The Metabolic Slowdown Thread

[Grendizer]

Updating on some news: I've changed to 2,000 calories yesterday due to extreme hunger (lol), I felt like my body needs it, anyways I weighed-in today im around: 174 pounds (gained 2 pounds, water weight for sure, because I look okay in the mirror), also noticing a better appetite, since I started averaging 1700 calories, then jumping to 2000 yesterday, will stay there for a week, and will start increasing by 100 weekly, and will post results next-weigh in (thursday).

[savior1974]

Been getting frustrated with this plateau that I've been on for a while. About 2 years ago, I weighted 350 lbs and I decided to get on a calorie deficit. I practiced IIFYM and cut to 280lbs with a deficit of 2200 calories. Then after the weight loss slowed down to practically nothing, I dropped my calorie intake to 1800. My lifestyle is pretty sedentary besides lifting heavy for an hour a day, and 45 mins of cardio right after (4-5 days a week). After dropping my calories to 1800 I was able to successfully get down to 250 lbs, but my weight hasn't changed in like 2-3 months. I know I'm counting correctly because I use myfitnesspal, and I've had success before losing the 100lbs prior. I'm wondering if this long term cut has slowed down my metabolism to a crawl and if I need to do something about it. I have a hard time believing that I need to drop below 1800 calories a day, I'm 6'6 250lbs. Also, keep in mind I never factored in the calories from my exercise, so considering that my exercise was usually about 700 calories a day burned, I was only consuming about 1100 calories a day.... Any ideas?

[Retoaded]

Been getting frustrated with this plateau that I've been on for a while. About 2 years ago, I weighted 350 lbs and I decided to get on a calorie deficit. I practiced IIFYM and cut to 280lbs with a deficit of 2200 calories. Then after the weight loss slowed down to practically nothing, I dropped my calorie intake to 1800. My lifestyle is pretty sedentary besides lifting heavy for an hour a day, and 45 mins of cardio right after (4-5 days a week). After dropping my calories to 1800 I was able to successfully get down to 250 lbs, but my weight hasn't changed in like 2-3 months. I know I'm counting correctly because I use myfitnesspal, and I've had success before losing the 100lbs prior. I'm wondering if this long term cut has slowed down my metabolism to a crawl and if I need to do something about it. I have a hard time believing that I need to drop below 1800 calories a day, I'm 6'6 250lbs... Any ideas?

1 hour of lifting a day and 45 minutes of cardio 4-5 days a week is pretty significant amount of activity. I would think with your size you could easily cut at 2500 calories.

Just because you are using myfitnesspal....are you counting oils, butter, liquids? are you counting coffee creamer (could be as much as 100cal per cup)? does the 1800 average include cheat days or days when you drink beer/wine/etc? do you measure and weigh the ingredients and then use that measurement and weight in myfitnesspal? Alot of people enter in "chicken" or "rice" and they don't have the actual measurements correct....any of that ring a bell?

[savior1974]

Actually what I do is I always add in my own food based off the labels of the food that I'm eating. Syrup, butter, cheese, diet soda, etc, I add in all the calories I intake. Even my Metamucil that I intake. I don't drink any coffee or eat anything with additional additives like that. My every day diet is pretty similar to this

Breakfast
4-6 egg whites - 85 calories
3 slices center cut bacon - 75 calories
1 diet soda - 0 calories
1 serving of Metamucil - 45 calories

Lunch
2 servings of Star kiss tuna - 100 calories
2 slices of natures own wheat bread - 50 calories a slice
1 slice fat free cheese - 25 calories
Mustard - 0 calories

post workout
Protein shake On whey w/ water - 120 calories

Dinner usually varies but it would be something like
2 McDonalds Mc chicken, no mayo - 320 calories each
small fry - 330 calories
diet soda - 0 calories
Metamucil - 45 calories

so there's not really any much room for me to be messing up because my food is kinda plain. And my breakfast has been the same for 2 years lol.

Also in myfitnesspal I put my workouts in and usually it looks like this:

50 mins weight lifting - 285 calories
45 mins elliptical trainer - 500 calories

so I eat about 1650 calories, and burn about 775 with my workout.

