Stuck early on...

[Mercurix]

Hey ladies and gentlemen of BB,

I've started my fat loss program (finally) and I'm on my 5th week. First 2-3 weeks I managed to lose 10lbs, but after that, the scale seems to stay the same, although I think I'm still getting smaller. I'm not a complete rookie to training and cutting cycles, I just lost my way for aprox 3 years and managed to go from 178lbs to 268lbs through the magic of being poor and having to eat junk most of the time (also, I'm 5'6 in case you wondered). I now have a good job, good income and I'm buying my lean meats, protein etc.

My workout is basically from Sunday to Thursday. I'm doing a Upper/lower split during the week, with lots of mixed exercises that work more than 1 muscle at a time (sometimes I go for Full body if I feel I didn't hit the body hard enough) and I'm doing lots of cardio and basketball pretty much every day I work out.

My daily diet looks something like this:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs (1 yolk, 5 whites) + Banana

Snack: Pure protein bar - 179 cal - 22g Protein

Lunch: 1 grilled chicken breast with 1 cup brown rice or veggies

Snack: banana + handful of Almonds + celery sticks

shake: pre and post workout

1/4 cup milk
water
mixed frozen fruit (unsweetened)
protein powder - 25g protein per serving
1/2 tbsp almond butter
1/2 cup cottage cheese
sugar free smuckers for sweetness and flavor

Dinner: 4 oz Salmon

So my question is, am I doing something wrong, or is it normal that my scale stalls for a while?

Thanks a lot guys.

EDIT: I'm currently down to 256lbs. In case it matters.

[Nick Helm]

Looks pretty good. You should be losing 1-2 pounds a week. I like to only get on the scale once a week when I'm cutting. That way I don't become discouraged when I see fluctuations. Make sure you are doing 5 hours of cardio a week, and write down your weekly progress. If you begin to see a slowing in your progress, then you know that something needs to be modified, but "If it a'int broke, then don't fix it" always applies when losing fat. Keep up the good work!

[Mercurix]

Thanks Nick...I'll try to stay away from the scale and just check my progress once a week. Also, I'm planning on getting a Tanita Ironman scale that measures other things as well, not just weight but also BMR, body water, etc.

Would it be smart at this point for me to include creatine in my diet?

[Wild_Weasel]

Your diet looks great, just be sure the calorie level is where you want it.

I second the weekly weigh ins, and doing a good amount of cardio too.

Creatine won't hinder you on a cut. You may get a little bloated from water retention if you take creatine monohydrate though so don't let that make you think you're doing something wrong.

[jenl]

Could be muscle gain + fat loss which can look like you're not losing weight if you're using weight only scales. Could be your body being stubborn or becoming a little bit more efficient calorie wise. Try shaking your routine up a bit - Replace some cardio with HIIT/sprints etc to give the weightloss a kickstart. Don't be discouraged though. Weightloss can be a funky thing - I went through a 6-month weight loss plateau. Just keep at it and try not to get too discouraged.

Also, are you lifting light or heavy? Maybe start increasing your lifting weights if you're not doing so already?

[jenl]

Oh yeah, re. creatine, from a personal point of view I would get comfortable with the exercise/nutrition first before you start adding additional supplements to your diet.

Once you know why/if you need creatine then you should make the decision to take it, not based on suggestions on an internet forum.

[Fokissed]

Like jenl said, the first thing I thought was you could be adding lean mass through the new workout routine, so even though the scale might not be moving, your body composition could still be changing for the better.

The new scale with more readings like BF% should help, but measuring your waist once a week is also a good simple indicator of whether you're losing fat.

[Mercurix]

Ok, I'll hold off on the creatine for now. I just thought it may give me an extra boost when doing all those supersets. I had taken NOXplode before and still have some left over though, which of course isn't a creatine in itself, but would you recommend using that for extra energy? Maybe adding it to my shakes?

JENL, I'm using weights that are a bit under my range but I'm doing more sets. I'm not interested in getting huge so isolating muscles isn't my main priority either.