@kekeli Start your fat loss like you normally would, eg at 2500 calories. Then when it stalls, you to reduce the calories further, eg to 2250. Then when you stall there, repeat with 2k.
In a cut, and as you get leaner, your TDEE will fall. Calculators don't account for that in their roigh guesstimates.
@kekeli This is where “calories in calories out” cultists are wrong. Human body is WAY too complex of a machine to be a function of simple math. OP is downvoted by people who have never even attempted to go below 12% nattty.
Try a refeed / cheat week and take another stab at it.
Its going to suck. You will feel tired. You will faint. Your libido will die. You WILL LOSE MUSCLE (fucking guaranteed). It will take months…
But you can get there if you remain on a deficit. Ruthlessly cut out more carbs and see what happens. More caffeine is necessary to not feel like a zombie.
@kekeli Let's assume you are are 12% as you say it to get leaner is obviously tough and it may not happen so easily if this is your first time cutting to sub 10%. But know that weight loss contrary to most nutrition research is very well understood. It really is calories in calories out. Now the level of muscle degradation and how you go about it may force you not to push through the whole way if it means you become emaciated but let's say you will try your best to maintain protein high and muscle loss low and life quality be damned you want that 8-9%. In that case, I'd recommend you do the following. Try to set out a window period for this 3-4% cut. I'm guessing if you got to here you can understand how to measure this. Then set up a meal plan where you basically eat the exact same thing everyday and more or less around the same time. It would be even better if more of your food items were in packages made for a single consumption with calories being fully known (e.g. Tuna cans, single rice boxes, cheese slices, etc.). Record all you eat in an app like MyFitnessPal. Weigh yourself everyday at the same time (best after waking up) . Do the same cardio with the same intensity when you do it. Maintain your training intensity. Sleep well and drink lots of water. The stricter regimen is necessary so you can tweak easily. Don't drift from it and you will more than likely succeed.
i ask, as i know its a problem for many to drop to and especially below 10% (as natty)
i know as a natty at lowest you could comfortably go to 9% any lower and it would suck and really only be for competition (which im not doing now)
my i think my problem is that the calorie in take that was working is no longer, nor was dropping it even further. Dropping it even further would probably mean not enough protein so i would probably need to do a lot more physical activity,
@kekeli I dropped about 40lbs over 8ish months and experienced something similar. Weight stalled, lifts and stamina were shit, and I just wasn't feeling very good overall. What helped me was the ear maintenance for a week and then slowly taper back down to my cutting calories over the course of a couple more months. By the time I was back down to my original calories, I only had a couple weeks left since I'd been slowly losing on the way down anyway
@decmberluv thanks for a response that was like my own experience (as not everyone will have the same problem)
so you mean you were at X calories (say 2000) and lost weight, stalled, went up (say 2500) then slowly over weeks/months dropped down to the same X number of calories?
interesting, obviously its changing your metabolism again in some way.
although slowly dropping i would say doesn't make much sense (not saying your Bullshitting just i'm not sure whats going on biologically) since your body could just slowly adapt again
@kekeli I'm far from an expert so I'm sure I'm not taking the most optimal route, but my understanding is that adjusting calories slowly prevents drastic swings in hormones. You could probably jump right back down again, but I'm afraid it would put your body on a weird rollercoaster of adaptation
@kekeli I finally got down to 10% after years of trying by just eating responsibly, no alcohol or sugar, and 10k steps/day on top of regular workout regimen. Really all I added was the walking. And I did that at 45 years old.
@kekeli I started with a nutritionist here in Italy at the end of last year. Every month we meet, weigh in, and he takes a lot of measurements of my body to get my body fat %. I started at 25%, and am currently around 14%. Having a professional follow you makes a difference.
@ben982743 i've heard this a few times now but how exactly?
go immediately from your current intake to somewhere higher? and what about the cut back again, quickly? slowly? how long should you stay at the higher calorie amount?
also i realize you might not have those answer/ aren't a medical professional, just what have you personally done or heard was effective. Thanks
@kekeli I was at 2,000 cals during my cut and decided to bulk because my body refused to burn anymore fat. I went up to 2,600 for a week and I gained no weight. Then I went up to 2,800 and started to lose a bit of weight, ironically. Then I went to 3,000 for another week and still didn’t gain any weight. I upped it to 3,400 for another week and still didn’t gain any weight.
I got tired of not gaining weight so I upped it to 3,900 and finally started gaining about .5 lbs a week.
Tomorrow I start my cut and will be lowering my cals to 3,000 and I am hoping that will start burning some fat.
@ben982743 Hi, I saw this was still open so wanted to see how this was going for you all this time later? I’m experiencing a similar issue but think my bf% is higher than yours, I’m just experiencing a plateau of about 3-4 weeeks now no loss. Wondering if I should maybe look at increasing the calories and trying the same method or whether it would work as well for someone with more fat.
@kekeli In a normal scenario I'd probably keep your calories where they are at for the remainder of your diet. The difference needed to push past this stage should be made up from low intensity cardio. That's what worked for me.
But being at 2000 calories for over 2 months without weight loss is a sign you need a break from this diet. If you steadily lost weight and then it suddenly stopped, listen to your body.
