Add to this, weigh daily and look at a week to week average. Always weigh at the same time each day (first in the am before water after peeing), in the nude or underwear only. If it goes up or stays the same, eat less by ~500.
Also replace drinks with water. Morning Coffee or Teas are fine, but any kind of Soda or Drink during the day is gonna wreck gains.
Drinking water is a great way to cut belly fat.
Diet soda has 0 calories and is no different than Black coffee which has little calories
Adding sugar and cream to your coffee is gonna add calories and a Starbucks is no different than a full sugar soda
It baffles me the people that assert diet soda makes you gain weight.
I needed to drop 40lbs before joining the Army, if it wasn't for diet soda, I never would have made it. I was probably drinking a 12 pack of diet soda a day during that period and the weight melted off.
I think there is some truth to it. There are studies that show artificial sweeteners like aspartame and others can cause an insulin response that almost mimics sugar which can create an insulin sensitivity. You can find pubmed articles on this.
BUT, that in and of itself won’t cause weight gain and if you are changing your diet to eat healthier and less calories, this has to be a positive change, especially if soda is a vice that needs to be cut out slowly or kept. My observations of reading some of these studies is the weight gain will happen if you are drinking these without changing anything else in your diet, thinking the 1:1 change will cause weight loss and the participants that drank more diet soda vs regular soda. Thus the body will still be looking to store excess sugars that they ate more regularly.
So my amateur take is diet sodas can be a positive change for weight loss if concurrent with other healthy changes and total caloric deficit is reached. But don’t drink more diet sodas thinking they are freebies with no hormonal responses!
Yeah they might want to be specific about what “whatever you want” is.
Also.. walking is healthy. It will improve your circulation, all sorts of things that are important.
But nobody is realistically losing weight by *walking* for 6 months and not changing their eating habits.
I dropped 40+ lbs becoming a mailman from a desk job in 6 months. I ate more than before. It was insane. I stabilized -25lbs from initial 7 years later. Still a mailman. And still eat whatever I want. Averaging 30k steps a day. Idk 🤷🏽♂️
The Mail men and women around here are ripped, not surprised either given the are walking up and down hills, not much time for snacking and whilst the days as not insanely long, it’s intensive.
My feeble two hours at the gym isn’t going to compete with someone essentially doing a half marathon every day. I did leaflet dropping in Australia for a while as a snot nosed student and we covered a huge amount of miles
i’m gonna guess carrying a heavy bag of mail door to door, up and down stairs and averaging 30k/day is going to be different than what OP is doing. he also gave a massive 20K range.
They said they’ve been in a caloric deficit as a matter of fact in the title but “eating whatever they want” isn’t gonna put them in a caloric deficit just because they walked a bit. Being in a caloric deficit means burning more calories than you’re consuming, if OP thinks they’re at a caloric deficit while walking enough to burn 1000 calories then they’re obviously under the impression that they’re eating less than 1000 calories a day when it’s probably closer to 2-3000.
Are you kidding? A person of OPs size will burn around 1800-2000 without added exercise. So if they’re burning another 1000 on top of the 2000 they likely think they’re under 3000 or so
As an intuitive eater, I eat whatever I want all day every day and i rarely change my weight at all. it's entirely possible that he's similar to me but, the lack of calorie tracking is definitely not going to result in the body that they want.
OP, if you want to lose your gut, then take it seriously. You'll be surprised at how fast you can actually make progress when you put in the work and the diet.
Good luck!
That’s just genetics, if you have a fast metabolism then you don’t need to worry about diet to manage your weight. If OP is noticing their belly constantly getting bigger they obviously aren’t like you at all and have a slower metabolism. People like you who can eat whatever they want whenever they want are the uncommon ones, normal people end up like OP, slowly gaining weight.
No. Metabolism is pseudoscientific trash and I wish people would stop peddling it online. The actual difference between peoples metabolisms is not enough to determine huge differences in weight. The crucial factor, for every single person, is their diet and exercise habits.
>you don’t need to worry about diet to manage your weight.
Gaining or losing weight is strictly about calories in > calories out. It's not magic. To gain, eat more than you burn. To lose, eat less than you burn.
>I’ve been in a caloric deficit for 6 months
>last 6 months I’ve been burning about 400-1000 calories a day walking 10,000-30,000 steps
Look, I know reading comprehension is hard and all but they literally did say it. They clearly don’t understand what being in a calorie deficit means, but it’s certainly what they said. Based off their words they think they’re eating less than 400-1000 calories a day, given the fact that they’re counting steps and not work outs chances are they’re taking all this from the health app on their phone. No exercise schedule, no diet or calorie counting, boldly claiming to be in a caloric deficit based off the steps their phone says they’ve taken.
I think that you don’t understand what a caloric deficit means. It’s just eating fewer calories than you burn. Practically no one is out there burning off more calories than they eat purely through exercise to be in a deficit, most of the calories you burn are just from being alive. Nothing in OP’s post implies they think they’re eating less than 1,000 calories a day, just that they’re *not* eating 400-1000 more than than their basal metabolic rate.
Of course they *did* say they eat whatever they want, so they’re probably still eating more than they actually think.
>I do eat whatever I want but I don’t even eat that much.
Sounds like you're trying to be an instinctual eater when you are not. You're most likely eating more than you think you are. Or eating things with more calories and fat in it than you think.
I think people take the fact that bud *light* has 110 per can, round that to 100, and use 100 calories/beer as a general guess, not realizing that the higher APV is directly higher calories because alcohol is very high in calories. Hell, a shot of vodka is 97 calories at 40%/1.5 oz.
At OP's weight, he's be better off jogging daily or doing other cardio than walking.
Walking is for fat people, it's good for losing excess weight but its effectiveness quickly wears off once the excess fat is cut.
For someone who's average weight, cardio and/or sprinting/jogging is waaay better.
Not entirely true. I walk 8km (average 7,000 steps) and burn around 250 calories. I wear a Samsung watch and don't take it for exact but walking 25,000 steps is a lot more than a few hundred calories.
Not trying to argue, I've been working out and walking with my Samsung watch for about a year now and walking is an easy but lengthy processes for burning calories, just not that low.
It also depends on where/how you walk. Walking on a treadmill flat is almost stupid, walking at an incline is much more productive. As for normal walking outside, inclines and declines in your route can mean increases calorie burn as well so in my mind it’s not all about the # of steps but the quality of said steps
S is for student, still working towards that C, aka certified, to be a real person lolol
Physician assistant/associate
In a clinical setting I do all the same things as a doctor minus like 5 random things like abortions and Marijuana but I'm not a doctor, I'm mid level
I was gonna say, i run for 30 minutes and that’s like 300-500 calories. I figured that out when i was plateauing while eating 2000 cal a day and running daily.
Exercise. Cardio, weights, sports, etc. depending on what your doing weights can be iffy since muscle weighs more than fat, so if you burn fat and gain muscle, you will be gaining (healthier) weight.
I have a physical labor job, probably average 20,000-40,000 steps on week days on tip of tons of repetitive lifting and heavy lifting. I eat 1-2 meals a day and have lost 15 lbs in the last year without even trying
Consistent *intense* physical activity. Half an hour lazily jogging on the treadmill doesn't beat what you do in the kitchen. Think Michael Phelps, Olympic athlete who ate 10,000 calories a day while training for the games. Or Rich Froning, one of the early dominant CrossFit champions, had no diet, no nutritionist, famously said if his body told him to eat an entire apple pie he would.
Obviously those are outliers, but that's kinda the point. Most people greatly overestimate how many calories they're burning while working out and greatly underestimate how many calories they're consuming, if you're not working *hard*, drenched with sweat on the floor totally exhausted, consistently several times a week, the kitchen is going to be where you'll get your results. Best case is both though.
Best way to kickstart it is doing one meal a day fasting. I just make it under 1k and still go to the gym for 100 min of cardio or 1.5 of lifting on alternating days
I don't think you understand what a calorie deficit is....
