Cutting, but doing something wrong, please offer your opinions.

[~peaches~]

Okay, I will make this as short as possible. I have been back in the gym now steadly for 3 months, after a 6 month break, the first 2 months I had a semi clean diet, most days I would eat clean, but occasionally slipped with a cheat, noticed some fat loss but no changes in scale.


At 5'8 and 220, since my diet has been on clean now for a month, meaning no slip ups, I have a cheat meal once every two weeks, and that cheat is usually Hooters wings , so nothing TO extreme. I have stayed at 220 for months, what the hell am I doing wrong? I wouldnt complain about the scale because I know that really is not important, but my clothes are not changing either. It is very frustrating, even my SO who is a bodybuilder doesnt know what the hell is wrong. I am beginning to wonder if my thyroid is wacked, I have had a few test and I am slighty hypo, I am going to the DOC next week.




My diet looks like this :

8am: 4 egg whites 1 whole egg, 1/2 cup oatmeal

11am: after training 2 scoops of whey with glutamine

1pm: Chicken , fiberous veggies, brown rice or sweet potato

4pm: 1 scoop whey with 1 tablespoon natural pb

7pm: Chicken, or lean beef , veggies

10pm:1 scoop whey

I train 3 days a week Mon: Back/bis WED: chest/tris Friday:legs CARDIO
I do SS cardio after I train, except for leg day, I can barely walk, let alone get on a treadmill, the days I do not train I do 45 minute intervals on Precor. I was training heavy weight low rep 6-8, the past month I have done moderate weight with a higher rep 10-12.

I was told to add some PROP 50mg every third day, to assist with keeping my muscle and kick starting a little fat loss.

What the hell is wrong? I am not training for a comp, but i do want to cut before spring gets here, at the rate I am going i will not be cut anytime soon.

Any thoughts and advice is welcome.

 

[~peaches~]

Another thing: should I hire someone to do my nutrition? My So spends half the year bulking, so he eats whatever, two months cutting and two months off,point is he knows his shit, but maybe I need a nutrionist. I attached a picture so you know I am not bullshitting when I say my SO knows his shit

 

[Sassy69]

You should get regular bodyfat measures (calipers) - the SO shoudl be able to help you do that very easily. That helps to keep some additional change measures. The scale sucks as a measurement device - I dropped 9% bf and 2 lbs in 2 months last yr so if based my perceived progress on the scale I would probably have killed myself after that. The weight I stayed near is around 160-165 lb for 5'7" - that's where my body will settle at unless I do some serious focused change - for me the big difference is always cardio.... (i'm not suggesting this is your difference but it is the difference for me) -- I started at 20 min 2x/day in March and every week I added 5 min, ending at 2x 1 hr /day and holding there for contest prep. All this was steady state cardio (what my trainer had me do, i'm not suggesting its the best).

I'd also ask if you could put your meal plan into fitday.com or some other food counts program so we can know specifically what your total cals & macro nutrient break down is (% protein, fat, carb).

 

[~peaches~]

You should get regular bodyfat measures (calipers) - the SO shoudl be able to help you do that very easily. That helps to keep some additional change measures. The scale sucks as a measurement device - I dropped 9% bf and 2 lbs in 2 months last yr so if based my perceived progress on the scale I would probably have killed myself after that. The weight I stayed near is around 160-165 lb for 5'7" - that's where my body will settle at unless I do some serious focused change - for me the big difference is always cardio.... (i'm not suggesting this is your difference but it is the difference for me) -- I started at 20 min 2x/day in March and every week I added 5 min, ending at 2x 1 hr /day and holding there for contest prep. All this was steady state cardio (what my trainer had me do, i'm not suggesting its the best).

I'd also ask if you could put your meal plan into fitday.com or some other food counts program so we can know specifically what your total cals & macro nutrient break down is (% protein, fat, carb).

Thank you for your reply, shouldnt I, at this weight, atleast see a change in my clothes? I mean I have been dieting , cardio and training steady for three months now! I hate the scale, it hates me, so I avoid it at all cost, I have only weighed twice this month because I get discouraged easily. I will be getting my BF checked this week, so I can keep up with that better.

Sassy, I value your opinion, I have seen you on another board, you know your shit! SO, should I drop the intervals and stay with SS?

My diet stays the same everyday, so I will plug it into fitday and see what I get.

 

[imystify]

I attached a picture so you know I am not bullshitting when I say my SO knows his shit

well done

 

[~peaches~]

well done

Yeah, someone is doing good in this house

 

[Sassy69]

Yeah, someone is doing good in this house

Its good to have support for your work & goals. That by itself is priceless.

Yes I would expect to see changes in your clothes at least, but if you are able to step away from that self-image aspect of getting on the scale or measuring and just keep it as a regular part of your program - it is just a number and doing a measure on a regular interval gives you an idea of whether or not what you are doing works or not. During my competition prep I had my diet changed every 3 days and bodyfat & wt done every 3 days to see if the one or two changes I made in the diet actually worked, and adjusted from there. The point is to make progress, not quantify how bad you should feel about yourself. And try to identify what isn't working.

I"m all about starting from the diet - so when you can post up what the diet stats are, then we can see if there's some tweaking to be done.

We'll figure it out

 

[Daisy_Girl]

I would love to see the diet put into FitDay - a Sassy said. Just eyeballing it - the fats look low.

Also seems like a lot of cardio. I would actually suggest the opposite of what you automatically assume (more SS and less HIIT) - less SS and more HIIT. NOTE - NOT INTERVALS, but HIIT - BIG difference.

Yes, after a month of strict eating, there should be some drop, even if it is just water. But you also just weighed yourself TWICE in a month. Maybe the day you weighed yourself the first time you were dehydrated and the second time you were retaining water. Maybe the first time was post-period and the second time was pre-period (women are typically 'lightest' in the weeks between end of period and ovulation, and 'heaviest' the weeks between ovulation and through the end of your period). Maybe the moon was full, maybe the pigs were flying ... maybe maybe.

What I am trying to get at is..... that weight, alone, as a data point is silly and pointless to ponder over. Weight is the gravatational pull on your body - nothing more, nothing less. The question you should be asking yourself is what was the CHANGE IN MY BODY'S COMPOSITION during that time period.

The way you get at that is through BF% testing. Use that, with weight, as your indication of progress.


Also - if you are "slightly hypo" that should have little to no effect on your weight. What was your TSH level? If it is below 20, then it is unlikely it is causing you to NOT lose weight. A moderately high TSH level can make a tough environment to lose weight, but getting on Synthroid will NOT SOLVE the losing-weight-problem - trust me, I know this firsthand. If you are "slightly hypo" you will likely get put on a LOW dose of Synthroid, just enough to stabilized the thryoid, but probably not enough to impact your weight.

 

[~peaches~]

Finally got off my ass and checked Fitday, here are the totals:

Totals 1536 36 98 205

I entered the diet I had previously posted and I am following. Are the carbs a bit to high? Should I take the PB out of my diet and use fish oil and flax for fat? Should I maybe cycle my carbs? Last question, what about PROP, should I add this in as stated above?

 

[imystify]

is that cals/fat/carbs/pro?