Loose Skinny Fat in Banking
Hey guys,
I am doing the typical 80 hours per week in IB. I eat clean during the week and usually drink alcohol on Friday and Saturday (one of those nights I am usually going out so I have quite a few drinks).
I am a skinny guy but I have started to put on weight on my hips and I hate it. I'm trying to go to the gym on the weekends and at least once during the week but it's tough with the hours.
Does anyone have successfully lost weight during their Analyst years and what specifically would you recommend to lose skinny fat?
Thanks in advance
Put on about 6kg the first few months on the job and lost all of it again and I definitely do not eat healthy. Biggest factors have been:
Agree all but with #3. I suggest you eat two meals a day (breakfast and a late lunch). Avoid dinner because you don't have much time to burn the calories in-between your meal and sleep. It all gets stored as fat. A late lunch is preferred because it still gives time to burn calories. You can have a light snack before bed if you're still hungry.
Breakfast is useless unless you workout before breakfast. Assuming he works out after work, dinner is important.
Cut down on drinking (have fewer drinks when you go out, and avoid high-calorie drinks).
I also gained weight during my time as an analyst, and the main culprit was hardcore drinking on the weekends, followed by indulging in drunk food. I'd end up consuming an extra 1.5k calories on those nights (double if I went out both weekend days), which adds up to around half a pound of weight gain (or a pound if I went out both weekend days). It's not a big deal if it's an occasional thing, but doing it weekly will gradually lead to noticeable weight gain.
So, my advice is to be mindful of how much you drink and try to resist the temptation of drunk pizza. If you know you're going to overindulge, consider eating less during the day and on a couple of other days, so you have a calorie buffer for those high-calorie drinking nights.
I’ve found that a peloton is a pretty efficient way to get your workout in. 20 minutes everyday and I’m done. Burns fat like crazy.
Also define “eating clean” on weekdays. Unless you’re cooking at home, can guarantee it’s not as clean as you think
Unfortunately stress and lack of sleep also affect getting in shape
Always salads for lunch and try to keep it light for dinner (sushi, curry, bowls). But agreed, takeout is never the healthiest option
Sushi and bowls are full of calories, you'd be shocked. They seem healthy but aren't. Curry also isn't know for being calorie light either
They might be light on calories but are full of sodium which increases water retention. Makes my face look super puffy
Tbh, there’s not much you can do as an analyst working in IB. Most bankers are not known for being in shape haha
As others mentioned, keep up the discipline in diet and cut out alcohol on the weekend. Also keep working out when possible. As your hours improve, your fitness journey can improve too
Lift on the weekends. ( I do a push/pull/legs split Friday - Sunday). Lifting (especially
Compound movements) not onlly builds muscle/helps lose fat but has postural benefits as well which is key for people like us who sit 80 hours a week. And I try to run/do calisthenics 2 times during the week (30 minute workout max) . I eat whatever I want but I never snack or eat breakfast on weekdays so my calorie intake is relatively low despite eating whatever I want.
Alcohol is key as well, not for the calories but it would make me miss gym/eat terribly
Certain things have to be earned and a good physique is one of those unfortunately. I’d echo the advice already given; try and skip breakfast, don’t have any caffeine at least 90 minutes after waking up, go for high volume (&lower calorie) lunch options and that should give you decent calories for dinner. Doing this will also help your focus throughout the day. As for training, go for PPL Fri-Sun, anything you can do during the week is a plus. Unsure of your housing situation but it also helps to live a walking distance to the office, it’s a great way to get some steps in every day. Have stim free pre workout so you can train in the evenings without your sleep being affected. If you can’t make time to work out then you’ll have to make more sacrifices on the consumption side, ultimately it’s about calories in vs calories out. Simple as.
Exercise more, at least 2x weightlifting and 2x cardio per week.
Don’t eat burgers and pizza, limit your alcohol intake. Eat at regular times and no snacks
Try to sleep as much as possible, don’t go all out on weekends
Lift weights 3-5 days a week, aim for at least 10k steps per day (ideally 15k+), be in a slight calorie deficit and bump your protein macros up.
Feel free to have a cheat meal or a few drinks on the weekend every now and then, but stay true to the core of your diet and you'll be fine!
EDIT: also cut down your drinking, you don't have to go cold turkey; but if you're gonna drink swap out the beers for something like a vodka, soda, lime
Doing compound lifts while on a calorie deficit will be your best friend
burn more calories than you eat
I won't blame you your weekend I think you need it. If you are on a date or escorting sugarbook catch then I don't think they would be impressed with your discipline on diet. Just that eat less calories than you are now. I suggest cutting all by 20%. If you are taking 100 grams of rice then try 80. Basically smaller portion and no sugary drinks just plain water.
We had in-building gyms at both BBs I worked for. I went every day right around the time all of the seniors left and everyone else was ordering their Seamless meals. The gym was empty, and I could get a workout done in 45 min. I was also not pressured to do the unhealthy group dinner in the Conf room that most of my team did. I usually did a salad or sandwich a bit later.
