Fat Loss Plateau...

Ok, heres the deal. For probably the last 3-4 months I’ve been stuck in the 14-16% BF range… I can’t seem to get any lower. I’m creating at least a 500 cal deficit a day (just turned 17, 168 lbs.)I’ve done keto, carb cycling, 40-40-20, 40-35-25. None of it works for me. What is my problem? Also my fat seems to carry in rather feminine areas(thighs, glutes, hips, lower back, chest, underside of arms)

However, I have a fairly thin layer over my abs and I can see fairly defined cuts on my obliques… This doesn’t seem right for a guy does it? Maybe I’m just being paranoid but if I’m a guy shouldn’t I be storing most of it on the stomach and obliques not on my freaking thighs, upper calves, glutes and chest? Any help would be much appreciated.

H.D your 17 relax mate !!! :).

Here are some possible reasons why your not losing fat

*not training hard enough/still doing
the same program.

*lack of muscle/or loss of muscle from
overtraining & too long dieting

*not mixing cardio up such as high intensity or low intensity

I promise you if you stop worring and focus on “busting ass in the gym” and not going overboard on the diet you will drop fat.Remember the more muscle you have to more ripped and hard you will look/

I realize I’ll look more ripped with more muscle, but I’m doing this to prove to myself I can get lean. My genetics don’t lend me any favors on this one. I want nothing more than to get down to 10% and below. I’ve never wanted something so bad in my life as this. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get down there and estabish a nice setpoint to which I can back to after a bulk.

calories in vs. calories out

its pretty much true no matter what method of dieting your using. Adjust your calories

[quote]JNeves wrote:
calories in vs. calories out

its pretty much true no matter what method of dieting your using. Adjust your calories[/quote]

Not necessarily true. Read Berardi’s “A New Look At the Energy Balance”. My guess is that yo’re either not eating enough or not training hard enough. At 17 you should be eating like a freakin’ horse. Shovel it in and go easy on the cardio if you want to build LBM.

TNT

[quote]TNT-CDN wrote:
JNeves wrote:
calories in vs. calories out

its pretty much true no matter what method of dieting your using. Adjust your calories

Not necessarily true. Read Berardi’s “A New Look At the Energy Balance”. My guess is that yo’re either not eating enough or not training hard enough. At 17 you should be eating like a freakin’ horse. Shovel it in and go easy on the cardio if you want to build LBM.

TNT[/quote]

Hmm… It could be I’m not eating enough. Right now I’m on my second day of running a temporal nutrition style of diet (AM P+C, PM P+F) I’ve talked to several different people about my calorie maintenance level and I got several different answers.

I’m aware that a calorie doesn’t equal a calorie. This approach got me down to around 18%. I never was able to get into the 14-16% BF range until I started cutting my cals. Now I’ve plateaued again… Haha, I hate being an endomorph. Oh well, I can’t change my body type so I’m working with what I got. I’m just going to stick with this temporal stuff for a few weeks and see if it will work.

[quote]H.D. wrote:
TNT-CDN wrote:
JNeves wrote:
calories in vs. calories out

its pretty much true no matter what method of dieting your using. Adjust your calories

Not necessarily true. Read Berardi’s “A New Look At the Energy Balance”. My guess is that yo’re either not eating enough or not training hard enough. At 17 you should be eating like a freakin’ horse. Shovel it in and go easy on the cardio if you want to build LBM.

TNT

Hmm… It could be I’m not eating enough. Right now I’m on my second day of running a temporal nutrition style of diet (AM P+C, PM P+F) I’ve talked to several different people about my calorie maintenance level and I got several different answers.

I’m aware that a calorie doesn’t equal a calorie. This approach got me down to around 18%. I never was able to get into the 14-16% BF range until I started cutting my cals. Now I’ve plateaued again… Haha, I hate being an endomorph. Oh well, I can’t change my body type so I’m working with what I got. I’m just going to stick with this temporal stuff for a few weeks and see if it will work. [/quote]

Rule of thumb. Don’t make drastic increases or decreases in calories.
Change slowly and not more than 10% at a time.

TNT

Generally, if someone is having an unusually hard time getting lean, it’s because they don’t have enough muscle mass and/or high enough metabolism to support low bodyfat levels. What is your total overall calories? As said, that Berardi article on Energy Balance is worth taking a look at. It may not be that you’re eating too much. It may be that you’re eating too little. And the best way to progress may be to work on adding muscle and worrying about low bodyfat later regardless of what you really want.

“ITS YOUR DIET, STUPID!!!”

a good diet is not just how much you eat but what you eat.

1 gram of carbs from glucose powder, and 1 gram of fiber have the same amout of carbs & calories, but they have VERY different impacts on your body.

  1. How are you measuring your BF level?
  2. Maybe you just need to do more exercise, and particularly more energy systems work. Try HIIT (eg Tabata thrusters) if you really want to up the calorie burning. OR try Charles Staley’s EDT for Body Comp workouts (they are killers). Get back to us in 3 months if you still reckon you haven’t lost fat.

I wanted to tell you guys that everything has been going great. Lost about half a pound of fat in my first 4 days. This is huge for me as I have been basically stalled for the last 3-4 months. Gained some muscle as well.

Still curious as to how you are measuring fat levels. Particularly if you reckon you can be so precise as to say you’ve lost half a pound of fat.