Hi all,

Well I've given in trying to sort this one out myself :d_frown: Contary to my post count, I'm not really that 'new' to these forums as I've been reading through and checking just about everyday for the past 3 months, and so far due to the information I've gathered I've never really had the need to post and didn't just wanna spam anything to get my post count up. Before I start I'd like to thank you all for being part of a great friendly fitness community (I check these forums far more than others due to the well mannered and friendly 'posters').....

I don't wanna ramble on too much to bore you all to death, so I'll be as short as I can then if need to I'll answer any questions needed :)

These past 4-5 weeks have been a massive struggle for me, I kept at the same weight 147lbs no matter what I did. I was on one of those fad diets as it seemed to be doing the job, I lost like 2 and a half stone not quite sure how many pounds that is... (i've since stopped weighing myself the traditional British way and am using pounds now... A) it's so much easier and exact B) i makes more sense to me.). When I first hit my platau (sp?) I thought more Cardio was the key, so I stepped up the cardio from 4 days a week to 7 and I was doing Low intensity cardio.
Nothing happened, so I stopped doing Low intensity and replaced it with HIIT (which I enjoy much more). Still nothing really happened.

So about a week and a half ago I was reading through a post on here and saw a link to fitday.com and decided to put in exactly what I was eating, before I go into that I just wanna mention I'm not fussy what I eat so when I find something that works I will eat the same thing day in day out (I'll go on in a minute to put what i eat).
I was really quite shocked to see what I was eating, This is what I would typically eat (which worked to get me from 160-170lbs to 147 just above what I am rght now) HERE (http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=Hurt%5FConveyor&Year=2004&Month=7&Day=28) As you can see theres no junk food in there (Ive only had x2 cheat meals since I started 3 months ago... maybe longer), but the FAT % and the calories was quite high for my weight. I didn't realise egg's had so much fat in them, quite funny really as I've been so prescise about everything I did and ate upto that point and never once looked at the egg carton for nutritional values :read:

HERE (http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=Hurt%5FConveyor&Year=2004&Month=7&Day=31) is what I typically eat now and what I have been eating since I found out all that and im trying to stick to 50% protien / 40% carbs and less than 10% fat. I wondering if i got the carbs and prtien wrong way round :d_confuse ....

Anyway take a look through the food logs to see what ive been eating, I have lost a 'bit' of weight since I was stuck at 147, I'm now down to 145 but I'm loosing less than 1lb per week.

Here's what workout routine I do.

Monday- AM Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Shoulders, Triceps
Tuesday- AM Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Abs
Wednesday - AM Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Chest, Back, Biceps
Thursday - AM Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Abs
Friday - AM Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Legs
Saturday - AM Abs \ Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Abs
Sunday - AM Abs \ Cardio (23mins HIIT) / PM Abs

(before doing HIIT I would do 45-50 mins low intensity cardio and on weekends 60-90mins)

Here's info about me

Male
22 yrs
5'10 (or round about)
145.8 (However I put on 1lb since yesterday which im sure is water weight as I had my 2nd Cheat day since I started eating clean 4-5 months ago... was missus birthday and I HAD to have a pizza and some cream cake :mad: )

So I guess my question is, can anyone see why my progress has s-l-o-w-e-d down to a stop... I REALLY REALLY want to start Bulking however the fat round my midesction (i put fat on my chest and midsection :d_mad: ) is annoying me and ideally wanted to loose it all, or most of it, before I start going mad with :bb: :db: I didn't think it would take me too long to cut down a bit, i was expecting 3 months, maybe a little longer and right after I have cut down I am looking forward to trying out bulking and lifting more.
I'm not sure what bulking proggie im gonna do yet I was 100% sure MAX-OT would be for me, but I'm doing a bit of research on vizual xcellence, maybe that might be better... anyway ill sort that out closer to the time... if that time ever comes :confused: :rolleyes:


So then, hopefully I've not sent you all to sleep. I could of elaborated on much more, so if you have any questions for me fire away and I'll go into more detail. Ive even taken weekly pics of myself (front and profile) so if you guys want to see those I've no problem.... nothing much happnin with the muscle front tho not like some of you peeps.

Thanks for you time,
HC

Some questions first.
uh, you are 5'10 and you are 145? Thats already way too light in my book.
Whats your target weight?
Can we have those pictures?
Looking at your link to your activities, you have a daily calorie deficiet of almost 2000 calories? Am i reading that right?

Ok,

First off, your weight loss rate will drop the lighter you get. After your inital weight loss, and at your height and weight, 1/2lb a week isnt all that bad.

