Reaching ultimate lean-ness - LOVE HANDLES DRIVING ME CRAZY

[Schickita]

Hello girls,


Some stats about me: I'm 5'10", 138 lbs and 20 years old. I have been eating 'clean' for about 5 months now and I have tried many different things to manipulate my diet when I plateaued. I'm not sure how many pounds of fat I've lost because I also put on quite a bit of muscle as well so it's hard to tell.. but I don't care about the number on the scale at all, just what the mirror is telling me.

Anyway, I've made some decent progress since January but I was stuck at a plateau for a good 3 months and when I started reading up on the topic, I decided to calorie cycle and I can tell it works wonders. I

It's been a few weeks now and I've noticed a few improvements but I still don't know how to get rid of the love handles. I count my calories religiously and although I'm not too consistent with my F/P/C intake, I am always at a deficit except for the refeed periods. Last time I had a refeed it lasted 7 days (it was ****ing brilliant and 3 days into my normal eating habits, I saw major improvements)

But now I'm still stuck with these goddamn love handles/back fat and I don't know what to do anymore. I workout 6 times a week, with weights, run 4 k about 3 times a week and do kickboxing also 4 times a week.

So I was wondering if anyone else has been through this and what have you guys done to shed those last few lbs of fat? I am honestly out of ideas.

Thank you for your advice

[KPainter70]

Looked at your progress pic and see no love handles. Have you consulted the stickies on setting your calories and macros? Without more info it's impossible to tell what sort of diet you're eating.

[foresail]

I don't see them either. Perhaps you're confusing muscle growth as fat?

[MrB1g]

You have a visible adonis belt and obliques, you're very lean.

Without more musculature, you're not going to be able to support a lower bodyfat % very well.

[Schickita]

That progress pic was on one of my "leanest" days.. I know I don't have much to complain about but believe it or no there are mini love handles and some lower back fat that absolutely needs to go. Other than that I'm ok. I realized also the reason why my abs don't show as much as I would like them to is probably because I'm not working on then hard enough (at the gym). I know they're made in the kitchen but like I said... not sure how much more progress there is to be made.

With regards to stickies, yes I've read them and I count cals religiously with occasional refeed days (some last pretty long, up to a week... Gotta love those) and it does work with busting a plateau but I don't see myself getting any leaner than that.

Thanks for the help though

[birdiefu]

What is your average caloric intake, including these refeeds? With week long "refeeds", likely you are not eating at as much of a deficit as you think you are. What has your weight loss progress been like? You said you don't pay much attention to scale weight - how are you determining you are plateaued? Do you do measurements?

Though honestly, a bulk would probably do you good.

[Schickita]

What is your average caloric intake, including these refeeds? With week long "refeeds", likely you are not eating at as much of a deficit as you think you are. What has your weight loss progress been like? You said you don't pay much attention to scale weight - how are you determining you are plateaued? Do you do measurements?

Though honestly, a bulk would probably do you good.

I take in an avg of 1300 cals a day which is extremely low for me, but my metabolism is messed up and I don't have time to fix it noe by upping cals slowly because of my job (can't risk putting on weight). I did a week long refeed because, like I said, my metabolism is dunzo and i alway benefit from these refeeds. It's usually just a day or two though, every 4 days.

And I can't bulk (job) nor do I want to.

[Schickita]

And with regards to how I determine I plateaued... It's all mirror-based. I could care less about the number on the scale, as long as I see improvements in the mirror I'm fine. And I also take measurements (mainly waist cuz that's all that concerns me, I think I've lost half an inch in 3 months but my waist won't get any smaller than that anyway)

[Rowyn]

It's usually just a day or two though, every 4 days.

And I can't bulk (job) nor do I want to.

A single meal can destroy someone's deficit for the week, forget a whole day. Or two. Its not particularly accurate to say you eat X per day but then have a couple of days of eating whatever.

It doesn't sound like you want to listen to any of the advice here, which is to put more time in at the gym and develop a bit of lean mass (not the same as bulkiness). You have no time to "fix" your metabolism, so what advice are you looking for?