Cant get any leaner!!

[AllPro1284]

I've gone from 245lbs to 185lbs since this mid-febuary. I used a clen/keto combo and ECA stack from then up until about 6 weeks ago. I've been at about 185 for the past 4 weeks. I cut out almost all of my cardio 6-8 weeks ago because i was noticing too much muscle loss. I dont know what my bf % is now but i'm starting to see some veins in my obliques and good striations in my sholders and chest. I want to get as lean as possible so when I finish bulking this winter I still have a nice body as opposed to the powerlifter physique i usually end up with.

I eat every 2.5 hrs, no sugar (except pwo) and no unhealthy fats. I mostly get my calories from oatmeal, brown rice, yams, whole wheat breads/pastas, egg whites, chicken breasts, fish, lean meats/pork, ff cottage cheese, and low-carb high protein yogurts. I also have been using flax oil in a lot of meals for fat, sometimes natty pb. I use a pyramid scheme with my carb intake where i cut my carbs back as the day progresses, with the exception of pwo and my 1st whole food meal pwo i"ll get about 50g from each.

Supplements: kre-alkalyn powder, animal pak, glutamine, whey isolate, vitargo, jack3d, vanadyl sulfate, R-ALA.

Training: 5-6 days a week depending on what my body can handle (have a bad cold now that wont go away from overdoing it) Very high intensity 12-6 sometimes 4 reps, short rest periods, supersets, negatives, forced reps ect. I change the rouitine up fairly often.

I'm thinking about starting some high intensity cardio, as the only cardio i've done since february has been fasted morning cardio at about 65% mhr. I'm thinking about doing some interval sprints for 15-20 min 3 days a week or so. Maybe 30 min on the eliptical at 80-85% mhr some days? I just want to avoid losing as much muscle mass as possible. I may start another ECA stack or clen/keto combo now that my beta-2 adrenoceptors have fully recovered, but not so sure I need that right now, wouldn't hurt though.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[UGHQTempus]

You've been on a solid 6 month cut. You need time off. Your hormones are probably ****ed and need to settle.

What are your cheat meals like?

If you've been getting sick then odds are your immune system is suppressed. Too much systemic stress. 6 day/week resistance training on a cut will do that.

Take 2 weeks off the diet. Eat clean just eat more. Cut down on the workouts. Maybe just do 2 workouts a week and make them mild intensity full body.

After that go back on the diet and workout plan and see what happens.

 

[Maxwell600]

You've been on a solid 6 month cut. You need time off. Your hormones are probably ****ed and need to settle.

What are your cheat meals like?

If you've been getting sick then odds are your immune system is suppressed. Too much systemic stress. 6 day/week resistance training on a cut will do that.

Take 2 weeks off the diet. Eat clean just eat more. Cut down on the workouts. Maybe just do 2 workouts a week and make them mild intensity full body.

After that go back on the diet and workout plan and see what happens.

plus 1

 

[youngandfree]

How much leaner do you think you can get? Veins in your obliques already is pretty damn lean. Don't forget you are 5'11 so much lower bodyweight will just make you look like a Kenyan marathon runner.

 

[SBT]

I hear ya on this one!! Although I am not nearly as lean as you (as I have no ab veins) but still been stuck at the same weight/leanness now for quite some time and it gets annoying!

 

[MM11]

with a cut like that personally i think you should lean bulk, the glycogen restorage alone will make you look bigger. you should put some good muscle on while staying lean, then cut again! thats just my opinion

 

[dropshot001]

i suggest trying sprints for your cardio. it will get the fat loss moving and will be a nice change up for your cardio as well (might make it a little more exciting)

 

[AllPro1284]

I actually started eating a few more calories and immediately got over the cold! I'm using bcaa's during my workouts and in between meals too thats helping. In just a few days of more calories i've noticed my muscles to get a bit fuller and have shed some fat around my lower abs and underneath my obliques. My body can tolerate almost anything I throw at it, have alot of muscle memory on my side... was 265lbs with 35" waist about 6 years ago when I was using gear.

I've thrown in some carb up days when I notice some unusual fatigue and overtraining symptoms like I have recently. I've changed my pwo routine in the past week too, getting in atleast 2 whole food meals within the first 1hr 45 min after my pwo shake. This has helped me to recover quickly while keeping calories relatively low the rest of the day.

I've honestly never been this lean b4 so this is definitely foreign territory to me, I'm about to start an ECA stack and may do some morning cardio again while drinking a ton of BCAA's (never done that b4) hopefully this will thwart the muscle loss. I'm also gonna do some interval sprints later in the day, resting enough to let my hr come down under 130 in between.

I'm actually gonna start a lean bulk in late september leading into my KRAAAZY bulk by the end of october.

But yeah, I appreciate all the feedback, like I said this is foreign to me, dont really know the tricks of getting any more cut, I've actually started to read some contest prep articles, not sure what to make of all that stuff (what to try, what not to try)

Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated, I'll probably increase the calories again to compensate for the extra activity once I start the morning cardio and some interval sprints, and bring them down again after I've done the cardio for a few weeks. So far this idea seems to work, keeps my hormones right and allows me to recover from my workouts. When I go crazy low on my calories my body seems to hoard fat and I have no energy to train, and I never recover. Again, thanks so much everyone. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[AllPro1284]

Ohhh, forgot to mention.... So, this hasnt really been a str8 6 month cut, i started smokin herb and eatin nothin but cheese fries and dominos from late may into early july, gaining about 15lbs back. Been back at it hard for a good 5 weeks now (no more ganj), so I'm gonna throw the ECA stack and cardio w/ bcaas back into the mix and see what happens. I'm just worried about the muscle loss, never been this big while cutting, I'm normally about 20 lbs lighter when finishing cutting and not even this low on bf. So thinkin about losing the mass has got me stressing. So I'm planning on pounding down the calories while training super intense and frequent. Gonna bump up the glutamine, multi, and bcaa intake aswell. Any ideas on this would be awesome!!! Sorry, shouldve mentioned the smoke break I took haha!!

 

[goonstopher]

Generally as bf goes down most guys do best with lowering calories and lower intensity cardio. I am basically starving myself at this point and am lucky to break 2000 cals a day

 

[UGHQTempus]

Generally as bf goes down most guys do best with lowering calories and lower intensity cardio. I am basically starving myself at this point and am lucky to break 2000 cals a day

Depends on how you have things set. I know a lot of guys that BB and increase their calories during contest prep to keep the metabolism going. So they start with a larger deficit and then bring the cals up 100ish a week once the weight loss starts slowing.

The last study or two I read on low and slow cardio says its more catabolic than anything else. Dunno - everyone is different and cutting is not something I'm great at but I find that giant sets do better for me than cardio. I find that doing a 3-4 exercise rotation with 45 sec rest btwn sets (subfailure sets ~ 10 reps and 40-50 seconds time under tension) with no overlapping muscle groups is far better for me than steady state cardio. I can do 30-45 min of training like that (more or less a double GVT with lower weight) and get a great pump AND some myofibrillar hypertrophy from it. Seems win/win to me.

 

[AntonG42O]

you wont get any leaner if you eat so many starchy carbs. massive blood sugar blast from bread/pasta. also where is the fat in this diet? should be a 3rd of your diet or more. please eat the WHOLE EGG (message from the egg lovers/conservationists society)