How to lose fat

[Buba949]

Hi Everyone. I am a female Height 5 feet, Weight 106 pounds, Age 27. I consider myself skinny fat, my problem areas are my arms and belly and I am trying to learn as much as I can to do everything correctly to ideally come to down to 99 pounds or decrease my body fat and become lean. I have never ever worked out or been on a diet all my life. For the past 2 weeks I have been going to gym, doing cardio and body weight training, nothing hardcore cause I can't. I am getting used to it gradually. I also watch my calories and according to my fitness pal I should consume 1300 cal every day. My question is how long will it take me to realistically lose 6 pounds of fat (not weight), is there any suggestions you can make for me to better my nutrition, and should I cut out bread or it doesn't matter as long as it fits my macros? I don't want to lose it all fast, I'd prefer more consistent so I can maintain it. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

P.S Also I started on July 5th and I haven't lost anything up until now. Am I doing something wrong or my body needs to get used to it?

[SuffolkPunch]

You are quite light already so it could be worth engaging in some mass gain first. If you want an opinion, the only real way is to post a picture. If you aren't comfortable doing that here, you could do it in the female bodybuilding forum.

Generally when we see people who are skinny fat, they always seem to be trying to lose weight and never get to a state they consider skinny enough (because they don't have enough muscle). So even though you might not go straight to the toned physique you probably want to achieve in one phase, I still think it's worth throwing in mass gain phases. You don't have to eat a ton and gain lots of fat.

But to answer your original question, you could lose 6lbs in 2 months if you find a reasonable calorie level (this has to be found by trial and error). Read the BASICS sticky thread for more detail.

[xsquid99]

If you're just doing bodyweight exercises and cardio you can expect that you may suffer some muscle loss in a calorie deficit. The body needs to know to keep muscle when in a deficit, and the only way to ensure that it keeps as much muscle as possible is to provide sufficient protein intake (at least 0.82g per lb of bodyweight) coupled with a balanced strength training program (weightlifting). This is the problem that many people who are lose weight face, they'll drop weight but then they just like a smaller version of their soft, overweight self (not that you're overweight, 106 is pretty light) because they did it without working their muscles. But the idea is that if you lose 6 lbs without weight training then you're still going to look basically the same, just slightly smaller.

I highly suggest you check out the Workout Program forum and read the stickies and find a weight training program that you feel you can learn and stick with. "Fierce 5" is by far the most popular one (and for good reason) because its easy to follow and it works.