Cutting cals (again)

[SoreArms]

I've had a good steady diet for about two months now and lost almost 20 lbs. in that time. The problem is that I've been at a plateu for the last 3 weeks and now I fear, it is time to decrease cals again. I liked the meal plan I had going and was just getting comfortable with it. I revised it and found a few places where it seemed simple to take out a thing or two or eat less of a thing or two, the toughest thing was to decrease cals and keep the same macro ratios (50/30/20 P/F/C). I started at about 220 lbs, about 25% BF (never actually measured, just a guess), now at 202 lbs maybe 20% BF (I guess I should measure), but face is looking way thinner and my belt is on it's last notch.
I started this today, about 400 cals less and man do I feel on empty right now. I've gone through this before, I know that I just need some time to re-adjust, but man is it going to be rough. I think I'll increase my coffee intake over the next few days. I'll see how far this takes me, but I think the next step will be CKD.

 

[Stryc-9]

While it might seem counter-productive - have you considered increasing calories for a week or two instead of cutting them?

You might wanna give it a try - as I've found that it can help to break a plateau rather than cutting calories further.

I guess the idea is to jump start your metabolism so that fat loss improves when you return to below-maintenance calories. Just a thought.

 

[Millie]

I agree with Stryc-9, you might want to look into increasing cals. How many calories are you taking in right now?

Also another suggestions is to switch up your macros, this is also good for breaking plateaus.

 

[SoreArms]

I'm willing to give it a try since if I keep decreasing cals I will eventually be eating like an Etheopian.

So increase cals by about 500 for a week or two, then return to the cals I was consuming (-500)?

If I change macros, what would be the ideal change, or does it matter? Increase fats, decrease prot, keep carbs the same or decrease prot, increase carbs and change or keep fat the same?

Was at 2500 cals (using 12*220 at the time = 2640, but I cut it to 2500). Cut 400 cals, to make it 2100 (12*200, curent, =2400, so still under maintenace).

Thanks buds!

 

[onerepmaximum]

Are you doing any cardio?

 

[SoreArms]

Started doing some HIIT recently, only up to 7 mins. on eliptical, with 5 min warm up and 5-10 min cool down. Prior to HIIT, only 10 mins pre WO and 10 mins post. When I first started working out back in April, I was a bit more gung ho about the cardio, but have since toned it way down and placed more emphasis on diet and hitting the weights. My diet was shit back then, even though I thought I was eating healthier.

 

[heregothere]

this also might sound counter-intuitive, but you might want to go low intensity cardio 4 or 5 days a week and see if that helps.

sometimes shocking your body is the best thing you can do.

 

[nikolai_bolkov]

Started doing some HIIT recently, only up to 7 mins. on eliptical, with 5 min warm up and 5-10 min cool down. Prior to HIIT, only 10 mins pre WO and 10 mins post. When I first started working out back in April, I was a bit more gung ho about the cardio, but have since toned it way down and placed more emphasis on diet and hitting the weights. My diet was shit back then, even though I thought I was eating healthier.

sorry but those 7 mins are not gonna get you anywhere...not even with hiit

try 20-30 mins 3-4x a week and keep your food intake the same

 

[SoreArms]

sorry but those 7 mins are not gonna get you anywhere...not even with hiit

try 20-30 mins 3-4x a week and keep your food intake the same

This is my first attempt to HIIT and I'm following this 8 week program outlined in this link
http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

Starts at 4 mins. increase 1 min. each week, I'm up to 7 right now.

Gotta start somewhere.

BTW
Would 2 HIIT session a WO be over kill, say pre and post WO. I currenly do it pre WO.

 

[onerepmaximum]

I was gonna say, maybe it's time to change things up for a while. I would be reluctant to go too far below your BMR with your calories, especially if you are fairly active.