Semi-Experienced Dilemma

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hello everyone. I’ve been reading over these forums for decades and viewing all 100,000 strategies on weight loss (…lol). I’ve read most of JB’s work, as well as way more articles on here than i should ever spend my time on. Still, i do want a second opinion before i make my next decision here…

I’m 24, 6’0, 197 lbs and approximately 12% bodyfat, looking to cut down to 7-8%.

My training is 3x a week of Total Body Training, from this site i believe, and 3x HIIT jog/sprints.

I am at a plateu in cutting right now, not having moved for about 3 weeks, consuming 2500 kcals a day.

Diet:
M1: 1 cup nat. oats, 4 egg whites
M2: chicken breast, veggies
M3: Lean (90/10 or better) Red meat, Veggies
–Lift–
PWO Shake- 80g Carb, 40g whey protein
PWO meal: Veg, chicken, 1cup brown rice
M6: 1 cup fat free cottage cheese, flax

Pro-230g, Carb 210g, Fat 50g (not EXACT, but very close)

On non lifting days i have no shake and no carbs other than veggies and breakfast. The macros break down to…
Pro - 290g. Carb - 70g Fat - 80g

Other information…mmm…I’ve been seriously training for about 2 years, i’m otherwise healthy i believe.

Soooo…To break this plateu, as far as internet guesses can really do anyway,

would i be better advised to increase my cals 200/day incase my body is conserving energy and i’m overworking?

OR would i be better off decreasing them 200/day and assuming my body just burns slower than the calculators averages?

Thanks so much!

2

Great questions…can’t wait to see what others have to say.

I would try a couple things for 2 weeks and see what kind of progress you’re making.

  1. Up the intensity of the cardio (longer, faster or both)
  2. Look at your workout and see if you have been doing the same routine/exercises for too long
  3. Consider ditching the cup of rice on workout days for 2 weeks and see what happens

Question:
Are you having a high-carb cheat meal once a week? Big bowl of pasta with desert after? Burger and fries? Big pizza and a couple beers?

A lot of people consider a cheat meal pretty important as far as “waking up” your metabolism.

3

Weekly “cheat” meals are mainly for phsychological benefit as they are not enough to “wake up” one’s metabolic rate.

4

[quote]ChrisKing wrote:
sven33 wrote:A lot of people consider a cheat meal pretty important as far as “waking up” your metabolism.

Weekly “cheat” meals are mainly for phsychological benefit as they are not enough to “wake up” one’s metabolic rate.[/quote]

yep…actually you’re right.

5

I’m in a similar predicament, 6’2, 205 @10%. i went on the Tdawg 2.0 diet earlier this year and did very well on it for about 7 weeks then got a bad case of stomach flu and haven’t been the same since.

I wonder if a sustained restricted carb diet might do you well? i’m not ready to go back to that yet, but it might help you, especially if you’re insulin insensitive like i am. i’m looking forward to some of the responses myself.

6

Thanks for the responses so far, even is all seem to be people agreeing that its a good question and none answering heh.

To answer the questions asked me so far…

As for upping Cardio, I really push myself 110% as it is, and if its a caloric difference, id choose food reduction.

Workout length…I had cancer a little while back, and i’ve technically only been back to lifting after those 3 months off for 1 month now, and using TbTraining for 2 weeks.

The last thing, losing the rice, i might actually try depending on the responses here…

Oh, and cheat meals i tend to do 1 a week for my g/f, but its not necessary for me heh. Training is Everything :slight_smile:

Any help/opinions further would rock, thanks!

7

In the end, whether you lower your carb intake or not, you’re still going to have to just lower your overall caloric intake. Maybe your 2500 cals a day was baseline as it is, and since you’ve been on this diet, your body’s metabolism has slowed down to the point where the 2500 cals that were once a deficit have now become more of a maintenance intake. Try lowering your caloric intake to 2250 for a week or two and see if your metabolism begins chasing your caloric intake again. If that doesn’t work, try 2000.

Also, you mentioned 3 cardio sessions per week. At what times do you do them?

8

[quote]Velz wrote:

Also, you mentioned 3 cardio sessions per week. At what times do you do them?[/quote]

I was going to ask the same question. I’ve been doing pre-breakfast AM cardio for fat loss, and it’s been working out pretty good. I’m losing fat at a steady pace.

You mention you do HIIT. Do you do your sessions on your off days, or on training days?

Sorry to hear about your cancer, I hope you recover soon (if you haven’t already).

9

Yeah, cardio always on the offdays, seventh day for rest.

Fasted HIIT sounded horrible, so i go by the rule of thumb of just not eating for ~2 hours, then 1 hour after that i read somewhere years ago. I’m sure its horrible for muscle conservation, but the theory of burning stored energy instead of recently consumed food sounded good.

10

Grrr, and they are usually in the evenings, 5-6pm

11

Throw in 20-30 mins of steady state cardio after weight training HR 130-150BPM and drop the workout carbs to 50-60 grams…

12

Add in the SS cardio after lifting and still include the HIIT?

Or did you mean replace the HIIT?

Carb reduction i am going to try for sure this coming 2 week period, just trying to get the rest before monday so i can accurately track :slight_smile: