Confused

M

MikeW

New Member
Hi,

So..

I've been lifting for about 6-7 years. I just turned 30.

I have used hst, doggcrapp, all kinds of stuff.

I'm about 5'9". I was about 220 lbs 2-3 months ago.

I have some pretty decent muscle but also sport a nice flabby lower stomach pot belly (when I flex I can see the top abs), that sticks out like I have 20 dumps backed up and some nice man boobs. Not like actual gyne, just... fat deposits.

*I don't use any supps, creatine, protein powder or otherwise

So..

2-3 months ago I decide to go on a diet. No cardio, Just lifting, heavy protein and fat, low carbs. Clean diet. Barely any cheating. Some carb ups on the weekends. But tight.

When I started I took my body fat percentage on a crap little machine.. (I know they're inaccurate but I figured I could track progress).

As I was dieting along I noticed that my gut wasn't shrinking,... "ok"... keep going,..... noticed that my man jugs are looking perky .. "ok" keep going... I just kept at it...

Didn't notice any real fat loss anywhere. Just saw my muscle disappearing before my eyes. Shoulders, arms, calves.

I now weight 196 lbs. And look like an exact mini version of my previous self.

Took my body fat measurement last night and my body fat level is unchanged.

Over 20 lbs, NO fat loss.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Ignore bodyfat measurements. The better thing to do would be to measure your waist and track changes in your waist size. Count calories. Keep weight loss to only a pounr or two lost a week. Try to maintain your strength. If you haven't lost strength and you are 20 lbs lighter, I highly doubt you lost 20 lbs of lean mass.
Keep in mind that you won't look leaner for a while if you are already fairly fat, not until you get closer to 10% or under, at least.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the response.

That's the thing, I was doing high reps with 315 on the squat, high rep overhead pressing 180ish, barbell rowing well over 200 lbs. Before.

And now lol.. *I swear* Please believe me,....I was squatting with 1 plate each side and barbell rowing 2 25 lbs plates... all last week.
 
Oh,

And yeah, I will take your advice about getting my waist measurements and tracking progress.

I just don't know if I'll keep dieting or not before I figure this out. Because, honestly.. I'll end up being very skinny fat if this keeps up.
 
You are probably dieting too much! You have lost 24 lb.s in 2-3 months, it sounds like you are crash dieting and your body's natural response was it should shed muscle and keep fat since it is starving.

Cutting fat without losing alot of muscle is tricky. From what I have read, it is better to cut diet only slightly, and lose the majority of weight through HIIT or tabata style aerobics. Supposedly, using exercise to burn calories saves more lean mass than just cutting calorie intake alone. Also when losing weight, you need to track your progress by lifting near your strength limit regularly, this way yopu force the body to retain more muscle, and if you get too weka you can adjust things along the way.

It sounds like you just cut calories heavily without thinking, and it is no wonder you lost so much muscle...
rock.gif
 
Yeah, you must have cut too hard. You can't do that if you are natural... also, I would avoid high repping while dieting. One high rep day won't be a big deal, but you want at least one day, preferrably two days each week where you deal with weights in the 5 rep range for all your compound lifts. High reps aren't very good for sparing muscle on a cut.
 
The LCD and TCD are both good ways to cut. But you need to add some cardio. Since your glycogen is pretty much staying low all the time, you probably shouldn't be doing something intense like HIIT though. Just go out every morning and walk 30-45 minutes before breakfast.

Also, your macros may have been off.

For a LCD to work they need to be F-60%, P-35%, C-Just what you get from your green veggies. Lots of red meat and chicken wings with things like broccoli, kale, spinach, asparagus, brussels sprouts, lettuce, cabbage.

For a TCD to work right they need to be F-40%, P-40%, C-20% with your carbs before and after workouts only. Carb up days are actually carb up meals, done once a week or every other week.
 
Hi

Yeah I cut hard.. some days I was under 1000 cals.

I cycled calories though and wasn't under 1000 all the time, but I was always under 2000.

Well, Fact is, I want this gut gone, for my health. I knew I would lose muscle going at it this fast and hard. But figured I would just give er.

I can handle the fact that I have done this all wrong, and screwed up.

I just wanted to know if what happened was because I might have some hormone problems or thyroid.. blah blah..

I don't want to overreact and if this is because I cut too hard, and lifted too much... didn't do cardio etc I'll tweak and go back at it after I do some strength work and do some good clean eating for a couple weeks.

I was lifting full body multiple (3-5) times a week.. that might mean 1 exercise per body part low reps for a workout, or it might have been 10 sets of dips, 10 sets of squats and 10 sets of barbell rows for a workout. I was switching it up.

Vagrant, I was doing basically LCD.

Hmmm.. well thanks.

I figure i'll balance out my cals for now, eat clean, then in a couple weeks start some cardio for the first time in my life and do low volume heavy compounds. And keep it to slowww fat loss.

Thoughts?
 
What a mess! You cant downsize your cal-intake to under 1000 or even 2000 calorie (regarding your bodyweigth of 220 lbs.) without losing primarily muscle. This explains absolutely everthing. Im goin to cut in a month and intend to reduce cal. from my current intake of about 4000 (also 220 lbs bodyweigth) down to at least 2800 cals, if necessary. Patience is a crucial factor while cutting.
@Cardio: Im not sure if its a veritable advantage to utilize your reduced energy ressources for anything else than to keep your strenght and muscle by working out hard. I'd suspend Cardio. Just my opinion.
 
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