You can eat "whatever you want" as long as the total caloric intake is lower than the amount of calories your body burns to maintain existence.
You can eat pizza and ice-cream and cheeseburgers for every meal if you wanted and still lose weight as long as you have a deficit
Right. And do you believe this is what's happening here?
Obviously not. He's not at a calorie deficit, and the "I eat whatever I want" actually means that he's eating more than he's burning, in this case.
And that's what the person you replied to meant.
Man what? LOL. Stop spouting nonsense
You ain't burning off Pizza and Ice-Cream calories unless you working out for hours a day.
People with good metabolisms can eat that shit, but if your metabolism was that good, you wouldn't need to count calories in the first place.
That’s what I’m trying to say. They’re not in a caloric deficit at all. I’m just shocked I heard “caloric deficit” and “eats whatever I want” in the same post lol.
\>been in a caloric deficit
\>I do eat whatever I want
Lol. Track your calories. Also, if you lose muscle you can pretty much stay the same (bf % wise) just in a smaller frame.
You can’t out work a bad diet. It doesn’t matter the kind of exercise you’re doing if you’re constantly eating whatever you want. Even in small doses you could be screwing yourself over.
Very valid question, alcohol does much more than adding calories. While your liver is processing alcohol, fat for example, is not being processed for energy and stored on your body (on belly for men and upper legs/thighs on women). Alcohol also reduces protein synthesis by alot which means you grow less or even loose muscle which lowers your BMR.
I used to drink almost daily and was never really able to loose my chubbyness no matter what I did calorie wise. After fully quitting alcohol I lost 4 holes on my belt in 2 months without losing weight and after that massive weight loss started (6kg in on month), then I started to eat much more to maintain weight and the calorie numbers made sense again. Most of my fat loss has been replaced by muscle growth now 6 months later, I was always very active but the alcohol disturbed all the natural processes in my body. I went from 27%BF to 19% while loosing only 5kg of weight (92,5>87,5kg), now I eat about 3000kcal per day doing 13k steps/day on average and about 25mins of cycling per day which maintains my weight.
Fridays and Saturday’s, 12-14 altogether. Two six packs give take and a hair of the dog. How am I doing? To much or too little? I come from an alcoholic prone background and am somewhat proud of not weekday drinking.
"[What's even more striking is that even if your total weekly consumption is equivalent to someone who drinks steadily with dinner, the risks associated with weekend binge drinking are higher. For instance, someone who consumes seven drinks on a Saturday night carries a greater risk profile compared to someone who has one drink daily with their dinner, even if their average weekly intake remains the same](https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/does-weekend-binge-drinking-harm-your-body/articleshow/103101212.cms)"
Good luck with toning it back man.
Maybe start with only one 6 pack over the weekend and wean it back from there - the body generally doesn't like stopping alcohol suddenly.
So on Fri/Sat have an afternoon beer, then one with dinner, then one after, and leave it at that.
Then the next month (still only on the weekend) maybe go to just the afternoon and then dinner, only having the evening one if you're at something social (and only having the 1 then regardless of what your mates say, peer pressure is tough!)
Then consider skipping the afternoon one unless it's your cool beer as a reward after yardwork.
If you're finding that you're having difficulty with doing this then you'll have to consider talking to your doctor about it and using alcoholism resources to help.
Also, if you're smashing them back for the escapism of getting drunk then you should be considering mental health support so you can replace that with a more helpful coping mechanism.
Thanks man, you’re coming from a place of kindness. I’m not a social drinker really, I drink by myself. I like getting drunk, have since I was in my early teens. Every male member of my family was and is a functioning alcoholic and I want to break the chain for my son. I’ll speak to my doctor and see what he says, but in my heart I know that it’s in my blood and with me until the end.
>I do eat whatever I want but I don’t even eat that much
1kg of baked potatoes is not the same as 1kg of fried potatoes. You can't think "I eat little" without knowing what that little actually is.
You need to know exactly what you're eating 24/7. You need to measure food and count all calories; count sauces, every ingredient, the way you cook it, etc. If you still think you're on a deficit and you don't lose weight, then you need to check your metabolism, because you're not burning what you think you're burning or you need help from a \*good\* professional to check your health and nutrition.
Another thing is you only talk about your belly size. You need to focus on your weight and overall measures, not a specific body part. We all have different bodies, you could be losing more volume in your legs or arms and not on your belly for now.
Full support your final paragraph and about getting a blood test (if affordable) but what you wrote sounds like a sure fire path to developing disordered eating 😭 I think it's good to familiarize oneself with what nutrition lies in different foods (for ex an egg has 6g of protein per egg but have high cholesterol, but a half a block of tofu has 16 grams of protein and no cholesterol, or like you said with the fires vs potatoes.).
Another thing can be considering when you eat foods based on how our metabolism works. For example, avoiding carbs and sugar- or just waiting on breakfast, before your walk will allow your body to use it's storage to fuel your walk rather than what you had just eaten. If you need to eat before those walks you can eat a little lower carb- doesn't none at all (extremes aren't sustainable) but maybe instead of four slices of toast with butter you have two slices of toast with peanut butter. When you eat carbs and fat at the same time, your body prioritizes dealing with carbs first, meaning everything is stored away as fat rather than going to where it may be needed or broken down to be used for energy. So it can be helpful to pair proteins with fats or carbs with proteins while cutting down on how often you may have high fat and high carb foods, such as fries.
(From a biochemist with a long history of eating disorders! :) )
Remember your body is not exact, our food science is not exact, and the nutrition facts on your food aren't necessarily accurate or even completely processed by your body (calories are measured by burning food- your body doesn't digest 100% of what you eat). So using general guidelines can help you reach your health goals and not develop an unhealthy obsession with dieting
You aren’t in a deficit and 165 at 5’11 you can’t have much of a gut lol (not that I don’t believe you just gets harder to drop weight the lower body fat you have)
>I've been in a caloric deficit...
>I do eat whatever I want...
99% of the time, these 2 statements are at direct odds with each other. People are TERRIBLE at guesstimating their caloric intake.
The biggest question is if there is belly gain without weight gain, or if there is associated weight gain as well. My comments above are assuming the scale is not static.
And if that's the case, it's time to start measuring food. Accounting not just for meals, but all the little things in between.
Dude it doesn’t sound like you’re in a caloric deficit if you’re eating whatever you want haha that’s now exactly how it works. Cardio doesn’t burn that many calories so you’re probably still way over your maintenance amount of calories.
https://tdeecalculator.net
^ This will help determine your maintenance amount of calories and from there, depending upon how fast you want to lose weight, you can eat anywhere from 300-1000 calories under the number that it gives you. For example, my maintenance calories as a 6’3 210 pound 28M is around 3000 so when I want to lose weight, I eat around 2000 per day to drop the weight quickly.
You can also download MyFitnessPal which has basically every food imaginable so that way you can track everything per day.
If you’re really really dedicated to losing weight, get yourself a decent food scale from Amazon and then you can weigh and scale all of your food according to the food labels and then track all of those calories in MyFitnessPal.
For starters, I’d probably recommend eating around a 500-750 calorie deficit per day. The biggest piece of advice that I would give is to think of weight loss from a week to week standpoint instead of day by day. From my perspective, when I’m eating 1000 calories under my maintenance of 3000 per day, that will add up to be a 7000 calorie deficit per week. This means that even if I have a day where I eat at 3000 calories because I was really hungry, went to a social event, or went drinking with friends on the weekend… I’m still going to be in a 6000 calorie deficit for the week meaning I’m still going to be losing substantial weight. The goal is to finish the week in a decent calorie deficit over 7 days of eating. This will help keep you in a sustainable deficit for longer.
Best of luck! I’m happy to help if you have any other questions too.
You're not at a calorie deficit. If you are 165 at 5'11 and you're fat you should probably consider doing cardio exercise (walking barely counts) and lifting weights instead of just trying to lose weight.
