Firstly I'd like to ask what you think my BF% is based on my pics, but also I think I've got stuck with losing fat in the last 2 months and wonder what I can do to keep pushing - or indeed if I can - as I think maybe I don't have enough muscle to make me lose more fat?
I'm hoping to reach under 10% and hit maybe an 8% mark. To be realistic I plan on spending 1 or 2 more months doing what I can to lower my body fat some more. After that I’m going to put on muscle and eat more.
But I think I’ve hit a strong plateau here. As these recent photos of 12th November show me looking virtually the same as ones I took in August 11th.
I don’t see pushing into lower body fat that easily if I haven’t really shown visible signs of lower body fat than August with the way I’m currently dieting and exercising, which has been the same routine since April.
I’ve been Intermittent Fasting on a Calorie Deficit of about 600 calories. Maintenance Level around 2300 and my actual calorie intake at 1750/1700 a day. Weight lifting twice a week. Sometimes 3 or 4 times on a rare amount of weeks (including when I was did one Maintenance dieting for 2 weeks since April).
I do 10k steps a day, but as I do 20-30 minutes cardio Monday to Friday most days with friends online, I would lower my steps to around 8k a day. My Fitbit shows my 10k steps to be around 800 cals burned, and my cardio workouts to be 150-200 cals. So though Fitbit is not accurate I make myself clock up around 800 with the walk and cardio together with the step reduction, so I don’t burn too many calories than expected with the 10k walk.
Body fat and muscle maintenance has been great since starting this from April. I’ve not lost muscle it seems.
April I started whole body weight around 81-83 kgs, BF around 21-23%. Muscle Mass around 61kgs.
Right now my Tanita scale has me at around 71 kgs, BF around 7%, Muscle Mass around 61kgs. There is give and take of the weight and I don’t believe my Body Fat is that low at all.
But that reading is the only thing that makes me think I may have dropped body fat and am continuing to do so. Visually I don’t think I have dropped body fat.
If I can’t push past this wall I seem to be in, then I wonder if what’s stopping me getting lower body fat is because my muscle mass isn’t higher? I look rather skinny I know, and I wonder if my muscle mass is too low to lose more fat and my body is triggering some defence mode to keep me healthy and is hanging onto the body fat as it feels I need it to keep going as my muscles are not large enough? I don’t know. That’s a theory at least.
Not sure what else I can add to what I’m doing to break this apparent plateau. So any advice on this would be welcome. Much appreciation.
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11-14-2020, 06:33 AM #1
Hit a Fat Loss Plateau - Can I Break It?
Last edited by jkpel; 11-14-2020 at 09:25 AM.
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11-14-2020, 06:50 AM #2
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11-14-2020, 08:40 AM #3
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I also didn't read everything but the first few paragraphs, and looking at your pics you're already around 10% imo. Why do you want to lose more? What's your goal physique like, long term? I think you should start bulking if your goals involve a more muscular physique, you're already very lean, props on that btw, great change.
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11-14-2020, 09:14 AM #4
Sorry about the massive post. I should shorten it.
My remaining goal is to lean my face out, get it to lose all that fat that's still making it thick and chubby, I want it more chiselled. God knows it was one of the main reasons I did all this in the first place and it's stubbornly not lost the fat that my body has.
Should I get to 8 or 6% level? As that is what people say that is the amount where the fat from the face really does come off.
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11-14-2020, 09:24 AM #5
Firstly mate very good job. Massive difference. I personally wouldn't cut anymore if I was you but I understand that you've set yourself a target to lose a bit more so who am I to tell you to stop. The only way to lose more weight if you have stalled is to cut your calories further or increase the amount you're burning. You're at a level of leanness now where your body is trying fight you. If you get more lean you are going to be at a level of bf that is not sustainable long term
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11-14-2020, 09:49 AM #6
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1. Your face is probably about as lean as it is likely to get without you taking things to the extreme of looking like a famine victim. At this point it really doesn't look "thick and chubby" and if you think that it does you likely have some body (face) dysmorphic issues that should be addressed.
2. You are already leaner than 99%+ of what "normal" people will ever get to.
3. You are at the point where you would need to get into the single digit BF percentages in order to get any lower and generally that requires a higher degree of discipline and deficit than getting to the 10-12% range did, as well as being more difficult to maintain at that degree of being lean.
