Is it my nutrition that's off?

[Doleman56]

6'1",180,15.3%bf,50 years old, natty.

I lift 3 days a week, push, pull, legs. 90 minute workout door to door. Good intensity. I try to do progressive overload, but always hit plateaus pretty quick.

My cals/day are currently at 2450, with a 35/35/30 ratio of protein, fats, carbs. I eat heathy, and drink plenty of water. I also intermittent fast, one day on, one day off, 17/7. On my last plateau about 4 weeks ago, I decided to take my cals/day up to 2700, keeping macro ratios the same to see if it was a lack of calories. I didn't get any stronger, and visibly lost some definition in the upper abs, which were just starting to show. I'm trying to gain lean muscle while continuing to burn fat. But not being able to make my weights for a month now has me confused. My sleep is good. No underlying health problems. Just not sure what to try next.

[AdamWW]

You need to be more specific with how you’re planning progression… you can’t just go in and lift arbitrary weights forever and make progress. There has to be some kind of structure, or if not, you have to get lucky and accidentally progress…

Also as a side note, there’s zero benefit to targeting macros based on %’s like that.

[air2fakie]

It's your training dude. People who describe their training without any programming details or lift numbers - other than the split, the time it takes, and "good" intensity - usually are just doing a list of exercises in the form of something that looks like cardio.

[xsquid99]

Question: If you're only lifting 3 days a week why do a PPL? You would definitely be better doing full body or switching to a 4 day upper/lower split so you're hitting every muscle group at least twice a week.

The man who sets off to chase two rabbits will catch none.

If you're trying to get stronger focus on that - which will generally mean more calories and also result in more fat/less muscular definition.

If you're trying to get leaner then focus on that - lower calories, possibly some strength loss (or at least muscular endurance loss due to lower energy), but will result in more definition.

[DougyF7]

Maybe it's your expectations that are off. You're 50 and 15%bf. From your numbers, it sounds like you are in good shape.

There's only so much progress you can make in terms of the weight you can lift. Especially as you age I think you wouldn't want to be pushing heavy weight anyways. You also don't need to push really heavy weight in general to have a good physique.

It sounds like you're making some good choices by upping your calories and seeing how that works. You may best benefit from eating around maintenance calories.

Some good advice above depending on your goals and how serious you want to take your lifting.

Read the stickies in this nutrition forum section starting with 'calculating calories and macros - how to.'

[paulinkansas]

I lift 3 days a week, push, pull, legs.

Change that to: I lift 3 days a week, FB, FB, FB; or Upper, Lower, FB.

[TolerantLactose]

The way you describe diet and training makes me think they're both off.