Fat Guy Plateau?

Training Beginners
1

Hey guys, I have a thread buried but wanted to talk about breaking my plateau.

I went from about 305 to 268(ish) from April to today.

I lost about 4 inches to my waist also.

I have been absolutely stuck from 267 to 270 for the past 13 days. I figure at this high weight I should still be losing fat at a relatively good pace, because damn I still have a LONG way to go.

I’ve read all the plateau busting articles and threads - most say eat more or work more. Ok - eat more- heres a look at my diet.

1:

Egg scrambled + turkey slices + evoo

430 CALS 33g FAT 2g CARB 19g PROTEIN

2:

Turkey on whole grain bread + broccoli

365 CALS 15g FAT 29g CARB 49g PROTEIN

3:

3-4 oz Pork Roast Pieces + Green Beans

(approx) 330 CALS 12g FAT 9g CARB 35g PROTEIN

4:

Salad with chicken / cucumbers / carrots / green beans

APPROX 500 - 550 Cals 7g FAT 40g CARBS 64g PROTEIN

5:

2 Scoops Whey + Water

250 Cals 1g FAT 10g CARBS 35 - 40g PROTEIN

5a:

Mixed Nuts:

200 CALS 13g FAT 1g CARBS 15g PROTEIN

TOTALS: (best approximation)

2075 Calories, 101g FAT 91g CARBS (most from green veggies), 225g PROTEIN

For the past 2 days I’ve been adding tablespoons of natural pb (1 in the morning 1 in the afternoon) for an additional 150 - 200 cals a day but in that short period of time I’ve added 2 lbs of weight (271)

A wise man said somewhere that its important to differentiate weight loss from fat loss, but being a fat bastard I feel utterly DEFEATED to see my progress go backwards.

Any tips?

What other info do I need to provide hmm - I do a full body workout 3 times a week. I do basically no cardio.

I guess part of me wants to just start hitting the cardio instead of eating more as long as it can make the numbers go down.

What do you guys think? I know there are no quick and easy answers, and I’m willing to work hard to get my body into some sort of shape that I feel like I can live in it again, but its really a kick in the teeth to see my weight go back up cuz I ate some peanut butter and more chicken during dinner.

What do you guys think?

2

You want to lose weight…and dont do cardio?
You want to lose weight…so you eat more?

These things dont make you lose weight, they make you gain weight.

When you first begin any change via diet or training will make you lose fat faster than MC Hammer lost money. Now that you are out of your Green Thumb stage it is time to step it up

You fixed your diet so now you lost weight…good job
Eat rough 10-12 kcals per lbs bw daily over 5-6 meals. You can do low-carb, you can eat moderation, i dont care…but you need a calorie deficency to lose weight. So not only fixing your diet but training does this. Easy way is to burn calories. Do cardio 3-6 times a week. 2-3 of those times being HIIT for 20 mins or so.

You can keep with your full body lifting if you want, you may want to decrease rest time so to make it more of cardio workout

Best of luck!

3

This post above is like a logic slap in the face.

Thanks TG good advice.

4

[quote]tg2hbk4488 wrote:
You want to lose weight…and dont do cardio?
You want to lose weight…so you eat more?

These things dont make you lose weight, they make you gain weight.

When you first begin any change via diet or training will make you lose fat faster than MC Hammer lost money. Now that you are out of your Green Thumb stage it is time to step it up

You fixed your diet so now you lost weight…good job
Eat rough 10-12 kcals per lbs bw daily over 5-6 meals. You can do low-carb, you can eat moderation, i dont care…but you need a calorie deficency to lose weight. So not only fixing your diet but training does this. Easy way is to burn calories. Do cardio 3-6 times a week. 2-3 of those times being HIIT for 20 mins or so.

You can keep with your full body lifting if you want, you may want to decrease rest time so to make it more of cardio workout

Best of luck![/quote]

If you look at his number, 10-12 kcals per lb of bw would actually be like 2690-3252 daily. I’m not surprised that his progress has stalled as he’s eating so far below maintenance.

To the OP, I’m going through a similar process as yourself, 230 now down from 285 in the last 14 months. Here are a few pointers that I’ve picked up along the way.

Food is my number one priority. I do not miss a meal, if someone gets in between me and a meal I will eat them. I drive a lot for work so a cooler is a must to make this happen, it usually includes a couple tupper ware containers full of food and a pre made protein shake in a water bottle.

I try to eat just slightly below my caloric maintenance, which I guestimate as somewhere around 3200 kcal. You weigh more than me and eat less.

Make sure you get a quality fish oil in your diet, try to eat a few pieces of high quality fish a week as well. Also, if possible, cut out the lunch meats…too much salt and preservatives. Frozen chicken breasts are a good substitute, they cook quick and should contain nothing extra. Get some green leafy stuff in your diet as well, kale, spinach, etc.

I do 3 abbreviated, high intensity full body workouts a week. I do not sit down in between exercises, I do not bend over and suck air in between exercises, I keep moving to keep my activity level up. In fact, I do almost all of my exercises standing up.

Outside of the gym, I always take the stairs, I always park far away, I always walk fast etc.

You’ve made good progress in a short period of time, but now you’re in to the long haul. Work on building muscle and eating well and you can see weight come off a pound or two a week for a long time, but try to rush it at this point and you are just going to stall out.

5

ATG!

Thanks for the reply. Its good to hear from someone that has made some progress over the long haul.

I take FO (lots) -

About adding cals, I am worried that I will put on 5 or 10 lbs back on in the process of getting to 2500 or 2700 cals per day.