Cheat days I count also, but they are few and far between because I usually eat whatever I want for dinner anyways as long as it fits my macros. Thanks for the help.

[Grendizer]

Actually what I do is I always add in my own food based off the labels of the food that I'm eating. Syrup, butter, cheese, diet soda, etc, I add in all the calories I intake. Even my Metamucil that I intake. I don't drink any coffee or eat anything with additional additives like that. My every day diet is pretty similar to this

Breakfast
4-6 egg whites - 85 calories
3 slices center cut bacon - 75 calories
1 diet soda - 0 calories
1 serving of Metamucil - 45 calories

Lunch
2 servings of Star kiss tuna - 100 calories
2 slices of natures own wheat bread - 50 calories a slice
1 slice fat free cheese - 25 calories
Mustard - 0 calories

post workout
Protein shake On whey w/ water - 120 calories

Dinner usually varies but it would be something like
2 McDonalds Mc chicken, no mayo - 320 calories each
small fry - 330 calories
diet soda - 0 calories
Metamucil - 45 calories

so there's not really any much room for me to be messing up because my food is kinda plain. And my breakfast has been the same for 2 years lol.

Also in myfitnesspal I put my workouts in and usually it looks like this:

50 mins weight lifting - 285 calories
45 mins elliptical trainer - 500 calories

so I eat about 1650 calories, and burn about 775 with my workout.

Cheat days I count also, but they are few and far between because I usually eat whatever I want for dinner anyways as long as it fits my macros. Thanks for the help.

I would average 1850 calories for 4 days, then average 2200 calories for a week, and increase by 150-200 weekly, you probably maintain on 3,2k-3,5k.. so keep increasing until you maintain your weight, then keep at it for a few weeks, then start cutting SLOWLY until you reach again 2,000 calories, then repeat the process.

P.S.

You might lose fat increasing your calories gradually, and you will re-gain some lost-strength if any, better body-compositional notices, also dont worry about water-retention, just ignore it.. its not fat, and you will probably gain a little weight doing this.. i've increased to 2000 calories from cutting at 1400-1500 with a dead appetite for weeks, and will keep increasing weekly by 100-150, maybe a little more, im doing cardio 3x a week, with 3x weight training, my maintenance should be somewhere around 2400-2600, maybe more, but not less than 2300.

[Retoaded]

quick update - about a week back on lower calories and down to 182/183 already, which was a weight I had never hit before going on the reverse diet. Ths morning I was actually 181 right when I woke up....yeah I had ALOT of wine last night. But I think that will be an outlier weight until another couple weeks when I hopefully will be hitting 180 consistently. One week is not long enough to show a trend, but I feel leaner and the scale is moving again, so I think I am going to have a good result out of this. Will continue to update every week or so.

This could also imply I was still losing fat during the diet break, but was not showing it on the scale because I was slowly adding water/replinishing long term depleted glycogen.

[bballchump11]

quick update - about a week back on lower calories and down to 182/183 already, which was a weight I had never hit before going on the reverse diet. Ths morning I was actually 181 right when I woke up....yeah I had ALOT of wine last night. But I think that will be an outlier weight until another couple weeks when I hopefully will be hitting 180 consistently. One week is not long enough to show a trend, but I feel leaner and the scale is moving again, so I think I am going to have a good result out of this. Will continue to update every week or so.

This could also imply I was still losing fat during the diet break, but was not showing it on the scale because I was slowly adding water/replinishing long term depleted glycogen.

thanks for the update. That's pretty encouraging. I'm 100 calories away from my maintenance and I plan on being there for 2 weeks until I get back to my cut. I hope to get results similar to your's.