To preface, losing weight = eating less calories than you burn AKA being on a CALORIC DEFICIT, there's no way around it and no secret to lose weight and no "cheat code" (unless you're on a cycle, which if done right is OP). If you're gaining weight, you're on a CALORIC SURPLUS (eating more calories than burning). I'd suggest initially finding out your metabolic caloric burn rate AKA how many calories your body most likely burns each day. There are a lot of basic calculators and resources online and it literally takes 10 seconds to type in your stats (https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html).
It's a little extra work, but TRACK WHAT YOU EAT (using apps like MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, etc.). You'll never fully understand where your surpluses come from until you actually see the numbers behind what you're eating. First step to losing weight is ALWAYS adjusting your diet; make sure you're eating at a deficit and make sure you're hitting macros using these trackers so that even while you're dieting you're making sure your body gets all the shit it needs. You can eat a twinkie, a bag of cheetos, and three shots of the Don a day and still lose weight, but it sure as hell isn't healthy.
Working out is a fast track to losing weight because 1. obviously the exercise itself burns calories meaning your deficit increases and 2. increasing muscle mass generally equates to your metabolic caloric burn rate increasing (more muscle = more calories your body needs to consume to maintain). If you have the time, start lifting if you don't already.
In regards to your drinking during the weekend, I like to track my calories as a net total within an entire week. So if my daily metabolic caloric burn is 2,500, my weekly burn would be 17,500. There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, and the suggested deficit is 500-1,000 calories/day (1,000 being on a pretty extreme side and generally reserved for those that are severely overweight). I'd suggest sticking to a 500 cal/day deficit which would total out to 3,500 cal/week = 1 pound of fat lost/week. If you're drinking 3k cal of alcohol on Fridays and Saturdays, then all your hard work during the week is pretty much pointless.
KEEP IN MIND though that when you're on a deficit, you need to be increasing protein intake to to make sure you're not losing muscle at the same time. While it's not as important early on since the aforementioned newbie gains are OP as fuck and you'll gain muscle the first couple of months, it's generally safe and healthy practice to up protein intake to ensure muscle maintenance. Remember, more muscle = more metabolic calorie burn. The recommended protein intake usually ranges from 0.7-1 grams of protein per pound of body weight (just stick with 1, it's easier to remember), so if you weigh 165 right now, you should be eating around ~165 g of protein/day.
At the end of the day, this is all DISCIPLINE. It's on you to stay on track and make sure you're making the right decisions to reach your goal. You could download the apps and eat the salad for lunch all you want, but if you skip the gym, binge drink on the weekends, and order 2 pounds of General Tso's at 11PM at your desk, all of the above will be worth fuckall. Good luck brother, godspeed.
adderall
May I present an alternative...
1. Track calories; 2. Eat at a caloric level in which you lose weight. End of thread
Also, track calories burned. Through a smart watch or whoop strap.
Personally one too many steps for me, but I do see the appeal of doing this. Either way your energy expenditure is likely to remain similar day to day unless you have some weird stuff going on in your life.
Have you tried Athletic Greens?
The best and easiest advice you will get.
I'm going to assume you're like 150lbs since you said skinny. Eat 1/100th of your bodyweight in lean protein first (so 1.5lbs of chicken or whatever) - eat this shit first in the day, then if you're still hungry later you can have a normal meal/go out for drinks/whatever.
B B B B But I can't meal prep...then just buy a whole pre-cooked bbq (they taste great) and are like $10 max. Boom there's all your protein and probably 1500 calories at the absolute max. Then assuming you're eating 2k or hell even 2.5k, you've got 500-1000 cals to play with. I think a shot of vodka is like 100 cals, so you can still get pretty blitzed this way and not become a slob.
Skinny fat is imo the toughest physical trait to overcome. It is the result of having a body that doesn't produce muscle easily, and also a bad diet. For example, I saw your response to the foods you eat comment. Sushi is a dessert meal, you are getting barely any nutrition out of that, and loading up on carbs.You don't need to do this unless you're Michael Phelps burning 4-5k calories a day. Write down all the foods you eat, you should do it on here to get feedback, and I suspect most of the foods you eat have little protein/nutritional value and calorie dense. I eat out all the time, but it doesn't mean you can't get good quality food when eating out.
I disagree with a bunch of folks on here. You should be eating as much clean protein, clean foods as possible and also lifting hard in the gym. Cardio will do good things for burning fat, but you'll still look skinny and have that flat body. If you build a little bit of muscle, that belly won't look so bad.
Yeah, and he calls it "loose skinny fat too."
Skinny fat is different obviously from skinny or fat. It makes the most sense to first focus on building muscle and then making a cut at the end of it. If you cut now, you dont have the muscle and will just be a smaller skinny fat unless you get down to anemic levels. To build muscle, workout 3-5 days a week (could be any split you want dependent on time). What has continually worked for me is a 5 day push pull legs split, but can be done in 3 days. Workouts can ben done in 45 min-1 hr. Focus on compound lifts first then can add some accessory work. Always good to work in a couple sets of abs as well and make sure to get in some cardio as well. For diet, focus on upping protein, looking at .75-1 g per pound of bodyweight. Doing so will force you to eat better as a result to stay under your caloric target. Track your maintenance calories and go a bit above maintenance (couple hundred calories) which will slowly gain some better weight to get you to a point to adequately cut if needed. Once you have noticed some transition and feel like you have gained a couple pounds and start to see some more muscle, you can start your cut. For cutting, protein stays the same, but you will be eating a couple hundred calories a day below your maintenance levels. Exercise split will stay the same, just upping the cardio and throwing in a couple more abs. For someone who is skinny fat, if this is done correctly, you wont need many pounds to cut so this can be done fairly quickly.
