Weight Loss Plateau, Advice?

Was, Jan 1 2012, 339lbs and 33.9% body fat
Now and 290 lbs and 26.2% body fat.

I have plateaued. Not sure how to push through it…

Macros:
Calories Protein Carbs Fat

2905 340.5 277.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
3221 361.5 312.5 61
2882 300.5 299.5 46.5
2634 292.5 260.5 46.5

Mon, Wed, Fri I perform HIIT, with some abs and then steady state cardio (total of 45 minutes)
Tues, Thurs, & Sat - 20-25 minutes of steady state cardio after a 10 minutes warm up and stretch. Sunday I take completely off.

At lunch time, I am doing Y3T training Mon-Fri.

I have been stuck for about a 4 months now, even though I am see some changes in my body. I am seeing more Veins in my arms and legs (something I have never seen before…EVER). I am getting stronger. i am seeing the body fat drop some, or my muscles are more full.

I have also when to the DR recently and I have been diagnosed with low test…waiting on more blood test and dr to get back from vacation to see if he prescribes me anything.

I was thinking of dropping my carbs a little and dropping calories about 200 everyday, but not sure the energy is going to be there…

Supplements:
Glutamine
Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite or HOT-ROX
Unleashed by Barthel Fitness
Crea-size by Barthel Fitness
Fish Oil and roughly 30g of BCAA’s a day.

any advise would be awesome and appreciated.

[quote]csquaredosu66 wrote:

I have been stuck for about a 4 months now, even though I am see some changes in my body. I am seeing more Veins in my arms and legs (something I have never seen before…EVER). I am getting stronger. i am seeing the body fat drop some, or my muscles are more full.

[/quote]

Doesn’t seem like you’re stuck to me.

Honestly, I think you’re doing too much. You’re lifting 5 times a week on a high intensity bodybuilding routine, while performing hard conditioning 6 days a week, all while on a calorie deficit and trying to lose weight.

You’re chasing multiple goals at the same time and killing yourself to do it. You don’t need 11 training sessions a week to lose weight.

I would suggest you put your lifting into maintainence mode, and do your interval training twice a week, and your steady state twice a week. You could lift 3 or 4 times a week, but remember that gaining muscle and strength is not your goal right now.

Don’t count your calories. You know what foods are healthy and which are not. Eat the ones that are.

Try Carb cycling works wanders for me instead of going low carbs all the time try this honestly works awesome for me.
You need to calculate or rough estimate how much you would weigh totally lean like body building comp lean and remember that number.

Day 1-2.5x Lean Body Weight
Day2- 1x LBW
Day3- 1x LBW
Day4- 2x LBW
Day5- .75 LBW
Day6- x1 LBW
Day7-.5 LBW
Repeat

Keep protein the same roughly 1.5 to 2g per LBW. I dropped 100lbs following this in 6 months. I went from 252 to 161.

Lifted 4 times a week Alt upper and lower. Did steady state cardio 5 days a week for atleast 30mins a time.

and here is where you will get all kinds of advice that will contradict each other. some will say eat massive amounts of protein, others cut fat, others cut carbs, and some combination of them as well.

some thing i do know about the body can help you make the decision on foods to eat. blood sugar needs to be within a very small range. not too high nor too low. when blood sugar gets too high insulin is released to help push that access into other cells. muscles first if they are hungry for it then into adipose tissue. this is a one way process. in other words if you are storing fat, you cannot use fat as fuel.

blood sugar is going to go up each time you eat and can go up more so from foods you eat. that first part is the reason why i am not a fan of eating 7-8 times a day. if memory serves me correct the author on this site TC wrote recently wrote about that same thing. that he was becoming insulin resistant even though he was doing what we are all taught as correct, to eat several small meals a day.

for the foods you eat that effect blood sugar the most, well most people know this one even though they ignore that fact, carbs. especially refined sugar. it is my opinion that carb backloading, fasting, and even carb cycling as mentioned above can be great for not pushing up blood sugar for long and especially backloading is great for rapid recovery of workouts while not storing much as fat.

now you still need enough calories and if you are manipulating carbs then that leaves us fat and protein. for most of my lifting career thanks to bodybuilding myths and legend [and magic] i believed that massive protein was the answer for the rest of your carbs and to take in nearly no fat. i no longer believe that is effective for a lifestyle diet, not just a temp solution.

i am not saying that lots of protein will hurt, just that it is not needed. i say eat macros based upon what you need them for. and one can build muscle with as little as 0.5gr/lbs of lean mass per day of intake. doubling that should be plenty.

now we are left with a massive caloric need and 1 macro, fat. i has come to my opinion over the years that this macro should be pushed up far higher then most people are comfortable with. as much as 50% of ones diet. it has several benefits IMO. 1) it digests very slow when compared to carbs so the raise in blood sugar is minimized. 2) the slower digestion helps you feel full for longer so fewer meals can be had throughout the day while still not feeling hungry. 3) there are essentials fatty acids that have to be taken in from diet. 4) it can easily be used as a fuel source, much more efficiently then protein.

to use your macros listed above i will show what i mean:

Macros:
Calories Protein Carbs Fat
2905 340.5 277.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
2853 338.5 266.5 50.5
3221 361.5 312.5 61
2882 300.5 299.5 46.5
2634 292.5 260.5 46.5

can become:
2930 200 195 150
2850 200 175 150
2850 200 175 150
2850 200 175 150
3250 200 275 150
2810 200 165 150
2622 200 118 150

now those are examples above, but i hope to show a general idea. all of those put you at 41-51% of total calories from fat.

to simplify my views on carb intake. it should be used for immediate high intensity fuel needs. which means pre and [especially] post workout are your only times where it can be of maximal benefit. keep in mind there are essential amino acids and essenctial fatty acids but there are no essential sugars.

If you’re already making protein shakes, you can use half&half instead of milk to increase the fat content. You can also add raw or pasteurized whole eggs (if you’re comfortable with that).

[quote]Reed wrote:
Try Carb cycling works wanders for me instead of going low carbs all the time try this honestly works awesome for me.
You need to calculate or rough estimate how much you would weigh totally lean like body building comp lean and remember that number.

Day 1-2.5x Lean Body Weight
Day2- 1x LBW
Day3- 1x LBW
Day4- 2x LBW
Day5- .75 LBW
Day6- x1 LBW
Day7-.5 LBW
Repeat

Keep protein the same roughly 1.5 to 2g per LBW. I dropped 100lbs following this in 6 months. I went from 252 to 161.

Lifted 4 times a week Alt upper and lower. Did steady state cardio 5 days a week for atleast 30mins a time. [/quote]

What should my fat grams be?