I thought I’d share a lesson I recently learned on fat loss. I fell into this trap even though I should have known better. For most of the fall and winter I was sedentary due to a pretty bad shoulder injury. I ballooned up to about 250lbs (I’m 6’1”), mostly due to eating a bunch of garbage because I was depressed. In mid-January I got cleared to workout again, and I had some serious work to do.
I have a health science degree, so I have a very solid understanding of human physiology and nutrition. The diet I setup was extremely aggressive, with about a 1300kCal deficit daily. The idea was to use all the stored energy I had (fat). I made sure my protein and healthy fats intake were on point, and used vitamins and supplements to cover my micronutrients. I had a very low carb intake, and used carb cycling to maximize beta oxidation. Initially, my fat loss was very rapid and my muscle development was where I expected it to be. Then, as I got down in the mid-220lbs things slowed down considerably, but I stuck with the plan till I got down to 210lbs at the 90 day mark. This is where everything stalled out, no fat loss and no muscle gain.
Then, purely by accident my diet got disrupted. With all the spring events going on, graduations and the such, I was travelling and engaged in all kinds of social events. It’s hard to maintain a diet in these situations, so I ended up eating less than healthy foods. I only missed one or two workouts, so that was my saving grace. The guilt from breaking my diet kept me off my scale, and from measuring my body fat. I assumed I had put on fat, and didn’t want to face up to it. Well, things calmed down, and I had to evaluate the damage I had done. To my surprise, I had lost a couple of pounds, and by body fat had dropped. I also noticed I was able to get over a few of the plateaus I was on with the strength training. My aggressive diet was hindering my progress.
I had lost sight of the forest for the trees. Because my results were so good with my plan initially, I got stuck in the rut of continuing what I was doing. We do what works, right? What I should have done was adjust my calorie deficit as my body fat dropped. I had less stored energy to work with, and I was starving myself to the point I couldn’t meet my body’s calorie demand. This most likely triggered my body to begin conserving energy, so no fat loss and no muscle gain. Now I’m running about a 250kCal deficit, eating more carbs, and I’m leaning out very fast. I turn 40 in July, and I want to be toned up and moderately shredded. I’m on track for this goal, and I’m really excited.
So, the lesson is that no plan can be static. This is especially true with diet. So if you’re cutting, and your progress has slowed. The right adjustment may very well be adding more food. Which is kind of counter-intuitive on the surface, but make sense when considering all the factors involved. I hope this helps anyone who is stalled out.