4. You frankly need more muscle mass on your frame to realistically be able to support a lower BF level for any extended amount of time.~ Like Tae-Kwon-Leap, my goals are not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.
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11-14-2020, 09:56 AM #7
Thanks. If you think I'm above 10% then what do you think I need to get to below it? How hard is it and what does it involve?
(Some people say I'm below 10 already, I don't know)
Do you think that my lack of muscle mass is stopping me getting a leaner and lower BF look right now? I wonder if that is the wall that's stopping the lower BF look visibly.
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11-14-2020, 12:23 PM #8
Thanks for your reply. Yeah I can't cut more calories with eating, I'm just too hungry.
You think I should increase exercise to burn more cals to get more cals out of me then? I can do that better than cutting food. More weight lifting and doing some boxing cardio I'd be kinda happy to do right now. Not sure the best way to do this so the maths of cals in and out work out for fat burn rather than muscle though. Not sure if it's just a matter of more protein or it's more complex than that?
Why is more lean not sustainable? Would I need more muscle to maintain my body if I literally dropped more body fat itself? (Not a case of lower body fat PERCENTAGE in relation to more muscle but actually dropping more of the fat that I have on me)
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11-14-2020, 12:52 PM #9
It's gonna be hard to eat less, I'm already getting hunger pangs that are too much to keep on doing for a period of time. Is there any other way of doing it? Working out more or eating less carbs at least, etc. rather than consuming even less calories?
I'm eating 1700 cals a day, but my normal maintenance would be 2300. That's already very low.
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11-14-2020, 12:54 PM #10
Right now I want to lose more fat from my face to get a more defined and less chubby round look that I still have. It's not leaned out much since before my cut, when I was bulgy and bloaty looking. On some days I still do look like this, which I think is unfair to me by nature as the rest of me is leaned out and more cut than I need to be.
So I gotta push more a bit. I'm told that at 8 or 6% BF is when the face leans right out. Hard to get to though but if I know it will have this effect then I can still do it.
I'm happy to bulk more soon, but want to get more fat off my face and overall therefore. Just not sure how to keep cutting fat if I seem to have come to a halt.
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11-14-2020, 01:38 PM #11
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11-14-2020, 01:41 PM #12
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11-14-2020, 02:44 PM #13
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This is fully broscience on my part here, but I've come to the conclusion by seeing a bunch of progress pictures that your face gets more chiseled if you have more muscle in you at the same bf%, as in, a skinny dude at 10% will have a face less chiseled than the same person while more fit at the same 10%.
I think gaining some mass would do you wonders face wise. Google "muscle gain progress" yourself on images and you should see what I mean.Brazilian Crew |<o>|
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11-14-2020, 02:54 PM #14
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11-14-2020, 03:54 PM #15
My weight has been around 70-71kgs since end of August. My Muscle Mass took a dip in August due to doing a medical trial and not eating and exercising on my program but getting back to the regime afterward and a 2 week Maintenance put my muscle mass back up again.
I actually got down to around 69 kgs overall before the August trial though, with my muscle mass around 57kgs. It went up since to what it is now, around 62-63kgs.
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11-14-2020, 03:55 PM #16
When you say I have nothing to cut down to what do you specifically mean? I have no more fat to cut down to or something more overall?
What will a weight training program do to me cutting down the actual fat itself? Will it make that fat on it's own individually go down?
Are you talking about doing a Lean Bulk? Or something more intense, but with me using less calories than that more intense program would require, and basically formatting it to my individual needs? (Fat burn)
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11-14-2020, 03:56 PM #17
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11-14-2020, 03:58 PM #18
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11-14-2020, 04:58 PM #19
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11-15-2020, 05:23 AM #20
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11-15-2020, 05:48 AM #21
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It doesn't help burn fat (apart from a small increase in BMR due to more lean tissue). What it does do however, is give you better visible definition. If your muscles aren't big enough to show through the skin, you may never have any more definition than you do now regardless of how much you try to diet. Keep pushing in that direction and you might start to lose muscle too.
It's much easier to have good definition when you have more muscle mass - and you don't have to constantly starve yourself either. You might even have more total fat mass and it would still look better than if you were lighter with lower body fat.
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11-15-2020, 07:09 AM #22
it doesn’t however there’s a point of continued fatloss being counterproductive to your overall physique goals.
