Weight Loss Plateau

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hi everyone,

My weight loss has slowed and basically stagnated. My goal is to lose 25 lbs of fat in 12 weeks. I’m currently on week 8 and I’ve lost about 15 lbs give or take depending on how much water I’m holding.

I’m wondering if I should just keep being disciplined and let my body come off the plateau when it wants to.

I’ve been training with a powerlifter because I don’t want to get any bigger. Heck I tried to where an XXL shirt the other day and I could barely get my arms through. However, powerlifting is making me bigger and stronger.

I haven’t done any consistant cardio since I started. I’m not really thrilled about starting it either.

My goal is to get down to 240-250 by Christmas. If I plateau for a few weeks I think I’ll have enough time to get to this goal.

Details:

T-Dawg 2.0

30 g of carbs or less on non training days

100 g carbs on training days (75 g coming from Surge during and PWO.)

Protein 300g a day

Fats 80-100 g a day.

Also, I don’t want to do too much cardio because I don’t want to lose my strength. My deads and bench are increasing every week now.

Has anyone out there gone through a weight loss plateau. If so, how did you deal with it?

walleye

2

Walleye,

Since losing the 15lbs, have you readjusted your total cals?

There are a lot of differing opinions regarding cardio, I have not noticed any loss of strength doing interval style cardio. I actually think I am stronger when I keep up the cardio because my endurance is greater, in addition to faster fat loss.

Mike Mahler wrote an article here: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460021
and I really like this style of cardio too.

3

Thanks Sabrina,

I weighed myself the same time every week. I weighed myself this morning and I was 300 and 2 days ago I was 304. I don’t get it. I’m wondering if my water retention is that big.

Good call one re doing my calories, however, I was eating 7-8 KCALs per pound of body weight before. I was barely taking in my minimum amount of recommended protein at 300 g.

Anyhow, I’ll have to give the cardio a shot.

walleye

4

[quote]30 g of carbs or less on non training days

100 g carbs on training days (75 g coming from Surge during and PWO.)

Protein 300g a day

Fats 80-100 g a day.[/quote]

OK. One thing that stands out to me is those numbers don’t add up. Are you sure they’re 100% accurate?

According to my math, 100g carbs, 300g of protein and 100g of fat per day = 2500 calories (400 from carbs, 1200 from protein and 900 from fat).

At your weight, with that low intake, the weight should be just dropping off.

I’m assuming you’re not an NBA-sized giant. But even a six-foot or thereabouts, that intake should see the weight plunge.

I weigh 195 and I take in 2500 a day to diet. When I’m bulking up I take in 3500-4000. And I eat a fair amount of crap, as I’ve written about (or hinted at) elsewhere. I switched to 2500 from 3500 last week and have lost four pounds and expect to lose one a week consistently.

Understand that I’m not accusing you of lying or anything stupid like that. Just you may want to be honest with yourself and ensure you’re meeting those numbers perfectly, because as I said it should be falling off IMO.

If those numbers ARE accurate, then I think it’s less a diet question and more an expenditure one. You’ll need to introduce 3-4 days of cardio per week to burn an extra 3000 or so calories away. At your weight 30-45 minutes of moderate cardio should burn 500-750 calories no problems at all.

Also your protein seems low; I take in 250-300 per day, but only 50g of fats. You could mix it up and add more protein and drop the fat and see if that triggers something.

I reitrate that I’m not an expert, and this is just an opinion.

5

Sheamus,

Thanks for the reply man.

I actually stopped counting calories and just counting protein on my non workout days. I’m consuming only protein in the form of egg whites, chicken, turkey, beef, and low carb grow. I eat around 300G a day.

I’m eating the same on my workout days except for 3 scoops of surge around my workout. I might even be getting less calories than that.

I’ve just come to accept that my body doesn’t like to give up fat without a real fight. I’m taking the last of my HOT-ROX now and I’m also doing alternate cycles of Mag-10 and Tribex. It’s the only way that I can keep my strength and size up while I’m eating like a 3 year old girl.

I’m getting bigger and stronger but I don’t really care to get any bigger. When I’m done losing my weight I want to keep myself at 240 about 8-9 % BF. That’s big enough for me.

walleye

6

Something to consider perhaps…

The last time I hit a weight loss plateau, I increased my daily cals by 500 and began losing weight again. That’s right, increased.

I figure it probably had something to do with starvation mode, and/or lowered metabolic rate. But I’m far from an expert.

Anyway, some anecdotal info for you to consider.

~Vyskol

7

You also could try shocking your system by taking a day or two off your “diet” and just eat what ever you want. Sort of related to what was said above. Your body gets used to a certain calorie intake after awhile and sometimes needs a jump start to get your metabolism reved up again. I actually do this on a weekly basis to keep my metabolism going. One day a week I reward myself with some “good food”. I’m not an expert but I think it works.

8

I was going to say what Vyskol said, up your calories a bit & see what happens. I know from expirience once you reduce the calories to much your metabolism crashes. When I gained all my weight (fat) I was taking in about or less then 800-1000 calories day I estimate. I had to start eating over double that in good food to get into weight loss mode again.