hello, i'ven been cutting since june. i've been plateauing for about i guess about a month. i've tried many things to break out of my rut. Since June, i started 50 carb/30 protein/ 20 fat at around 2200 calories eating six times a day. My diet was eat 2200 calories for 3 days and bring it up to 2400 for one day, then continue. My training was lift 3 days a week, and cardio 40 minutes (running and elliptical alternating, not fasted) 6 days a week. I think I started around
16-18% body fat at around 158lbs. I'm not sure how fast I was progressing for my skinfold measuring skills were awful then (i use accumeasure, for me it's the easiest and the most consistent). I hit my first plateau after around a month and a half so I increased my cardio to 45 minutes and my weight seemed to move down again. I hit another plateau around late August or early September. This time since I was already doing 45minutes of cardio 6 days a week, I lowered my calories to around 1900 on low days and adjusted macronutrients to 40/40/20. This seemed to have worked until mid-October. Mid-October, I hit another plateau. By this time I finally became good with the calipers(yes, it took me a while. took me forever to figure out where exactly the supraillac was...). Well, according to my calipers, I was estimated at 12% body fat at 144lbs. This seemed to correlate well with how I looked because while I looked skinny fat, when I flexed I could see the blurry definition of abs. Well, from here I was tired of hitting plateaus but wasn't going to give up since I was so close to low single digit(I really want to see a six pack). Since then I tried many plateau breaking strategies. These include 30/50/20 macro, fasted morning cardio, double cardio, lowering my calories to 1600, weight training 4 times a week using different split, taking two weeks break, and bulking up. When I tried 30/50/20 macro, I figured I couldn't stick with it because it lowered my energy levels so much that my training suffered. Fasted morning cardio didn't work at all. Double cardio burned me out on the fourth day(I ended up getting a cold). Lowering my calories to 1600 didn't do anything (I know, weird). Weight training 4times a week with different split didn't work. Taking a week break actually made my body fat go up(made it go up to 13%...). Bulking using 50/30/20 at 2300 calories made my body fat go up to 14%. So i'm currently at 14% body fat at around 149lbs or 150lbs (not too sure, last time i weighed myself was 2-3 days ago). I know my body fat is around 14% since I checked it today. Any ideas on how to break this stubborn plateau??? I'm pretty frustrated right now since I can't think of more ways to break this plateau and since I now think I could've done a lot more to my body in the last 5 months. I kept thinking about bulking up but it seems even when im at a slight caloric surplus, my body fat tends to goes up very fast. I would really like to cut down to single digits before bulking (i dont really care how skinny I would look, at least I won't have this fat laying around me). I was thinking about trying what John did, doing 7 days a week of HIIT eating 1800 calories at 50/30/20 and refeeding every 3rd day with 2200 50/30/20. However, I read in many places that this will maybe be too much HIIT. Also, when I tried HIIT, I realized this form of cardio is not something I would stick with for a long time, although I will do it if it's necessary to reach my goals. Please help!!! I'm all out of ideas now on how to break this plateau. O, I almost forgot to give you my stats.

Height: 5ft 8in
Body Weight: ~149lbs or maybe a pound or two higher
Body fat: 14% according to accumeasure
Caloric intake: currently 2300 bulking (im getting too fat too fast),
I plan to take 1800 50/30/20 on low days and 2200 with
same macro on high days when I cut again. Btw, I almost never cheat. During the
5 months, I only had 3 cheat meals.
Training: 4 times a week of lifting(I plan to stick with this forever)
Cardio: so far tried everything I stated above. Thinking about 7days
a week of HIIT though.
Goal: Until I see a visible six pack(I guess this would be around 8-9%?)

Thank You. Any suggestions, no matter how stupid it sounds would be appreciated. I apologize for the long post...

Would you be able to list your exact meals? For example:

Meal 1: 2 eggs, apple, ...
Meal 2: ...
.
.
.

This may help people here to help you.


Training: 4 times a week of lifting(I plan to stick with this forever)


I wouldn't suggest sticking to the exact same routine forever. Change is good:nod:

Low Days (1800)
Meal 1: Oatmeal 1.25cup
Egg Whites 10
Meal 2: Yam 6oz
Chicken Breast 2oz
Meal 3: Yam 5oz
Chicken Breast 2oz
Meal 4: Oatmeal 1/2cup
Asparagus 3oz
Chicken Breast 2oz
Meal 5: Apple 1
Lettuce 2cups
Chicken Breast 2oz
Meal 6: Low Fat Cottage Cheese 1cup
Flax Oil 1Tbsp

High Days are about same except 2200 calories. Yes I eat a lot of same things, but I'm fine with it. If I eat too much variety, I have to spend a lot of time cooking. I prefer to cook in bulk to save time. And weigh training... I change routines when necessary. I just like it because 4days a week makes my workouts short so I can really do them in high intensity and enjoy them. Thx for replying btw.

Sounds like you are not eating enough fat.

And sounds like you just need a break from cutting, and need to increase kcal a bit. Yes you might gain "some" fat in the process but that may be necessary to jumpstart your metabolism.. Think of it as 2 steps forward, one step back.

JMO :tucool:

haha, tried resting but my mind is keep telling me "you are so close, don't give up now!" As I said, tried taking 2 weeks off but after 2 weeks I couldn't take the boringness of not trying to reach my goal. Plus, it seems everytime i try to cut, I always get stuck around 144lbs.... This time, I'm determined to not stop and quit here. It feels like it's now or never. My body fat increased from 12% to 14% from taking the two week break(I ate 100% clean too...) but that's not gonna stop me. My fat intake is around 17% of total calories. Is that seriously too little??? For me, I noticed the macro I'm using now makes me feel at my best, allowing me to not crave bad foods and also train at my best.

