Losing weight, but not fat.
So looking for some suggestion on diet when coming off cycle to continue to cut. I still have a lot of body fat to lose and was mostly re-comping on cycle. So the weight stayed the same but body fat dropped. I finished test cycle about 1 month ago and since then my weight has been dropping but my total calculated fat mass based on bioelectrical impedance and calculation has remained the same. Means I am only losing water/muscle not any fat.
I was thinking of increasing calories to slow weight loss and prevent muscle catabolism, but if all I am losing is water weight from coming off cycle maybe I should actually cut calories because I am not moving any fat?
300mg Test C/week 16x weeks divided 2x weekly
4 weeks since last shot
8lbs lost since ending cycle all water/muscle
2000cal/day
220lbs
Which should I try first? Increase calories or cut calories? I feel it would be more clear cut if the cycle wasn’t a compounding factor, but with the cycle I just don’t know.
- Bookmark
- 0
- 0
You are doing this all ass-backwards. Sounds like you started your cycle prematurely. You should have done a gradual safe cut off cycle to get to a respectable bodyfat and then started cycle when you needed to get more extreme with your diet at which point you could use the anabolics to help spare muscle tissue while cutting. 16wk cut should have had you down to at least 6% BF.
Yup so working on getting BF down now to get to a good point for next time. And not looking to get to 6%. 10%-12% would be fine.
So if the goal is 12% what % would you say I could start an aggressive cut?
10%. Seriously, not much is needed to get down to 10%. That is when the anabolics come into play.
2000 cal seems low af for your weight. If you’re not getting enough calories your body will go into starvation mode and actually store more fat. I was losing weight on 3000 cal and I’m only ~170lbs in the 10-15% bf range, of course everyone’s metabolism is different
Good point there. Maybe I will try increasing the calories more until I stop losing weight or it goes to a slower rate. Thats what I would do if I hadn’t just come off cycle. Guess I just have to try one or the other and see what happens. Maybe also increase weight training days per week.
How many days do you train? I shoot for 5-7x a week. I experienced something similar my first cycle. I was (dirty) bulking on 4000 cal and wanted to recomp so I dropped my cals to like 2000 on cycle and I didn’t really lean out at all. I started slowly raising it to 2750 and that’s when I started getting the results I wanted. Started bulking again for the winter, but clean this time, and was still losing weight on 3000 cal. Had to bump it up to 3250-3500 to start putting on weight
I am off cycle now and 5x+ heavy weight days is a lot with normal T levels. I train pretty much all my sets to failure and do 20+ sets/workout session. Recently been harder to really have the energy to make it through the full workout. Get gassed and fatigued by about set 12 or so. Not sure if splitting it to 10 sets/workout 6x a week would be better because then there’s no resting. Can certainly add in cardio.
Think I might add some more calories go up to 2300 or 2500 and see if weight loss stops or slows down and fat loss returns.
Also what’s your macro split?
I usually do
~40% carbs
~30% fat
~30% protein
1g/lbs protein
0.5g/lbs fat
The rest carbs (amount depends if bulking or cutting)
Eating too much fat and not enough protein could also cause fat gain
Could definitely eat more protein and less fat. Not too closely monitoring macro other than protein. 150-175g/day rest of the calories from fat and carbs. Closer to 50% fat 30% protein and 20% carbs. Eating a lot of cheese, beef veggies and protein shakes. Might have to switch to lean chicken breast and less cheese add in more starchy veggies. To shift from high fat to lower fat.
You don't just track protein, that makes no sense. Your macro split is out of whack, but probably isn't accurate since you aren't tracking, You are going to have a tough time losing fat and retaining muscle like that.
That might be part of your problem then. I used to only track protein but wasn’t getting the results I wanted. Now I track them all. Idk what kind of phone you have but download the My Fitness Pal app and starting tracking all your macros.
Rustyhooker@Makwa forums.....tdee etc. Click his name...check his food forums.
Bloods done? Trt? Do you know if you need trt? 200gram protein minimum? Anaerobic cardio? Irs gonna be foods as driver for sure
no trt, just stopped cycle started Clomid/Nolvadex this week for PCT.
Blood last week was 800ng/dl test(probably still dropping off). Expect this week is probably like 500 and next week 300 unless the SERMs start working.
no anaerobic cardio yet but might add in. Just steps and weights.
150-175g protein. Finding it hard get more than that and I am already drinking 3x 20g protein shakes a day. Could add a 4th and cut a portion of carbs I guess.
RustyhookerDefinitly need food research. Click makwa above in blue. Its foods and not drinks
Out of that 2000 calories, how much of that is coming from carbs?
Depends, Protein is 150-175 and the rest carbs and fat. Not low carb, but some days are low.
Not strict keto and didn’t really change from on cycle diet. So probably not water loss from low carb transition.
What you are losing is water weight and the glycogen think I spelled that right.
You will lose fat if you power walk every day. Stay away from refined sugar. That’s all. That what works for me but our bodies and metabolism are all different. Keep training and lifting too.
10k steps a day. Weights 1 hour 3x week. Thinking of adding in 3x dedicated cardio.
I guess I can try and maintain at 2000 for a couple more weeks and add more exercise see where that goes. Just don’t want to gain more fat and recomp the wrong way or waste muscle gains.
If you lift and eat right you shouldn’t lose muscle. But to lose fat is mostly exercise and staying away from sugar. But it’s really easy for me to lose body fat. Might be different for you