Unanswered Caloric deficit/ fat loss problems

pureburl

Member
So to keep it short. I started my first cut a few months ago (bulked way too hard). In short I think I’ve dropped my calories way too fast too soon and while I’ve had good results I’m not sure where to go from here. I can’t continue to drop calories due to how low they already are. What can I do to fix this to continue losing fat??? Thanks everyone
 
If you are still getting results just keep going. You could also eat normal for a week or two then cut some more. I don’t think it’s necessary though. I cut hard all the way down to 800 calories on psfm. Lol Works great so I doubt your calories are any lower.
 
Jstrong20 said:
If you are still getting results just keep going. You could also eat normal for a week or two then cut some more. I don’t think it’s necessary though. I cut hard all the way down to 800 calories on psfm. Lol Works great so I doubt your calories are any lower.
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Nah they’re not that low, I’m just not still getting results. I’ve been at a stand still for about a month.
 
Jstrong20 said:
If you are still getting results just keep going. You could also eat normal for a week or two then cut some more. I don’t think it’s necessary though. I cut hard all the way down to 800 calories on psfm. Lol Works great so I doubt your calories are any lower.
Click to expand...
I would just be worried about too much muscle loss with the psfm. With the amount of lifting and cardio I do, idk if I could sustain well on that
 
pureburl said:
I would just be worried about too much muscle loss with the psfm. With the amount of lifting and cardio I do, idk if I could sustain well on that
Click to expand...
What helped me to kick start metabolism was:
-6 days water fast (black coffee, tea allowed + electrolytes)
-no gym while fasting
Then restart training and go intermittent fasting 21/3.

Dramatic changes in body composition and easy to keep fat off from there on.
 
Low calories is called "starving", while zero calories is called "fasting". BIG difference.
Read about it, its an eye opener.
 
pureburl said:
Thanks bro, I’ll check it out. How do you not eat for that long and not feel like crap?
Click to expand...
Try it, you will be amazed. Energy through the roof by day 3. Mind gets razor sharp too.
The super compensation, after a fast, when you start training and carb loading, is INSANE. I literally could see how I grew in less than an hour.
Discipline, brother. Anyone can go without food (water+minerals only) for at least 2-4 weeks. World record is something like 350 days, look it up.
 
hairygrandpa said:
Try it, you will be amazed. Energy through the roof by day 3. Mind gets razor sharp too.
The super compensation, after a fast, when you start training and carb loading, is INSANE. I literally could see how I grew in less than an hour.
Discipline, brother. Anyone can go without food (water+minerals only) for at least 2-4 weeks. World record is something like 350 days, look it up.
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What did you set your macros as after those 6 days? I just don’t know much about how to organize intermittent fasting and around what macros I should be at. Also, how was muscle and strength retention?
 
pureburl said:
What did you set your macros as after those 6 days? I just don’t know much about how to organize intermittent fasting and around what macros I should be at. Also, how was muscle and strength retention?
Click to expand...
You will keep almost all muscles, more so if using steroids. Exercise is detrimental (muscle will be burnt off, so to speak), while when fasting not so much. Do not expect a huge fat loss. Benefits will be noted mainly after the fast. Due to glycogen depletion, you will look way smaller after the fast, don't worry. Do a huge carb load when finishing the fast -and you will look bigger than before the fast, it takes only 1-2 hours, crazy.
IF diet:
No calories during daytime.
I train in the pm. After that opens my 3 hours feeding window from 10pm to 1am. Personally, I use insulin pre workout with abundant sugar in my intra shake (In theory, this violates my IF -but no, not really. The sugar is shuttled directly into the muscles, replenishing glycogen), guessing this does not appeal to you, for you it will be water in your shake.
I only count protein and keep carbs low. Fat is from eggs and meat. Green veggies abundant (I use sprouts from my sprouting trays - look up on amazon)
 
Are you being honest with yourself? The entire "I dropped calories and now I don't know where to go" smacks of internet health dogma.

Calories are a measure of energy and mass. If you are taking in less than you are using, you HAVE to get it from somewhere - your body.

Are you strictly logging your calories? It is super easy to fudge things and not realize you ate 500 calories more than you thought. Often times this works at the start of a diet, because you have so much extra water and you are carrying extra weight that makes simple movement more calorically expensive. But as you get into it, the little extras start to hinder progress.

Weigh, measure, log. Do that for a week and come back here.
 
HIT4ME said:
Are you being honest with yourself? The entire "I dropped calories and now I don't know where to go" smacks of internet health dogma.

Calories are a measure of energy and mass. If you are taking in less than you are using, you HAVE to get it from somewhere - your body.

Are you strictly logging your calories? It is super easy to fudge things and not realize you ate 500 calories more than you thought. Often times this works at the start of a diet, because you have so much extra water and you are carrying extra weight that makes simple movement more calorically expensive. But as you get into it, the little extras start to hinder progress.

Weigh, measure, log. Do that for a week and come back here.
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I’m certain I’m not going over my calories. With the exception of an occasional cheat meal, I eat the exact same thing everyday and it’s what my maintenance is. My weight isn’t really moving. I know I have some room to drop calories but I’m trying to avoid feeling lethargic and weak
 
Mind telling us what you eat? What is your height, age and weight? I am assumung male - but is this correct?

Lets lay out your caloric intake.

How often do you have a cheat meal.

And you say you eat the same thing every day - do you actually weigh and measure everything?

Not saying you are wrong but I need to get a baseline of where we actually are here...It is my ignorance that is a problem here.
 
It goes against conventional wisdom, but I’ve seen it suggested that as you get closer to your end goal, you actually need a smaller deficit, not a larger one.

