I’ve been stuck at 6% BF and can’t seem to drop lower than that despite trying a few different strategies. Currently 175 lbs. 6% BF. After dropping from 10% to 6% on low carb low cal diet I plateaued so dropped the cal intake more with no change for 4 weeks. Now have tried slightly higher carbs and cal intake with added conditioning workout everyday for 3 weeks with still no change. Current 6 day lifting split along a with morning conditioning workout 7 days a week. Original low cal low carb diet: 1700-1800 cal, 10% C, 35% P, 55% F. Current diet 2000 cal, 30% C, 20% F, 50% P. Need some help!!
What are you cutting for?
Possible physique comp/photo shoot. I’d like to see where I stand leaned and dried out before I compete though.
post pics, something doesnt seem right
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Doesn’t your comment say you added calories?
After stalling out for so long I decided to add in more exercise, but after a week of that my workouts were shit and I had no energy. So, I adjusted my intake and my macros slightly.
How lean are you trying to get? 6% is about as lean as most people can reasonably manage, unless you’re willing to sacrifice a good bit of muscle to burn another 2lbs of fat.
Also, when you say you’ve plateaued, are you saying your weight hasn’t changed in 7 weeks, or your bodyfat hasn’t dropped in 7 weeks, or both?
He still has fat to lose, I think that at the point you are at however you are just going to have to accept that getting leaner is not going to be enjoyable, and your workouts will suck. You probably need to decrease your intake.
Well my worry was I was at too low a deficit. At 1700 cal a day and over 7 hours of exercise a week I should still have been at a large enough deficit to see changes during that 4 week stall. Right??
Weight and BF have not changed in 7 weeks now.
You’re not 6% and I knew this even before you posted a pic! No one sane would be frustrated at stalling at 6% considering 6% is stage ready and shredded to the bone!
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Wow, seriously low numbers. Sure sometimes you may not always see very visible progress from dietary/training adjustments, but usually it’s because bf levels are still too high, or “water issues” cloud progress. I’m curious about your adding calories. I’ve had some good success with long term cutting clients who reach a plateau but working their numbers up, or sometimes just backing off on energy demands (cardio, training volume etc)
And yeah, while I’d say you’re lean, most competitors get onstage at about 6-7% with veins and striations running everywhere. There’s still a bit to go if that’s the goal. Good work so far.
S
I’ll try to take better pics at the gym today. I’ve had BF measured multiple ways every week. Even if there is some margin of error there, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve stalled out.
Same daily diet or cyclical plan? refeeds? Cardio RX? What have the previous plans been before each change and how long between needing to actual make changes? If you’ve ever bumped carbs or cals, what happened the day after? Two days after? The lowest reason for the week of such a change?
S
Original diet was essentially Berardi’s get shredded plan. 1800 cal 10%C, 35%P, 55%F. Refeed once every 2 weeks. Good success for 4 weeks then stalled. After 2 weeks of no change I dropped another 100 cal a day. 2 more weeks no change. So I added in 30 min. morning conditioning everyday on top of my 6 day split, but after a week of that and still no change I got worried my deficit was too high so then I adjusted to the 2000 cal, 30% C, 20% F, 50% P. Immediately I had way more energy for my workouts and looked filled out instead of like a little twig. Which makes sense. But still can’t get the numbers to change.
I think there was a little confusion in the thread when you put 6%, calipers and the like measure %, and can be accurate, in a relative kinda way, down to 3%. I imagine most of the people on here count the competition level as being between 5-7%. That is why there may be some discrepancy between what they saw, and expected.
New meal plan
Menu 1- mon, Tues, Fri, sun
1400 cal, 60%P, 13%C, 27%F
Menu 2 - Thur
1750 cal, 48%P, 30.4%C, 21.6%F
Menu 3 - Sun
2100 cal, 40%P, 33%C, 27%F
Menu 4 - Wed
2100 cal, 40%P, 9%C, 51%F
We’ll see how it goes.
Try this…
Lots of good tips in this thread here also
And here I thought I had read all the nutrition articles on tnation. Good reads, appreciate it!