is my metabolism shot?

[sjansen1]

For the past year and a half i have been pretty much just been dieting and loosing weight, except for a few weeks of vacation and binge days where i happened to put a lot of weight back on. Now im 70lbs down going from 280-210, and im trying to cut for my first show. My prep was going well until i just hit a wall and stopped loosing weight. I tried everything from cutting my calories back to 2300 from 2500 and even added and extra day of cardio in and im still not loosing weight, and im no where near lean enough to be having this problem im still probably about 13-14%bf. So my question is, is my metabolism just to damaged from dieting and cutting for so long that weight loss is just incredibly slow? and anyone have any ideas how to fix this while still trying to get contest ready? such as more refeeds or something.

this is one of my recent progress pics, so you can see im not very lean

[Kevin71]

How accurate are you measuring your food? Food scale for everything? Eyeballing it? Measuring cups? You may be eating more than you realize. Are you getting enough dietary fat? [About 85g/day at your weight] If not you may have low-T and thus a slowed metabolism.

[eriquee]

How long have you been stuck at the same weight? Maybe you just need to keep at it for another couple of weeks before losing more weight?
If you have been stuck at the same weight for more than 2 weeks, you could lower your calories even more... but i dont think thats a good idea, for you size and weight 2500kcal should be more than enough to lose weight.

Are you tracking everything you eat? Do you have a food scale to weight your food or you do it by the eye? You can be underestimating what you actually eat.

[t3nchi]

I was about to post a similar question. With all this recent talk about "metabolic damage", I sometimes wonder if I have it. I'm about your bf% too. My thought is that, when weight loss slows, it just means we are leaner and our bodies just don't want to give up anymore fat (for survival and organ protection). Hence, we have to use all the ways we know to "trick" our bodies into believing it's ok to give up more fat...carb refeeds being one of them.

I haven't done a refeed in 2 weeks so I'll do one tomorrow, see if that helps my body lose more weight next week.

BTW, nice progress pic. 280 to 210 is a great job.

I'm 5'9" 160. I'm worried my 1800 cals is too low already. I keep seeing others (around my height) eat way more and still lose. So I hope I didn't start out too low initially when I was 175.

[dmacdonal9]

Well, after a year and a half, you could be seeing a fair bit of a slowdown. That's a long time to be in a consistent deficit.

Are you refeeding? What are your macros?

[sjansen1]

How accurate are you measuring your food? Food scale for everything? Eyeballing it? Measuring cups? You may be eating more than you realize. Are you getting enough dietary fat? [About 85g/day at your weight] If not you may have low-T and thus a slowed metabolism.

Im pretty accurate with my measuring i weigh and measure everything i eat, so i know pretty well the exact cals im putting in, and for fats ive been doing 40/40/20 so im taking in only about 50g fat, should i consider uping that and lowering carbs?

Well, after a year and a half, you could be seeing a fair bit of a slowdown. That's a long time to be in a consistent deficit.

Are you refeeding? What are your macros?

Lately ive been refeeding every 2 weeks, and my regualar macros right now are 230p 230c and 50f.

I was about to post a similar question. With all this recent talk about "metabolic damage", I sometimes wonder if I have it. I'm about your bf% too. My thought is that, when weight loss slows, it just means we are leaner and our bodies just don't want to give up anymore fat (for survival and organ protection). Hence, we have to use all the ways we know to "trick" our bodies into believing it's ok to give up more fat...carb refeeds being one of them.

I haven't done a refeed in 2 weeks so I'll do one tomorrow, see if that helps my body lose more weight next week.

BTW, nice progress pic. 280 to 210 is a great job.

I'm 5'9" 160. I'm worried my 1800 cals is too low already. I keep seeing others (around my height) eat way more and still lose. So I hope I didn't start out too low initially when I was 175.

thanks man, good luck with your weight loss.

[sjansen1]

How long have you been stuck at the same weight? Maybe you just need to keep at it for another couple of weeks before losing more weight?
If you have been stuck at the same weight for more than 2 weeks, you could lower your calories even more... but i dont think thats a good idea, for you size and weight 2500kcal should be more than enough to lose weight.

Are you tracking everything you eat? Do you have a food scale to weight your food or you do it by the eye? You can be underestimating what you actually eat.

Ive been stuck at about 208 for 2 almost 3 weeks now, and i track everything very well with weighing and measuring everything.

[dmacdonal9]

50g fat for a long period of time for a dude your size is going to cause trouble. You probably want to be at more like 80g+.

You might try dropping calories to 2000 and moving to a weekly refeed.

[Electricheadd]

For the past year and a half i have been pretty much just been dieting and loosing weight, except for a few weeks of vacation and binge days where i happened to put a lot of weight back on. Now im 70lbs down going from 280-210, and im trying to cut for my first show. My prep was going well until i just hit a wall and stopped loosing weight. I tried everything from cutting my calories back to 2300 from 2500 and even added and extra day of cardio in and im still not loosing weight, and im no where near lean enough to be having this problem im still probably about 13-14%bf. So my question is, is my metabolism just to damaged from dieting and cutting for so long that weight loss is just incredibly slow? and anyone have any ideas how to fix this while still trying to get contest ready? such as more refeeds or something.

this is one of my recent progress pics, so you can see im not very lean

You should watch this video (Layne Norton) on metabolic damage. I suspect that long periods of calorie restriction repress your metabolism similar to large deficits. In an ideal situation you would have dropped your 70lbs then spent 10-12 weeks slowly bringing your calories back up "grow your metabolism" at a rate that would not induce fat gain. Then start your cut for the show now. Since that's probably not an option for you, your likely going to have to cut calories lower and gut it out for your show, after that you need to spend some time getting your metabolism back up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk&noredirect=1

[sjansen1]

50g fat for a long period of time for a dude your size is going to cause trouble. You probably want to be at more like 80g+.

