I am the most frustrated dieter on the planet.

[Kevin Kim]

My stats: 177 lbs
Sex: Male
Height: 5' 8"
Body Type: See attached pictures

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Due to a lack of dieting knowledge I've gotten myself in the habit of eating low calories (1500 calories avg) for years and have been stuck at 177 lbs, regardless of exercise including cross fit. It's been pretty frustrating actually since I've been trying to get ripped for years with NO success.

So I'm thinking that I should up my calories to around 2000 calories a day and work out more by weight lifting 1-2 days a week. What do you all think of the following schedule?

Mon: High Protein / Mod Fat / Low Carb (<30 gm) and Cross Fit
Tues: Same as Mon and Rest (or same as Fri)
Wed Same as Mon and Cross Fit
Thurs: Same as Mon and Cross Fit
Fri: Same as Mon, a heavy lifting session and a large protein/carb meal afterwards (hard not to on a Fri night)
Sat: Same as Mon and Rest
Sun: Wake up and "snack" on cheat foods all day but won't over do it (ie. keep my calories less than 2000)

My High Protein / Mod Fat / Low Carb diet currently looks like this:

Breakfast: 2 Whole Eggs & 4 oz steak
Snack: 10 Almonds, Banana & Whey Protein Shake
CROSSFIT.
Snack: Whey Protein Shake
Lunch: 6 oz chicken cooked in butter and grilled veggies
Dinner: 6 oz chicken cooked in butter and grilled veggies
Snack: Maybe a tablespoon of peanut butter

I tried doing the anabolic diet for the last 2 months which basically looked like the above except I carbed up on the weekends eating whatever I wanted. Didn't lose a single pound of fat.

In fact, I've tried a lot of things and am frankly out of ideas. I've wanted to be ripped for 5-6 years and have never achieved it, ever.

Would love some feedback. Am I still eating too little? Am I not eating enough fat on such a low carb diet?

Help.

 

[Built]

Listen, I'm glad you're here, but I think you may need to see an endocrinologist.

Meanwhile, you seriously need a diet break if you now maintain on 1500 calories a day.

How long have you been dieting and how much have you lost during this time?

 

[Kevin Kim]

Well, I go off & on but every time I diet, I go WAY too strict and eat on avg 1500 calories. After learning the hard way & for the past few months, I've been eating a ton on the weekend and I'm now up to around 2000-2100 daily. While feeling more nourished and definitely stronger, I haven't lost any fat.

Maybe I need to eat even more and build more muscle to lose fat? Honestly, I want to be ripped and right now I question whether I have the muscle mass that I need to be looking good by summer?

Oh, the last time I checked, I was around 12% body fat, though it doesn't look like it. However, I have almost zero fat anywhere else on my body except my belly & chest.

 

[Built]

Are you weighing your food, or eyeballing portion sizes?

 

[Kathybird]

Dude, I feel your pain.

 

[Kevin Kim]

I am eyeballing but I am fairly good at assessing portion sizes. My meats are always between 4-6 oz

 

[DaMayor]

I am eyeballing but I am fairly good at assessing portion sizes. My meats are always between 4-6 oz

Not doubting your visual skill or trying to be insulting, but I'm willing to bet that if you used a digital scale you would be surprised how far off your estimates can often be.

While Built raises a valid concern...(and is right most of the time [heh]) I will venture out on the proverbial limb and say that it sounds to me like you need to sit down, educate yourself a little more on diet, put together or follow someone else's structured diet plan...and stay with the program. If you have been going buck wild on the weekends, then you may have just consumed a heck-of-a lot more calories than you estimated.

 

[sassy69]

I'm 5'7", 165 - 170 lb off season , and cut down to around 150 lb 6% bodyfat for competition. I diet on 1800 calories. You're starving yourself w/ that 1500 calorie diet - so your body is holding on to everything it has (i.e your metabolism has slowed itself down to support a "drought environment" - aka starvation mode). Further w/ all that crossfit & very little carb to support the aerobic energy requirements, I'd guess you're probably catabolizing the muscle mass you do have.

For starters, absolutely get a food scale - I eat 5 oz of chicken (or equivalent) 6x /day - for a guy - I think you' should be eating more than 6 oz / meal as well - so that your portions are accurate. I can eyeball my portions to within about 1/2 oz, but I"ve been doing it for 15 yrs (and I do check on the scale to be sure),. and also put your current meal plan into a food counts program to get accurate counts & ratios.

