I’m 5.5ft, 9 stone, 27F.

I need to lose a bit of excess fat I think, or it could be excess skin as I’ve mentioned in other posts as I lost 5 stone in 2021. I just want a more toned look, not to have huge muscles but I want (like most people!) a flatter, toned stomach and legs and more definition all round.

What should my calorie and macro goals be to help with this? I strength train at the gym with weights and a bit of cardio 3/4 times a week and do the odd muscle toning exercise video twice a week. Initially I worked it out on a fitness tracker and it came at me needing only 1,350 calories a day! Which I thinks way too low for my goal??

Thanks!

  • Timely--Challenge@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’m not a health or nutrition professional, but I can tell you from experience and working with many nutritionists, personal trainers and lifting coaches that 1350 is too low, ESPECIALLY if you are lifting and doing cardio. Way too low.

    Also. A very, very, very important thing you must remember: “toning” doesn’t exist. Literally not possible. It’s a product of marketing. Same with “get a flat belly with these five exercises”. You can’t choose where on your body to lose fat from, and you can’t “tone up”.

    If you want to tighten up your skin itself, try using Vitamin E cream or cocoa butter - these help build elasticity, which helps your skin to become more firm and taut.

    ​

    If you want to lose fat, eat in a calorie deficit. It’s that simple. Eat fewer calories than you “use”/“burn”. Go online and find a macro calculator - something like this will work just fine. Once you have your “maintenance” calories [i.e. how many calories you need to eat in a day just to surive], then choose how much less you want to eat in a day. Don’t reduce by more than 500 calories a day. That’s dangerous, miserable, and unsustainable. Somewhere between 200-300 is what is healthiest. Use something like MyFitnessPal or a food diary to track your intake, make sure you get enough protein, and if you keep up with the workout method you follow now, you’ll be amazing at how quickly your body composition changes.

    Bonus side note: it’s important also to know that a fitness tracker or human estimate will never, ever, ever give you an actual accurate measure of how many calories you’re burning when you work out. There’s a LOT of proof to this.