So the tape measure was at 33.5 for the third or maybe fourth day in a row and my weight has been around 208 for a few days now too. But I mean, I’ve got to be losing right? Yesterday in cardio alone I must have burned 800 cals and only took in around 2100 cals.
That’s got to be a deficit. Should I be worried about this or just keep going and check progress again later?
It doesnt work like that mate, if you have too much of a defecit, you lose muscle so your BMR goes down and the low calories are not even low enough then to lose weight - too much cardio can cause the same problem. This is why starvation diets never work.
IF you KNOW this isnt the case, wait 2 more days and then reduce calories by 10-15%.
I’ll double check for you where you are at calorie wise… If you need it.
give me your weight, bodyfat, and your activity levels at work/a normal day and how many days you train at what intensity…and the amount of calories you eat. I can give it a rough guileline to see whats up. Thats all that is needed, it never has to be down to the calorie.
J
just so you know, if i want to lose weight at a safe speed, at 190lbs and 12% - i eat 2300kcal. I know this because i am playing with it now.
Yours seems low i am afraid, especially with the work you are doing…
If you want i will look into it for you tomorrow (its nearly 10pm here) - give me the above details and i will have a look. Joe 
Hey Joe. Thanks for the help man. What you say sounds logical to me man.
Here’s the info:
weight: 208
BF%: Not sure but I’d say around 13-14% (only see abs if flexing, not too much definition, but not fat)
Activity level: This may be my problem and is why I add lots of exercise type activities. I love to just sit or lie down when I’m home. I do do things tho like ride my bike up hill everyday to school and use it to go to the store. So I am sedentary a lot, but I do try to add in as much activity as I can.
Training: 4 days a week lifting (try to keep my rest periods short and really pushing it. I will be pretty sweaty by the end usually) and HIIT or steady state 6 days a week. Hour walk jog 4 mornings before breakfast.
Calories have been around 2100 to 2400 the last 4 days. Carbs were upped to 150 to 300 depending on the day. I try to eat most of them for breakfast or the second meal and after workout. The carbs have been coming from fruit (not too much) some grains, pumpkin, yams, and yogurt/cottage cheese.
Which reminds me, does anyone have problems with eating dairy when trying to loose weight?
Thanks again for the help Joe. You’ve been great man. Did you say your coming over here to the US now? So no training partner to give me advice in Manchester for me then? Too bad. 
Oh and, workouts from ABBH are not extremely long. They usually last me about 35-40 minutes when I am pushing with lower rest intervals. They feel pretty good though, and I can usually feel it at least a little bit the next day(s). But this gives me plenty of time for cardio, which is why I chose the program.
208-15%=177lbs
I am going to give you above “active” which is a multiplyer(sp?) of around 1.7x with extremely active at 2x so we shall award you with the grand total of… 1.8x so,
177x10kcal=1770kcal BMRx1.8 = 3186
You are doing too much work and too little calories in your attempt to lose fat, you have lost any weight you can… ie fat and muscle.
You have seen some major losses havent you. What did your waist start at at the beginning - what, 6 weeks ago?
[quote]doctasarge wrote:
Hey Joe. Thanks for the help man. What you say sounds logical to me man.
Here’s the info:
weight: 208
BF%: Not sure but I’d say around 13-14% (only see abs if flexing, not too much definition, but not fat)
Activity level: This may be my problem and is why I add lots of exercise type activities. I love to just sit or lie down when I’m home. I do do things tho like ride my bike up hill everyday to school and use it to go to the store. So I am sedentary a lot, but I do try to add in as much activity as I can.
[/quote]
You are right, i think you are doing too much cardio. Cardio basically burns calories. So whatever you eat is lessened by the cardio and cannot be stored as fat. It ISNT great at burning fat except when you have a certain environment. I agree.
This is going to contribute greatly to your problem
You do a tiny bit of lifting compared to calorie eating cardio. The weights allow you to keep/build metabolic muscle to keep needing a high amount of calories per day so you can keep your furnace using more fuel.
