Question about sheddin some of that chub

[Nick-H]

So I finished my LP eating 4000-4200 calories a day, consistently. After I finished I started on texas method and decided I did not want all this excess fat I put on during LP.

I am 5'9 and weigh 200 with 24% bodyfat. This is too much for me and I am trying to cut back. So I switched to an HLM program and dropped my calories from 4000-4200 to 3500. I realize this was probably a bit of a jump but whats done is done. I stayed there for a bout a week with no change and dropped it to 3200. Still no change.. Holdin steady at 200, maybe a couple pound fluctuations in either direction.

So I dropped it to 3000, still nothing. I am now eating between 2700-2800 calories and doing HIIT at least once a week and my weight is still fucking steady at 200 lol

So my question is has anyone encountered this shit?

[Simon Rest]

So my question is has anyone encountered this shit?

My whole life.

I am 6'0 and 240#, and my maintenance intake is about 2800kCal. Eating 3000kCal I gain weight (quickly). It may be that your maintenance is low as well? If you are holding steady, and you are still lifting, are your lifts still going up? You may be undergoing a recomp, which isn't a bad thing

[Nick-H]

Ya they are going up still. I was doing 3X5 on my heavy sets and read volume isn't exactly most effective while on a deficit (If I'm even in deficit grounds lol) so I dropped to 3X3 and still making progress. Just seems so strange that my maintenance would be that low.. I thought about the whole recomp thing but that would mean that I would have to be gaining muscle at the same rate I would be losing fat... which I am not sure is possible? I ran LP for like 6-7 months figured my quick gains were done for and cutting my calories by like 1500 would result in Fatloss quicker then LBM gains.

I am geting very impatient and Tempted to just hop on RFL for a while to get down to a decent BF number and go from their with intermediate programming but I don't want to botch my training.

[Kazzin]

What are you eating?

[Nick-H]

Typical meals throughout the day are

Breakfast
4 eggs
9tbsp of egg whites
A cup of coffee with 2 tbsp of creamer. (Sometimes 2 cups and 4 tbsp)
1tbsp ketchup

Lunch
2 scoops ON whey
1/2 cup oats
20-25 almonds

Preworkout
2 scoops ON whey
1 cup oats (probably need more carbs here)

Post workout
Chicken Breast 6-8 oz
Cup of milk
5-6 ounces of rice
Tbsp of yoshidas sauce

Before Bed
Kinda graze her, usually its just catching up
fats via almonds and peanut butter
protein is either Greek yogurt or tuna or milk
Carbs are usually milk and honey

Overall my veggie intake is complete shit, only veggies I get are if they are already made by someone else. Sometimes I'll make taco things and throw some lettuce carrots on there.

[Charlie Davies]

I find that there's a pretty wide range of calories at which my weight is stable. I have to eat a lot less than I want (i.e. spend 3-4 hours hungry every day) to actually lose weight.

[Dahavol]

Yep, I'm 6'2" weighing around 240 and I'm about to drop down from 2400 to 2300 with two days at 2500 and I do a crap ton of conditioning plus plenty of lifting. Its not unheard of to need to drop pretty low in order to get things moving. The only thing that I've heard works to reverse this issue is a reverse dieting protocol, but from what I understand, that's only a good plan once you are already leanish. Stick with the slow drops, eventually you will find the level that works and be glad that you didn't get all drastic. A few weeks of frustration now is worth an accurate measure of the smallest deficit you need in order to get things moving. Have you been taking waist measurements too? That can help you in case the scale weight is not fully reflecting the actual body comp changes.

[Immortal_k]

Excellent thread. I'm currently trying to limit my caloric intake whilst doing TM. I'm 6'1 at 243lb and would like to go down to 231. I've dropped my volume day squats to four sets of five (340lb). I took it slow and have gradually lowered my intake from 3800 to 3500 today over a period of three weeks. Still no big changes are apparent, I may need to drop to lower than 3500.

[Dahavol]

What was truly surprising to me when I started following this protocol was the one week at like 2800/day would do zip but then cut it to 2650ish per day and all of a sudden I'd drop 1-3lbs a week for 4 weeks straight. What I have learned is although the calories in/out balance might thermodynamicly speaking be the way that weight loss or gain happens, the out side of this equation is so wonky that merely controlling for the inputs does not result in predictable changes. If one day your are eating 4200 cals and staying the same, then you cut 500 cal per day, you should lose about a lb of fat a week right? 500*7=3500 kcal = 1 lb of fat. Nope, doesn't seem to work that way. Conversely when I cut a mere 150 cal from my daily intake, that should at most give me a lb or two of loss spread over 2-4 weeks before I stall out. Instead I find that I can actually sustain a loss rate of 1-3 lbs for 4-6 week leaving me 10-12 lbs lighter than before.

The more I learn the more it all resembles wizardry and black magic.

[Simon Rest]

true. reading Tom N's log he is doing RFL and is finding even at 1000 kCal a day his weight loss is in bursts and plateaus.

OP, what about booze? It's a silent killer for weight loss. Do you sneak a few beers here and there? wine with dinner?