How big of a deficit are you at now?
 
HIT4ME said:
Mind telling us what you eat? What is your height, age and weight? I am assumung male - but is this correct?

Lets lay out your caloric intake.

How often do you have a cheat meal.

And you say you eat the same thing every day - do you actually weigh and measure everything?

Not saying you are wrong but I need to get a baseline of where we actually are here...It is my ignorance that is a problem here.
Click to expand...
6’ 1, 200 lbs, 26 years old.

Breakfast: Atkins protein bar, non fat Greek yogurt, 2 boiled eggs, and nuts

Lunch: 5 eggs, 5 slices of bacon

Preworkout: protein shake, 1g fat, 2g carbs, 24g protein

Dinner: sirloin steak and sweet potatoe.

Don’t know the exact macros, I counted for a long time and weighed everything but I stopped. It’s nearly the same though everyday, the steak could be slightly more or slightly less but everything else is the same.

Cheat meal at the most once a week. I know I could probably change some of my food choices so critiquing is welcomed. This is my first cut so I’ve kinda been trying to figure it out myself with no help. Thanks bro
 
jrock645 said:
It goes against conventional wisdom, but I’ve seen it suggested that as you get closer to your end goal, you actually need a smaller deficit, not a larger one.

How big of a deficit are you at now?
Click to expand...
Currently at maintenance, just don’t know how low I should go with my calories cause I already feel like they’re pretty low for the amount of activity I do
 
pureburl said:
6’ 1, 200 lbs, 26 years old.

Breakfast: Atkins protein bar, non fat Greek yogurt, 2 boiled eggs, and nuts

Lunch: 5 eggs, 5 slices of bacon

Preworkout: protein shake, 1g fat, 2g carbs, 24g protein

Dinner: sirloin steak and sweet potatoe.

Don’t know the exact macros, I counted for a long time and weighed everything but I stopped. It’s nearly the same though everyday, the steak could be slightly more or slightly less but everything else is the same.

Cheat meal at the most once a week. I know I could probably change some of my food choices so critiquing is welcomed. This is my first cut so I’ve kinda been trying to figure it out myself with no help. Thanks bro
Click to expand...

Thank you sir - I am going to add up what I can and figure out the baseline when I have some time tonight. I will have my thoughts shortly.

Also - you mention that you do a lot of activity, can you elaborate on that? Thanks for giving the details, I know it sucks answering a bunch of questions when you just want an answer.
 
HIT4ME said:
Thank you sir - I am going to add up what I can and figure out the baseline when I have some time tonight. I will have my thoughts shortly.

Also - you mention that you do a lot of activity, can you elaborate on that? Thanks for giving the details, I know it sucks answering a bunch of questions when you just want an answer.
Click to expand...
The questions are no problem bro I don’t mind. What I mean by a lot of activity is just lifting for a couple hours and cardio everyday. Well 6 days a week with an active recovery day. I’ve just noticed sometimes I start feeling shitty with the lower calories. I’ve basically been doing a low carb type diet, not so low it’s keto but just low. Idk if I just keeping dropping calories or what. Thanks for all your help
 
Alright my friend - so some hard love coming your way. Tell me I'm wrong, but there's some things that literally JUMP out from this discussion.

The first is, people ask you how big of a deficit you are currently running (after you say you've dropped calories way to fast) and your answer is just a general, "Currently at maintenance".

This is a HUGE issue. For one, by definition, if you are eating at maintenance you won't lose weight (of course) and this contradicts your saying you dropped calories too low too fast. If you are trying to lose weight, why eat at maintenance?

Taking this a step further - why would you just give a general "at maintenance" if you are trying to lose weight? YOU SHOULD KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE EATING. You should say, I've calculated my TDEE at 2,500 and I've been eating 1,650 calories. But you don't know these numbers - so I'm not putting you down - I am laying it out hard so you can 1. stop lying to YOURSELF and 2. Learn how to correct this.

Also - not calling you a liar. I lie to myself all the time. I say, "Damn, I look good." And I believe it. But I know it's not true. @hairygrandpa does this quite a bit too - he says, "The chicks dig a hairy chest." and he really knows he is more suitable as a floor covering.

So, you give a generalization - and the story is unfolding and then you lay out your diet and guess what? The ONLY measurements you have in that entire diet are the number of eggs you eat and the number of the slices of bacon you eat. That's it.

This is also a huge problem because it is more generalization - your diet doesn't even lay out the amounts you SHOULD be eating. How much yogurt? How much sirloin? how much sweet potato? How many NUTS!

So if you don't know what you SHOULD be eating for amounts, what amounts are you actually eating? You don't know what your target is.

Then you say you started off measuring, but basically it got hard so you stopped doing it and you justify this because it's always the same food and sometimes it's slightly more and others it is slightly less. Dorian Yates himself even said that after 12 years of dieting for competitive shows he STILL had to weigh everything - if you try to eyeball it, you're always way off. And you say it's slightly more, slightly less - how often is it more? How often is it less? My guess is, it's more 4 times out of 5.

The reason I highlighted the nuts here is...because if you eat 4 oz. instead of 3 oz. of sirloin...we are talking an extra 52 calories or so, and it probably won't be the end of the world. But 1 oz. of nuts has 172 calories. If you're grabbing a handful and thinking that's a serving, you could be getting 500+ calories in a heartbeat. Seriously, you gotta weigh that sh1t.

So when you turn around and say you don't know your exact macros - I think you can start to see that's part of the same problem.

1. You are not weighing EVERYTHING (OK, in your case, ANYTHING).

2. You are not logging and tracking your intake.

Let's start here. Given your stats, I can already tell that you're probably around 20% bodyfat if you are drug free, which is not bad! Your TDEE, in a calculator is between 2,400 - 2,700 calories/day. I would estimate 2,500 calories as a starting point.

