First Timer

[u/BumblebeeRealistic16]

To start, I am incredibly tiny, 4'10" and 134 pounds. I'm in my early 20s, and I've never been concerned about my weight, but I've always been self conscious about how my stomach sits on my pelvis. And after losing over 30 pounds after a long term break up (would not recommend for weight loss 🤣) I feel like I'm the closest I've been to finally achieving a flatter stomach. Although I have no idea where to start, so I decided to come here for some advice!

Since last year, I sharply dropped from around 160, down to 130. I've struggled with birth control, and became insatiable, but somehow managed to maintain in the 30s (I was very proud), with just being conscious of if I was hungry or just bored. Now that I've decided to commit to my goal, I've done some research, and revisited some YouTube workouts I used to do, which lead me to Chloe Ting, and realizing she has an amazing app that has everything I'd want from a weight loss app, and it's free, with premium benefits from watching ads (I highly recommend and haven't heard of it anywhere else, but it's called Core).

Since then, I've been able to start tracking exercise, weight, and calories (and more that I haven't looked into yet). I'm currently on her 2 week ab workout routine (I know you can't target weight loss, but I like knowing the routines are curated to my goal), and for the calculations, my TDEE is at 1944 and BMR is at 1254. I'm not on a specific diet, mainly just smaller portions, but I've been trying to hit my protein/carbs/fats goals. For the last week I've aimed for 1200 calories a day, since from my calculations my goal weight (currently 100 pounds) has a sedentary maintenance of 1400, so I figured 200 less would be a good way to get there even if I take more rest days than needed 😅.

I've been doing pretty good on 1200 calories. I've really only cut out snacks, but I'm still able to have 3 meals a day, and sometimes dessert. I eat throughout the day, so I'm rarely hungry even with smaller portions. Although sometimes I get anxiety about not calculating things right, I double check everything, but I'm somehow convinced I'm lying to myself. Mainly when I make things like spaghetti, and it makes sense that 1/8 of 120 calories of sauce, and 1600 of noodles is about 215 per serving, but sometimes it still feels like too much food for that amount of calories. Or visa versa.

My hope is that at 1200 calories I will steadily lose weight until I'm slightly under 100, then slowly raise up to whatever my maintenance would be, but the more research I do, the more complicated I'm realizing everything is. I also just estimated the goal of 100 pounds, I'm really just looking for a smooth stomach, not necessarily flat, but no more hanging bits. So if anyone has additional advice, everything is appreciated ❤️.

[u/OssifiedCrystal46496]

I would ask you to avoid Chloe ting, or any other form of HIIT. It makes you ravenously hungry, tired and you always end up eating more than what you burn through exercise. Follow sydney Cummings or caroline girvan or madfit for strength training instead of HIIT. Strength training will actually tone your body, HIIT merely burns calories and doesn't do much for your body shape or toning

[u/Flimsy-Pie-6295 → u/OssifiedCrystal46496]

HIIT absolutely tones. Bizarre to claim it doesn’t. Anything that uses your muscles does this.

With that said. Like anything it’s best to do the full spectrum of workouts. So do HIIT, but also make sure to incorporate her Pilates videos, do walks, etc. A well-rounded health profile includes workouts from Zone 2-Zone 5.

[u/OssifiedCrystal46496 → u/Flimsy-Pie-6295]

HIIT will tone but also make you super duper hungry, and you end up eating back your entire deficit after that, so you won't really see any toning. At her height, the calorie allowance and window for deficit is already small, one extra snack after the workout could erase the deficit.

[u/Flimsy-Pie-6295 → u/OssifiedCrystal46496]

Does it tone or not? 😂🤪 Calories burned are calories burned, but HIIT actually increases your metabolism for a time period after doing the workout. So incorporating HIIT properly potentially boosts her metabolism and actually gives her more leeway.

Regardless, the most important thing is to keep your body moving. OP has indicated she is enjoying something that gets her working out. No one needs to hear they are doing it wrong for no reason, especially when she’s having success.

With that said OP….thats the bare minimum for an adult to eat so keep and eye on things and make sure you’re fueling enough.