Cutting Not Eating Enough

Pleonastic

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Hey guys I'm on a cut right now, and my problem is, its very easy for me not to eat. I can starve myself and experience no cravings or hunger whatsoever. I'm not eating enough and I'm losing muscle. Again I am trying to cut but weight is dropping too quickly and muscle loss is happening. Any suggestions on how to eat more?

I guess its as simple as eat more. But its like on a bulk I eat everything in sight on a cut I dont eat ****! I need help eating a lil more while cutting.
 

hambone2493

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You should look into intermittent fasting I've lost 60 lbs in 6 months and kept most of my strength.
 

Fasted

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Make sure you get enough protien and don't do any intense working out unless you ate carbs and protein. LISS is OK when no carb or fasting, but HIIT and lifting will damage muscles that don't have what they need to recover. Also, Intense working out in the absence of carbs will not be able.to match the needed output from fat alone as it is a slow burning energy source. Maybe that changes with the keto, but I am not knowledgeable about that.
 
MidwestBeast

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The fact that you recognize you need to eat more is a good first step. So in knowing that, the next logical thing to do would be to set your calorie totals and macros where they need to be for you to lose, but not to lose too rapidly (and to retain muscle). Do you have those things set already? or is it just kind of eat what you want when you want to and "eye-balling" what you're taking in? No judgment, btw, just trying to see what you've already got going to assist best.
 
Pleonastic

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Make sure you get enough protien and don't do any intense working out unless you ate carbs and protein. LISS is OK when no carb or fasting, but HIIT and lifting will damage muscles that don't have what they need to recover. Also, Intense working out in the absence of carbs will not be able.to match the needed output from fat alone as it is a slow burning energy source. Maybe that changes with the keto, but I am not knowledgeable about that.

Yea I'm doing low carb but not zero carb, so I am not going into ketosis. I'm actually more in the camp that carbs are not essential and you can in fact build muscle on a zero carb diet. However I'm cutting and yea I suppose I just need to eat more but need to figure out how much.
 
Pleonastic

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The fact that you recognize you need to eat more is a good first step. So in knowing that, the next logical thing to do would be to set your calorie totals and macros where they need to be for you to lose, but not to lose too rapidly (and to retain muscle). Do you have those things set already? or is it just kind of eat what you want when you want to and "eye-balling" what you're taking in? No judgment, btw, just trying to see what you've already got going to assist best.
Yea I'm basically eyeballing and I suppose that is the issue. I need to figure out exactly how much I'm eating a day and then adjust from there. I think maybe you do need to count calories. Instead of just getting lucky and eating the correct amount. So say I figure out my maintenance is 2000 calories, I should just eat like 1800 everyday and that's that. Right?
 
MidwestBeast

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Yea I'm basically eyeballing and I suppose that is the issue. I need to figure out exactly how much I'm eating a day and then adjust from there. I think maybe you do need to count calories. Instead of just getting lucky and eating the correct amount. So say I figure out my maintenance is 2000 calories, I should just eat like 1800 everyday and that's that. Right?
Pretty much, yeah. The macros matter to a lesser extent, but basically you just want the deficit and the smaller it is, the slower the progress (e.g. 500 calorie deficit/day = 1 pound lost/week).
 
Georgiepecker

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How do you know you're losing muscle are your lifts going down or something??
 
mickc1965

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Hey guys I'm on a cut right now, and my problem is, its very easy for me not to eat. I can starve myself and experience no cravings or hunger whatsoever. I'm not eating enough and I'm losing muscle. Again I am trying to cut but weight is dropping too quickly and muscle loss is happening. Any suggestions on how to eat more?

I guess its as simple as eat more. But its like on a bulk I eat everything in sight on a cut I dont eat ****! I need help eating a lil more while cutting.
How much weight are you losing per week?
How do you know you are losing muscle, have the loads you are lifting dropped dramatically?

Yea I'm doing low carb but not zero carb, so I am not going into ketosis. I'm actually more in the camp that carbs are not essential and you can in fact build muscle on a zero carb diet. However I'm cutting and yea I suppose I just need to eat more but need to figure out how much.
You say low carb but how low?

