Caught in a rut, lookin' for suggestions

[tehockey]

So here's my deal...I started cutting a little over a month ago, right now I'm sitting at 163-164 down from 171 or so. The first few weeks went great, but now things have really slowed down. Here's what a typical diet looks like...

Workout Days:

Upon Waking: 2 leviathan, 3 drive, 2 DCP
Meal 1: 3 egg whites, protein shake, piece of bread or 1/2 cup oatmeal

2 DCP before meal 2
Meal 2 (PreWO): Chicken breast with potato or 1/4 cup brown rice
3 Drive, 2 levi before workout

Meal 3 PostWO: protein shake in water, 1/2 gatorade

Meal 4: Usually chicken w/ broccoli or salad, but varies somewhat.

Meal 5: turkey breast, lean beef or some other lean meat that I have around

Off days:

Upon Waking: 2 leviathan, 3 drive, 2 DCP
Meal 1: 2 scoops protein in skim milk

Meal 2: Chicken breast or turkey, green beans or salad

Meal 3: 2 small cans tuna fried with dijon mustard, 1 egg white, 1 small potato

Meal 4: Chicken or lean beef with salad

I know, I know, its only 4 meals. I try to get 5-7 in but my class schedule is making that a hassle.

Fitday.com puts my average macros at 156/80/39 and 1300 cals, about a 50/25/25 ratio. Im workin' out three days a week doing 30 min biking after my lift days and usually on one off day.

besides the above noted supps, im also taking creatine mono, citrulline and arginine

So all that being said, any suggestions to help me get on track again?

 

[EasyEJL]

hmm any cheat days at all in there? or carb ups?

Another option is just to shift macros a bit, your body is made to adapt, and getting much below 10% isn't something your body wants to do, it needs to be beaten into it

Could try going ketogenic

 

[tehockey]

yeah I usually slip a carb-up/ cheat meal in on the weekends. As for keto, I really want to try it but not sure if i'll be able to maintain it on my schedule. The last thing I want to do it get into keto then get in some situation where I go over the carb limit and kick myself out again...then i'd be eating high fat moderate carbs which seems to be a big no no. On the subject, how high can carb intake go on keto before you fall out of it? any other suggestions with my diet???

 

[EasyEJL]

well, going into ketosis usually takes being under 30g net of fiber carbs, possibly lower for at least a day or two. Once you are in, you can (so long as its spread out) be as high as 50g and stay in. the problem is 50g at one meal will kick you out at least short term.

some people say as high as 100g for the whole day and you can stay in, but idk. it may be very related to your individual insulin sensitivity

 

[Irish Pilot]

1300 cals a day? Seems extremely low to me. I did the 1500 thing for awhile, and after some time it seemed my body finally decided on "starvation mode" as much as I hate the term. Weight loss got slow. I upped the cals to 2ooo a day and instantly was back to losing 2lbs a week.

Your body needs a healthy amount of nutrients to bulk OR cut.

 

[Brenn]

I'll second that. I was at roughly 1800 a day, almost all protein and quickly lost a lot of weight. But after about 2.5 weeks, I stopped dropping weight and began retaining water despite drinking loads of it. And I was so depleted I couldn't even think or focus well.

Whenever this happened after that first stagnation, I began eating about half a "normal" (when not dieting) day's worth of Carbs whenever I got this feeling + some extra fats for another 300 or so cals. Sometimes after 5 days of dieting and sometimes after 8 days or so; really whenever the feeling struck. I ate like this, 1 day only, and over the following two days, I'd lose all the water and the next couple pounds. Also had some of the best most vascular pumps ever after the refeed.

Next time, I'll go to 2400 cals or so. When I finally reached my goal BF last time, I had lost a good bit of muscle. Live and learn, I guess.

 

[tehockey]

thanks for the suggestions. I took the advice and upped my cals a bit and started eating more carbs earlier on the in the day; I still try to avoid carbs after 5pm or so. I think I'm gonna start a carb cycling regimen and see what results I can get from that. only 4 weeks till panama city beach!!!!

 

[Brenn]

Sounds like a blast! 4 weeks sounds like enough time, Bro. Good luck and hang in there. Ripped abs are worth the effort!

 

[silverSurfer]

Maybe your workout can be adjusted if you don't want to change the diet.