Hello, this is my first time posting here at T-Mag. I I was wondering if anyone could answer a couple quick questions if you have the time.
I have been working out and dieting with since the first week in January. Since then I have been following the T-dawg 2.0 diet, with one to two cheat meals a week, to make it easier to stick to the diet.
I did Meltdown I for approximately a month and then switched to OVT, which is the current workout. I have kept a detailed diet log and basically the calorie intake and choice of foods have been the same through out the entire program. I am eating between 1400 and 1600 calories a day.
I have made decent progress with this diet and lifting combination, losing 25 lbs. since January, approx. 1.5 lbs a week. The first few weeks I lost 2-3 lbs a week, but in the last 5 weeks the loss has slown down. I have lost between 3 and 4 lbs in that time frame.
Currently I am not doing any cardio, I wanted to get the diet and lifting down first. When I started I weighed 180 lbs and am now down to 155. I don’t know my current body fat % but when I started in January it was 32%.
If anyone could offer any suggestions, i.e. should I keep doing what I am doing, should I switch up the diet, the training, ect.
Any responses would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
First off, great progress so far. You rock!
Second, remember, it’s perfectly normally for fat loss to slow down the closer you get to your ideal or goal weight. The fatter a person, the faster the fat will drop off. The less fat a person has to lose, the slower the process is (generally speaking).
Third, you haven’t checked your bodyfat. You are very likely gaining muscle. The diet is sensible, the training program is great, and it sounds like you’re pretty new to lifting. Put all those together and you’re probably gaining muscle - and that means the scale is going to lie to you.
Gain 3 pounds of muscle and lose 3 pounds of fat and the scale says you made no progress. The mirror tells a different story.
Okay, with all that out of the way, I’d suggest you drop down to a single cheat meal per week and be patient. You’re still dropping over half a pound a week and that’s great! That means you’re more likely to keep it off and that you’re not losing metabolism-boosting muscle.
It sounds like you’ve been using OVT for a long time though, so it may be time to switch programs - if only for a mental boost in the gym. Just scan the previous issues section, pick one, then post it here and we’ll tell you if it’s good for your goals.
Lastly, are you using any supplements?
Excellent work!
The addition of 30-45 minutes of moderate cardio in the mornings on an empty stomach with your current diet and training the same would help you break that plateau. Also, the addition of 12-15 minutes of HIIT 3 times a week could potentially help as well. At this point the cardio would just kick start you and allow you to burn some more calories which should increase your fat burning.
Also, weight might be a good indicator at times but you might want to check out your body mass. If you are eating correctly and training correctly, you might very well be adding muscle which would diminish your weight loss but would improve your metalbolism significantly.
I wouldn’t worry a ton about your weight loss slowing. For one, I wouldn’t cut the calories down because you’ll give in to your appetite. Also my problem when I did the T-dawg diet was the cheat meals. I’d modify them a bit. Instead of cheat meals…do a cheat day where you eat higher carbs for the day but keep the calories for the same the whole day, or go a bit higher. Personally I eat about 2000-2100 calories on non-workout days on non-workout days and 2100-2400 calories on workout days. Friday I switch myself to primarily carbs and protein and up that figure to 3000-4000. Try attacking the cheat meals first…then start doing the cardio. Small amounts of cardio do actually help your muscle grow and impart tons of positive effects on the body so it’s not always the devil it’s made out to be. Being that I’m in my 4th week of cutting now I added a one mile treadmill run to the end of my workouts and I’m hoping to continue my 2lb a week of weight loss. If all else fails cut the calories down 150 a day.
Jason
Thank you guys so much for all of your encouragement! To answer some of your questions: lifting isn’t new to me… but it was been A WHILE 
Also, I’m taking the following vitamins (just one serving a day - not 80 pills a day like it says on the bottle): flax seed oil, omega three fish oils, one-a-day, calcium and fiber. I know slowing loss is normal but it makes it harder to stay on the wagon! I’m 5 lbs away from my original goal and 10 lbs away from my new goal. Thanks again!
Hey, there, bbygrl37. Welcome to the forum!!! (grin)
You’ve gotten some great input thus far. You may not know it, but Chris Shugart is “The Man” behind T-Dawg 2.0. You couldn’t get better advice.
On a lot of different levels I think you would benefit from adding in some cardiovascular exercise into the mix. If you’re not cardiovascularly fit, you need to lay a foundation, and I would recommend steady-state cardio on the days you don’t lift. Shoot for 65% to 75% of your maximum heart rate (MHR), and work your way up to 45 minutes or so. After 3 months you could start playing around with HIIT.
The one other thing I would recommend is that you re-run the numbers. You’ve lost weight and BF. Your body doesn’t require as many calories as it did when you started your diet.
A person’s caloric requirements are based on the LBM (Lean Body Mass) they have. Unfortunately, as we diet and lose weight, we lose a little LBM in the process, and the calories required to maintain weight are reduced a bit as well.
Congrats on your success thus far! The fact that you need to make adjustments is very, very normal.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!!!