Well I know this is probably a standard question but I did a search and couldn’t come up with what I was looking for. I have been reading tmag articles on here for years and they have been very helpful but I think I have reached a point that I need to ask a personal question
So I used to be very fit, ate correctly and hit the gym regularly. Always stayed around 6’0" 190lbs with a lower % of body fat but never achieved a nice six pack, always had that little bit left to loose. I then fell off the wagon about 3 years ago and gained a lot of weight. At this point I pretty much quit working out and went on the golden arch diet.
At my peak I was 230lbs and had lost a lot of strength. Over a year ago now, I had had enough and decided to focus on loosing the weight and getting back in shape. I started to eat correctly, still higher in carbs than I should have been but I got decent results. I dropped 30lbs before ever starting to lift.
For the last year I have been focused, my diet is very controlled and getting to the gym is a priority. So I have about doubled in about every lift; Bench started at 135 and is now 245 with reps of 8, my squat was 145, now is 225 with reps of 8 and so on. I have put on a good amount of mass, thank god for muscle memory and nicely lost more weight.
So I decided its time to focus on losing this last bit, I have focused on keeping my protein intake up while pushing my carbs down. So here is my basic stats for my diet.
2000-2200 calories
150-200g protien
50g-100g carbs(around 100 on lift days and 50 on cardio days)
All meat is lean meat, either chicken breast, fish, pork, or a lean steak. I get all of my carbs from veggies or some complex-carbs morning/post workout. I make sure to keep a food log and keep track of all my nutrients and percentages.
My workout
Day 1 - Push day(upper body)
Day 2 - Complexes for 30 min
Day 3 - Pull day(upper body)
Day 4 - Interval runs
Day 5 - Leg Day
Day 6 - Hill runs
Day 7 - Off
At first I lost weight but have since plateaued. In the first 2 weeks I lost weight quickly which I expected and I knew would slow but now I have seen very little in my last week and this week. I am now at 4 weeks and have lost about 5lbs. So I am now 185, I am worried that continuing on this diet could cause me to loose more LBM than needed? I recently read the article on carb cycling, what are peoples opinions?
My final goal is around 175 with keeping muscle loss to a minimum. I understand weight isn’t a good quantity to look at but I don’t have anything to measure body fat %.
I looked at the V-diet but I don’t like the idea of a liquid diet because I worry that it will just be a yo-yo in the long run and I am looking for a permanent change.
At this point I am looking pretty lean in the arms, legs and chest but once again I am just stuck with a small amount of fat covering my mid-section, while everything else is looking nice. I want for the first time in my life to reach my final goal, because this is the point I have been stuck at before.
I am willing to do what it takes but any guidance would be great.