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Thread: Exteme Weight Loss Success - But Stalling

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    Default Exteme Weight Loss Success - But Stalling

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    Hi There,

    A good friend of mine has lost 120 lbs over the course of the last 15 months. He committed himself to a large caloric deficit, ate mostly single ingredient foods, and tracked everything diligently on MyFitness pal. He has worked out intensely in his home 6 days a week with a combination of weights, calisthenics, and high intensity circuit training. Here are his results

    Age: 42
    Sex: Male
    Height: 5'8
    Starting Weight: 300
    Current Weight: 178
    Starting Waist: 60 inches
    Current Waist: 35 inches
    Caloric Average for past 12 months: 1350

    Obviously this is a huge success! He would like to get to approximately 13-15% bodyfat (current estimate of about 17%). However, over the last thirty days, his weight /fat loss has slowed and his mood and sense of well being have started to worsen. He also suspects he is starting to lose muscle mass.

    I have never actually worked with someone in this situation after such a long and successful diet. My sense is that a diet break is probably advisable, although, from a "calories in calories out" out standpoint, I am unable to explain to him why going up in calories could be beneficial. What is the logic behind diet breaks in the context of CICO, and how would you suggest he proceeds with his weight loss journey if that is what he is motivated to do.

    Thanks,

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Phoenix, AZ
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    He is reaching a point where he is approaching the lower limit of his body fat set point, has lost appreciable muscle mass, and has been dieting for too long and experiencing burnout. Additional fat loss is not advised, he needs to scale up his calories and carbohydrates, which will stimulate his thyroid and thus increase his metabolic rate along with increasing muscle mass. He is 17% right now because he is dehydrated and lost muscle. When he ups his carbohydrates and trains that percentage goes down.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
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    I guess one easy way to explain it in terms of simple calories in/calories out is that hard dieting for a long time, especially into lower bodyfat percentages, bring down the calories-out part of the equation even more than would be anticipated from the lost weight. The logic behind diet breaks is that your calories-out gets restored to where it should be, instead of artificially downregulated by your body freaking out about too much weight lost. I've never actually tried one myself, but that seems to be the basic logic of it. There's more to it than that, but that's the simple explanation. You could also throw in the hormonal stuff, like the thyroid and your testosterone levels (try getting test levels checked right before and at the end of a months long cut, you will see a very appreciable drop).

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    He is reaching a point where he is approaching the lower limit of his body fat set point, has lost appreciable muscle mass, and has been dieting for too long and experiencing burnout. Additional fat loss is not advised, he needs to scale up his calories and carbohydrates, which will stimulate his thyroid and thus increase his metabolic rate along with increasing muscle mass. He is 17% right now because he is dehydrated and lost muscle. When he ups his carbohydrates and trains that percentage goes down.
    Thank you! He is upping his calories and carbs modestly.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Phoenix, AZ
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    Glad to hear it

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