Fat loss / cutting stalled

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imported_dojomatic

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My fat loss has stalled or at best it has slowed down to a crawl. Over the last two weeks I've actually gone up 1.2 lbs. It's not like I can be gaining much muscle at 500 calories under maintenance. Shouldn't I be losing 1 to 1.5 lbs every week? Below is what I'm currently doing. Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong or what I could do better?

Stats: 5'11", 175lbs, aprox. 15% BF, wear size 33 pants

Workwout: Weights 3x a week (HST), 2x a week light cardio and abs. Cardio is either 20 min HIIT or 30 min @ around 85% MHR.

Diet: Averaging 1,802 cal. daily (I weigh, measure, and log everything), 35% Carbs, 31 % Prot (1.7g/kg bw), 34% fat (60% unsat.) I take 4g of fish oil a day and 5g of creatine along with multi-vitamin.
 
How has you progress been so far? Remember maintenance is a moving target. If you have lost 10lbs then you will need to decrease your calorie intake accordingly. Also you body may have adapted to the low calories you are eating by dropping your metabolism.

Your choices from here are to:
a) eat even less calories
b) burn more calories with workout
c) increase metabolism with something like an EC or ECA stack
d) take a break from the diet for a couple of weeks, eat at maintenance levels, and hit it again
e) carb up good for a day and hope it kicks your metabolism up a notch
 
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(dojomatic @ Oct. 02 2007,10:16)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Workwout: Weights 3x a week (HST), 2x a week light cardio and abs. Cardio is either 20 min HIIT or 30 min @ around 85% MHR.</div>
When I first began to work on my weight, I lost 15 pounds (over ten percent of my total body weight), and brought my bodyfat percentage down from 19% to 11%.

The key seemed to be an hour of cardio five times per week, in addition to my weight training three times a week. It is much easier to produce a calorie deficit by increasing cardio than by decreasing food intake.
 
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(bgates1654 @ Oct. 02 2007,12:41)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">How has you progress been so far? Remember maintenance is a moving target. If you have lost 10lbs then you will need to decrease your calorie intake accordingly. Also you body may have adapted to the low calories you are eating by dropping your metabolism.</div>
Bgates,

I've been working out for a month and a half and I've lost a measly 6 lbs. I thought that it would be going faster, especially in the beginning part and considering that I had high enough levels of fat. It's been very slow and in the past two weeks I have made no progress at all.

I actually do calculate mainenance on my current weight which is 175. From a bunch of formulas for calculating intake and from past experience, my maintenance should be around 2,300 to 2,400 calories, which I thought was conservative. But I may be wrong about that.

I think you may be right about my body perhaps becoming adapted to the current calorie levels. The break from the diet sounds like a good idea. I'll think about that approach if increasing the deficit doesn't help.

TRat,
You make a good point and bring up something that was in the back of mnd but I wasn't thinking of for some reason. I know exactly what you're talking about. That approach worked for me when I was hanging around 220 lbs three years ago. I'm going to increase my cardio to 45 min. 3x a week and see what happens.

I hate cardio! Especially on the weekends!
biggrin.gif
 
This isn't very hard to figure out. You are eating too much.
Try going with 10 to 12 times bodyweight in calories for a few weeks and see what happens. I find that works better than using all those weird formulas which can usually overestimate your maintenance.
 
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(dojomatic @ Oct. 02 2007,14:47)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I hate cardio! Especially on the weekends!
biggrin.gif
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I love cardio-- it makes me slim!
 
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(Totentanz @ Oct. 02 2007,14:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">This isn't very hard to figure out.  You are eating too much.
Try going with 10 to 12 times bodyweight in calories for a few weeks and see what happens.  I find that works better than using all those weird formulas which can usually overestimate your maintenance.</div>
You might be right, but right now I'm at 10.3 times bodyweight or 1,800 calories avg. Been eating like that for a month. Since I started working out I have stayed under 2,000 calories per day (11.4 times BW).
 
Try
15% Protein
55% Carbs
30% Fat

You could also try more carbs less fat (65% carbs &amp; 20% Fat). Do more cardio and it will boost your metabolism when it eats the carbs and fat. Your body is probably starving for carbs so your metabolism is shot and storing fat when it can spare some energy.

But don't drop your caloric intake below your 1800cal or you wont be able to get all the nutrients you need.
 
Increase cardio, increase time pumping iron...both will burn fat and speed up your metabolism. Also, the fact that you are not losing weight so quickly may be a good sign that you are not losing much (if any) muscle on this cut. Cycle a high-carb day in at least 1x/week to trick up your system which may be accustomed to the new lower caloric intake and be at homeostasis there.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will definitely increase my cardio. I will try to increase carbs a bit, at least once or twice a week. The reason I have been eating relatively low carbs is to control hunger. Higher fat and protein meals help me feel full longer. For some reason, carbs make me want to eat more, a lot more. I'll try to increase fiber intake to help with the hunger/fullness issue.
 
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(dojomatic @ Oct. 03 2007,09:43)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will definitely increase my cardio. I will try to increase carbs a bit, at least once or twice a week. The reason I have been eating relatively low carbs is to control hunger. Higher fat and protein meals help me feel full longer. For some reason, carbs make me want to eat more, a lot more. I'll try to increase fiber intake to help with the hunger/fullness issue.</div>
I've been stalling myself over the past two weeks. If your diet doesn't seem to be the problem, then lift and/or run more.
 
