The Metabolic Slowdown Thread

[lee__d]

When I was weighing daily, I almost always had a drop in weight the day after a high carb day. in retrospect, I should have lowered calories back down to my normal deficit the next day (but this day is saturday, so I typically went over my normal deficit).

[Retoaded]

When I was weighing daily, I almost always had a drop in weight the day after a high carb day. in retrospect, I should have lowered calories back down to my normal deficit the next day (but this day is saturday, so I typically went over my normal deficit).

yeah I am shooting for a refeed for Friday or Saturday every week, or at least every other week, mainly just making it coincide with whatever we have socially going on that weekend. Like this weekend on Friday night we are going out with friends, so I'll make Friday the refeed day and try to hit around 2,700.

I should be hitting abs somewhere in the 170s...well I already have a 4 pack and some obliques showing at around 14ish, but I mean like 11%ish in the 173-175 range...then I am done....gonna enjoy eating at maintenance for a while...then...its lean bulk time. It will be refreshing to be able to continually slow bulk with only little 1 month cuts or so sprinkled in!

I am also gonna be ready to raise avg calories from 1900-2000 up to 2200 pretty quick if I start seeing another stall, and just be happy with the last few pounds coming off slower. In fact, I may just do that anyway in 2-3 weeks when I am in the upper 170s. thoughts on that? you'd probably say go ahead and eat at 2200 huh....I think i am gonna try to "steal" the extra fractions of pounds for a few weeks though.

[lee__d]

yeah I am shooting for a refeed for Friday or Saturday every week, or at least every other week, mainly just making it coincide with whatever we have socially going on that weekend. Like this weekend on Friday night we are going out with friends, so I'll make Friday the refeed day and try to hit around 2,700.

I should be hitting abs somewhere in the 170s...well I already have a 4 pack and some obliques showing at around 14ish, but I mean like 11%ish in the 173-175 range...then I am done....gonna enjoy eating at maintenance for a while...then...its lean bulk time. It will be refreshing to be able to continually slow bulk with only little 1 month cuts or so sprinkled in!

I am also gonna be ready to raise avg calories from 1900-2000 up to 2200 pretty quick if I start seeing another stall, and just be happy with the last few pounds coming off slower. In fact, I may just do that anyway in 2-3 weeks when I am in the upper 170s. thoughts on that? you'd probably say go ahead and eat at 2200 huh....I think i am gonna try to "steal" the extra fractions of pounds for a few weeks though.

Yea, I like combining refeeds and IF with days on which I have social events.

[Retoaded]

Yea, I like combining refeeds and IF with days on which I have social events.

yep - I only do 2 meals a day...so I can do 700 for breakfast/lunch and then boom 2,000 calories (usually half of it being a very large ribeye).

[creepa200]

Like I tell everyone, be sure of accuracy.

You're going to want to reverse diet and stay out of a deficit for a little bit imo. Slightly above maintenance, lift heavy, get things 'back to normal'.

Oh I have 2 scales and everything is weighed. Nothing hits my mouth before the scale. What do you think I should eat at?

[lee__d]

Oh I have 2 scales and everything is weighed. Nothing hits my mouth before the scale. What do you think I should eat at?

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/ener...iture-advanced

I'd use this for an estimated maintenance and slowly eat up to it. Now, if you're is slowed, your current, real maintenance will be lower. But we want to push it back up to the 'normal' level.

[.jon.]

What would be the next step if you eat at maintenance for 1 month+ and end up getting stuck right back at 220x where you were? I might say **** it and reverse diet until June. This is very disheartening to me because in my previous cutting attempts I plateaued out at 220 as well (2004/2007). I never ran that big of a deficit either,2000/1800 and maintenance for me is 2500,tracking with myfitness pal. I was doing re-feeds on saturdays/sunday too.

My plan was to get down to 200lbs,I started 1500 this week just out of sheer curiosity to see what makes the scale move. I haven't ruled out the possibility of low test or thyroid Issues,I did have gyno surgery in 07',it was a severe case of B cups,lol.

[lee__d]

What would be the next step if you eat at maintenance for 1 month+ and end up getting stuck right back at 220x where you were? I might say **** it and reverse diet until June. This is very disheartening to me because in my previous cutting attempts I plateaued out at 220 as well (2004/2007). I never ran that big of a deficit either,2000/1800 and maintenance for me is 2500,tracking with myfitness pal. I was doing re-feeds on saturdays/sunday too.

