Help Me Solve My Fat Loss Plateau Puzzle

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  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,574 Member
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    I think I need cliffs
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    I didn't randomly pick a number, I'm going to start off eating just below my TDEE and then slowly increase it. Carefully. I've been in a deficit so long my body needs a break from it. I'm looking forward to gaining some muscle for a while :)
  • fad_sin26
    fad_sin26 Posts: 7 Member
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    To lose body fat i suggest incorporating more muscle hypertrophy training aka strength training. You must build more muscle to get rid of fat. Up your protein to 130g. I suggest 3-4 full body strength training days focusing on heavy compound lifts. That way you build and maintain muscle. The diet will get rid of the fat. Cardio ensures a calorie deficit. Don't add your exercise to the myfitnesspal app. That just gives you more reason to eat more!
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    Maybe you're right. My goal IS to lose more body fat, but I can't deny that it's not working right now and I need a break. And cutting afterwards should be a lot faster and easier - maybe that's why the weight came off so fast at the beginning of the year... directly following a maintenance phase. After all, the body adapts to a consistent long term calorie deficit by slowing down metabolism to conserve calories. Long term cutting quite simply isn’t very good for your body. There are negative side effects of long term cutting above and beyond the loss in metabolism (both mental and physical; sex hormones notably decrease and all body processes that require growth/regeneration suffer). These negative side effects only get stronger and stronger the leaner you get. Spending some time bulking (or at the very least, in maintenance) will eventually undo all of the negative side effects of cutting too long. Or so I've read, anyway. Why do you suggest only a week?
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    fad_sin26 wrote: »
    To lose body fat i suggest incorporating more muscle hypertrophy training aka strength training. You must build more muscle to get rid of fat. Up your protein to 130g. I suggest 3-4 full body strength training days focusing on heavy compound lifts. That way you build and maintain muscle. The diet will get rid of the fat. Cardio ensures a calorie deficit. Don't add your exercise to the myfitnesspal app. That just gives you more reason to eat more!

    Sorry, I know it was a long one, but did you read my original post? I do three 60 minute weight training sessions a week. And my protein is, on average, way above 130g.
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    If I don't track weight lifting calories, surely that will put me in a greater deficit that I'm aware of, thus making any specific daily calorie target a bit of a shot in the dark? I woke up this morning and immediately checked my MFP full day prediction of my calorie expenditure (as it's linked with my Charge HR) and if I did nothing else all day it would be just under 1700, so I'm taking that as my TDEE and intend to eat to that, plus whatever calories I burn on top. I just did some weight training and running, the total calorie burn according to my Charge HR is 302, which seems like a safe bet to me. Or would you disagree? That number will only increase throughout the day... right now the prediction is at 2048.

    It's interesting what you said about Extreme Calorie Deficit - I've been wondering if that were the case for a while but trying to find anything concrete on Google is near impossible. Maybe it was my search term. Either way, it's nice to hear that it IS possible, and it makes sense because it's not the first time I've felt like I simply wasn't eating enough calories to burn fat.

    Thanks for the advice. Keep it comin' :)
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    Quick update - I took a couple of weeks eating at maintenance and managed to maintain my weight. Now I'm back to the diet, eating more carbs and less fat on training days, and the other way round on rest days. I'll report back in a couple of weeks.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    thats light for a guy regardless of being 5ft 4. (I say this as I'm very slim and am 133lbs at 5ft 2) Shouldn't you just be focusing on body recomp?
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    I don't know, should I? What makes you say that? I want to lose the ring around my naval and then focus on either maintaining or putting on muscle, depending on how I feel about the way I look once that ring is gone.

    Okay so it's been about 2 weeks since I started back on the diet again and while my measurements are coming down my weight is staying the same. I'll check back in 2 weeks - if my measurements are going down but my weight is staying the same then that must mean I'm putting on about as much muscle as I'm burning fat, with allowances for water retention, etc. So in that case I'm happy.

    I'm eating at a 500 calorie deficit (totalling 1200 calories in per day), but I know I can comfortably double my cardio work every day if I need to burn more, but that already seems low to me and as I said my weight isn't coming off, so I'm worried this will just lead to more confusion over how to proceed. I'll check back in 2 weeks for a progress update - hopefully my measurements are still going down.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Rumik wrote: »
    I'm eating at a 500 calorie deficit (totalling 1200 calories in per day), but I know I can comfortably double my cardio work every day if I need to burn more.

    That deficit is much too aggressive for your size (male, 5'4", 125 lbs.)—you'll lose lean body mass. Set your goal no higher than .5 lb. per week and be patient.

    You cannot build lean body mass (aka recomp) at a deficit.
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    I'm not losing lean body mass, I'm not losing anything, lol. Besides, I lift weights 3 times a week to offset any loss there.
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    So it looks like my plateau was just down to me incorrectly estimating the nutritional content of the food served in my work's cafeteria. I guess I was WAAAAY off, cause I've stopped eating there and the weight's coming off again. I've learned a valuable lesson... make no guesses when it comes to calorie and macro content.
  • matt88uk
    matt88uk Posts: 96 Member
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    Rumik wrote: »
    So it looks like my plateau was just down to me incorrectly estimating the nutritional content of the food served in my work's cafeteria. I guess I was WAAAAY off, cause I've stopped eating there and the weight's coming off again. I've learned a valuable lesson... make no guesses when it comes to calorie and macro content.
    Yeah I was gonna say you must be counting wrong cause you cant plateu fat loss if you always in a deficit and adjusting every couple month or so ....you can reach any bodyfat % you want with a deficit im sure you will reach ur goals tho I started 2nd march at 17st 4 now as of today im 14st.13 im giving my self the year to get shredded as I know it takes time haha

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