Diet/Fat loss

[imcleish]

Hi,
I'm going to try to keep this as short as I can, but it will probably get long no doubt. So I've been trying to cut up a bit for summer. 32 yrs old, 5'11, currently 185 lbs and 10% bf last time i had it taken. Last summer I got down to 6% bf and really liked the way i looked and felt. Since then I dabbled with intermittent fasting, crossfit, no postworkout shakes and managed to put on about 10 lbs, probably none of which is muscle mass.

I'm trying to lean back out, but found that it is not happening too easily. In fact, I feel like i am gaining fat. I am quite sure that I have some cortisol issues going on. I actually took a saliva test for my cortisol and testosterone levels. I'm waiting to hear on my results, but i just wanted to make sure that i had a solid diet plan in the meantime.

Training-wise, I'm doing the wendler 5 3 1 program and running sprints twice/week on the lower body days.

here's a sample of my diet from Monday:

7:00 six omega 3 eggs, 2 turkey sausage patties, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 TBS fish oil
46 g fat, 55 g protein, 8 g carb

11:00 am workout
12:00 pm- shake w/ 2 scoops whey, 20 g L-Leucine, 25 g glutamine, 15 g glycine, 1 scoop reds today, 1 packet emergen-c
59 g protein, 4 g fat, 12 g carbs

3:30- 10 oz (wt uncooked) chicken breast, 6 oz green beans, 80 g coconut milk, 20 g macadamia nuts
32 g fat, 62 g protein, 12 g carbs

8:00- salad w/ olive oil, lemon juice, tomatoes, cucumbers, greens and chicken, 1 TBS fish oil
37 g fat, 60 g protein, 15 g carbs

totals: 115 g fat, 236 g protein, 47 g carbs (16 fiber)
cals: 2103 (45% protein, 49% fat, 6% carbs)

other supplements are zma, natural calm, vitamin d

i prefer a low carb diet as I just find it easier to stick to and I am less hungry while on it. Oh, and I usually have one cheat day/week. Try to limit it to one hour, but it usually sneaks up to 2 hours.

thanks for any input....

 

[maseco63]

3 Surefire Tips That'll keep The Fat Melting

I have a few tips they be worth looking into....

*Watch your stress levels and overtraining
*Mix It Up (I have two full body weeks,1 iso, and 1strip set week) In other words I keep my body guessing
*Late nite HUGE Salads. (It's like detox!)

Good luck!
No spam

 

[imcleish]

yeah, I do like the late nite salads. They are nice. Do you guys all think that lower carbs is the best or at least fastest route for fat loss?

 

[wordgeist]

how can the stress levels can affect with the weight loss?

 

[Phineas]

Re: supplements. Get off the ZMA. It only helps you get to normal levels if you're deficient in zinc, mag, and b6. They market it as though it will increase testosterone but this isn't true.

Also, is it really necessary to supplement vitamin D? It's very easy to get your needs through real food.

 

[Phineas]

how can the stress levels can affect with the weight loss?

Stress releases cortisol -- a hormone which inhibits muscle tissue development and fat oxidation. It's the body's way of interpreting "hard times" and thinking it needs to cling to fat for energy to deal it.

 

[jitendrasnv]

Hi,

Fat loss is the necessity of today's as it develops a lot of health related problems.50 % of diseases are happening due to the fats and obesity.

Thanks

 

[superyo]

I do various full body workouts with sandbags, kettlebells and bodyweight exercises + kickboxing classes. sometimes i play various sports with my friends too. I like to challenge my body to do different things all the time and that way i also avoid overuse injuries from repetitive motions. All this keeps me in shape but i eat healthy too most of the time. Although my fat is approximately between 15% and 18%.

