My thread name might a little confusing, as my post is a little confusing as I am a little confused, are you confused yet?
I have lost 41kgs since June last year and up until this point I have not stalled, but now I have and mentally its very challenging.
I knew I was going to stall at some point but I don’t know what to do now. Do I just keep doing what I am doing and if so do I keep doing it for a couple of weeks or a couple of months? Or do I just put the scale away and check it every few months.
A friend of mine told me not to eat clean for a week or so and that will reset my body, is there any truth to this? As I eat very clean, the only thing processed I eat is protein powder and creatine.
I currently check the scale every day to hold myself accountable, but should I switch to another form of tracking weight loss?
thanks in advance.
I’m 179cms I think that’s 5’11, I currently weigh 118kgs have stalled for two weeks, so not too long but I am one of those annoying people that plan ahead.
2 weeks is not a stall. The human body does not change at predicable rates. After a 2 week slump like this, you may find yourself experiencing a sudden spike in weight loss and then return to normal.
It may help if you lay out what your current diet and exercise looks like. You have lost 90 lbs in a 20 something weeks so clearly what ever you are doing now has been working. This may just be a slump as @T3hPwnisher says, but it may also be because you have now reached your maintenance weight based on you current diet and exercise plan. Give us some more detail and we may have some ideas.
Remember also that with a dramatic loss like that, your body composition is changing dramatically. You are losing tons of both muscle and fat. In practical terms, this means that you have to CONSTANTLY lower the amount of calories you take in to remain in a deficit, because your body requires increasingly fewer all the time. This is, in fact, the trap of “diets” and almost the entire reason they do not work over the long term, even if you have reasonable self control and all other things remain equal.
The way to change that is to add more variables to the equation, primarily in the form of serious resistance work. Not cardio. Weights. But as Simo stated, more information is needed. What else are you doing besides “eating clean” as you put it?
I weight train 3 timesa week switching from A to B each session (I’ve pasted infor from my log below). On my cardio days I walk any where from 3 to 15kms depending on how much time I have.
I’ll be cutting back the walking for a little while as we are having a lot of bush fires in Australia and the smoke is pretty bad so its best to stay in doors.
I’m eating around 2000 calories a day. Mainly proteins and fats my diet plan is worked out by a professional that has helped me get to where I have gotten to. We found that I am some one that needs to drop a lot of calories to lose weight we did try higher amounts but it didn’t work.
I mainly eat eggs and fish and red meat twice a week. Aiming for 80-100 grams of protein per day. I’ve been lifting for 8 weeks now and on this gym program for 6 weeks.
A
Dead lift: 5x90kgs 5x90kgs 5x90kgs
Military Press: 5x47.5 5x47.5 5x47.5
Seated Leg Curl: 10 x 47kg 10 x 47.5 12 x 47.5kg
Lat Pull Down : 12x 40 10 x 47, 10x 47
Seated BB Curl 10 x 25kg 10x25kg 11x25kg
Rope push down 12 x 27 12 x 27 12x 27
Standin BB curl with Fatgrips 12 x 20, 12x20, 12x 20
B
Squats: 5x95kg 5x95kg 5x95kg
Flat BB Bench Press: 5x75kg 5x75kg 5x75kg
Cable Row 12 x 47kg 12x 47kg 10 x 47kg
Seated BB Curl: 12 x 25kg 10 x 27.5kg 8 x 27.5kg
Tricep push down 12 x 25kg 12x25kg 8x25kg
Facepull n/a I forgot to do them.
If you are now lifting weights and you hadn’t been previously, you may be experiencing muscle gain. I have always told people they can only use the scale if they are only doing cardio. If you do resistance training, lifting challenging weights, they can’t rely in the scale. They have to go by the mirror and how clothes fit.
Okay, so after 6 weeks on this program, that’s not too shabby. That said, relative to your body weight, you are weak as shit =) I would also add that other than the first two lifts you are doing from each workout (so…Deads, MPs, Squats and Flat Bench), plus the cable and lat pulls…the rest is wasted time.
So to change the variables of the equation, you need to be moving a lot more weight for the main compound lifts. Doing this will significantly increase your muscle mass. And doing that will significantly increase the number of calories your body needs to sustain itself. Your weight might not go down much initially, but it will probably start to look much better, plus you will be putting yourself at a much greater position for whenever you want to burn fat later.
Off the top of my head, keep adding weight to this A/B split (or even a different program) until each of the main lifts is maybe 25% more than what it is at right now. Then come back here and tell us all about it and we will tell you about how much of a badass you are.
Doing 3 sets of 5 is pretty decent. Some do 5 x 5. What I would suggest is that if you have more in the tank, do more sets (and/or increase the weight). If it starts to become hard to put more weight on the bar while doing the same number of sets, you should come back and ask for advice. Might need a deload, or a change in program.
You do not have to necessarily have to cut all the other crap, just never, ever let it get in the way of the main stuff. If you are ever in the position where you are missing lifts or skipping sessions because your legs are sore from doing Leg Curls, for example, then your doing it wrong.
In Melbourne so basically same as you, no fires near and smoke a lot better today.
My 2c
As I think t3hpwnisher said above, i wouldn’t worry too much about your weight stalling a little for a short period of time. I think you training plan above looks fine for you. The key to making it work is pretty much what cyrrex said, you need to focus in adding weight every session to the main movements (squat, deadlift, bench, military press). If it start to get hard to add weight and still hit your 3 x 5, then consider adding another set or even 2 before you up the weight. So of you are squatting 95 for 3 sets of 5, but cant squat 100, then go to 4 sets of 5 at 95 and in the next session do 5 sets of 5 at 95. Then in the next session go to 3 x 5 at 100. You get the idea.
I would stay doing what you are doing for a few more weeks, keep progressing the weight on your training and keep the diet clean as your plan above. If you dont see any strength or weight loss changes in a few more weeks then it may be time to think about changing the diet a bit. 2000 is pretty low for someone your size but it sounds like it has been working so reluctant to suggest changes yet.
Some thoughts TLDR keep doing what you’re doing for a bit longer. Don’t slack on diet/activity. Continue monitoring including weighing to see if this stall is really your body settling before continuing to drop scale weight:
2 weeks isn’t really a stall like other posters said it could be your body finding some kind of momentary equilibrium. For many inputs the body has compensations and negative feedback loops that resist whatever you’re doing. After so long dieting maybe your body is relatively resistant to weight loss even though you’ve been providing a similar stimulus. A bit of a diet break, eating at maintenance for a while, may be helpful and it sounds like if your weight is stabilising you’re already doing that. Then push again after.
If you really wanna get things moving again right away you’ll have to do things to create a further deficit eat bit less or bit more activity. I’d recommend waiting it out a bit as is though.
Use other metrics like the mirror, improvement in gym performance etc. and continue to weigh yourself frequently. This way you get all the info to make decisions with.
Brisk walk indoors after every meal 10+ minutes. Going from walking all those kms to little could bump your TDEE to maintenance or at least slow weight loss on the scales.
I’m a big fan of this approach, even if you stall in weight loss your likely to make a gain in one of the other areas which generally results in a more positive feeling and likeliness to keep going.
Numbers ain’t everything… unless you’re a powerlifter…