I have hit a plateau on my cut even though I was on a 500kcal deficit.
I've been experimenting with replacing all my carbs with vegetables. I drink coffee before my workouts to get the energy needed. I still eat more than enough proteins compared to my macro goal, mainly chicken breasts. I use very little, to no fat at all, mostly in the forms of peanuts.
This resulted in me being on a near 1000kcal deficit. I still feel fine. Im not hungry because vegetables is very filling. And I have enough energy for my daily life and the weight started decreasing again.
My question is: would this be bad in the long term? I know being on a huge deficit would likely make me lose muscles, but if I still take in enough proteins, would that help preserve muscles, all things considered?
Kloi 1mo ago
This might be causing issues someone correct me if I'm misremembering but your gonads process fats, cholesterol specifically into testosterone.
You need fats in your diet, albeit healthy fats.
To answer your question if you have a large surplus of fat, your body will eat away at that while in a calorie deficit. Even while hitting your protein requirements (I shoot for 1g/lb at my ideal body weight) you'll lose some muscle but it's not going to fuck you for life.
Now if you're losing significant power on your lifts, that'd be a concern something is off in your diet. If you're still hitting PRs on -1000 Cals, I'd say run it.
How fat are you would give us more insight.
Also how long have you been on a 500 cal deficit? If you've been on it long enough and lost a significant amount of weight, theoretically the calories your body requires has gone down, thus what was a deficit at the beginning might be your new maintenance intake.
Kloi 1mo ago
This might be causing issues someone correct me if I'm misremembering but your gonads process fats, cholesterol specifically into testosterone.
You need fats in your diet, albeit healthy fats.
To answer your question if you have a large surplus of fat, your body will eat away at that while in a calorie deficit. Even while hitting your protein requirements (I shoot for 1g/lb at my ideal body weight) you'll lose some muscle but it's not going to fuck you for life.
Now if you're losing significant power on your lifts, that'd be a concern something is off in your diet. If you're still hitting PRs on -1000 Cals, I'd say run it.
How fat are you would give us more insight.
Also how long have you been on a 500 cal deficit? If you've been on it long enough and lost a significant amount of weight, theoretically the calories your body requires has gone down, thus what was a deficit at the beginning might be your new maintenance intake.
benzino 1mo ago
I'm 173cm in height and went from 80 to currently at 75kg. I estimate I'm at about 20% body fat.
Baseline is about 2000 cal and I've been eating at 1500. With the current diet, I can hit 1000kcal but that seems a bit too low. I did drop to 74 this week so it's working. Will see how it goes this month
Kloi 1mo ago
So you're 5ft8 and went from 176lb to 165lb over what two months?
I'd keep on your same caloric intake. Your maintenance at that weight is 2000cal at moderate physical activity.
I'd suggest 150g of protein and at least 60g of good fats from eggs, beef. What's your spread look like now?
whytehorse2021 1mo ago
Yeah running a bad diet will mess with you over the long term. I got to a point where my Dr told me to eat peanut butter and bananas because my weight loss was so dramatic. 20yrs before that my college fitness trainer told me I was at risk of death if I was hospitalized because my body fat was dipping below 7%.
You need to eat real food. Eggs, bacon, steak, oats, potatoes, etc. Have a cheat day every 1-2 weeks where you can correct imbalances. You're recomposing your body from fat to muscle. It's just a matter of doing it right and feeding the muscle and starving the fat or burning it.
MrSupreme 1mo ago
Theoretically, meeting your protein macros while on a calorie deficit (and lifting heavy for hypertrophy) shouldn't lead to loss of muscle mass, particularly if you're into supplementing with BCAAs, or just loads high quality animal based protein. The calorie deficit will make you lose fat, weight training will help you lose fat too,that's why you're seeing progress. Can't say long term though.
No-Stress-Cat 1mo ago
@MrSupreme and @First-light
You guys are so smart about this stuff. All I do is pick heavy shit up, put heavy shit down, and don't eat shitty food.
MrSupreme 1mo ago
You should read up on it, its not difficult and it definitley pays off to know what youre putting into your body. Its more about the health benefits than physique stuff
First-light 1mo ago
It may be worth making sure you top up protein during the intake window immediately after exercise. This works best with some carbs, so this might be a moment to make an exception to the no carbs thing but make sure they are no more than the amount needed to complement the protein. So if you go 2:1 then say 40 grams carbs, 20 protein. This maximises he chance of the protein going where you want it, not into energy production.
Here whey may be your friend. There are a lot of these post workout whey based drinks around. Some are designed specifically for your situation -there are post workout cutting specific powders you can reconstitute into shakes, the BCAAs and things to help you metabolise lipids. Whey is very good quality protein and scientifically shown to be good for cutting fat if you just drink it in isolation.
financehardo420 1mo ago
Protein intake window is a complete myth my guy
First-light 1mo ago
Interesting. I would be interested in your further thoughts.
Your comment has sent me looking into this in more detail. I am not sure I can find evidence of its being a complete myth but I can find evidence to suggest that it is not as important to bodybuilders as to endurance athletes and that it is not an essential tenet for them. I am coming from an endurance point of view, where glycogen replenishment is the prime aim and a bit of protein after a hard session seems a good idea at the same time.
I have always said "if the session is not terribly hard and you are not some kind of freaky eater like a vegan, don't worry about the protein bit, also if you are not doing anything much tomorrow, the glycogen bit may not be that pressing"
In this case the OP is in a rather hungry state ad I think he might do well to take extra care of himself. He wants to make sure his body doesn't eat his muscles while he is also damaging them. I can't see it being bad for him to make sure there is spare protein going about around the time he damages his muscles with training.
This was quite a balanced take on the subject from a reliable source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3577439/
This passage caught my eye "In light of these findings, when training is initiated more than ~3–4 hours after the preceding meal, the classical recommendation to consume protein (at least 25 g) as soon as possible seems warranted in order to reverse the catabolic state, which in turn could expedite muscular recovery and growth. However, as illustrated previously, minor pre-exercise nutritional interventions can be undertaken if a significant delay in the post-exercise meal is anticipated" I think that is probably a good recommendation for someone restricting intake of calories since it is known that training fasted does increase muscle damage slightly and protein synthesis does need to exceed muscle damage. The amino acids do need to be around in his system after the damage is done.
But I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Bodybuilding not my subject but I have some experience with sports and dieting.