Ive halted after two weeks...

[Tinyspoon]

Hi Guys,

Hopefully someone can help cause my motivation and overall happiness just hit an all time low this morning.

I decided to cut my body fat to around 10-15% to then start a lean bulk. I'm 5'7, 161 pounds, 23.8% body fat and 25 years old.

I am weight lifting on alternate days with a routine that consists of a) squat,bench,rows b) deaflift, overhead extensions, pullups. each exercise is 3x10

I cut my calories down to around 1600 a day and I'm making sure that my protein levels are high. After two weeks I seem to have just stopped at 161. The heck am I doing wrong? im weighing myself the same time every day, im not going over my calories, haven't missed a workout...


Just feel like I'm running at a brick wall


I've attached a few photos of my progress so far, and calories etc etc


Can anyone help?


Oli

[JSim83]

So you have been cutting two weeks? Have you lost any weight in that time?

[Tinyspoon]

So you have been cutting two weeks? Have you lost any weight in that time?

I started at 163 ish, got down to 161.2 within the first week then ive just stayed at this for the past week.

[SuffolkPunch]

We see the same thing all the time - you have too little muscle mass to cut back to and you are trying to lose weight too fast.

Why not up your calories to around 2200, focus on progression in your routine. You should be able to gain some muscle at the same time as slowly and sustainably reducing bodyfat.

And don't expect your weight to drop in a nice straight line. Water levels in your body can mess with results for weeks at a time. Especially when you induce a bunch of stress hormones from the overly low calorie intake.

[DvoycY]

Weigh yourself more frequently (numerous times per day) and celebrate every time the weight goes down!

Seriously, what do you expect, OP? It is a gradual process - take an average over each week and monitor the progress month by month - visual perspective also helps but do not expect to see much difference every week, and even not before you start hitting 10% (unless you were morbidly obese and having a flat stomach is good enough for you).