Girlfriend can’t loose belly fat.

[permission to land]

Hey.

My partner is 5.6, 130lbs, size 8. Age 31.

We train together hard 4-5 days a week. She does 30 mins uphill treadmill per day. Enough output for a good sweat.

She has an office job and is 75% sedentary and 25% out on site (project coordinator).

She’s vegetarian and doesn’t like chocolate much or crap in general. She doesn’t drink and or smoke. No drugs or unsavoury stuff.

ATM she’s got a little pocket of fat under her belly and she wants to get rid of it and Leah out. Nothing crazy like abs, but a flat stomach with no pouch. The pouch is around 1.5-2 inch of fat I’d say and she just can’t seem to lose it.

We started her on 1600 cals two months ago ahd she tracks everything. She’s 100% not cheating as she’s just not like that at all. So I’m wondering what is happening, as she’s not loosing weight or the fat


All the trackers say that she should be eating 1400 for a cut based on 5 days working out. But it’s just not working. For 8 weeks she’s fluctuated between 132 and 128. She weighs herself every Monday and Thursday, but the last week we’ve been doing daily. We went down to 1350 and she’s put weight on.

No thorid or health issues we know of are causing this. Periods throw the tracking off a bit though.

She aims for .5g of protein per lbs due to cutting. Fats come from cottage cheese, a little olive oil her and their, nuts. Protein comes from beans, lentils, tofu, protein powder, almond milk. Carbs come from veg, rice and potatos. All nutrient dense food. She doesn’t eat any shit other than the odd burboun biscuit as a treat a few times a week (120 cals).

Everything is tracked.

Sample day of eating here

Breakfast: Oats, protein bar
Lunch: Home made Red Thai curry with tofu
Dinner: Boiled Eggs, Cottage Cheese, Sweet Potato, Low fat Sweet Chilli Sauce
Snacks: Rice Crispie Square, Glass of Almond Higher Protien Milk

She has a great shape and top abs are showing in good light. Hour glass shape with a good size bum and curves.

She looks better then 90%’of the population but wants to get rid or that belly.

I think she’s under-eating tbh. This would cause her to potentially hold on to fat and fluctuate so much.

We’ve got 5 weeks left of our cut before we both do a lean bulk and I’m unsure what to suggest now. I’m fairly knowledgeable for the average Joe, but I’m at a losss on whats happening atm.

Can anyone with experience kindly offer any advice?

 

[Anthonybeach]

What's the blood work look like? At first look that doesn't look like nearly enough healthy fats needed for optimal hormones. How long has she been dieting? A few maintenance weeks or utilizing a re feed day could see a lot of benefit.

 

[permission to land]

What's the blood work look like? At first look that doesn't look like nearly enough healthy fats needed for optimal hormones. How long has she been dieting? A few maintenance weeks or utilizing a re feed day could see a lot of benefit.

Thanks mate. We’re gonna bump cals to 1500 and add ten mins extra cardio at the end of each workout. That’s an extra 50 mins a week without sacrificing food.

What should her macro split look like for a veggie cutting naturally.

No blood work done.

 

[BigTomJ]

What should her macro split look like for a veggie cutting naturally.

The same as anyone else cutting.

.5-1g protein per lb BW (closer to 1 the better, but I recognize this is a challenge for a vegetarian)
.3g fat per pound
Rest of calorie budget in carbs.

 

[Benf15harp]

Since when were eggs vegetarian?

 

[bigMoJo]

Since when were eggs vegetarian?

Aww.. snap! No, actually, from what I understand, there's different kinds of vegetarians. I'm no expert, but I think OP's partner is Lacto-ovo vegetarian. We live in crazy times my friend.

However, to OP's post: Maybe one of the veterans may have more to expound, but I didn't see mention of "carb-cycling." That may help, since it sounds like her metabolism may be slowing from the steady daily calories... even if they are in a deficit.

Cycling the carbs daily, and re-assessing every week to two weeks, may be the solution. Change it up, frequently. For me, rice, packs too mich punch on insulin. I stick with foods lower on the glycemic index.

 

[notanothersnake]

How do you know it's not a thyroid or even hormone thing if no bloodwork has bn done?
Maybe I misread...

 

[Kdubswoldgier]

I know a chick that does CrossFit and her dude said if she goes below 12% bf it messes with her hormones. Can always do abs 6 days a week for 6 weeks then reassess. On the dip station do strait leg raises 2 sets of 50 reps (each set start at how many ever reps can do (example = 7) then wait 30 seconds and continue the count ( example = 8, 9, etc) then wait 30 seconds and continue the rep count til get to 50. Can do 2 sets of this spsced out however and then do the same 50 reps / 2 sets on the seated ab machine. When can get 35 reps solid it's a good indicator that should be able to push and get the full 50 and bam! Only 4 sets for abs and can get with them in whenever.
Also can do vacuums through out the day (rich piana showed a good way of doing them).
Or maybe it's more about genetics or another underlying factor, but having something else to try might help mental exhaustion of not having the progress as quickly as wanted.

