Cutting Not Losing...

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

HI,

I’m 6’2’', 220 pounds, bodyfat unknown, but probably around 15%. I won’t type my diet because I do not have predetermined meals, but I count my calories.

Every day I get between 2000 and 2500 cal. Never below 2000, but sometimes over 2500 (max I’ve been is 2700). I eat 5-7 small meals per day, eat lots of fruits and veggies (5-7 portions per day) and eat low carb.

I’d say my ration might be around 20% carbs or less, 45% proteins or more and the rest fats. The only time I eat simple carbs is PWO. The other time, I eat Complex crabs, like oats and multigrain bread, on mornings, and even on my cheat meals, I try to not eat a lot simple carbs, save for the occasional dessert.

I train 3X a week, full body, in the 6-8 reps, majority of compounds exercises. I’ll be switching shortly on a EDT/Lactic acid training hybrid that I’m creating at the moment (I’ll keep you informed). On off-days days, I try to do some cardio, anything from walks to HIIT to rope skipping. 1 day or 2 on a week I rest.

That’s about it for my personal info. If you need more just ask.

My question is : Do you think I’m undereating? Maybe I’m consuming too low cal. for an efficient fat loss. Although I do not seem to lose muscle or even get hungry, maybe my body is on ‘‘preservation mode’’ because of the too restricted cals…?

Should I eat more? If yes, how much? I mean, If I follow the simple rule of 10-12X your bodyweight in cals for cutting, I’m ok, but still…

I’ll be weighing myself tonight, I’ll come back with the result.

One last thing, I just did 1 week of the V-diet (could not drink shakes anymore, I never liked shakes to start, but after so much shakes, I couldn’t drink them anymore, I was gagging…) and lost 5 pounds, I took 1 pound back, water weight I guess…

2

Instead of cutting down your calories more why don’t you try burning more calories?

Add in some cardio. I guaruntee you’re not doing too much right now, and if you start losing more weight than you’d like and your lifts don’t stay the same eat more.

I personally prefer eating plenty and doing something to keep me active every day rather than going hungry.

3

[quote]Deserteaglle wrote:
Instead of cutting down your calories more why don’t you try burning more calories?

Add in some cardio. I guaruntee you’re not doing too much right now, and if you start losing more weight than you’d like and your lifts don’t stay the same eat more.

I personally prefer eating plenty and doing something to keep me active every day rather than going hungry.[/quote]

I agree 100%…

exactly how much cardio are you doing? You didn’t list the exact specifics.

In regards to your diet, I personally eliminate all fruits from my diet when cutting.

4

Ok, I do tabatas after workout sometimes, sometimes I skip rope on off-days, sometimes I take walks, etc… I do it like that because I know if I make a steady program, I’ll get bored. I’m pretty motivated, despite my lack of results. By the way, I weighted myself today, I gained 2 pounds… How can one gain 2 pounds below calorie maintenance?.. anyway…

I’ll try to up the cardio a bit. I’d like to hit the 210 pounds mark, I don’t care if I lose muscle a bit. I currently use BCAA’s and fat burners.

I will make my EDT/Lactic acid training program and start tuesday. I’ll post it as soon as I’m done.

5

Its pretty easy to gain a couple of lbs of water in a day, especially if you are active.

6

[quote]gogotheviking wrote:
Ok, I do tabatas after workout sometimes, sometimes I skip rope on off-days, sometimes I take walks, etc… I do it like that because I know if I make a steady program, I’ll get bored. I’m pretty motivated, despite my lack of results. By the way, I weighted myself today, I gained 2 pounds… How can one gain 2 pounds below calorie maintenance?.. anyway…

I’ll try to up the cardio a bit. I’d like to hit the 210 pounds mark, I don’t care if I lose muscle a bit. I currently use BCAA’s and fat burners.

I will make my EDT/Lactic acid training program and start tuesday. I’ll post it as soon as I’m done. [/quote]

I really don’t see how you can write yourself a EDT/Lactic acid program, but not lose 10 pounds without losing some muscle if you’re at 15%BF. I also don’t know why you would need a fat burner, but I’m not going to get into that.

I think what your problem is is that you do things “sometimes”. On top of everything you do now (don’t cut anymore calories), run a brisk mile and a half 6 days a week. That’s not going make your body go into a wicked catabloic state immediately, and it’ll only take 10 minutes.

Do that for 3 weeks, and if you get bored with it that quick you’re not as motivated as you think.

p.s. Why 210?

7

[quote]Deserteaglle wrote:

I really don’t see how you can write yourself a EDT/Lactic acid program, but not lose 10 pounds without losing some muscle if you’re at 15%BF. I also don’t know why you would need a fat burner, but I’m not going to get into that.

I think what your problem is is that you do things “sometimes”. On top of everything you do now (don’t cut anymore calories), run a brisk mile and a half 6 days a week. That’s not going make your body go into a wicked catabloic state immediately, and it’ll only take 10 minutes.

Do that for 3 weeks, and if you get bored with it that quick you’re not as motivated as you think.