If someone’s goal is to be a skinny little guy then more fatloss is fine however this is a body BUILDING site and people generally are looking to become more muscular with a good physique.
Not to say that it’s necessary to look like a pro BBer however a goal should be to have a decent amount of muscle without a lot of fat covering it up. You’re at a point where continued fatloss is the wrong direction to take.
Adding muscle will also cause some fat gain so you need to get your head around that. after gaining a certain amount of muscle you diet the fat back off.If you don't get what you want you didn't want it bad enough
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11-18-2020, 11:15 AM #23
Well thanks for everyone's answers and advice here guys, I am very grateful for all of your inputs and information to light my way.
I've decided that I'm going to create a larger calorie deficit in maybe 1 or 2 week's time. See what that does to the scales and even photos.
I'll raise my caloric expenditure by about 300 cals on the Fitbit, even though that is not gonna be that accurate of course. But it's a guide. I guess if around 200-300 calories going out of me against the 1700 odd calories going in then this would create maybe enough difference to give my metabolism a bit of a jump start at least to burn more fat again.
I'll do this at least by simply taking a greater amount of steps on my daily walks. Right now I do 8k steps if I'm doing 20-30 minutes cardio on the same day, even weight lifting on that same day too. The cardio and 8k steps add up to around 800 cals on the Fitbit, whereas a 10k walk add up to around 800 cals too.
So the math is already as safe as I can get it in terms of not doing more than the required calorie burn I've been instructed to do by doing just a 10k walk and nothing else cardio-wise already.
But now if I up my steps to maybe 12k I may calculatingly get an extra 300-ish cals burned in addition, increasing the deficit by of course 300.
Inbetween me starting this up I'll have to monitor those scales a bit more, and look up water weight each morning on my weigh ins too. (Not done that before)
I figure I'll try to burn more fat for this regime that I'm on for just 2 more months. It's gonna be broken up by being fed at work which I can't control so much, and maybe some family meals at Christmas. So it's gonna be interrupted. But from this date today to end of January I'll just keep working my program and see if I can shift my fat downwards.
Thing is, the scales say I'm doing good. My overall bodyweight went up from it's lowest of 69kgs to around 73kgs now, but that includes my muscle mass going up from around it's lowest of 57kg to maybe it's highest at around 64kgs now or recently. The fat % has never been lower, currently hitting around 7% on the Tanita Scale.
It's not accurate but it's a sign of it going in the right direction, though this is proportional to the muscle going up too. But I think it may be that the fat MAY be going down itself, maybe slowly. It's all questionable and nothing definite, just a hopeful 'possibly' etc. I'll have to find out for sure in maybe a few weeks or a month from now.
I'm simply not ready to bulk up. My mindset, my body, my lifestyle even is not ready to do such a quick turnaround, even though I want to bulk up and I certainly want to eat at Maintenance again. But 8-10 more weeks and nothing more is my best compromise.
I also want to ask this concerned question... Since Saturday to Monday I had to eat more to get my body and blood results to a good enough level to pass a medical trial screening. This lead me to getting real carried away with myself on Monday where I ate in one massive surplus, we're talking eating like crazy, vengeful style, 8 meals that day.
I wonder how does that affect my diet and body, like maybe just that one Monday's eating itself? I ate like a bloody pig that day, leaving my stomach feeling stretched but with me eating ravenously all day.
My scales are up, my stomach not so hard today, and when I look in the mirror my face is more puffy for sure. I wonder just how bad the over-eating was on Monday, maybe it's knocked me back 2 odd weeks even.
Any comments on this would be appreciated - though I reckon not all will be that positive, which I'll understand.
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11-18-2020, 12:07 PM #24
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11-18-2020, 12:22 PM #25
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11-18-2020, 12:31 PM #26
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11-18-2020, 01:02 PM #27
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11-24-2020, 07:52 AM #28
TLDR you had a massive cheat because your body is telling you to eat. Losing more fat will not make you look better it will only make you look worse at this point the guys advice here is good. Based off what you have said you weigh around 150 pounds with 15ish total pounds of fat on your entire body and you want to struggle for months to drop that to 11 pounds of fat left? Why? Doesn't seem to be healthy or physically appealing. Congrats on shredding some fat its time to eat now.
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11-24-2020, 01:32 PM #29
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11-24-2020, 08:12 PM #30
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