Your body has adapted to the tons of work you are doing by making the furnace run on less fuel (losing muscle) The 1-1.2g per lb of bodyweight of protein and heavy weights sessions are the base of your weight loss efforts, cardio IS NOT. It is a supplement to trim any excess you may have. Not the tool to use to lose weight, no matter what millions of women across the world think!
Food choices are great. really. the dairy like milk and cheese ar out, yogurt is a great weight loss food in low amounts. As is Cott. cheese.
Your carbs are high enough, i suspect your protein is less than 177 grams - ideally you want to be taking a good 200g IMO.[quote]
Which reminds me, does anyone have problems with eating dairy when trying to loose weight?[/quote]
Like i said, cheeses, milks, creams etc all out. Yogurt can be a great food which actually helps you excrete fats eaten in your diet…[quote]
Thanks again for the help Joe. You’ve been great man. Did you say your coming over here to the US now? So no training partner to give me advice in Manchester for me then? Too bad.
[/quote]
Afraid so, i suspect in a few years my wife and i shall be moving to the UK or Europe, so if it is UK i wanrt to live in Manchester, it is the real capital of England IMO!
Joe
Wow Joe. Thanks man. And screw that guy on the Alpha thread that insulted you! You are def a wealth of great info. Glad to see all you guys in there!
I will take down the cardio a bit then. I won’t to any after lifting today. You think maybe the 4 fasted sessions and maybe 2 HIIT on off days would suffice?
And you think I should then raise the cals up to maybe 2500? My protein has been pretty high, usually over 220 g. I am going to cycle it slightly like sentoguy advised tho starting now.
I am also going to a friends house to see him for the first time in 2 years this memorial day weekend (next weekend). I am afraid that I cant really eat like I want, but I can at least make good food choices for those 3 days. I was thinking I may keep the cals low so if I do eat a bit higher this weekend, then those cals have a place to go.
But all in all, i just want this time to finally be the time that I actually got to where I want to be. The last times I stalled, I either dropped the cals more, or when they were sooo low, I’d just give up and say that being ripped is just not in my future. I really want to get past that this time!!
Thanks again man. I’ll miss ya in Manchester! ( I still hope Man Utd loses, even if I’m going to live there!)
[quote]doctasarge wrote:
Joe Joseph wrote:
Sarge, i think if you put this in training logs, then you may get a whole lot more interest.
Ask the moderators?
Joe
Yeah man. That sounds like a good idea. I’ll ask someone.[/quote]
You’re moved to the Training Logs Forum.
Thanks Laurie. And now my posts are super cool yellow. I feel special.
Sooo, i found out that I read the label wrong on the pumpkin. Knew it was too good to be true! The carbs/cals I thought was in a cup, was actually in 1/2 a cup. Oh well, so my intake yesterday needs to be revised to 2500 cals and 256 g carbs.
I don’t know if that helps explain this, but my scale weight was up to 212 today. Now I know that weight fluctuates and I definitely didn’t gain 4 lbs of fat in a day, but it’s still frustrating. I don’t look as good in the mirror either. It must just be water weight for some reason. I think I am going to cut out most of the cottage cheese in favor of yogurt since I saw that CT doesn’t like cottage cheese for dieting. I just hope I’m not allergic to pumpkin or something! It’s too damn good!
Can I make my low carb days around 50 or so carbs? I really want to keep this fat loss going, and was thinking that the carb up days should keep my carb stores up while the low day would make those carbs go where I want them to. Or you can tell me if I’m being stupid and should just keep going.
Or can I do this? Thibs posted it in his locker room:
For cutting I recommend a type of carbs cycling, but one that is slightly more restrictive. Each week should have:
One high carbs day
Two moderate carb days
Two low carb days
Two NO carb days
The high carb day should be on your “priority” day… your biggest workout of the week, what you want to build the most. For your goal I would suggest a chest/back/shoulders day … you can even split it into two daily sessions (chest/shoulders & Back)
The no carb days should be on non strength-training days, but you should perform 30-45 minutes of low-intensity cardio (I like the treadmill at 3.0mph and a 12 degrees incline)
The low carb days should either be on a day where you don’t strength train (in that case, also perform some cardio) or when you are only training small muscle groups (biceps, triceps, calves, abs, forearms … not in the same workout though)
The moderate carb days are on the strength-training days left over.
