Last 10-15 Pounds will NOT come off

Hello, I am new here. I was a 300 Pound 5 foot 10 inch 14 year old teenager about 2 years ago, before I took up running to drop a couple of pounds. Now I am 6 foot 1 inch and 218 pound 16 year old, trying to drop that last couple of pounds. My goals were to get rid of the Diabetic threat that was stalking me, drop the weight to look and feel better, and put on a little bit of muscle. I now work out at a public Gym and have lost from 235 to 218 in the last 5-6 months, but now it just don't want to move, and I believe it to be my diet. Sad thing is, I really don't know how to control my eating, as it is not as easy as just running and lifting. So I thought I would check out this forum to see if it could help me. Thanks to any help offered :)

Have you tried this cal? http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/healthyeatingcalculat or/eatingCal.html

Roughly when I punch in your stats and subtract the discretionary cals from the maintenance, I get for weight loss intakes:

No activity about: 2600 intake

Less than an hour of activity daily about: 2900 intake

About an hour of of activity daily about:  3400 intake

Over an hour of activity daily: 4300 intake

Keep up your cardio and add weights/strength training! (if you haven't added weights already :) ). Put the scale away for a while and measure monthly till your waist is in the clear, health wise. If you are still in overweight but made great inch loss, see if you can get a body fat % estimate, if that is in a healthy range BMI can be in the overweight range cause don't worry BMI is guideline only if you have a lean/fit body (low body fat %).

Hey, thanks :) I normally run at about 6.2 MPH for about 45 minutes. This usually helps me to burn around 700-800 Calories due to my weight (the site calc. and on running machine calc. agree). My BMI is saying I am still overweight, but I have maybe 10-15 Pounds of fat on my body total. My BMI is up due to my muscl build, it's just that belly fat I can't seem to shake off. I don't know if maybe I'm eating too much of one thing (Protein,carbs,Sugars,Fats) But I take in about 2500 calories a day, and burn about 700 every other day (or 2800/Week) I have been at it, but it just seems like it's holding on for dear life. Idk what to do :/

Yeah, BMI is just a vague guideline and usually can be completely ignored if the body fat % is in a healthy range :) Online body fat % cals are the least accurate but if you want to have an idea of your body fat % till you measure more accurately, try one or two of them: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/body_fat_cal culator.htm / http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/ (try this for waist to height ratio).

I think especially for guys who are bodybuilders the lower the body fat % the higher the BMI is (for women I think if done right can even go below or mid/high BMI when they have 10-19% body fat or less and still be healthy bodybuilding wise).  Take everything with a grain of salt! And start saying I have about --% body fat and not I am ---lbs ;)

Reducing body fat% is harder when it is the last 10-15lbs than just losing weight (muscle and fat). It takes longer and is harder work, you have to eat clean, eat enough and still eat at a deficit, as well as lift/strength train and cardio. It may take 3-6months (or longer if your not 100% perfect with diet/exercise) more to see more of what you want but you have to stick to it. Use the measure tape as you new tool of monitoring your body compositi on and use the scale less often :) And believe it or not it should be easier doing this now as your younger than if you were older (you get to eat more cals as a teen ;) :P)

Haha yeah I know, it is a killer trying to get this off of me, and I believe that what I was doing before was just eating too much, then burning it. Is just doing the Calorie Deficit going to help? And how much do I need to consume to lose weight?

Original Post by ath_elite:

My BMI is saying I am still overweight, but I have maybe 10-15 Pounds of fat on my body total.

You've certainly got a lot more than 10-15 pounds of fat. If that is all the fat you have, then your body fat would be 4.5% - 6.8%, and that is like a body builder right before a competition. Maybe you just meant 10-15 pounds of fat to lose?

What kind of lifting program are you on? Are you doing lifts like the squat and deadlift? Because those are the ones that will really put on some muscle. Anyway, at this point it comes down to diet. You don't have to count calories, but it would help you to do it for a week or two and find out how much you are eating, and where you can make some adjustments.

Well yeah, I would say 10-15 Pounds to lose total. I do full body lifts, I work every muscle group in a 1 week period. My Muscles Are bulking up good, and I'm losing weight like a slug, but I think it is my diet that is doing it, and I just don't really see where I need to make the cuts. I switched to diet Soda ( I know it makes you hungry, but I can handle just drinking that instead of full flavor on the weekends) I limit my meals as much as possible, and I run like mad on the treadmill. I don't know why it won't come off.

What type of foods are you eating?  That can make a difference in your body composition too.  Eat whole foods, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and plenty of protein.  Avoid processed foods and refined sugar.   Cut back on grains/carbs.  Are you following an established lifting program like Starting Strength or New Rules of Lifting?  Great job on making the decision to get healthy and working toward that goal.  You are doing great :)

Original Post by ath_elite:

Haha yeah I know, it is a killer trying to get this off of me, and I believe that what I was doing before was just eating too much, then burning it. Is just doing the Calorie Deficit going to help? And how much do I need to consume to lose weight?

The first examples I gave where a guide of what to consume and varied in 450-650 deficit/the sites discretionary cals. Do no more than those deficits, even anything less.

First, congratulations on your loss! That is a tremendous amount of weight to lose, and the fact that you've kept it off over 2 years is incredibly inspiring. If your profile picture is of yourself, you look AMAZING and those last 15 lbs are likely to just be gravy. Don't be discouraged!

I agree with the other posters -- check your body fat %. BMI is a great tool for inactive people with low muscle mass, but once your biceps are melon sized it can be deceiving, or outright wrong. If it is reasonable for you to keep losing weight, you might lose some of that incredible muscle definition along the way (but there's nothing saying you can't put it back on later).

Maybe try running more, or just increasing the amount of cardio you do. Oddly, I seem to have a really difficult time losing weight if I restrict my calories too much. On a restricted calorie diet I find I have to cycle my calories to get the very best results... that way I'm still eating the same number of calories in a week, but I have low days and then really high days and that fools my body into relaxing about the process. Theoretically, anyways. It's just what has been working for me!

Good luck reaching your goals! What you've achieved already is far greater, so I'm sure you'll get there eventually. :)

Thanks :) the first 80 pounds was easy coming off and seem to come off faster than I could relize it, but then I hit a brick wall. That is a picture from about 3 months ago and I have lost maybe 5 pounds since then, but I want to restrict the amount of fat even further. I do take Protein Powders to keep up on my proteins, and I lift as much as I can with out killing myself. Should I just try to stay as active as possible at all times?

@hollowness So it says I need to be taking in about 2600 - 3000 calories. So should I just stay at 2000 and consider it a deficit?

Have no more than -1000 defcit (negative net calories), eat back if you do go over, 2000 is too low, your BMR is 2075 eat no less than this! even on rest days, but 2600 is more like your min cal intake since your a teen. If you not monitoring deficits, range 2600-3000 cals should be ok, but with your activity 3000-3500 is probably better.

Well I've had a little over 1500 and just burned a little over 1400 in the last 3 hours of Constant Exercise. I'm guessing that isn't really healthy?

You have more of a chance of plateauing and stalling and on top of that when you do lose it is more muscle mass than you'd want and less fat.

So what do you recommend? Heavy dinner? I am just worried about consuming 3000 Calories because I REALLY don't want to gain back what I loss :/