Slow Metabolism, Advice on Physique?

So this is my current macro nutrition, it’s around 2,000 calories a day. I train 4-5 days a week, rarely 6 but I do on occasion. I’m usually good about getting hypertrophy for each body part.

I can’t understand why I have such high fat on such a low calorie diet. Also i tend to just get fat when i try to bulk, even if it’s clean. I do cardio as well, when my legs are capable.

Stats 5"7 @175 approx 16/18% BF.

Monday - Chest.Shoulders.tris
Tuesday - Core.

legs. Calves
Wed - rest or cardio
Thursday - Chest.Shoulders.tris
Friday - core. legs. Calves
Saturday - back.biceps.

I’m completely stealing this idea from other posters but I feel as though you should spend some time working at maintenance calories eating more on hard training day (legs) and less on off days just to help bring bodyfat down while staying at the same body weight. At 2000 calories to start a cut things will only end poorly.

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I’m not usually one to stray from the “diet is king” philosophy, and I do really believe that, but…

Start doing hill sprints 3 times a week (with a 20 minute jog afterwards to burn fat mobilized into the bloodstream). You can’t be a sprinter and hold on to body fat. I’m not sure it’s physiologically possible, although I’m no scientist. But it makes sense to me.

As far as the diet goes, you’re probably not tracking accurately enough. Are you leaving out all the little things like coffee creamer, condiments, that handful of grapes etc? Those little things can add up to stubborn body fat.

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To me, you look heavier than 16-18 percent, but none of that matters. Have you tried higher carb, lower fat? Also, after working out your totals it comes out to 1660 calories. That’s insanely low. Eat more so you have more to cut out when you start losing more weight. The lower you start out a cut, the less you have to take out when you get lighter. I would personally train 4 days a week if not 3 with lifting and do 2 days of LISS and 2 days of sprints.

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Yeah I added 300 + calories for my seasoning and marinades. I do tend to eat candy and cookies here and there but as much as I workout I definitely should be leaner. My metabolism is total shit apparently.

This type of thinking does not bode well when trying to lose weight man. Lose this mindset and you’ll probably start losing weight

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X2

Those things add up like you wouldn’t believe. Getting leaner doesn’t have much of an error margin at all.

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Well there you go.

If there’s one thing that I hope you can take away from this thread…it’s remembering this is a game of tight margins. Count everything. If you want to have 300 calories of seasoning and marinades + candy, make sure it’s worked into your total calories – although keep in mind those empty calories will be at the expense of missing out on ingesting protein.

I don’t want to say you’re going about it all wrong. But I can definitely say you need to be more disciplined and little smarter about the process. And you’ll hear me say over and over that enjoyment is key to getting fit, but within reason of course.

On the bright side, when you’re a ripped dude you’ll be able to have those things more often because the metabolism becomes armor plated when you carry more muscle than body fat. But you’ll never get there wasting hundreds of calories on shit that doesn’t get you closer to your goal.

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You guys seem to be right. Yesterday I made a point not to eat any candy or cookies, I just had a banana, handful of pretzels and I was starving.

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You could also do better by not starving. There’s going to be some level of hunger when losing body fat (sometimes not) but it shouldn’t be at the point of “oh my god I’m so fucking hungry I could eat the couch”. If you keep your margins tight, as I mentioned you should only be slightly hungry although that could vary from person to person of course.

I don’t do intermittent fasting as much as I used to because I don’t see it as the magic bullet I once thought it was. But I’m so glad I did for 2 or 3 years because it flipped my slave/master relationship with food. You’ll realize that going 16, 18 or 20 hours without eating is not going to kill you, and you can actually function and enjoy having an empty stomach. You make food your bitch, instead of the other way around.

I still do it from time to time, mostly as a way to hit a low calorie mark for the day. If I start eating at 2pm, it makes it so much easier to have less calories than if I start eating early in the morning.

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