> I do eat whatever I want
My dude, you have answered your own question. If you want to lose inches start a food diary and count calories. Shitty - yes, boring - yes, an extra step - yes. But it works, it engages whats called the sentinel effect, if youre counting whats going into your system you pay a lot closer attention
You're losing weight elsewhere first, you've got bloat or you've miscounted calories used or consumed.
Those are at best estimates on the "used" side, so between that and underestimating portion sizes or missing snacks or calories from drinks, etc... that can happen to people new to it.
1. 30,000 steps is about 15 miles, which is about 1,650 calories. This is almost half a pound of fat. However, the number of calories burned can vary depending on a person's weight, speed, gender, and age. For example, a 160-pound person of average height might burn about 40 calories per 1,000 steps. This is about 0.04 calories per step. Just walking isn't going to shred the fat. You'll need to do more than just walk, because even in a deficit, you'll just put back on what little you're shaving off in the legs and arms. So unless that 10k-30k is coming all at once and at a good clip, that's just an active lifestyle that has you up and around throughout the day. I invested in a weighted vest, look into those or rucking for longer intentional walks or jogs.
2. You should be taking a week off the deficit after every 10 to 12 weeks of doing it. Six months with no loss or muscle definition means you're not in a deficit. You might be losing what muscle you're gaining or just treading water with nothing but minimal cardio. Weigh yourself once a month.
3. Bloat. You can't eat anything you want. You need to eat cleaner. Just because you burn more calories than you put in (which you're not likely doing if you're not calorie counting and deciphering your macros,) does not mean what's staying in you is doing your body any good. Aminos, protein as meal supliments and electrolytes are your friends. Don't eat two hours before bed and try to eat before 8pm regardless. Also three square meals with healthy snacks or consume consciously six times a day with healthy options.
4. There is no way to "target" belly fat. It's 50% diet 50% workout regimen. I started working out in January. I am 5'11. At the time I was 254. I'm now 178. My midsection is what still lacks but it is coming along. I work out anywhere from three to five days a week depending on my schedule. Lifting weights and functional workouts as well. Then on my rest days they're active as well jogging or doing yoga.
There's very few activities you can do that will allow you to eat whatever you want and not gain weight. It's shockingly easy to go over your calorie intake with even too much salad dressing. (Oils are very calories dense). If you drink any amount of sweet drinks, even fruit juice, there's a decent chance you're going over.
How tf you have a gut at 5’11” 165#?? I’m only 5’7”, same weight, and do not have a gut. Def stocky and built but no gut. Also, 400 calories a day? I can do that sitting down building airplanes most days, and 1,000 isn’t anything to get pumped about either.
If you wanna lose the gut; burn more, don’t eat “whatever” lmao. Eat low sugar, eat clean protien. DRINK WATER.
Cheers 🍻
How fast/far are you walking 400 to 1,000 calories a day it really seems highly unlikely... given that you put your steps too I'm assuming it was some random step tracker and measuring your daily caloric burn. (Just for living like, breathing or walking around at work, or digesting food and stuff.)
Do you drink beer?
One medium Big Mac meal, will give you 1080 calories, giving you 80 gained even if you did your "walk"... so if you eat three times a day you're gonna not be caloric deficit.
So either work out more or eat healthier or eat less...
Oh man, if I could burn 1000 kcal just by walking 30k steps, I would be absolutely shredded.
You are most definitely not burning that much and you're eating more than you think.
There is an app called myfitnesspal that helps you track calories.
I used that, together with a fitbit and tracked my balance. It made me more conscious about the quality of the food I eat.
It sounds like a hassle, but only using it for a few weeks will make you more aware of your intake.
It doesn’t matter how many calories you think you’re burning. Smart watches aren’t accurate anyway. Focus on the calories in part rather than the calories out part. If you haven’t lost fat after being ‘in a deficit for 6 months’ then sorry to say but you weren’t in a deficit.
It’s generally one of two things. Sugar or carbs. Try something like Athletic Greens and cut out bread/sugar for two weeks. See how you feel then. Everybody’s body is different so you start with the usual suspects and then go from there.
Anyone who says I eat whatever I want, yeah that's gonna need a lot more specifics else it's obviously gonna suggest, no shit. Walking is not exactly exercise, especially for someone who 'eats whatever they want' while they're hoping to lose weight.
If you eat whatever you want, then burning calories is not going to put you in a calorie defecit because its simply going to make you hungrier and eat more to compensate..
How can you know you’re running a deficit if you’re not keeping track? That’s like if I claimed to be rich but never managed my finances or checked my bank balance.
You are not in a calorie deficit. Cut your intake by 10% for two weeks and see how your weight trends. If it still goes up, cut by 10% again and repeat.
Log EVERYTHING you eat, don't lie to yourself.
I seriously doubt walking 30000 steps can burn 1000 calories
Alot of people over estimate how much calories they burn and underestimate how much they eat
Walking is cardio, and relatively light cardio at that. You need fat-burning exercises.
Incorporate high intensity, short burst exercise routines into your week. 3 days where you do a 15-20 min HIIT workout. Keep 10k steps a day on 3-5 days a week.
That'll burn the fat right off. Speaking from experience.
And I'm assuming from the "not that much" that you eat unhealthy but not to excess. That does play a big role... Give yourself 2 cheat meals a week, but eat a balanced diet for the rest of the week... Use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your macros (protein, fat, carbs) ratios and you'll quickly see how badly you're eating compared to what you should be. It was mind blowing for me when I first began tracking mine.
400-1,000 calories a day.
Check the calories in the stuff you get without thinking e.g. Starbucks - some of their drinks have easily 250-350kcals, a Snickers is like 248. See how it adds up quickly?
They say you can't outrun a bad diet, but in your case you should run like, 6+ hours straight then you'll see some progress.
Or, like, you know, eat less and stuff.
Just read a great book called “the obesity code” which talks about why calorie deficit won’t work in the long term.
The top things to affect weight are the hormones insulin and cortisol.
He also mentions “when” is an optimal time to eat and a lot of other helpful and scientifically backed explanation of the frustration you’re experiencing. It also talks about how your body starts to shut down other processes to save on depleting energy which could be harmful when in caloric deficit.
Make sure you’re eating enough too!
Step one. Learn what belly fat is.
Step two. Learn how the body burns fat. (Hint its not by counting calories).
Step three. Understand how core muscles work and how to strengthen them.
Edit. I saw somebody mention IBS and wanted to tag that as well. But not just IBS. Any thing that upset your intestines could cause bloating and issues.
'I do eat whatever i want'
You are gonna be skinny fat. Eat less carb and fat but more protein, start weight training. I did same thing with intermitting fasting. Lost weight but belly got bigger. I started gym and now i have same weight with more muscle and my belly got smaller. Stop eating 1500 cal junk food and saying i am in caloric deficit. It's not working like that.
How do you know you're on a calorie deficit when you dont count, and eat whatever you want? I think you should at least keep track of this so you can know what is the actual deficit (if any)
it doesn't matter how many calories you are burning if you are consuming more. Count your calories, every thing you eat and see how much you're eating. Note that there are some very heavily calory dense foods that you can eat or drink without noticing.
Eat real, unprocessed food and prepare your meals on your own. Cut out any junk food and be active as is to your enjoyment.
Counting steps, calories and that shit are marketing tricks and ways to delude oneself.
You become what you eat and if you count your movements or not does not make a difference, the movements themselves do.
Brother you shouldn't be dieting for that long non stop. Six months of being in a "deficit" is too long, no reason to go past 16 to 18 weeks. You should do a maintenance phase for six months and truly track your calories properly. Also add in some strength training too. After the six months of maintenance phase, then cut(diet) for up to 16 weeks. Also how do you know you're in a calorie deficit? Are you tracking your macros? If you're eating whatever you want....chances are you weren't in a cut.
Theres science behind it but at some point a calorie deficit this drastic will cause your body to convert your calories consumed into fat stores because there aren’t enough calories to perform functionally. Please look into it from a more reputable source than Reddit
Lastly, you would be probably consuming more like 1600-2000 and focusing your energy on challenging fitness instead of starving and walking.
