-
Just to add to what you said, Ive never been to a bodybuilding show, neither do I know how they feel when that lean. I always assumed they felt alright.
-
I’ve naturally always been fairly lean and haven’t gone above 12% since 2015.
-
I honesty had no idea 2000 calories per day was “low”. I followed a random article on Tnation that said eat 10X your body weight for fat loss… and here I am. Same article mentioned going low carb… which to me meant sub 50g.
-
I have adjusted calorie and carbs (not at 150g roughly) and feeling better. I think being an over achiever is a curse because trying to be shredded year round is not worth it. Especially while trying to stay in the top percentile at work. I have accepted reality and will most likely hover around a true 10-12%. 8% is defiantly not worth it… especially because I don’t even complete. Waste of time.
I did just that. Currently at around 2500 calls / day. Gained about a pound and a half since last week. Not big difference conditioning wise… Just more energy… and more temptation to do even more volume at the gym.
Quick Thankyou Christian. Calories are now at roughly 2700 / day (used to be 2000)…I’m feeling a lot stronger, went from 185lbs to 190ish and still staying lean. Also bumped carbs up from 50g /day to roughly 130 ish (with a cheat meal whenever I start feeling cold or sluggish)…
I think I can maintain this level of leanness bcz I’m now able to go out a lot more, party, eat more tacos and be happier by eliminating excessive calorie restriction and too much training volume. (Started dealoding every 5th week)
This also balances out with my career since I’m not competing in any bodybuilding show so no need to go super lean. Thanks again for the advice. Much appreciated.
-Denz
You still are sub 10 and are able to enjoy life, that’s amazing! You truly look fantastic. Like, you wouldn’t even have to diet to destroy many if not all your competition at an amateur show.
I used to be a carbphobic as well, so I know how bumping them up can make a drastic improvement in performance and muscle gains. When I was keto or very low carb yeah staying lean was easy but god damn, gaining muscle was almost impossible
If anything, your lats appear to have filled out a little and your lower back has added no fat. Very impressive. You should likely be telling the rest of us what to do!
Amazing physique
Most def! & thankyou! I think the definition of “low carb” needs to be changed esp for people like us that are not competing.getting lean and maintaining without screwing up social life is usually the goal for most
Swallowing my pride and listening to more experienced people that have been in this game for longer than I’ve been alive.
Folks on this forum told me to bump up calories a bit and reduce volume. I did just that and asked no questions until I tried it.
Hard for young lads like us to realize we’ve been wrong all along
.
That’s an awesome physique brother. And now you’ll have the energy and positive mindset to make the most of it.
Hi Thib,
Hope you’re doing well.
I have been following everyone’s advice to slowly bump up carbs and calories to help maintain stress / mood. As seen in this thread, I was at 2000 calories… then went up to 2400ish… and now creeping up on 2700/2800. My weight has slowly been going up and actually got me up to 192lbs 2 weeks ago (see picture)
The problem:
I’m now starting to lose weight again!!! My goal was to slowly add size until February but the size / weight gains are reversing. I’m starting to lose water weight and feeling hot when I sleep. I hate this feeling and just want to continue slowly bulking. Not losing weight. What am I doing wrong? (See pic for current physique)…
I weighed myself last night… currently back down to 188/187… how do I stop this weight loss. Literally happened in like 4 days… I thought eating more means I should be gaining weight…correct?
Current macros:
Calories: 2700-2800/day
Carbs: 150 per day (200 on sundays)
Protein:1.5 x body weight
Fats: whatever’s left…
First, you look awesome.
Now let’s look at what could possibly be happening.
By gradually adding calories over time, if your body is optimized (very muscular, lead, sensitive to insulin, good hormonal levels) you can have metabolic adaptations to the caloric intake.
Understand that a healthy, optimized body will always strive to maintain homeostasis (staying the same) unless there is a very strong reason to change.
If you under-eat for a good period of time your body will “metabolically adapt” to the low calories by reducing energy expenditure (lowering T3 and decreasing leptin levels for example) so that even if you are “theoretically” in a caloric defict, your body doesn’t lose weight anymore, some might even gain some!
The opposite can also happen. If you gradually increase your calories, and your body wants to maintain homeostasis, it will metabolically adapt to the higher caloric intake. What it does is increase metabolic rate/energy expenditure (increasing T3 levels, increasing leptin), burn more of the consumed energy to produce heat instead of energy.