[Grendizer]

A miracle just happend lol, I just weighed in today after 5-6 days of eating @2000-2050 calories consistently, fats are at 55g-75g, carbs are at 150g-200g, proteins are at 150g, my new weight is: 171LBS a drop of 1 LB this morning, which Is kind of a miracle that i've increased my calories by 500-600, keeping the same workout, and the same everything, I notice im more leaner in some parts of my body, also if you can see from my old posts, that i've been hungrier at 2000 calories than 1500, this is really amazing and im so excited, BTW, I weighed in after eating breakfast and I was 174LBS, breakfast was large around 800 calories because its my re-feed day, so i've removed arounf 1-2lbs, because I drank a bottle of water, ate 80-100g carbs at breakfast, which means that i've gained some pounds due to food weight and carbs, so i've reduced those 2-3 lbs to see my real weight, really excited about this, and feeling much better eating more, Burger King & McDonalds FTW, sandwiches are high in fat which makes my fat goal much easier, and really feeling better while im flexible like that, I usually get a sandwich and a diet coke from there, also im consuming more than 3.5Litres of liquid daily, so maybe i lost even more than 1 pound, maybe its a 1.5 pound.

Here is what exactly happend when I increased to 2,000 calories, I weighed-in at 172lbs at first, had a gain of 2 lbs the first 2 days, then had a loss of 3-3.5lbs after 5 days from when I begun my 2,000 calorie diet, anyone suggests me to keep increasing calories, or should I stick to 2,000 for now and just increase incase im not losing anymore? Thank you so much! this is very impressive, and i hope this update helps some people understand that lowering your calories too much can keep you away from losing weight/fat.

P.S. weight after eating those 800 cals with carbs in KG: 78.3KG exactly, I guess it was at 77.5KG before I eat? maybe even less? can't be sure, but here's what I ate exactly if you can estimate my old-weight: 250 calories from whole-wheat bread, 100 gram egg whites, 16 gram egg yolk, 66 grams of four-grain bread, 20g of vitrac strawberry jam, 33g of dried bananas, 30 calories from ketchup, some mustard and hot sauce, and lastely around 500ML of water.

Sorry for the over-detailing of stuff, I just think that can help you discover new things about increasing calories after me plateauing for 4 weeks at 1500 calories, then losing at 2000, today im re-feeding at 2500-2700 calories lowering fats to 40-50g, protein to 100-125g, eating the rest for tehhhh carbs!

[lee__d]

I'd still go higher, 100 per week.

[senoner]

I'd still go higher, 100 per week.

^This. I would push the intake to as high as you can. On my last cut I began with my maintenance around 2500 cals. After the cut I began reverse dieting and was able to push my intake past the 2500 maintance I initially started with. I was eating around 2900-3000 and still losing 0.75-1 lb a week.

[saw7988]

But for how long? I find that my weight change (in both directions) lags behind my calorie intake. So after I end a deficit I'll continue losing weight for the last 1-2 weeks, but then it will stop and start to really reflect my intake.

[lee__d]

But for how long? I find that my weight change (in both directions) lags behind my calorie intake. So after I end a deficit I'll continue losing weight for the last 1-2 weeks, but then it will stop and start to really reflect my intake.

As long as it takes. If you're really worried about fat gain make smaller bumps or stay at a certain caloric total for 2 weeks instead of 1.

[saw7988]

As long as it takes. If you're really worried about fat gain make smaller bumps or stay at a certain caloric total for 2 weeks instead of 1.

Heh I was referencing this guy actually:

^This. I would push the intake to as high as you can. On my last cut I began with my maintenance around 2500 cals. After the cut I began reverse dieting and was able to push my intake past the 2500 maintance I initially started with. I was eating around 2900-3000 and still losing 0.75-1 lb a week.

Asking how long he kept losing weight after eating above his old maintenance.

[ThomasBrah]

Is slowed metabolism really a problem when you have weekly refeeds? I always go on a pretty large deficit when I cut but after I have a reefed im ready to go back into a deficit the next week.

[Grendizer]

Is slowed metabolism really a problem when you have weekly refeeds? I always go on a pretty large deficit when I cut but after I have a reefed im ready to go back into a deficit the next week.

