Dieting 8 Weeks. How to Keep Seeing Results?

I feel hella good, lower abs coming out, obliques coming out, muscles filling out and cant see fat adding tbh, powers going up on weights slowly but thats understandable as im probably pushing in 1400 cals lol. Your right i think each gram of carb holds 3 or 4 grams of glycogen or something like that, im thinking of adding in Alcar l carnitine Am and post workout as its meant to help with fatloss and some energy? Although my energy levels are real good :muscle:t3:

I feel hella good, lower abs coming out, obliques coming out, muscles filling out and cant see fat adding tbh, powers going up on weights slowly but thats understandable as im probably pushing in 1400 cals lol. Your right i think each gram of carb holds 3 or 4 grams of glycogen or something like that, im thinking of adding in Alcar l carnitine Am and post workout as its meant to help with fatloss and some energy? Although my energy levels are real good :muscle:t3: , so i guess your right

2 Likes

Excellent!

I don’t know anything about those supplements, so I can’t comment, but as long as you’re getting stronger while (mostly) maintaining body composition, you’re doing the right thing.

I would keep the course and adjust every ~2 weeks. Once you stabilize with the water/ glycogen (after, day, a week) you’ll want to cap your biweekly weight gain with whatever is comfortable for you. Say 2 lbs per 2 weeks ((my example - you pick what works for you). Now if you gain 1.5 or less, you can 100 - 200 calories (depending on your patience). 1.5 - 2, stay the same. 2+, you need to drop 100 - 200 calories.

That’s the concept, but you’ll have to adapt numbers/ timing to your own patience and comfort with the weight gain. I tend to give myself too much leeway, for example, get fat, then have to spend more time than I want losing the fat!

1 Like

Excellent progress, congrats!

Moving from daily to 1 - 2x week weight-ins might help. Daily fluctuates too much and leads to overthinking.

1 Like

It’s just glycogen. Everything seems to be going well.

1 Like

So true, im happy with 1lb gain a week while i reach my maintenance calories over the next 8 weeks or so , that would mean probably 0.5lb if bodyweight gain and 0.5lb of glycogen and water gain. I will be keeping protein at 0.9 to 1g per lb. but what are the best macros for maintenance , how many percent should be carbs/fats?

1 Like

That’s a really good question and one you probably won’t find a set answer for.

Probably similar split to whatever worked to lose fat, but more calories.

You’re arguably working harder because you have more energy, so to me it makes sense that once your protein is around that one gram per pound of bodyweight mark, you take 20 to 25 per cent of total calories for fat and the rest are carbs.

1 Like

I totally agree with what @MarkKO is saying.

For me, I’ve found if protein and calories are where they need to be, the split over carbs and fat doesn’t matter as much.

There is some threshold of fat you don’t want to go below, but I like fatty foods so it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve read numbers around .3g-.4g fat per lbs. bodyweight.

Carbs have more volume, so I actually find it a little easier to try to get more of calories from carbs than fats in terms of satiety.

Anyway, like @MarkKO said, it’s going to be personal preference to some extent. Keep the protein pretty close to 1g per lbs. bodyweight, and then adjust total calories. My $0.02.

2 Likes

See, we’re the opposite. I look for a threshold above which fats don’t go, generally 25 per cent of total calories. My gut doesn’t like fatty food very much though.

2 Likes

Kind of interesting how there’s already two choices when you ask two people! I think our different preference is exactly why we agree on the approach, though.

You’ll lose weight as long as you can maintain a deficit. You’ll retain muscle as long as you lift and have high enough protein. You won’t mess yourself up as long as you have some threshold of fats. Outside of that, it’s whatever works for you!

1 Like

Both you guys have been giving me top information, for real , and i agree id go for 1g of protein per lb , 20 to 25 percent of calories from fat and rest carbs, which should be between 35 to 45 percent approx, ima play around with it, but check this, this week i missed 2 x 40 am cardio sessions, thursday evenjng and friday i had to attend two events and had more carbs n sugar then my plan involves, on friday morning i was 164.25lb and today Am i weighed my self and i am 162.75lb , im so confused lol, i was expecting to be around 165+ this morning. And obv this includes the extra 100 calories this week ive added daily and my body looking slightly fuller and pumped then last week

1 Like

Fluctuations happen.

Sodium intake/food choices can make a few lbs. water weight difference pretty quickly. Conversely, potassium intake and a couple of caffienated drinks can do the opposite just as quick.

Not anything to really be concerned with unless out of medical necessity.

1 Like

Can someone recommend me a decent daily calories calculator so i can calculate my calories on a weekly basis to adjust please , ive used one on bodybuilding.com , tdeecalculator.net and another 2 and they all giving me different numbers LOL

For real info on calorie calculation I’d ask someone like @BrickHead

3 Likes

I don’t think you need to keep recalculating your supposed TDEE. You are tracking what you ate and what your weight has done, so that is now your baseline. Why would you estimate again when you have real data? Just adjust from that real number based on what happened and what you want to happen next.

Myfitnesspal worked fine for me.

As long as you use the same one though, it shouldn’t matter which you use. None of them are particularly accurate so it’s just the consistency that matters.

3 Likes

Whoops! Totally misread your question.

What @MarkKO said

2 Likes

Sorted , now i just have to stay away from the cakes and chocolates and slowly add them in LOL

1 Like

Weights still steady so i will add another 100 calories from next week per day and i was thinking to add 20g dextrose and 1 scoop of whey for intra weight workouts which is 5 times a week just so my muscles can get juiced up? Is dextrose still a best choice for intra/ post fast carbs?

1 Like

There certainly isn’t anything wrong with that mix. Some people find dextrose can bloat a little, but that’s more a comfort thing. Give it a shot, and if it doesn’t work try Gatorade powder or something.

2 Likes