The Student Room Group

Do I look fat? *Photos*

5’5 - female - 9 st 10lbs - 36/27.5/39 measurements. 26yrs old.

http://imgur.com/a/503l6

After losing and gaining the same 14lbs for 5 years I’m looking to start something new that I can maintain for life. I want to lose body fat (maybe 4%), lose 2 inches off waist and gain muscle. But every time I try it it feels like nothings happening and I get impatient and do cardio to lose weight.

Basically my question is, judging by the photos what is my bf% / how much do I weigh?

Hope this is the right place to post this! I’m not lookjng for attention just honest feedback as no one in real life will say anything bad to me and I need motivation to stop eating chips 😂

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Reply 1
that is not fat you are fit though if you want abs or something then go all out for that but otherwise normally you are good, i would say you are between 110-120 pounds.
Honestly, get a personal trainer to help you out at the gym (if you can afford it :wink:). He or she will even suggest changes to your diet. You can still have chips, but don't have them at night (because that's when you're least likely to burn carbs)
Original post by shawn_o1
Honestly, get a personal trainer to help you out at the gym (if you can afford it :wink:). He or she will even suggest changes to your diet. You can still have chips, but don't have them at night (because that's when you're least likely to burn carbs)


Personal trainers are pointless.
No you don't look fat, but you obviously have some goals which you're struggling with - and like a lot of people, you've obviously tried making changes before which you haven't been able to stick with long-term, so maybe it's time to try something new and different?

Nobody can tell your body fat % just by looking at you - if you want an accurate measurement, find somebody (e.g. personal trainer) who owns a high-quality pair of callipers

Cardio is excellent for burning fat; resistance training is even better (as long as you're doing it properly at least), but the reality is that your abs are made in the kitchen. You can do all the exercise in the world, but you aren't going to burn an ounce of fat until you get yourself on a good, sustainable, healthy diet. (And not a "crash course" diet either - it has to be a long term lifestyle change because body fat takes a long time to drop - even if you optimise your lifestyle perfectly, you should expect it to take a few months before you really start to notice any visible changes).

The most important thing to do is to make sustainable changes which you can incorporate into your daily lifestyle - nobody knows your body like the way you do, so you're just going to have to try different things and see what works for you. It also depends upon why you struggle too - for a lot of people it's a matter of breaking habits, dealing with day-to-day stress, keeping focused on goals and motivations. Avoid falling into these traps: https://i.imgur.com/rxwEiSl.jpg
.
When you're trying to cut body fat, your main goal should be to reduce calories - and particularly to reduce your intake of carbs.
Have a look at this image, it might give you some "food" for thought... https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/d6/a0/05d6a0c3d201df5a4826523ab88dcfa5.jpg

When it comes to different approaches for changing your eating habits, try something which you haven't tried before. Personally i find that my main enemy for fitness and fat burning are my blood sugar levels, so while I usually try to eat healthily all the time (I'm male so I usually aim for 2000 calories on a 'normal' day), intermittent fasting helps me a lot, I occasionally try doing "5:2" cycles, and sometimes (maybe once every couple of months) I'll do a full 24-hour fast as well - usually on a weekend when I can relax and occupy myself with other things that take my mind off food.

Fasting in itself isn't doing a huge amount of "fat burning", the reality is that losing fat is just a very long, slow process, but I personally find it almost impossible to burn fat and to sustain those losses when I'm not building some kind of fasting into my routine. I find it helps me enormously in being able to keep motivation, control what I eat, and keep my general mood in-check. (Fasting is a very effective way to purge the glycogen stored in your body, so I guess it's more of an "enabler" than anything else - your body will never burn fat until it has depleted this).

Aside from that, try to build more salad and vegetables into your daily diet. I like putting spinach with everything (dark, leafy greens are brilliant for giving you a mood boost and do a good job in suppressing appetite, cravings, etc - it's also the kind of thing which goes well with most meals). Try keeping a diary of the things you're eating and how many calories are in it. Don't neglect eating enough fats and oils to keep your body well nourished (eggs and fish in particular, but a handful of nuts or tablespoon of olive oil is great too).

