I want to lose inches without losing pounds?

[angelpaws]

I am a 17 year old female who is unhappy with her shape (what else is new right? )
Anyway I am underweight (5 feet 6 and 1/2 inches about 106 pounds.) but my body is very unproportionate. I have a lot of weight in my lower half and im skinny as a rail on top.
I also have a lot of body fat because I never exercise and was formally anorexic so my muscle mass is depleted.

My main goal is to shrink my lower body so that my jeans fit looser. Actually I want to loose inches all over, but I DONT want to lose any scale weight.
My calorie maintainance is 1600 calories a day. Should I decrease calories since I want to lose fat? I can't afford to lose any pounds though.
I have just begun a program of doing cardio 25-40 minutes a day (usually split up) and a bit of strength training, but in keeping my calories at maintainice level, im afraid that I wont get any results. Please help.

 

[Mudge]

If you decrease calories you will drop under maintenance and lose weight.

Women do store bodyfat in the lower body for gestation period, so that is somewhat natural. I think the strength training will help, but I'm sure some women will have some kind of idea for you.

 

[Mex]

Meh, I'd advise working your ass and legs, and turn the fat to muscle. We guys like bottom heavy girls too

 

[Mudge]

I like something down there, but you can't turn fat into muscle. Quality of the body can be improved though which I believe is the point we are both trying to get at, reducing calories will result in weight loss.

 

[ZECH]

Originally posted by Mex
and turn the fat to muscle.

 

[Mudge]

After puberty, you will actually maintain nearly the exact same number of both fat and muscle cells. The creation of new cells of either type is hyperplasia.

In fat cells this only occurs in moribdly obese people, and in muscle hGH triggers it, but normal amounts are not enough to do much of this apparently.

 

[Mex]

and turn the fat to muscle.

PFff, yeah yeah yeah, I know you can't transform fat directly to muscle, but you know what I mean. Lose the fat and get more muscle. Picky bastards...

 

[NickB]

Originally posted by angelpaws

Anyway I am underweight (5 feet 6 and 1/2 inches about 106 pounds.)

I also have a lot of body fat because I never exercise and was formally anorexic so my muscle mass is depleted.

My main goal is to shrink my lower body so that my jeans fit looser.

My calorie maintainance is 1600 calories a day. Should I decrease calories since I want to lose fat? I can't afford to lose any pounds though.

Things I quoted that have me worried and/or I thought were interesting.

I'd recommend weight training and not cardio so you build muscle. Each pound of muscle burns a ton of extra calories when you're just sitting there so that should be your focus. Skip on the cardio and do heavy weight training for a month or two.

You said yourself you have no muscle. Add it. Don't worry about loweriong your fat via diet and or cardio activity. Doing cardio will drop the fat, but you won't gain any muscle and thus your weight will drop. You really can't afford to drop any weight :|

 

[ZECH]

Originally posted by Mex
PFff, yeah yeah yeah, I know you can't transform fat directly to muscle, but you know what I mean. Lose the fat and get more muscle. Picky bastards...

When giving advice to someone that doesn't know better, you need to be as accurate as possible. They may take it as gospel. Obviously this has happened, because I keep seeing it!

 

[plouffe]

things dont just get instantly smaller without losing weight, id suggest dropping weight, then after youre happy with your lower body, start to weight train to gain weight, then maybe put on a little fat too.

 

[Mudge]

I think she can spread out the weight with just strength training. I dont know what the low end of normal is but I'd expect a 5'6" female to be closer to 130ish, so I'd already say she is very much on the light side and should not lose weight at all.

 

[NickB]

Exactly what mudge said. If she starts weight training the weight will seem to spread and she'll get in proportion and she'll look great.

5'6 106 is extremely light and you people telling her to go onto a low cal diet just really don't know what you're talking about.

Angelpaws, wait for Leslie or Jbo to come around and listen to them. Mudge and I gave you sound advice (weight train). Anyone telling you to DIET at ONE HUNDRED POUNDS is out of their mind. Jbo and Leslie will be able to help you more than anyone else here.

 

[angelpaws]

just wanted to thank you guys for helping me out. I am really grateful
im still not sure what im going to do as of yet so ill keep checking if there are any new replies over the next few days.

 

[Leslie]

Angel,
At your height, your weight is rather low and you are right you cannot lose anymore weight. The reason why you are not happy with your body right now depsite your low weight is due to the high body fat percentage. I had never had to deal with an eatting disorder like aneroxia but I can tell you when I first started out (only dieting) I had lost 30 lbs and was so depressed as I still hated the way I looked-even though evryone said I would be crazy to lose anymore weight at 135lb/5'10. Now its strange to belive at 155 look my best. Hard to believe- but muscle weighs more than fat and can really make a figure look great. (and I am not talking about beasty muscle- as a woman would need androgens to look like that).

What I would recommend is to increase your LBM(lean body mass)- as you add more muscle, your body will naturally req more calories just to make it thru the day. Right now I would not go below 1600 cals due to the eatting disorder past. Your metabolism is prolly out of whack. A good solid meal plan that enables 5-6 smaller meals per day will help boost your metabolism agian- aiding in fatty tissue loss.

All that additional cardio will only eat up the little muscle you have left, and believe me no matter how much weight you lose you wont be happy becuase you will be "skinny fat." You need to build up your muscle again! I would do cardio 1-2x per week but really concentrate on the weight training. It can help tone tremendously. Do you have a gym membership?

 

[DeadBolt]

^^^Yea what she said.