 

[sassy69]

A couple things that stand out to me is that you're low carb, but I don't think you're low enough to go into ketosis. That just means you're not supplying your body enough fuel for the energy demands you're putting on it. Sprints especially require carbs - most people on keto diets will say up front that they have no energy reserves for "sprint" or "aerobic type" activity. They can do things like walk at a steady state on a treadmill but no high energy spurts are available. If you're going to do a ketogenic diet, do a ketogenic diet. (I.e. get your carbs < 20 g /day) Otherwise I think you need to up your carbs.

I also think you mgiht need more than 2100 calories / day to fuel your energy demands - your body likes to run efficiently but you need to fuel it so it can run efficiently. To compare I'm a girl (obviously), 5'7", offseason I'm around 165-170 lb and I CUT on 1700-1800 calories (usually in a carb rotation style, keeping total cals constant but cycling ratios of carbs and fats) for BB competition.

 

[imcleish]

You know what's funny is that I was pretty much running a keto until a week ago. Was on about 160 g protein and 150 g fat. So would you suggest that I drop my protein some or up my fats and cals? I don't really like to do carbs because I don't like to eat grains. If I did want to add in carbs would u suggest fruit or something like sweet potatoes?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Phineas]

A couple things that stand out to me is that you're low carb, but I don't think you're low enough to go into ketosis. That just means you're not supplying your body enough fuel for the energy demands you're putting on it. Sprints especially require carbs - most people on keto diets will say up front that they have no energy reserves for "sprint" or "aerobic type" activity. They can do things like walk at a steady state on a treadmill but no high energy spurts are available. If you're going to do a ketogenic diet, do a ketogenic diet. (I.e. get your carbs < 20 g /day) Otherwise I think you need to up your carbs.

I also think you mgiht need more than 2100 calories / day to fuel your energy demands - your body likes to run efficiently but you need to fuel it so it can run efficiently. To compare I'm a girl (obviously), 5'7", offseason I'm around 165-170 lb and I CUT on 1700-1800 calories (usually in a carb rotation style, keeping total cals constant but cycling ratios of carbs and fats) for BB competition.

With your carb cycling I suppose this wouldn't put you into ketosis? You're not referring to refeeds are you? Or, do you mean one day might be < 20 g and the next might be <100 then <50, etc?

Can you give an example week of your macros, please?

Have ketogenic diets been proven as superior to running a basic caloric deficit? For instance, what if I was on an appropriate deficit but kept some carbs in my diet? Like, <100g/day cycled with less and more on other days? That's still pretty low carb, so I'd only be supplying enough for my workouts but not any more.

 

[sassy69]

With your carb cycling I suppose this wouldn't put you into ketosis? You're not referring to refeeds are you? Or, do you mean one day might be < 20 g and the next might be <100 then <50, etc?

Can you give an example week of your macros, please?

Have ketogenic diets been proven as superior to running a basic caloric deficit? For instance, what if I was on an appropriate deficit but kept some carbs in my diet? Like, <100g/day cycled with less and more on other days? That's still pretty low carb, so I'd only be supplying enough for my workouts but not any more.

No you'd never be down low enough in carbs long enough to go into keto - in fact the purpose, as I see it, behind carb cycling is to drop your intake in actual carbs, BEFORE your body realizes it and starts to adjust metabolism down to accommodate the perceived lower availability of energy source.

There are many different flavors of carb cycling - my preferred way is a 4 day rotation where I keep total cals constant and replace the calories removed from carbs w/ cals from fats. I am not one who runs well or even feels very good on high carbs so for me I generally have about 50g carb /meal, 4-5 meals. If I do a 4 day rotation, the simplest way is just drop the carbs from one additional meal each day.

And you're correct -there aren't literally refeed days but just days of carbs as;
Day 1: 150 g carb
Day 2: 100g carb
Day 3: 50 g carb
Day 4 0 g carb
Day 5 = Day 1 (150 g)
repeat

So you feel like trash on Day 4, but after a couple cycles of it you get used to it. I think there's a big aspect of 'mental management' of those low carb days too. If you havent' done it in a while or have never done it, and you've been running a pretty consistent diet, dropping down to low carb will leave you like a lethargic, slow-witted idiot by day 4, and then your carbs on the next day are like food porn that gives you carbgasms because they feel so good.

