Hey All,

I am currently trying to get from 10% bodyfat down to 8% but i don't seem to be moving anywhere over the last 2-3 weeks.

I'll take you back a little, i cut from 22% bodyfat to 11% over the last few months eating a 40/40/40 diet 500 calories below my maintainance level.

When i reached 11% i plateued so i decided to carb cycle.

I have been going low carb for 3 days at 1400 cal and then 3 high carb days at maintainance under the advice of a popular site on carb cycling.
http://www.skippypodar.net/Fitness/carbcycling.html

For the first two weeks fat loss kicked back in and i dropped to 10%

But now i am stuck again and havent moved for 3 weeks.

Really frustrating considering i'm so close to my goal of 8%

Any advice that will get me moving again would be much

appreciated.

How are you measuring bodyfat percentage ? And why do you want to get to 8 percent, is it for an aesthetic goal and to expose abs or whatever ?


And what does your weights and or cardio routine look like ?

Hey All,

I am currently trying to get from 10% bodyfat down to 8% but i don't seem to be moving anywhere over the last 2-3 weeks.

I'll take you back a little, i cut from 22% bodyfat to 11% over the last few months eating a 40/40/40 diet 500 calories below my maintainance level.

When i reached 11% i plateued so i decided to carb cycle.

I have been going low carb for 3 days at 1400 cal and then 3 high carb days at maintainance under the advice of a popular site on carb cycling.
http://www.skippypodar.net/Fitness/carbcycling.html

For the first two weeks fat loss kicked back in and i dropped to 10%

But now i am stuck again and havent moved for 3 weeks.

Really frustrating considering i'm so close to my goal of 8%

Any advice that will get me moving again would be much

appreciated.

It sounds like you have been restricting your calories for months now. You'd be well off to raise your calories for a couple of weeks and eat at maintenance levels.

If you have dieted for months, your metablism is probably affected and you're plateauing. If you slowly raise your food intake for a few weeks ...and then cut again, you'll probably be able to drop get past this sticking point.

1400 calories seems pretty low. How much do you weigh?

I'll take you back a little, i cut from 22% bodyfat to 11% over the last few months eating a 40/40/40 diet 500 calories below my maintainance level.


theres your problem, 40/40/40... you are eating 120% of your food everyday.... just kidding.

I have been going low carb for 3 days at 1400 cal and then 3 high carb days at maintainance under the advice of a popular site on carb cycling.
http://www.skippypodar.net/Fitness/carbcycling.html

Whoops....just caught that. What are you considering your "maintenance" calories to be, and as asked, what is your height, weight, etc...?

Hey all,

My maintainance level is between 2600 - 2800 cal

So i am eating 2800cal on High carb for 3 days and then 3 days low carb at 1400cal. All carbs are good quality carbs and i am getting the correct percentages of good fats and protein.

I am 35 and 6-2 193LB 10% Bodyfat.

With regard to my routine, i am doing 45 minutes on the treadmill 3 days per week (On my low carb days) and i am doing a 3 day weight split 3 days per week (On High Carb Days)

Any help?:confused:

How are you measuring the body fat percentage ?


It looks to me like you have a good routine and diet so if you stick with it the body fat should go down to where you want it.

Hey all,

My maintainance level is between 2600 - 2800 cal

So i am eating 2800cal on High carb for 3 days and then 3 days low carb at 1400cal. All carbs are good quality carbs and i am getting the correct percentages of good fats and protein.

I am 35 and 6-2 193LB 10% Bodyfat.

With regard to my routine, i am doing 45 minutes on the treadmill 3 days per week (On my low carb days) and i am doing a 3 day weight split 3 days per week (On High Carb Days)

Any help?:confused:

How long have you been doing 45 minutes of cardio?

You have a few different options of changing your routine around. If it were me, I would move to full-body routine or switch up your exercises. Minimize your rest between sets and possibly change your cardio around.

Try substituting a high intensity session with intervals once a week, and maybe try going for an hour during one of your slower sessions.

It's my guess that your body has adapted to your current routine. You need to change things up and do something that will challenge your body. Good luck!

It sounds like you have been restricting your calories for months now. You'd be well off to raise your calories for a couple of weeks and eat at maintenance levels.

If you have dieted for months, your metablism is probably affected and you're plateauing. If you slowly raise your food intake for a few weeks ...and then cut again, you'll probably be able to drop get past this sticking point.

I agree with this one! Really sounds like spending a month working on resetting the metabolism may help get you there faster.

Hey all,

My maintainance level is between 2600 - 2800 cal

So i am eating 2800cal on High carb for 3 days and then 3 days low carb at 1400cal. All carbs are good quality carbs and i am getting the correct percentages of good fats and protein.

I am 35 and 6-2 193LB 10% Bodyfat.