The diet you laid out, if I assume you measured everything and limited it to just ONE serving of everything, including nuts and sweet potato, is at 1,650 calories/day. IF this is true, you MUST lose weight. Anyone telling you something else is an idiot, trying to sell you something, or both.

Now, I admit - that weight loss will be slower and not as linear as you would believe. Water fluctuates and you may have a day where you did everything right and you get on the scale and you weight a pound heavier and scratch your head ...water causes these mind games. But over even a week, it will come off.

Your diet, as you laid out, breaks down like this (again, if you only have one serving, which we can't be sure of because you don't weight things):

Breakfast

Atkins Protein Bar – 250 cals, 14 g fat, 23 grams carbs, 12 grams fiber, 16 grams protein.
Nonfat Greek Yogurt (6 oz. container) – Plain – 100 calories, 0 g fat, 6.1 g carbs, 17 grams protein
2 Boiled Eggs – 156 calories, 10.6 grams fat, 1.2 g carbs, 12.6 g protein
Nuts – 1 oz. - 172 Calories, 15 grams of fat, 6 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 5.7 grams protein.

Breakfast Totals: 678 calories, 39.6 grams fat, 36.3 grams carbohydrate, 51.3 grams protein.

Lunch:

5 large eggs – 360 calories, 24 grams fat, 2 grams carbohydrate, 31.5 grams protein
5 slices bacon – 267 calories, 20 grams fat, 1 gram carbohydrate, 20 grams protein.

Lunch total: 647 calories, 44 grams fat, 3 grams carbohydrate, 51.5 grams protein.

Dinner:
Sirloin Steak – 3 oz. 207 calories, 12 grams fat, 0 grams carbohydrates, 23 grams protein.
Sweet Potato (151 grams) – 115 calories, 0.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 2.1 grams protein.

Dinner Totals: 322 calories, 12.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 25.1 grams protein.

Daily totals: 1,647 calories, 95.8 grams fat, 66.3 grams carbohydrate, 127.9 grams protein.

Again, just an extra 2 oz. of nuts (which is nothing) in the morning could put you over 2,000 easily.

Plus - 3 meals - you aren't snacking on ANYTHING? More power to you man, but I know my gf keeps candy and little things around the house and it is hard to not walk by and grab it without even thinking. And night times, they can be a horrible! Watching TV??? How do you not snack?

If you go off just a little with some inconsequential snacking, you could increase calories a bunch more, real fast.

Finally, this is a good 850 calorie per day, almost 6,000 calorie per week, deficit. Good deal, really good. But, if you go out to Olive Garden one night and have a couple breadsticks, some salad, a couple mozzarella sticks and a tour of Itally - you wipe out 3,000 calories of that deficit in one meal. And of course, what cheat wouldn't be complete without a dessert - another 800 calories there. Your 1.6 pounds weekly weight loss just went to 0.6 pounds in one meal. Not saying you pig out at every cheat or whatever - but this is SO easy to do and I've got a lot of experience wiping out a weeks work in 1 meal.

Your food choices are not horrible. I would reconsider the Atkins bar from a number of angles - but you don't get many cruciferous veggies. You could swap the Atkins bar out for a shake and get an extra 8 grams of protein and have 130 calories left over for an entire bag of broccoli, which would be a lot more filling than that bar I bet. Or skip the shake too and add in a bunch of fat free cottage cheese later in the day to ward off hunger.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful and harsh enough to be effective. You are kidding yourself. You aren't even logging.

If you want to be successful at any diet, here are the rules that matter for weight loss:

1. Weigh and measure EVERYTHING.
2. Log Everything.
3. Control your food - prepare it yourself (you seem to be doing good at this - but this rule is necessary for #1 and #2)
4. Create a caloric deficit.
5. Ensure you have sufficient protein.

Get a scale and myfitnesspal and come back here in a week with more data :)

I know you got this brother.
 
HIT4ME said:
Alright my friend - so some hard love coming your way. Tell me I'm wrong, but there's some things that literally JUMP out from this discussion.

The first is, people ask you how big of a deficit you are currently running (after you say you've dropped calories way to fast) and your answer is just a general, "Currently at maintenance".

This is a HUGE issue. For one, by definition, if you are eating at maintenance you won't lose weight (of course) and this contradicts your saying you dropped calories too low too fast. If you are trying to lose weight, why eat at maintenance?

Taking this a step further - why would you just give a general "at maintenance" if you are trying to lose weight? YOU SHOULD KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE EATING. You should say, I've calculated my TDEE at 2,500 and I've been eating 1,650 calories. But you don't know these numbers - so I'm not putting you down - I am laying it out hard so you can 1. stop lying to YOURSELF and 2. Learn how to correct this.

Also - not calling you a liar. I lie to myself all the time. I say, "Damn, I look good." And I believe it. But I know it's not true. @hairygrandpa does this quite a bit too - he says, "The chicks dig a hairy chest." and he really knows he is more suitable as a floor covering.

So, you give a generalization - and the story is unfolding and then you lay out your diet and guess what? The ONLY measurements you have in that entire diet are the number of eggs you eat and the number of the slices of bacon you eat. That's it.

This is also a huge problem because it is more generalization - your diet doesn't even lay out the amounts you SHOULD be eating. How much yogurt? How much sirloin? how much sweet potato? How many NUTS!

So if you don't know what you SHOULD be eating for amounts, what amounts are you actually eating? You don't know what your target is.

