Hi yall! So I’ve been pretty good at keeping my caloric intake at 1600s for a while now but the last two weeks I’ve been really logging everything and determined to get below 20%. However I feel like my body is refusing to go below that. I once got 19.99% but now I’m at 20.7% after vigorously watching what I eat. My daily intake is 1600. I work out 5 days a week weightlifting always getting stronger. I really want to hit 14% by this summer. My metabolic rate is 1680. According to MyFitnessPal my maintenance calories are 2300. According to my gym instructor my maintenance calories are 2000. I feel like in a way I may have crashed my metabolism. Maybe I need to do more cardio? Im not really gaining muscle mass at all. But I am getting stronger by a lot. I feel like my body is sort of screwed up. Maybe I just have bad genetics. I’ve been at this game for almost 7 months and while I’ve gone from 26% to 20% I cannot get below that. Is my goal at 14% by June realistic? Or should I just deal with the possibility I may have shit genetics that’s preventing me.
“Crashed” is a dramatic term, but you may have “Slowed” your metabolism. Or, maybe you’ve been doing low calories so long, your body has responded by learning to burn fewer calories.
Now you’re stuck.
The only thing to do is start ADDING calories.
It may sound weird, because your goal is based on “losing,” but you only want to lose fat. And to do that you need to grow Muscle, which will help you burn or metabolize the fat.
To do that, you need to eat enough protein and calories to fuel training and build muscle. You’re not gaining any muscle, so you know you’re falling short.
Add protein (50ish grams/200ish calories) first because you’re Way slacking on that.
If that doesn’t jump start weight loss, eat More calories, getting closer to your maintenance level, until you start to make progress.
thats quite the accurate eyeball you’ve got there!
Don’t use those bodyfat impedance testers (the things with the handles/foot pads); I swear they hurt more than they help.
What are your macros?
Are you logging EVERYTHING? Like the little teaspoon of sugar in your coffee and splash of cream too?
A thread that has helped me more times than I can count:
I know people including myself that have gone from a bit overweight to lean (say 25% to sub 15%), and we have something in common. We all didn’t do it in one go. It was several cut diets, followed by time at maintenance or a bit higher, then back on to the cut diet. Mentally, it is much easier this way for me. Eventually I just get stagnant trying to cut, and stop losing weight.
Also, keep in mind that the leaner you get the more your body fights back. It wants to have a bit of fat storage (because in the past, that was important for survival).
Going from 26% to 20% in 7 months is pretty awesome! I wouldn’t be too down on yourself over that.
I have been but I do admit sometimes it’s hard to log things without nutrition labels. How do you go about that? Also I’ve been eating a LOT of chicken. I don’t really have any cooking skills and it’s hard to find things other than chicken and tuna that have a lot of protein. And yes, perhaps I am putting too much reliance on the body scanners. I know they aren’t totally accurate.
You have a point. I will say the few times I have managed to gain a little muscle have been the times I accidentally over ate the 1600. What do you recommend as far as food goes? I’m not much of a chef. I have very little cooking skills. I am nearly burnt out on chicken and tuna.
Thank you! Perhaps I’ve reached my limit at 1600 going on this long. Do you recommend doing maintenance at high protein? I read an article and someone was advising to eat 15% more than maintenance on training days and 10% less than maintenance on non training days (weekends).
You’re English is so good you might be European.
What country are you in? I don’t want to list American stuff you can’t find.
Thank you! I’m actually from Oklahoma!
I only eat food that I prepare myself, or that has a no bullshit nutrition label.
You can trust that a bag of pre-cooked chicken breast is probably accurate in it’s macro listings.
You cannot trust a bag of breaded chicken fingers and it’s macro listings.
Cool, some quick tips for chicken breast to make them not suck:
- Cut your chicken breasts in half so they aren’t so thick.
- Use a Jaccard Meat Tenderizer and stab a hundred holes into the chicken breast.