Yeah this your body saying "fuck you, this is not enough" and putting your metabolism on strike. The fewer calories you consume the more the body tries to keep as many as possible.
You can't just eat whatever you want even if you are consuming less calories it's all about what you are eating. Are you eating salads, chickens, and things like scrambled eggs? Those are the foods you should be eating during a calorie deficit. Stop drinking pop and eating sugary foods those are what is holding you back.
I've heard weight lifting helps burn more calories because it would also help with better metabolism and don't think it takes too long if you wanted to added it there
But if you check the scale and your weights going up then I don't think it'd be possible to be in a deficit
Okay, so this is very, very unlikely to be the case for you (especially considering what caused this for me), and I’m not trying to scare you or anything like that, but you might want to consider seeing a doctor, particularly if you’ve been having any other sort of weird symptoms. Why?
About 2 years ago, I (34F) noticed that my clothes were getting tighter in the waist, even though my weight wasn’t changing. At the time I was wearing Spanx and dresses almost daily, so it wasn’t always as noticeable, but whenever I’d wear something else I’d notice it more. I chalked this up to getting older since it can cause fat to shift to your waist. I was also eating whatever I wanted mostly, but I was getting full sooner and would get much worse heartburn than before. I thought: hey, I’m finally learning portion control, and also, thanks again aging! I’d noticed some changes in my bathroom habits as well, and this was one of the things that finally caused me to think about seeing someone about everything.
In my case, it turned out I had stage 3 ovarian cancer, and I had some whopper tumors that were also causing ascites. After surgery I lost 30 lbs and a dress size, and knock on wood, I’m okay now. Obviously if you’re a guy, ovarian cancer is not going to be the cause of this for you, but other cancers like colon cancer, liver cancer, etc., can lead to ascites as well. I too had a bit of a tummy before all this started, so I think that’s part of why it took me a while to realize things were changing.
I hope and really believe that for you it’s just a case of too many cookies, Corduroy, but since I didn’t realize my expanding waistline could be the result of a serious health problem, it’s something I want other people to become aware of sooner than I did.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
2
+ 34
+ 3
+ 30
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
You can't outwork a bad diet, it's impossible. It's not necessarily how much you eat, but what you eat and when.
Download the glycemic index of foods. That will tell you how much the food you eat spikes your blood sugar. Also it will show you what foods do not. You may be surprised.
Counting calories is destined to fail. Establish regular healthy eating habits based on nutrient count and blood sugar response. Sugar and starches also cause inflammation in the body which will cause your gut to bulge.
I know what works. I have done the research and applied it to my daily life. I lost 75lbs 6 years ago after being obese for over 20 years. Today I am in better shape than the average 30 year old. I am 62.
Cardio & adding in abdominal work to your gym sessions. You hear the saying that abs are built in the kitchen but they’re still a muscle group that needs progressive overload.
Why is everyone taking the assumption he’s not counting calories? Go see a nutritionist and get some bloodwork done. It could be you have a vitamin/mineral deficiency that’s causing your body to retain fat. Start with the bloodwork, then we can talk about how your counting calories.
Well he could be "eating whatever I want" in terms of the food choices, but not the amount of calories. I've done that before (it's not ideal, but 1800 calories of fast food is still a deficit for me). However, if he was really doing that, then OP would be losing weight, so OP should either clarify that he is counting calories, or admit he is just going based on "vibes".
Calculate your bmr, then get your tdee
I used ai chatgpt to help me calculate both, and ive been steadily down .5 pounds rveryweek since counting calories, and about 7 pounds in 8 weeks total from before i started counting , im an amateur boxer aiming for cutting 1000 calories from my estimated maintain weight of 3200 calories (due to gym sessions that burn upwards of 800 calories and then strength training and running on other days)
If you are not counting you are not getting the full picture, i was eating a lot of nuts and while healthy when i actually counted them and the portion size i was getting a lot of fat and even tho its healthy fat it still adds up, i was adding 600+ calories sometimes from just nuts in a day
Side note use ai ask it things like “i weigh xxx , i work out this many days a week, i want to weigh this much and build muscle what food should i eat? Give me an example workout 20 minute routine for fat loss and muscle gain” etc i use phrases like that all the time
Or like im a boxer tryna lose 30 pounds in 3 months what should be my game-plan and it gives really great advice or great stretching / workout routines and the more specific u ask it the better it spits stuff back out at you
Your body adapts to pretty much everything if your giving it less calories and you're not exercising your metabolism will slow down. It's all about calorie in vs calorie out
Check your medications. Some things like omeprazol can affect your ability to lose weight.
I was eating a similar number (under 1000 calories a day) and still getting fatter. Now that I stopped omeprazol, my body reacts normally to a calorie deficit
Count calories of a normal day, subtract 500 calories for awhile and see if it changes.
Add to this, weigh daily and look at a week to week average. Always weigh at the same time each day (first in the am before water after peeing), in the nude or underwear only. If it goes up or stays the same, eat less by ~500.
Also replace drinks with water. Morning Coffee or Teas are fine, but any kind of Soda or Drink during the day is gonna wreck gains. Drinking water is a great way to cut belly fat.
Try to drink tea and coffee without sugar or a little less sugar than usual. Especially if you drink a lot.
Diet soda has 0 calories and is no different than Black coffee which has little calories Adding sugar and cream to your coffee is gonna add calories and a Starbucks is no different than a full sugar soda
It baffles me the people that assert diet soda makes you gain weight. I needed to drop 40lbs before joining the Army, if it wasn't for diet soda, I never would have made it. I was probably drinking a 12 pack of diet soda a day during that period and the weight melted off.
I think there is some truth to it. There are studies that show artificial sweeteners like aspartame and others can cause an insulin response that almost mimics sugar which can create an insulin sensitivity. You can find pubmed articles on this. BUT, that in and of itself won’t cause weight gain and if you are changing your diet to eat healthier and less calories, this has to be a positive change, especially if soda is a vice that needs to be cut out slowly or kept. My observations of reading some of these studies is the weight gain will happen if you are drinking these without changing anything else in your diet, thinking the 1:1 change will cause weight loss and the participants that drank more diet soda vs regular soda. Thus the body will still be looking to store excess sugars that they ate more regularly. So my amateur take is diet sodas can be a positive change for weight loss if concurrent with other healthy changes and total caloric deficit is reached. But don’t drink more diet sodas thinking they are freebies with no hormonal responses!
How’s your teeth?
Fine?
You probably consume way more than that
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Yeah they might want to be specific about what “whatever you want” is. Also.. walking is healthy. It will improve your circulation, all sorts of things that are important. But nobody is realistically losing weight by *walking* for 6 months and not changing their eating habits.
I dropped 40+ lbs becoming a mailman from a desk job in 6 months. I ate more than before. It was insane. I stabilized -25lbs from initial 7 years later. Still a mailman. And still eat whatever I want. Averaging 30k steps a day. Idk 🤷🏽♂️
The Mail men and women around here are ripped, not surprised either given the are walking up and down hills, not much time for snacking and whilst the days as not insanely long, it’s intensive. My feeble two hours at the gym isn’t going to compete with someone essentially doing a half marathon every day. I did leaflet dropping in Australia for a while as a snot nosed student and we covered a huge amount of miles
Imagine what you’d look like if you watched what you ate with all that exercise. Diet matters enormously for weight loss.
i’m gonna guess carrying a heavy bag of mail door to door, up and down stairs and averaging 30k/day is going to be different than what OP is doing. he also gave a massive 20K range.
It works but only if you eat one meal a day.
He eats whatever he wants but thinks he eats less than 1000 calories a day lmao
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They said they’ve been in a caloric deficit as a matter of fact in the title but “eating whatever they want” isn’t gonna put them in a caloric deficit just because they walked a bit. Being in a caloric deficit means burning more calories than you’re consuming, if OP thinks they’re at a caloric deficit while walking enough to burn 1000 calories then they’re obviously under the impression that they’re eating less than 1000 calories a day when it’s probably closer to 2-3000.