Then you say you started off measuring, but basically it got hard so you stopped doing it and you justify this because it's always the same food and sometimes it's slightly more and others it is slightly less. Dorian Yates himself even said that after 12 years of dieting for competitive shows he STILL had to weigh everything - if you try to eyeball it, you're always way off. And you say it's slightly more, slightly less - how often is it more? How often is it less? My guess is, it's more 4 times out of 5.

The reason I highlighted the nuts here is...because if you eat 4 oz. instead of 3 oz. of sirloin...we are talking an extra 52 calories or so, and it probably won't be the end of the world. But 1 oz. of nuts has 172 calories. If you're grabbing a handful and thinking that's a serving, you could be getting 500+ calories in a heartbeat. Seriously, you gotta weigh that sh1t.

So when you turn around and say you don't know your exact macros - I think you can start to see that's part of the same problem.

1. You are not weighing EVERYTHING (OK, in your case, ANYTHING).

2. You are not logging and tracking your intake.

Let's start here. Given your stats, I can already tell that you're probably around 20% bodyfat if you are drug free, which is not bad! Your TDEE, in a calculator is between 2,400 - 2,700 calories/day. I would estimate 2,500 calories as a starting point.

The diet you laid out, if I assume you measured everything and limited it to just ONE serving of everything, including nuts and sweet potato, is at 1,650 calories/day. IF this is true, you MUST lose weight. Anyone telling you something else is an idiot, trying to sell you something, or both.

Now, I admit - that weight loss will be slower and not as linear as you would believe. Water fluctuates and you may have a day where you did everything right and you get on the scale and you weight a pound heavier and scratch your head ...water causes these mind games. But over even a week, it will come off.

Your diet, as you laid out, breaks down like this (again, if you only have one serving, which we can't be sure of because you don't weight things):

Breakfast

Atkins Protein Bar – 250 cals, 14 g fat, 23 grams carbs, 12 grams fiber, 16 grams protein.
Nonfat Greek Yogurt (6 oz. container) – Plain – 100 calories, 0 g fat, 6.1 g carbs, 17 grams protein
2 Boiled Eggs – 156 calories, 10.6 grams fat, 1.2 g carbs, 12.6 g protein
Nuts – 1 oz. - 172 Calories, 15 grams of fat, 6 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 5.7 grams protein.

Breakfast Totals: 678 calories, 39.6 grams fat, 36.3 grams carbohydrate, 51.3 grams protein.

Lunch:

5 large eggs – 360 calories, 24 grams fat, 2 grams carbohydrate, 31.5 grams protein
5 slices bacon – 267 calories, 20 grams fat, 1 gram carbohydrate, 20 grams protein.

Lunch total: 647 calories, 44 grams fat, 3 grams carbohydrate, 51.5 grams protein.

Dinner:
Sirloin Steak – 3 oz. 207 calories, 12 grams fat, 0 grams carbohydrates, 23 grams protein.
Sweet Potato (151 grams) – 115 calories, 0.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 2.1 grams protein.

Dinner Totals: 322 calories, 12.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 25.1 grams protein.

Daily totals: 1,647 calories, 95.8 grams fat, 66.3 grams carbohydrate, 127.9 grams protein.

Again, just an extra 2 oz. of nuts (which is nothing) in the morning could put you over 2,000 easily.

Plus - 3 meals - you aren't snacking on ANYTHING? More power to you man, but I know my gf keeps candy and little things around the house and it is hard to not walk by and grab it without even thinking. And night times, they can be a horrible! Watching TV??? How do you not snack?

If you go off just a little with some inconsequential snacking, you could increase calories a bunch more, real fast.

Finally, this is a good 850 calorie per day, almost 6,000 calorie per week, deficit. Good deal, really good. But, if you go out to Olive Garden one night and have a couple breadsticks, some salad, a couple mozzarella sticks and a tour of Itally - you wipe out 3,000 calories of that deficit in one meal. And of course, what cheat wouldn't be complete without a dessert - another 800 calories there. Your 1.6 pounds weekly weight loss just went to 0.6 pounds in one meal. Not saying you pig out at every cheat or whatever - but this is SO easy to do and I've got a lot of experience wiping out a weeks work in 1 meal.

Your food choices are not horrible. I would reconsider the Atkins bar from a number of angles - but you don't get many cruciferous veggies. You could swap the Atkins bar out for a shake and get an extra 8 grams of protein and have 130 calories left over for an entire bag of broccoli, which would be a lot more filling than that bar I bet. Or skip the shake too and add in a bunch of fat free cottage cheese later in the day to ward off hunger.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful and harsh enough to be effective. You are kidding yourself. You aren't even logging.

If you want to be successful at any diet, here are the rules that matter for weight loss:

1. Weigh and measure EVERYTHING.
2. Log Everything.
3. Control your food - prepare it yourself (you seem to be doing good at this - but this rule is necessary for #1 and #2)
4. Create a caloric deficit.
5. Ensure you have sufficient protein.

Get a scale and myfitnesspal and come back here in a week with more data :)

I know you got this brother.
Click to expand...
Brutal, but polite honesty. It's so easy to accidentally cheat yourself if you don't have a daily intake limit calculated. We've all done it. My motto is just don't put anything in the house that isn't on your meal plan.
 
pureburl said:
The questions are no problem bro I don’t mind. What I mean by a lot of activity is just lifting for a couple hours and cardio everyday. Well 6 days a week with an active recovery day. I’ve just noticed sometimes I start feeling shitty with the lower calories. I’ve basically been doing a low carb type diet, not so low it’s keto but just low. Idk if I just keeping dropping calories or what. Thanks for all your help
Click to expand...

