Day to day eating, critisism on my diet

origins15

Hi all, basically i'm in a bit of a plateau at the moment, after about 14kg weight loss.. going from 93kg to 77-79kg fluctuations.. I'm wondering if theres anything in my current diet that i should change up, basically after some cristism if theres areas i can improve on, from your experiences which may have worked for you. As for a run down on my exercise, i weight train about 5 times a week solid for 50-90mins, always keeping my heart rate up and breaking a good sweat. As for cardio, i try and get at least 1 brisk morning walks in around 35 mins, and then one HIIT session of sprinting up incline ramps and stairs, for around 25 mins follwed by a 2km jog to finish off, aside from this i also try and throw in 1 tabata training of 30 mins also. i have been averaging around 1400-1500 calories for the past few months with about 200P/80C/40F, and only yesterday decided to up my intake to around 1800-2000 cals with 220P/50F/150C approx, im also struggling to make up more calories even if i wanted to still eating clean!

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated,

Chris

Sidesteal

Back looks solid.

One sec, taking a look at your stats/macros.

Sidesteal

EDIT: Let me know how active you are aside from your training. It's possible that the below recommendation is still too low depending on your activity.


First of all, 1400-1500 is nuts with your stats, that's way too low. Hopefully your lifts are still progressing at that intake.

If you don't do any maintenance days during that 1400 stretch, I would first recommend taking 3-4 days eating at maintenance. 2500 should be close. After that:

I think 2000 is a reasonable intake to cut at. I would set your intake as follows unless you are for some reason doing low carb. I'm guessing your previous macro split was just low carb so you could hit your pro target on that low of an intake.

2000 kcals
175g pro minimum
65g fat min

Remaining calories anywhere in the above and I'd recommend putting them in carbs, although you will very likely be exceeding your protein target regularly.

EDIT: Let me stress once again that the protein and fat targets are mins. It is very likely that you'll be overshooting these.

khrys1

From the back, you look like it's possible you're at your goal weight/muscle mass, which could be why you've stopped losing. Wasn't able to look at your food diet to give you suggestions because you have it closed....

Sidesteal

From the back, you look like it's possible you're at your goal weight/muscle mass, which could be why you've stopped losing. Wasn't able to look at your food diet to give you suggestions because you have it closed....

^ He's plenty massive, that's definitely true, but he can still drop a good amount of bodyfat.

origins15

Last year i did a solid "not so clean bulk" where my lifts went up very fast.... and i put on alot of bulk/bodyfat!! I decided i wanted to cut and drop my bodyfat % this year... As for my lifts your very right, my progression has been minimal if any to be honest, i still have maintained fair strength, but dropped a good 40kg in my squat for an example only around 110kg as of last night.... I have realised the whole time its been my daily intake causing this, and along with my training im quite active and on my feet all day moving cartons of beer and wine..! i have dropped great weight around my waist/neck/legs, but struggling on the lower abdominal region which seems to be "the stubborn area" as known to most. I have decided that what i was intaking was too low and that i needed to amp it up, was thinking exactly what you suggested something like 2200-2300 on training days and around 1900-2000 on non-training days! Where im struggling is making up that calorie number and hitting it with the right macros also...

Also is my diet on private, as i just double checked and it says public..

Thanks

Sidesteal

Since you are really active I would encourage you to first take a few days at higher calorie intake.

Shoot for 2800 for a few days (previous reply I made suggested 2500 or so, but I bet your maintenance is higher given your activity level). Might gain some water weight but since you've been around 1400-1500 for a while and NOT losing weight, your leptin levels are probably down. Wouldn't hurt to jack the carbs up for a day or two as well.

As far as macros after that, I'd try averaging closer to 2400. I'm losing at a good pace at 2200 but I'm not on my feet all day and that non-gym activity really adds up.

You can go higher on lift days and lower on rest days if you want. I personally don't use this strategy but I know it's popular.

After your maintenance days I'd shoot for 2300-2400 average kcals using the minimums I posted in my previous reply.

It will seem like a ton of cals but that's only because you were really dropping cals too low earlier, and I guarantee this was the cause of your lifts stalling/dropping.

After a couple of weeks, assuming you start slowly dropping weight again, I'd consider taking a day at maintenance each week as well.

EDIT: Lastly, you obviously worked hard to get that massive back. The above will be a slower process but I'm suggesting slowing down because your lifts are stalling and you've probably dropped more lean mass than you should have already. Slow it down, get some adequate food intake and stop those lifts from dropping. Might recover some of that strength as well just from the extra cals.

origins15

sounds good, thanks for your input. I do totally agree, with the drop in performance due to daily intake!! ill def up the cals, just need to workout what to eat to hit those macros!

Sidesteal

sounds good, thanks for your input. I do totally agree, with the drop in performance due to daily intake!! ill def up the cals, just need to workout what to eat to hit those macros!

That part is personal preference. Outside of food intolerances and medical conditions, hitting your macros will be vastly more important than the food choices as it pertains to body composition and weight loss. Now that being said, you may have personal views on how food choice effects your health and obviously you'd want to stick to those for your own reasons, but as far as cutting fat, your goal is to make the numbers work. You already know how to lift hard, I can tell that from your photo.