My plan was to get down to 200lbs,I started 1500 this week just out of sheer curiosity to see what makes the scale move. I haven't ruled out the possibility of low test or thyroid Issues,I did have gyno surgery in 07',it was a severe case of B cups,lol.

You'd have to be pretty inactive for your maintenance to be 2500 at those stats. If you're being accurate (even with a slowed metabolism), you would have lost something going from 1800-2000 last week, to 1500 this week. Make sure you're accurate. Were your refeeds structured? You can easily negate a deficit with two days of over eating.

If you're suspicious of any medical conditions, you must get checked out.

[Grendizer]

Hey guys, gotta update you on some news:

I weighed-in friday (yesterday) and I stayed at EXACTLY the same weight, so I had a re-feed yesteday of 3500 calories, and I WAS REALLY REALLY hungry, it was like.. I ate an 1000 calorie meal at breakfast, and I felt that I ate NOTHING, then I had a KFC meal at lunch of 1500 calories, it felt okay, but I was still hungry, then had a couple of ice-creams before bed, then went to bed sleeping so hungry still, I woke up the next morning and weighed-in:

Lost 1 pound exactly, I have a question now, is it just 1 pound? or is it even more because of the high carb re-feed yesterday?

Macros were: 80g fat, 500g carb, 100g protein ~

Also carb sources were mostly: oats/fries

[Retoaded]

Hey guys, gotta update you on some news:

I weighed-in friday (yesterday) and I stayed at EXACTLY the same weight, so I had a re-feed yesteday of 3500 calories, and I WAS REALLY REALLY hungry, it was like.. I ate an 1000 calorie meal at breakfast, and I felt that I ate NOTHING, then I had a KFC meal at lunch of 1500 calories, it felt okay, but I was still hungry, then had a couple of ice-creams before bed, then went to bed sleeping so hungry still, I woke up the next morning and weighed-in:

Lost 1 pound exactly, I have a question now, is it just 1 pound? or is it even more because of the high carb re-feed yesterday?

Macros were: 80g fat, 500g carb, 100g protein ~

Also carb sources were mostly: oats/fries

You'll find out soon! I hit 179 this morning!

[TilTheWorldEnds]

Would this work for a recovering Anorexic, As i know my metabolism is damaged severely?

[Strahany]

Hi, sorry if I'm re-hashing some details, but I'm getting really frustrated and would prefer to know as much as possible about my situation.

Basically, 4 months ago, I started cutting at 20% below my calculated TDEE (approx 1800kcal with a high focus on protein for a 2200kcal TDEE), and was getting some decent results (about 1lb/per week) for the first 5 or so weeks.

During the holiday period I did let my diet slip a little bit and gained two pounds over the course of about a month.

I got back on track I went back to my original diet, and did lose another 4 or so pounds, but then plateaued. I persevered for another month but was more or less maintaining my weight.

I thought that I may have initially miscalculated my TDEE, and was eating too much. So, I went back to recalculate and it turns out that I did, in fact, miscalculate, but not how I thought. Instead of my 2200kcal being over, it was actually under. The averaged total TDEE obtained from several calculators is almost 2900kcal.

Anyway, to wind up this long-winded post, I was wondering if you could give me some insight on which one of those calculated values should be more correct (see my stats at bottom of this post), and if it turns out that my TDEE is actually closer to that 2900 mark, if my eating at approx 1800kcal/day could have caused my metabolism to lower enough to stall fat loss?

If it helps, I'm 19, male, 5"11, 178lb, (weighed first thing in morning), and approx 13%BF.
I do 1hr of weights five days per week, and 15mins of medium-high cardio 4 days per week.

Any and all help would be appreciated; thanks for your time.

[transformerchad]

Hey guys, gotta update you on some news:

I weighed-in friday (yesterday) and I stayed at EXACTLY the same weight, so I had a re-feed yesteday of 3500 calories, and I WAS REALLY REALLY hungry, it was like.. I ate an 1000 calorie meal at breakfast, and I felt that I ate NOTHING, then I had a KFC meal at lunch of 1500 calories, it felt okay, but I was still hungry, then had a couple of ice-creams before bed, then went to bed sleeping so hungry still, I woke up the next morning and weighed-in:

Lost 1 pound exactly, I have a question now, is it just 1 pound? or is it even more because of the high carb re-feed yesterday?

