Trapped in a Fat-Loss Cycle

Training Bodybuilding
1

Hi everyone,

I just need to “get real” here and figure out what’s going on.

It feels like for the past 18 months, I’ve been on a “fat-loss” phase trying to reach that elusive goal of a six-pack.

At this point, I’m down to about 18% bodyfat, and have extremely well defined arms and legs, but my ab area is still quite chunky.

Judging by the articles here on t-mag, I’m thinking that I’ve been trapped in this “fat-loss” cycle for so long now that I can’t even tell which way is up anymore.

Has anyone else reached that point? What was their most effective training approach for balancing size gain and fat loss? (ie. 3 weeks bulking, 1 week leaning, etc)??

I just think it’s taking too long and am planning my next move.

2

Hey Canadian Patriot,
A few questions:
You’re down to 18%bf, where did you start at? 18 months you’ve been dieting or did you mean 18 weeks? Cuz that’s a long time to be on a fat-loss phase.
What’s your nutrtion and workout plan consist of?
I think it would be easier for people to help you if they know a little more of your history.

3

18% body fat is a lot. Lose more.

It’s really hard to take off a gut, because it’s usually the last thing to go – so you need to get well and truly ripped before it goes away entirely. Once you’ve cut the gut, however, it’s reasonably easy to keep it away.

4

I know CDarklock, but my dilemma is that it’s taking a LONG time. Far longer than it seems for the majority of the posts/articles here on t-nation.

I’ve yet to see a “fat-loss cycle in 12 months” article by Shuggart for example. :slight_smile:

I’m keeping my meals during the day at P+F (incl. breakfast), and my PW meals are P+C (each meal is about 60 min apart)

  1. surge
  2. 2 cups high gi cereal + 1 cup plain yoghurt
  3. 1/2 cup oatmeal + 1-2 cups of cherries + 1.5 scoops of LC grow.

I’m also using a basic E+C stack to help out during the day.

5

Hey Fellow Canuck,

I did something very similiar to you, but I did it for longer. Basically, I pretty much went down from 23% body fat down to 15% body fat. It took me a year and at the end of it, I as so sick of training for fat loss that I wanted to puke.

The best thing for me to do was to go on a bulking cycle. I determined that I had cut for so long that I basically couldn’t go any further with the amount of muscle that I had. I had control over calorie, macros etc. I T-dawg…results were OK, but felt like crap getting into it and during the workouts…I was just plain done with Cutting cycles. I was 6’0 and 165 pds…as my bud Jaystyles put it, “you’re a beanpole.” he was right. I’m still pretty skinny, but over the winter or in other words 16months, I decided it was time to gain some mass. I loved it so much, b/c I felt good, I felt strong, I enjoyed the increased muscle mass, I liked not being able to get my thighs into the jeans I had, I hated having to buy new clothes, but I loved the way my body looked in the mirror. My waste gained probably about 1 inch over the whole time and I ate clean and I ate ever 2 hrs for 16 weeks straight. My cals were always in the range of 3800-4000 depending upon the foods I ate and what happened during the day. Overall at the end of it, I had a finishing weight of 202lbs. I looked alot better and even when I went back to my parents place this summer they said…you looked much better at Christmas with some mass on you. Even though I am only down about 15lbs from then, they still thought that I was better a bit fatter? Weird?

It was really hard for me to get over the fact that I felt full and a little bloated, especially in my skinny bastard clothes. Once, I excepted that the fat would go away once I switched my cals down and changed my workouts, I let er rip.

I can honestly tell you that OVT helped me look leaner. I gained an inch in my arms, my legs went massive (So much so that I switched to maintenance weights b/c I couldn’t wear jeans and it was a pain in the ass)I could start to see my upper abs more prominently with the added Abs for Babehound days that I threw in there.

Once I felt large enough, I did maintenance for 3 weeks…took a break and then went back to cutting. I can honestly say that when I switched it up, the abs started to come, they dropped faster than ever before, in fact, it seemed like they were the first thing to drop. I felt so good about it, that I figure its time for another mass cycle.

I guess my point after all this crap is that you need to have some muscle mass already on your bones. Once you have that the switch to cut will be easy and so effective you’ll wish you did it a long time ago…I wish I did.

So cut the cutting and let er rip with the OVT. Start upping the cals, and take some Tribex or Alpha Male and watch the body do some growing. Keep upping the cals for like 2 months and then maintenance for a while so the body gets used to having the new fangled muscle and then cut like a Rhabi.

Having high test levels is a must during cutting…I noticed a significant diff, while on Tribex as opposed to before even as a newbie.

Hope that helps,

T

6

You still haven’t give any stats. TOTrev did something similar to your situation, but was clearly still underweight for his size, meaning there wasn’t much muscle on him. Depending on your stats, you may not need to bulk.

I’m sort of in the same situation as you. I’m 6’0 205 with 14% bf, and started initialy @ 250, then 210 with 18% bf and now present day. I’ve probably been eating too few calories. What diet plan are you following? I’d suggest at least following berardi’s don’t diet calorie levels, and then go from there.

7

I think this is attributed to leptin, your body has created a new setpoint due to extended periods of dieting. It has become accustomed to the low calories and so refuses to keep losing weight. JB explains this in one of his articles (sorry but the exact one escapes my mind), where you need to try raise the setpoint. Week by week, start eating say 200 calories more, and add in an extra cardio session, that way the net effect is still the same. After a few weeks, taper off the cardio, your body’s metabolism will have increased and a new (and higher) setpoint will be made and so not only are you capable of eating more food but you still burn the same amount of fat.

Another way is the 1 step back, 2 step forward method. Increase your carb intake (leave protein, fats and fructose the same, as these have little effect on leptin levels) for a few days, and no, I don’t mean have 1 more slice of bread here… I mean eat some carbs! You will feel bloated and “fat” due to the higher calorie intake but leptin levels will increase and thus your RMR. Then slowly taper off the calories once again… you should employ this every week or two. As you become leaner, your refeeds should become more often. You should find that not only will you lose weight faster, but you’re also able to eat more food

Hope this helps somewhat

8

Thanks all for the great responses.

Yes I’ve been trying to read up on the leptin theories/articles and (for a long time now) have been regularly keeping my cheat meal AS a total cheat meal…meaning I pig out on whatever I was craving for :wink:

Yeah JB’s idea of slowly increasing calories in order to increase the metabolism setpoint might be in order here…

I know that it’s just a matter of finding the “right” approach to seeing those abs.

I’ve kept a training log, but I think it’s time to be FAR more serious about a food log (duh right?) and see what’s going on. I think I’m eating well with enough calories, but I should really find out for sure.

In the meantime, I think for the next while I’ll be increasing my calories as well as changing up the workout a bit to try and switch things up.

The next “leaning” cycle I attempt, I think I’m just going to have to set some hard parameters and stick to them. ie. define a measureable goal to reach within a certain timeframe.

This will also give me some time to pick up some Tribex/Red Kat…:slight_smile:

thanks everyone!