fat cutting progress very slow - what am I doing wrong/request for advice

[earthwalker7]

request for advice: I've been lifting and started on HIIT for 3 months, adjusted diet, went on intermittent fasting, and while I've gotten stronger, I've not really lost fat. So I'm prob. not doing the right things, I'd like to ask y'all for advice on what I can change / do to improve results.

Background: I'm 37, 6' tall, 244lb, 35% bodyfat. I work 80hrs per week at a sedintary desk job, so that's not good for body. I was really into martial arts in college, and was at 175. I started working, and over past 15 years the weight has crept on, up to 250lb. I tried doing long slow cardio and that was useless. So 3 months ago, when my first child was born, I knew I had to change if I wanted to be able to live long and provide for him. So I got the Mike Chang workout videos, and as he was recommending, I joined a gym and started doing compound exercises 4 times per week. (4-5 sets x8 of heavy strenuous lifting of bench press, military press, deadlift, skullcrushers, upright rows, squats). I keep rest period between to 30 seconds. Diet : I eat only meat and veggies, supplemented by lean no sugar protein shake by ON. I haven't had rice or breads in 3 months, so carbs are low. Usually my meals consist of lean steak or chicken and steamed or grilled veggies, absolutely no carbs or starches. After consistently doing this for 3 months, I felt progress had been slow.

I did go down 1 belt notch, and my lifting strength went up. But I still have a LOT of fat on me, and there's little visble difference.
I lost 6 lbs in 3 months and for sure I feel much stronger and therefore able to move around more easily.
But for all this diligence and work I would think I'd make a dent in the belly fat.
But I haven't - I'm still toting around a keg in the front.
Frustrating.
And if I was to take a picture, there's little difference from 3 months ago, despite the consistent work.

So, about 2 weeks ago I started intermittent fasting, eating just a meal at 2pm after my lunch workout, and again at 6pm, and then nothing until the following day at 2pm.

It is still too soon to know if the intermittent fasting will make an impact. For sure it enforces a big reduction in caloric intake because there's no way I can eat as much as before in just 2 sittings.

I know I need to do more HIIT qnd i do try to do some, but probably not enough.

But aside from needing to increase HIIT, what am I doing wrong? i'm fasting, changed the diet to a protein one, and am lifting. Your advice is sought.

[Plateauplower]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=168581133

Your eating too much read the Ironwill2008 sticky at the top of the page about starting back over 35 if the link doesn't work.

I could easily eat at maintenance or above just eating meat and veggies, probably in a single meal.....You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight.

[cory2731]

indeed.....take a hard and detailed look at your intake.

[IzVenomous]

Congrats on getting in the gym op never to late to start

But yes you are eating to much. Download my fitness pal and track everything. Also stay away from mike chang please go to a real channel like pog

[Jasonk282]

Like others have said...eat less, HOWEVER you don;t want too fast of a weight loss because then you are going to start losing muscle the leaner you become.

[mcbourque]

Yep.Track your calories and eat less. I.F. is just a way to feel more satisfied eating less because your two meals are bigger. You still need to track calories and eat at a 10-20% deficit of your maintenance calories.

(I can easily down 3000 calories a day on Intermittent Fasting if I don't track, even as a small female at 1800 cal maintenance LOL)

[shaneinga]

I don't know how a person could survive on no Carbs. Carbs are not the devil, they don't make you fat. Eating to much makes you fat keeps you from losing weight.

This is what I have found that is easy to do and works.

1.Get the myfitnesspal app for your phone.
2.Get a food scale, you are going to need one in you are going to "count" calories. If you don't know what a portion size is, how can you know how many calories you are eating?
3.Go here and calculate your macros -->http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
I like to run my protein and fats off my total body weight and not LBM, but that is up to you. Plug those numbers into your MFP app/account and meet them daily.
4.Pick a proven beginner lifting program. You can find these over in the workout programs part of the forum. Fierce 5, Allpro, Starting Strength, etc are all popular proven programs.

Unfortunately belly fat is part of being a guy and it is one of the last places for it leave, and the worse part about it is you can't spot reduce. You just have to keep dieting down until it is gone.

Good luck.

[raycastro]

Lot's of great advice in here. I tried all those diet strategies you've mentioned and then some, but my results were never really there until I based it on a 10-20% calorie deficit.

What I found is that a lot of those tricks such as HIIT, slow cardio, carb cycling, intermittent fasting, or dropping carbs are really meant for people who are already lean and doing contest prep to get shredded. For the average person with body fat percentage in the twenties and above, especially with a "gut" and love handles, it's likely to not be very effective and you may be screwing with your insulin sensitivity in a bad way. For example, if you suddenly added carbs to your diet now, you may find that your body rebounds hard and you end up worse than before you had cut them completely. That was my experience.

My advice is to read up on finding your specific caloric deficit to lose 1-2 lbs a week and the different ways you can spread out those calories based on ratios for macros (%fat, %carbs, %protein).

[silverlightning]

trolling used to mean something.

[CFPeterson68]

What I found is that a lot of those tricks such as HIIT, slow cardio, carb cycling, intermittent fasting, or dropping carbs are really meant for people who are already lean and doing contest prep to get shredded.

