stuck at 13% bf

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whitetail417
whitetail417 Posts: 21
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

I'm 5'6, weigh in at about 168 lbs and I've been stuck since December at 13% body fat. I was doing a hardcore cardio routine to drop a lot of weight (was 215 lbs) and dropped down to 153. In that loss was a lot of muscle so I switched gears to gain muscle. Losing all the weight I was eating around 1600/cal a day, now I upped it to 2500/cal a day. I use a body media fit on my arm and on average it says I burn between 2900-3700 calories a day depending on my work load and exercise. Is it possible I'm still not eating enough? I stick to a 40/40/20 diet and still can't lose any fat around my mid section and my back. I do weights 4 days a week and cardio 3 days a week, one day being a straight cardio day. Any help would be greatly appreciated! My journal is open so feel free to criticize me and tell me what I should switch up! Thanks in advance.
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Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    You have pictures?
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    Sorry, no pictures.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    4mqt7pdkkx5h.jpeg
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    I'll get darker as I drop body fat? La-w-dy!! Thanks Lis. . . . .
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    According to the pictures I'm right between 10-15% chest and abdomen region, except the love handles those look more like the 25% picture and there's no way my body fat is that high. Legs, arms, chest, and abdomen are all lean.
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    When I startedi was worse then the 40% picture, so that's a good thing at least :smile:
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'll get darker as I drop body fat? La-w-dy!! Thanks Lis. . . . .

    This is why I love you!
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    What was your BF at 153 pounds?
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    It was still at the 13 13.5% ish area.....I lost more muscle when I was down that low.
  • sluace
    sluace Posts: 6 Member
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    What kind of cardio are you performing?
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    I try to change it up, today I did 20 minutes of stair master followed by about 10-15 minutes of bike riding. I'll do interval training on the treadmill, bike, stair master mostly.
  • sluace
    sluace Posts: 6 Member
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    My own opinion, take it as you will. I saw my bf% drop the most with a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) after every weight training session for 20-30 minutes. I was on a 4 day split at the time. The steady state cardio of the treadmill, bike, or stair master never worked for me. Pure cardio days also didn't seem to work and I always felt I got more accomplished after a weight training day.

    Combine that with some fat burner supplements and I got down to 10% from 19% in about 6 weeks.
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    sluace wrote: »
    My own opinion, take it as you will. I saw my bf% drop the most with a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) after every weight training session for 20-30 minutes. I was on a 4 day split at the time. The steady state cardio of the treadmill, bike, or stair master never worked for me. Pure cardio days also didn't seem to work and I always felt I got more accomplished after a weight training day.

    Combine that with some fat burner supplements and I got down to 10% from 19% in about 6 weeks.

    So basically HIIT is if I'm on a treadmill run full speed 2 minutes 1 minute recovery correct? Can do the same thing on the bike?

    Any recommendations on fat burners? I'm taking hydroxycut non stimulant formula haven't seen any results as of yet.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    sluace wrote: »
    My own opinion, take it as you will. I saw my bf% drop the most with a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) after every weight training session for 20-30 minutes. I was on a 4 day split at the time. The steady state cardio of the treadmill, bike, or stair master never worked for me. Pure cardio days also didn't seem to work and I always felt I got more accomplished after a weight training day.

    Combine that with some fat burner supplements and I got down to 10% from 19% in about 6 weeks.

    So you had magic pills?
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    Another question is do you guys eat back your exercise calories? I don't which is why I'm wondering if I'm still not eating enough. I eat 2500/day gross, not net.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    whitetail: ask yourself- - -could I be at 13% BF at 153 and 168? Congrats on the weight loss but 13% is fairly low, not that you aren't there, but I doubt you gained muscle mass as you went up in weight to 168. At best when you go back up in weight you'll be at a 50:50 ratio of fat/muscle. The numbers you are providing aren't working in my simple head. If you go to Eat, Train, and Progress there are some folks in the group who will have you provide 3 pics and they will provide their opinion of BF percentage.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    whitetail417 wrote: »
    According to the pictures I'm right between 10-15% chest and abdomen region, except the love handles those look more like the 25% picture and there's no way my body fat is that high. Legs, arms, chest, and abdomen are all lean.
    whitetail417 wrote: »
    When I startedi was worse then the 40% picture, so that's a good thing at least :smile:

    You didn't say how you measured your BF%, but with a shift from 40% to around 13%, could some of what you are seeing in the abdominal region be loose skin?
  • sluace
    sluace Posts: 6 Member
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    Close...I would shoot for something closer to 30 secs "all-out" then recover for 1-3 minutes and do it again 5-10x if you are on the treadmill. The reason being you can't really go "all out" if you do it for 2 minutes, you will naturally slow down. You want to get your heart rate up as much as possible, recover, then do it again.

    Another technique I used was in-between sets of weights instead of sitting and recovering for one minute, do jumping jacks, run in place, or high knees, for that one minute then go back to the weights. It combines the cardio and the weights to keep your heart rate up.

    I haven't used hydrocut and can't say whether it works or not. I used Shred JYM as it wasn't a proprietary blend and I knew all the ingredients in the capsules. I've provided a link below. It does have caffeine in it though, not sure if that is a deal breaker for you or not.

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/jym/shred-jym.html
  • whitetail417
    whitetail417 Posts: 21
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    Burning 2900-3700 a day seems awfully high. Not to mention that an 800 calorie range is very wide. Have you worked out what your TDEE should supposedly be?

    How many calories per day are you actually eating a day?
    Are you weighing and logging everything, every day?

    To answer your question, do you think you are not eating enough, the answer is that if you're not losing weight you're eating too much.

    5'6" 168" means you still have at least a good 15 lbs to lose especially considering you didn't lift weights during your initial cut. Also, 10-15% bf is a big range. You need more accuracy with all your numbers.

    I'm an HVAC technician, so the range between the 2900-3700 is because depending on the day what I'm doing I guess, again that's an average from what body media is telling me. Average day can be going up and down stairs in apartment buildings servicing furnaces to lugging equipment across rooftops all day so I guess that's where the difference is coming in.

    I'm eating 2500/day total, I don't eat back any calories. Everything is weighed and logged. I brown bag everything to work and I prepare my meals either the night before or morning of.

    I can't see that I'm eating too much because in December I weighed the same thing and was only eating 1600 calories a day. So by that theory if I wasn't losing any weight then I should have decreased my calories even further.

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