How can I Lose Belly Fat Weight and Maintain a Healthy Diet Plan?

[JimmyNeu]

I’m 20 years old. Weighing approx 13 stone. Fairly skinny build but recently I’ve been putting on a bit of belly fat from excess drinking and eating at the weekend.

My daily calorie intake was somewhat near 2000 and I’ve cut that to about 1000-1500 max.

I’m currently doing a 5km run in the gym daily and doing weights after and then going for a swim.

I also walk approximately 2/3 miles a day.

If I’m only burning somewhat 500-700 Calories a day and eating more than double that, how am I supposed to lose this belly fat as I find it hard to believe I can eat under 500 Calories a day?

Thanks

[TheAwfulToad Visitor]

Sounds like you're making good progress with your exercise, but the purpose of exercise is to give your body more options for using excess dietary energy (as opposed to just storing it as fat). It's not to just "burn off calories". Broadly speaking, your body will demand food such that calories-in = calories-out. That's why most people maintain a constant weight, albeit with an undesirably-high bodyfat ratio.

You have a big advantage in being 20 years old, so all you really need to do is knock the junk food on the head. You're probably consuming a lot more of this than you realise: it's not just kebabs and burgers, but all the processed rubbish that we accept as normal. White bread; pasta-n-sauce; breakfast cereals; frozen chips and pies and chicken whatnots. We buy this stuff without even really considering what's it's made of. Most of it is just cheap ingredients tarted up with flavourings and colours so it looks like food. It isn't.

Base your meals on veg, meat, eggs, and dairy (in roughly that order), and you can't go far wrong.

Oh, and you're eating far too little. Baseline energy burn for a 13-stone 20-year-old will be around the 1700-1800kCal mark. That's the energy you need just to sit in a chair all day. Eat less and your body will go into "shutdown mode", attempting to conserve as much as possible ...including your bodyfat.

[JimmyNeu in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Thanks for your reply. Very helpful.

If I maintain a healthy diet consisting of eating eggs for breakfast and then having meat for dinner will I still be able to lose this weight as I’m feeling that would still be too much food consumed compared to what I work out.

[TheAwfulToad Visitor in reply to JimmyNeu]

It's physically impossible to give your body less than it wants/needs. If you eat too little, it'll aggressively demand more, and you will comply ... eventually. The aim is to eat the energy you need in a form that your body is less likely to store as fat. Start with vegetables (not potatoes; vegetables) and add as much meat/eggs/dairy as you wish to complete the meal. Eat until you're full.

I realise this sounds counter-intuitive, but simply eating less won't work. The key is to eat less of the wrong things, and more of the right things. When you do this, your appetite will crank downwards of its own accord as your body "discovers" that you have some spare bodyfat that needs using up.

[Hidden in reply to JimmyNeu]

Don't forget you burn calories each day just staying alive. The gym extra calories is on top of this.

[IndigoBlue61]

Hello and welcome to the forum Jimmyneu 😊

I agree with TheAwfulToad I’m afraid, it’s a question of just sticking with it and celebrating being fit and energised. You have said it yourself that excess abdominal fat is probably the result of the beer (which converts to sugar in the blood and will be stored as fat)

If you haven’t already, then please read the Welcome post here which has lots of useful information about all the things we have on offer healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

For your own privacy and safety online we suggest that you lock your posts by selecting ‘members of my community’ when you write a new post. Please read our security post here healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh... especially as your post isn’t locked

Best wishes in your weight loss journey

Indigo 😊

[S11m]

I am only a few months short of being half a century older than you.

When I was cycling 15,000 miles a year (in my fifties) I thought I could eat anything and not put on weight - but it did not work.

I met a man who lost 4½ stone in 50 days - but that was dragging a sledge to the South Pole!

It seems that my belly fat is the last area to go - I think targeted exercise can give you muscle definition where you want it - but I think we have no control over which areas of fat burn off when.

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to S11m]

That's over 40 miles average per day. Where did you find the time?

[S11m in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

My first wife left me, and I was officially self-employed - but actually unemployed.

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to S11m]

Is cycling or exercise still a part of your daily routine?

[S11m in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

I was disabled for years but, for a few months I have been walking regularly- about 30km week.

[cheritorrox]

You need a certain amount of energy (calories) just to be alive. It's called Basal Metabolic Rate and you can calculate it here:

bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calc...

The energy you use up on exercise goes on top of that!