HELP! 3 weeks into cutting, lost 0 lbs.

[leahcim]

natural, 6' 198 lbs. 17% BF

I bulked from July-October.

I have been cutting for 3 weeks and my calroeis are 2100 and I have lost no weight.

I am on a 1 on, 1 off routine alternating upper, lower with low volume. (4 sets big, 3 sets small)

here is a sample of my diet and routine

45 minutes fasted cardio at 150 bps

meal 1- 9 egg whites, 3 whole eggs ( 50 protein, 13.5 fat)
meal 2- 2 scoops whey, 1 tbs. flax oil (50 protein, 15 fat)
meal 3- 9 oz. chicken breast, 1 tbs saflower oil (50 protein, 15 fat)
meal 4 (pre workout)- 2 scoops whey, 1 tbs. flax oil (50 protein, 15 fat)
meal 5 (post workout)- 1 scoop whey, smarties (25 protein, 50 carbs)
meal 6 ( 1 hour later)- 8 oz. chicken, rice (45 protein, 50 carbs)

NOTE: On non workout days meal 5 and 6 become no carbs, just protein and fat.


I cannot lose weight. I bulked eating high fat and protien with a huge carb load once a week. I ate higher fat than I do now.

Maybe my body got used to the carb loads and now it need them to let go of some body fat.

Maybe I need to eat a higher fat (keto like) to lose fat. When I bulked I was on a higher fat diet and very low carb so now my bbody is producing more insulin die to the fact I lowered my fat from 40 per meal, to 15 or so.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Joker13]

Are you doing cardio?

[leahcim]

Yes. I put that right before my meals on the post.

45 minutes fasted (only coffee before) at 140-150 bps

I think that my body got into kind of a keto state due to the 60% fat diet I did to bulk. it worked great.

Now that I have lowered the fat to 15 grams per meal, it has added some water weight. Kind of like coming off a CKD I guess.

[Cradler]

Fasted and "only coffee before" are not the same thing. And why are smarties a major part of your diet? I really have trouble believing that smarties carry 50 g. carbs, let alone high-quality carbs.

You haven't provided all that much info. How often are you doing cardio? WHAT cardio are you doing? How often are you lifting? What kind of lifting are you doing? "Samples" of a routine and diet don't do much.

My guess would be that if you're doing all this, you're
a) not eating enough
b) doing the wrong sort of cardio

a) I weighed slightly more than you (205) and was trying to lose weight for a while a few weeks ago and because I didn't really think it through I tried just having lots of protein and low calories - like 2000 a day, about. It did not work at all. Then I upped my calories to about 2600 and started losing MORE weight. You're a big guy - your body will hold on to more fat if it doesn't think it's going to receive enough of it.

b) Read this article for starters:

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/article...w_simon/cardio

And consider that. To distill some of the information from that: running at a high intensity for a long time leads to muscle breakdown eventually - and 45 min. counts as eventually. Shorter duration and higher intensity leads to more fat burned and a higher metabolic rate post-cardio.

So aside from supplying a bit more info, think about those two points.

[lilbig man]

Quick question. Would someone be more proned to gain weight or at least not lose weight if there were eating more calories and doing shorter sessions of cardio like you suggested? I have a similiar problem and am actually confused about a few things.

[Cradler]

The article I posted basically posits that for fatloss, shorter but more intense cardio sessions are preferable - check the Fatloss forum if you're interested, there's a lot of info about HIIT: high-intensity interval training. I personally use a very simple program - that's posted there - featuring lots of 400m sprints, and it works fine. As far as diet goes, it really depends on what kind of training you're doing, but you definitely can't let your carbs fall too low. I saw your other thread, and IK is absolutely right - 1900/2000 cals is too low for 190 lbs. Her advice is spot on there and I don't want to add anything to that since she knows more than I do about that stuff.

I don't know how much and how long you've been working to cut, but it's definitely an eventual process, so I'd just up your cals to where your body won't be likely to fight you on the cut, do more intense cardio or interval training, and keep your diet on the right track.

Good luck.