But just like every other diet - its the CONSISTENCY of this that allows it to work.

 

[imcleish]

Sassy, do you think this carb cycling approach would work well for someone who's been basically running on low carbs (<50/day) for a long time (months)? I think I am going to give this a try. It always worked well for me in the past, but then again I was coming off a diet that was 50-60% carb instead of 5-10....

 

[sassy69]

If you're used to running low carb, ANY additional carbs are going to be sucked up by your body. Try carb cycling if that's what works for you and its an easy transition. But you need to get enough carbs to run on , otherwise you're going to have a bogged down metabolism & you'll be in a catabolic state as a result. Not what you're looking for.

 

[maseco63]

Hey You got any updates?...

No spam

 

[Phineas]

Hey You got any updates?...

No spam

Okay I mean really, seriously..can someone help me out here? He never asked about binge eating. That's not the issue.

Better yet, at NO POINT IN THIS DISCUSSION has RC injuries been brought up.

Why do you keep posting these links over and over?

 

[Phineas]

No you'd never be down low enough in carbs long enough to go into keto - in fact the purpose, as I see it, behind carb cycling is to drop your intake in actual carbs, BEFORE your body realizes it and starts to adjust metabolism down to accommodate the perceived lower availability of energy source.

There are many different flavors of carb cycling - my preferred way is a 4 day rotation where I keep total cals constant and replace the calories removed from carbs w/ cals from fats. I am not one who runs well or even feels very good on high carbs so for me I generally have about 50g carb /meal, 4-5 meals. If I do a 4 day rotation, the simplest way is just drop the carbs from one additional meal each day.

And you're correct -there aren't literally refeed days but just days of carbs as;
Day 1: 150 g carb
Day 2: 100g carb
Day 3: 50 g carb
Day 4 0 g carb
Day 5 = Day 1 (150 g)
repeat

So you feel like trash on Day 4, but after a couple cycles of it you get used to it. I think there's a big aspect of 'mental management' of those low carb days too. If you havent' done it in a while or have never done it, and you've been running a pretty consistent diet, dropping down to low carb will leave you like a lethargic, slow-witted idiot by day 4, and then your carbs on the next day are like food porn that gives you carbgasms because they feel so good.

But just like every other diet - its the CONSISTENCY of this that allows it to work.

First of all, thanks a lot for all the time you put in your responses. The science behind low carb/ketogenic diet is what gets me the most.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm keener on the idea of just carb cycling than I am abolishing them all together with refeeds (i.e. ketogenic). I will definitely try that in future cuts but seeing as how this will be my first cut I don't want to go too risky.

Besides, for this cut I'm not shooting for contest shape. I'm about 15% right now, so something modest like 10% is all I care about. It's just to practice cutting. I plan on doing this several times before I attempt a full-fledged cut -- meaning to a very low BF. I don't need to see striations at this point, just decrease my BF to be decently lean and see how my body reacts to these diet adjustments.

Do you think this is a wise decision, or am I overthinking it? At this point I just don't want to risk losing more than a couple pounds muscle. I realize on my first cut I probably will lose some, but I figure a more modest cut will reduce my risk.

Anyway, back to the numbers. Now, even though with a carb cycling diet I wouldn't incorporate the refeed days for carbs, wouldn't I still need a refeed for general calories? I thought the body goes into starvation mode when it's been deprived not just of carbs (i.e. primary fuel) but calories (i.e. amount of fuel). Isn't why so many people's diets fail because they remain in a deficit for too long?

For instance, let's say I was going to cut on 2500 calories. Of course, the carbs would alternate and fat would increase accordingly until the cycle starts over, but every 5 days or so would I want to have a day at 3000 or more calories?