According to my PERSONAL experience, slowed-metabolism happens oftenly for the ones who were over-weight/obese, lost tons of weight, and still want to lose more (to get even leaner), for example if you were 95KG, lost back until 75-80KG or so, you will experience plateaus, stalls, metabolism ****-ups and ****, because I guess your body is being like: I've changed alot from what I was, something has to happen, or that it gets 'more' time to figure out how to stop you from losing weight because it doesn't care about you losing or gaining, just survival.. so I guess if your already lean and dieting on a big deficit, it wont be a problem, also it wont be a problem too if the over-weight 'obese' dieter is almost lean, then stays at maintenance for a couple of months, then diets back, breaks is the key - I guess.

@lee__d

Yesterday.. was the most starvation day ever, I ate 2050 calories and I felt hungry like FUARCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! I should get awarded for not eating 4k+ calories, lol it was really hard to sleep, I woke up, and I feel much leaner, no water retention, no nothing, like my body ate itself or something, and also taking by your advice, will increase 100 cals a week still..

Also is this okay or should I change things up: I will change up my re-feed day to 'thursday' and also my 'calorie up' day to wednesday, so that means if im eating at 2000-2050 calories and reverse dieting, every wednesday I will add up the 100 -> 2100-2150, and every thursday I will have a re-feed -> 2500-2600 calories~

^This. I would push the intake to as high as you can. On my last cut I began with my maintenance around 2500 cals. After the cut I began reverse dieting and was able to push my intake past the 2500 maintance I initially started with. I was eating around 2900-3000 and still losing 0.75-1 lb a week.

Tell me more about this: weight? activity level?

[senoner]

Heh I was referencing this guy actually:



Asking how long he kept losing weight after eating above his old maintenance.

I didn't stick around to see how long the weight lost kept up. I was eating around 3000 for about a month and was consistently losing .75-1 lb a week but after the month was over I kept pushing my calories up, I was trying to get it as high as possible so fat loss was kind of put on hold and I didn't hold those calories to see how long I could go losing fat at 3k cals.

[senoner]

Tell me more about this: weight? activity level?

When I began the reverse diet I was around 168-169 lbs. Every time I increased calories my weight jumped up 2-3 lbs but towards the end of the week it would come back down and some weeks i would hit new low in weight. When I was at 3k cals I was down to around 161-162 lbs. As far as activity I was lifting 5 times a week and no cardio except for wednesday nights when I played basketball for about 2 hrs.

[Grendizer]

When I began the reverse diet I was around 168-169 lbs. Every time I increased calories my weight jumped up 2-3 lbs but towards the end of the week it would come back down and some weeks i would hit new low in weight. When I was at 3k cals I was down to around 161-162 lbs. As far as activity I was lifting 5 times a week and no cardio except for wednesday nights when I played basketball for about 2 hrs.

How much were u consuming BEFORE reverse dieting?

[senoner]

How much were u consuming BEFORE reverse dieting?

Lowest I consumed was 1500-1600 for a few weeks but wasn't losing anything so I went back up to 2000 cals and came across the reverse dieting and began reverse dieting at 2100 cals. Initially my weight was going up and not coming down but as my body started to adjust to the higher calories I began to feel more energetic and the fat started to come off again.

[Grendizer]

Lowest I consumed was 1500-1600 for a few weeks but wasn't losing anything so I went back up to 2000 cals and came across the reverse dieting and began reverse dieting at 2100 cals. Initially my weight was going up and not coming down but as my body started to adjust to the higher calories I began to feel more energetic and the fat started to come off again.

Great info, you increased 100 weekly? or a little bit more? also.. were you losing when you jumped to 2000? or you only started losing when you began reversing for over 2100+?

[ThomasBrah]

According to my PERSONAL experience, slowed-metabolism happens oftenly for the ones who were over-weight/obese, lost tons of weight, and still want to lose more (to get even leaner), for example if you were 95KG, lost back until 75-80KG or so, you will experience plateaus, stalls, metabolism ****-ups and ****, because I guess your body is being like: I've changed alot from what I was, something has to happen, or that it gets 'more' time to figure out how to stop you from losing weight because it doesn't care about you losing or gaining, just survival.. so I guess if your already lean and dieting on a big deficit, it wont be a problem, also it wont be a problem too if the over-weight 'obese' dieter is almost lean, then stays at maintenance for a couple of months, then diets back, breaks is the key - I guess.