[/quote]

damn, you consider completing a mile and half in ten mins “brisk.” I would hate to see what you consider hard:)

Lactate workouts are hard as hell, I don’t think it’s reasonable to do that much running and do lactate training. I would also say lactate training is more effective than steady state cardio.

I was running 6 times a week myself until I started lactate training, and now have cut back to running 3 times a week. lactate training is a bitch. Even though I have gained weight, my bf is going down.

Non the less, the OP needs to track his calories in far more details and get a program down, even his own, down, and I’m curious as to what your program looks like. I do believe you can lose fat and gain muscle as does CT.

8

sorry if I did not made myself clear guys… I did not start the program yet, I will tuesday. And I can’t run a mile and a half in 10 minutes lol… That’s way too much.

Deserteaglle, I’ll tell you a bit of my past. At my worst, I was 255 pounds. I had a gut. So I decided to do something. I did 3-4 kickboxing sessions for 4-5 months, and so I went down to 235 pounds. I was not skinny, but I did not had a lot of muscles. I was still very proud of myself, but I had to move and sell my car, so Kickboxing was out of the window.

So I started going to my university gym, it was cheap and I like to try new things. Then, the love of the iron took on me. I tried a lot of things, but in the process, I gained muscle and lost some fat, but always stayed at 235. Now, with some cutting, I’m down to 224, but my progress seems to have halted somewhat…

Now, I feel I made enough gains, and I don’t mind losing muscle to see my abs. I know some of you would not agree, but I never was slim, in anytime of my life, and I wanna be for this summer. I got time, a good job, so anything is possible.

I am motivated, and starting next week, I’ll be starting a structured approach. 3Xweek my EDT/Lactate training, 3Xweek 1 hour slow cardio (to help with DOMS and burn some more calories) and 1 day rest. My diet will stay the same, maybe I’ll eat less fruits and compensate with more veggies, I’ll see if my energy allows it.

And 210 pounds is just a goal, same principle as beating your PR in EDT training. it gives me an objective and motivates me. If I have a 6-pack at 215 pounds, maybe I’ll reconsider.

You are right on the fact that I need more structure. I’m woking into that, I’ll let you know.

Thanks for all your advices and commentaries, they are appreciated.

P.S. Why do you not approve me using fat burners?

9

NUmber 1 it’s not that I “disapprove” of fat burners, I just really wouldn’t think they would be necessary when you could obviously be more active. I would think it could save you some money, but if you got the money to spend no biggie.

Second, I completely hear where you’re coming from. I too am a FFB (250 in 10th grade) who went to skinny-fat (175 @ 18y.o. no six pack), to pretty decent 195 about 2 years ago, and then somehow let myself skyrocket up to around 230.

Right now I’m in the 200-205 range and can see my abs for the first time in my life. I think at our stage, the beginner to advanced level, it’s pretty damn simple to get stronger, gain muscle, and get lean. If I showed you the pictures from me at 217 and me at 207 you wouldn’t believe what a difference 3 months of extremely hard and dedicated training and diet made.

Right now though, my goal isn’t to see my abs, they’re gonna be there because I do ridiculous amounts of activity, but to get stronger and have better endurance, and I obviously want to be bigger in the right places.

What I’m getting at is if you’re 2 inches taller than me and 224, for your height your probably just a little chunkier than me, so you should have ZERO reason to lose some muscle while leaning out.

Just to give you an idea, I work on a split routine right now. 2 days bi’s, tri’s, calves, chest, and back, one day of REAL leg lifting, either deads or squats plus lunges, shoulders, and traps. (I started out doing 2 days, but after a while my legs just don’t feel fresh enough to pull heavy twice a week).

The day I used to use for my other leg lifting I sprint. Once a week I run with a 30lb. weighted vest, about 3 days a week I run 2-3 miles (I do NOT run a 10 minute mile and a half BTW.lol. Wasn’t thinking when I typed that) and finally about 4 days a week I go straight from my runs and lifting to West Texas MMA and do BJJ and MMA for an hour and a half.

I know some people do alot more than that, but I’d say that’s pretty active compared to what you’re doing right now. We don’t have a real high training age, so doing that much cardio/springting isn’t going to make you lose muscle if you’re eating enough of the right stuff.

Damnit, I didn’t mean to tell my life story, but there you go. Stop thinking you’re gonna lose muscle, make sure you’re strength stays the same, and go by how you look in the mirror. Good luck man, I’m interested to see how you do in the next couple weeks.

10

From your story, I can see that you are a lot more active than me. I was thinking that since diet is 90% responsible for your weight (I read that a lot), I should have to concentrate on my diet almost exclusively. I’m beginning to think I was wrong.

I’ll arrange my program and I’ll come back here to post my progression.

And if I might add, I’m beginning to think this ‘‘low intensity cardio for a long period’’ does not burn as much muscle as we all think. You see that everywhere ‘‘It will burn muscle, you will lose all your gains…’’ and so on.

Maybe if you are a mass monster with lots of muscle and already lean, you may lose a bit more muscle, but any beginner to intermediate trainee, who trains for looks and does not necessiraly want to be a mass monster, might benefit from that kind of cardio. Correct me if I’m wrong.