Macros were: 80g fat, 500g carb, 100g protein ~

Also carb sources were mostly: oats/fries

Hey man , exactly the same happened to me ... ate kfc and like a whole tub of icream +-3000cals and dropped 1.5pounds and looked leaner ... pumps in the gym were insane! im thinking of having a cheat meal every 7-10 days to boost hormones and my metabolism . those spike days 100% work when it comes to boosting the metabolism to burn more fat

[bballchump11]

Hi, sorry if I'm re-hashing some details, but I'm getting really frustrated and would prefer to know as much as possible about my situation.

Basically, 4 months ago, I started cutting at 20% below my calculated TDEE (approx 1800kcal with a high focus on protein for a 2200kcal TDEE), and was getting some decent results (about 1lb/per week) for the first 5 or so weeks.

During the holiday period I did let my diet slip a little bit and gained two pounds over the course of about a month.

I got back on track I went back to my original diet, and did lose another 4 or so pounds, but then plateaued. I persevered for another month but was more or less maintaining my weight.

I thought that I may have initially miscalculated my TDEE, and was eating too much. So, I went back to recalculate and it turns out that I did, in fact, miscalculate, but not how I thought. Instead of my 2200kcal being over, it was actually under. The averaged total TDEE obtained from several calculators is almost 2900kcal.

Anyway, to wind up this long-winded post, I was wondering if you could give me some insight on which one of those calculated values should be more correct (see my stats at bottom of this post), and if it turns out that my TDEE is actually closer to that 2900 mark, if my eating at approx 1800kcal/day could have caused my metabolism to lower enough to stall fat loss?

If it helps, I'm 19, male, 5"11, 178lb, (weighed first thing in morning), and approx 13%BF.
I do 1hr of weights five days per week, and 15mins of medium-high cardio 4 days per week.

Any and all help would be appreciated; thanks for your time.

your TDEE is most likely closer to 2900 than 2200. My TDEE is around 2500 and I'm 5'7 and 146 pounds. I'm pretty active though, but it still shouldn't be above your's. I'm actually cutting right now at 2100 calories

[lee__d]

Would this work for a recovering Anorexic, As i know my metabolism is damaged severely?

Theoretically yes, but you may have some psychological issues to still work through (since thats some serious sht) and thus I'm not comfortable giving advice in this thread.

Hi, sorry if I'm re-hashing some details, but I'm getting really frustrated and would prefer to know as much as possible about my situation.

Basically, 4 months ago, I started cutting at 20% below my calculated TDEE (approx 1800kcal with a high focus on protein for a 2200kcal TDEE), and was getting some decent results (about 1lb/per week) for the first 5 or so weeks.

During the holiday period I did let my diet slip a little bit and gained two pounds over the course of about a month.

I got back on track I went back to my original diet, and did lose another 4 or so pounds, but then plateaued. I persevered for another month but was more or less maintaining my weight.

I thought that I may have initially miscalculated my TDEE, and was eating too much. So, I went back to recalculate and it turns out that I did, in fact, miscalculate, but not how I thought. Instead of my 2200kcal being over, it was actually under. The averaged total TDEE obtained from several calculators is almost 2900kcal.

Anyway, to wind up this long-winded post, I was wondering if you could give me some insight on which one of those calculated values should be more correct (see my stats at bottom of this post), and if it turns out that my TDEE is actually closer to that 2900 mark, if my eating at approx 1800kcal/day could have caused my metabolism to lower enough to stall fat loss?

If it helps, I'm 19, male, 5"11, 178lb, (weighed first thing in morning), and approx 13%BF.
I do 1hr of weights five days per week, and 15mins of medium-high cardio 4 days per week.

Any and all help would be appreciated; thanks for your time.

It's possible. If you're being accurate with calories it wouldn't hurt to try to reverse diet. At 19, you shouldn't be in a steep deficit anyway (since you're not obese and likely still growing).