Also, I agree with the other poster who mentioned sleep / late night eating - evenings and night times are the worst time of day to eat (especially carbs!), not just because your body is most efficient at fat burning while you're asleep, but also because eating before bed means you're more likely to end up having "restless sleep" which leads towards stress/anxiety, poorer eating choices, and generally lower moods. As part of my intermittent fasting, I usually don't eat anything at all after 6pm - remember that going to bed feeling slightly hungry isn't a bad thing, it's just a bit of a weird feeling that takes getting used to :smile:

Lastly, don't deprive yourself - remember that the most important thing is that you "feel good" about yourself - happy, confident, motivated - you need to find ways to stay positive otherwise you're far more likely to give up again - if you're constantly stressed about eating a plate of chips, a chocolate bar, etc, then that isn't great for your mood or esteem. Everything is good in moderation, even chips.
(edited 6 years ago)
You are currently well in the middle of the healthy bracket with a BMI of 22.6. This means you could not possibly be healthier, therefore you are not fat.
No need to lose fat either, although I commend you for the effort.
Original post by tremen222
You are currently well in the middle of the healthy bracket with a BMI of 22.6. This means you could not possibly be healthier, therefore you are not fat.
No need to lose fat either, although I commend you for the effort.

BMI is simply a measure of weight-vs-height. It's not a measure of how healthy somebody is, and it has no real correlation to body fat either.

People who train and build up a lot of muscle frequently have a much lower body fat percentage than the average, but due to their muscle mass, their BMI may be the same or even much higher than the average, and due to their general lifestyle and exercise routines they're obviously far healthier than the average too.
Reply 7
Original post by winterscoming
No you don't look fat, but you obviously have some goals which you're struggling with - and like a lot of people, you've obviously tried making changes before which you haven't been able to stick with long-term, so maybe it's time to try something new and different?

Nobody can tell your body fat % just by looking at you - if you want an accurate measurement, find somebody (e.g. personal trainer) who owns a high-quality pair of callipers

Cardio is excellent for burning fat; resistance training is even better (as long as you're doing it properly at least), but the reality is that your abs are made in the kitchen. You can do all the exercise in the world, but you aren't going to burn an ounce of fat until you get yourself on a good, sustainable, healthy diet. (And not a "crash course" diet either - it has to be a long term lifestyle change because body fat takes a long time to drop - even if you optimise your lifestyle perfectly, you should expect it to take a few months before you really start to notice any visible changes).

The most important thing to do is to make sustainable changes which you can incorporate into your daily lifestyle - nobody knows your body like the way you do, so you're just going to have to try different things and see what works for you. It also depends upon why you struggle too - for a lot of people it's a matter of breaking habits, dealing with day-to-day stress, keeping focused on goals and motivations. Avoid falling into these traps: https://i.imgur.com/rxwEiSl.jpg
.
When you're trying to cut body fat, your main goal should be to reduce calories - and particularly to reduce your intake of carbs.
Have a look at this image, it might give you some "food" for thought... https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/d6/a0/05d6a0c3d201df5a4826523ab88dcfa5.jpg

When it comes to different approaches for changing your eating habits, try something which you haven't tried before. Personally i find that my main enemy for fitness and fat burning are my blood sugar levels, so while I usually try to eat healthily all the time (I'm male so I usually aim for 2000 calories on a 'normal' day), intermittent fasting helps me a lot, I occasionally try doing "5:2" cycles, and sometimes (maybe once every couple of months) I'll do a full 24-hour fast as well - usually on a weekend when I can relax and occupy myself with other things that take my mind off food.

Fasting in itself isn't doing a huge amount of "fat burning", the reality is that losing fat is just a very long, slow process, but I personally find it almost impossible to burn fat and to sustain those losses when I'm not building some kind of fasting into my routine. I find it helps me enormously in being able to keep motivation, control what I eat, and keep my general mood in-check. (Fasting is a very effective way to purge the glycogen stored in your body, so I guess it's more of an "enabler" than anything else - your body will never burn fat until it has depleted this).

Aside from that, try to build more salad and vegetables into your daily diet. I like putting spinach with everything (dark, leafy greens are brilliant for giving you a mood boost and do a good job in suppressing appetite, cravings, etc - it's also the kind of thing which goes well with most meals). Try keeping a diary of the things you're eating and how many calories are in it. Don't neglect eating enough fats and oils to keep your body well nourished (eggs and fish in particular, but a handful of nuts or tablespoon of olive oil is great too).

Also, I agree with the other poster who mentioned sleep / late night eating - evenings and night times are the worst time of day to eat (especially carbs!), not just because your body is most efficient at fat burning while you're asleep, but also because eating before bed means you're more likely to end up having "restless sleep" which leads towards stress/anxiety, poorer eating choices, and generally lower moods. As part of my intermittent fasting, I usually don't eat anything at all after 6pm - remember that going to bed feeling slightly hungry isn't a bad thing, it's just a bit of a weird feeling that takes getting used to :smile:

Lastly, don't deprive yourself - remember that the most important thing is that you "feel good" about yourself - happy, confident, motivated - you need to find ways to stay positive otherwise you're far more likely to give up again - if you're constantly stressed about eating a plate of chips, a chocolate bar, etc, then that isn't great for your mood or esteem. Everything is good in moderation, even chips.