OK, if you are feeling shitty - that needs adjustment too - how long you been doing low carb? It can take a week or so and for some people it can be horrific. Low carb isn't for everyone and it isn't magical like some people like to believe it is.

I am not being a dick (or if I am it is not my intent)- I am speaking here because this happens TIME AND TIME AGAIN - at your stats I seriously doubt you are sticking to 1650 calories/day and not losing weight. If you can measure and log everything, we will help you get there. Maybe you will prove me wrong in which case I will admit defeat and change course and help you uncover a new solution - but if I'm right, you will be amazed at how easy it was to fix once you got a grip on it. Plus, if you do this, I promise you will be in my shoes in the future helping someone else figure out their diet and you get to be a jerk like I am being haha.

We may need to make adjustments to your carb intake, etc. - but let's get a log and some measurements going first. Your food choices aren't horrible and if it is something you feel you can stick with, then it beats making you change a bunch of stuff you are eating and won't stick with.
 
Raveofthrones said:
Brutal, but polite honesty. It's so easy to accidentally cheat yourself if you don't have a daily intake limit calculated. We've all done it. My motto is just don't put anything in the house that isn't on your meal plan.
Click to expand...

Yeah - honestly, most people come on here with questions like this and you ask baseline questions and they take off. He stuck it out this far, so I've got A LOT of respect for him and I think he's going to take it like a champ (and I will leave the door open that maybe I am proven wrong by something).
 
HIT4ME said:
Alright my friend - so some hard love coming your way. Tell me I'm wrong, but there's some things that literally JUMP out from this discussion.

The first is, people ask you how big of a deficit you are currently running (after you say you've dropped calories way to fast) and your answer is just a general, "Currently at maintenance".

This is a HUGE issue. For one, by definition, if you are eating at maintenance you won't lose weight (of course) and this contradicts your saying you dropped calories too low too fast. If you are trying to lose weight, why eat at maintenance?

Taking this a step further - why would you just give a general "at maintenance" if you are trying to lose weight? YOU SHOULD KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE EATING. You should say, I've calculated my TDEE at 2,500 and I've been eating 1,650 calories. But you don't know these numbers - so I'm not putting you down - I am laying it out hard so you can 1. stop lying to YOURSELF and 2. Learn how to correct this.

Also - not calling you a liar. I lie to myself all the time. I say, "Damn, I look good." And I believe it. But I know it's not true. @hairygrandpa does this quite a bit too - he says, "The chicks dig a hairy chest." and he really knows he is more suitable as a floor covering.

So, you give a generalization - and the story is unfolding and then you lay out your diet and guess what? The ONLY measurements you have in that entire diet are the number of eggs you eat and the number of the slices of bacon you eat. That's it.

This is also a huge problem because it is more generalization - your diet doesn't even lay out the amounts you SHOULD be eating. How much yogurt? How much sirloin? how much sweet potato? How many NUTS!

So if you don't know what you SHOULD be eating for amounts, what amounts are you actually eating? You don't know what your target is.

Then you say you started off measuring, but basically it got hard so you stopped doing it and you justify this because it's always the same food and sometimes it's slightly more and others it is slightly less. Dorian Yates himself even said that after 12 years of dieting for competitive shows he STILL had to weigh everything - if you try to eyeball it, you're always way off. And you say it's slightly more, slightly less - how often is it more? How often is it less? My guess is, it's more 4 times out of 5.

The reason I highlighted the nuts here is...because if you eat 4 oz. instead of 3 oz. of sirloin...we are talking an extra 52 calories or so, and it probably won't be the end of the world. But 1 oz. of nuts has 172 calories. If you're grabbing a handful and thinking that's a serving, you could be getting 500+ calories in a heartbeat. Seriously, you gotta weigh that sh1t.

So when you turn around and say you don't know your exact macros - I think you can start to see that's part of the same problem.

1. You are not weighing EVERYTHING (OK, in your case, ANYTHING).

2. You are not logging and tracking your intake.

Let's start here. Given your stats, I can already tell that you're probably around 20% bodyfat if you are drug free, which is not bad! Your TDEE, in a calculator is between 2,400 - 2,700 calories/day. I would estimate 2,500 calories as a starting point.

The diet you laid out, if I assume you measured everything and limited it to just ONE serving of everything, including nuts and sweet potato, is at 1,650 calories/day. IF this is true, you MUST lose weight. Anyone telling you something else is an idiot, trying to sell you something, or both.

Now, I admit - that weight loss will be slower and not as linear as you would believe. Water fluctuates and you may have a day where you did everything right and you get on the scale and you weight a pound heavier and scratch your head ...water causes these mind games. But over even a week, it will come off.

Your diet, as you laid out, breaks down like this (again, if you only have one serving, which we can't be sure of because you don't weight things):

Breakfast

Atkins Protein Bar – 250 cals, 14 g fat, 23 grams carbs, 12 grams fiber, 16 grams protein.
Nonfat Greek Yogurt (6 oz. container) – Plain – 100 calories, 0 g fat, 6.1 g carbs, 17 grams protein
2 Boiled Eggs – 156 calories, 10.6 grams fat, 1.2 g carbs, 12.6 g protein
Nuts – 1 oz. - 172 Calories, 15 grams of fat, 6 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 5.7 grams protein.

Breakfast Totals: 678 calories, 39.6 grams fat, 36.3 grams carbohydrate, 51.3 grams protein.

Lunch:

5 large eggs – 360 calories, 24 grams fat, 2 grams carbohydrate, 31.5 grams protein
5 slices bacon – 267 calories, 20 grams fat, 1 gram carbohydrate, 20 grams protein.

Lunch total: 647 calories, 44 grams fat, 3 grams carbohydrate, 51.5 grams protein.

