right... without correct amount of proteins, strength training won't have any effect.

Any tips on how to remove this temporary retained water faster? It starts to bother me....I can't use my favorite jeans....(yeah, that bad)

Hi Moonsoft -
I just wanted to put in my own two cents. Everyone will tell you that toning and cardio is of equal importance, but I personally believe that cardio is the most important thing to losing that bodyfat. Contrary to what many people thing, doing reps or freeweights while targeting a certain area of the body, won't chisel down that fat...I think some people call it "spot reduction."...It's a myth. Instead you will tone those muscles that are underneath all that fat, and burn more calories THAT way.
My advice is, please don't beat yourself up over ten pounds of stubborn body fat. Also, perhaps you've bulked up in muscle over the years, and that's accounting for some of the ten pounds you think you have to lose. You've come a long way and you're 100% healthier than you were four years ago.
Good luck,

Melissa

Let's go back to the quality of your diet. How is it? How tall are you, what do you weight and do you have any idea what your current body fat percentage is? Oops, going back through the posts, I see that you don't. Unless you are fairly small, 1500-1800 calories is very low for a 21 year old male who is getting consistent exercise. I'd look at varying your calorie intake, making it higher on some days with high quality food, not processed food. If you are eating foods with either salt or sugar added, you are holding a lot of water weight. If you don't eat those foods for a while, then have a day when you have pizza, popcorn, and some chips, you are going to swell up big time! You may be interpreting this as getting fatter and thinner. There is no way in the world that your body fat can significantly increase and decrease from day to day. Your hydration levels can change drastically, but not your fat levels.

The point of weight training is not spot reducing, as the previous poster suggested, but building muscle mass. Muscle burns calories just sitting there and is smaller per pound than fat. It helps regulate blood pressure, protects bone mass (even if you are a 21 year old guy), and looks a whole lot better than lack of muscle. I strongly disagree with the previous post advising you to just do a lot of cardio! You'll end up losing muscle mass. You may lose body weight, but it won't be fat. You will look fatter, although be lighter on the scale. What's the point of that? A lot of young guys lose weight by cleaning up their diet, lifting heavy and doing very little cardio because the cardio burns up muscle mass too quickly. I'm not advocating that for you since you are used to doing the cardio, but please don't stop strength training.

Lastly, are you sure that it's fat? How long were you overweight? I know that you are young, but it is possible that you have stretched skin that has lost its elasticity. You may be seeing that as fat that won't go away.

If you are really sure that it's fat, I'd look at trying to clean up your nutrition; get rid of added sugars, processed and refined foods. Eat lots of lean proteins, fresh vegetables and fruits, and some healthy whole grains and healthy fats.

Mel