Trying to cut

[Jeffcarelly]

Ok guys bear with me.. So im a 28 y/o male 5'9 and around 170 lbs.. I've lost a decent amount of body fat so far from a moderate cut I started since February. All I have really left is a small belly I'm trying to get rid of because I can almost see my abs under it..

Now I cut two years ago at around 1800 calories and lost a lot of fat and looked great.. I recently took my TDEE and according to it my maint calories are around 3,300 .. there's no way , can that be true ? I use to bulk at 3000 calories a day how can 3,300 be my newTDEE my BMR is around 1800..

So my question is does that sound like a proper TDEE for me or is that some kind of mistake ? I was gonna start a diet at 1800 calories but now I feel I might be eating super low. to be honest my weight loss has stalled for about two months now.. I'm pretty active I'm a wild land fire fighter.. we PT in the morning , then I'll hit the gym after work .. it's kind of hard to eat tho because we're so busy so if I have to eat around 3000 calories a day I have no idea what Ima do

Anyone with more experience plz give me some advice , thanks

 

[Fasted]

It's gunna depend on how much you exersize. If your not doing anything your bmr might work, but if you do intense excersizes you will lose muscle. Do you think your movement accounts for 1,500 calories daily? Also, if you used to successfully bulk on those calories, that's a sign it won't work for a cut. But I agree, somethin ain't right.

 

[Smont]

Unless you work a intense labor job those calories are way off. I'm the same height and 20lbs heavier and I'm around 3000

 

[Jeffcarelly]

I think it's giving me 3000 a day because I checked the box for very active. I also tried 3 different online calculators .. So we normally PT in the morning, normally a work out circuit or a run.After work I'll hit the gym and we spend a good amount of our day on our feet, doing things..If we go on a fire forget it.. I'm screwed because we are up on a mountain for days eating MREs and not working out at all..besides digging line and hiking with heavy loads..

So I think my job justifies the active portion box check.. so Ima try it out.. if I reduce 500 off of my TDEE of 3000.. I'll be aiming at 2500 a day which might be possible, all depends on me working around my schedule to eat.. I currently have myfitness pal set at 2200 calories a day. Which I ate today .. Do you guys think I should start out at 2500 or 2200 ? Could I still lose weight at either one or would 2200 be too drastic ?

Ima try to keep my diet simple. I'm going with chicken breast, tuna wraps, boiled eggs, yogurt and peanut butter/ protein shakes and some bacon thrown in there for breakfast ..also some fruit like avacado, bananas and apples.. veggies some spinach. I also like to throw in a stouffers microwave alfredo meal after I work out just because it's a quick 500 calorie meal and has a good amount of protein and carbs in it for he muscles..They like to drink around here a lot so that's another big problem ..

I'm currently taking cardarine my second day.. I took ECA stack for 12 weeks and been off for about two now..

 

[john.patterson]

How much did you weight when you were bulking on 3000 calories? Online calculators are a good way to estimate, but I agree with that this seems high for your current body weight. If you were bulking at 3000 calories in the past, chances are your maintenance is around 2500-2600, and the surplus gave you the ability to bulk. I would start first by finding your maintenance, so try eating around 2500 calories consistently per day for 1-2 weeks and see what happens.

If your body weight stays where it is, then this will be your maintenance. From there you can decrease to 2200 and begin a slow cut. I think dropping directly to 1800 calories would be too drastic of a drop, and it will not allow you to adjust anything if you stall.

Im very curious to hear your results and feedback with cardarine. I've never personally used it, but I've always wanted to give it a try. Have you used cardarine in the past?

 

[stlcards14]

Before the cut you could reverse diet back to 3k by adding back 10 cals daily. That will slowly bring back up your metabolism without gaining any weight back. I went from 3,500 to 3,000 lost 30 pounds and then reversed back without any weight gain to 3,500 cut to 3,000 again and lost another 5 pounds.

I'm currently in the process of reversing all the way to 4k right now because let's face it....we all love to eat

I'd say give reverse dieting a shot before you cut because 1,800 a day sounds miserable.

 

[ketodiet]

You need to keep moving daily even if its 15 mins it will be something. I am sure you have a dog right? You need something to keep you on the move. Animal could be a great way to achieve what you are looking for.