when i started, i was 185lbs. i'm 5'8 and body fat was maybe 27%? i worked out a few months last year with very little results. then i saw this site.

i've been cutting the past 3 weeks, keeping calories at around 2000. sometimes i have a little extra fat than i should (cheat meals ) but i try to keep it around 2000 calories.

i lift 3 times a week. i've had more gains these 3 weeks than the last 3 months. the thing is, i don't really see any fat loss. all i've seen are more definition on everything except my stomach and barely chest. not sure if it's fat loss or more muscle.

am i expecting results too soon? i see other people having better. should i cut calories down to 1800? i want my gut to go away...

How are you calculating/monitoring your BF%? At 27% and your weight you only have 135 lbs of lean body mass. That's pretty low. If you are eating clean and only 2000 calories and lifting (and cardio?) you might be losing more fat than you know. The only way to tell for sure is to measure our body fat.

how long have you had your gut? bad news - but it will probably be the last thing to go, and im talkn 12% it will still be there a little. I've had mine my entire life (well, since my mom started feeding me Mountain Dew at the age of 7 or 8). Im at about 12.5% right now, and i still have a little gut left, and i expect to until im down to about 8 or 9% bf.

Without knowing any further details of your diet, excersize routine - all i can say is make sure you'r doing cardio after you wake up, and try to stay away from sugar and simple carbs on days that you DON'T lift. (well, try to stay away from sugar all the time, but people have different violent views on fruit - almost as touchy a topic as abortion;))

But if you see definition from your lifting ALREADY after 3 weeks - id say that's great progress!

Just remember to keep eating clean, and cut cheat meals down to once a week or less. stay away from chocolate like its the plague, and start doing cardio excersize if you're not doing it now. Maybe cut the calories to 1800. based on your size, i think 1800 is a good number. (again, me just saying this might start a war, but do it quietly and you'll see results)

keep in mind it's only been 3 weeks. results sometimes don't happen that fast - everyone is different.


when i started, i was 185lbs. i'm 5'8 and body fat was maybe 27%? i worked out a few months last year with very little results. then i saw this site.

i've been cutting the past 3 weeks, keeping calories at around 2000. sometimes i have a little extra fat than i should (cheat meals ) but i try to keep it around 2000 calories.

i lift 3 times a week. i've had more gains these 3 weeks than the last 3 months. the thing is, i don't really see any fat loss. all i've seen are more definition on everything except my stomach and barely chest. not sure if it's fat loss or more muscle.

am i expecting results too soon? i see other people having better. should i cut calories down to 1800? i want my gut to go away...

i'm eating clean maybe 5 days out of the week, sometimes i eat a little more bad fat because my family eats dinner sometimes, not so healthy, but 2000 calories.

well, i'm doing cardio lifting. before i did cardio, and then lifted after, but not much gain. last time i measured fat, it was just at the gym with this little machine that you hold for a few seconds. haven't checked it since then, i want to see results than measure them.

yeah i've had this gut all my life, i guess it'll go last. only reason i didnt do cardio is because i'm doing rtestes plan, he says also counts as cardio. other people told me not to do cardio though, so i'm unsure.

so definition after 3 weeks is good? maybe i'm just expecting too much, since i've been doing it wrong for like 5 months last year. i'm just really tired of having a gut. :mad:

You can't physically gain a large gut in just 3 weeks, nor are you going to lose it in just 3 weeks.

Hell it took me almost 8 weeks of pictures to see even a SMALL difference... even though my weight and bf% had shrunk. Your fat will come off in other places equally before your stomache. I still have some gut left to go, but my legs, chest and back are all noticably much more defined now (I've been on a slow slow cut for 5 months now).

Remember this is not just a momentary change. I hope by June you don't plan on eating crap again. Make it a lifestyle change, do it slowly, and you'll never have that gut again.

yeah, eating right is the hardest part of losing the fat...

it seemed like i lost fat in my legs/thighs first.. then my back, arms and gut... I am slowly but surely losing my gut.

Slow progress is a GOOD thing. One reason why it's a good thing, is because you'll reach a plateau later, and plateaus are not fun.

Fast progress often leads to burn out. If you make great progress at the start, you'll be terribly disappointed when you DO reach the point where progress slows.

As long as you enjoy your exercise and eating, and are making ANY progress whatsoever, keep it up. No need to change things. The best results will come from doing what you're most comfortable with. :gl:

:tu: :bb: :db: :flex:

time to get back to work!

Fast progress often leads to burn out. If you make great progress at the start, you'll be terribly disappointed when you DO reach the point where progress slows.
:gl:

Yes this is so key. In the spring of 2003 and 2004 I kept trying to cut for summer, and by this I didn't really follow a great diet (I ate better than most people but certainly not an athlete or bodybuilder's diet), and did weights with a 30 min. cardio session afterwards 6 days a week. Talk about overkill! Yes, I lost a lot of "weight" early on, but it was water and muscle because after a few months my body comp really didn't change at all. Finally, I got so sick of going through the phases of so much exercise that I gave up and just decided to bulk, which I immediately gained back 25 lbs (both fat and muscle), back to square one. Not fun. But since last fall I've been slowly cutting, and it's much, much more enjoyable. It doesn't feel like I'm ever on a "cutting program", just doing daily workouts that end up lowering my bodyfat. I have no given myself a strict time table to be shredded by because as we all know, results can often take longer than expected. I hope to be all done cutting by May, but if I'm not quite there yet, then I'll keep on going slowly until I am.

Slow and steady really does win the race.