Normally when you use nutrients to produce energy for body processes around 80% of it is turned into energy and 20% into heat. If you are chronically underfed this could be 100% toward energy because you need to be as efficient as possible… that’s one of the reasons why people are always cold when they have been dieting down for a while. But you could start to produce 25-30% heat if you consume more calories than you need.
If you’ve built some muscle, that is another reason why you could be hot and losing weight: muscle is a metabolically active tissue that use energy and produce heat.
Why is this happening now and not before? My theory is that prior, you were building muscle. This means that you needed more energy to fuel the muscle growth process. If your body no longer wants to build muscle, it doesn’t require the extra energy to fuel the process and thus it will either be stored as fat or, in your case, spent producing heat.
“Yeah but I’m still trying to build muscle”. I understand that. But I recommend that you go read my article from today:
The more advanced you are, the harder it is to put a strong enough stimulus to force the body to change (remember it wants to maintain homeostasis).
If you keep always training the same way, you become very well adapted to that type of training and it becomes less and less effective at stimulating muscle growth.
ANOTHER THING THAT COULD BE HAPPENING
On top of increasing physiological energy expenditure, the body can increase how much energy you spend daily by increasing subconscious physical activity. Just moving a little bit more, moving a little bit faster, fidgeting a tad more.
Physical activity produce heat. And it burns energy which could also lead to a weight loss.
As for the physical discomfort. I’m afraid that it is normally part of the life of those who build a lot of muscle, especially the heat and the constant need to eat more.
Very muscular bodybuilders have to constantly increase food intake over time, even consuming amounts that are much higher than their “theoretical” caloric need. For example, one pro bodybuilder I trained had to consume 5000-5500 calories per day to gain muscle. And he wasn’t a huge pro. He competed in the 212 class and was 200-202 in competition shape and 220-225 off season (still lean). In theory a 200-220lbs man would need around 3600-3800 calories to gain.
Some people might think that it’s cool to be able to eat that much and not get fat. But it actually sucks because it’s almost a full time job. You are hot and feel bloated all the time. And if you can’t hit your daily intake for a few days you have a significant weight drop that can mess with your mind.
Incredible physique. Built by plazma ? 
Thanks Thib,
Very detailed response and that really explains a lot. I will give that article a read and see if I can come up with ways to get more growth by February.
-i agree with you T3/T4 point because I no longer get cold. I also never really knew that that body basically has more control over things than we do.
So it seems like I’ll forever be stuck between 185 and 193 lbs no matter what I do. I’m at 2800 calories per day now and already reaching the point where carbs are starting to get unappealing. Anything above 150grams per day and I feel really bloated in the gut. I don’t even enjoy some of the food as much as I used to.
Do you have any recommendations for low bloating carbs? Currently eating some sweet potatoes, brown rice, veggies…( and tacos/bar food only on The Weeknds)
P.s is there any other way to put on good size by adding more fats and protein? Say maybe 250+ grams of protein per day and lots of almonds and eggs for fats? Looking for ways to not have to keep increasing carbs
Thank man.
Yup. Plazma, xtend bcaas, iso pure hydro whey and glycine
How about white rice? Fruits? Honey? Powdered carbs? Carbs at 150g and feeling bloated might be transient, it’s still a very low amount.
Not a fan of white rice but maybe with good seasoning it might be different. Will definitely have to bump up from 2700 to 2900 gradually… just weighed myself today. Still dropping weight… down to 185. Absolutely ridiculous! (but strength in the gym has gone up a bit)… so confusing.
thanks for the recommendation. Switched to mostly white rice and reduced sweet potatoes to breakfast only. World of a difference. Currently at 180g-200g of carbs / day (BW now at 195 ish)…
-No bloat/stomach issues
-seems like it also digests very fast (1 hour after a meal & I’m ready to lift…)
Makes me wonder what else I could be doing wrong/ could do better 
… so all these years Ive been basically handicapping my self and built a physique while running on fumes hmmm
And a jaw dropping physique at that! What’s your fume-fueled training been?
-
I used to think low carb means 50g or less bcz some random guy I used to watch I on YouTube growing up said so…
-
I’m probably doing too much volume based on Christian Thibs articles / YouTube vids.
Sample workout… done once per week…
(hamstring dominant leg day): (sets x reps)
-seated leg curl (4 x 15)…last set drop set
-dumbbell Romanian deadlift (6 x 8)
-lying leg curl (3 x 6) …last set drop set
-sumo deadlift (2 x 4)
-single leg Romanian deadlift (3 x 4)
-hip thrust (2 x 3)
-hip bridge (3 x 8)
-adductor / abductor machine superset (2 x 15)