- Brine your chicken breast for 12+ hours before cooking (just soak it in some really salty water, in the fridge, I do this with about 5lbs of chicken breast, 2 cups water, 2-3 tablespoons salt - all in a gallon ziplock (pro tip: put the bag in a big bowl, in case it leaks in the fridge)).
- Pat dry and salt liberally, use any pre-mixed seasonings you like. This one is top notch, IMO. I use it on pretty much everything when I’m being lazy.
- Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes. Use a thermometer if you want, or just make sure you don’t see any pink inside.
A scale is okay, but even they are quite subjective tbh.
What does the mirror say? I advocate for monthly progress pictures. Same lighting, same pose. Hard to not be objective like that.
I would say for the goals people have on T-Nation that high protein (relative to the general population) is always a good idea. Try to get roughly 1g per lb of body weight as a baseline. I am not super strict with my macros. I mostly just try to get roughly that 1g/lb and hit a calorie goal (I believe 90% of the results will be had by doing that, unless someone is talking extremes like doing no carbs, or no fats…, if the diet is relatively balanced and protein and calories are controlled, that is most of the results).
Cooking is a skill that is learned. You don’t need classes or anything. YouTube can help you out. You will learn stuff on your own the more you do it. If you have a grill, that is an awesome way IMO to make animal protein taste really good, and there is very little prep or clean up with grilling.
Holy shit, thank the Lord! Cattle Country!
It could be as simple as adding Beef to your existing diet.
Post workout meal, 8 oz of ground beef that you cook in a frying pan. And put over rice, after you drain the grease from the beef.
Or twice a week you grill up 2 pounds of sirloin steak. Eat 8 oz immediately and divide the rest into three 8 oz portions to eat over the next few days. Like interspersed with your chicken and tuna meals.
Absolutely I like the recommendations you’ve made for chicken breast! And now that I think about it. Usually the first thing I do when waking up is look in the mirror. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been sleeping but I am always shocked at how skinny I look while retaining some muscle mass and see the progress. But then as the day commences when I look in the mirror I no longer see it as evident. There is still a huge difference though. It’s just the body scanner that gets me down every time. Now I’m questioning my actual BF%. I’ll submit some shirtless pictures around 5. That will be way better for yall to visually see than those crappy 3d scans I submitted on my last post.
If you were to weigh yourself, do it first thing in the morning - right after you piss. it’s the most steady your weight will be from day to day.
Keep in mind that weight is only an ‘okay’ metric to go by. I’ve weighed 210lbs before and it was all fat. I weight 210lbs now and, well, its a lot less fat.
Mirror is good, pictures are a little better. Hard to remember exactly what you looked like a month ago.
I’ll follow along
Heck yea! That sounds like a great idea! And yea there’s a lot of cattle around me. My uncle farms and raises some cattle. My soon to be brother in law is also a farmer. And my other uncle is a farmer. I, unfortunately, go to OU and live in a crowded apartment complex in Norman.
Yes and I need to get a scale! I’ve been weighing myself before workouts at the gym. Probably not ideal. Which is more accurate? Digital or analog?
Also, think about grabbing some protein powder.
You suck at cooking and eating right now, so a super easy way to get down 50grams of protein quickly can help you “fill in the gaps” in your diet.
Especially if you aren’t into breakfast. Whey shake in the morning is an easier start than cooking up slimy, sloppy eggs.
Yea eggs are another thing I’m burned out on! I’ve been using chocolate protein powder in shakes after workouts. But perhaps it’s because it’s the cheap kind it’s not good enough quality?
Hard to give you a real answer here. Analog if you have calibration weights, but a digital scale is usually fine.
The protein powder could be whack. Or it could be OK and it’s just not enough.
Truthfully, it sounds like you’ve been Ultra disciplined on a super boring and bland diet and you just can’t choke that shit down anymore.
Check out these videos for all kinds of tips about eating, shopping, and cooking tastier food.
