>started keto diet at 300 in Jan 2015
>started daily cardio at 280 in Mar 2015
>stopped daily cardio and started Stronglifts at 265 in Jun 2015
>hit 217 in Dec 2015 but fucked up over the holidays and started lifting and dieting again in January 2016 at 224
>started eating some carbs again in Mar 2016 because I was very low energy in the gym at about 215
Now I'm fucking parked on the scale. I'll drop down to 208 after 2 weeks of eating like Ghandi, and then I'll make a small fuck up like having two beers and splitting an order of wings and suddenly I'm at 215 again. Then I'll diet like a motherfucker and do extra cardio at the gym, get to 207, and then someone invites me out over the weekend and I end up having zero willpower at dinner, so I eat a burger with fries; water weight floods in with the sodium and I'm back to 214 again.
All I want to do is get to 185 so I can stop cutting, up my calories, and bulk.
Should I cut carbs back out and just get to 185 asap? Should I bulk from here?
I've been experiencing something close to it, really. Started keto at 290 back in September, down to 217 as of today. Stalled hard at 230 and 220. It was really, for me, a complacency thing. I stopped tracking because I thought I had a good feel for it, didn't realize I was going just a bit over calories. Enough to fuck me up.
Remember you're fallable and just work on it. You won't maintain keto your entire life, so getting off of it and learning to keep track of a normal lifestyle is best for you. Get a burger but don't eat the fries, keep that willpower to some degree while still enjoying yourself.
OP here: M / 24 / 5' 10" / 215 currently / sedentary
Currently doing PHUL instead of SL so I can squat less. 4 days/week, each workout takes about an hour.
Every fatfuck will hit a plateau eventually.
First of all. Don't just look at the scale. It's impossible to gain 5 lbs of fat over a weekend eating. Since that's about ~18000 calories extra.
Those lbs gains you notice are glucose (carb) deposits that are filled up again - they are stored with water. It's not fat.
Secondly, have you adjusted you calorie intake in relation with your weight loss? You caloric maintenance is lower than at the start of your diet.
Thirdly, maybe you train too much, stressing your body a lot and the metabolism is unable to function in a correct way, hormones are fucked up etc. If that's the case. Eat two days healthy, hit you macros. No sports whatsoever. Then continue with your diet & sports.
So or so, you can not defy the law of thermodynamics. Eventually you will have to lose weight when you are on a caloric deficit. Otherwise you solved world hunger.
proud of u tubbies keep it up
The hard part reaching goal weight, then keeping it off for at least a year, so that your metabolism recovers.
>>37245703
I know for sure that I am eating far below TDEE. I think my TDEE is around 2500 kcal; I often stay below 1500. I am not very hungry these days, and I cause sleep, so because I work 12 hour shifts, I often come home, change, hit the gym, come home again, shit post for 30 minutes and then go to bed. That's my life 5 nights a week.
I don't think I'm training too much at about 5 hours a week though.
>>37245850
If I wasn't a complete pussy, I'd post my face. my facial progress is actually kind of insane compared to body progress.
>>37246032
Yeah, I think that part will be balls. My goal is only to drop to 185, then bulk up again and end up at 200 and stay here. If I can get abs, yay, if not I'm really okay without them. I just don't want to look fat or dyel. If I can look strong in a tshirt with no gut, I'll be satisfied.
I didn't have to lose as much weight as you already have but in my experience sometimes weight just fluctuates. You should continue to stick to your calorie count and start watching the mirror at this point in order to judge progress. Also, keep in mind that weight flies off quickly when you're still a fatfuck and will be harder to lose now that you weigh less.
If you do cardio and lift five days a week, and have the willpower to eat healthy for at least five days of the week, you should be able to lose weight even if you fuck up like having some beer and wings on the weekend. Don't go crazy and eat like shit for every meal, but if you follow this you can lose weight.
>>37246146
No cardio with my workouts. I have been struggling to find the energy and discipline. And on the odd night that I do, it's just 15 minutes on the elliptical. Is that the problem, do I need to get more cardio in?
>>37246098
That's for sure on my mind. I know that it's not going to be the cake walk that it was at first, because all I had to do at first was not eat 4 chicken burgers with mayo and an entire full size bag of Doritos for dinner.
>>37246184
>cardio
Start with a few mins of warm up. Then do three sets of 20 secs as hard as fucking possible with 3 minutes of low intensity rest between them. You're finished in less than 15 minutes. That's all you need.
>>37246560
What kind of cardio do you recommend? Treadmill or elliptical?
First, congrats on the progress. really nice job.
Let's get to the problem:
>started keto diet at 300 in Jan 2015
OP, are you telling me that since then you ate at a caloric deficit for the majority of time up until now? That is a long fucking cut senpai.
>I know for sure that I am eating far below TDEE. I think my TDEE is around 2500 kcal; I often stay below 1500
There is something called metabolic adaptation. It even goes as far as metabolic damage or, quite similar, adrenal fatigue. Look up Lyle McDonald's stuff he wrote about that topic. Now, you probably won't have metabolic damage because that comes with symptoms of real sickness. However, your metabolism probably just got accustomed to the new low levels of calories you give him since FUCKIN JANUARY '15.
I want you to recalculate your TDEE and eat at maintenance for at least 2 weeks. I probably would even go as far as 4 weeks. Drop keto during that time, get your complex carbs in, plenty of protein, fats yadda yadda..
Aftercontinue with your cut.
After that
>>37246803
>OP, are you telling me that since then you ate at a caloric deficit for the majority of time up until now?
Yeah, I don't think that I've actually hit my TDEE at any time in the last 16 months except for once or twice when I when completely fucking ham and did something ridiculous like ordering and eating an entire pizza. I'm exhausted of cutting and that's why I want to bust through this plateau and hit my goal of 185.
I really like the idea of a reset. Am I going to see another spike of weight from glycogen/water uptake and saturation though? That'll piss me off, but I think I'm just going to have to eat it.
Thanks for the props. I have a bunch of friends saying that I look good, but none of them realize how I've actually gotten there. It's a lot of grinding.
>>37246846
You may or may not see weight gains on the scale but in the end, that's just a stupid number. What counts is how you look in the mirror and how you feel. The scale is only an indicator whether you do things right or not in the long run.
Also, as this other anon already said: Glycogen+water weigth =/= fat. One is easily sheddable, the other not.
Eating at TDEE w/ proper amounts of complex carbs for the next 2-4 weeks will give you better mood, more strength for your work-outs and will make your next cutting phase bearable again.
>>37246846
Stop worrying so much about the scale on a daily basis. Water and glycogen are not bad things to have in your body, and that's a better representation of your true weight. Focus on your fat loss.
>>37246730
i'm not that dude, but elliptical is way better for your knees
>>37245850
why am i laughing so hard at this picture.