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(dojomatic @ Oct. 02 2007,14:47)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I hate cardio! Especially on the weekends!
biggrin.gif
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Doing cardio with very little carbs would be very difficult given you are going hard.
 
Status report:

Weight keeps increasing slightly. Over the last 7 days I've averaged 1,845 calories per day. Weight seven days ago: 174. This morning: 175.8 Over that span I've lifted 3 times and done two sessions of 45 min moderate/high intensity cardio (about 575 cals burned each)

Assuming a low 200 calories burned per lifting workout and a 2,275 maintenance level, it works out to a 4,760 calorie deficit. I don't get how my weight goes up, even if it is slightly. I know this is only one week, but it has been going on for almost 3 weeks.

I've been doing HST for 4 weeks now and I'd like to be optimistic and believe that I'm experiencing newbie muscle gains. Pants are fitting loser and I have been able to wear pants that were too tight a couple of months ago, so maybe I am losing flab after all.

I guess I should just forget about the stupid scale and be patient. Is there a supplement for that?
smile.gif
 
I think you may have just hit the nail on the head. I think you are right and you should concentrate more on your waist measurement to see if you are losing body fat (unless you are already extremely lean) rather than relying on the scale.
 
A year ago, I was at 42% body fat. Now I’m at 22%. At first, I didn’t lose an ounce because I was eating too little (1800 calories). This caused my metabolism to slow down. And yes, I jumped rope like the devil for an hour every day – but nothing happened.

I then stopped with the rope and upped my calories to about 13 calories/lb and just lifted weights. The first week doing so made me lose 6 Kg / 13.7 lb. Now I’m at 22% body fat and last week I started cardio again. I started fitness walking because I came down to losing only 100 g / 0.2 lb per week. This first week of cardio – four days to be exact – made me lose 1.6 Kg / 3.7 lb.

From this experience, I’d suggest you up your calories to a decent cutting level, something like 12 – 13 calories per lb of bodyweight and do 30 minutes cardio per day. After two or three days, you’ll see whether it’s bringing you somewhere or not. If it isn’t, cut a calorie per lb and do more cardio. I believe that 1800 calories is just too little.

By the way, my highest weight was 115 Kg / 264 lbs (June 2006), and my lowest weight was 67 Kg / 154 lbs (June 2007). I’m now at 76 Kg / 174 lbs and body fat is still dropping. So, at some point, weight will go up again, and that is so cool.
 
Yes, increasing the calories will definitely make him start losing more weight.


Seriously, if you are NOT losing weight, you either need to make a LARGER calorie deficit, or you need to take time off and then tackle your diet again in a couple weeks. Yes, it's possible you are losing fat so slowly that your weight is not changing, but this is not optimal unless you want to be cutting for a very long time.
 
Just to put this into perspective a bit - I weigh more than you, yet I was cutting on the same amount of calories, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, than what you are taking in. I lost a ton of fat and no strength, which suggests that I lost very little, if any, muscle. So... my opinion remains that you are eating too much food. Eat less.

If you are really worried that much about muscle loss, don't be. If you are training, and not cutting calories retardedly low (for someone your size, 1700 calories is NOT retardedly low, assuming decent protein levels) then you should be fine. The muscle loss boogeyman has been way overplayed by people for years now. Of course maybe I just have awesome genes for cutting and not losing muscle (doubt it) which could have colored my perceptions about this. Or (the more likely alternative) I could simply be correct in all these assumptions.

At a glance, I'd suggest more protein, since you're only getting - what? 130-140 grams? Go up to 170-200 grams a day, cut the rest out of your carbs, maybe some out of your fat too. I don't think more than 50 grams of fat is necessary. So get 200 grams of protein, 50 grams of fat and around 100 grams of carbs. Eat that for a while, and when weight loss stalls again, cut out another 20 grams of carbs. Eat that for a while, and when weight loss stalls again, cut out another 20 grams of carbs. Eat that for a while, and when w... I think you get the point.

If you don't lose 1 to 2 lbs a week doing what I'm saying, then you are either very, very weird, or you are lying about your diet and training.
 
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(Totentanz @ Oct. 06 2007,11:38)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Yes, increasing the calories will definitely make him start losing more weight.</div>
I really don’t get your sarcastic reply. It’s a scientifically proven fact that the more you cut down on calories, the more your metabolism will slow down and consequently fat loss will stop. You can ask any nutritionist or physician to confirm this. So, I don’t really understand why you put your knowledge above scientifically proven facts.
 
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(Totentanz @ Oct. 06 2007,10:38)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">or you need to take time off and then tackle your diet again in a couple weeks.  </div>
XFat,

I think what Toten is saying is that IF he is at the point where his metabolism has slowed enough that the calories he is now consuming is not causing weight loss, adding calories can only cause weight gain.

His comment above is suggesting that if he has reached this point of metabolic compensation and can no longer lose weight at these calories, the body needs to reset before resuming or the weight gain will be inevitable at higher calories.

A better solution IMO, is to keep the calories low or lower at Tot said (cutting more carbs will lead to fat loss) but adding 1-2 days/week with higher carbs/calories which will help reset the metabolism to a higher level.
 
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