r/PetiteFitness

I’m 5ft3 (well 5ft2.5) and 140lbs (or 159 cm / 63.5kg). I’m fairly active (run at least 25 weekly miles / 40k, do 1.5hrs of spinning a week, and 30mins of yoga / pilates everyday). I also walk the doggos so overall I take 10k+ steps everyday, I do have a desk job and WFH. I’m eating around 1500-1600 calories 6 days a week, and I have a day of around 2200 calories.

I look great, my athletic performance is good (and getting better), but I’m always hungry ;/ . The really sad story is that I’m only maintaining.

For context, my activity levels haven’t changed that much (I’m running more but I used to cycle quite a bit), but when I was heavier (15lbs heavier), I didn’t have to look at what I ate like a hawk and maintained that weight without a problem.

Is this the sad reality of my lower weight?

I am a 22 female, 5 foot, around 106-111lbs. Over the last year I lost 60 pounds. I was in an aggressive deficit for about 8-9 months. I reached a point in January where I was 103 and realized i should probably start eating at maintenance. Throughout my journey I have been consistently lifting 3-5x a week, walk about 4-12k steps a day (this really varies), I sleep 6-8 hours, work a very stressful job with long days and lots of changes. In April I took a break from the gym until June and allowed myself to eat freely and enjoy myself. I gained maybes 5-6 pounds. I’m still very satisfied with how I look, I’m still lean, muscles look great and I’ve definitely gained some muscle. In June I decided to get back to the gym and meal prepping and structure. I decided to start tracking again and I’ve been around 1550-1700 most days and usually one day a week around 2k or more. However I am STRUGGLING!! I feel extremely hunger and NEVER satisfied no matter how much I eat or what I eat. My Macros are good, 90-110g protein a day, 25g of fiber, 170-200g of carbs and have been working on getting my fats over 40g a day. I eat pretty clean, no supplements or much processed food. I enjoy my days out, traveling and have indulgent days but I’m starting to get to the point where I’m so hungry that those days I try to be really free from any kind of structure I lose control. I’m not sure if I’m not eating enough still. I’ve tried to increase daily cals a bit more and still struggling with the hunger. It’s so frustrating because I want to gain muscle (lost my whole bum when I lost weight) but I want to stay lean and keep my stomach relatively flat. I’m just having a hard time finding the balance. I know maintenance is a range and I’ve tried to let my hunger lead me some days and still no luck on feeling full and satisfied. I’m definitely a little scared to keep increasing calories because I’m 5 foot, the thought that my maintenance is higher seems a little iffy to me. I’m at the point where I don’t feel like I can keep feeling this way every single day but I don’t want to abandon my goals or hard work. I genuinely don’t know what to do or how to fix this. Idk why I feel like I’m genuinely starving still even with the increases I’ve been making. I’ve considered taking a month to just eat freely again and listen to hunger and see how my body responds but the problem is I’ve tried for a few days and it ends up being 2.5-3k calories. I know there’s a middle ground somewhere but I’m getting so discouraged and it’s definitely affecting my mental health. I just want to feel fueled, stay lean, and grow muscle. I’ve considered seeing a dietitian about this for sure. Any advice or shared experiences would be appreciated!

has creatine helped with your work outs and have you seen noticeable results? is it worth a try for someone who’s trying to lose weight, be more active and keep up muscle mass?

for context i’m almost 24, 5’1 200lbs, moderately active and have been strength training 2-3 times a week for a couple months now, and doing my best to stay in a 500 daily deficit to hopefully lose ~50 lbs in the next year or so.

i’ve never tried it, just looking to hear others experiences with it!! :)

I just need to rant and get some support.

I'm 5'3"and 29F, and since Jan 2025, I have lost ~35lbs. I went from 172 to 137ish over the course of about a year and a half. Since August 2025, I started strength training, I lift heavy 4x per week and do pilates once per week. I'm relatively active, I could definitely do better with cardio, and I can acknowledge that.

I've seen substantial progress in terms of fat loss and muscle gain/body composition. Even being 5'3" at 137lbs, I am a size 2.

