Thread: Doing the right things - but stalling

for your height and bodyweight 2000 seems like a safe level to diet at. Your stats are also fine, how much more are you looking to loose?

how low have carbs been? if considerbly low, and youve only have 2 refeeds, it may be time for yet another.
Id be interested in seeing the layout of the diet. Perhaps room for slight tweaks.

what sort of cardio? if not already, Id suggest swapping 2 of those 3 sessions for HIIT(intervals).
are you doing full body workouts w/weights?

Only looking to lose about 4-5lbs. So nothing too drastic.

OK so the diet is roughly:

Oatmeal + 2 Boiled Eggs - 400kcal
Protein shake + apple - 200kcal
Lean meat + Salad / Veg - 500 kcal
Protein shake + All Bran - 200kcal
Postworkout shake - 120kcal
Lean meat + Salad / Veg - 500kcal

I think its pretty solid. (?)

(Some days I'll have wholewheat pasta or brown rice thrown in instead of vegetables)

Not sure about HIIT. I already do some pretty intense workouts for wrestling. I need a couple of days where training is a little more 'tame'. I know HIIT is meant to help a little bit - but is it really that useful?

Yep full body workouts pretty much - Squats, BP, Curl, Shoulder Press, Weighted Crunches. I had recently been doing higher reps but switched this up to a much heavier workout.

Maybe I just need to be a little more patient? Haven't been on the stall for too long (maybe 1.5 wks)

Cheers,

Nick

Originally Posted by nicksthename

Hi Everyone – been lurking a couple of months – finally getting around to posting, hoping some of you wise souls can help with a little advice.


I have been cutting for about 7wks now (with a couple of refeeds thrown in). After following all the advice I’ve been reading I believe my diet has all the correct macronutrients, good protein levels, complex carbs etc etc. And its been going pretty well. But now I’ve reached a bit of a plateau (pretty common it seems).

Now according to the Harris-Benedict BMR formula my ‘total calorie needs’ are 2600. I’ve been taking in around 2000 each day (this intake figure is calculated before taking off any burnt from exercise). And I work out: wrestling 2x , weight training 2x35mins, cardio 3x 30mins per week.

Do you think my calories are on the mark? I’m worried that they are too low and this may be causing the stall.
(For more info I’m 5’8 155lbs 10% BF. Previously used an ECY stack but cycling off at moment)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

are you working right now ? if so what are you doing ?

yes I'm working.

Is this an important point?

you seem pretty active and at 10%, you're going to need more calories than someone the same weight but a higher body fat percentage.

The harris-benedict formula isn't appropriate to determine your caloric needs. First what you should do is see how you're feeling. If you're run down or fatigued...then obviously something's up. Compare your energy levels to earlier on your diet when you were getting good results.

Now try this body fat % specific formula.

370+(21.6 X Lean Body mass in Kg)

at 155, 10%, your LBM is 139.5 (this is assuming the BF% you gave is somewhat accurate at least)

divide that by 2.2 to figure out what it is in Kg

so you have 370+(21.6 X 63.41) = 1740 (rounded out)

That's your BMR. Now I'd say your activity factor is at LEAST 1.6, if you're doing a sport, lifting AND doing cardio...and if you work like LAM brought up, then we're talking a pretty active person. If you do work, I would go with 1.7-1.75 (depending on the job...it could be even higher), but for the sake of showing you're not eating enough, multiply 1740 X 1.6

and you have 2784...which is almost 200 cals over the figure you're going by right now. Some might say that's not a big deal...but over a long period of dieting, I think it ends up catching up with you. Over 7 weeks, we're talking almost 9000 cals less.

And again, your activity multiplier's probably higher...but you could stand to up your calories by 200 per day. You'd be surprised what a difference it makes.

Thanks Determination, thats really useful. Especially the formula as it takes into account lean mass, rather than what I was using which lumps all body types into the same bracket. Where did you get that formula from? - its really good.

I do feel a bit tired at the moment - but unsure as to whether its diet related or not.

I think a bump in calories might be in order. It has worked for me previously when I went waaaay too low (but having been enlighted by the forums I have now seen the light ).

Any suggestions on what food to incorporate for the increase in calories.
Maybe a bit more protein?

Cheers,

Nick

BTW on a different subject, is milk good or bad for cutting?

Originally Posted by nicksthename

yes I'm working.

Is this an important point?

it is very important..the caloirc requirements for a person doing deskwork is surely not the same as one doing manual labor for 8-10 hours a day...

Originally Posted by nicksthename

Thanks Determination, thats really useful. Especially the formula as it takes into account lean mass, rather than what I was using which lumps all body types into the same bracket. Where did you get that formula from? - its really good.

I do feel a bit tired at the moment - but unsure as to whether its diet related or not.

I think a bump in calories might be in order. It has worked for me previously when I went waaaay too low (but having been enlighted by the forums I have now seen the light ).

Any suggestions on what food to incorporate for the increase in calories.
Maybe a bit more protein?

Cheers,

Nick

BTW on a different subject, is milk good or bad for cutting?

hope it translates to good results! A good way to "isolate" the energy level issue to better gauge it is to get plenty of sleep. You should make it a priority to do so regardless as I'm sure you know, (though I definitely know that it's just not possible sometimes, heh) but if you're getting enough sleep and you're still feeling run down then you could make a fair assessment that your caloric intake needs a little boost.

As far as that formula, I first read it in Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat book, but I've seen variations of it from books as old as Arnold's The Education of a Bodybuilder (I'm sure it's much older, though...who knows). I also saw it in abcbodybuilding.com I think, and other websites.

As far as food, you're not raising your cals that much, so I don't see why you can't just stay at your current macronutrient ratios and just eat slightly more of whatever you're eating now. 200 cals spread out over 6 meals is only a 33 cal difference.

And milk...it all depends what you're cutting for and how far to your goal you are...and also how you individually react to it. I've made the error before of cutting certain foods out thinking they were holding me back when in reality I just wasn't eating enough. So I would first get that side of it taken care of...and if you're still getting results with milk, then great.

And don't forget about what Lam brought up. ALL your daily activities factor in to how much you should be eating. I cycle my calories depending on how active I am at certain times of the week for example.