Hit a Plateu

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I finally got to the point where I wanted to change myself for me and have lost a significant amount of weight in the past year. I started out dieting and a lot of cardio with a little bit of weight training. I have now hit a plateau. I juiced for 2 weeks and lost 10 lbs but as soon as I went back to solid food I gained everything back. I started at 320 Jan 2014 and am now to 250 and I float a few lbs every week. I attempted the Keto diet but did not like the way it made me feel. I have since went back to a low calorie diet and I am trying my hardest to keep eating throughout the day, which is hard because of my job. I am doing mostly free weights and a little cardio.

So here is my diet as of now. I drink a whey isolate in the morning with oatmeal mixed in, mid morning I have a bagel with light cream cheese, lunch I do a sweet potato,plain turkey burger patty, and wither black beans or veggies and brown rice. Afternoon I am doing greek yogurt and a small amount of raw almonds. Dinner is usually a lean meat and veggies. I work a 12 hour shift so I start at 6 am. I started a new high intensity workout this past week, 2 days on then rest 1. 4 rounds of 25 jj, sit ups, push ups, squats, and a 200 meter run. I know I should probably cut out that bagel.

My supplements are MetRx Whey Isolate, Rapture lean pre workout, Calcium, B12, B6, Fish oil, L carnitine, Acetyl L Carnitine, Vit A, Vit E, D3, Zinc, B2, Magnesium, Copper, Biotin, and Iron. It’s a lot and I should probably just take a multi vitamin…don’t judge me ha. Seeing how I just started this, do I need to tweak anything or do I have a good plan going? My goal is as everyone else’s, lose fat and gain muscle. I really appreciate everyone’s input and support.

2

gonna go out on a limb and assume your keto diet was short lived, and done improperly.

your current diet is atrocious, and you have no need for ANY of those supplements.

3

Supplements should be just that, something to supplement things that are missing from an already healthy diet. If you have that much missing from your diet, pills aren’t the answer you’re looking for.

4

Over the course of a day, you eat oatmeal, a bagel, sweet potato, black beans and brown rice.

Way too many carbs for someone fairly overweight.

5

Congrats on the weight loss, but try to focus on fat loss not just reducing the number on the scale. Dialing in a better training and nutrition plan will get you actually building some muscle and changing shape for the better.

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
I have since went back to a low calorie diet and I am trying my hardest to keep eating throughout the day, which is hard because of my job.[/quote]
First, what do you consider “low calorie”? A guy your size who’s training several days a week probably shouldn’t hit less than 2,500 calories, on the low end.

I’d suggest shooting for three good, smart, actually nutritious meals everyday. “Breakfast, lunch, and dinner” did the job just fine for decades. Add a shake with protein and carbs when you lift, and you’re golden.

If it’s “eat three well-planned and goal-appropriate meals everyday without fail” or “try eating every few hours, but screw up a meal or two every couple of days because of schedule issues”, which do you think is the better bet?

I’ll guess that’s maybe 100ish grams of protein? Shoot for double that every day. And, yes, a cream cheese bagel is a shitty snack. I’d rather you grab some raw veggies and hard boiled eggs or jerky. For lunch, why are you adding beans or rice when you’re already having a sweet potato? One carb source per meal would be a simple way to tighten things up. Same reason you’d want to mix that breakfast shake with water instead of milk or juice.

[quote]I am doing mostly free weights and a little cardio.
…
I started a new high intensity workout this past week, 2 days on then rest 1. 4 rounds of 25 jj, sit ups, push ups, squats, and a 200 meter run.[/quote]
Okay, so that’s the cardio, and a lot of it. I’d rather see a max of 3 days of cardio and more of a focus on a well-designed lifting plan.

What does your current free weight routine look like - the days, exercises, sets, and reps?

6

You rarely hear “I’m on a diet” and “I eat a bagel everyday” together. There’s a reason for that. Like others have said, this diet is too high in carbs and too low in protein. I agree with basically everything Chris said. The sweet potato AND beans or rice is excessive.

7

4 sets of 10 incline dumbell press, 4 sets of 10 barbell curls, 25 sit ups, 25 push ups, 4 sets of 10 skull crushers.

Now when I workout with the guys at work we are doing 4 rounds of 25 push ups, 25 sit ups, 25 squats, 25 jumping jacks, and a 200 meter run. Sometimes we substitute something with farmers carries or kettelbell swings. Granted I haven’t seen results on the scale but I do generally feel better since we started doing this.

8

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
4 sets of 10 incline dumbell press, 4 sets of 10 barbell curls, 25 sit ups, 25 push ups, 4 sets of 10 skull crushers.

Now when I workout with the guys at work we are doing 4 rounds of 25 push ups, 25 sit ups, 25 squats, 25 jumping jacks, and a 200 meter run. Sometimes we substitute something with farmers carries or kettelbell swings. Granted I haven’t seen results on the scale but I do generally feel better since we started doing this.[/quote]

You should perhaps answer to the responses before going tangent.

But I’ll repeat. You’re not seeing it on the scale because your diet sucks ballsacks. BALL - SACKS. BIG BALLSY BALLSACKS.

