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Hi everyone.
I know there's no way to lose fat only in a certain area, but that's where I'm concerned the most.
I've been seeing a nutritionist¹ since 2018 and I've been going to the gym since 2020 (strength training). Since that time, I've gained a significant amount of muscle mass, but I've had too little progress in my main objective, which is to lose abdominal fat.
¹I've read about it and I'm not sure the term translates well to English. All I can say is that she's graduated in Nutrition with an specialization (not sure if the same as a Master's degree) in Sport and Clinic Nutrition).
I'm male and I was born in 1991 in Brazil and I was quite fat when I was a kid, but as I grew I got thinner. However, I have a significant amount of fat in the lower abdomen region, colloquially called "the fanny pack". I want to get rid of it as much as possible. I want to look like athletic runners or swimmers but I want to favor losing fat over building up muscle.
I never ate too much food. However, my diet as I was a kid was mostly composed of junk food outside of main meals. Main meals where usually a lot of carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes), beans (such as those used in feijoada) and meat. I had a really hard time eating vegetables. Surprisingly for me, that was quite easy to fix when I started seeing the nutritionist.
Now my main meals consist of (usually): a quarter plate of a specific group of vegetables (zucchini, pumpkin, beetroot, carrot, green bean, chayote, eggplant, turnip or bell pepper), a quarter plate of another specific group of vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, collard, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, tomato or radish), a quarter plate of carbs (usually pasta, potato, cassava, rice etc, but only one per meal), a quarter plate of protein (usually beef, chicken, pork, sometimes eggs or fish) and a certain amount of beans (which can be replaced by lentil or chickpea, the latter of which I prefer).
Before I started working out I used to eat at a restaurant where the plate is weighed and I used to be able to eat only about 200 grams of food in the main meal. That increased quite a bit after I started gaining muscle but I try to not go overboard.
Other meals consist of:
I also drink 4 different kinds of tea during the day, 150 mL each:
Other things that the nutritionist told me to do:
As for the workout, I started in February 2020. I go to a small gym where about 2 personal trainers oversee about 1-8 clients at a time. The trainer that oversees me was a professional athlete and his brother have been to the Olympics. He adjusts my training routine from time to time and the loads have been consistently increasing.
These are the exercises that I have been usually doing as of late. Every once in a while some exercises are replaced by others not mentioned but this is rare.
Mondays:
Wednesdays:
Fridays:
I also purchased a bicycle and started to pedal to work since November 2021, but only on the days when I work out. However, I stopped doing that in May 2022 because it got cold and I got sick. I only started taking the bicycle to work again in November 2022 because the winter was unusually long last year (I mean spring, but it was as cold as winter up until the point when it got as hot as summer all of a sudden).
I have data from when I thought I had found a regular way to make these trips, although I think I improved a bit since then.
The following charts show the changes in elevation for each trip:
A few weeks ago in the gym I also received a suggestion to start running 4 km every week. I'm currently thinking how I'll adapt my schedule to fit that in because I don't have a lot of free time.
Anyway, this is my evolution so far in terms of weight, amount of body fat (in kg), amount of muscle (in kg) and waist circumference (in cm). The first chart shows them all together and normalized for better comparison, while the individual charts have the original values.
Also, here are some blood tests that I did as the nutritionist requested. I'll try to translate from Portuguese but since Medicine is not my area there may be errors.
Test done in December 13, 2021:
Test done in September 29, 2022 (different laboratories, so I might have misplaced some values; however, there are things that are in one but not in the other):
Now, I don't know if it's apparent from the glucose reading, but my biggest challenge is to lay off eating outside of the diet. I'm a sweet tooth and I have a special craving for chocolate. I try to control it but there are times when I simply can't go without having some.
Anyway, here's what I looked like as I started seeing the nutritionist and how I'm looking now. Warning: me only in underwear.
There's been way too little progress in the area I'm interested in. So, is there something I'm doing wrong, is there something else I should be doing, is it even possible to achieve what I want without liposuction (I'm seriously considering it) and how long will that still take?
Thanks in advance.
I know there's no way to lose fat only in a certain area, but that's where I'm concerned the most.
I've been seeing a nutritionist¹ since 2018 and I've been going to the gym since 2020 (strength training). Since that time, I've gained a significant amount of muscle mass, but I've had too little progress in my main objective, which is to lose abdominal fat.
¹I've read about it and I'm not sure the term translates well to English. All I can say is that she's graduated in Nutrition with an specialization (not sure if the same as a Master's degree) in Sport and Clinic Nutrition).
I'm male and I was born in 1991 in Brazil and I was quite fat when I was a kid, but as I grew I got thinner. However, I have a significant amount of fat in the lower abdomen region, colloquially called "the fanny pack". I want to get rid of it as much as possible. I want to look like athletic runners or swimmers but I want to favor losing fat over building up muscle.