Wait, how tall are you.

And no mattter how tall you are, I am 101% sure you are "skinny", unless you are a dwarf.

Everyone here will tell you that further cutting is a bad idea. you will lose muscle mass (in fact you are probably losing muscle right now too), and just look emaciated at lower body fat %.

Read the "Skinny Fat manifesto" on T-nation, it is real funny but describes well your situation. Basically you are <150 lbs so you are not allowed to cut :nono: .

Post your pics.

As for calipters, well they are inaccurate. I doupt you did go from 12-14% in 2 weeks though, if you jump your calories by a few hundreds. and if you are that worried about fat gain, do some cardio (along with you kcal increase).

I am 5ft 8in. Yes, i know plenty of ppl will tell me that i need to build muscle. But building muscle with little fat gain is not easy for me, especially when you're above 10% body fat. As for calipers, yes I know they can't be 100% accurate but I know they are consistent (I'm finally good with them for them to be consistent!!!) which tells me I gained that much body fat in 2 weeks. I think the reason for this is going from 40/40/20 to sudden 50/30/20 with 500 more calories but I think my body is used to the new macro now. I tried bulking couple months ago. I ended up getting fat again, causing me to cut down to where I am now. I've been doing this for a while (actually since last year, instead of June. The time I bulked was when I figured I need more muscle and got too fat. This was around Febuary to June) and that caused me to learn a lot about my body. For example, I do not have good genetics for building muscle. I do not have an efficient metabolism(or I wouldn't be trying to cut). I'm 99% sure I'm a person with naturally skinny body with high body fat. I have one question. Why is it that you said I will burn muscle if i continue to cut now? If my nutrition is in place, why would I lose muscle??? Also you said that if you are under 150lbs, you are not allowed to cut? That makes it sound like anyone under 150lbs is not allowed to exist. If I sound angry and am offending you, I don't mean it that way. It's just that I heard that so many times that it makes me wonder about it.

The 150 lbs thing was actually a "joke", taken from this article http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1308241. Very good read though.

As for losing muscle, well maybe you will, maybe you won't. Problem is to cut down even further, with your current condition, would require you to drop down kcal again, probably lower than 1800 or so? not too good for muscle preservation.

As for your problem putting on fat with upping kcal, or your current plateau, I'll let others chime in; I am not an expert that was just my thoughts. Probably others will have lots better ideas.

However if you are to increase kcal again I wouldn't increase them by 500 in one shot, I'd incrase like 50 for 2-3 days, then + 50 for 2-3 days again, until you are at more "maintenance" amount (say 2400, but thats just a rough estimate).

I could never get ripped like I do eating that many carbs daily. Fat ingestion is very key to losing fat and preserving lean mass so as to not become a smaller, just-as-fat, person. Your fat intake is extremely low.

Fat in helps fat out (almost fat in = fat out) when in the presence of low carbs. I didn't say NO carbs, I said low, and if you utilize healthy fats they will actually help stored fat be let go, again, in the correct setting w/carbs being low and timed appropriately.

~SC~

Would you be able to post front and profile pictures either here or in the media gallery? This may help us. As far as your current meal plan is concerned, I have to agree that your fat intake is appearing low. On top of that, you're not getting the different types of fat that benefit you. Try sources like peanut butter and olive oil on top of the flax oil you already use. Try throwing some more veggies in there too. Again this isn't for variety, it's because these foods are good for you.

Upping the fat intake makes sense. How high should my fat intake go up and how low should my carbs be? Also could you tell me what cardio i should do? As I said, I was thinking about HIIT daily but now since you're telling me my fat may be too low, I'm thinking this would work if i up my fat, lower my carb and do 45min fasted a.m. cardio. here's the pic. sry i don't have the profile pic. btw i appreciate all the help i'm getting right now! thank you.
http://lh6.google.com/chris0374/RU1mFWu3ABI/AAAAAAAAAAc/BElfCH1RFxI/11-4-06.jpg?imgmax=512

Try having fat between 20-25% of your diet. As for carbs, I have no clue. You may or may not be carb sensitive. I would recommend fast AM cardio for 45 minutes at a low intensity (very brisk walk). When you're fasted you don't want to be running your heart rate up too high. That could lead to catabolism. The link you posted for your picture doesn't seem to work :confused:

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q49/chris0374/11-4-06.jpg
sorry about that. how low is low intensity in heart rate sense? wouldn't cardio at low intensity not burn enough total calories for fat loss??? also, is 1850cal a day good enough (35/35/30)? All the fat I added was good fat .

From viewing your pic, I would not be attempting to cut anymore at all.

An intelligent LEAN bulk with heavy compound movements would help to accrue lean muscle mass over time. This will, in turn, naturally speed the metabolism due to an increase in lean mass and make shedding whatever fat you do have left, a whole heck of a lot easier. Being as skinny as you are now, I understand why your body is fighting you in shedding any further fat. It's a survival instinct that the body has, as if it rids itself of any more fat, it will have no insulation left from fat nor muscle.

~SC~

I have to agree with SC. You're getting to a point where any further weight loss will most likely be lost from lean muscle. I would recommend a very slow, controlled, clean bulk to pack on quality mass. As mentioned, this will increase your natural ability to burn fat. If you do it right, you shouldn't pack on much fat in the process. There is great material in the sticky threads if you haven't already read through them.

All right. I'll try bulking. But I still want to try cutting one more time with upping my fat intake. If that doesn't work, I give up on cutting and I will go onto a bulk. Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.