I think I read somewhere that skinny fat is actually bad because it means you have a lot of visceral fat which is fat that surrounds the organs. For me, I just skipped breakfast and try to eat carbs only once a day, and have solid protein / veggies for one meal. I found drinking green tea aids in my metabolism also. Also, there is a higher return on focusing on diet reduction rather than increased physical exertion. One meal breakfast reduction is like running 3 miles. I would still incorporate some running because that elevates your heart rate and metabolism, but for me I place more emphasis on improving my diet. Hope that helps.
You know about the ‘miracle’ drug Ozempic? I’m not here to suggest you take it or advocate for it in anyway - there are some nasty side effects - but rather wanted to mention how it practically works and some takeaways as it’s so popular. Primarily, it makes you lose weight through consuming less food via producing a feeling of fullness.
Feeling full with less food is the key to any successful diet. So what does that look like? Bulky and/or fibrous foods and high protein with low fat intake or high protein with little carbs supplanted with fat to make the diet tolerable.
The latter describes the keto diet, and I personally attest to how successful it can be as I lost 30% of my body weight doing an extreme version of it. We can talk about all the biological mechanisms of keto but at the end of the day it works well because you feel full with less calories. You can take the other route with eating a bunch of salad or other bulky/high fiber veggies plus protein with low fat and still get the same results but just lower your calories significantly and consistently. It’s just harder to do vs. keto as it requires more thoughtfulness in meal creation.
Lastly, I would echo what a lot of other people are saying in that you should be hitting the weights. At the end of the day, you care about body composition not your total weight per se. Not only will you burn more calories working out, but you’ll look better, faster via more muscle. You don’t even have to go to the gym for hours on end. Lifting for 30-40 mins 3x a week could work. Anyway, higher muscle mass requires calories as well, so your body will supply calories to your muscles and not just your fat. To that end, I wouldn’t go on a “bulk” as many people just overshoot it. Lose the fat you want and keep working out and then go for more clean mass.
There are tons of “how-to’s” on everything mentioned, so I’m not going to parrot anything easily found but wanted to provide some actionable thoughts to serve as a foundation.
How does one get “loose skinny fat” anyway? Is it excess skin from being heavier?
Everyone seems to be saying something different and unsure which advice to follow. I also have some skinnyfat. Used to be skinny but I got heavier once I started working. Lots of conflicting advice / nutrition plans online and haven’t followed any. Do any of these work?
Edit
A lot of people are forgetting the basic traits of nutrition and exercise. Move more, eat less = lose weight, move more, eat less, focus on protein intake = lose fat, move more, eat less, focus on protein intake and weight train = lose fat, gain muscle.
For someone skinny fat, weight isnt the issue, it's being heavier than bone thin with a lack of muscle. To solve this, you have two options. 1. Diet down further until you are just skinny, then bulk up or 2. Bulk up while adding muscle base and then cutting down. Option 2 is much easier and more efficient, there is a reason why bodybuilders and other pros bulk up and then cut down for the season. It is easier to build muscle when bulking, and when cutting, you will retain more muscle overall as you lose weight that will predominantly be fat, thus eliminating the skinny fat look.
Plan is simple. First find your maintenance calories and make sure you are eating a couple 100 calories above that per day (can go up to 500 per day, this would be a pound per week). Focus on getting .75-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, should be closer to the 1 gram mark when bulking up. This will force you to eat better overall to hit your protein mark, think 80% good food, 20% other to allow you to sustain your diet. Weightlift with a program that works for you, between 3-6 days a week, focus on the compound lifts and then some accessory work. Can be done in 45 mins to 1.5 hrs depending on how many days a week. For example my plan is Push (3 chest, 2 shoulders, 2 triceps), Pull (3 back, 2 shoulders, 2 biceps, 1 ab), Legs (2 quad, 2 hamstring, 1 calf, 1 ab), 6 days a week, 45 min a day, and 4 sets of 8 reps per exercise.
Continue the above until you start to see some significant muscle gain with the weight added. Once you feel comfortable with the amount of muscle, start to cut. Same nutrition as above, but eat a couple 100s calories under maintenance and focus heavily on the .75-1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight (this will allow 90%+ good food to hit the protein goal within allotted calories). Same weightlifting plan as above, just add in some additional cardio. Once you feel comfortable that you have leaned out enough and feel good with the amount of weight and muscle you have, you are no longer skinny fat. You can now go into maintenance mode, changing only to eating the amount of calories needed for maintenance and keeping the same nutrition and exercise program.
I’m stuck at step 1 bc idk how to find my maintenance calories
buddy just smoke some ecig every other day for a couple weeks
Starvemaxxing
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