I’m sure you can understand what kind of kick in the gut it is to feel like you’re not progressing.

Anyway I appreciate the response.

I guess I am gonna try to add some cals week by week and hopefully I won’t gain too much fat in the process.

Oh yeah and I’m gonna add cardio (thanks tg)

I gotta remind myself its the long haul, and nothing is going to happen overnight.

6

[quote]Randomguy555 wrote:
ATG!

Thanks for the reply. Its good to hear from someone that has made some progress over the long haul.

I take FO (lots) -

About adding cals, I am worried that I will put on 5 or 10 lbs back on in the process of getting to 2500 or 2700 cals per day.

I’m sure you can understand what kind of kick in the gut it is to feel like you’re not progressing.

Anyway I appreciate the response.

I guess I am gonna try to add some cals week by week and hopefully I won’t gain too much fat in the process.

Oh yeah and I’m gonna add cardio (thanks tg)

I gotta remind myself its the long haul, and nothing is going to happen overnight.[/quote]

Randomguy,

I’m with you on this one, I fully understand the frustration of stagnation, but you’ve just got to bear down and persevere…make your goals real to yourself, make goals beyond x weight. I like to think about the things that I can do as my body changes, rather than just the change itself.

For sure don’t rush your caloric intake up, but I think you really should work towards getting closer to your maintenance intake.

Think of it like this, your body is a furnace.
Calories are fuel. Fat is also fuel. In order to get your body to burn fat you need to get the fire going in the first place, eat to your caloric demand.

If you are concerned about small short term weight gains, increase your caloric demand(more high intensity and low intensity exercise more often along with more food). Your metabolism(or rather, your bodies desire to seek metabolic homeostasis) is your biggest adversary at the moment, not the extra tbsp of pb.

The more you ask of your body, the more it will deliver, but you must be prepared to feed it adequately for the task at hand.

7

This is a great post.

It’s clear to me that you have the mindset to achieve all of your body recomp goals and I wish you nothing but the best.

8

You don’t say what your goal weight is. You can probably increase your intake a few hunmdred calories. Maybe 2200-2300. But try to lower the fats and give yourself a few more carbs. Not too many though. Eating too low can put your baody into a starvation mode and limit weight loss. It’s a fine line and you’ll have to experiment.

9

My goal weight is probably 200 lbs or so. It is not an easy or quick task laid out ahead of me, I recognize.

10

[quote]stitch0102 wrote:
But try to lower the fats and give yourself a few more carbs. Not too many though. Eating too low can put your baody into a starvation mode and limit weight loss. It’s a fine line and you’ll have to experiment. [/quote]

With all due respect, why the hell would he want to lower his fats? He seems to have a pretty health spread of fats, if anything, he should be adding fish oil to the mix. However, you’re right, a carb up day or too might help fire his metabolism back up, but I would wait to up carbs until I’d tried increasing calories with healthy fats and protein. He’s already got close to 100g of carbs in his diet per day, and would most likely see more benefits from dropping to 50g a day instead of upping to 150g or so.
I’m willing to bet that 250g of protein, 150 g of fat, and 50 g of carbs (not counting fiber) would fix him right up, and would put him at 2400 cals, which might still be a little low.

11

Sorry i didn’t mention I take Flameout every day.

12

Flameout is great, and I take the recommended dosage, but I also supplement it with a lower cost basic fish oil. I’m usually 4 caps of Flameout a day and 4 caps of fishoil a day as well. I limit my carbs to under 50 and any carb after breakfast ( I have a piece of fruit for b-fast usually) is a green or fibrous vegetable. (cucumbers, spinach, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower)

I’ve been progressively losing weight (about 4 pounds a week) while keeping strength up. I do cardio only twice a week, but I do go on 30 minute walks after training as a way to “decompress” from the seesion.

I plateau every so often and change up my cardio, usually running straight sprints that week, or swimming.

Anything to keep it interesting, one week I used a hill and would race my kids up and down it. Sprint up and then roll down, they thought I was crazy, but we all had a wicked good time, and I couldn’t catch my breath between the sprinting as well as the laughing.

13

I’m with Ninjaboy in regards to the fats.

if nothing else remember that in the Physique Clinic they mega-dosed the participants as it does aid in weight loss.

You are carrying too much bodyfat for how many carbs you are eating. You should get it to 50gs of carbs or lower at your body fat percentage.

You need adequate calories to keep your muscle. The muscles are what burn your fat.

Have you thought of trying the AD diet?

Also, an easy thing to add is celery with every meal as it has an impact of negative calories.

carrots and green beans are higher carb vegetables and you could switch them out with broccoli or spinach or just the cucumbers.

If you go low carb HIIT might be hard for you so you may want to stick with slow state cardio (be sure to switch up the machines though, don’t do all elliptical or all treadmill, use a different one each time) for at least 30 minutes 3x a week after your workouts.

14

Cut out the bread. Eat bread once a week if that not everyday. Cut your carbs down 30 grams a day and I promise you the weight will fly off.

15

Like many have suggested, cut down on the carbs - they’re evil! :stuck_out_tongue:

As Octobergirl said - try the AD (anabolic diet). I’m on it and I’ve lost plenty.

You also have to realise your body does adapt to low calories after a while. Try upping your intake (slowly) for a few weeks before cutting (slowly) again to help break the plateau. This works well for me (90lbs lost in last 18 months). Also, there are some fat burning workouts around that may help (using weights not cardio).

Keep working hard & good luck.