Second, not having cheat meals may be the cause of the problem. Your metabolism has sloooooowwweeedddd right down because your never giving your body work to do, your thyroid will have become an inactive and lethargic gland, and as such, your weightloss has slowed down. Whenever you hit a plateau, try havng a massive calorie day, cheat, and see what happens. What usually happens to me is, after a cheat day (after a plateau), i put on 5lbs (water mainly), then spend monday going to the bathroom every 5 mins through drinking lots of water to flush out the carried excess water, sweat the rest out at the gym, by which time the metaolism is well up there and the thyroid is pumped and all is good. weight loss continues.

Finally, less then 10% fat may also be the cause of your slowed fatloss. You have to eat fats. Put simply.

Your body burns calories for energy.
To loose fat, you want your body to burn stored fat calories for energy
To do this, your body must be efficient in burning fat for energy.
To achieve this, your body needs to be burning fat for energy throughout the day
If you dont give your body fat to use as energy, your body will cease to be efficient in burning fat for energy, and turn to other sources.
Hence, eating more fats means your body is better at burning fat for energy, and thus better at burning stored fat.

Get some nuts, flaxseed, olive oil, fish oil, anything with healthy fats. Try that.

These are just a few ideas that have worked for me.

However, id second the notion that your weight is pretty low for a guy whos 5'10''. :nod: And id make it clear that my first point is the most likely, and that at that weight, a slow weightloss is common anyhow.

Good luck, and let me know how you get on. :tu:

Thank you both for youer replies.

Yup I agree that for a guy who's 5'10 the weight I'm at now seems awefully low... However when you see pics of me you'll see that I don't look 'skinny' or underweight.... Even now when I sit down I have this over hang of fat (i used to perminatnly have these 3 tires marks, they have gone slightly and now I have just 1 with 2 smaller ones)

I don't think I have great genetics, even before I started to loose weight the look on someone's face when I said 'No thanks I'm on a diet' would give a shocked reaction. I could hide my fat under a baggy clothes no problem.... It all goes round my mid section and my chest.... you'll see when I post my progress pics up (which I'm gonna try and do in a few hours). So the fact that I store fat in stupid places and that I have not got much muscle mass at all is prolly why my body doesn't look 'skinny' for a healthy weight.

Reno_1ted - I have forgot to add one thing (and it's the only thing) to those fitday journals, that's the fact that i have a handful of pistachio nuts post workout, I'm I would of thought that might bump might 8% - 7% fat intake to maybe around 10 ish. I really should start adding that in future.

I'll start having a cheat meal a week if you think it'll help things.... I had that pizza and cake yesterday so I guess thats a start :D

The reason why I havn't had cheat meals is that, before I started getting into fitness my diet was terrible. I would eat 1 meal a day if that and the meal wouldnt be nutritious at all, anything I could grab. I would wake up in the afternoon, smoke loads (the herbal kind) wait till about 10pm-midnight and then just pig out on anything and everything. Some days I wouldn't eat at all, then after those non-eating days the next day I would go crazy. I never really had a hunger on the days I didn't eat I guess I replaced eating with smoking, whenevr i kinda felt hunger I would go roll up.

Those days are long gone for me now, I'm not going back either... but I do feel like it took it's toll on my metabolism, In the last month and especially since I've started doing HIIT ive actually started to feel hungry and that I NEED to eat, but obviously I didnt wanna eat junk so hnce staying away from those cheat meals.

I could prolly stick in a cheat meal a week I guess now that I'm living a much more healthier lifestyle.

BTW Filthysock I don't know how right those figures are on fitday.com for the amount of calories burnt off.... For one I use a elleptical for my HIIT cardio and the only thing i could think that matches a Elleptical would be a ski machine ? When i've put in the about the 'Calisthenics' I think that was on a Ab day in which I did x2 sessions of 30-40mins, when I'm on a weight day I do roughly 40-50 mins.....
I have stopped putting my 'Activites' in there as I already take note of what I do in my own little journal I have going (on day 67 in that)

I'll get my pics up shortly

Thank you both for your replies its greatly appreciated.
HC

Ok,

Heres 4 pics to show you.

The first 2 pics are from my first week when I started to record my progress I was prolly about 2-3 weeks into my 'new' lifestyle. I started off easy and gradually built up my fitness. The last 2 pics are from week 10 (last week), sorry if they arn't great pics but my missus is no photographer.

