I have gone as low as 1,300 kcals on non training days and 2,000 on training days. I’m not killing myself with cardio though. Although I don’t feel like shit (admittedly, I’m doing good performance wise in the gym), I do feel hungry most of the time and mentally I’m craving carbs big time.
Here’s the thing though: I’m willing to do anything that takes to look amazing, BUT I’m starting to think that at this stage it may not be to lose more fat. I feel VERY small now, and I’m afraid that losing significantly more weight could lead to looking like shit.
Currently I’m dying to get back to gaining muscle, so I’m somewhat confused as to what to do.
My plan was to keep going until next week, then increase the calories and begin a mass building program now that I am leaner and would look much better putting on some lean mass…
Here I really need your guidance. My mind is almost completely set on getting back to gaining weight, but at the same time I want to get very lean for once. Still, I’m too afraid that doing it will make me look even worse because I don’t have enough muscle AND I’ll lose more in the process.
You need to nose another 10-15 pounds to look ridiculous, and as Paul has said numerous times you just need to keep grinding it out over the next 8-12 weeks to do it.
You say you haven’t even really been doing cardio, you probably will need to add that in to an extent now and ramp it up over the next bit.
You are right on the verge of shredding up (CT has called it in dead zone) but as you are experiencing the mind plays tricks at this stage. You feel small, your clothes don’t fit any more so you feel smaller, but I’m telling you that you are right on the tipping point of weekly changes in your physique that are going to be killer.
Stay the course, lose that final bit of wait and it will be worth it.
I thought about it for a while yesterday, and I decided to keep going for another 3-4 weeks depending on progress. If nothing else, for the fact that I’d decided to cut to get shredded and this time I’m not settling.
However, back in my mind there’s still a voice that tells me that at my shredded weight I’ll just look anorexic.
Right not I weight 160 lbs, which means that my final weight will be around 150 lbs. Ridiculous!
But I’ll give it a try and surely learn a thing or two.
Dont get hung up on the weight. You are right at that tipping point where you have lost all the fat that is going to make you feel smaller, and from here on you are going to lose the fat that makes you look bigger and better.
Every lifter, especially nattys, are surprised by how low their weight has to be and how much weight they need to lose to get truly shredded that first time.
Lonnie is spot on. There’s a point between being really shredded and being bulky during the dieting down where you don’t look “great” at all. That’s the area where most people give up and don’t follow through. Just finish the follow through and you’ll be happy you did. In pics, you’ll actually end up looking far bigger because all of the musculature will be so defined. So just see it through.
So what’s the plan of action? I’ve lowered calories to 2,000 a day on training days (about 220 g of protein, 50ish grams of fat and 160 g of carbs, virtually all in the peri workout window) and on non training days I still get the same amount of protein and fat but virtually no carbs (I end up at about 1,400 kcal), except from the ton of veggies I eat. It’s been this way for almost 4 weeks.
This Saturday I’ll have lunch at a sushi bar with my friends, so I’ll use that as a refeed (I’ll move my Friday workout to Saturday morning so the all-you-can-eat meal ends up being post workout and the calories get better used and do cardio on Friday instead), then how should I go from there?
I’m thinking on keeping calories the same and adding 2 40-minute, low intensity steady state weekly cardio sessions. Then see if I need to lower carbs on training days as well maybe in 2-3 weeks?
For the love of God you’re overthinking this. You don’t need a refeed at all. You’re not even close to needing a refeed. Just add in cardio daily for half an hour and go from there.
Anyway, since I’m introducing cardio, I’m trying to find the least boring way for me to do it (haven’t really ever done it consistently).
I haven’t ridden my bike in a while and I’ve recently been wanting to. Do you think going for a bike ride is a good cardio option? It’s probably not going to be as “steady state” as the treadmill or the bike at the gym, but I can probably ride it for 1.5-2 hours at a time (and I’d never manage to go for that long in the gym). How’s that sound?