Thanks for the detailed response.
Original post by Mirror55
Thanks for the detailed response.


:smile: I've been in exactly the same boat, having repeatedly gained and lost the same 2 or 3 stone over and over! I get how difficult it is not to just give up and to find out what's going to work for you, so just keep on going and don't talk yourself out of doing this just because it's difficult, or you've imagined some kind of brick wall where you're convinced that you can't drop below a particular size. I've been struggling on and off for years now, but eventually started making more progress when I really started listening to my body and tried to figure out how to deal with the things which would make me give up, and I'm still not quite there yet, but I've had far more success in the past 2 years than I'd ever had before, and still determined not to go back to my old bad habits. So just keep trying until you figure out what works for you :smile:
Original post by Mirror55
5’5 - female - 9 st 10lbs - 36/27.5/39 measurements. 26yrs old.

http://imgur.com/a/503l6

After losing and gaining the same 14lbs for 5 years I’m looking to start something new that I can maintain for life. I want to lose body fat (maybe 4%), lose 2 inches off waist and gain muscle. But every time I try it it feels like nothings happening and I get impatient and do cardio to lose weight.

Basically my question is, judging by the photos what is my bf% / how much do I weigh?

Hope this is the right place to post this! I’m not lookjng for attention just honest feedback as no one in real life will say anything bad to me and I need motivation to stop eating chips 😂


I personally think you have a nice body.

But obviously we can all always improve, like I am told I have a good figure sometimes. But I still like to bench and workout, because want to go even further, so that motivates me not to eat lots of crap.
you look like a healthy young female. nothing to worry about. :h:
Reply 11
Original post by winterscoming
:smile: I've been in exactly the same boat, having repeatedly gained and lost the same 2 or 3 stone over and over! I get how difficult it is not to just give up and to find out what's going to work for you, so just keep on going and don't talk yourself out of doing this just because it's difficult, or you've imagined some kind of brick wall where you're convinced that you can't drop below a particular size. I've been struggling on and off for years now, but eventually started making more progress when I really started listening to my body and tried to figure out how to deal with the things which would make me give up, and I'm still not quite there yet, but I've had far more success in the past 2 years than I'd ever had before, and still determined not to go back to my old bad habits. So just keep trying until you figure out what works for you :smile:


Yeah I’m trying to find something I can do forever no point dieting hard then being miserable 😩 that’s why I’m thinking of weight lifting as I can eat more (good foods) it’s faster then cardio (used to spend 6-7 hours) and I hope my won’t get very skinny, just healthy and ‘toned’.
Reply 12
Original post by the bear
you look like a healthy young female. nothing to worry about. :h:


Thank you :smile:
Reply 13
Original post by DrXavier
I personally think you have a nice body.

But obviously we can all always improve, like I am told I have a good figure sometimes. But I still like to bench and workout, because want to go even further, so that motivates me not to eat lots of crap.


Yeah me too, if I feel fat and gross I’ll jist not exercise and eat bad.
Literally not at all
Reply 15
I’m currently eating about 1,500 calories, 126g protein low carb and lifting.
Reply 16
Original post by FloralLuxe
Literally not at all


Thanks!
Original post by Mirror55
5’5 - female - 9 st 10lbs - 36/27.5/39 measurements. 26yrs old.

http://imgur.com/a/503l6

After losing and gaining the same 14lbs for 5 years I’m looking to start something new that I can maintain for life. I want to lose body fat (maybe 4%), lose 2 inches off waist and gain muscle. But every time I try it it feels like nothings happening and I get impatient and do cardio to lose weight.

Basically my question is, judging by the photos what is my bf% / how much do I weigh?

Hope this is the right place to post this! I’m not lookjng for attention just honest feedback as no one in real life will say anything bad to me and I need motivation to stop eating chips 😂


You look fine, what I would describe a healthy average sized physique. Maybe slightly pudgy/soft, for instance like very slight love handles but I would say the same about myself and I weigh less than you and have a smaller frame and measurements. Actually, I probably have more fat on my body than you do. I have a low BMI suggesting that I am underweight, but I am what one might probably call skinny fat as I lack muscle definition. I want to become more toned and lose the bit of excess fat, but being dedicated enough to put in the hard work is another matter. Also, it is quite telling that you put in the work for your body as your stomach and thighs look quite trim in terms of body fat, so don't be disheartened and keep going. :biggrin:
Definitely not fat- but you could be much more fit/toned obviously. Was expecting worse. Keep up the good work!
I think your body is perfect, don't worry!

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