suggestions for improving fat loss

[julius kelp]

i have been riding the bike for 30-45 mins at fairly low level
(60-70% max) 1st thing with eca type stacks for 6 weeks now. i have seen a fair loss of fat, but not the 1.5-2 i was hoping for. my cals seem pretty damn low from what i see others saying. i end up at about 1.8k after diet & exercise daily. meals are lean protein with carbs during the day shifting over to protein with healthy fats by bedtime. 40/40/20carbs are low except pre/post weight training. any ideas to do better greatly appreciated. i have gone from about 15% down to 12% estimated. i want to hit 10%, (bad time of year for that eh...) not bad, but could do better i think. i'd like to get this down to a science. i'd rather do what it takes for a shorter period of time than flounder around for long periods.

 

[dsl]

height, weight?

Your total daily cals are 1800, right? Seems kinda low, so maybe you could up them for a couple of weeks to let your body recover, then drop them again and see how you respond.

 

[julius kelp]

6'4" down to like 190. i thought the cals were low at first, but weight/fat loss was just not really happening. i have adjusted cals down like 200 at a time. using left over mdien @ 5+5mg/day for 4 weeks. i actually feel it doing something this time by itself. i didn't think it did anything at all when i stacked it with transderms. kinda' sux, my appetite seems up.

 

[dsl]

If your diet really is in check and you have stalled, then up the cals for a couple of weeks and drop them again.

Honestly though 1800 is really low for you size unless you have a very slow metabolism. I weigh around 180 and eat more than that.

How much cardio do you do in a week?

 

[Grmlock]

Instead of riding a bike you should either power walk or jog. You have more movement with these exercises and you also support your bodyweight which help with fatloss.

 

[julius kelp]

actually i'm pretty hyper. (especially with the stims!)
i've really started to think about the possible negative effects of just nervous habits like drumming on the desk at work or kicking my feet.

 

[200wannabe]

actually i'm pretty hyper. (especially with the stims!)
i've really started to think about the possible negative effects of just nervous habits like drumming on the desk at work or kicking my feet.

I read somewhere that a twitcher! (someone who is always restless, foot tapping, keeps shifting in the seat etc) can burn upto an additional 700 cals a day! Think it was by Nancy Clark? how much truth in it i dont know...

 

[okboy63]

How is your thyroid ?.Take your tempature first thing in the morning and see if it's on the low side of 98.6, perhaps below 97 ot there abouts.
How many calories does it take to maintain your weight before you started cutting ? Do you have a desk job ?

 

[dsl]

How is your thyroid ?.Take your tempature first thing in the morning and see if it's on the low side of 98.6, perhaps below 97 ot there abouts.

I don't mean to berate you in particular, but your comment hits at the heart of a major problem w/ everyone on these boards.


Everyone overthinks things and jumps to conclusions. STOP IT!!!!!!! Dieting is not nearly as hard as everone makes it out to be. It just takes a lot of time and you probably won't see results everyday. Everyone should just eat clean and take some time to actually find out what you bmr is and take it from there.

 

[okboy63]

I don't mean to berate you in particular, but your comment hits at the heart of a major problem w/ everyone on these boards.


Everyone overthinks things and jumps to conclusions. STOP IT!!!!!!! Dieting is not nearly as hard as everone makes it out to be. It just takes a lot of time and you probably won't see results everyday. Everyone should just eat clean and take some time to actually find out what you bmr is and take it from there.

I get what your saying, but I wasn't jumping to any conclusions just makeing a suggestion of something else to check i.e thyroid.
It's not like i said start taking T3

 

[julius kelp]

maybe i should restate my question. how long do you guys (with abs) cut typically? i mean does it take months? i'm on week 7, & if anything a little excessive seemingly on the cardio & calorie cutting. i thought 2lbs/wk was very realistic with a consistent plan. thanks for all the thoughts regardless.