[anatomie88]

I seem to be maintaining on 1600 at the moment .. I don't know if I still need to go higher, Or maybe have high and low days.(5'6 124lbs female)

[Zipty636]

Ok I seem to have also stalled at 197lbs been stuck there since mid about February 15th although I haven't been lifting as much due to me being sick the last 2 weeks. Question should you stop lifting when you do get sick or continue but at a lighter pace and weight what are your thoughts

[TilTheWorldEnds]

Theoretically yes, but you may have some psychological issues to still work through (since thats some serious sht) and thus I'm not comfortable giving advice in this thread.

seeing as ive gone thru a year (over) of therapy, etc... would u be able to give advice in a PM?

[lee__d]

I seem to be maintaining on 1600 at the moment .. I don't know if I still need to go higher, Or maybe have high and low days.(5'6 124lbs female)

You're pretty small, http://www.health-calc.com/diet/ener...iture-advanced pegs your bmr around 1325, so you're low, but not crazy low yet.

Provide more information: macros, lifestyle, workout routine. Typically, I think females (particularly noob to lifting females) would be better off talking some time at maintenance/slightly above, and build some lean body mass.

Ok I seem to have also stalled at 197lbs been stuck there since mid about February 15th although I haven't been lifting as much due to me being sick the last 2 weeks. Question should you stop lifting when you do get sick or continue but at a lighter pace and weight what are your thoughts

I just go by feel. I haven't been sick per se in a while. I've been congested with a scratchy throat (can't call it sick though since I felt fine), but that didn't stop/affect me in the gym. Gotta play it by ear.

seeing as ive gone thru a year (over) of therapy, etc... would u be able to give advice in a PM?

As long as you've gotten/are getting professional help, that makes me more comfortable. You can feel free to post here, or PM me if you'd prefer. There's a lot of information already in the thread via posts and the videos posted, if you need anything else just ask.

[Strahany]

your TDEE is most likely closer to 2900 than 2200. My TDEE is around 2500 and I'm 5'7 and 146 pounds. I'm pretty active though, but it still shouldn't be above your's. I'm actually cutting right now at 2100 calories

Hey, thanks for the input. At first I thought that such a high value was ridiculous, but I guess it makes sense considering my age. It just sounds hard trying to eat approx 2900 maintenance calories (when I'm no longer cutting) within an 8 hour eating window on IF

It's possible. If you're being accurate with calories it wouldn't hurt to try to reverse diet. At 19, you shouldn't be in a steep deficit anyway (since you're not obese and likely still growing).

Thanks for the reply. I certainly never intended to go on a steep cut, but my mistake put me in that situation I guess.

Luckily, I haven't been super-stringent with my calories, and they do fluctuate a little bit, so a reverse diet should be easier than if I was exactly 1800.

I guess I'll bump up my intake by about 100 daily calories per week, primarily from extra carbs, until I reach around 2500, which would appear to be a much more reasonable cut. I just want to get rid of this last couple of percent of body fat so I don't have it playing on my mind.

[lee__d]

Hey, thanks for the input. At first I thought that such a high value was ridiculous, but I guess it makes sense considering my age. It just sounds hard trying to eat approx 2900 maintenance calories (when I'm no longer cutting) within an 8 hour eating window on IF



Thanks for the reply. I certainly never intended to go on a steep cut, but my mistake put me in that situation I guess.

Luckily, I haven't been super-stringent with my calories, and they do fluctuate a little bit, so a reverse diet should be easier than if I was exactly 1800.

I guess I'll bump up my intake by about 100 daily calories per week, primarily from extra carbs, until I reach around 2500, which would appear to be a much more reasonable cut. I just want to get rid of this last couple of percent of body fat so I don't have it playing on my mind.

This sounds like a good plan. I'd sit at 2500 (or higher if you're able. I'd push it as far as a could) for a few weeks before reintroducing a deficit.

[coughs]

Should most healthy males be able to eat 2500 calories and maintain weight even if new to training?

[lee__d]

Should most healthy males be able to eat 2500 calories and maintain weight even if new to training?

I would say that, generally, a fairly active male weighing over ~175lb, should be able to maintain around 3000 calories at least. By fairly active I mean not a desk job and lifts weights regularly.

Activity/lifestyle plays such a huge role.

And yea, this is a big time generalization.

[Strahany]

This sounds like a good plan. I'd sit at 2500 (or higher if you're able. I'd push it as far as a could) for a few weeks before reintroducing a deficit.