@lee__d

Yesterday.. was the most starvation day ever, I ate 2050 calories and I felt hungry like FUARCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! I should get awarded for not eating 4k+ calories, lol it was really hard to sleep, I woke up, and I feel much leaner, no water retention, no nothing, like my body ate itself or something, and also taking by your advice, will increase 100 cals a week still..

Also is this okay or should I change things up: I will change up my re-feed day to 'thursday' and also my 'calorie up' day to wednesday, so that means if im eating at 2000-2050 calories and reverse dieting, every wednesday I will add up the 100 -> 2100-2150, and every thursday I will have a re-feed -> 2500-2600 calories~



Tell me more about this: weight? activity level?

Intredasting.jpg

I know in the spring cutters thread everyone SWEARS by only losing 1 lb a week but ive always went for a 1000 cal deficit Sun-Fri then have a cheat day. It worked but I just started doing planned refeeds instead of cheats. Now that I have refeeds the cravings are gone and I don't even wake up w/much of a bloat. I don't think a slowed metabolism would be a problem unless your on a 1000 cal deficit for weeks on end. Even then idk how you could keep up that pace w/out a break (cheat meal/day, refeed, binge)

And I haven't done it myself but I thought if you dieted down to contest lean levels then you had to reverse diet to get your metabolism back in check.

[joe24916]

Straight to so basically I f****ed over my metabolism and now it's time to try and fix this whole mess. I attempted to calculate my macros the other day and came up with this for using my stats. I'm just confused with carbs and what not. I lift 5-6 days a week and do 3-4 days of HIIT for 30 minutes on an empty stomach.

Cals/maintain:2600
cal/deficit:2100
Protien 148g (using 1lb/lb of weight or is it supposed to be of lean body weight? Help?)
Fats: 67g
Carbs:Idk what I need. Some tell me hit my macros then use the remaining calories for carbs? Then some say eat 100-150g.


Now that is what I was SUPPOSED to be eating I think? What I was really getting was anywhere from 900 cals/day to maybe 1300 sometimes which is terrible. My macros were nowhere near satisfied and in the end I was shot. Stopped losing weight and muscle mass. I honestly don't know where my exact amount of average calories a day was at so I want to start adding 100 calories to maybe 1400 a week? In doing so would I keep adding until I reach 2100 or 2600?

The next part is what I had today. I know there will be tons of flaws but please work with me because I really want to flip this around and improve my health. I logged everything in on Livestrong and got the following:

Post workout(Morning):
-Smoothie type of thing shake whatever
1 cup of strawberries: Fat=0, Carbs=12, Protien=1
1 cup Silk Plain Original Soy Milk: Fat=3.5, Carbs=8, Protien=6
1/2 cup of Western Family Old Fashioned Oats: Fat=2.5, Carbs=27, Protien:5
2 oz of chicken boneless/skinless: Fat=1.3, Carbs=.5, Protein=11

A few hours later I was at school and had no chance to pack in a meal so I had a Supreme Protein Bar
Fat=14, Carbs=30, Protein=30

Also some almonds. Didn't eat the whole bad which I measure as 1/2 cup but just rounded up a little.
1/2 cup: Fat=30, Carbs=14, Protein=12

First real meal of the day
4 oz boneless skinless chicken: Fat=2.5, Carbs=1, Protein=22
2 cup spinach: Fat= .2, Carbs=2.1, Protein=1.7
1 cup broccoli: Fat=0, Carbs=6, Protein=3
1 cup cucumber: Fat=0, Carbs=2, Protein=0
1/4 cup avocado: Fat=7.9, Carbs=4.5, Protein=1.1
1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla (small): Fat=2, Carbs=10, Protein=5

TOTALS
Calories=1,378
Fat=65g
Carbs=119 (Too high I bet?)
Protein=98g

If I want to shoot for 100 per week added for today I'll need another 122. If I eat another 4oz chicken breast for dinner I come in at 1,498 calories with fats=68g, carbs=120g, and protein=120. I would still be short of my proteins macros so does this mean that I should eat maybe 6 oz instead of 4? It's all confusing to me and I'm getting a bit frustrated,

So in all, anyone please critique WHATEVER you feel needs adjustment even if it's the littlest thing from my calories needed to the rest of my macros. It would be much appreciated. I did the best I can from gathering info. Thanks in advanced to all contributors.

