lose last 10 pounds or so

[Evadazzle]

hey all, im totally new to this forum. Quick stats about myself, end of feb 2012 i weighed 69kg at 5'5. Now i weigh 60kg. Looking to lost 10-12lbs of fat and then toning. I do cardio 6x a week, usually HIIT on the treadmill and some jump rope occasionally. Tried to do insanity DVD but have back problems so it was kinda tough. My measurements: neck: 11inches, waist 24, hips, 39, thighs 19. I would ideally like my hips to be around 36 but im not too fussed. I know its impossible to spot reduce but my "muffin top" will not shrink at all and the bottom of my stomach. I can feel the muscles under the layer of fat on my stomach but just cannot seem to melt it away. I only drink water and green tea. I have a strict diet of oats for breakfast with green tea and an apple, lunch will usually consist of steamed fish, vege and salad. Dinner will be 4 egg white omlette with vege. Snacks inbetween nuts, homemade soya milk strawberry and blueberry smoothie. I have just purchased PHD lean degree and PHD diet whey and have used it for two days now, hoping that it will help me shed the fat. I would like to tone and have abs but my main concern right now is shedding the last few pounds. I have increased my cardio but any other advice would be very grateful.

[birdiefu]

If you are new to the forum, I would suggest you read, read, read! Especially the stickies on training and nutrition.

There are three major problems I see - 1. Your expectations. 2. Your lifting(?) program. 3. Your diet

If you continue to try to "lose fat" at this rate, you will just become a smaller version of what you have now. You need a muscular base in order to "tone" or see those muscles defined. At your stats and measurements, if you have as much fat as you describe, you are what we call "skinny-fat" and are going in the wrong direction by just trying to lose weight.

And very importantly - are you even lifting? You likely lost quite a bit of lean mass along with fat if you have not been lifting while you lost weight. Not good for aesthetics or improving body composition.

Diet - Figure out your required macros and cals (see the sticky in the nutrition section). You lost a whopping 20 pounds in just over 2 months - that is quite a bit, especially considering that you were not obese to begin with (obese have more to lose, the closer you are to "goal" weight, the slower it comes off). Which leads me to think you are eating at a drastic deficit and on the road to a plateau or binge episode.

At this point, you may need to bulk, or at least recomp (eat at maintenance and lift heavy). If you haven't been lifting prior, you could probably see some good changes staying at or a hair above maintenance and get some newbie gains in there, if you are too timid for a real bulk.

Good luck!

[Evadazzle]

Thanks Birdiefu for your indepth reply. I will defo check out the stickies that you referred to.

I am lifting, I do weights 3x a week and my arms and shoulders have drastically improved so I am happy with the way that my lifting is going.

Diet - Sorry but as I am new to this, what does "macros" mean?. I am quite surprised at how quickly my weight has fallen off as well which would explain why it is so difficult for the last few pounds to fall off. I have drastically changed my diet and cut out white bread/white rice and included lots of steamed fish and eggs. I used to drink a lot of alcohol, I was at university for 3 years binging on take aways and booze so now that has all gone...I believe thats why I lost so much weight.

I will take your advise and read up on macros and cals and then lift heavy. Would I still combine with my cardio routine to shed away the fat that remains?

Thanks again and sorry if some of my questions sound so newbie-ish haha.

[catskills]

I think macros means "macronutrients" Ie. carbs, fat and protein. A lot of people eat to much of one of those which can cause some difficulty when tackling diet issues.

[Cupcak3d]

Go ahead and work out your macros. I was stuck with the last 10lb for two months, turns out my carbs were insanely high while my protein was barely anything.
Got it sorted and with regular weight lifting/cardio it's melting away.