I'm doing alright on intermittent fasting and I'm not lean. It just works for me.

To lose weight you need to consume less calories than you burn. There are countless ways of doing that, so choose what works for you.

[hochspeyer]

I'm doing alright on intermittent fasting and I'm not lean. It just works for me.

To lose weight you need to consume less calories than you burn. There are countless ways of doing that, so choose what works for you.

I'm almost 56. Lost 17lbs in 5 weeks by cutting out pasta, ramen and boxed dinned mixes and added walking 3X or better per week.

Having said that... everyone is different. There is no one-size-fits-all plan to reduce fat, etc. Don't get frustrated- Thomas Edison supposedly said, "I didn't fail 10,000 times at creating the lightbulb- I found 10,000 ways that didn't make a lightbulb."

[ddude67]

In to follow

[ChrisDaPrince]

request for advice: I've been lifting and started on HIIT for 3 months, adjusted diet, went on intermittent fasting, and while I've gotten stronger, I've not really lost fat. So I'm prob. not doing the right things, I'd like to ask y'all for advice on what I can change / do to improve results.

Background: I'm 37, 6' tall, 244lb, 35% bodyfat. I work 80hrs per week at a sedintary desk job, so that's not good for body. I was really into martial arts in college, and was at 175. I started working, and over past 15 years the weight has crept on, up to 250lb. I tried doing long slow cardio and that was useless. So 3 months ago, when my first child was born, I knew I had to change if I wanted to be able to live long and provide for him. So I got the Mike Chang workout videos, and as he was recommending, I joined a gym and started doing compound exercises 4 times per week. (4-5 sets x8 of heavy strenuous lifting of bench press, military press, deadlift, skullcrushers, upright rows, squats). I keep rest period between to 30 seconds. Diet : I eat only meat and veggies, supplemented by lean no sugar protein shake by ON. I haven't had rice or breads in 3 months, so carbs are low. Usually my meals consist of lean steak or chicken and steamed or grilled veggies, absolutely no carbs or starches. After consistently doing this for 3 months, I felt progress had been slow.

I did go down 1 belt notch, and my lifting strength went up. But I still have a LOT of fat on me, and there's little visble difference.
I lost 6 lbs in 3 months and for sure I feel much stronger and therefore able to move around more easily.
But for all this diligence and work I would think I'd make a dent in the belly fat.
But I haven't - I'm still toting around a keg in the front.
Frustrating.
And if I was to take a picture, there's little difference from 3 months ago, despite the consistent work.

So, about 2 weeks ago I started intermittent fasting, eating just a meal at 2pm after my lunch workout, and again at 6pm, and then nothing until the following day at 2pm.

It is still too soon to know if the intermittent fasting will make an impact. For sure it enforces a big reduction in caloric intake because there's no way I can eat as much as before in just 2 sittings.

I know I need to do more HIIT qnd i do try to do some, but probably not enough.

But aside from needing to increase HIIT, what am I doing wrong? i'm fasting, changed the diet to a protein one, and am lifting. Your advice is sought.

Read the nutritional stickies in the forum OP. It helps a lot.

1. Adjust calorie intake 1-2 pounds a week for fat loss. Find a calorie calculator online for your TDEE. And then adjust below 15-20 below maintenance calories for fat loss.

2. Track your Macros (protein carbs and fats using a ratio that fits your lifestyle 40:40:20 or 40:30:30 split (protein carbs and fats).

3. LOG AND TRACK YOUR CALORIES AND MACROS DAILY!!!!!!! Using a food journal or app called myfitnesspal. When you track calories and macros ACCURATELY success is guaranteed!!!!

4. Lift intensely and consistently in the gym etc. start with big compound movements for the first few months etc bench press deadlifts squats. Progress with weights as it gets easier.

5. Results will come eventually.

[earthwalker7]

Thanks all.
Good advice.
I downloaded the app and will try it out.
I'm also going to go with more lean proteins like chicken instead of steak.

Also am going to try to add in HIIT. I don't like HIIT but oh well. Just gotta do it.

[andyzed]

Gday mate and congrats on doing the hard work.

I went from 235 to 209 in about 3 months or so.

I have a sedentary job...am 6'4.

In the beginning i ate literally around 1750 cals a day, high p, low carb. I did weights for around an hour each morning at 6am followed up by a really hard 20 mins on the stationary bike or treadmill where i would do 4 mins steady and 1 min hard. To change up the cardio i might skip the HIIT and i did a 6.5km run in about 35 mins and ended up getting that down to about 31 mins.

Just keep at it. I know for my size people will say i ate too little but in my mind my body fat was the fuel i needed to use up and whilst ever i had that i just kept calories low, lifted as heavy as i could to try and maintain or even build some muscle but would also change things up if i felt i was getting used to a workout. I hit each body part twice a week. In saying all that, i still had a cheat meal each weekend and to be honest it hasn't been hard. I'm not in it to compete, just to get healthier....am feeling great at the moment so stick at it mate and you'll get there.

all the best

[clairelv]

indeed.....take a hard and detailed look at your intake.

but it is so hard to control myself.....i am so gluttonous !!! who can save me ??? ha ha ...