Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

So for some reason I am having a difficult time loosing that last bit of fat. I try to keep fat low and eating mainly qunioa, legumes, and greens. I have also noticed that I am hungry quite often, but as soon as I start to eat more I gain weight. Does anyone have any suggestions ? What do you do to cut fat? I have been a vegetarian for over a year and a vegan for about 4 months, but I am new to knowing when I need to do to get my body where I would like it to be. Any help would be appreciated

Sometimes you hit a plateau when losing weight, where you may could stay at for awhile before you begin to lose again. This is common and isn't something to let discourage you. Sometimes it happens at a weight that you were at for a long time earlier in life.

If you are staying hungry a lot, then you should be burning off more calories than you are taking in, which should help with weight loss as long as you don't over do it when you do eat.

How much weight have you lost so far? Over what time frame? How much more do you want to lose?

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Well I have lost about 30 lbs over the last 6 months or so. As of right now I am 122 and 5' 6'' so I guess I really don't want to loose too much weight, but I am having a hard time getting rid of the fat around my midsection. I know there are abs under there just don't know what I need to do to make them pop. I started tracking my calories not too long ago to see if that would help...I am taking in around 1600-1700 calories a day, but haven't see any change.

Well you have lost a lot of weight so far, you should be proud of yourself for that. And losing that last little bit sometimes can be the hardest.

Tracking your calories isn't something I think everyone needs to do, I never did until just last few weeks actually, just to see where I was at calorie wise and breakdown percentages of carbs, protein and fat. But tracking your calories may help you to lose this last bit of weight by seeing how many calories you are taking in and exactly what foods your calories are coming from, sometimes that can be a little eye opening as well.

Do you exercise? If so, do you track that to see how many calories you are burning off? The website myfitnesspal.com has a good program for tracking calories burned while exercising as well as tracking calories taken in, if you aren't using this already. The only problem with such programs is everyones metabolic rate is a little different even if they weigh the same thus the calories they burn while doing nothing is a little different as well as the amount of calories you are actually burning while exercising may vary some. But tracking like this should give you a general idea of where you are at.

If you are burning more calories than you are taking in you should lose fat/weight over time.

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Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way for everyone. In particular, too much caloric restriction combined with too much exercise is one of the fastest ways to watch fat loss stall out, though it's great for helping to peel off that hard-earned muscle Once your body goes into the mode of "screw this, I'm not getting what I want, so I'm not giving anything up", it only makes it harder to lose the last bit of fat that lingers around. If it were all about calories in/calories out to lose fat, all we'd have to do is fast for a week and we'd get the bodies we want without doing any extra work to get there

Stubborn fat that clings around until the end is never fun to lose, and sometimes takes more drastic approaches for some to get rid of it. Lower carb dieting, upping protein quantitiy, HIIT sprint training, Intermittent Fasting, etc. are all things that could be tried to vary things up if you haven't given them a shot. Unfortunately, eating low fat doesn't mean better fat loss nor does it help to burn fat more effectively, so it may be that your body has simply adapted to the current plan and is craving something new in the way of eating, training or both in order to restart progress again. Remember, your body adapts to EVERYTHING in time and you'll always get diminishing returns, so nothing works forever and change is essential to continue progressing.

Others here who have had great results dieting down to really low bodyfat numbers probably will have some great suggestions. But, from the sound of it, more than likely you've just reached a point of adaptation and need some tweaks to get rid of the last bit of fat that you're looking to lose. The last few pounds are the hardest to get rid of as you'll be trying to remove it from the places your body favors storage at the most, so expect that it can take as much time and effort to lose the last 6 lbs. as it may have to lose the previous 30, the last bit is always the slowest to lose!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

You don't mention whether or not you are working out, if not, start, and if you already are, increase the duration and intensity! and you may want to lighten up on the carbs. drink lots of water (a gallon a day).

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Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Thank you both for your advice. What would you suggest I do do raise how much protein I get on a regular basis...since the protein we mainly eat are in fact carbs.

I do work out pretty heavy and probably drink more than a gallon of water a day. I am taking a week off just because I just removed gluten and wanted to give my body a chance to detox, but I work out about 6 days a week and do about 4 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio. I am doing a p90x insanity asylum hybrid.

tofu
explore asian black bean spaghetti
soy or rice powder.
tempeh
seitan
maybe examine your legumes, for example lima beans have a higher protein to carb ratio than chick peas. it might be small but it adds up ig uess?

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Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Nice!! I've done P90X/Insanity and P90X/Turbo Fire myself. I'm going to do the Asylum after I redo Insanity, but first...P90X2

I'm also removing gluten as a "sometimes and most likely very rare" food because wheat gives me issues. Not gluten specifically, but wheat.

I'd say just up your veggies, take a look at your macros and fuss with those plus calorie intake until you start to see the results you want. And...be patient. "Rome was not built in a day, and neither was your body"...

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