When fat loss starts to slow down you downgrade everything by one notch (ecept the no-carb days).
For example:
High carb days become moderate
Moderate becomes low
low becomes no
I would suggest starting with a caloric intake of:
High carb days: BWT x 11 + 1000
Moderate carb days: BWT x 11 + 500
Low carb ays: BWT x 11 + 250
No-carb days: BWT x 11
Fat and protein intake stay stable So there is a 65-70g difference in carbs intake between each type of day, except for the higher carb day.
No carbs = 0-30g of carbs/day
Low carbs = 65-100g of carbs/day
Moderate carbs = 130-170g of carbs/day
Higher carbs day = 255-300g of carbs/day
Protein intake should be set at 1 to 1.5g/pound of bodyweight (up to 2 if you are using anabolic support) and the remainder of the calories are from fat
What do you think?
Here’s yesterday’s macros
Cals: 2416
Fat: 33 (15 g fish oil)
Carhs: 323
Protein: 217
Looks like everyone left me! Come back!!
I forgot to list my training yesterday. It was a good day and felt good:
15 g BCAA/creatine
5x10
a1) Pull-ups- I barely ever progress on pull ups. I dont understand. I guess when dieting I dont nec progress on lifts, but i seem to never be able to do more pull ups! Chin ups are different and I progress on them. I ithink It has something to do with a bit of shoulder impingement that I have been fighting for years.
a2)Dips- 55
Then,
Scott press- RP for 15- 55’s
Forearm work- Gripper-45
Then 40 g malto/scoop of whey
Damn it! When do I get a 6 pack!!
Things seemed to be progressing so much faster at first. I decided to try some low carb days in the carb cycling. Today for example, I will have about 70 g of carbs with 22 g fiber. Then, tomorrow, when I up the carbs for my deadlift day, I can get some supercompensation and can be sure that the carbs are going where I want them to. Does this sound like a good idea?
Also, I need to change my training after tomorrow. I want to do something more bodybuilding, but I’m afraid that I may respond better to heavy lifting when dieting. I may switch over to a bp split though as a change up. I could also do EDT, but it just doesnt sound as fun for some reason. I also like the giant set idea that Gerdy uses.
Oh, and I really lowered the cardio. Didnt do any yesterday or today. Tomorrow I will do the fasted cardio and that’s all. I will do some HIIT the next non-training day. I’ll see if all this helps.
My waist was down to slightly under 33.5 today, which seems to be an improvement. I’m hoping that that short stall is over now that I upped the cals a bit and dropped some cardio. We shall see. Am I talking to myself here though? Where is everybody?! I guess it’s just case of the mondays.
So yesterdays macros were:
Cals: 2132
Fat: 114
Carbs: 76
Protein: 197
Today, I did the pre breakfast jog/walk for an hour.
My workout was:
10x5
a1) Deadlift- 335
a2)Dec Situp- 90
a3) Seat calf- 4x45 +25
Then some extreme stretches. Good stuff. Barely could finish the deads, but id say 50 heavy pulls is usually quite difficult.
Carbs are higher today too. I’ll shoot for 2600 cals or so.
So, it seems that my waist was down a bit today to a little less than 33.5 (maybe 33.3 or so). Weight seems to have come down to from that high point to 208.5 lbs.
So maybe my body is fluctuating more with water after carbs were reintroduced. Stuffs looking pretty good today though. Slow and steady. Ive gotta say, I like the faster progress before, but as you guys say, this will probably be better in the long run. Still no training recommendations from anyone?
I started edt for fat loss today. Wheew!! That is no easy program. Glad my cals where up a bit today.
I was feeling quite cold tho today even tho I never usually feel cold and it wasnt cold where I was. My metabolism must be slowing. Hopefully then the calories that I am sure i will be eating this weekend on vacation will rev the metabolism up again. Here’s hoping!