I saw a lot of progress within the first 6 weeks or so, eventually I'll post up all my pics somewhere so u can see the weekly difference

I oughta take a picture of what happens to my midesction when I sit down (and how that nasty fat accumilates round my midesction).... I'm not sure how much Body fat I had when I first started I guess it was in the region of 23-25%... I check my Body fat with caliper last week and it says I'm around 14.5% (although I'm not sure if I even trust those because the readings seem to fluctuatate 2-4 mm each time even when I grab the same bit of fat)

In fact ignore the order I listed em in... even when I rename the files I cant seem to get em in order :confused:

I'm sure u can see by the picture quality and the boxer shorts which order is week one and which is week 10


(BTW i no longer own the boxer shorts in the first pic my missus threw them out, and a gj she did they look erm.... well u can see how they look !)

Id say 14%-15% BF is about right.

Defo add the cheat meal, i think it will help. If you have it at the weekend, take your stats on a thursday and only on a thursday. Forget BF and weight measurement on every other day, as with added water etc, they will scare you and be inaccurate. Bu thursday, the water will be gone, and you will have had a weeks training, and hopefully the kick to your metabolism will have stripped off a few more pounds.

Id think about dropping to about 12% BF, then starting a nice clean bulk. Having more muscle mass will make the cut down to 10% easier in the long run. :nod:

Looking good bro.

Some questions first.
uh, you are 5'10 and you are 145? Thats already way too light in my book.
Whats your target weight?
Can we have those pictures?
Looking at your link to your activities, you have a daily calorie deficiet of almost 2000 calories? Am i reading that right?

I don't think it's too light. I'll probably wind up being that same weight if not a little lighter when I get done cutting too. I'm also 5'10". Here's another guy on the forums that has a frame like ours: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=4522 (Thank you, ABguy! ... for writing history down!) (Sorry, couldn't resist the "Old Navy" spoof)

Some of us just have small frames and we don't carry additional fat very well so we have to cut cut cut to look good. But then, of course, we have to bulk bulk bulk.

Reno_1ted


Thanks for the reply mate :tu:

Atm I take my stats (and weekly pic) on a Thursday so I'll definatly stick in my cheat meal maybe on Friday / Saturday.

I was hoping to cut down to <10% bf before I started to bulk, but over the past few weeks I'd been reading exactly what youve just said 'Having more muscle mass will make the cut down to 10% easier in the long run'

It's a shame I'll not be able to see my abs for a good few months yet, as they seem to be the only muscle that has responded very well to my traning so far, I can feel the abs under that layer of fat and in some lights I can see my abs if I pull down that tub round my belly button.

How long would you think it'll take to drop off that excess 2-3 % BF to get me to 11-12% ? My goals a bit back was to start bulking at the end of september... maybe itlls have to be in the middle of october now ? whaddya think ?

I'll keep you informed how things go, I'm gonna take a pic on Thursday but I dont think I'll take my stats as I had a cheat meal bit late this week, so hopefully next Thursday I'll have some good news to report back :D

Thanks again mate, I hope one day to get a physique similar to yours !

Some of us just have small frames and we don't carry additional fat very well so we have to cut cut cut to look good. But then, of course, we have to bulk bulk bulk.

Cheers for showing me that journal, I'd looked at it before and thought the same.

Wish u :gl: with your transformation dledeaux.

All of you guys are my motivation to keep me going, it was hard for me this morning to put up that post as I've always been too ashamed to even talk about my body before... and all your replies have picked me up for the day.

Thanks guys!

My entire fatloss journey has been a big plateau really, until I found out about the power of moderate-low carbs diets.

Works amazingly well for me, you might wanna try it.

3 days 2200 calories, with +-20% carbs, and 40/40 protein/fat
1 day 2800 calories, with 60% carbs and 25/15 protein/fat

The cylce is to boost metabolism and replenish carbs because continues low carb diets leave you flat.

Oatmeal in the morning, then fruit snack, pre/post whey shake at around 12:00. Afternoon and night it's only fish/meat/eggs/cottage cheese, or even some nuts.

I wish I had known this when I started my fatloss, it would have saved me months! Some people are just really carb sensative.

Personally this low carb cycle diet is the only way for me to loose fat steadily.

Also try to WALK whenever you can, 1 hour walk is around 300+ calories burned!

Thanks for the reply pneuma,

I think I've read about that somewhere before, I'm always up for trying new things... especially when I hit a plateau.

I'm gonna see how I'm going and by next week if things havnt improved, I may try your suggestions. You never know that could be the key for me too.

I've no fear about walking tho - at the moment I don't have a driving license (prolly will at the end of the month tho fingers crossed) so I tend to walk most places. When I'm driving I can't see anything changing as I've never been the sorta person to jump at a lift to the end of the street...

thanks again for your reply,
HC :tu: