1 Reason For Slow Female Fat Loss & 5 Tips To Fix It

Thanks Tom for this info, I found it fascinating. I am really small, (5 feet), and was totally clueless re: calories required to lose weight for a woman of my size. I am very active, with marathon running and full-time physically demanding work and your website is perfect for me as opposed to a womans-only info sites where the majority of those women don't exercise intensely.

Just needed to let you know and thanks!

Corrine

Good morning,

Does the same principle apply to lighter men? Like the woman in your example, I have some belly fat I'd like to lose............I weigh 154 lbs and am 5ft 9in.......scales say around 19% body fat. I am what you would call fairly active. So I guess my cal. maint. level is around 1700 a day so to lose a pound a week I would, in theory need to cut to 1200 a day!! Very low and not really practical nor, probably, very healthy. I am 72 years young so I guess it's harder at my age. I jog around 15 miles a week and do light weights 3 times. Any advice much appreciated because I'm stuck and have been for the last year or so......it's quite de-motivating.

Best regards,

Peter

Peter, yes, absolutely applies to smaller guys too. Not strictly a gender issue, but a body size/weight issue. caloric needs are relative to body size/weight/lean body weight.

Thanks for the encouragement and all your information Tom. As a post-menopausal woman of small frame, I struggle with this.

I retweeted this. It's very important to have information like this out there, and often. I have lots of friends looking to drop a tonne of weight fast all the time, but don't seem to believe or get that men and women - or even small vs bigger women (skeletally speaking) are different, therefore they should be losing weight differently.

Everyone wants the fast way out. It's like patience is an ugly word or attribute in today's instant gratification world.

I can't even get people to do the basic math behind fat burning. It's like they will do anything to avoid number crunching, as if they're allergic to the truth. Heh.

Also, even after you show people the math, they refuse to believe it isn't easier because of knowing other bigger people they've heard lose a tonne in short amount of time. This doesn't even get into how harmful it must be to the person's body to lose that much in a short time, and how no one wants to acknowledge that. It's all about the fast, impressive results at any cost.

We live in a sick, twisted world IMO.

Tom, nice post. Even though I am a man (and also have to agree with the 'blessings of being a man' feeling) but its always nice to see men looking out for the girls too.

Although I almost want to argue you have quite genetic potential having THAT high of a caloric maintenance! Ahha.

Nice post!

Adam, I dont think i have a genetically high metabolism - my maintenance is currently up around 3300 at least 3100-3200 because im doing a lot of training lately, upped the cardio and weights 4d/wk, plus get out and walk places around town. if my activity were more moderate/average a guy my height and weight would have a maintenance of about 2800-2900.

Great article and so true! With a maintenance of only 1500, there's not a whole lot of wiggle room for me! That's why your idea of BURNING the fat versus starving the fat is a much better option for us ladies. It completely changed the way I approached fat loss.

The good news is that most small ladies (myself included) don't have that much weight to lose to make a big difference in body composition. If your example lady lost only 5 lb. of pure fat, I bet she would hit her goal. So the 1 lb. per week isn't as depressing, when you look at the amount of weight to be lost. For me, 5-8 lb. can make the difference between being 20% BF to 13% BF. That's a big deal and nothing to scoff at!

Thank you SO much for writing about this Tom. I actually sent you an email a few weeks ago asking if shorter/smaller people were at a disadvantage so this post from you comes at such a great time! I am really short at 4' 9" and currently weigh 118 lbs with 28% body fat (according to my Tanita). I have set a goal to lose 15 lbs and am trying to figure out what % of body fat to aim for.
I definitely know that it's so important for me to burn more calories since I can't just keep dropping my intake low. One way to increase my calorie burn aside from my regular workouts is through Bikram yoga 3x per week - excellent calorie burn, but great for stretching, focus and meditation.

Thank you so much for finally giving me the AHA! moment after 15 years!!!! I'm 4-11 and 125 lbs and have been trying to get down to 110 for a couple of years now. This newletter really helped me realize that of course my curve is different from most other people that are 5-6 and weigh 140 lbs. Funny I didn't think of it before. Thanks for the new thought. Marian

Thank you for this post! I do get frustrated with such a slow weight loss, but I guess I'm more or less on track. I'm 41 years old, 4'6 ft tall, and weigh 134 lbs. I USED to weigh 188 lbs. Yeah. ;)

Obviously I still have more to lose, but I'm working at a disadvantage because I also have severe scoliosis, spina bifida, and a congenitally dislocated right hip. I wear a long-legged brace on my right leg and walk with crutches. Most exercise options are not open to me. My main exercise is walking back and forth the length of my house, for 20 mins at a time, four or five times a day. I do *some* weight lifting and incline push-ups on my desk. Unfortunately, I cannot work, therefore can't afford a nutritionist or to go to a gym (not that I could use most of the equipment...not even a treadmill) or to get a personal trainer.

Any advice would be welcome!

"When your calorie expenditure is on the low side, you don't have much margin for error. One extra pastry, muffin or handful of cookies and ZAP, your little 20% calorie deficit is GONE!"

As elementary as this advice sounds, I have NEVER read anything as helpful or useful.

Thanks, Alexis.

I am barely 5 ft tall, 126 lbs and struggling with this very issue.

I am trying to keep my daily intake at 1200 with one say at my maintenance level. This will come in under a pound a week but I am starving at 1200. If I did every day at 1200 I would die...lol

I have a "BodyMedia" armband so I know I am just barely making 500 calorie deficit at 1200 calories. My burn rate is around 1400/1500 if I don't exercise.