Although I am very proud of my progress, I am FRUSTRATED. The 35lbs I lost wasn't super easy by any means - but it wasn't that difficult. I ate in a deficit, I worked out, I tracked what I ate. The weight came off relatively easily.

I desperately want to lose another 10-15ish lbs to better see the muscle I have put on. I feel as if there is a layer of fat covering all of my hard work, and it is immensely frustrating.

My husband is a 6' 240lb man who also lifts very heavy and is focused on putting on as much muscle as possible and does not really care very much about body comp (he frequently says he wants to be the "biggest boy of all time" LOL) but as a 5'3" woman I cannot eat like he eats. That is 100% not an excuse - I control what I eat, but it does make it harder.

I find it so difficult to be in a deficit while lifting. It is SO much harder when you are 10-15lbs away from your goal weight. I need to better track my food, but I am so hungry all the time lifting as much as I do. I recognize we cannot have it all - but it is doable as I've seen other women on this sub do it.

Okay - just needed to rant. Open to advice or commiserating. I know I'm not the only one with this problem!

TLDR: Being petite is hard when trying to lose weight. Lifting heavy makes you so hungry, and it feels impossible to be in a deficit.

Today I was benching. I intentionally have been benching lighter lately to focus on form.

My max at the moment is 125 lbs, today I was only doing 95lbs.

I focused on my form and slow, controlled reps.

The guy at the bench next to me stopped me as I was leaving to “help me”.

His advice was to not bring the bar so far down. To have it hovering a couple inches above my chest at the bottom.

He told me that he is a trainer and that I could “ask anyone and everyone here knows me”. It’s a commercial gym, and I highly doubt that. I wasn’t in the mood to challenge him though.

I did tell him that I’m focusing on form instead of ego lifting (which admittedly I used to do) and he said “yeah you are strong, I saw you did 6 reps there”. I did do exactly 6 reps on my last set, although I wasn’t aware other people were keeping track of that.

I’m just annoyed because 1. I know what I’m doing and 2. His correction wasn’t even correct. I even double checked and searched “bench press form” after because I thought I was going crazy. I’m not.

I just don’t see the point in trying to “fix” my form anyways? Because I KNOW I was doing it right.

Edit: Oh I forgot the best part. First, he waited until after I was done and was actively putting the weights back. So if he really cared about my form he probably would’ve said something before the set, not after. Also I had airpods in, had to take one out to hear him and when he wouldn’t stop talking had to take both out

Friends, thank you for such great advice! I'm still new into my journey and celebrating 60 day progress. I was so frustrated with the scale hardly moving and got some excellent advice here - wait 90 days, up calories to 1900 vs 1500 and im so happy to report. It's not a " huge" win but it is for me. Down 12 lbs in 9 weeks, 16 weeks of workouts religious ( until a hip issue this past week). I wish it was more due to the amount I want to lose and this is a huge win for me. Slow and steady.

At 30 days it was recommended to take measurements ( cause the scale was not moving) and I've lost 4 overall inches in this past 30 days!

Thank you for posting, motivating and kindness!

ok i’m kinda losing my mind over this so i’m just gonna ask real people 😅

i know you can’t spot reduce fat, and i know the basics (calorie deficit, etc). but i feel like my lower belly is ALWAYS the last thing to change and it’s honestly messing with my head.

i work out, i eat pretty “clean” most of the time, but i’m busy and i can’t be doing 90 min gym sessions or tracking every single crumb forever. and then when you hit the “last 10 lbs” stage it gets even worse… scale stalls, waist stalls, and everything online contradicts everything else.

also social media makes it feel like you’re supposed to have a flat stomach 24/7 which… yeah. i’m trying not to spiral lol. and i don’t wanna lose my curves just to have a flatter stomach either.

so i’m asking women who’ve actually been there:

• what was the thing that finally made it click for you?
• was it a food change, steps, lifting, sleep/stress, cutting liquid calories, whatever?
• what did you do when you plateau’d for like 2+ weeks?
• did you count calories or did you use some simpler system?

not looking for supplement talk. just real life stuff that worked.

i’ll read every comment, thank you 🙏

I’m just curious honestly if being in shape while having a sedentary job is possible or how difficult it would be

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