Attached are a couple pics of me. Before and After. I’ve been lifting seriously for about 1 year. I’ve made some muscle gains, but I am having trouble burning the fat. Been intermittent fasting for about 6 months, then plateaued. Just started carb cycling last week. 3 days low carb, 1 day high carb, repeat. Focusing much more on the diet. Cardio bores the shit out of me.
Keep going. Don’t fast either. Cardio bores me too but long bike rides can offer something. I’m older than you so I get it. It’s tough sometimes to drop fat, but exchange some cardio for the bored attitude and you can break that barrier. Good luck.
Nice work bro. Keep going. Ever think of hiit or some kind of kettlebell work for cardio?
Sprints are a great way to burn fat. Look up HIT
HIIT boosts your natural human growth hormone production. You can search studies, try pubmed.org.
I tried going on nutritional ketosis and it worked well for building mass + dropping fat. A small minority of us have cholesterol issue with keto and I have recently dropped off, unfortunately.
I’m using Serge Nubret’s training method that I found here - that’s why I joined this site really. He uses high volume and lower weight. My joints love it - injury free. It also burns more calories. There is NO- cardio is catabolic - except that Serge did 2,000 situps in the AM which amounted to his cardio. He went hours and worked out for hours.
He was injury free for decades of BBing, never dieted like our typical bulk&cut cycles - just ate as his body told him it needed to be fit. I am getting great results from his method, YMMV.
Here’s the link to the article here (there are other sites he posted on personally too)
Complexes, complexes, complexes, and cut the carbs to ONLY before and after lifting. Google Dan John.
Resist cutting calories as long as you can, opting instead for increased intensity. I also wouldn’t say “don’t fast”, fasting can definitely work and is just one of many tools at your disposal. Maybe just change your protocol somewhat. I’ve used IF successfully to lose/maintain body fat levels, but strictly in conjunction with carb-cycling. And for your your carb-cycling efforts, don’t follow a calendar schedule, track your workouts. i.e. more carbs on training days, less on rest days.
Likewise, reduce your fats on training days, and increase fats a little on the rest days. If you are IFing every day (standard 16/8), maybe look to switch to a full 24 hour fast just once a week, usually on the back of an intense workout and/or refeed meal.
All the advice for HIIT/complexes is well given; cardio (LISS - Low Intensity Steady State) is useful and has a role to play in developing your energy systems, heart health and reducing soreness/DOMS, but HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) will burn more fat and gives you more bang for your buck. For HIIT, there are literally hundreds of options, from separate HIIT workouts using bikes, weights, prowlers etc., to simple (but f’ing hard) “conditioners” that you can tack on to the end of your existing workouts. (Like a KB swing/Burpee pyramid).
Well done with your progress so far, and keep-up the good work! Good luck.