well as a former fatty, this seems to be an important issue to me. I have been as heavy as 240lbs. and recently I got down to about 170lbs. for a photo shoot. At that weight I was tremendously ripped, and I felt good. Now here in lies the problem, ever since that shoot, I have not been reacting to my diet the way I have in the past. I am eating the same exact foods, in the same exact weights, and I am somehow not getting back down. I have slowly creeped up to 185lb. with good definition, but I feel it would be a lot better, if I could lose five pounds. I am guessing the dieting for the shoot did something to my metabolism, is there anything I can do to correct this, or will I just have to let time take it’s course. Any one else experience this, and if so how could I correct it?
Well are you exercising?
Do you have refeeds in there or is this a strict hard diet?
What BF did you get down to?
were you on a low or no carb diet? from what i understand a no carb diet or getting into ketosis can impair insulin sensitivity temporarily.
if you end your keto diet and jump right back into eating a lot of carbs i would imagine that you could put on some fat rather quickly.
You didn’t drop from 240 to 170 in one cycle, did you? You may have slowed down the metabolism if so.
I am going through something similar. I’ve always responded rather quickly when cutting. I just went through four months of being completely sedentary and diet was horrible. I ballooned from a ripped 153 to a sorry 190. I’ve been back in it for almost a month now and the weight is coming off very slow, but I am not restricting carbs as much so obviously it won’t come off as quicky due to the diuretic nature of cutting the carbs dramatically.
I remember the first time I did Don’t Diet. After a month I was pissed because I wasn’t showing any real progress despite a letter-perfect plan. Then all of a sudden things just clicked and from that point on I made excellent progress in dropping fat and maintaining lean mass.
Someone asked you if you were on a keto or lower-carb plan. If you do this for too long you can lower T3 levels (usually happens within 4-6 weeks), plus if you’re on ephedra it’ll happen faster.
Give us some more details and we’ll see what we can come up with.
I can’t answer your question, but I assume that your body has to “catch up” to your new diet/metabolic needs. You’ve been around a long time, why not share your story of success. Even at 185 you certainly are at a point I’d envy. Help out the noobs onboard and let us know your basic weight loss story that happened, and time frame.
thanks. Keep it up!
well it started about 1 1/2 years ago, I had ended my senior year in college, and decided that I wanted to lean out. I began doing cardio, and I really cleaned up my diet, I began cutting out lots of bad foods, and learning more and more about nutrition and training. With the aid of an ephedra based fat burner, I began to see quick progress, over the span of 8 months I was already down to 190, I did some yo yoing for a couple months, then got into real serious about thanksgiving last year, since then I have gone long periods of eating clean without cheating, I will usually go two months clean, then have an all out binge, I guess this is what satisfies me mentally. Any how about two months ago, I got really lean down I would say close to 5% bf if not less @ 170lb. I was following a diet which I would not say was low carb by any means, as I was consuming 2557 cals, 271g protein, 61g fat, 236 g carbs, 39g fiber. I followed this plan to a T, making sure to not mix my carbs and fats, making sure to eat my carbs around my workout time, and tapering off my nights with healthy fats, lean protein and fiborous veggies. This plan worked great, but ever since I got done with the shoot, and upped the cals a little mostly in the form of adding two egg whites to each meal I have been putting on weight some of which is good, but some fat too. I have been eating clean for a month now, no cheats, and I am currently using an ephedra based fat burner along with a OTC pro hormone. I really cant understand whats up, I lift weights five to six times a week, and I follow each workout with 30-35 min moderate intensity cardio. So that is it in a nutshell, I am thinking of doing t-dawg, but dont know, any help would be really appreciated, as I would really liked to shed about ten pounds, not solely for this purpose, but my bro and I are going to go to Mexico, and I will be damned if I am not ripped to shreds while there.
Have you started any new precription drugs or anything else new that you can think of since this weight has started to increase? This could be a reason.,
Also, since you’ve been on an E/C stack for so long, your adrenals may be burnt out and you would benefit from re-strengthening them. You’ll have to drop the E/C and all stimulants for a few weeks and then supplement with licorice root (either in tea or capsule) and use an adrenal support product that has l-tyrosine and raw adrenal extract. Adrenal fatigue is very common and can be the reason for your wt gain.
thanks again for the replys. Trying not to make the situation any harder mentally than it could be, I have decided to reduce some of the calories in my current nutrition scheme, and see if it does the trick. I figured it was either that or spend more time in the gym lifting and doing cardio, and to tell you the truth I love the gym, but I bust mine like so many others here, and I cant think of going any harder and still being able to function at work. So I have chosen the eating route. My diet will look as follow
calories: 2442
protein: 250.8 g
fat: 64.7 g
carbs: 229 g
fiber: 38.3
I am really excited to start seeing the results I feel will be brought on by this diet, I am not looking for any extreme losses, but I would like to shed around 8-10lbs. any insight as to how my cals stack up is always appreciated. Also my foods are remaining the same as above, just broken down into smaller portions, i.e ditch the extra egg whites, lower the dextrose, and lower the yams.
