I have a question. I got down to 150 easy and that's where I'm at now but my goal is 140. I also have 20 percent bodyfat and my target is 15 percent, ideally 10 percent.
Anyways, I can't lose any of the fat in my midsection and the lowest I can get down to is 144. But when I'm down to 144, I can't maintain it unless I eat almost no carbs at all. Even then, it's hard to do. Just one very small, tiny slip up and I'm back up to 150! What's the deal? I can maintain 150 very easy. It's even hard for me to go above 150. But when I weigh this much I still have a lot of fat around my midsection. I'm not comfortable at this weight at all. I can't get below 20 percent bodyfat. It's VERY frustrating to say the least. Are some people just supposed to be a little overweight?

Few things:

Yes, some people just have the build to be a bit bigger than others. We're not all the same, right? No matter what I do, I know I will never, EVER look like Halle Berry *sigh*

How recently did you lose the majority of your weight? How fast did you lose it? Are you exercising?

If you lost a lot of weight over a fairly short amount of time it will take a bit for your body to reshape and adjust to the weightloss. You're young so it should be faster for you.

Exercise (specifically weight training) helps to tone and tighten muscles under the skin, on top of the boost to your metabolism.

Lastly, your natural weight just may be 150 and your body is going to fight you big time to keep from going below that set weight. You'd have to do some pretty drastic, unhealthy things to get below your body's natural set point and stay there. Don't worry about the numbers on the scale, tho. It's all arbitrary. Go by how you feel and how you look.

Well, hope that helped a bit. Guess what it comes down to is patience and weight training if you're not already doing it

Congrats on your success!

Yeah you know, I was wondering about this too, I've been told I carry my weight well and I know that last time around on a low fat diet, I lost 55 lbs and got down to 145 lbs....I was fit but it was extremely hard to maintain and i was much more comfortable at 160, at that weight I felt like a babe still and looked great. I'm 5'6 and according to BMI, the bad-mood maker, I'm supposed to be between 126 and 160. And 160 is pushin it.

Good Lord I was 126 once but I was also anorexic! I looked horrible at that weight!

So, 160 pounds it is! Screw what BMI says!!!

Jared,
I read somewhere that you're 16, right? If so, you may not be done growing (height-wise, haha). However, 15% body fat is an acheivable and realistic goal for you, but not unless you get into some heavy weight training. Which means, heavy for YOU, not necessarily benching hundreds of pounds, Any chance of you either joining a gym, or getting a weight bench, dumbells, a barbell, and a bunch of weight plates? At your life stage, you could really make some awesome changes in your physique. AND...... you could eat more carbs/calories.

Another thing........one of my brothers is an accomplished bodybuilder (pic in my gallery). He is ALWAYS being asked for tips, advice, etc. What he tells them, plus what he told me, is to get Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. I have it, and it's like DANDR to me......I read and reread it constantly. Highly recommend it!

WOW, I could have written that word for word! Except, I was even down to 115 at one point. I would be startled at seeing my arm & hand in front of my face because it looked so skeletal. And I ate constantly then! (thyroid gets confused, mainly low nowadays) Anyway, after I had gotten to about 130-135 and thought I looked great, someone told me that when I was 115 I was the most beautiful girl they'd seen in person. This was said with a look at me as though I had let myself go. When I look at photos, I feel that 130-135 was my absolute best in my life for good looking. Then about 10 years ago I was at 165 and really happy with my weight. I just needed to tone up in the belly area. So 160 is my goal. Like you, I feel it barely squeaks by on the BMI table. That would be only one size larger than when I was 130 years ago.

I definitely think that age is a factor, too (all that growing you're doing)! I have 3 sons and 2 of them are teenagers. My oldest (turning 16 in July) has a lot of muscle and he just plays pick-up hockey, some basketball occasionally, and Ultimate Frisbee! Eats non-stop and is 6'2" and 150 lbs -- can you sense the jealousy on my part?!?!?!?