Dinner:
Sirloin Steak – 3 oz. 207 calories, 12 grams fat, 0 grams carbohydrates, 23 grams protein.
Sweet Potato (151 grams) – 115 calories, 0.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 2.1 grams protein.

Dinner Totals: 322 calories, 12.2 grams fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 25.1 grams protein.

Daily totals: 1,647 calories, 95.8 grams fat, 66.3 grams carbohydrate, 127.9 grams protein.

Again, just an extra 2 oz. of nuts (which is nothing) in the morning could put you over 2,000 easily.

Plus - 3 meals - you aren't snacking on ANYTHING? More power to you man, but I know my gf keeps candy and little things around the house and it is hard to not walk by and grab it without even thinking. And night times, they can be a horrible! Watching TV??? How do you not snack?

If you go off just a little with some inconsequential snacking, you could increase calories a bunch more, real fast.

Finally, this is a good 850 calorie per day, almost 6,000 calorie per week, deficit. Good deal, really good. But, if you go out to Olive Garden one night and have a couple breadsticks, some salad, a couple mozzarella sticks and a tour of Itally - you wipe out 3,000 calories of that deficit in one meal. And of course, what cheat wouldn't be complete without a dessert - another 800 calories there. Your 1.6 pounds weekly weight loss just went to 0.6 pounds in one meal. Not saying you pig out at every cheat or whatever - but this is SO easy to do and I've got a lot of experience wiping out a weeks work in 1 meal.

Your food choices are not horrible. I would reconsider the Atkins bar from a number of angles - but you don't get many cruciferous veggies. You could swap the Atkins bar out for a shake and get an extra 8 grams of protein and have 130 calories left over for an entire bag of broccoli, which would be a lot more filling than that bar I bet. Or skip the shake too and add in a bunch of fat free cottage cheese later in the day to ward off hunger.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful and harsh enough to be effective. You are kidding yourself. You aren't even logging.

If you want to be successful at any diet, here are the rules that matter for weight loss:

1. Weigh and measure EVERYTHING.
2. Log Everything.
3. Control your food - prepare it yourself (you seem to be doing good at this - but this rule is necessary for #1 and #2)
4. Create a caloric deficit.
5. Ensure you have sufficient protein.

Get a scale and myfitnesspal and come back here in a week with more data :)

I know you got this brother.
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I mean you are right about most of everything you said. I know I’m not 20% body fat. I was probably 20-23% when I was 240. Idk exactly what it is but I’d guess fairly lower than that. I haven’t been at maintenance, I’ve lost around 30 lbs and it’s now become my maintenance. But the rest of everything I agree with. I need to be weighing and logging everything. I did that religiously for a long time and I guess just got lazy if I’m being honest. Guess I just need to do the basics. Thank you for the advice
 
I was on for like a year and half but I’m taking a break from cycling. Been off for about 3 months. Most of the weight I lost happened when I was still on. Just to give more detail
 
pureburl said:
I mean you are right about most of everything you said. I know I’m not 20% body fat. I was probably 20-23% when I was 240. Idk exactly what it is but I’d guess fairly lower than that. I haven’t been at maintenance, I’ve lost around 30 lbs and it’s now become my maintenance. But the rest of everything I agree with. I need to be weighing and logging everything. I did that religiously for a long time and I guess just got lazy if I’m being honest. Guess I just need to do the basics. Thank you for the advice
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If you were 240 @ 23% bodyfat, that's way above average. If that is true, then at 200 you'd be under 8% bodyfat and be pretty ripped. (23% of 240 = 55.2 pounds of fat. 240 - 55 = 185 pounds lean mass. 200 - 185 pounds = 15 pounds fat on you now = 7.5% BF - of course it assumes no muscle loss). 200 @ 20% is still better than a lot of people see in their lives. But I could be wrong.

Great job losing the weight! That's a long road, I get that and you obviously did it right! Get back to the basics! I wanna see you get your abs!
 
pureburl said:
I was on for like a year and half but I’m taking a break from cycling. Been off for about 3 months. Most of the weight I lost happened when I was still on. Just to give more detail
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Ok, that may make me wrong about the 20%, I've just been using averages. Still, you're above average it sounds like.
 
Thanks bro and I hoen
HIT4ME said:
If you were 240 @ 23% bodyfat, that's way above average. If that is true, then at 200 you'd be under 8% bodyfat and be pretty ripped. (23% of 240 = 55.2 pounds of fat. 240 - 55 = 185 pounds lean mass. 200 - 185 pounds = 15 pounds fat on you now = 7.5% BF - of course it assumes no muscle loss). 200 @ 20% is still better than a lot of people see in their lives. But I could be wrong.

Great job losing the weight! That's a long road, I get that and you obviously did it right! Get back to the basics! I wanna see you get your abs!
[/QUOTE
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HIT4ME said:
If you were 240 @ 23% bodyfat, that's way above average. If that is true, then at 200 you'd be under 8% bodyfat and be pretty ripped. (23% of 240 = 55.2 pounds of fat. 240 - 55 = 185 pounds lean mass. 200 - 185 pounds = 15 pounds fat on you now = 7.5% BF - of course it assumes no muscle loss). 200 @ 20% is still better than a lot of people see in their lives. But I could be wrong.

Great job losing the weight! That's a long road, I get that and you obviously did it right! Get back to the basics! I wanna see you get your abs!
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Thanks man, I honestly have no idea on the percentage just guesses. I have 6 visible abs, ( the last 2 like half visible lmao) but i still wanna be leaner. I’m gonna get on top of things and see the difference. You gave some super solid points and advise
 
If you are actually even below 12%, then some things change. Geez, if you are 200 and have a six pack then I may have to back track a little here...