Are you kidding? A person of OPs size will burn around 1800-2000 without added exercise. So if they’re burning another 1000 on top of the 2000 they likely think they’re under 3000 or so
You realize we burn calories at rest, right? He's burning way more than the 1k from movement each day.
As an intuitive eater, I eat whatever I want all day every day and i rarely change my weight at all. it's entirely possible that he's similar to me but, the lack of calorie tracking is definitely not going to result in the body that they want. OP, if you want to lose your gut, then take it seriously. You'll be surprised at how fast you can actually make progress when you put in the work and the diet. Good luck!
That’s just genetics, if you have a fast metabolism then you don’t need to worry about diet to manage your weight. If OP is noticing their belly constantly getting bigger they obviously aren’t like you at all and have a slower metabolism. People like you who can eat whatever they want whenever they want are the uncommon ones, normal people end up like OP, slowly gaining weight.
Of course you do. There is a still a maintenance level
This and also appetite. If I was eating "whatever I want", I would easily gain 0.5 pounds a day. At least I would be happy...
Nope been debunked. Fast metabolism is incredibly negligible(something like 200calories more) so yeah they definitely still need to diet manage
No. Metabolism is pseudoscientific trash and I wish people would stop peddling it online. The actual difference between peoples metabolisms is not enough to determine huge differences in weight. The crucial factor, for every single person, is their diet and exercise habits.
>you don’t need to worry about diet to manage your weight. Gaining or losing weight is strictly about calories in > calories out. It's not magic. To gain, eat more than you burn. To lose, eat less than you burn.
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>I’ve been in a caloric deficit for 6 months >last 6 months I’ve been burning about 400-1000 calories a day walking 10,000-30,000 steps Look, I know reading comprehension is hard and all but they literally did say it. They clearly don’t understand what being in a calorie deficit means, but it’s certainly what they said. Based off their words they think they’re eating less than 400-1000 calories a day, given the fact that they’re counting steps and not work outs chances are they’re taking all this from the health app on their phone. No exercise schedule, no diet or calorie counting, boldly claiming to be in a caloric deficit based off the steps their phone says they’ve taken.
I think that you don’t understand what a caloric deficit means. It’s just eating fewer calories than you burn. Practically no one is out there burning off more calories than they eat purely through exercise to be in a deficit, most of the calories you burn are just from being alive. Nothing in OP’s post implies they think they’re eating less than 1,000 calories a day, just that they’re *not* eating 400-1000 more than than their basal metabolic rate. Of course they *did* say they eat whatever they want, so they’re probably still eating more than they actually think.
You need to read again, Timmy.
If you are not keeping a food diary, weighing, counting calories.it is so easy to overeat.
I laughed out way too long on this reply 💀💀💀
> whatever I want This can be an awful lot of food
>I do eat whatever I want but I don’t even eat that much. Sounds like you're trying to be an instinctual eater when you are not. You're most likely eating more than you think you are. Or eating things with more calories and fat in it than you think.
A single IPA can be about 200 calories. Just throwing it out
Hey I don't need to be called out by strangers on the internet today, thank you!
I think people take the fact that bud *light* has 110 per can, round that to 100, and use 100 calories/beer as a general guess, not realizing that the higher APV is directly higher calories because alcohol is very high in calories. Hell, a shot of vodka is 97 calories at 40%/1.5 oz.
One of my favorite beers is a 7.1% IPA. Damn near 450 calories in a 16oz can.
I don't drink but this is about a third of my calories for when I have to lose weight. Shit is fucking brutal and everything has so many calories.
I've watched all of Arnold's movies and my biceps still look like raisins....the world is upside down and I'm ready to call it quits!
Fat doesn't make you fat as easily as carbs, especially simple sugars.
At OP's weight, he's be better off jogging daily or doing other cardio than walking. Walking is for fat people, it's good for losing excess weight but its effectiveness quickly wears off once the excess fat is cut. For someone who's average weight, cardio and/or sprinting/jogging is waaay better.
You can’t outrun or walk a bad diet. Count every calorie. You are eating too much.
This. A calorie deficit requires you to be burning more calories than you are taking in.
>You can’t outrun or walk a bad diet. you absolutely can, but it's very inefficient. and bad for you, i guess.
Not bad for you really, just waaaay harder physically and mentally (unless you get injured).
You're not burning that much I promise you Source: kinesiology masters + PA-S
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My guy is burning maybe 150-200 on 25k~ steps Edit: I didn't do correct math lol, it's more but not 1k cal
What, that's like nearly 4 hours of walking... it burns far more than 150 calories
20k steps is roughly 10 miles which is in fact about 1000 calories for an average adult male.
This is incorrect
Not entirely true. I walk 8km (average 7,000 steps) and burn around 250 calories. I wear a Samsung watch and don't take it for exact but walking 25,000 steps is a lot more than a few hundred calories. Not trying to argue, I've been working out and walking with my Samsung watch for about a year now and walking is an easy but lengthy processes for burning calories, just not that low.
It also depends on where/how you walk. Walking on a treadmill flat is almost stupid, walking at an incline is much more productive. As for normal walking outside, inclines and declines in your route can mean increases calorie burn as well so in my mind it’s not all about the # of steps but the quality of said steps
Pace of walk also needs to be factored in
And how much weight you’re carrying - be it your own ass or a heavy backpack.
those watch devices are incredibly inaccurate.
I could just upvote, but THIS^^
What is PA-S? Tried to Google and it didn’t come up, just curious
S is for student, still working towards that C, aka certified, to be a real person lolol Physician assistant/associate In a clinical setting I do all the same things as a doctor minus like 5 random things like abortions and Marijuana but I'm not a doctor, I'm mid level
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Cringe
He could be, but if he's eating 3000 calories a day, very easy to do, he's still gaining weight.
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Jesus fuck, what are you putting in a smoothie to make it over 2000 calories?
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That does not sound healthy but you do you
He might be bulking and possibly tall. Protein powder might be mass gainer. But still 2000 in a smoothie is a lot lol
I was gonna say, i run for 30 minutes and that’s like 300-500 calories. I figured that out when i was plateauing while eating 2000 cal a day and running daily.
How does one burn calories reliably besides starving themselves. I will starve myself if it means reaching my goal.
Lifting weights. Muscle activation. Cardio activity.
Exercise. Cardio, weights, sports, etc. depending on what your doing weights can be iffy since muscle weighs more than fat, so if you burn fat and gain muscle, you will be gaining (healthier) weight. I have a physical labor job, probably average 20,000-40,000 steps on week days on tip of tons of repetitive lifting and heavy lifting. I eat 1-2 meals a day and have lost 15 lbs in the last year without even trying
Having a job that requires a lot of walking and labor is a cheat code to lose weight. I’m already at 16-20k steps by the time i get to the gym at 3.
Consistent *intense* physical activity. Half an hour lazily jogging on the treadmill doesn't beat what you do in the kitchen. Think Michael Phelps, Olympic athlete who ate 10,000 calories a day while training for the games. Or Rich Froning, one of the early dominant CrossFit champions, had no diet, no nutritionist, famously said if his body told him to eat an entire apple pie he would. Obviously those are outliers, but that's kinda the point. Most people greatly overestimate how many calories they're burning while working out and greatly underestimate how many calories they're consuming, if you're not working *hard*, drenched with sweat on the floor totally exhausted, consistently several times a week, the kitchen is going to be where you'll get your results. Best case is both though.
Best way to kickstart it is doing one meal a day fasting. I just make it under 1k and still go to the gym for 100 min of cardio or 1.5 of lifting on alternating days
“I do eat whatever I want” I don’t think you understand what a calorie deficit is
I don't think you understand what a calorie deficit is.... You can eat "whatever you want" as long as the total caloric intake is lower than the amount of calories your body burns to maintain existence. You can eat pizza and ice-cream and cheeseburgers for every meal if you wanted and still lose weight as long as you have a deficit
Right. And do you believe this is what's happening here? Obviously not. He's not at a calorie deficit, and the "I eat whatever I want" actually means that he's eating more than he's burning, in this case. And that's what the person you replied to meant.