With regard to my routine, i am doing 45 minutes on the treadmill 3 days per week (On my low carb days) and i am doing a 3 day weight split 3 days per week (On High Carb Days)

Any help?:confused:

My opinion would be that you are calorie cycling along with carb cycling - that's your problem there. Why 2800 then drop to 1400? That's a huge drop and on the verge of starvation mode at 1400 - slowing down your metabolism to a crawl, then bombarding your body with 2600-2800 cals which will no doubt store lots of it as fat. I'd say keep the calorie intake at about 1900-2000 consistently (10 or 11 times your weight) and cycle carbs from there. As you drop in weight, drop the calories as needed. I find that article a bit drastic for a cut but obviously it works.

How are you measuring the body fat percentage ?

Was this ever answered?

My opinion would be that you are calorie cycling along with carb cycling - that's your problem there. Why 2800 then drop to 1400? That's a huge drop and on the verge of starvation mode at 1400 - slowing down your metabolism to a crawl, then bombarding your body with 2600-2800 cals which will no doubt store lots of it as fat. I'd say keep the calorie intake at about 1900-2000 consistently (10 or 11 times your weight) and cycle carbs from there. As you drop in weight, drop the calories as needed. I find that article a bit drastic for a cut but obviously it works.

Your metabolism won't crash after three days of 1400 kcals - that's the point of carb/calorie cycling. You eat higher cals again every week so that your metabolism doesn't crash, but you still get the benefits of the low cal days.

Your metabolism won't crash after three days of 1400 kcals - that's the point of carb/calorie cycling. You eat higher cals again every week so that your metabolism doesn't crash, but you still get the benefits of the low cal days.


Another interesting point re the 1400 cals is I've read on here before somewhere that the "starvation mode" thing is more conjecture than fact. I'm not an expert myself on this but I would say when you read articles which mention "starvation mode", there doesn't seem to be anything to back it up in the article, I did wonder to myself if this is just one of those things that gets repeated and repeated until it's accepted by many people as fact.:confused:

Apparently this Ellington Daden dude has got folk ripped in 6-12 weeks on a diet of 1300 cals a day with zero cardio.

Apparently this Ellington Daden dude has got folk ripped in 6-12 weeks on a diet of 1300 cals a day with zero cardio.

6-12 weeks isn't very long and seems too short for the "starvation mode" effect anyway.

But true, there isn't a lot of study on it or facts. But it is one of those myths that seems to prove true in more cases then not. For what I've seen and expirenced.. it comes about on people who have been trying to diet for awhile (a few months or more). They'll hit that plateau and start lowering calories and lowering calories with very little to no results to show for the "starvation" they put themselves through. After enough frustration, I've seen many (myself included), finally try the raise the calorie route and actually start losing weight again steadily even though they are actually eating 300-400 calories more a day then before. There have also been studies to show that consistant yo-yo dieters tend to have RMRs well below the averages.

Hey All,

In answer to the question of how am i measuring bodyfat, I am doing it with bodyfat calipers.

I have been recommended to take a few weeks of from dieting and eat at maintanence as well as taking a short break from the gym to reset the clock.

Is this a good move?

Another interesting point re the 1400 cals is I've read on here before somewhere that the "starvation mode" thing is more conjecture than fact. I'm not an expert myself on this but I would say when you read articles which mention "starvation mode", there doesn't seem to be anything to back it up in the article, I did wonder to myself if this is just one of those things that gets repeated and repeated until it's accepted by many people as fact.:confused:

Apparently this Ellington Daden dude has got folk ripped in 6-12 weeks on a diet of 1300 cals a day with zero cardio.

I think there was a study (damned if I can find it) that found that after ACTUAL starvation levels in test subjects for months on end, basal metabolic rates were only depressed by about 30%. Of course, when dieting, you also have to factor in the metabolic depression due to loss of mass (both fat and lbm) and the lack of energy equaling a lack of non-exercise movement.

I think there was a study (damned if I can find it) that found that after ACTUAL starvation levels in test subjects for months on end, basal metabolic rates were only depressed by about 30%. Of course, when dieting, you also have to factor in the metabolic depression due to loss of mass (both fat and lbm) and the lack of energy equaling a lack of non-exercise movement.


I'm guessing the article had a different percentage.. as only 30% is a HUGE number. For my height/weight/gender.. average RMR runs about 1520. subtract 30% and I'd drop to a RMR of about 1060!!!:eek: Even losing 20lbs would only drop me to about 1410!

I'm guessing the article had a different percentage.. as only 30% is a HUGE number. For my height/weight/gender.. average RMR runs about 1520. subtract 30% and I'd drop to a RMR of about 1060!!!:eek: Even losing 20lbs would only drop me to about 1410!

What do you mean? I am 100% positive the metabolic depression was 30%. However, it was in people (men) who were LITERALLY at starvation levels for several months.

