Confused about my body fat

[whoknows123]

I'm young, 5'2 and I weigh less then 100 pounds. It might seem like I'm far to thin as it is but I eat alot! The problem is, I still have quite a bit of fat all round my middle (I'm assuming I just didn't even out as i'm pretty short). It makes me look very out of proportion compared to the rest of my body. I would just look up an exercise regime, but the problem is I'm not sure how to go about toning and thinning my stomach up because obviously I'm very light as it is and it's not that I need to lose weight exactly, just fat, and everything online is targetted at overweight people.

What kind of things would you recommend me to do to achieve this?

I don't think it would make sense for me to diet and I have a high metabolism so I never seem to put on weight. If I just exercised alot and ate normally would I still drop this little extra fat because of my metabolism?

I'm always reluctant to start exercise/diet regimes because I don't know how healthy it is for me personally. Maybe it's okay for a girl who weighs 200lbs to cut out 500 calories from her diet everyday, but surely thats very unhealthy for a girl who can only even handle about 500 calories per day!

Most, maybe even all other skinny girls I've seen don't have this problem so i'm really lost on how to sort it out in a healthy way without having a dangerously low calorie intake as there is no advice anywhere.

 

[tjl]

Your BMI is 18.3, below the usually given "healthy" range (of 19 to 25).

Have you had your body fat percentage measured?

"Skinny fat" (low weight / BMI with high body fat percentage) people may be better off emphasizing gaining muscle mass than losing body fat, since trying to do the latter may lead to health problems due to underweight.

 

[BikeSwimLaugh]

"Skinny fat" (low weight / BMI with high body fat percentage) people may be better off emphasizing gaining muscle mass than losing body fat, since trying to do the latter may lead to health problems due to underweight.

+1

Flawlessly direct & perfect info. Repped.

 

[Wrangell]

I'm young, 5'2 and I weigh less then 100 pounds. It might seem like I'm far to thin as it is but I eat alot! The problem is, I still have quite a bit of fat all round my middle (I'm assuming I just didn't even out as i'm pretty short).

What kind of things would you recommend me to do to achieve this?

I don't think it would make sense for me to diet and I have a high metabolism so I never seem to put on weight. If I just exercised alot and ate normally would I still drop this little extra fat because of my metabolism?

I'm always reluctant to start exercise/diet regimes because I don't know how healthy it is for me personally. Maybe it's okay for a girl who weighs 200lbs to cut out 500 calories from her diet everyday, but surely thats very unhealthy for a girl who can only even handle about 500 calories per day!

Actually, it doesn't need to be a cut of 500 calories a day at all.

You simply have to try and a ballpark estimate what your ' daily maintenance level of calories ' are for you and your personal circumstances. Once you do that, you may only have to cut back by 15% - 20% to of your ' daily maintenance level of calories ' - not necessarily an ' absolute ' cut of 500 calories.

This link below actually does a ' maintenance calorie ' calc for you.......



Beyond that, you have to be somewhat savvy in being able to identifying and tracking all the calories you eat throughout the day to see how that stacks up to your ' daily maintenance level of calories ' estimate.

And again, the key to fat loss is by focusing in on the total calories used throughout the day. Over time, you lose that fat by simply using more calories than you consume - in other words, you have to create a ' calorie deficit ' .

So, in terms of what I would " recommend me to do to achieve this ' calorie deficit ' ? You can simply try to reduce your caloric intake, increase your caloric expenditure by means of being more active in general, increase your caloric expenditure by engaging in some sort of exercise - i.e sport, resistance training, cardiovascular training and or some combination of the four.

 

[whoknows123]

Thanks for your help everyone.

I haven't had my body fat measured, but I did get professionally weighed when I had to go to the hospital a few years ago and they said everything was perfectly fine( my weight has stayed about the same since i was 13/14.)

I did go to the doctors for advice on this a while ago and she said I shouldn't diet as I am already so light and that if I just did stomach toning exercises I should see results, but I wasn't really convinced as I know there is a largish(for my body) layer of fat on my stomach that I can clearly see if I tense my stomach muscles.

These websites just confuse me as I only eat about 500 or so calories daily from what I've counted before and thats not deliberatly. They go on about needing 1200 calories a day or something, but it's not even rellevent to my body. By what this website says I should be continuously losing weight if it takes me over 1400 cals a day to do almost no exercise!

Thanks again for your advice though, I'm sure if I did more exercise I WOULD see results, I've just been unmotivated but i'd like to change that!

 

[Greenhorn Gal]

I'm no doctor, and am very much in learning mode as far as fitness goes, but there are a few things I'd like to say.

First of all, as far as weight is concerned, you are already underweight. It concerns me that you say you are only eating 500 calories per day! Your first post is opened with "and I eat alot!". 500 calories is not a lot! Please take the time, for your own benefit, to figure out what you are actually eating, including the nutritional value of foods consumed. It would be very difficult for any person, even one as small as you, to remain healthy on a diet that low in calories. A few possibilities come to mind...