On top of being short - I have Hypothyroidism from radiation treatment of Graves disease.

"When your calorie expenditure is on the low side, you don't have much margin for error. One extra pastry, muffin or handful of cookies and ZAP, your little 20% calorie deficit is GONE!"
- This really struck home!

Thanks Tom - I have your ebooks, and I always go back to BFFM when I start feeling that I have gone too far astray from "good eating" I think I need to go read again.

Not Fair!!!!!!!!!

:D

Hi Tom.
This is a great article but I have a question for you -what about women who are "above average"? I am 6'3", an ex-college volleyball player and have taken up running, rock climbing, hiking, and strength training. I find it hard to find information about women who are my size. I have both of your books and the new Holy Grail e-book and took part in your holiday challenge - which was great by the way. Overall I have been doing well and have dropped over 8% body fat since October. But my weight is not moving very much. Every time I read about women and fat loss they always talk about smaller women - I know woman overall tend me smaller than men but in my case, and the case of most of my female friends who are athletes, the reverse is true. I tend to bigger than most of the guys at the gym!

I am now about 254lbs and 25% body fat (going from 279lbs and 33%body fat October 1, 2009 after a stressful year of putting on weight and not moving very much) and want to get to around 200lbs and 18% body fat so that I am lighter for my running. I know body fat is a better indicator than weight, but I am also tired of being a "heavier female" and just want to get into the lower 200s so I can keep up my running and hiking in the future. I'm 28 so still relatively young and I am liking the lower body fat, but any advice for a larger female would also be greatly appreciated as there are many of us out there. Thanks again!

Nicole

"Thanks Tom, this may stop me shooting my scale."

Great post Tom. It seems there are lots of us shorties (petite people ) out there. I have sort of resigned myself to the fact that for me 250 g a week loss is pretty good and that is approx a quarter of a pound so even less than you were working on. This is because as well as being a petite female I am also menopausal and take medication, beta blockers and statin drugs.

I can eat 1200 cals a day and feel quite okay. I think it is the small and often way of eating plus foods that are filling, so the good carbs and protein.I have always eaten the small and often way but used to have a flavoured low fat yoghurt and fuit and , now have no fat Greek yoghurt which is unsweetened with maybe some protein powder and blueberries.

Thanks again Tom. Always find your writing so easy to read.

So very true... all of it. A big point for women to remember is that by lifting weights, the gain in muscle mass increases your maintenance calorie amount. I went from a maintenance level of around 1500 or so to 1700 just because of all the lean mass I put on over the last year. So much easier to create a deficit for fat loss when you've increased your maintenance calories by 200.

Also really important that people recognise the hidden calories they take in. Creamer in my coffee, calories in my fish oil supplements, calories in my antioxidant shot added up to almost 200 calories that I hadn't been counting. So even by resisting the treats around the office, my 500 calorie deficit was really only 300. Fixed that by writing down EVERYTHING that went in my mouth.

Great advice Tom. As with so many things in life - they look different when you actually write them down in a 'real life' example.

It's just so important to be aware of where and how calories come about during the day esp. if you're trying to lose weight. But you make another very good point - to set realistic goals.

So many people just pull a figure out of thin air when they decide to lose eight. Then they try and achieve it and get discouraged - because they can't reach the goal.

I guess it's the whole mentality of 'one size fits all'. We just need to learn to look at ourselves as individual human beings with individual requirements, and take it from there :o)

Do you think 1,500 calories is too little to eat for a an active woman though? People are ALWAYS telling me that I don't eat enough because I do weights 3d/week with light cardio and then long cardio 3-4d/week.

Either way, this is a good post. I'm 5'0" and it took me 7 months to lose 25 lbs and that was with strict calorie counting and working out religiously, not drinking, etc. So small girls out there, it's possible, just keep at it diligently!

-Jess
http://jqlee.wordpress.com/

This was a great article. As a woman who is in her 40's and needing to lose weight it was really helpful. Although I'm not a smaller woman (I fall into the larger category) it is nice to know some of the things I have been doing are in line with your article ie: keeping a chart and watching portion size. Thanks for the information.

Thanks for this post! This belies the many bogus Web pages, blogs, and even major magazines that tout the misguided logic that the same fat loss programs can work equally effectively for both genders.

What a fantastic, clear article. Nothing says it like "One extra pastry, muffin or handful of cookies and ZAP, your little 20% calorie deficit is GONE!"...regardless of how carefully you eat the rest of the time.

Keeping all those stats and being real about your intake vs expenditure is a great tip.

Very well explained. I now have an idea on how to loss fat in the right way. Thanks for sharing.

Like many girls here, I'm in the same boat. I'm 5' 4.5", 125. According to your ebook formulas, My maintenace is 2000! so fat loss realistically is about 1650. I had been trying to stay at 1400 to lose this little extra bulge that's made me go up one or two sizes.

I've been trying for years, have seen at least 4 different dietitians, two personal trainers, and they all say something a bit different!
So my GUESS is that I've been on 'starvation mode' for many years? I don't know. It's hard to 'digest' (lol) eating 2000 cal/day when I'm so used to what I've been doing.

I even did a metabolic test (where you breathe into a tube) and it said maintenance was around 1400 cal! So you can see how screwed up I am. Maintenance levels are all over, depending who I talk to. And when you mention 'moderate activity, exercising 3-5 x/week' in your book, I really don't know how long each 'time' is....20 min, 40 min?

I'd love some advice here. I'm quite leery of going up so many calories (though it's great if I actually CAN).

(If anyone here is in my situation, feel free to post and let me know. I'd love to see how you've overcome this.)