I think that's very interesting stuff, because we've all read those bodybuilding articles which go on about "WARP (YEAH JUST TO REPEAT WARP MAN" ) speed metabolism which INSIST that as soon as you drop below ONE MILLION (yeah baby!!!) calories PER HOUR then you IMMEDIATELY hit "starvation mode (I guess if you live in a genuine famine zone that means one is in very serious trouble!!!) ".


Okay I'm being highly facetious but I'm sure we've all read those crazy articles to that effect which really pay no credence to the genuine adaptability of the human body in the real world to calorie intake vacillatiions.....we are of course a species for whom till very recently in our history feast and famine were pretty much a routine existence....

I haven't read any studies dealing with "starvation mode" but just thinking about it from an evolutionary standpoint it makes sense that in times when you are actually starving the body would try to preserve as much energy and body fat as possible and lower its BMR significantly. If you're trying to burn off fat that's not good, but if you're trying to stay alive it is :nod:. (I don't know if that's actually the case but it makes sense to me.)

I know from experience that lowering your calorie intake too far can screw with your hormones. A few years back I did a crash diet with less than 1000 kcal/day and ended up f'ing up my thyroid. It normalized by itself but it just goes to prove that you don't want to mess with that type of thing.

I think this has lost a bit of direction from the OP's question. He's not doing the 1400 calories day in and day out, he's cycling calories by switching up carb levels. I doubt having a few days a week is going to crash his metabolism like it would if he did it day in and out, and I suspect the high calorie days work to reset some of the hormones like leptin that can affect these things.

While I wouldn't eat that way because I wouldn't enjoy it, I don't think the starvation discussion exactly fits the OP. If he was doing 1400 calories day after day after day...I could see it. Might he burn through a little muscle on the low calorie/carb days? Maybe, I just don't know.

Just my take.

Skip whose page is linked to on the diet used to be a regular poster here. (abdominator (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/member.php?u=7135)) In fact, I think he posted a week or so ago in the perfect body thread.

I think this has lost a bit of direction from the OP's question. He's not doing the 1400 calories day in and day out, he's cycling calories by switching up carb levels. I doubt having a few days a week is going to crash his metabolism like it would if he did it day in and out, and I suspect the high calorie days work to reset some of the hormones like leptin that can affect these things.

While I wouldn't eat that way because I wouldn't enjoy it, I don't think the starvation discussion exactly fits the OP. If he was doing 1400 calories day after day after day...I could see it. Might he burn through a little muscle on the low calorie/carb days? Maybe, I just don't know.

Just my take.

Skip who's page is linked to on the diet used to be a regular poster here. (abdominator (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/member.php?u=7135)) In fact, I think he posted a week or so ago in the perfect body thread.

I don't think it will do much harm either. I didn't mean to imply that, I just wanted to mention what doing a genuine very low calorie diet can do to your body.

I don't think it will do much harm either. I didn't mean to imply that, I just wanted to mention what doing a genuine very low calorie diet can do to your body.

I wasn't meaning to imply it was you, it's just the general turn of the thread took it that way. I agree 100% that going very low cal is a bad idea. :nod:

I have been eating purely at maintainance level for the past 7 days in an effort to reset my fat loss efforts and break this plateau.

How long should i continue eating at maintainance before going back to a calorie defecit?

I am maintaining at 2800 cal and plan to switch back to a regular calorie deficet of 2200 when it is advised rather than going back to the zig zag card cycle that is not that pleasant i have to say!

I have been eating purely at maintainance level for the past 7 days in an effort to reset my fat loss efforts and break this plateau.

How long should i continue eating at maintainance before going back to a calorie defecit?

I am maintaining at 2800 cal and plan to switch back to a regular calorie deficet of 2200 when it is advised rather than going back to the zig zag card cycle that is not that pleasant i have to say!


I would probably give it another week or two. Use these weeks of consistently higher calories to really pump out some good workouts.

After that, you can still zig-zag calories, just maybe not as extreme as your plan. It sounds like the plan you were using did produce results, but your body adapted. When I hit lower bodyfat, I have found that constant change through both diet, cardio, and lifting is the only way for me to keep seeing results.

You can do something like:
mon 1700
tue 2100
wed 1800
thurs 2200
fri 1600
sat 2000
sun 1800

This is a fun way to mix things up, although you might wait to zig-zag calories until you plateau in your current plan with 2200 calories. I also think you should be adding some HIIT into your plan. If you're used to only doing slower cardio, then this is a sure-fire way to bust through a plateau and hit low bodyfat levels. In terms of diet, make sure your getting the majority of your carbs before and after lifting/HIIT sessions. My body has a tough time holding onto fat when I reserve all my carbs for fueling my workouts and recovering from them.