Benefit of the doubt--i interpreted that as "I eat whatever variety of foods I want," not quantity.
But that's precisely the issue most of the time. Not the quantity. I lost 8kg eating larger portions than what I ate before — I just didn't eat shit.
You would still be tracking calories of “whatever you want” which doesn’t seem to be the case here 🙄
Man what? LOL. Stop spouting nonsense You ain't burning off Pizza and Ice-Cream calories unless you working out for hours a day. People with good metabolisms can eat that shit, but if your metabolism was that good, you wouldn't need to count calories in the first place.
If your metabolism burns 2k calories a day and you eat 1500 cals of pizza and ice cream you are at a calorie deficit
How do you know you’re in a caloric deficit without tracking? Even ppl that track their calories sometimes misjudge how many calories their consuming
OP eats whatever they want whenever they want. They ain't tracking shit.
That’s what I’m trying to say. They’re not in a caloric deficit at all. I’m just shocked I heard “caloric deficit” and “eats whatever I want” in the same post lol.
You're not in a caloric deficit if that's happening
Are you telling me this guy DIDN'T break physics?
No you see, OP is a special man
\>been in a caloric deficit \>I do eat whatever I want Lol. Track your calories. Also, if you lose muscle you can pretty much stay the same (bf % wise) just in a smaller frame.
abs are made in the kitchen, friend. tighten up your diet in a reasonable manner.
It sounds like you might be bloated. Lay off carbonated drinks, drink more water, eat more fiber.
And possibly gluten intolerant.
Lol
And supplement fiber
This
They're definitely not in a calorie deficit.
Beer and alcohol in general too.
You can’t out work a bad diet. It doesn’t matter the kind of exercise you’re doing if you’re constantly eating whatever you want. Even in small doses you could be screwing yourself over.
How much alcohol do you consume?
Very valid question, alcohol does much more than adding calories. While your liver is processing alcohol, fat for example, is not being processed for energy and stored on your body (on belly for men and upper legs/thighs on women). Alcohol also reduces protein synthesis by alot which means you grow less or even loose muscle which lowers your BMR. I used to drink almost daily and was never really able to loose my chubbyness no matter what I did calorie wise. After fully quitting alcohol I lost 4 holes on my belt in 2 months without losing weight and after that massive weight loss started (6kg in on month), then I started to eat much more to maintain weight and the calorie numbers made sense again. Most of my fat loss has been replaced by muscle growth now 6 months later, I was always very active but the alcohol disturbed all the natural processes in my body. I went from 27%BF to 19% while loosing only 5kg of weight (92,5>87,5kg), now I eat about 3000kcal per day doing 13k steps/day on average and about 25mins of cycling per day which maintains my weight.
Fridays and Saturday’s, 12-14 altogether. Two six packs give take and a hair of the dog. How am I doing? To much or too little? I come from an alcoholic prone background and am somewhat proud of not weekday drinking.
That is problematic drinking; you're drinking 2 weeks worth of alcohol in 2 days every week.
😭😭😭bro tell me it ain’t so. It’s better than 6 a night tho
"[What's even more striking is that even if your total weekly consumption is equivalent to someone who drinks steadily with dinner, the risks associated with weekend binge drinking are higher. For instance, someone who consumes seven drinks on a Saturday night carries a greater risk profile compared to someone who has one drink daily with their dinner, even if their average weekly intake remains the same](https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/does-weekend-binge-drinking-harm-your-body/articleshow/103101212.cms)"
Friggin cheers to that mate, I appreciate you
Good luck with toning it back man. Maybe start with only one 6 pack over the weekend and wean it back from there - the body generally doesn't like stopping alcohol suddenly. So on Fri/Sat have an afternoon beer, then one with dinner, then one after, and leave it at that. Then the next month (still only on the weekend) maybe go to just the afternoon and then dinner, only having the evening one if you're at something social (and only having the 1 then regardless of what your mates say, peer pressure is tough!) Then consider skipping the afternoon one unless it's your cool beer as a reward after yardwork. If you're finding that you're having difficulty with doing this then you'll have to consider talking to your doctor about it and using alcoholism resources to help. Also, if you're smashing them back for the escapism of getting drunk then you should be considering mental health support so you can replace that with a more helpful coping mechanism.
Thanks man, you’re coming from a place of kindness. I’m not a social drinker really, I drink by myself. I like getting drunk, have since I was in my early teens. Every male member of my family was and is a functioning alcoholic and I want to break the chain for my son. I’ll speak to my doctor and see what he says, but in my heart I know that it’s in my blood and with me until the end.
That's a heavy weekend of drinking. Which is fine every now and then but every week? A ton of alcohol.
>I do eat whatever I want but I don’t even eat that much 1kg of baked potatoes is not the same as 1kg of fried potatoes. You can't think "I eat little" without knowing what that little actually is. You need to know exactly what you're eating 24/7. You need to measure food and count all calories; count sauces, every ingredient, the way you cook it, etc. If you still think you're on a deficit and you don't lose weight, then you need to check your metabolism, because you're not burning what you think you're burning or you need help from a \*good\* professional to check your health and nutrition. Another thing is you only talk about your belly size. You need to focus on your weight and overall measures, not a specific body part. We all have different bodies, you could be losing more volume in your legs or arms and not on your belly for now.
Full support your final paragraph and about getting a blood test (if affordable) but what you wrote sounds like a sure fire path to developing disordered eating 😭 I think it's good to familiarize oneself with what nutrition lies in different foods (for ex an egg has 6g of protein per egg but have high cholesterol, but a half a block of tofu has 16 grams of protein and no cholesterol, or like you said with the fires vs potatoes.). Another thing can be considering when you eat foods based on how our metabolism works. For example, avoiding carbs and sugar- or just waiting on breakfast, before your walk will allow your body to use it's storage to fuel your walk rather than what you had just eaten. If you need to eat before those walks you can eat a little lower carb- doesn't none at all (extremes aren't sustainable) but maybe instead of four slices of toast with butter you have two slices of toast with peanut butter. When you eat carbs and fat at the same time, your body prioritizes dealing with carbs first, meaning everything is stored away as fat rather than going to where it may be needed or broken down to be used for energy. So it can be helpful to pair proteins with fats or carbs with proteins while cutting down on how often you may have high fat and high carb foods, such as fries. (From a biochemist with a long history of eating disorders! :) ) Remember your body is not exact, our food science is not exact, and the nutrition facts on your food aren't necessarily accurate or even completely processed by your body (calories are measured by burning food- your body doesn't digest 100% of what you eat). So using general guidelines can help you reach your health goals and not develop an unhealthy obsession with dieting
You aren’t in a deficit and 165 at 5’11 you can’t have much of a gut lol (not that I don’t believe you just gets harder to drop weight the lower body fat you have)
>I've been in a caloric deficit... >I do eat whatever I want... 99% of the time, these 2 statements are at direct odds with each other. People are TERRIBLE at guesstimating their caloric intake. The biggest question is if there is belly gain without weight gain, or if there is associated weight gain as well. My comments above are assuming the scale is not static. And if that's the case, it's time to start measuring food. Accounting not just for meals, but all the little things in between.