 

[Kevin Kim]

DaMayor: Yes, I'm definitely going to stay away from weekend carb binges. If anything, I'm going to do a Sunday cheat with like a 1500-2000 calorie limit.

Sassy: You have an incredible physique so I want to hear you out. Now a lot of Cross Fit guys are telling me to "eat Paleo" which basically means low carb (carb sources from limited fruit & nuts) and ditch Post Work out Carbs because it will "prevent me from getting lean". Do you agree with this?

 

[danzik17]

DaMayor: Yes, I'm definitely going to stay away from weekend carb binges. If anything, I'm going to do a Sunday cheat with like a 1500-2000 calorie limit.

Sassy: You have an incredible physique so I want to hear you out. Now a lot of Cross Fit guys are telling me to "eat Paleo" which basically means low carb (carb sources from limited fruit & nuts) and ditch Post Work out Carbs because it will "prevent me from getting lean". Do you agree with this?

There is no reason that you can't eat post workout carbs. In fact, it's rather beneficial since glycogen is preferentially shuttled to muscle during that period.

When I'm on a "normal" cut (not doing a specific diet) I like to consume around 54g carbs on a workout day. What that breaks down to is 1/2C oats before and after my workout. All of the rest of calories come from protein/fat.

In all seriousness, take a diet break. Even if that means you gain a couple of pounds to allow your hormones to normalize. That doesn't mean go eat a ton of junk food, it just means eat more calories - 2500-3000 per day for a few days. Make sure to get some carbs on there too as they tend to promote leptin upregulation in the short-term - Effects of short-term carbohydrate or fat overfeed... [Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2000] - PubMed result

 

[Kevin Kim]

What do you think of me doing Lyle McDonald's rapid fat loss then going back to a normal 2100 calorie low carb diet?

 

[Built]

I think it would be a great idea - AFTER you bring up your metabolism.

I think it would be a terrible idea right now.

Listen, I know you want to rip up. You need to help your body before it will let you do this.

Get a scale. Weigh your food.

Bring your calories up to 1600 a day this week, then 1700 a day next week, and so on until you get up to at least 15 calories per pound. Increase your activity while you do this, a) because you can and b) to help mitigate fat gain.

Bring most of the increase from carb, to help bring up your leptin and thyroid.

Post up your macronutrient mix as you do this, so we can guide you.

Once you stabilize - and this might take you two months, I warn you - THEN do rapid fat loss, by the book, with the refeeds.

Or better yet, do UD2.0 at this point.

 

[sassy69]

DaMayor: Yes, I'm definitely going to stay away from weekend carb binges. If anything, I'm going to do a Sunday cheat with like a 1500-2000 calorie limit.

Sassy: You have an incredible physique so I want to hear you out. Now a lot of Cross Fit guys are telling me to "eat Paleo" which basically means low carb (carb sources from limited fruit & nuts) and ditch Post Work out Carbs because it will "prevent me from getting lean". Do you agree with this?

I'd have to spend some time looking at Paleo - but I'll tell you what.. Crossfitters are a very militant bunch in their approach to things. Not that its a bad thing, but they are very, very much into 'the way" and "the way" seems to include Paleo-style dieting. I can show you some quite amazing physiques on guys who are ultra Crossfitters, one guy in particular is about 45 yrs old right now and does all the crazy stuff these guys do, but w/ a vengeance (he's a little OCD...).

If you're interested in that, i think its more of a lifestyle than just a diet, but maybe not a bad option. Personally I've never followed that. I've done all your standard approaches related to competition prep over the years - carb cycling, not carb cycling, keto, splitting up carb & protein and fat & protein meals, etc. Still haven't found the "ultimate" - many of them will get you to certain point just in being structured and consistent (and for me, a lot of cardio). For me the missing piece is a perfect dial in for show time- this is obviously not the common goal of most dieters so I can't tell you, for your purposes, what worked "the best". They all worked when I was consistent & included cardio. Training is a way of life for me so that, in & of itself, won't make a big change in my weight (I suppose unless I switched everything over to major circuit focus = "cardio").

I agree w/ Built tho - you've been in starvation mode for a long time. You really need to let your body find its own homeostasis before you bomb it w/ another restricted diet regimen. Consider it a refeed before the next diet. You don't have to turn into a fat slob doing it - just ease up in calories so your body can adjust as you go. Honestly I'd get up to 2000-2500 cals (I bulk on 3500 cals/day), get a decent split of macro nutrients and don't have a fear of good carbs & good fats. Enjoy life a little, give your food some taste. A good baseline diet is 40 % protein / 30% carbs / 30% fats - set that for your baseline for a couple weeks, and then you can tweak the ratios based on the results. But the most important thing is to just let your body develop a "trust" that its not in starvation mode and let your metabolism right itself first.