Are you sure that you’ve gained fat?
To me, it seems as though you may have a bit of an eating disorder and aren’t viewing your body objectively.
If this is the case, perhaps you’ve actually gained muscle and are just a little smooth, but you’re too hung up on what the scale says.
I’ve been in a simular situation, so perhaps I can relate a little better to it.
I still think if you are going to go the calorie restriction route you should cut the carbs and up the dietary fats.
Just seems to work better than restricting with a more balanced “maintenance” type diet plan.
although some of your setails like your training regimen, personal stress levels etc are missing, here’s what I think:
I agree with cassanova about the E/C stack
over prolonged use its caused nothing but trouble and yo-yoing for me and people I know, some folks I know got an Ephedra pot belly from their shitty insulin resistance and lacked the energy to work out…
I’d say:
eat more. your calculations seem wrong.
try for slower fat loss
use stuff like hot-roxx, it’s worth it as it will help the withdrawl from the E/C.
go check your T-levels. sometime a very long diet can kill them, especialy low fat one.
hope this helps
S-man.
litespeed, you are pretty close at your assumption, I have always been very hard on myself in seeking “perfection” I think it is difficult not to be this way in this game, especially coming from the point of obesity to the point of being ripped up, you never want to go back to that old self. Although I do have a mild case of this, I do know that the weight I have gained has brought on fat, as I can visibly see it, but I am not saying that the muscle hasnt come with it either, as I know it has. I am a bit impatient and could wait out this period of not being as lean as I desire until the muscle slowly eats away the fat, but I am too stubborn, and want to have the shreds back. Eventually I do plan on letting go of this obsession, and letting myself get some fat gain, so I can build more muscle, but that time is not right now. I am also coming to grips with the fact that due to the tremendous amount of weight I lost, and how fast I lost, along with the fact that I have continued to use ECA stacks, that I have somewhat hampered my metabolism, so after this next cutting session I believe it will be time to be ECA free, and put on some quality size the old school way. Thanks for all the replies and for those who are interested I will keep you posted on how my current diet is working.
I want to re-itterate what I previously said (and what others say).
Give your body a break from the Eph/Caffeine! It needs to return to it’s normal level of functioning before it will become a fat burning machine again. Hot Roxx would work to help in the meantime or try the licorice/ adrenal support etc. It works. Trust me.
But Don’t start cutting your calories too much! That will just make things worse!
Uhhh…did you say you are taking a prohormone?
Obviously, that could change the equation pretty drastically.
I agree with Cassanova. Go with Hot-Rox. For me, the combination of Hot-Rox and Power drive can’t be beat. It’s almost scary how quickly I lose fat while using this stack.
thanks for the help guys. I would like to point out that it is not really the weight gain that I am overly concerned with, it is the blurriness of the muscle which is upsetting to me. I am planning on sticking to my diet, and continuing the use of the ECA as I feel it will help, however when I do come off I will look inot Hot Rox, it is that at this point in time I can not afford hot rox as I just dumped a lot of money on GROW, and some other miscellaneous products. Oh yes I am on a pro hormone, and it is working great, I am gaining good strength, and it is a definite contributer to the weight gain, which again I will point out is not the major issue. Thanks cassanova, I will look into your suggestions on the products you suggested, how will these work in conjunction with the ECA?
Dude, why do you have to be “ripped to shreds” all the time? It’s good to back off from that every now and again. It sounds like your body is telling you, and in no uncertain terms, that it’s time to back off from the shreds and add some good old fashioned MASS.
That way, when you come back to the fat loss, it will go faster and easier.
Even if you just go to a maintainance diet, minus E+C for 2-3 weeks, I think you’ll see a big difference.
Dan
evry oaunce off fat you drop using E/C and drastic diets is not worth it CAUSE IT WILL BE BACK. YOU WILL BE FAT WITH A FUCKED UP BODY.
people have made those mistakes so that you can avoid them. dont be vain and ignore it.
patience is an unheralded virtue but a msut in your case. it took you 20+ years to wreck your body, do you think you will fix it in one year? come on! all this need for immediate satisfaction is wrong.
training and nutrition is a life long quest. plan in years. you will be rewarded.
S-man
Dan, thanks for the reply, as a matter of fact, I had been eating more the last twon months, see I did a shoot, and got really lean for it, then when I came off I had a couple of splurges, heck I even had two days straight of eating. But about a month ago, I got back to eating perfect, no cheating, and following the diet which got me before, and well I really was not seeing the results I wanted. Anyhow to make a long story short, I am anticipating the arrival of my brother, and I really want to get ripped not only for that, but for the trip to Mexico we very well might take, those two and other personal satisfaction/challenge reasons. I understand that my body does need a break from fat burning mode and I will give it what it wants, just not right now. YOu all might be thinking of what a knucle head I am being, but please understand I have came leaps and bounds in my young bodybuilding career and I am always making progress, so try to bear with me…
What you don’t understand is that if you don’t give your body the break it needs now, you’ll only compound the problem. Save up for hot-rox and ditch the eca for the rest of your life.