Been cutting for 7 months now and down about 45-46 pounds .
Ya sitting around home due to working at hone.
In 34. 6”2. Bf is high probably. Losing 1-2 pound a week. Protein around 200. Carbs 100-150. Fat 50-60
Indo ppl
But stopped legs for past 2 months due to injury now doing chest tri. And back bi but hitting them right.
Lifting 3 days a week and doing intermediate fasting. My cals could be maybe lower some days due to eating less or not enough. Was also doing cardio but i realized my body has become “skinny fat” weight down but still have pudged belly fat. Now only thing is i havent been constant with lifting but trying my best for past 2 months on and off due to personal issues….. but still getting the lift in 2x a week minimum with some cardio. What do u guys think
Somewhere in lats i get strain when i do legs so took off some time and its gone…. I will slowly bring it back. But the skinny fat its like im puffed up not cut and abdomial pudged
But stopped legs for past 2 months due to injury now doing chest tri. And back bi but hitting them right.
Lifting 3 days a week and doing intermediate fasting. My cals could be maybe lower some days due to eating less or not enough. Was also doing cardio but i realized my body has become “skinny fat” weight down but still have pudged belly fat. Now only thing is i havent been constant with lifting but trying my best for past 2 months on and off due to personal issues….. but still getting the lift in 2x a week minimum with some cardio. What do u guys think
This is a word salad.
You’re doing Push Pull Legs, except for the legs part, 3 days a week, except it’s been 2x a week, and you stopped doing cardio, but you’re doing some cardio.
I feel like you’ve identified the biggest issue here: lack of compliance/consistency paired with impatience. It took you a long time to get to your current shape: it’s going to take a while to UNget there.
Macros 200-220 protein. 50-60 Fat. 100-150 carbs depending on how hungry.
Cardio was 30 min post workout on my spilt and 40-45 mins on the off days but stoppee doing cardio due to thinking im in a plateu or metabolic issue and dont want to ruin it more.
Ya was having a pain on side panel maybe from a bad movement . But it would be all day all night and specially when i sitdown…. I would guess my lat area pulled or some sort? But took 2 months and way way better than i was orginally.
There’s nothing “skinny” about this - you’re just fat. Sorry to be blunt. Sounds like you’re losing weight, though, so perhaps you’re on the right track.
When i say skinnyfat i guess im misunderstood bro….. my muscles dont peak out and my belly still out but weight is dropping…. U can see some type of frame but ofcorse not ripped
We all go through these phase. There’s this period where you’re smaller but not lean, so you’re actually less happy with how you look. A lot of people give up on their diet and never get where they want to go because they can’t power through here; stay the course and get through it.
Also, just to set your expectation, you probably have about 30lbs to go in this phase. Don’t get discouraged, just keep nailing your process.
Well, if you’re not consistently lifting, you are likely to lose muscle.
If you are consistently lifting (so I’d do that) and eating somewhere in the vicinity of enough protein, most of us aren’t losing appreciable muscle mass when we diet.
Whenever you see the studies about loss of lean body mass, I think there’s two major things going on:
They’re measuring LBM in total, which is everything that isn’t fat. So when you lose water, glycogen, etc., you’re losing LBM; that’s not muscle.
They’re measuring physique athletes preparing for a stage. It’s a lot harder once you get into the single digits to further cut that body fat percentage by half; that’s a fire-burner sale and everything must go, muscle included. Most of us aren’t in that situation; we’re using antibiotics instead of chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, most of us just have a little less muscle than we think. If you push through this “soft” phase, though, you’ll look bigger and better when lean.
The “flat and puffy” feeling while your belly stays out is a classic sign that your deficit is mostly burning the easy fat while the stubborn deposits just sit there.
Here’s what’s probably happening: after 7 months in a deficit, your catecholamine output has dropped and cortisol is elevated. Cortisol specifically increases alpha-2 receptor density on abdominal fat – these are the receptors that block fat release. So the longer you grind, the more your belly fat actively resists mobilization while you keep losing from everywhere else. That’s why you look flat (muscle glycogen depleted, lost fat from arms/legs) but your midsection barely changes.
A few things I’d consider:
Your carbs at 100-150g are keeping insulin elevated enough to partially block lipolysis through HSL inhibition. If the belly is your main target, dropping carbs lower (sub-50g) for a focused 4-5 week phase would shift your body into relying more on fat oxidation pathways
Get the lifting back up to at least 3-4 days. You need the resistance stimulus to maintain muscle, but more importantly, compound movements drive catecholamine output which is what actually triggers fat mobilization from stubborn areas
Consider a 2-week maintenance break first to restore hormonal baselines before going back in – your catecholamine sensitivity is likely shot after 7 months
The belly-last problem isn’t about effort – it’s about receptor biology. Those fat cells have a different receptor profile than the fat you’ve already lost. Standard deficit approaches don’t specifically address this, which is why you can lose 45lbs and still feel like you look the same in the mirror.
If you want to go deeper on the science behind targeting stubborn belly fat specifically, check out bellyproof – they have programs designed around this exact receptor biology problem and I’ve seen solid results from guys in similar situations.
What? Wait I said 45lbs as an example, didn’t say 5 weeks. I don’t think anyone can lose that much in 5 weeks. - also I meant to say 4.5lbs, obvs if you lose 45lbs you’d see a difference.