Hey guys.. I posted about a month or so ago in need of some conistent help with the diet and needed to check myself on a few things. If anyone can throw me a bone on what I'm doing wrong I'd gladly appreciate it.

I'm 24 and currently 6'2, 206 lbs around 16% body fat and down 35 pounds from my previous 241 mark 9 weeks ago. I have totally reformed my diet to achieve this and been in the gym about 5 to 6 days a week. I have recently started a workout log to carry around the gym to really start to track my gains and also to mark down what I'm consuming on a daily basis.

I've come to what every cutters nightmare is and that is to hit that plateau and haven't lost a pound in almost 9 days. I haven't changed anything or cheated from the diet anymore than usual. I'm consuming anywhere from 2200-2600 calories a day and hitting cardio at least 4 days a week with HIIT two of those days.

Diet:

6 am. Breakfast: Oatmeal w/water. Protein shake - half whey/half cassein w/water. 2 hydroxycut/1 cla/1 mens multi/fish oil.

8 am. Snack: 3 hard boiled eggs. Cojack lowfat cheese stick.

1030 am. Lunch: Turkey sandwich on wheat w/cheese. Salad w/cheese and dressing. 2 hydroxycut/1 cla.

230 pm. PreWO - NO Shotgun
300 pm. During WO - No Synthesize w/Glutamine added.

445 pm. PostWO - Whey protein shake w/ Glutamine w/water.

600 pm. 2 grilled chicken breast. 4 egg whites and one yolk scrambled. 1 cla.

800 pm. Lowfat yogurt or cottage cheese.


Okay so this is the diet I'm on and like I mentioned earlier am kind of at a lull for loss at this point in time. Haven't dropped a pound in 9 days. I graduated high school 6 years ago with a 6 pack and a size 30 jeans. I have currently dropped from the tight size 38 to gettin in to 34's comfortably. Also have noticed that my chest is starting to fill out and startin to see some cuts on my arms and the sleeves are getting a little tighter!!! I have set my goal to be down to 190 by February so I know I have plenty of time but still would like some help. This is more devastating on the mental end then anything because I don't see the change. However I am getting more and more compliments about how skinny I look!! So if you guys can help me out I would greatly appreciate it!!

Also in my diet I normally have my carb refeed night on Saturday nights. Its not a total cheat but normally I consume wheat pasta and turkey meat balls or will have a burger on a wheat bun with a baked potato. I took the diet I'm on from the Anabolic Diet and kinda retuned for the foods I like so feel free to critique!! I'm not sure if I'm ready to be counting my calories and dividing everything but if I am lead me in the right direction. I haven't ever been this dedicated to anything and if this was a drug I'd be ADDICTED!!

P.S. I'm the goof carrying around the gallon of water all day in my cruiser at work!! Gettin laughed at but I figured being hydrated would get mentioned. I consume plenty of water!!

Getting stronger everyday!! Thanks guys!

How is the cardio and how are you training? If your training has been pretty much the same for the last 9 weeks, maybe switch it up. Change the intensity to less rest between sets and try hitting some cardio in there.

Maybe try carbohydrate cycling...maintain the diet you have now, but figure out a schedule (probably on days you do not lift) to NO carb it. Just green veggies and meat. Still keep fat pretty low on this day since you are not really going to be in keto for a long time (if at all depending on your body type).

Keep us posted. But congrats on the 35 lbs, quite an accomplishment!

absolutely agree on the carb-cycling, but now you need a carb up day or two.

the body cannot continue to lose weight on the same calorie deficit forever. otherwise, you could eat 500 below maintenance and eventually eat yourself away to nothing in theory. Your metabolism has a direct correlation with your calories consumed..

calories drop, metabolism dropped more or less.

moreover, the longer you are on a caloric deficit, the more the metabolism drops until a point where you reach a new equilibrium. ugly, but true.

the hormone leptin is likely your culprit, as this hormone drops in response to calorie and especially carbohydrate drop. This controls your metabolism, so after 9 days with no change the first thing you should do is cycle your carbs back up. I'd aim for 1.5->1.75 g of carbs per lb of bodyweight, but at least double of what you are eating now. 1-2 days of that can help.. but be careful of fats as usual, keep that fat intake the same as before carb-up. I prefer 1-day, but that's after 4-5 days of low carb for me so you may need 2.

your metabolism should drive back up again, and then you can continue your diet as planned.

best of luck!

Yup, completely agree with harmonic.

Originally Posted by pinchharmonic

absolutely agree on the carb-cycling, but now you need a carb up day or two.

the body cannot continue to lose weight on the same calorie deficit forever. otherwise, you could eat 500 below maintenance and eventually eat yourself away to nothing in theory. Your metabolism has a direct correlation with your calories consumed..

calories drop, metabolism dropped more or less.

moreover, the longer you are on a caloric deficit, the more the metabolism drops until a point where you reach a new equilibrium. ugly, but true.

the hormone leptin is likely your culprit, as this hormone drops in response to calorie and especially carbohydrate drop. This controls your metabolism, so after 9 days with no change the first thing you should do is cycle your carbs back up. I'd aim for 1.5->1.75 g of carbs per lb of bodyweight, but at least double of what you are eating now. 1-2 days of that can help.. but be careful of fats as usual, keep that fat intake the same as before carb-up. I prefer 1-day, but that's after 4-5 days of low carb for me so you may need 2.

your metabolism should drive back up again, and then you can continue your diet as planned.

best of luck!

Reducing "weight" is based on caloric deflict. Most of us on this board know that. But we also know that if you slow down your metabolism by not eating enough your body will go in to survival mode and protect it by storing all the calories you eat.

The Only answer comes down to exercise. A good rule of thumb is to increase your cardio onces a week by 10%... The way i do it, is by adding 2 minutes a week, or 2 minutes every other week. Once you reached a suitable cardio duration, lets say 30mins - 60mins. You can stay there about a month or so. Then increase "intensity." I am currently cutting down to. And a big problem that kept me stuck and unhappy was the focus of the scale. Get your mind off the scale and focus on "results" keep track of your progress and focus on getting better at your cardio/weights workout. Results will come.

Well guys so far I have taken a little of everyones advice and this Saturday (6 pm) to Sunday (6 pm) I consumed what I thought was a decent amount of carbs for the "refeed."

I know for now that I didn't exactly hit the best of carbs but I had some things that I haven't had in the past. I went to the Olive garden and had the lasagna with a salad and two breadsticks. Was at home and went to the local pizza store for two pieces of pizza. Sunday when I got up I had two cups of oatmeal. For lunch I had a steak w/a baked potato and two slices of bread. For a snack I had two lean pockets and a foot long subway sub w/turkey and cheese.

Today is Monday again and I am going back to the diet and hopefully will see some results. I was at 205 after my workout on Saturday and didn't workout on Sunday. I woke up this morning at 206 and feel great. I think this little bit of carb intake is going to be good for me. Just next weekend I might try to refine my carbs w/brown rice, wheat pasta and some other things that are a bit healthier. I did notice that even though I was eating all the carbs that my body remained hungry every two hours and I was still drinking my usual gallon plus of water each day. So hopefully this will increase or spike that metabolism. You guys have been a big help and again keep me pushin, I wanna get this down!!!

And also for those of you asking about the cardio.. I usually do a 10 or 11 on incline and run about 3-7 on the speed 2 days a week trying the HIIT test with the heart rate going from 125 to 174. The other two days I leave the treadmill at a 2 incline and go from 3 to 9 speed and usually hammer the intensity and go after the heartrate intervals. I usually do both of these at the end of each workout except the legs and those days I normally ride bike. I might jusrt try to crank it up from 30 minutes to 40 or 45 and see what happens.

Thanks again!!

Originally Posted by ramyers2

And also for those of you asking about the cardio.. I usually do a 10 or 11 on incline and run about 3-7 on the speed 2 days a week trying the HIIT test with the heart rate going from 125 to 174. The other two days I leave the treadmill at a 2 incline and go from 3 to 9 speed and usually hammer the intensity and go after the heartrate intervals. I usually do both of these at the end of each workout except the legs and those days I normally ride bike. I might jusrt try to crank it up from 30 minutes to 40 or 45 and see what happens.

Thanks again!!

on those two days, your post workout shake should be protein only - no carbs. HIIT works by raising GH levels which will stay elevated until you consume a high amount of fast digesting carbs. so for these two days post workout, consume only the slow digesting varieties, and in moderation.

hopefully that will help a little bit. congrats on what you've done so far!

Originally Posted by pinchharmonic

absolutely agree on the carb-cycling, but now you need a carb up day or two.

the body cannot continue to lose weight on the same calorie deficit forever. otherwise, you could eat 500 below maintenance and eventually eat yourself away to nothing in theory. Your metabolism has a direct correlation with your calories consumed..

calories drop, metabolism dropped more or less.

moreover, the longer you are on a caloric deficit, the more the metabolism drops until a point where you reach a new equilibrium. ugly, but true.

the hormone leptin is likely your culprit, as this hormone drops in response to calorie and especially carbohydrate drop. This controls your metabolism, so after 9 days with no change the first thing you should do is cycle your carbs back up. I'd aim for 1.5->1.75 g of carbs per lb of bodyweight, but at least double of what you are eating now. 1-2 days of that can help.. but be careful of fats as usual, keep that fat intake the same as before carb-up. I prefer 1-day, but that's after 4-5 days of low carb for me so you may need 2.

your metabolism should drive back up again, and then you can continue your diet as planned.

best of luck!

Not to thread hijack or anything, but could you please elaborate on the "reach a new equilibrium" part? Or anyone else for that matter?

I am coming out of a cut (via caloric deficit and cardio/weight training), 5'11", 177 lbs (used to weigh almost 300 lbs at one point), and I took in 2200-2300 calories a day with interval training for 40 minutes a day for five days a week and full body workout (muscle maintenance to prevent catabolism 3 days a week). Have I harmed my self in this process? I am coming off of cutting from September til this past week (after my last bulk I went to 196 from 173, cut back down to 177 again), I am starting to eat maintenance calories this week (well bumping them up by 15% (to 2400 calories) and then another 15% next week before I start my bulk. Could my metabolism be damaged?

Hey man first of all congrats on the 35 pound drop, like the others said the carb up refeed process was probably what you needed, but now for as to help you keep losing if you were doing the same workout routine and continuing that can be a problem need to change it up keep your muscles guessing and shock em, like the whole gallon of water thing did that in highschool everyone thought i was just weird until they saw the difference in my physique and then i saw alot of people start carrying around the gallon of water made me laugh!! but also your cardio try incorporating instead of a constant running for your cardio try sprints. sprint for as long as you can for like 30 seconds, then take the speed back down and slowly jog for like a minute then sprint again for 40 seconds ya kno gotta keep the body guessing so its not prepared to hold on to that extra fat, im trying to learn as much possible my cut will be starting around January 5th when i end my bulk and continuing till its all gone and got my abs showing with that nice 6 pack. so best of luck hope this helps in anyway man you will get there consistency is key!

When i reach a plateu i do things to trick my body like eating a little more and upping cardio or changing the routine go to HIIT, go longer, do a different Machine.

i hear ya man im listening for tips in here as well. ive been in plateau since about may and im always tying to mix it up. best of luck