+ 1 On a heavy cut (1500cal/day)
Whats good everyone?
36M
5’10”
179lbs
Been on a heavy cut for a good amount of time. Started at 227 in February when i got out of rehab and on Friday i weighed in at 179.3 after a two week stall.
I work 4 days a week and meal prep for those 4 days usually chicken and rice or chicken and veggies/potatos. Macros are:
Cals:1500(max)
Protein:160g
Fat:65g
Carbs:61g
Slight variation of carbs depends on whether im doing rice or veggies for the week, protein and fat stay more or less consistent.
I work out every other day but have a limited home gym (barbell dumbbells and incline bench) but i get a good workout in. Im probably around 20% bodyfat maybe a little higher but its going down. Am taking reta 6-8mg per week.
Ive been fat my whole life but am trying to improve my health amd body composition, ive got some stubborn belly fat and man boobies, idk why but my nipples have been big (always puffy) since i was a kid. I have always gained weight quickly but since February ive been working and eating once a day amd lately i split my meal between my first break at 7am and my lunch at 950am and thats all i eat for the whole day.
This is probably my first post aside from the why is my password always getting reset.
Also im on a little bit of testosterone for self diagnosed low t symptoms, been on for 7-8 weeks and feel a world of a difference in a good way. Lmk what you think.
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Why people run their carbs in to the ground when it's literally your main fuel source absoloutly baffles me! This is not healthy my guy! If anything Drop them fats a littler lower and bump them carbs! Especially if you are already running hormones the fats aren't needed to regulate the hormones as you are already putting test in. You must feel like absoloute dog shit right now. I never once dropped below 300g carbs this year and got to sub 8% body fat! Up your food and if anything just up your output instead of starving yourself and becoming malnourished
Yup. “Carbs are the enemy” is the silly mainstream mantra. I get to high 5s low 6s% bf routinely and never drop carbs past 250-300g. Fats can get down to 35-40 though. It’s hard to do and you eat some boring meals. But it works
This drives me nuts. No one learns about nutrition and how weight loss/gain actually work.
Your addictive personality is presenting itself in your diet. I dont even know how to recommend how to fix this. SInce youre already so low on calories, probably just reintroduce more food week to week until ou reach a true maintenance for your bodyweight. Then start the cut again with a modest 300 calorie deficit
How much test you taking? You just eyeballing it?
Good job getting dedictated to losing fat, but you need help doing it right
Not a lot, 250mg/week pinned every day subq.
It’s definitely having a good impact on my life as far as how I feel. I was abusing opiates for the better part of a decade and had all of the symptoms of having low testosterone so I ordered some online and started using it along with peptides.
I am aware that I’m not eating enough to grow on it and while I’m probably a little above the trt threshold, I am looking to drop bodyfat and not have tanked testosterone, which are both being addressed.
Ive been eating more or less the same amount of calories for 5 months, I am not losing muscle but i will admit sometimes i do get grouchy as fuck probably from not eating a lot.
Ive never worked out in my life, but have always had physically demanding jobs and have always had a good amount of strength, but never got into working out until a couple of months ago.
Im not opposed to your idea of adding calories weekly until i get to maintenance but once i started eating whole foods it seems to eat even double of what i eat every day would be a lot. Maybe i need to get off of the peptides to accomplish that.
Thanks for your reply
I think 250 mg is a lot. You’re on a cycle right now. What you have accomplished is great but if you are really hypogonadal then half that or perhaps 150 mg per week should keep you in the high end of the reference range and be more healthy for you long term.
Yikes. That's aggressive.
I think at some point your body will basically tell you to get fucked and only burn muscle for energy in order to extend your life in the face of its presumed pending starvation.
Its been 5 months, with the quality of food dramatically improving this last 30 days. I am not losing muscle, I do a fair amount of lifting at work (commercial door manufacturing) and lift every other day, but I am not getting bigger muscles I dont think.
Im trying to keep what i have and drop bf because i still look fat in the mirror with my shirt off. I agree maybe the deficit is a bit much but aside from being a grouch most of the time ive more or less adapted to it..
You 100% are losing muscle. The best bodybuilders in the world lose muscle on a cut.
No grown man should be only eating 1500 cals a day. You started too steep and have dipped too far. The only reason you would ever get that low on calories is to make a weight cap and you’d be sacrificing muscle to do so.
Muscles havent really took a hit. I may not have beem the most educated about eating when i started but its been 5 months and ive pretty much adapted to it by now. Not saying its healthy or wise by any means, just that ive been surviving until now.
I am new to trying to get healthy and im not trying to say anything im doing as far as how im eating is the best way to do so or even remotely guided by any research, i was just not happy at 227 and now at 179 im looking to restructure what im doing a bit because im down enough that i can probably lose another 20 pounds in a more healthy way and be better off than when i started
You said it perfectly….”you have adapted.” Our bodies are not dumb and self preservation triumphs over everything you will try/do for cutting. Your metabolism has slowed, your body stops fidgeting, moving, etc to lower NEAT, all to meet this less than ideal caloric intake.
Slowly start raising your carbohydrate intake. Don’t worry about initial scale weight as you’ll replenish glycogen and water (more so now that you’re on gear) and let that stabilize. Track your food daily, and I mean literally anything that goes in your mouth with calories, and track your weight daily in the same setting (ideally right when you wake up and use the bathroom). Graph those to see your trend over a weekly basis, then start adjusting calories from there.
I’m telling you as someone who knows a thing or two about getting lean, you will not be able to lose another 20 lbs where you are at now calorie-wise. Please reevaluate and don’t do the starvation method
So increase my carb intake by 300 calories per week until reach my maintenance? AI puts me at around 3000 calories per day for maintenance, which is double what i am eating now. I probably wouldn’t jump right to double because ive been consistently doing half but ill give more calories a go
Is your profile pic your bicep flex? If not post a pic of you on this 7-8 weeks of "lil bit of testosterone". Or even maybe post your doses?
Profile pic is a few years old. I dont think i can post pictures yet. Dose is 250mg/week pinned ED.
Like i posted in response to another user, i was abusing opiates for a long time and had low t symptoms, started to try and alleviate that which it did. I feel how i should feel now, minus a little bit of starving on the side.
Nothing wrong with being new. You're off to a good start. My first 5 years on steroids i think i wasted because I didn't know what i was doing and didn't know where to go to get education. You are in good hands here. But remember eating is part of the program whether you are fat or skinny, its how you do it that counts.
Thanks for that. Ive been on here reading quite a bit, started off somewhere else but realized that that website is total trash and have grown to like this one.
Although my level of knowledge is next to none when it comes to many of the topics being discussed here, I catch on pretty fast and am determined to get in the best shape I can be in (even if it means tearing down what i thought i knew and restructuring my approach) because im 36 and while my health is surprisingly good considering what ive put my body through for so long, im 36 amd not getting any younger.
If i could lose the gut and the boy titties that would make a huge difference in my confidence, and i do have this low key underlying fear that if i start eating more ill start gaining weight but i think a slow approach to the calorie increase and consistency in lifting would probably keep it from going up in a bad way.