Hi I'm a female in need of some advice for losing body fat. I look slim but carry some extra fat in my belly and love handles. I had a baby over 2 years ago and although I've lost the baby weight, I'd love to lose an additional 8-10 lbs but most importantly I'm looking to lose body fat. Unfortunately I have hit a plateau .

My stats 41 y/o, 5'2", 124 lbs, exercise on average 3x a week.
Chest 36, waist 31, hips 37

body fat 25.5

I've read so many conflicting information: eat carbs, don't eat carbs, be in a caloric deficit of 200, don't eat less than 1400 cal., do cardio, don't do cardio do strength training. I just don't know what to do. I've been doing strength training for almost a year and although I have seen some changes in the shape of my body, I haven't seen the difference in my belly. I would greatly appreciate your input.

Judy,

I understand the confusion. One thing you need to remember is women carry more body fat than men and must to stay healthy and not distrupt menstrual cycles and your hormonal balance. Competitive female body builders who don't use drugs typically get down to 14-15% bodyfat. Women who use drugs can get as low as 10% which is very dangerous for a woman. Ideal lean body fat for a woman your age that will not affect your health or hormones is in the 18-20% range.

To determine your macros, you first need to get your current body fat level and determine what your target body fat will be as well as your TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) + calories for exercise. There are calculators on the internet you can search for to use. Without this data, you can not figure out your macros. You are correct that in order to lose body fat you must run a daily caloric deficit which is where the 200 calories figure comes from. For a woman, I would not run a daily deficit more than 250 calories (TDEE - 250). There is a recommended limit as to how low your calories per day are - for men it is 1500 calories and for women it is 1200. This limit is due to the fact there is a base amount of calories your body needs to stay alive and lets your body know it is not starving. If you go too low, your body goes into survival mode and will slow down your metabolism accordingly. When this happens, all fat loss ceases and muscle building is greatly impacted. You want your fat loss to be slow and steady. Your macros should be weighted more towards protein and healthy fats. Carbs are what need to be manipulated to lose body fat as they have the biggest impact on insulin which is the key fat storage hormone. Once you have this all figured out, search this site for Scott's video on how to build a meal plan for more info on how and what to do.

As for carbs, they need not be avoided nor feared. The key is ALL your carbs must be natural, complex, and nutrient dense. This means whole oats, whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes, brown/red rice, whole grain (not multi-grain) breads, quinoa, and barley. ALL simple carbs that are man-made and processed are what need to be avoided - ALL white bread, white pasta, white grains, white rice, white potatoes. Vegetables that are not processed in packaged food can be eaten unrestricted. Fruits MUST be eaten not drunk - NO fruit juices of any kind and no juicing of fruits. Fruit is full of fructose. Fructose can only be used by the liver and can only be broken down by the liver. Excess fructose is converted to triglyceride fats which build up in the liver (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and dumped in the blood resulting in high blood triglycerides which causes oxidation of LDL, inflames your arteries, and causes coronary heart disease. ALL processed foods contain the metabolic poison that is High Fructose Corn Syrup and must be avoided. Fruit eaten whole has fiber and other nutrients which slow the absorption of fructose and also have much less fructose than processed foods. Drinking fruit juice of any type is as bad as drinking a Coke - you are mainlining pure fructose which causes an immediate insulin spike which leads to fat storage.

When it comes to a training routine, resistance training is superior to cardio. This is because weight training builds muscle and muscle is active tissue and burns calories even when at rest. The more muscle mass you have - even for a woman - the more calories you burn each day. The OPTIMAL plan is a combination of lifting weights and cardio. However, too much cardio destroys muscles mass and actually stresses the body to the point that too much cortisol (your primary stress hormone) is released. Cortisol promotes fat storage and slows your metabolism. The key is to do more weight training than cardio and when doing cardio it is best to do HIIT style. You can search HIIT on the internet to get more of an idea but HIIT is intense and short in duration. You don't need to do hours of HIIT to burn fat and it actually helps build muscle. If you train 5 days a week, you could do 3 days of weight training and 2 days of HIIT for example.

As for fat loss, your body burns fat evenly across your entire body. This means the places that lean out the quickest are the ones with the least amount of body fat. Your belly will be the last place to lean out as it has more fat to start. The key is patience and consistency. Don't get discouraged but also don't expect your body fat to drop rapidly. It could take 4 - 8 months to get where you want. The important thing is slow and steady fat loss is more sustainable and will not shock your body or metabolism. You should lose no more than 1/2 to 2 LBs per week. Any more and you are losing too much too fast and will need to adjust your calories and/or your training. People who lose weight too quickly are the ones that quickly regain it and gain more than they had before. They have done too dramatic a loss and shocked their body so much that it overcompensates for calories and actually stores even more as fat to prevent future metabolism shock.

It's a lot of info at once but hopefully it answers some of your questions and gives you starting points so you can formulate your meal plan and workout regiment.

John

Thank you for your advice