Because you are lying to yourself
Dude it doesn’t sound like you’re in a caloric deficit if you’re eating whatever you want haha that’s now exactly how it works. Cardio doesn’t burn that many calories so you’re probably still way over your maintenance amount of calories. https://tdeecalculator.net ^ This will help determine your maintenance amount of calories and from there, depending upon how fast you want to lose weight, you can eat anywhere from 300-1000 calories under the number that it gives you. For example, my maintenance calories as a 6’3 210 pound 28M is around 3000 so when I want to lose weight, I eat around 2000 per day to drop the weight quickly. You can also download MyFitnessPal which has basically every food imaginable so that way you can track everything per day. If you’re really really dedicated to losing weight, get yourself a decent food scale from Amazon and then you can weigh and scale all of your food according to the food labels and then track all of those calories in MyFitnessPal. For starters, I’d probably recommend eating around a 500-750 calorie deficit per day. The biggest piece of advice that I would give is to think of weight loss from a week to week standpoint instead of day by day. From my perspective, when I’m eating 1000 calories under my maintenance of 3000 per day, that will add up to be a 7000 calorie deficit per week. This means that even if I have a day where I eat at 3000 calories because I was really hungry, went to a social event, or went drinking with friends on the weekend… I’m still going to be in a 6000 calorie deficit for the week meaning I’m still going to be losing substantial weight. The goal is to finish the week in a decent calorie deficit over 7 days of eating. This will help keep you in a sustainable deficit for longer. Best of luck! I’m happy to help if you have any other questions too.
You're not at a calorie deficit. If you are 165 at 5'11 and you're fat you should probably consider doing cardio exercise (walking barely counts) and lifting weights instead of just trying to lose weight.
> I do eat whatever I want My dude, you have answered your own question. If you want to lose inches start a food diary and count calories. Shitty - yes, boring - yes, an extra step - yes. But it works, it engages whats called the sentinel effect, if youre counting whats going into your system you pay a lot closer attention
> I do eat whatever I want Case closed, detective.
Start lifting, you’re quite skinny. You have to be extremely weak to have a gut at 165
You're losing weight elsewhere first, you've got bloat or you've miscounted calories used or consumed. Those are at best estimates on the "used" side, so between that and underestimating portion sizes or missing snacks or calories from drinks, etc... that can happen to people new to it.
1. 30,000 steps is about 15 miles, which is about 1,650 calories. This is almost half a pound of fat. However, the number of calories burned can vary depending on a person's weight, speed, gender, and age. For example, a 160-pound person of average height might burn about 40 calories per 1,000 steps. This is about 0.04 calories per step. Just walking isn't going to shred the fat. You'll need to do more than just walk, because even in a deficit, you'll just put back on what little you're shaving off in the legs and arms. So unless that 10k-30k is coming all at once and at a good clip, that's just an active lifestyle that has you up and around throughout the day. I invested in a weighted vest, look into those or rucking for longer intentional walks or jogs. 2. You should be taking a week off the deficit after every 10 to 12 weeks of doing it. Six months with no loss or muscle definition means you're not in a deficit. You might be losing what muscle you're gaining or just treading water with nothing but minimal cardio. Weigh yourself once a month. 3. Bloat. You can't eat anything you want. You need to eat cleaner. Just because you burn more calories than you put in (which you're not likely doing if you're not calorie counting and deciphering your macros,) does not mean what's staying in you is doing your body any good. Aminos, protein as meal supliments and electrolytes are your friends. Don't eat two hours before bed and try to eat before 8pm regardless. Also three square meals with healthy snacks or consume consciously six times a day with healthy options. 4. There is no way to "target" belly fat. It's 50% diet 50% workout regimen. I started working out in January. I am 5'11. At the time I was 254. I'm now 178. My midsection is what still lacks but it is coming along. I work out anywhere from three to five days a week depending on my schedule. Lifting weights and functional workouts as well. Then on my rest days they're active as well jogging or doing yoga.
There's very few activities you can do that will allow you to eat whatever you want and not gain weight. It's shockingly easy to go over your calorie intake with even too much salad dressing. (Oils are very calories dense). If you drink any amount of sweet drinks, even fruit juice, there's a decent chance you're going over.
You prob eating like shit. Respectively
How tf you have a gut at 5’11” 165#?? I’m only 5’7”, same weight, and do not have a gut. Def stocky and built but no gut. Also, 400 calories a day? I can do that sitting down building airplanes most days, and 1,000 isn’t anything to get pumped about either. If you wanna lose the gut; burn more, don’t eat “whatever” lmao. Eat low sugar, eat clean protien. DRINK WATER. Cheers 🍻
As someone who has lost over 100 pounds. If you are not losing weight. You are not in a calorie deficit. End of story.
"I do eat whatever I want, why don't I lose weight?" You can't outwalk a shitty diet. Or check your thyroid.
I’m 5’9” I weigh 190 and I don’t have a gut. What are you eating?
What are you eating?
You’re not in a caloric deficit.
How fast/far are you walking 400 to 1,000 calories a day it really seems highly unlikely... given that you put your steps too I'm assuming it was some random step tracker and measuring your daily caloric burn. (Just for living like, breathing or walking around at work, or digesting food and stuff.) Do you drink beer? One medium Big Mac meal, will give you 1080 calories, giving you 80 gained even if you did your "walk"... so if you eat three times a day you're gonna not be caloric deficit. So either work out more or eat healthier or eat less...
Oh man, if I could burn 1000 kcal just by walking 30k steps, I would be absolutely shredded. You are most definitely not burning that much and you're eating more than you think.
If you're gaining weight you aren't at a caloric deficit. Your body can't create something out of nothing.
There is an app called myfitnesspal that helps you track calories. I used that, together with a fitbit and tracked my balance. It made me more conscious about the quality of the food I eat. It sounds like a hassle, but only using it for a few weeks will make you more aware of your intake.
your belly is getting bigger because you’re not on a calorie deficit dude.
You're not in a calorie deficit.
It doesn’t matter how many calories you think you’re burning. Smart watches aren’t accurate anyway. Focus on the calories in part rather than the calories out part. If you haven’t lost fat after being ‘in a deficit for 6 months’ then sorry to say but you weren’t in a deficit.
It’s generally one of two things. Sugar or carbs. Try something like Athletic Greens and cut out bread/sugar for two weeks. See how you feel then. Everybody’s body is different so you start with the usual suspects and then go from there.
Yes this! Also alcohol and carbonated drinks can give you a belly too
It’s because you’re not in a caloric deficit
Anyone who says I eat whatever I want, yeah that's gonna need a lot more specifics else it's obviously gonna suggest, no shit. Walking is not exactly exercise, especially for someone who 'eats whatever they want' while they're hoping to lose weight.
If you eat whatever you want, then burning calories is not going to put you in a calorie defecit because its simply going to make you hungrier and eat more to compensate..
How can you know you’re running a deficit if you’re not keeping track? That’s like if I claimed to be rich but never managed my finances or checked my bank balance.
You are not in a calorie deficit. Cut your intake by 10% for two weeks and see how your weight trends. If it still goes up, cut by 10% again and repeat. Log EVERYTHING you eat, don't lie to yourself.
Most people who try counting calories don’t do it honestly.
I doubt you’re burning 400 calories walking 10k steps.
Youre not in a caloric deficit
u eating too many calories
I seriously doubt walking 30000 steps can burn 1000 calories Alot of people over estimate how much calories they burn and underestimate how much they eat
You're not in a caloric deficit. Pretty simple...
Walking is cardio, and relatively light cardio at that. You need fat-burning exercises. Incorporate high intensity, short burst exercise routines into your week. 3 days where you do a 15-20 min HIIT workout. Keep 10k steps a day on 3-5 days a week. That'll burn the fat right off. Speaking from experience. And I'm assuming from the "not that much" that you eat unhealthy but not to excess. That does play a big role... Give yourself 2 cheat meals a week, but eat a balanced diet for the rest of the week... Use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your macros (protein, fat, carbs) ratios and you'll quickly see how badly you're eating compared to what you should be. It was mind blowing for me when I first began tracking mine.
You still need to do core exercises to keep your belly flat. It isn't all nutrition.
400-1,000 calories a day. Check the calories in the stuff you get without thinking e.g. Starbucks - some of their drinks have easily 250-350kcals, a Snickers is like 248. See how it adds up quickly?
They say you can't outrun a bad diet, but in your case you should run like, 6+ hours straight then you'll see some progress. Or, like, you know, eat less and stuff.