9

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
4 sets of 10 incline dumbell press, 4 sets of 10 barbell curls, 25 sit ups, 25 push ups, 4 sets of 10 skull crushers.
[/quote]

That’s not a great workout.
2 pushes
0 pulls
0 squats
0 hinges
0 loaded carries

or to put it another way:
105 reps of chest/triceps work
40 reps of biceps work
25 reps of abs work
0 reps of legs work
0 reps of back work
0 reps of shoulder work

Do you not see a problem with this?

10

[quote]Jarvan wrote:
But I’ll repeat. You’re not seeing it on the scale because your diet sucks ballsacks. BALL - SACKS. BIG BALLSY BALLSACKS.[/quote]

This.

Just because it’s not grease covered junk food, doesn’t mean it’s doing you any good.

11

Sooooooooo my diet is wrong? Maybe thats it…not sure…maybe you should say it again before you reccomend a fix.

12

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
Sooooooooo my diet is wrong? Maybe thats it…not sure…maybe you should say it again before you reccomend a fix. [/quote]

Josh36530,

Your diet of oatmeal, bagels, and extraneous supplements is fuckin terrible.
If that is your ‘weight loss’ diet, I can’t imagine the the shittier diet you had to have been on prior to it. It boggles my mind that one could have such shit going in their mouth.

Sincerely,

This guy

PS

The food, that you eat, is really bad.

PPS

It is really bad… The food that you eat.

PPPS

My recommendation is to stop eating shit.

I hope this clears things up. Good luck buddy.

13

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
Sooooooooo my diet is wrong? Maybe thats it…not sure…maybe you should say it again before you reccomend a fix. [/quote]

I’ll sum up what has been said before:

  1. Your diet is awful for weight loss. Lots of carbs and small amounts of protein when it should be the other way around.
  2. Your training is also horrible. you only train the front of your torso- no legs, no back. Pick a program from the archives. If you have kettlebells, I could actually see you do the 10,000 swings challenge - or maybe not since you will feel miserable doing it. In any case, pick a program written by experts.
14

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
Sooooooooo my diet is wrong? Maybe thats it…not sure…maybe you should say it again before you reccomend a fix. [/quote]

There are three experienced posters already telling you you eat too many carbs. I don’t want to speak for Jarvan, but I didn’t feel it needed repeating. The fix for eating too many carbs is… wait for it… eat less carbs.

15

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
Sooooooooo my diet is wrong? Maybe thats it…not sure…maybe you should say it again before you reccomend a fix. [/quote]

Maybe 3 other people who know how to achieve the results you’re looking for, including myself, have already recommended a fix. Maybe you’re better off not being a dick to people giving you information for free.

16

TC: Here is a great diet that this website put up a while ago

17

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
TC: Here is a great diet that this website put up a while ago

http://www.T-Nation.com/diet-fat-loss/simple-diet[/quote]

Thank You.

18

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
Congrats on the weight loss, but try to focus on fat loss not just reducing the number on the scale. Dialing in a better training and nutrition plan will get you actually building some muscle and changing shape for the better.

[quote]josh36530 wrote:
I have since went back to a low calorie diet and I am trying my hardest to keep eating throughout the day, which is hard because of my job.[/quote]
First, what do you consider “low calorie”? A guy your size who’s training several days a week probably shouldn’t hit less than 2,500 calories, on the low end.

I’d suggest shooting for three good, smart, actually nutritious meals everyday. “Breakfast, lunch, and dinner” did the job just fine for decades. Add a shake with protein and carbs when you lift, and you’re golden.

If it’s “eat three well-planned and goal-appropriate meals everyday without fail” or “try eating every few hours, but screw up a meal or two every couple of days because of schedule issues”, which do you think is the better bet?

I’ll guess that’s maybe 100ish grams of protein? Shoot for double that every day. And, yes, a cream cheese bagel is a shitty snack. I’d rather you grab some raw veggies and hard boiled eggs or jerky. For lunch, why are you adding beans or rice when you’re already having a sweet potato? One carb source per meal would be a simple way to tighten things up. Same reason you’d want to mix that breakfast shake with water instead of milk or juice.

[quote]I am doing mostly free weights and a little cardio.
…
I started a new high intensity workout this past week, 2 days on then rest 1. 4 rounds of 25 jj, sit ups, push ups, squats, and a 200 meter run.[/quote]
Okay, so that’s the cardio, and a lot of it. I’d rather see a max of 3 days of cardio and more of a focus on a well-designed lifting plan.

What does your current free weight routine look like - the days, exercises, sets, and reps?[/quote]

Thank you.

19

Guys…

Telling a guy that his diet is awful is about as useful as telling a smoker that smoking’s bad for him. It serves no productive purpose.

OP, congrats on the weight loss, but it’s not over yet. CC gave you some good advice. Make small manageable changes to your diet in the right direction, and they will become second nature over time. Then continue to refine it. To do that, you’ll need to do a fair bit of reading on what you should be eating so that you know what a good diet actually looks like. There’s a lot of good info out there, on this site and elsewhere. People will say a lot of different things about what’s good and bad. Focus on commonalities and don’t sweat the minutiae yet. Pay attention to how your body responds over time to the changes you introduce. Good luck.

20

[quote]Apoklyps wrote:
Telling a guy that his diet is awful is about as useful as telling a smoker that smoking’s bad for him. It serves no productive purpose.
[/quote]

I think it’s more like telling a guy who wants to lose some weight how to lose weight. I’d point out that plenty of experienced posters told the OP exactly what was wrong with his diet. We didn’t just say that’s shit and move on.