I'll try to push it, but it's hard as I'm somewhat paranoid - the reason I started doing gym 4 years ago was because I was an obese 15 year old. I've since fixed that, maintained an ok weight, and am now on the aforementioned cut to finish the job. But I'm always very cautious as I don't ever want to lose progress and get anywhere near like I was. I trust science completely, but it's just getting over that mental hurdle that is there due to the counterintuitive nature of this process. It's not to say that I don't like food - I love it and hate missing out when cutting - but, conversely, the looming calorie count plays on my mind.

Anyway, thanks for collating all of this information in a thread and helping me out. I'll continue to lurk as I go on my reverse dieting, and I guess the least I can do to repay you is update you on the progress in a couple weeks, so that way I'm adding to your "pool" of colloquial evidence.

[lee__d]

I'll try to push it, but it's hard as I'm somewhat paranoid - the reason I started doing gym 4 years ago was because I was an obese 15 year old. I've since fixed that, maintained an ok weight, and am now on the aforementioned cut to finish the job. But I'm always very cautious as I don't ever want to lose progress and get anywhere near like I was. I trust science completely, but it's just getting over that mental hurdle that is there due to the counterintuitive nature of this process. It's not to say that I don't like food - I love it and hate missing out when cutting - but, conversely, the looming calorie count plays on my mind.

Anyway, thanks for collating all of this information in a thread and helping me out. I'll continue to lurk as I go on my reverse dieting, and I guess the least I can do to repay you is update you on the progress in a couple weeks, so that way I'm adding to your "pool" of colloquial evidence.

Keep us updated, that would be awesome!

[coughs]

I heard in one of Marc Lobliner's that you need to gain weight in a reverse diet? Is this true? Because I still need to lose 10-15lbs :/

Thanks for your help

[lee__d]

I heard in one of Marc Lobliner's that you need to gain weight in a reverse diet? Is this true? Because I still need to lose 10-15lbs :/

Thanks for your help

Most likely. You want to get your metabolism back to where it was before being depressed, so you will have to eventually reverse diet through your current (lowered) maintenance.

[boxteross]

Great thread.. So much awesome info!

[Dashel]

Great info here thank you. I am curious what constitutes a long time on a cut

Beginning of December started cleaning up my diet. Dropped 14 pounds slowly and steadily through February at the end of which I stalled at 190ish lbs. So call it 12 weeks of cutting including 2-3 weeks stall. I decided to do a 'diet break' for 2 weeks. And now I'm about to head back into the cut. Does this sound like a solid plan or did I waste my time with the break.

I went from a low of 188 back up to 191-192 right now so I assume the break has worked in terms of refeeding, leptin restoring and all that good stuff.

[boxteross]

Hi, sorry if I'm re-hashing some details, but I'm getting really frustrated and would prefer to know as much as possible about my situation.

Basically, 4 months ago, I started cutting at 20% below my calculated TDEE (approx 1800kcal with a high focus on protein for a 2200kcal TDEE), and was getting some decent results (about 1lb/per week) for the first 5 or so weeks.

During the holiday period I did let my diet slip a little bit and gained two pounds over the course of about a month.

I got back on track I went back to my original diet, and did lose another 4 or so pounds, but then plateaued. I persevered for another month but was more or less maintaining my weight.

I thought that I may have initially miscalculated my TDEE, and was eating too much. So, I went back to recalculate and it turns out that I did, in fact, miscalculate, but not how I thought. Instead of my 2200kcal being over, it was actually under. The averaged total TDEE obtained from several calculators is almost 2900kcal.

Anyway, to wind up this long-winded post, I was wondering if you could give me some insight on which one of those calculated values should be more correct (see my stats at bottom of this post), and if it turns out that my TDEE is actually closer to that 2900 mark, if my eating at approx 1800kcal/day could have caused my metabolism to lower enough to stall fat loss?

If it helps, I'm 19, male, 5"11, 178lb, (weighed first thing in morning), and approx 13%BF.
I do 1hr of weights five days per week, and 15mins of medium-high cardio 4 days per week.

Any and all help would be appreciated; thanks for your time.

My opinion would be to track your macros for a week and find out what your actual maintenance is rather than using online calculators to determine your defecit as there is so much variance between them when applied to different individuals with the same stats ie height, weight, bf% etc.
I definitely recommend checking out 3dmj's website and youtube channel also so much good info on their about macronutrient manipulation, reverse dieting.. Actually all training and nutrition!
Let me know what you think anyway mate, all the best.