...Perhaps your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs, leading to reduced muscle tone and contributing to the low weight.

...Perhaps you could benefit from a visit to a nutritionist, just to make sure that you are eating the right things, and enough to stay healthy.

...Exercise will help build muscle and therefore improve the look of your midsection, but not if your nutrition isn't in line. If you don't give your body the ingredients it needs to build healthy muscle, you cannot change your body composition (like to increase muscle and reduce fat).

Please please please take the time to learn about nutrition! You are on the verge of anorexia if what you say about your calorie intake is true. You will not be able to improve the things you don't like about your body if you don't know what it needs every day!

 

[whoknows123]

I'm no doctor, and am very much in learning mode as far as fitness goes, but there are a few things I'd like to say.

First of all, as far as weight is concerned, you are already underweight. It concerns me that you say you are only eating 500 calories per day! Your first post is opened with "and I eat alot!". 500 calories is not a lot! Please take the time, for your own benefit, to figure out what you are actually eating, including the nutritional value of foods consumed. It would be very difficult for any person, even one as small as you, to remain healthy on a diet that low in calories. A few possibilities come to mind...

...Perhaps your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs, leading to reduced muscle tone and contributing to the low weight.

...Perhaps you could benefit from a visit to a nutritionist, just to make sure that you are eating the right things, and enough to stay healthy.

...Exercise will help build muscle and therefore improve the look of your midsection, but not if your nutrition isn't in line. If you don't give your body the ingredients it needs to build healthy muscle, you cannot change your body composition (like to increase muscle and reduce fat).

Please please please take the time to learn about nutrition! You are on the verge of anorexia if what you say about your calorie intake is true. You will not be able to improve the things you don't like about your body if you don't know what it needs every day!

Thankyou for your concern! But I can assure you I'm no where near anorexic, I get plenty of food everyday and am far from skeletal.

I always get a good balance of fish, vegetables, bread, fruit, milk, pasta chocolate occasionally and only drink water, fruit juices and herbal teas - I'm not really inclined to eat badly but that doesn't mean I dont eat cakes and pizzas etc either if I feel like it.

I was just trying to work out how a thin person who somehow has excess fat on their stomach can go about getting rid of it in a heathly way. I assumed dieting was a big no-no for my situation and wanted some advice and opinions before I attempted anything, because a number of websites mention my problem, but never say how to go about doing it.

What Wrangell said about only cutting a small percentage of calories makes the most sense to me. I don't want to do anything extreme for my situation, just simply eat a bit healthier then I already am and hoping as long as I exercise enough I will get results so that's what I'll do Hopefully I interpretted it right.

 

[Greenhorn Gal]

Good! I wasn't trying to be judgmental at all, I just really worry about the low calorie intake. Please make sure you are getting good quality nutrition...

If you truly are eating only 500 cals/day, you can NOT reduce calories AT ALL! Everyone's body is different, and has its own "fat pattern"--if your skinny-fat body likes to put it on your belly, there isn't much you can do about it, at least as far as spot-reducing.

I think you would probably do best at an approach of "bulking" as another member mentioned--not really to "bulk" exactly, but to improve your muscle tone and the appearance of your body.

Good luck!

 

[sig]

I get plenty of food everyday and am far from skeletal.

I always get a good balance of fish, vegetables, bread, fruit, milk, pasta chocolate occasionally and only drink water, fruit juices and herbal teas - I'm not really inclined to eat badly but that doesn't mean I dont eat cakes and pizzas etc either if I feel like it.

I echo the sentiments above that 500 calories is far too little, you probably need to build muscle if you are "skinny fat," and so forth. I also think that if you are eating too little, you need to gradually work your way up to eating more. And I also believe that if you are still maintaining a normal menstrual cycle and getting enough essential fat, you may even be able to very very slightly take in a calorie deficit from what you're eating (as Wrangell mentioned).

However, despite reading all this great advice, something just does not add up here at all to me. My guess is that you probably do not know how to count calories or make estimates about portion sizes for food, and that your estimate that you are eating 500 calories a day is flat out wrong.

500 calories is not a lot of food. I find it hard to imagine that you are eating all those foods you claim to be eating (fruit and milk and fish and pasta and bread) and only eating 500 calories, unless you are eating a very very small amount of them other than high volume/low calorie food (many vegetables).

How are you judging serving size of food? Where do you get this 500 calorie number from?

If you are genuinely eating only 500 calories per day and have been for a prolonged period of time, you most likely need the help of a nutritionist (and quite possibly a counselor as well). On the other hand, it may very well be that you just aren't accurate in your estimates at all & until that gets fixed, you may not be ready to apply the advice you are receiving here.