Point is, you have the advantage of being young, male and still growing. Use it and do some weight training if you aren't already. I'll be that combined with time will get you as close to what you want to be (HEALTHFULLY - mom in me talkin' ) as you can

Good luck to you!

Was anyone actually anorexic, or did dieting just go too far? I mean, 125/115 are low weights, but not necessarily anorexia. I think its really important that we stop trivializing eating disorders and their severity. If you are disgusted at how thin you are at that weight, you clearly don't have the eating disordered mentality that eventually lands people in the hospital.
I'm just getting on people for this because of the accusations that have been thrown my way. ITs really important that we keep things straight.

I really was anorexic, so no trivializing here. I was emaciated at 98 lbs, and I was still unhealthy at 126 lbs...for two years I starved myself.

I can laugh at it now because I'm past it, which is not to say that I still have the same habits or tendencies. For the past few years, as I've matured, I'm able to recognize how unhealthy I was.



This isn't necessarily true. At that time I was age 14/15 and it didn't matter what cost I had to pay to be skinny. At 24, I can see the damage I've done and I live with disordered eating everyday. I was never hospitalized for it, but that doesn't automatically mean I wasn't anorexic. I was, essentially, denying my body of nourishment on purpose in order to be thin <----- anorexia.

Commonly, any disordered eating habits spill into others - anorexia, to binging, to purging to overeating. I went from one extreme to the other. I went from starving to lax abuse to eating waaay too much. Which is why I'm here today!

Atkins is the only WOE that has brought me that much closer to feeling in control, the positive way.

Hi! Don't have much time. Just thought I'd clear something up. I'm not 16. The profile you are reffering to hasn't been updated in a couple years.
Thanks for the advice BTW. I don't have any gyms in my area. But there's a curves in town.LOL I'll keep a lookout for that book though.

Unless it's been more than 10 years or so since you updated your profile , you still have the advantage of youth and gender, haha.

IMO, at 5'9", 150 lbs. you don't need to lose any more weight. You need to put on muscle.

If you gained 10 lbs. of muscle, and burned 10 lbs. of fat, maintaining a weight of 150 lbs., your BF % would be 13%, and you'd add 350 calories a day to your base metabolic rate. (a pound of muscle burns about 35 extra calories per day at rest.)

I'd recommend easing yourself into strength training on free weights. And if you don't have access to a gym, pushups (and pullups) are an EXCELLENT way to put on muscle. You could also buy a dumbbell and weights. At 150 lbs., 20% BF you don't need to lose weight, you only need to lose fat. You could even stand to gain weight. And I think the only way you can possibly burn more fat is to put on muscle.

I used to do strength training every day for 3 years in high school (before I got so fat), so if you need any advice, feel free to ask.

And BTW, at 5'9", 150 lbs. you're not overweight. You have a BMI of 22.1, which falls right in the middle of the normal weight range (18.5-24.9). You're just a bit overfat for a male (10-15% BF ideal).

I wouldn't trivialize thyroid imbalances either, they're really hard live with. My point is that society does exert pressure to be thinner than is healthy for many people. When I read a post by someone who isn't losing and wondering why, I do tend to look at their weight. Sometimes it looks like they have reached a reasonable weight but they feel they should be thinner. And it looks like misskimbee and I both have found that healthy weight can change thru time. For me personally, if I got down to the weight I was when I graduated from high school, I would be truly gaunt. My encouragement for all is to put health above losing to reach a certain number on the scale.

Another point is that anorexia is not a specific weight, it's a mind-set. If you obsess about food and slimness, foods' energy content, have a lot of anxiety regarding eating, others watching you eat, etc. You are anorexic no matter what doctors might say.

Since this is a lifestyle change, not just a diet...I say eat properly, exercise, feel good, and let your body find the weight it's comfortable with!

Being a few pounds over what you might perceive as an "ideal", but being able to maintain it and be happy with your WOE/WOL is far better than living with a constant struggle for those last few pounds!

Happiness and good health to you!