It seems like no adjustment to my training or lowering calories help my fat loss plateau. Ive been decreasing carbs ans increasing calories but still not change for a couple weeks.
Ironically, i lose weight when I INCREASE my calories which never made sense to me. Everyone claims to keep lowering and lowering because my body adapts to the cals, but that doesnt seem like the case until down the line.
Do more frequent stalls happen the lower body fat you get down to?
It makes sense. The larger the deficit, the more stress your body has. It believes you will die soon, so it turns on all the stress signals and mechanics possible to slow that down.
When you increase the calories, it lets go the stress hormones a bit, calms down.
If you lose fat on more calories, why ever decrease?
Also you could do refeed days with more clean food than usual, or carb zig-zags. The goal is to not let your body be able to tell that you are starving yourself basically.
And yes, the leaner you are the more tricks you will need.
Also i noticed you didnt mention anything about cardio. What do you do with cardio when you decrease or increase kcals?
Caloric deficit = increased Cortisol
Increased cortisol = more water retention
Increase in calories (carbs mostly) = lowered cortisol = scale weight loss
^this only applies temporarily and if still in an actual deficit.
Yes, to an extent. Many trainers suggest going from cut to maintenance every 10%BW lost to help this. Also, the less you weigh, the less your maintenance calories are so you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
How much cardio have you added? And have you actually read through the writeup i pointed you to last time?
Ive been increasing about 5min of cardio every two weeks or so. Im at 30min post workout and 1hr fasted on the weekends. All LISS.
That makes sense. Im probably losing muscle then because i havent gotten any leaner. I think im safe because my measurements are similar but its just water weight im sure. My strength isnt too bad fortunately. Im up to 30min cardio post workout 5 days a week and 1hr on the weekends. Its all LISS so i assume it doesnt affect cortisol that much as its anaerobic. I did read that. I was making changes every two week or so when a stalled occurred.
I think the next best thing i can do besides eat some more is add stimulants and ashwagandha. I can start taking pre workout to boost some metabolism and yohimbe prior to cardio. Since they increase cortisol maybe some ashwagandha or ksm66 will help with that. Since my cuts ends next week. Ill dial back cardio and eat the same for a week-month depending on whether i want to cut more or start bulking.
Do you even read any of the shit I post for you? This is the 2nd one of MY posts you’ve either not read or disregarded looking for some other answer.
I’m done trying to help because you don’t read it. Good luck with your cut.
Lol i have Christian’s article bookmarked i read over it often. I am losing strength and failing to recover well too. Its not just the size loss that im taking into account.
It seems that it would be helpful, concerning your approximate percent bodyfat, where you have been, where you are currently, and where you hope to get.
I will say that I have always noticed that your body likes to weigh what it is weighing when you have been there a while. So when I started a diet it usually took 10 days or so for the scale to began to show the fat loss. Please note that my diet changes were gradual, so I seldom lost any water weight when I started.
Once you get an uncomfortably low percent bodyfat, you are faced with the decision of losing more fat at the risk of also losing muscle along with the fat.
So do you just go slower as you get down in weight? I seem to only lose weight and inches around every two weeks, so i might have ro make changes monthly instead of bi-weekly.
I would be extremely concerned about this. Can you be more descriptive about the percent strength loss. When you drop below 8% bodyfat, or so, you are going to feel bad. Welcome to the “club.” Misery loves company.
You are not going to be able to maintain below 8% bodyfat for months. Forget that idea.
But like I said previously, where do you think you are now? Do you have extreme muscle separation and striations in multiple muscles?
Im not that low yet. Im around 12% going for 10%. Ive already accepted that my SBD fell off the map but now my accessories are taking a hit in reps. My joints are starting to ache a bit which for me is a tell-tale to up the cals a bit. This happened once before in my cut.
For example my incline db curls are going from 8 reps to 6. Now all of a sudden joints like wrists, inner forearms, outer pecs, calves, lower back, and knee tendons are in pain. This was never the case for me. Ever.
Overall strength isnt an issue except my compounds. Bench went from 355 to barely hitting 315 now. Squat went from 455 to 395. And deadlifts went from 545 to 475. Of course i take into account i went from 220 to 189, but still.
I have separation but not really any striations. Whats weird is that i had the same muscle separation at 198 at one point while my muscles were larger and i figured i would be 190. Im now 189 with the same muscle separation as before but with smaller muscles. Apparently its glycogen loss and not muscle loss even though my carb intake is relatively the same
How fast?
Did it look like you lost muscle when looking in the mirror?
Are you taking AAS?
Not on gear. It took me too long to go from 220 to 189 because i kept stopping my cut trying to maintain strength. I went from 220 to 209 in about 12 weeks. Then 209 to 197 in about 2 months.
My physique looks the same based on proportions, but it definitely looks like i lost a good amount of size overall.
I don’t like this at all.
Maybe go back to 198lbs and maintain there a couple months, then try to cut again.
Not good IMO.
What is the objective of your cut?
Is there a time frame it must be accomplished?
Well im 189 now so its too late lol. I planned to end my cut next week but i also thought i would make it to 180-185. Ill maintain after next week then start again. I just wanted overall aesthetics. Originally i wanted to compete in mens physique because i thought i would be arpund 190 at 10% bf. Now it appears ill be 10% at around 180lbs worst case scenario. Im not sure i have enough mass to step on stage.
This is insufficient for you to have a optimal chance of doing well.
IMO, if you have a goal of competing, is get your bodyfat between 12% and 14% and train to put on muscle. You want sufficient calories to build muscle, but not store any additional fat. Get as much strength back that you had. If you got there once, you can get there again. (It might be a challenge if you are older than 55.)
Then once your strength has returned, go back to dropping bodyfat. IMO, this is called bodybuilding for a reason. You are “building” muscle. Losing too much muscle to look leaner is like taking one step forward and two steps backward.
Great advice. Ill make sure to cut slower in the future and not get fat on my bulk so i wont be in this situation again.