I never ate too much food. However, my diet as I was a kid was mostly composed of junk food outside of main meals. Main meals where usually a lot of carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes), beans (such as those used in feijoada) and meat. I had a really hard time eating vegetables. Surprisingly for me, that was quite easy to fix when I started seeing the nutritionist.
Now my main meals consist of (usually): a quarter plate of a specific group of vegetables (zucchini, pumpkin, beetroot, carrot, green bean, chayote, eggplant, turnip or bell pepper), a quarter plate of another specific group of vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, collard, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, tomato or radish), a quarter plate of carbs (usually pasta, potato, cassava, rice etc, but only one per meal), a quarter plate of protein (usually beef, chicken, pork, sometimes eggs or fish) and a certain amount of beans (which can be replaced by lentil or chickpea, the latter of which I prefer).
Before I started working out I used to eat at a restaurant where the plate is weighed and I used to be able to eat only about 200 grams of food in the main meal. That increased quite a bit after I started gaining muscle but I try to not go overboard.
Other meals consist of:
- Breakfast: half a sandwich with butter and cheese and half an apple and I drink semi-skimmed milk (used to be whole before the nutritionist).
- In the middle of the morning: 20 grams of assorted nuts (usually Brazil nut, cashew nut, almond, hazel nut, pecan nut, walnut, peanut, and some pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries thrown in for good measure). These are not salted nor anything like that.
- Main meal at noon. The other half of the apple after it.
- In the afternoon: if it's a day where I work out, a sandwich with butter, tuna, tomato and cheese; if I don't work out that day, Greek yogurt with 50 grams of porridge oats (this weight I did not receive from the nutritionist, I arrived at it myself from experimentation).
- After I get back home from work: if it's a day where I work out, I usually eat half a plate of crepioca (crêpe made with tapioca and vegetables); if I don't work out that day, sometimes I don't even eat anything, and sometimes I eat a bit of whole grain cake ("cake" not as in birthday cakes; it's more like a bread).
- In the evening, as is customary in Brazil: if I don't work out that day, it's a usually smaller portion of a main meal; if it's a day where I work out, it's a main meal except for carbs and vegetables, which I already ate in the crepioca.
I also drink 4 different kinds of tea during the day, 150 mL each:
- Powdered ginger root before breakfast (this one I measure by half a small spoon of powder).
- Peppermint after the main meal at noon.
- Moringa oleifera during the afternoon.
- Chamomile sometime after the evening meal and before sleeping. I drink it with liquid propolis (dropped from a dropper).
Other things that the nutritionist told me to do:
- I should be drinking 2,5 liters of water a day. I find it very hard to manage that. I know for sure that I drink at least 1,4 liters, because that's the measure of two bottles that I use. Plus, I drink a bit more on the side that I do not measure.
- Since October 2020 I have been scraping my tongue with a copper tool after waking up and brushing my teeth before eating breakfast. She said something about avoiding toxins in the tongue from coming back inside the body.
- Since February 2022 I have been taking vitamin D, one 2000 IU capsule a day. She said my vitamin D should be much higher despite being above minimum.
- Since April 2022 I have been taking creatine, 3 grams every day, after workout or at the same time on days that I don't work out.
As for the workout, I started in February 2020. I go to a small gym where about 2 personal trainers oversee about 1-8 clients at a time. The trainer that oversees me was a professional athlete and his brother have been to the Olympics. He adjusts my training routine from time to time and the loads have been consistently increasing.
These are the exercises that I have been usually doing as of late. Every once in a while some exercises are replaced by others not mentioned but this is rare.
Mondays:
- Bench press: I use a barbell that weighs little. It's not the so called olympic bar that weighs 20 kg on its own. I do 15 reps with 10 kg per side to warm up then 3 series of 8 reps with 22 kg per side.
- Machine fly: 3 x 12 with 45 kg.
- Wide grip overhand pull-down: 3 x 10 with 45 kg (somewhat recently increased; very tough).
- Seated row: 3 x 12 with 60 kg.
- Barbell preacher curl: 3 x 10 with 9 kg per side.
- Rope push-down: 3 x 15 with 30 kg.
- Lateral raise: 3 x 15 with 6 kg or 3 x 12 with 8 kg. I usually do this in what we call "interleaved" with the previous one: one series of one exercise, one series of the other, then rest and repeat.
- Three interleaved exercises using a 10 kg grip plate: overhead tricep extension, biceps curl and shoulder press.
- Barbell back squat: 3 x 12 with 25 kg per side
- Standing calf raise: 3 x 6 interleaved with the previous. Should be 3 x 12 but I got sick twice while doing it and had to lower.
- Leg press: 3 x 12 with 100 kg.