[Grendizer]

Straight to so basically I f****ed over my metabolism and now it's time to try and fix this whole mess. I attempted to calculate my macros the other day and came up with this for using my stats. I'm just confused with carbs and what not. I lift 5-6 days a week and do 3-4 days of HIIT for 30 minutes on an empty stomach.

Cals/maintain:2600
cal/deficit:2100
Protien 148g (using 1lb/lb of weight or is it supposed to be of lean body weight? Help?)
Fats: 67g
Carbs:Idk what I need. Some tell me hit my macros then use the remaining calories for carbs? Then some say eat 100-150g.


Now that is what I was SUPPOSED to be eating I think? What I was really getting was anywhere from 900 cals/day to maybe 1300 sometimes which is terrible. My macros were nowhere near satisfied and in the end I was shot. Stopped losing weight and muscle mass. I honestly don't know where my exact amount of average calories a day was at so I want to start adding 100 calories to maybe 1400 a week? In doing so would I keep adding until I reach 2100 or 2600?

The next part is what I had today. I know there will be tons of flaws but please work with me because I really want to flip this around and improve my health. I logged everything in on Livestrong and got the following:

Post workout(Morning):
-Smoothie type of thing shake whatever
1 cup of strawberries: Fat=0, Carbs=12, Protien=1
1 cup Silk Plain Original Soy Milk: Fat=3.5, Carbs=8, Protien=6
1/2 cup of Western Family Old Fashioned Oats: Fat=2.5, Carbs=27, Protien:5
2 oz of chicken boneless/skinless: Fat=1.3, Carbs=.5, Protein=11

A few hours later I was at school and had no chance to pack in a meal so I had a Supreme Protein Bar
Fat=14, Carbs=30, Protein=30

Also some almonds. Didn't eat the whole bad which I measure as 1/2 cup but just rounded up a little.
1/2 cup: Fat=30, Carbs=14, Protein=12

First real meal of the day
4 oz boneless skinless chicken: Fat=2.5, Carbs=1, Protein=22
2 cup spinach: Fat= .2, Carbs=2.1, Protein=1.7
1 cup broccoli: Fat=0, Carbs=6, Protein=3
1 cup cucumber: Fat=0, Carbs=2, Protein=0
1/4 cup avocado: Fat=7.9, Carbs=4.5, Protein=1.1
1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla (small): Fat=2, Carbs=10, Protein=5

TOTALS
Calories=1,378
Fat=65g
Carbs=119 (Too high I bet?)
Protein=98g

If I want to shoot for 100 per week added for today I'll need another 122. If I eat another 4oz chicken breast for dinner I come in at 1,498 calories with fats=68g, carbs=120g, and protein=120. I would still be short of my proteins macros so does this mean that I should eat maybe 6 oz instead of 4? It's all confusing to me and I'm getting a bit frustrated,

So in all, anyone please critique WHATEVER you feel needs adjustment even if it's the littlest thing from my calories needed to the rest of my macros. It would be much appreciated. I did the best I can from gathering info. Thanks in advanced to all contributors.

I would increase proteins to 130-140g and fats to 80g, and I would jump to 1600 calories and stay there for a week, then jump to 1800 calories, and slowly add 150 weekly, you will gain weight when you first increase, then you might be losing when reversing, I would also keep adding 150 weekly, until im near maintenance then slowly add 100 to get your maintenance as high as possible, I guess your maintenance is somewhere around:

2400-2700 calories~ you should be cutting on 2000-2200~

[senoner]

Great info, you increased 100 weekly? or a little bit more? also.. were you losing when you jumped to 2000? or you only started losing when you began reversing for over 2100+?