You might try dropping calories to 2000 and moving to a weekly refeed.

Alright thanks, ill try uping the fat and weekly refeeds a shot and see how it goes

[sjansen1]

You should watch this video (Layne Norton) on metabolic damage. I suspect that long periods of calorie restriction repress your metabolism similar to large deficits. In an ideal situation you would have dropped your 70lbs then spent 10-12 weeks slowly bringing your calories back up "grow your metabolism" at a rate that would not induce fat gain. Then start your cut for the show now. Since that's probably not an option for you, your likely going to have to cut calories lower and gut it out for your show, after that you need to spend some time getting your metabolism back up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk&noredirect=1

Ya i watched that video a little over a week ago i wish i would have done that, but ive committed myself to doing a show and i dont want to have to back out just yet, thanks for the help reps.

[Electricheadd]

Ya i watched that video a little over a week ago i wish i would have done that, but ive committed myself to doing a show and i dont want to have to back out just yet, thanks for the help reps.

Its a pretty enlightening theory he has, it really answers a lot for me. I was similar to you, and after a year and a half of cutting hit a stall point (1800 calories) and I was really not willing to go much lower. So I decided to take some time off and bulk. So I put my calories at a point where I thought would be slightly above maintenance (2800) and put on a fair amount of fat in the bulk. I should have taken the slow transition time before bulking after that long of a cut. (next time ill know better lol)

[sjansen1]

Its a pretty enlightening theory he has, it really answers a lot for me. I was similar to you, and after a year and a half of cutting hit a stall point (1800 calories) and I was really not willing to go much lower. So I decided to take some time off and bulk. So I put my calories at a point where I thought would be slightly above maintenance (2800) and put on a fair amount of fat in the bulk. I should have taken the slow transition time before bulking after that long of a cut. (next time ill know better lol)

ya hopefully ill be able to get lean enough to do the show then im gunna do what Layne said and just very slowly try to raise my calories back up to a good number

[unleashthelion]

Parsimony, brother... parsimony.

Instead of looking for the boogeyman, focus on the likely: A) You eat more than you think, B) Your TDEE is lower than you think.

[Electricheadd]

Parsimony, brother... parsimony.

Instead of looking for the boogeyman, focus on the likely: A) You eat more than you think, B) Your TDEE is lower than you think.

Explain to me how thermogenic adaptation after a 1.5 year successful cut is "the boogyman"?

[unleashthelion]

Explain to me how thermogenic adaptation after a 1.5 year successful cut is "the boogyman"?

He asked if his metabolism is "shot"; that's a far cry from adaptation.

Is his TDEE less than a person with identical stats who didn't cut over the last year and a half? Probably to some degree.
Does this mean his focus should be on anything other than accurate counting and reducing his calories? No.

What are we really talking about with "thermogenic adaptation"? A few hundred calories? How much does that really have to do with systemic physiological changes as opposed to the reduction in LBM?

[sjansen1]

He asked if his metabolism is "shot"; that's a far cry from adaptation.

Is his TDEE less than a person with identical stats who didn't cut over the last year and a half? Probably to some degree.
Does this mean his focus should be on anything other than accurate counting and reducing his calories? No.

What are we really talking about with "thermogenic adaptation"? A few hundred calories? How much does that really have to do with systemic physiological changes as opposed to the reduction in LBM?

Im pretty sure im accurate with my calorie counting i weigh and measure everything, you may be right that my TDEE is lower then i think, but for someone my size eating only 2300cal i believe i should still be seeing some pretty significant weight loss.

[Electricheadd]

He asked if his metabolism is "shot"; that's a far cry from adaptation.

Is his TDEE less than a person with identical stats who didn't cut over the last year and a half? Probably to some degree.
Does this mean his focus should be on anything other than accurate counting and reducing his calories? No.

What are we really talking about with "thermogenic adaptation"? A few hundred calories? How much does that really have to do with systemic physiological changes as opposed to the reduction in LBM?

Telling a guy who already cut 25% of his body weight through caloric restriction that he isn't counting consistently is assanine. Clearly he was consistent enough to get results for 1.5 years. Yes to some extent his TDEE dropped due to simply being smaller but he is also likely experiencing some adaptation from being in a deficit that long.

Think of it this way, your cutting on a 500 calorie/day deficit, to drop a lb/week. If you metabolism is depressed 300 calories you now have to run a 800 calorie deficit. This requires 30% more effort for the same result, and at some point is going to start making macros difficult to hit. In the end your right, his only choice is cut calories or work back to maintenance and recomp for a bit. I just don't think we should be telling him he's looking for ghosts, when the reality is he's gonna have to gut it out due to his time line.

[unleashthelion]

I've dropped almost 45% of my body weight through calorie restriction and by no means am I certain that I have been accurately counting my calories. When you're over 15% body fat, you have so much fat (and such a high RMR) that you could be losing good weight despite being well off on your estimating; when you get down to the nitty gritty (in the low teens like he is), you have to be almost perfect in your counting to get appreciable results. IMO, everyone (myself included) is overconfident in their counting abilities and that is the first thing one should address before thinking about using uncontrollable factors to explain why they aren't getting the results they want.

I think the OP has a fine base and it would be ridiculous to tell him that he has to recomp before getting to 10. If he doesn't want to go under 2000 and track like a scientist would, then he should eat at maintenance for a few months and allow his hormones to normalize before he cuts again (and on more calories than he would have to do if he continued the cut, right now).

If I were him, I'd soldier on.

[stephenlatsha]

R u adding refeed days?