- Crunches of the most varied kinds. The simplest kind I do 3 x 50. The hardest ones I do 3 x 20, such as with the wheel roller.
Wednesdays:
- Wide grip overhand pull-down.
- Narrow grip neutral pull-down: 3 x 10 with 55 kg.
- Seated row.
- Peck deck rear fly: 3 x 10 with 45 kg interleaved with 3 x 15 with 25 kg (that is: 10 reps with 45 kg, 15 reps with 25 kg, rest and repeat).
- Bent-over row with 10 kg grip plates, 3 x 12 to 15, interleaved with reverse fly with 6 kg dumbbells, 3 x 15 to 18.
- Sometimes replaced by a two arm barbell bent-over-row: 3 x 20 with 10 kg per side.
- Sometimes replaced by a two arm barbell bent-over-row: 3 x 20 with 10 kg per side.
- Barbell preacher curl, same as before, sometimes interleaved with hammer dumbbell curls, 3 x 12 with 5 kg.
- Standing dumbbell curls, 3 x 8 with 8 kg, interleaved with neutral angle biceps curls, 3 x 8 with 8 kg.
- Biceps concentration: 3 x 8 to 10 with 8 kg.
- Something else for the biceps, usually with low weight, less series and more repetitions or less repetitions but slower. For example, standing barbell curl with 2 kg per side or machine curl with 20 kg.
- Leg extension: 3 x 12 with 90 kg.
- Seated leg curl (same machine as previous, but effort on the other side of the movement): 3 x 12 with 80 kg.
- Crunches.
Fridays:
- Bench press: warm up then 3 x 8 with 26 kg per side, although I have to take a few breaths of rest for the last reps. Also, I'm training for 27 kg and did 3 x 5 last time.
- Incline bench press: 3 x 12 with 13 kg per side.
- Machine fly.
- Sometimes a few push-ups after that.
- Barbell upright row, 3 x 15 with 9 kg per side, interleaved with bench dips, 3 x 20.
- Rope push-down, 3 x 12 with 25 kg, interleaved with overhead tricep extension, 3 x 5 to 8 with 10 kg grip plate, interleaved with lateral raise, 3 x 12 with 6 kg, interleaved with shoulder press, 3 x 6 to 12 with 10 kg grip plate.
- Lying triceps extensions, 3 x 20 with tricep weight bar and 5 kg per side.
- Crunches, sometimes interleaved with the previous.
I also purchased a bicycle and started to pedal to work since November 2021, but only on the days when I work out. However, I stopped doing that in May 2022 because it got cold and I got sick. I only started taking the bicycle to work again in November 2022 because the winter was unusually long last year (I mean spring, but it was as cold as winter up until the point when it got as hot as summer all of a sudden).
I have data from when I thought I had found a regular way to make these trips, although I think I improved a bit since then.
- First I pedal from home to work. That's 3,69 km done in 14 minutes and 29 seconds with 11 m of elevation. Average and top speed: 15,3 km/h and 33,6 km/h.
- Then I pedal from work to the gym. That's 4,69 km done in 20 minutes and 40 seconds with 41 m of elevation. Average and top speed: 13,6 km/h and 43,7 km/h.
- Finally, I pedal from the gym back to home. That's 1,75 km done in 14 minutes and 11 seconds with 63 m of elevation. Average and top speed: 7,4 km/h and 19,5 km/h.
The following charts show the changes in elevation for each trip:
A few weeks ago in the gym I also received a suggestion to start running 4 km every week. I'm currently thinking how I'll adapt my schedule to fit that in because I don't have a lot of free time.
Anyway, this is my evolution so far in terms of weight, amount of body fat (in kg), amount of muscle (in kg) and waist circumference (in cm). The first chart shows them all together and normalized for better comparison, while the individual charts have the original values.
Also, here are some blood tests that I did as the nutritionist requested. I'll try to translate from Portuguese but since Medicine is not my area there may be errors.