No I wasn't losing weight when I jumped to 2000, I gained a bit but still maintained at the weight I was at. Yea pretty much 100 cals per week and majority were carbs. At first I wasn't losing just maintaining and weight would jump up and come back down and hover around the same weight. When I got to around 2600 I stayed at those cals for about 3 weeks due to having to go on a business trip for my job. I wasn't counting macros on my trip or working out and when I came back home I weight exactly what I weighed 3 weeks before. Jumped up to 2700 the following week and that's when I started to lose weight again. That's when I felt I was leaning out and sure enough the weight was going down. So basically I would go up 100 cals a week for 3-5 weeks and then I would hold those calories for 2-3 weeks to see what the weight was doing, if I lost weight or maintained I would increase again 100 cals/week for another 3-5 weeks and repeat the process.

[lee__d]

I would increase proteins to 130-140g and fats to 80g, and I would jump to 1600 calories and stay there for a week, then jump to 1800 calories, and slowly add 150 weekly, you will gain weight when you first increase, then you might be losing when reversing, I would also keep adding 150 weekly, until im near maintenance then slowly add 100 to get your maintenance as high as possible, I guess your maintenance is somewhere around:

2400-2700 calories~ you should be cutting on 2000-2200~

This is reasonable. I do think you should be bulking given your stats and would probably just slowly add calories until you're slow bulking.

[coughs]

My weight isn't going down consuming 1500 calories daily and I was wondering if it's possible getting my maintenance back to 2500+ so I can eat a bit of food again? I have been dieting for 15 months and starting to feel extremely hungry :/

[lee__d]

My weight isn't going down consuming 1500 calories daily and I was wondering if it's possible getting my maintenance back to 2500+ so I can eat a bit of food again? I have been dieting for 15 months and starting to feel extremely hungry :/

Possibly.

A few points:
-15 months is loooooong time to be in a calorie deficit (even if you weren't on 1500 calories for the whole time)
-make sure your calorie counting is accurate
-list stats, macros, and activity

Reverse dieting is a slow process. I would recommend what I've previously recommended in the thread, adding 100 avg daily calories per week (or every two weeks). Idk how high you will be able to push you're maintenance.

[coughs]

Possibly.

A few points:
-15 months is loooooong time to be in a calorie deficit (even if you weren't on 1500 calories for the whole time)
-make sure your calorie counting is accurate
-list stats, macros, and activity

Reverse dieting is a slow process. I would recommend what I've previously recommended in the thread, adding 100 avg daily calories per week (or every two weeks). Idk how high you will be able to push you're maintenance.

Thanks, I will give that a try so was eating 1500 calories bad? How low should a male intake be when cutting?

Age 20
5'9 170lbs 14%
160g protein, 120g carbs and 30g fat

[unleashthelion]

Thanks, I will give that a try so was eating 1500 calories bad? How low should a male intake be when cutting?

Age 20
5'9 170lbs 14%
160g protein, 120g carbs and 30g fat

If your cut has caused your TDEE to go down to 1500, I can only imagine what my 12-month 2000 calorie a day cut has done to mine. But actually, I am still losing about 12lbs a month - suggesting a TDEE in the ballpark of 3500 (which is exactly what a man of my size and age would predict, even if he hadn't been cutting).

Imma be honest, I question the accuracy of your counting.

[lee__d]

Thanks, I will give that a try so was eating 1500 calories bad? How low should a male intake be when cutting?

Age 20
5'9 170lbs 14%
160g protein, 120g carbs and 30g fat

If your cut has caused your TDEE to go down to 1500, I can only imagine what my 12-month 2000 calorie a day cut has done to mine. But actually, I am still losing about 12lbs a month - suggesting a TDEE in the ballpark of 3500 (which is exactly what a man of my size and age would predict, even if he hadn't been cutting).

Imma be honest, I question the accuracy of your counting.

It's just very low. I also wuestion your accuracy. And you should have fats around 45-50g minimally. 30 is silly.