 

[dsl]

I get what your saying, but I wasn't jumping to any conclusions just makeing a suggestion of something else to check i.e thyroid.
It's not like i said start taking T3

i understand, it's just I always see these posts and it's like some people want a magic formula that will make them instantly loose weight. And, no, Julius I am not referring to you as you had a rather simple question.

 

[dsl]

maybe i should restate my question. how long do you guys (with abs) cut typically? i mean does it take months? i'm on week 7, & if anything a little excessive seemingly on the cardio & calorie cutting. i thought 2lbs/wk was very realistic with a consistent plan. thanks for all the thoughts regardless.

I started w/ bobo on August 14th at around 20-22% bodyfat. I would guess that I am around 14% or so now. Although, I don't have "abs" I can clearly see the outline in the right light. In that time my weight has went from 187-178. So as you can see the 2 lbs/week is not applicable to me. Plus, at your size I would aim for a more reasonable 1 lb/week. Like I said up the cals. How much cardio do you do and make sure it is at 65%.

 

[diminuendo]

It takes months to get abs if you are above 15% cause homeostasis is a powerful mofo. Try refeeds every week. Keep them clean, but stuff yourself, in short, let your body know not to go into starvation mode.

 

[Space]

I have personally cut down from 16% to 8% losing 2 - 2.5 pounds a week without a fat burner and I can tell you this is too much too fast.

People who get the best results on a cut appear to lose the fat quite slowly 1 - 1.5 pounds a week over 12 weeks or more. This might sound frustratingly slow but you can be assured that you are just losing fat and don't need any anabolics to cover your gains. Another suggestion would be to save your fat burner until you feel your weightloss is stalling to kick things along.

Taking things slowly can be quite frustrating because you may feel at times that you are simply treading water but you can be assured you will gain better results on a slow clean cut rather than aggressively cutting calories.

You may also find cortisol working against you as you put your body under increased stress with an agressive cut as I suspected when I found I was getting very hollow cheeks and stubborn fat around the abdomen as my weight loss on an agressive cut began to stall.

Again this is all from personal experience and I can really empathise with you when you say you are trying to get this down to a science!

 

[neverstop]

i have heard over and over that high intensity cardio for 20 minutes or less at a time done in the morning after a very light snack or no meal at all is the most effective way to do this,

i'm the opposite tho, i cant gain fat eating cheesburgers and bacon all day! seriously!

maybe someone else can chime in

 

[julius kelp]

i've always thought i hated cardio, but i have really kind of liked getting up an hour early & riding to the xm radio. gets my day off to a much better start. & being the obssessive freak i am, i feel like i've done something good to start off my day! thanks for all the thoughts dudes.

 

[shaorinor]

maybe i should restate my question. how long do you guys (with abs) cut typically? i mean does it take months? i'm on week 7, & if anything a little excessive seemingly on the cardio & calorie cutting. i thought 2lbs/wk was very realistic with a consistent plan. thanks for all the thoughts regardless.

Different for everyone, man. And is also dependent on where you start cutting from.

If you're on a very calorie restricted diet, doing craploads of cardio will begin to hinder your progress. It's a calorie burner. So, taking your body into an even bigger deficit would most likely stall you sooner or later.

If you want to do a lot of cardio, eat more food to account for the bigger caloric deficit. But once you stall, I would say that it is a good idea to take a week or 2 maintenance break, then start dropping calories again.

 

[julius kelp]

for sure. i have a cool little program for my palm pilot/pc called "balancelog" i guess dieticians use it. makes tracking diet a cinch. it also can account for cals burned with various exercises. it re-totals based on this. super easy to use.

 

[Ziv]

julius, u mind to put the program on the board so i can download or u can send it to me. Thanks

 

[julius kelp]

http://www.healthetech.com/store/free_trial.php

 

[BigVrunga]

Julius - thanks for the tip on the PDA app Ive been looking for something just like that!!

Cutting naturally without losing muscle is very possible, like mentioned above it just takes a LONG time. Its more of a lifestyle change then a cutting 'cycle' that you can blast through in 8 weeks or so. There are a ton of techniques that you can employ to accelerate fat loss - if you haven't read it yet you should check out 'Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle' by Tom Venuto. If you follow the advice in that book you'll have everything you need to lose fat and retain LBM naturally.

BV

 

[glenihan]

took me roughly 13 weeks to go from 13% - 5%

the most important aspect by FAR is diet .. getting the proper ratio of pro/carbs/good fat

some do very very well with low carbs and higher good fats .. personally i prefer low fat and moderate carbs

see how your body reacts .. it takes time especially doing it naturally and trying not to lose muscle

btw you aren't going to continually lose 1.5-2lbs of fat a week for very long

once you get down further your body clings to the fat it has

by the way 190 at 6'4 is pretty skinny .. why are you cutting?

(don't mean to sound like a dick at all, but it sounds like you'd be better off trying to pack on muscle)

 

[julius kelp]

enjoy BV! balancelog is f'n great. i use it every day. i have bounced back & forth between 190 & 225 over & over. bigger(& fatter) or smaller(& leaner) i used to just want to be as big as possible (for an ecto), but the wife likes me alot better with abs! i'm gonna get with master bobo for the solution. thanks for the thoughts all. happy holidaze.

 

[BigVrunga]

Yeah when I hit 240lbs and I couldnt climb stairs without feeling winded I realized I had taken my all-out bulk way too far Its tough when you start out a skinny ecto - all you want is mass and strength and you dont care about anything else! Lessons learned though! Im never going above 11% again.

 

[thicketman]

I have personally cut down from 16% to 8% losing 2 - 2.5 pounds a week without a fat burner and I can tell you this is too much too fast.

People who get the best results on a cut appear to lose the fat quite slowly 1 - 1.5 pounds a week over 12 weeks or more. This might sound frustratingly slow but you can be assured that you are just losing fat and don't need any anabolics to cover your gains. Another suggestion would be to save your fat burner until you feel your weightloss is stalling to kick things along.

Taking things slowly can be quite frustrating because you may feel at times that you are simply treading water but you can be assured you will gain better results on a slow clean cut rather than aggressively cutting calories.

You may also find cortisol working against you as you put your body under increased stress with an agressive cut as I suspected when I found I was getting very hollow cheeks and stubborn fat around the abdomen as my weight loss on an agressive cut began to stall.

Again this is all from personal experience and I can really empathise with you when you say you are trying to get this down to a science!

Yep. I experienced the same thing during my last cut. Every part of my body was leaning out nicely EXCEPT for my lower stomach, love handles, and chest. At that point I decided to bulk to "even-out" my body again (which I did this past month fairly successfully).

After Jan 1st, I'm going to go to maintenance, and up the cardio first. After a few weeks, I'll GRADUALLY drop calories. Slow and steady wins the race...

 

[okboy63]

took me roughly 13 weeks to go from 13% - 5%

the most important aspect by FAR is diet .. getting the proper ratio of pro/carbs/good fat

some do very very well with low carbs and higher good fats .. personally i prefer low fat and moderate carbs

see how your body reacts .. it takes time especially doing it naturally and trying not to lose muscle

btw you aren't going to continually lose 1.5-2lbs of fat a week for very long

once you get down further your body clings to the fat it has

by the way 190 at 6'4 is pretty skinny .. why are you cutting?

(don't mean to sound like a dick at all, but it sounds like you'd be better off trying to pack on muscle)

a couple of questions
Did you have free meals or free days during those 13 weeks ?
Did you count calories and measure food. If so what was the calorie drop as you went along(i.e went from 3000 wk13 to 1800 wk 1) would be an example).
How long did you hold at 5 percent. I remember you saying you gained some weight back after the show in some thread.