Test done in December 13, 2021:
- Fluorescent flow cytometry and impedance with hydrodynamic focus (Sysmex XN-350)
- Leucometry: 6200 /mm³
- Blasts: 0
- Metamyelocytes: 0
- Rods: 3 %, 186 /mm³
- Segmented: 50 %, 3100 /mm³
- Eosinophils: 3 %, 186 /mm³
- Basophils: 0
- Lymphocytes: 39 %, 2418 /mm³
- Monocytes: 5 %, 310 /mm³
- Erythrocytes: 4,65 millions/mm³
- Hemoglobin: 14,8 d/dL
- Hematocrit: 42,5 %
- Mean Corpuscular Volume in fL: 91,4 μ³
- Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin: 31,8 pg
- Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration: 34,8 g/dL
- Red Cell Distribution Width: 12,2 %
- Platelets: 249000 /mm³
- Mean platelet volume in fL: 10,9
- Blood count with microscopic review
- TSH: 4,730 μUI/mL (UI may be IU in Portuguese) (electrochemiluminescence COBAS E 411)
- Thyroxine (T4): 7 μg/dL (chemiluminescence)
- Ferritin: 247 ng/mL (electrochemiluminescence COBAS E 411)
- B12: 304 pg/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Serum selenium: 104,3 μg/L (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrophotometry ICP/MS)
- Triiodothyronine (T3): 1,1 ng/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Serum zinc: 135 μg/dL (colorimetric)
- Vitamin D (25 hydroxy): 23,7 ng/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Glucose: 96 mg/dL (automated colorimetric enzymatic)
- Total cholesterol: 189 mg/dL (colorimetric enzymatic)
- HDL cholesterol: 68 mg/dL (direct colorimetric enzymatic)
- LDL cholesterol: 102 mg/dL (Martin's calculation)
- VLDL cholesterol: 19 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: 95 mg/dL (colorimetric enzymatic)
- Creatinine: 1,03 mg/dL (automated colorimetric kinetics - IDMS traceable)
- Glomerular filtration rate CKD - EPI: 98 mL/min/1,73 m²
- Aspartate aminotransferase: 29 U/L (enzymatic - UV)
- Alanine Aminotransferase: 26 U/L (enzymatic - UV)
Test done in September 29, 2022 (different laboratories, so I might have misplaced some values; however, there are things that are in one but not in the other):
- Fluorescent flow cytometry / microscopic review; blood EDTA
- Leukocytes: 5720 /mm³
- Promyelocytes: 0
- Myelocytes: 0
- Blasts: 0
- Metamyelocytes: 0
- Rods: 1 %, 57 /mm³
- Segmented: 48 %, 2746 /mm³
- Eosinophils: 4 %, 229 /mm³
- Basophils: 0
- Lymphocytes: 39 %, 2231 /mm³
- Monocytes: 8 %, 458 /mm³
- Erythrocytes: 4,44 millions
- Reactive lymphocytes: 0
- Hemoglobin: 14 g/dL
- Hematocrit: 40 %
- Mean Corpuscular Volume: 90,1 fl
- Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin: 31,5 pg
- Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration: 35 %
- Red Cell Distribution Width: 11,8 %
- Red Cell Distribution Width SD: 39,7 fl
- Platelets: 224000 /mm³
- Mean platelet volume: 10,2 fl
- TSH: 1440 μUI/mL (chemiluminescence VECI)
- Thyroxine (T4): 7,6 mcg/dL (chemiluminescence)
- Ferritin: 131 ng/mL (turbidimetry)
- B12: 443 pg/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Triiodothyronine (T3): 1,06 ng/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Serum zinc: 110,6 (colorimetric)
- Vitamin D (25 hydroxy): 33,3 ng/mL (chemiluminescence)
- Glucose: 98 mg/dL (colorimetric - dry chemistry)
- Total cholesterol: 177 mg/dL (colorimetric - dry chemistry)
- HDL cholesterol: 74 mg/dL (enzyme immunoassay)
- LDL cholesterol: 94 mg/dL (calculation)
- Triglycerides: 44 mg/dL (colorimetric - dry chemistry)
- Creatinine: 1,35 mg/dL (enzymatic - dry chemistry)
- Aspartate aminotransferase: 35 U/L (enzymatic - dry chemistry)
- Alanine Aminotransferase: 26 U/L (enzymatic - dry chemistry)
Now, I don't know if it's apparent from the glucose reading, but my biggest challenge is to lay off eating outside of the diet. I'm a sweet tooth and I have a special craving for chocolate. I try to control it but there are times when I simply can't go without having some.
Anyway, here's what I looked like as I started seeing the nutritionist and how I'm looking now. Warning: me only in underwear.
It's too bad that my bathroom went through a renovation so the camera was positioned in a different spot between shots.
Also, nevermind my beard. I'm going through laser epilation.
Also also, I shaved my abdomen because I participated as a guinea pig in an Aesthetician's undergraduate course. There I was told I could do with some treatment to improve my posture. I know it could help hide my abdomen but I don't want to hide it, I want to fix it.
Also, nevermind my beard. I'm going through laser epilation.
Also also, I shaved my abdomen because I participated as a guinea pig in an Aesthetician's undergraduate course. There I was told I could do with some treatment to improve my posture. I know it could help hide my abdomen but I don't want to hide it, I want to fix it.
There's been way too little progress in the area I'm interested in. So, is there something I'm doing wrong, is there something else I should be doing, is it even possible to achieve what I want without liposuction (I'm seriously considering it) and how long will that still take?
Thanks in advance.
