3 Days Into Cycle, Can't Lose Weight

1500

Thereā€™s your answer. Youā€™ve never adjusted calories but your weight has dropped ~21kg. No shit you arenā€™t losing weight anymore, youā€™re not in a deficit. And since you dropped way too much way too fast youā€™ve obliterated your metabolism. Time for a reverse diet.

Out of interest, is that slowed metabolism and reverse diet somehow scientificly proven or studied? Its my belief that a body that wheighs certain amount, needs an X amount of energy to perform a certain activity no matter what. Like driving a car with less than a half tank for a while doesnt make the car spend less gas after that. I know there is some fluctuation in energy expenditure but isnt it like 10-15% at best and it returns very fast?

Metabolic adaptation is a tough mistress. For most people in most situations itā€™s not too dramatic and it pretty much works as you describe. You need X amount of fuel to run the basic processes. But when you are in a steep deficit for a long time your body assumes that food is scarce and you start burning fewer and fewer calories to operate. Our bodies really donā€™t want to die of starvation so they have mechanisms by which they try to avoid that. This gentleman dieted absolutely incorrectly and now he needs time to get back to normal, hence the reverse diet.

Edit to add: So I did a back of the envelope calculation on his TDEE at the start of his cut. At that weight and height (I guessed on age) he need to be below 3,500 calories to be in deficit. If he was eating 1500 that whole time thatā€™s a massive deficit. Thatā€™s suicide cut territory and he did that for months. Pretty much anyone who did that would be in a tough spot right now.

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Yes. When you reduce / restrict calories for a prolonged period of time your metabolic rate slows.

How much it slows depends on how severe the restriction was and how lean you get. In natural bodybuilders who get stage lean its extreme, their body temperature is significantly lower, their testosterone levels drop to as near as makes no difference zero and even fingernail and hair growth slows significantly. In very lean females they will stop ovulating and reproductive systems basically shut down. For most people it is far from as extreme, especially if they have significant excess fat to lose.

The only point of contention is whether it can be called metabolic ā€˜damageā€™ as opposed to ā€˜adaptationā€™ because it appears that these changes are entirely reversible when you increase calories and regain the weight.

As for the ā€˜reverse dietā€™ being proven, it depends whether you mean simply reversing to previous eating habits or a specific diet plan. The former is studied, the latter is sold.

This isnā€™t at all scientific, but when I started my diet 20 weeks ago I was 214lbs and fitness device measured my RMR at about 82cal per hour. Roughly 1,987cal daily just doing nothing. Now Iā€™m 187lbs and itā€™s 75.5cal per hour, 1,812cal per day. Now I know these things arenā€™t super accurate, but just like using a BF % scale to measure changes not absolutes, I think it shows how my metabolism has slowed after 5 months of 700cal deficit. As I return to normal eating over the next few weeks I expect that calorie burn to go back up, but hopefully my weight stays right around 190lbs.

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So an update after 2 months

Raised the calories from 1500 a day to 2500 over one week. Gained a few kg, up to 105kg now.

Lower BF, more lean mass, strong as an ox, a boner that can pierce Wolverineā€™s skull. The tren turns my bed into a pool of sweat every night but I enjoy it. Very happy with my results overall, from 119kg and so obese and unhealthy that I couldnā€™t walk down the street without running out of breath to where Iā€™m now.

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Your before and after make me sad lol

Good work op

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amazing progress, congrats

received_10209033754865746

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Nice work. Look great. Any sides except the sweating? BP good?

I strongly disagree. I bet in 3 months he will bare a strong resemblance to one of the first two pictures. This is the OPs 6th cycle and he went from out of shape to somebody that looks natty in the gym. I just donā€™t get it.

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I didnā€™t realize this was his 6th cycleā€¦

Iā€™ve never made any gains like he just did, but Iā€™ve never lost anything lol

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Same, but itā€™s not looking good for me at this point :joy:

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That is kinda how it works for me. I will say losing some weight and the nerve injury had me lose a bit of gains. I think had I maintained weight, and not gotten the injury, I would have held all the gains. I was actually making progress before the injury on cruise.

Probably one of the reasons for the really great gains. Gaining previously held cycle muscle.

I will say that it looks to have hit his hair pretty hard. I donā€™t like to flame, but if he ends up where he was before on the body, he will look worse because of the loss of hair on cycle.

Thanks. BP is perfect. For me the only immediately noticeable side is the ridiculous amount of sweating.

Thatā€™s a very weak bet. Iā€™m going to continue updating so people will be able to follow.

This 3 month cycle is ending 19 of November. After that for 3 months I will be slowly cutting while maintaining a significant amount of the gains, wonā€™t be looking anything close to before.

By the end of those 3 months I will have a strong base which I didnā€™t have this time around, I will repeat this same cycle for another 3 months and by that point I will be where I set out to be when I started. Up until now everything went exactly according to the planned schedule.

Also I understand that you donā€™t get it. After all itā€™s very subjective, me personally I wouldnā€™t want to look like you in your profile pic. I see a lean midsection with a watery, puffy, ballooned up upper body. Almost like gluing someones midsection to someone elseā€™s upper body. As they say, each to his own :wink:

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Thatā€™s a good point about the hair, but itā€™s not related or did it get worse because of the cycle. Itā€™s because of the 0 cut. Also my father was completely bald at my age. Anyway nothing is without a solution, going to Turkey next year for that hair implant lol

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Thank you

At least we agree on something. Also if you want honest feedback post a result pic that is equivalent to your before. Not a gym pic with a pump.

This is what I look like on TRT with a pump. I;ve never touched the level of AAS you listed. Its also a pumped pic which is part of the upper body puffiness. But I agree its not the look for everyone. I think women especially prefer a leaner physique but Iā€™m married and just want to look swole.