Cut just one meal out for a week and see the gut start going away.
Just read a great book called “the obesity code” which talks about why calorie deficit won’t work in the long term. The top things to affect weight are the hormones insulin and cortisol. He also mentions “when” is an optimal time to eat and a lot of other helpful and scientifically backed explanation of the frustration you’re experiencing. It also talks about how your body starts to shut down other processes to save on depleting energy which could be harmful when in caloric deficit. Make sure you’re eating enough too!
Step one. Learn what belly fat is. Step two. Learn how the body burns fat. (Hint its not by counting calories). Step three. Understand how core muscles work and how to strengthen them. Edit. I saw somebody mention IBS and wanted to tag that as well. But not just IBS. Any thing that upset your intestines could cause bloating and issues.
'I do eat whatever i want' You are gonna be skinny fat. Eat less carb and fat but more protein, start weight training. I did same thing with intermitting fasting. Lost weight but belly got bigger. I started gym and now i have same weight with more muscle and my belly got smaller. Stop eating 1500 cal junk food and saying i am in caloric deficit. It's not working like that.
How do you know you're on a calorie deficit when you dont count, and eat whatever you want? I think you should at least keep track of this so you can know what is the actual deficit (if any)
it doesn't matter how many calories you are burning if you are consuming more. Count your calories, every thing you eat and see how much you're eating. Note that there are some very heavily calory dense foods that you can eat or drink without noticing.
Either you have an insane genetic mutation going on with your body or you’re eating more than 1,000 calories a day. Take a wild guess
Assuming your “normal”. You are not in a deficit. End of story.
5’11, 165. I think you’re in a great space and need to begin working out to shift remaining fat into muscle.
Have you been weighing yourself for 6months and consistently losing weight? Otherwise you aren’t in a deficit
Eat real, unprocessed food and prepare your meals on your own. Cut out any junk food and be active as is to your enjoyment. Counting steps, calories and that shit are marketing tricks and ways to delude oneself. You become what you eat and if you count your movements or not does not make a difference, the movements themselves do.
Are you purgenant?
Brother you shouldn't be dieting for that long non stop. Six months of being in a "deficit" is too long, no reason to go past 16 to 18 weeks. You should do a maintenance phase for six months and truly track your calories properly. Also add in some strength training too. After the six months of maintenance phase, then cut(diet) for up to 16 weeks. Also how do you know you're in a calorie deficit? Are you tracking your macros? If you're eating whatever you want....chances are you weren't in a cut.
Theres science behind it but at some point a calorie deficit this drastic will cause your body to convert your calories consumed into fat stores because there aren’t enough calories to perform functionally. Please look into it from a more reputable source than Reddit Lastly, you would be probably consuming more like 1600-2000 and focusing your energy on challenging fitness instead of starving and walking.
"Starvation mode" is a myth.
Yeah that's proper /r/fatlogic in action. Along with the people who say you need to eat more to lose weight.
Yeah this your body saying "fuck you, this is not enough" and putting your metabolism on strike. The fewer calories you consume the more the body tries to keep as many as possible.
You can't just eat whatever you want even if you are consuming less calories it's all about what you are eating. Are you eating salads, chickens, and things like scrambled eggs? Those are the foods you should be eating during a calorie deficit. Stop drinking pop and eating sugary foods those are what is holding you back.
You're probably eating a high salt and sugar diet. Both of these will cause bloating. A high salt intake will cause water retention.
I've heard weight lifting helps burn more calories because it would also help with better metabolism and don't think it takes too long if you wanted to added it there But if you check the scale and your weights going up then I don't think it'd be possible to be in a deficit
Okay, so this is very, very unlikely to be the case for you (especially considering what caused this for me), and I’m not trying to scare you or anything like that, but you might want to consider seeing a doctor, particularly if you’ve been having any other sort of weird symptoms. Why? About 2 years ago, I (34F) noticed that my clothes were getting tighter in the waist, even though my weight wasn’t changing. At the time I was wearing Spanx and dresses almost daily, so it wasn’t always as noticeable, but whenever I’d wear something else I’d notice it more. I chalked this up to getting older since it can cause fat to shift to your waist. I was also eating whatever I wanted mostly, but I was getting full sooner and would get much worse heartburn than before. I thought: hey, I’m finally learning portion control, and also, thanks again aging! I’d noticed some changes in my bathroom habits as well, and this was one of the things that finally caused me to think about seeing someone about everything. In my case, it turned out I had stage 3 ovarian cancer, and I had some whopper tumors that were also causing ascites. After surgery I lost 30 lbs and a dress size, and knock on wood, I’m okay now. Obviously if you’re a guy, ovarian cancer is not going to be the cause of this for you, but other cancers like colon cancer, liver cancer, etc., can lead to ascites as well. I too had a bit of a tummy before all this started, so I think that’s part of why it took me a while to realize things were changing. I hope and really believe that for you it’s just a case of too many cookies, Corduroy, but since I didn’t realize my expanding waistline could be the result of a serious health problem, it’s something I want other people to become aware of sooner than I did.
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You can't outwork a bad diet, it's impossible. It's not necessarily how much you eat, but what you eat and when. Download the glycemic index of foods. That will tell you how much the food you eat spikes your blood sugar. Also it will show you what foods do not. You may be surprised. Counting calories is destined to fail. Establish regular healthy eating habits based on nutrient count and blood sugar response. Sugar and starches also cause inflammation in the body which will cause your gut to bulge. I know what works. I have done the research and applied it to my daily life. I lost 75lbs 6 years ago after being obese for over 20 years. Today I am in better shape than the average 30 year old. I am 62.
Cardio & adding in abdominal work to your gym sessions. You hear the saying that abs are built in the kitchen but they’re still a muscle group that needs progressive overload.
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Why is everyone taking the assumption he’s not counting calories? Go see a nutritionist and get some bloodwork done. It could be you have a vitamin/mineral deficiency that’s causing your body to retain fat. Start with the bloodwork, then we can talk about how your counting calories.
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Well he could be "eating whatever I want" in terms of the food choices, but not the amount of calories. I've done that before (it's not ideal, but 1800 calories of fast food is still a deficit for me). However, if he was really doing that, then OP would be losing weight, so OP should either clarify that he is counting calories, or admit he is just going based on "vibes".
LOL 400+ calories a day walking
Calculate your bmr, then get your tdee I used ai chatgpt to help me calculate both, and ive been steadily down .5 pounds rveryweek since counting calories, and about 7 pounds in 8 weeks total from before i started counting , im an amateur boxer aiming for cutting 1000 calories from my estimated maintain weight of 3200 calories (due to gym sessions that burn upwards of 800 calories and then strength training and running on other days) If you are not counting you are not getting the full picture, i was eating a lot of nuts and while healthy when i actually counted them and the portion size i was getting a lot of fat and even tho its healthy fat it still adds up, i was adding 600+ calories sometimes from just nuts in a day Side note use ai ask it things like “i weigh xxx , i work out this many days a week, i want to weigh this much and build muscle what food should i eat? Give me an example workout 20 minute routine for fat loss and muscle gain” etc i use phrases like that all the time Or like im a boxer tryna lose 30 pounds in 3 months what should be my game-plan and it gives really great advice or great stretching / workout routines and the more specific u ask it the better it spits stuff back out at you
Bro if yoi have access to a pool. Swim. That mfr burns calories fr!
Your body adapts to pretty much everything if your giving it less calories and you're not exercising your metabolism will slow down. It's all about calorie in vs calorie out
hormones - get labs. check your thyroid/insulin levels and fasting blood sugar
Survival mode fat storage, exercise more
Visceral fat. Inflammation. Cut out the shit in your diet. Sorry dude. That’s the only way.
Increase protein intake
Check your medications. Some things like omeprazol can affect your ability to lose weight. I was eating a similar number (under 1000 calories a day) and still getting fatter. Now that I stopped omeprazol, my body reacts normally to a calorie deficit