 

[PermaBlastingTren]

Bro it’s all the pizza she stuffs herself with when your not watching

 

[Underworld]

Bad genes. Break up and move on.

 

[buck]

Since when were eggs vegetarian?

Vegetarian and vegan are different things. There are degrees to vegetarianism. some just don't allow the killing of animals.

 

[Scruf]

I agree with @Anthonybeach and @BigTomJ, Reset calories and add a refeed. In fact i would watch this video it is very helpful.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-sC__2rnc


Also, if this were one of my athletes, I would have her do cardio twice a day, preferably zone 1 cardio, like brisk walking. 30 minutes (fasted) before food in the morning works very well for breaking plateaus. 30 mins post workout or before bed.

 

[Benf15harp]

Bad genes. Break up and move on.

This is the correct answer

 

[bighunanballs]

I agree with @Anthonybeach and @BigTomJ, Reset calories and add a refeed. In fact i would watch this video it is very helpful.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-sC__2rnc


Also, if this were one of my athletes, I would have her do cardio twice a day, preferably zone 1 cardio, like brisk walking. 30 minutes (fasted) before food in the morning works very well for breaking plateaus. 30 mins post workout or before bed.

This is the way

 

[BigDadd7]

Bad genes. Break up and move on.

Brutal

 

[Escolateral]

Are you sure she's not secret eating?

 

[Ghoul]

"Girlfriend can't loose belly fat."

Over in the women's forum:

"Boyfriend can't spell."

 

[Deadp007]

Bad genes. Break up and move on.

Her genetic stock is weak. Her bloodline ends with her

Vegetarian and vegan are different things. There are degrees to vegetarianism. some just don't allow the killing of animals.

I mean... "allow the killing of animals" seems like the wrong phrase... like they are out there stopping it.
More like, they won't consume animal/animal products.

 

[buck]

Her genetic stock is weak. Her bloodline ends with her

I mean... "allow the killing of animals" seems like the wrong phrase... like they are out there stopping it.
More like, they won't consume animal/animal products.

Seems you understood what was meant. And the rest is semantics as oi see it.

 

[malfeasance]

She aims for .5g of protein per lbs due to cutting. Fats come from cottage cheese, a little olive oil her and their, nuts. Protein comes from beans, lentils, tofu, protein powder, almond milk. Carbs come from veg, rice and potatos. All nutrient dense food. She doesn’t eat any shit other than the odd burboun biscuit as a treat a few times a week (120 cals).

Everything is tracked.

Sample day of eating here

Breakfast: Oats, protein bar
Lunch: Home made Red Thai curry with tofu
Dinner: Boiled Eggs, Cottage Cheese, Sweet Potato, Low fat Sweet Chilli Sauce
Snacks: Rice Crispie Square, Glass of Almond Higher Protien Milk

The same as anyone else cutting.

.5-1g protein per lb BW (closer to 1 the better, but I recognize this is a challenge for a vegetarian)
.3g fat per pound
Rest of calorie budget in carbs.

BigTomJ beat me to this by a lot, but I would go even further than him. Protein intake is a huge problem for some females, and I just don't get it. I would set for her an absolute minimum daily of 150 grams of protein.

I don't know how to figure out protein on a vegetarian diet, sorry. Make sure she is getting all of the essential amino acids she needs.

I got my wife a trophy but had to push her protein up to 200 daily.

I like BigTomJ's fat recommendation, and I see he does what I do with carbs, fill in the rest with carbs, carbs as needed.

When I look at her day's eating, though, yuck!

Oats, great! Protein bar? Argh. So her protein is way low at 0.5 grams per pound and you are including this crap?

Rice, great! Tofu? It's not chicken breast, and it is significantly higher in fats than chicken breast. Tofu actually gives you more calories from fat than from protein with each and every bite, so stacking up the Tofu for protein requirements raises fats to an unacceptable level for a cut.

Dinner also looks to be high fat. And Rice Krispie Squares on a low calorie, low protein cut . . .

You also mention above the daily meals olive oil and nuts.

I will just say that on my first cut ever, when I stalled removing the nuts I was eating was the difference between being stalled and continuing making progress. It was literally the difference between success and failure.

When I look at her food choices I could not predict success for her.

Find a way to get her protein higher (way higher, from 65 grams a day up to 150 grams a day) and her fats lower and watch things change.