The Dreaded Plateau

[ricks]

I've hit it! The dreaded plateau in weight loss. My biggest fear is that I've screwed around and tanked my metabolism.

I've been cutting for about 2 months now. My weight has dropped from 203 to 187. I'm 58 (5 ft 8 inches) and was carrying a big middle. I've been training with weights and cardio for over 30 years. My body type is Endomorph so I have a real tendency to put it on around the middle.

My average daily intake is running around 1600 - 1800 calories with 15% clean fat, 44% carbs, and 41% protein. Very clean with chicken, beans, cauliflower and broccoli. I do use Reload for post-training nutritiion.

I train 3 times a week with weights and cardio pretty much every day 30 - 45 minutes. I'm definitely seeing definition improvement but my strength is in the tank.

Any ideas or suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks! Great forum!

[Cradler]

Well, off the top of my head -
- What do your workouts consist of? What kind of cardio (duration/intensity/etc.), what kind of lifting (circuit training / high-intensity / high-volume / etc.), all that stuff.
- Your calories seem very low. You're a 190 lb. man - your body needs way more than 1800 cals just to get by. I'd shoot for somewhere around 2400-2600 calories a day, and maybe a little more clean fats. Your body is eventually going to start hanging on to fat if you don't give it enough fuel.

[Ross86]

Your body can adjust to the same kind of cardio every day also. So it's good to switch it up...running, biking, swimming, etc.

[ricks]

Originally Posted by Cradler

Well, off the top of my head -
- What do your workouts consist of? What kind of cardio (duration/intensity/etc.), what kind of lifting (circuit training / high-intensity / high-volume / etc.), all that stuff.
- Your calories seem very low. You're a 190 lb. man - your body needs way more than 1800 cals just to get by. I'd shoot for somewhere around 2400-2600 calories a day, and maybe a little more clean fats. Your body is eventually going to start hanging on to fat if you don't give it enough fuel.

My weight workouts with a trainer are very intense. 10 minute warm-up (usually with eliptical machine) then 30 minutes of split routines which get changed every week and include core conditioning, then 20 minutes of low-level cardio which I change up from recumbant bike, eliptical machine, and treadmill running. My cardio is usually on my road bike on a training stand for 30 - 45 minutes. I do vary intensity on these rides...sometimes long steady and sometimes HIIT. Based on your recommendations I'm kicking up my clean fat a bit and my calories. I really do appreciate your response. I sometimes get in my head too much and can't figure out what is going on.

[ricks]

Originally Posted by Ross86

Your body can adjust to the same kind of cardio every day also. So it's good to switch it up...running, biking, swimming, etc.

Thanks Ross86. I do vary my cardio but will concentrate more on the levels... I really appreciate your response. Helps me to think through what I'm doing.

[EricT]

Some more detail about what you do could still help. For instance, saying that your workouts are very intense could mean a lot of things.

On the cardio you say that it is usally the bike. What Ross is saying about changing it up is very important. The body's response to "cardio" is simply to get better at it. Just like the body's response to strength training is to get better at it.

With strength training that is what you want. Up to a point you need consistency and overload to get stronger with enough variation to overcome plateaus. But with cardio that is NOT what you want. With cardio "chaos training" is best as well as mixing the intensities, etc. Remember, whether it is cardio or anything else it is still the muscles that are demanding fuel. Use the same muscles all the time in a similar pattern and the result is they can do MORE work using LESS fuel. The only solution is to continually do more and more OR change up exercises and movement patterns frequenty to throw a wrench in the works.

[Darkhorse]

If you've been on a deficit for 2 months, I would definately take a step back at maintenence calories for a few weeks. Noone can just put their head down and bulldoze through the months cutting weight without coming up for air.

[TALO]

Like the others say , your body gets use to the same thing quick. Change it up a bit.

As for the diet I would say add more protein and less carbs, with the same amount of calories (whatever that may be). You could even try higher fats with zero to very low carbs and high protein. THat might help maintain some muscle mass.

[Lukas1878]

Useful info guys