Still, get to measuring and a log.

How long you been low carb?
 
I just want to throw in here a huge to hit4me. People pay huge amounts of money for what he just did for you for free. That someone would take that kind of time to help a complete stranger is amazing and I would take his help and advice and run with it as fast as possible. Well done.
 
HIT4ME said:
If you are actually even below 12%, then some things change. Geez, if you are 200 and have a six pack then I may have to back track a little here...

Still, get to measuring and a log.

How long you been low carb?
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Been doing low carb for 3-4 months. I wanna get my bf checked just to know.
 
stock28 said:
I just want to throw in here a huge to hit4me. People pay huge amounts of money for what he just did for you for free. That someone would take that kind of time to help a complete stranger is amazing and I would take his help and advice and run with it as fast as possible. Well done.
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Hey man, thanks - you are too kind. Just trying to help if I can. Plenty of people on this board have helped me and who knows who may see this thread in the future and gain from it.

pureburl said:
Been doing low carb for 3-4 months. I wanna get my bf checked just to know.
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So, I am going to steal from jroxk and Resolve here. If you are near single digits (below 15%), then some things change a little.

You can only mobilize so much fat in a day from your body. The fatter you are, it seems, the higher thos mobilization rate is.

Why this is important is because you could fast and eat nothing at 30% bodyfat and not even be hungry because your energy needs really are covered by the amount of fat you can mobilize.

But if you are at say, 10% and in a severe deficit - you may actually have a bottleneck because you cannot mobilize enough fat to reach your requirements. Eventually this will lead to sickness and death - but in the early stages I imagine it would make you feel lile crap.

My advice to measure and log still stands, but the adjustment may be that you NEED to eat more calories, not because it will speed up fat loss but because you are too lean to safely (or at least without severe discomfort) fulfill your caloric requirements without more food.

In this case I may consider taking a quick break and eating closer to 2500 calories a day for 2 weeks and then going back at it with a smaller deficit (2000-2200 maybe). The fat loss will be slower but more manageable. Perhaps 1 day a week of fasting or even 1/2 day fasting qould speed things up.
 
HIT4ME said:
Hey man, thanks - you are too kind. Just trying to help if I can. Plenty of people on this board have helped me and who knows who may see this thread in the future and gain from it.



So, I am going to steal from jroxk and Resolve here. If you are near single digits (below 15%), then some things change a little.

You can only mobilize so much fat in a day from your body. The fatter you are, it seems, the higher thos mobilization rate is.

Why this is important is because you could fast and eat nothing at 30% bodyfat and not even be hungry because your energy needs really are covered by the amount of fat you can mobilize.

But if you are at say, 10% and in a severe deficit - you may actually have a bottleneck because you cannot mobilize enough fat to reach your requirements. Eventually this will lead to sickness and death - but in the early stages I imagine it would make you feel lile crap.

My advice to measure and log still stands, but the adjustment may be that you NEED to eat more calories, not because it will speed up fat loss but because you are too lean to safely (or at least without severe discomfort) fulfill your caloric requirements without more food.

In this case I may consider taking a quick break and eating closer to 2500 calories a day for 2 weeks and then going back at it with a smaller deficit (2000-2200 maybe). The fat loss will be slower but more manageable. Perhaps 1 day a week of fasting or even 1/2 day fasting qould speed things up.
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So just to make sure I understand. Go to around 2500 and create a deficit from the 2500 like 2300? And I’m gonna take your advice on the rest and also replace the protein bar with a shake and maybe some veggies. Thanks for taking your time with all this again
 
pureburl said:
So just to make sure I understand. Go to around 2500 and create a deficit from the 2500 like 2300? And I’m gonna take your advice on the rest and also replace the protein bar with a shake and maybe some veggies. Thanks for taking your time with all this again
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So, I would try to get your bf tested - would be a good idea. You can be more aggressive with a caloric deficit with higher BF than lower. But without seeing you and knowing I have to go on what you are saying and believe you are under 12% or close to.

If you have been dieting for a while and you are feeling sick, etc. - I would take a two week "break" - I would still start a log in MFP or even in a notebook and weigh things. I would shoot for 2500 cals a day. If you cheat a couple times and even gain a few pounds I wouldn't freak out. I also would get some carbs in during that time, personally.

But yes, 2500 cals for 2 weeks then back at it at 2200-2300 cals and see if you tolerate it. I am NOT against deficits - even big ones, but when you are lean, things change a bit.

As hairygrandpa said - fasting can be a good tool to play with too, but I would keep that to 1 day a week or so at a lean weight.

Honestly, refeeds become necessary as well at lower BF%.
 
HIT4ME said:
So, I would try to get your bf tested - would be a good idea. You can be more aggressive with a caloric deficit with higher BF than lower. But without seeing you and knowing I have to go on what you are saying and believe you are under 12% or close to.

If you have been dieting for a while and you are feeling sick, etc. - I would take a two week "break" - I would still start a log in MFP or even in a notebook and weigh things. I would shoot for 2500 cals a day. If you cheat a couple times and even gain a few pounds I wouldn't freak out. I also would get some carbs in during that time, personally.

But yes, 2500 cals for 2 weeks then back at it at 2200-2300 cals and see if you tolerate it. I am NOT against deficits - even big ones, but when you are lean, things change a bit.

As hairygrandpa said - fasting can be a good tool to play with too, but I would keep that to 1 day a week or so at a lean weight.

