First of all, your current physique is not bad at all. There are a few basic principles as to what is considered a good physique but that doesn’t mean you need to abide to all of them.
You need to figure out your long term goals first and then plan your training, diet and lifestyle habits accordingly to reach that goal. Keep in mind though, and this is were you went wrong, if fat loss is the goal you should never maintain a fatloss mindset for years on end.
This will just create unhealthy habits, metabolic adaptations if you’re not using any form of refeeds or maintenance phases and worst case scenario binging behaviours due to problems with mental health.
So, what do you need to do? Have a clear cut goal:
- Lose fat? Ok, why, how long and when to take breaks? How are you going to plan nutritition and training to make sure you’re not burning out?
- Build muscle? Ok, why, how long and when to take breaks? What rate of progress are you’re going to use? When to maintain? How are you going to plan your training and nutrition based on the look you wish to achieve?
- Getting strong? Ok, why, how are you going to plan training and exercise selection to hit your desired strength numbers without running the risk of pattern overload syndrome, injuries etc?
You get the point. Think about your goal first, really think about the why and visualize yourself in the end. You’re not just going through the motions with training. You’re not just eating whatever without having a plan. The same thing goes for goal setting.
Now, with fat loss you want to lose about 0.25%-1% of BW (kgs not lbs) a week. If your photo is your current bodyfat level, I would go with 0.5%.
Muscle gain happens at a much slower rate. You can on average gain 1%-1.5% of BW (again kg’s not lbs) of muscle per MONTH if you are a complete beginner, 0.5%-1% if you’re an intermediate and less than 0.5% if you’re advanced. For example when Jay Cutler was in his prime, he only gained like 1% of his BW (kg’s not lbs) in a YEAR. That’s how hard building muscle is when you become really advanced.
Also, if you’re struggling with nutrition, you need to take close look at your diet strategie and what you are eating.
Binging behaviour imo has multiple causes: a caloric deficit that’s too big, being in a caloric deficit for too long, being to restrictive with the diet, poor diet choices (lack of nutrients), mental health issues (binging is a coping mechanism for the brain to deal with stress due to bouts of high fat and sugar intake, which lowers cortisol/adrenaline and thus stress).
So, if you want to keep going until you reach 9-10%, this is what I would suggest:
- Stick to training 3 days a week, one day on, one day off.
- Reduce running and hill sprints to 1 day only, the other three days are activery recovery. Why? Because it is simply to much intensity and training volume in a cutting phase. Your body can’t handle that type of stress for long periods, even if your diet is on point.
- Keep track of your daily weight (always in the morning in same clothing after you went to the bathroom) and take the weekly average BW of each week. This number is the important one and the one you will use to compare your weekly progress. For example if you need to lose 0.5% bw per week and you’re weighing 72 kg’s → 72 x 0.005= 0.36 x 7700 (= 1 kg of fat) = 2772 kcals deficit per week/7 (7 days in a week) = 396 kcals deficit each day. Keep this deficit for 2 weeks, look at what happens with the difference in your average weekly bodyweight and adjust your calories if necessary. For example, let’s say you weigh 72 kg’s and your current maintenance is 2500 kcals → 2500 - 396 kcals deficit = 2104 kcals daily caloric intake. Use 1.8 g x kg BW of protein, 20% fats and the rest is all carbs. So 1.8 x 72 = 130 g P, 0.20 x 2104 kcals = 421 kcals/9 (1 gram of fat equals 9 calories) = 47 g F, Carbs are: 2104 - P - F = 2104 - 520 (P) - 421 (F) = 1163/4 (1 gram of carbs/protein equals 4 calories) = 291 grams C
- Based on the calculations above these are your macros: P= 130 g, F= 47 g, C= 291 g. Use macro ranges to give yourself less stress when you track them in myfitnesspal. 10 grams range for P & C (for example 281 to 301 g of C is fine) BUT 5 grams range for fats (remember, fats equal 9 calories per gram, carbs and protein 4 so you can’t use a range as high for fats). You want to lose about 0.5% of BW each week so 0.36 kg each week (look at the calculation above). Of course these are estimates because I don’t know your exact activity level and metabolic rate. That’s why you need to look at differences in average weekly BW to discover your true maintenance calories. For example you need to lose 0.36 kg each week but you only lost 0.1kg → 0.36-0.1 kg = 0.26 kg extra that you need to lose each week → 0.26 x 7700 = 2002/7 = 286 kcals that you need to eat less each day on top of your 396 kcals deficit to hit your weekly weight loss goal. You subtract cals from fats first until you reach the minimum treshold of 0.5g per kg BW, then you subtract the remaining calories from carbs. Never adjust protein.
- At your current levels, you dont want to diet longer than 8 weeks. A normal fat loss cycle should be maximum 12-16 weeks depending on BF level before you take a 1-3 week brake where you eat at maintenance. A small caloric deficit and shorter fat loss cycles are key to keep feeling energetic while losing fat without metabolic adaptations.