 

[Built]

Sassy, with respect, we've been trying to move this board out of a "percentage" based approach and into one that targets macros to lean mass as a baseline.

It's a bit easier for the newbs, and a more flexible paradigm.

At it's most essential level, we truly are in agreement. Get those cals up, slowly, bring up your metabolism, let yourself recover, THEN hit it again, properly.

 

[Kevin Kim]

Thank you for the feedback! Just to give the whole story, I am definitely averaging around 2000-2100 calories now and I'm probably going to bump it up to 2400-2500 by increasing fruit intake and other good carbs.

Do you think it is possible at all to gain muscle & lose fat this way if I increase exercise and carb cycle?

I have a goal of being low body fat by summer and I am ALL ears as to how I can make this happen..

 

[DaMayor]

Do you think it is possible at all to gain muscle & lose fat this way if I increase exercise and carb cycle?

I have a goal of being low body fat by summer and I am ALL ears as to how I can make this happen..

I'd work on the metbolic re-set first, that will take a little time. Been there, done that.

As far as gaining muscle and losing fat...it is possible, but as Built and others (who are not nearly as amiable as Built...even if they wrote a book) have mentioned in the past, the odds for this are more in favor of those who are (more) obese and/or beginners.....during a reduction diet/cut, that is. I'm thinking that you may be able to gain some lean mass during your re-set.
Just fix the metabolism issue, let these guys help you set up a cut, and see what happens. Patience.

 

[Built]

Amiable. LMAO!

Good advice all around here. Just get that metabolism going, bring up your work capacity and your training volume. We'll help you set up a cutter in a month or two, okay?

PS eat more starchy carbs than fruit. Starch breaks down into glucose, and that's what you want right now. Fruit's okay, but lean on the starches.

 

[Kevin Kim]

You guys are awesome.

I'm going to continue to eat around 2000-2500 daily for a few weeks while adding two more weight training sessions.

In about 2.5 weeks, I'll report back. Who knows? Given Dr John B and Tom Venuto's "G FLUX" concept I might even lose some body fat

 

[Perdido]

There is no reason that you can't eat post workout carbs. In fact, it's rather beneficial since glycogen is preferentially shuttled to muscle during that period.

Sorry for the hijack but I though the opposite was true.
http://metabolicdiet.com/pdfs/articles/Post_Exercise_Carbohydrates.pdf

 

[Built]

There are SO many ways to feed post workout.

Optimal - who knows. This depends on the person, the application, and the protocol being followed.

The one thing I'll mention is to say that it is, at least, a relief to know I don't have to employ post workout carbs in order to grow.

 

[Kevin Kim]

Hey all,

I followed your advice and have been eating close to maintenance the last 2 and half weeks and plan on allowing my body adjust to a 2100-2500 calorie diet.

Since the beginning of this post, I have been hitting personal records like crazy, I look leaner & my muscles are getting a lot larger.

I've gone from 177 to 181 and now I'm at around 179 lbs.

My body even feels like it's THANKING me. Even if I'm eating much more food, I don't feel tired AT ALL, but I feel like the calories literally absorbing into my muscles.

So my weekly schedule looks like this: Moderate fat (60-100 grams), protein (150 - 180 grams average) and 2-3 days my carbs will be around 50 -70 grams. On these days my calories are still same, but fat and protein are higher. Should I implement a "refeed" and eat like 250 - 300 grams of carbs one day just to compensate? I hear carb cycling is effective for body recomposition.

Also, given by huge calorie increase, I kind of want to leave a weekly deficit. What do you think if incorporating intermittent fasting on my "off days" (Saturday & Sunday) and just eating one large meal a day, say like 1200-1500 calories? This actally works perfectly with my lifestyle.

Keep in mind that even with the above "deficit" I am still eating WAY more than I ever have in YEARS.

As far as exercise, I am doing three days of cross fit and one day of weight training. Honestly, I tried to do two days of weight training with three days of cross fit but I feel like I'm over working my body. I did 75 power snatches STRAIGHT yesterday for Crossfit and today was supposed to be "leg' day but man, I am out of steam lol.

Thoughts?