Honestly, refeeds become necessary as well at lower BF%.
[/
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So let’s say that my calories are out 1647 ( I’m sure they’re a little higher just because I don’t weigh and it throws the numbers off). Will an increase of nearly 1000 cals lead to fat gain even if it’s just 2 weeks? And also even if I drop it after that will I even actually be in a deficit? Sorry for all the questions, I just truly don’t know the answers
 
Yeah, so I am kind of running two ideas here because I don't actually know your current BF%. The first idea is good for general, the second is more specific if you are around 12% or less.

1. I REALLY think the weighing/measuring of the food is the biggest issue. An extra 2 oz. of nuts and 3 oz. os Sirloin will turn your 850 calorie deficot into a 200-250 calorie deficit (3 oz isn't very much - especially when it is raw, it will cook up to 2 oz). 250 x 7 = 1,750. Throw in a cheat a week and suddenly you are at 2500 calories/maintenance pretty easily.

As a personal example of how this recently came up in ny dieting, I was using a scoop that came with my protein powder to measure my protein. The other day, not sure why, I weighed the scoop of powder and realized it weighed out 37bgrams consistently, when a serving is supposed to be 30 grams. I was getting 25% more even measuring that way. So we all have areas this happens.

2. If you are lean, and actually are eating 1,647 calories a day and feeling like **** - you may just not have enough fat on your body to provide an extra 800 calories a day effectively.

In this case, given that you have been in an 800 calorie deficit and feel like crap and are having some challenges, a 2 week break at maintenance (2,500 cals) could give your body a rest and make you feel better.

After that, because you don't want to beat your head against a wall, you will probably want a smaller deficit to accomodate your body's abilities (say 300 cals/day).

Cutting this way will be extremely slow - a little over a half pound per week - so you may decide to throw in a low calorie day where you eat just, say, 800 calories (basically fast for 3/4) of the day. Plus cheat meals can wipe that deficit out completely so you will have to ve very mindful there.

This is just one approach and I hope I am conveying it correctly. Ask as many questions as you like. If I finally explain it correctly, then you won't need to ask.
 
HIT4ME said:
Yeah, so I am kind of running two ideas here because I don't actually know your current BF%. The first idea is good for general, the second is more specific if you are around 12% or less.

1. I REALLY think the weighing/measuring of the food is the biggest issue. An extra 2 oz. of nuts and 3 oz. os Sirloin will turn your 850 calorie deficot into a 200-250 calorie deficit (3 oz isn't very much - especially when it is raw, it will cook up to 2 oz). 250 x 7 = 1,750. Throw in a cheat a week and suddenly you are at 2500 calories/maintenance pretty easily.

As a personal example of how this recently came up in ny dieting, I was using a scoop that came with my protein powder to measure my protein. The other day, not sure why, I weighed the scoop of powder and realized it weighed out 37bgrams consistently, when a serving is supposed to be 30 grams. I was getting 25% more even measuring that way. So we all have areas this happens.

2. If you are lean, and actually are eating 1,647 calories a day and feeling like **** - you may just not have enough fat on your body to provide an extra 800 calories a day effectively.

In this case, given that you have been in an 800 calorie deficit and feel like crap and are having some challenges, a 2 week break at maintenance (2,500 cals) could give your body a rest and make you feel better.

After that, because you don't want to beat your head against a wall, you will probably want a smaller deficit to accomodate your body's abilities (say 300 cals/day).

Cutting this way will be extremely slow - a little over a half pound per week - so you may decide to throw in a low calorie day where you eat just, say, 800 calories (basically fast for 3/4) of the day. Plus cheat meals can wipe that deficit out completely so you will have to ve very mindful there.

This is just one approach and I hope I am conveying it correctly. Ask as many questions as you like. If I finally explain it correctly, then you won't need to ask.
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I’ll try that out with just monitoring weight and scaling everything. I really don’t think I’m under 12%. Kinda don’t think I’m at 12% tbh but don’t know. I wouldn’t think I’m too low body fat. But I’ll do all that and get back to you in a couple weeks with an update bro
 
pureburl said:
I’ll try that out with just monitoring weight and scaling everything. I really don’t think I’m under 12%. Kinda don’t think I’m at 12% tbh but don’t know. I wouldn’t think I’m too low body fat. But I’ll do all that and get back to you in a couple weeks with an update bro
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If you're not at or below 12% I would say #1 is all you need to worry about - log and measure. You probably will be surprised at what your actual weekly deficit turns out to be in the end. I am in the same boat - logging and measuring is a pain at first, but once it becomes a habit, it gets easier.
 
Count calories really accurately and find one of those maintenance calorie calculators on google and keep it under. Do intermittent fasting if you’re too hungry. Keep protein really high(1g/lb body weight). Carbs and fat however you feel best, but keeping carbs lower seems to help hunger. Lifting lower reps/sets, heavy seems to work better for me when calorie restricted. LIIT cardio doesn’t spike appetite as much as HIIT. You can add in forkskolin, EC or fat burner, EGCG. I also sometimes use Kratom to kill appetite and stick with fasting schedule
 
I had to start dieting because there’s a competition coming up. Honestly I’m finding It easier to diet on higher carbs and very low, less than 20grams like around 15 grams of fat a day. Don’t fear carbs. I think it’s much easier to over eat fats.
To quote Phil Hernon when responding to someone asking about a 1000 calorie diet. “Diet hard now and worry about putting the muscle back on later.”
If you keep protein super high you won’t really lose too much muscle to begin with. For a very fast way to lose weight look at Big As’ contest prep on the synthetek website or professionalmuscle.com.
My macros for today are protein 250,carbs 150, fats 12. As I go deeper Into it I’ll raise protein to 400 and lower carbs. By the end all my calories will come from protein except for trace amounts for 3 weeks. I’m also a fan of Skip loads which I keep in from the first week until the end.
 
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