Yea I'm basically eyeballing and I suppose that is the issue. I need to figure out exactly how much I'm eating a day and then adjust from there. I think maybe you do need to count calories. Instead of just getting lucky and eating the correct amount. So say I figure out my maintenance is 2000 calories, I should just eat like 1800 everyday and that's that. Right?
Stop eyeballing buy a set of digital scales and weigh your food and log on MyFitnessPal or something similar so you know exact what you are eating calorific wise.

If you weigh 187 as your profile suggests then maintenance at 2000 kcals is way too low IMO, what is your current training schedule like, are you training in the 5-8 rep range?
 
Pleonastic

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How do you know you're losing muscle are your lifts going down or something??
I'm not lifting heavy because of a shoulder injury so its hard to tell. But I just thought I'm losing muscle because the weight is coming off so fast. I read you want to lose like 1.5 pounds a week I lost 8 in 2 weeks and I just look flatter.
 
Pleonastic

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How much weight are you losing per week?
How do you know you are losing muscle, have the loads you are lifting dropped dramatically?



You say low carb but how low?



Stop eyeballing buy a set of digital scales and weigh your food and log on MyFitnessPal or something similar so you know exact what you are eating calorific wise.

If you weigh 187 as your profile suggests then maintenance at 2000 kcals is way too low IMO, what is your current training schedule like, are you training in the 5-8 rep range?

I'm not 187 anymore I starter this cut at 220 and I'm like 212 now. I'm training with super light weights, not because I think its ideal but because of injury. I'm working my entire body 3 times a week. According to bmr calculator that I punched in saying I weigh 215 it said my maintenance calories was 2050. But you are right I need to track exactly what I eat and I have been for the past 2 days since starting this thread.
 

Pinggolfee96

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A lot of the weight you lose initially will be a lot of water due to loss of glycogen from reduced carbs. You def did not lose 8lbs of fat and muscle. Most people who switch to low carb diets can easily lose ten lbs in a couple weeks due to the water loss. Also IF has no effect on body composition. Meal timing is irrelevant
 
mickc1965

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To prevent muscle loss on a cut you should ideally be training in the 5 rep range but understand your predicament with injury.

What calculator have you used to get maintenance figure of 2050 or is this figure your BMR (and you haven't added for activity?) as seems a very low figure for maintenance, I would expect that figure to be nearer 3k for a body weight of over 200lbs, my maintenance is over 2600 at 170lbs and I work in an office.
 
Pleonastic

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To prevent muscle loss on a cut you should ideally be training in the 5 rep range but understand your predicament with injury.

What calculator have you used to get maintenance figure of 2050 or is this figure your BMR (and you haven't added for activity?) as seems a very low figure for maintenance, I would expect that figure to be nearer 3k for a body weight of over 200lbs, my maintenance is over 2600 at 170lbs and I work in an office.
BMI-calculator.net it does not take into account activity level, but I read you start there and if two weeks in your losing too much up the calories, if not losing lower the calories. Its just a baseline figure not a hard rule. So I'm trying to do 1800 calories a day to cut. You think that's too low?
 
Georgiepecker

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I'm not lifting heavy because of a shoulder injury so its hard to tell. But I just thought I'm losing muscle because the weight is coming off so fast. I read you want to lose like 1.5 pounds a week I lost 8 in 2 weeks and I just look flatter.
I'm losing 4 lbs a week and didnt even work out for a month. Went back to the gym for the first time in a month and hit the exact same lifts and weights as before if not actually more reps (pre workout does wonders)...somehow I don't think I lost much if any strength even after losing 15 lbs thus far lol.
 
mickc1965

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BMI-calculator.net it does not take into account activity level, but I read you start there and if two weeks in your losing too much up the calories, if not losing lower the calories. Its just a baseline figure not a hard rule. So I'm trying to do 1800 calories a day to cut. You think that's too low?
It would be too low for me but if you can lift and are happy at that level then stick with it.
 
Pleonastic

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It would be too low for me but if you can lift and are happy at that level then stick with it.
Yea that's the thing everyone is different but I decided to raise it after much reading. I'm now gonna stick to 2000 calories a day with 1 cheat day per week of 3000 calories. Hope this works.
 

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