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Not sure how this is possible, but I've hit a plateau which now has turned into me gaining weight on the diet. Quick background, started at 302 and over the course of 2ish months I got down to 281 pounds. Weight loss slowed down, but it worked out that I was losing about a pound a week. I had to tweek my carb nites to clean carbs and limit the “junk” because I didn't respond well to it. For the whole month of March I haven't lost anything, in fact I've gained weight. It started the weekend of 3/15. I had a small carb nite, protein shake with with 5 grams of leucine and maltodextrin after the gym, white rice, potatoes, french fries. Meats were low fat roasted chicken that I had with the white rice. The next day I weighted 282 pounds. Went back low carb all week and as of Saturday 3/23 I weighed 288 pounds. I'm not a slave to the scale, but found it really odd that I was gaining weight throughout the week. After that Sunday weigh in, the next time I weighed myself was that Wednesday and I weighed 285. That week I didn't eat breakfast, but ate pretty much the same fatty low carb meats and meals that I have been eating for lunch and dinner. Eating the same diet my wife has and she has continued to loss weight over the past few weeks at about a pound and some change a week. I do consume a bit more fat and calories because of PWS and some snacks I have that she doesn't. My snacks are pepperoni for the most part.For breakfast I've been trying to drink around 24 oz of coffee with about 2-3 oz of heavy cream with some splenda. I lift 4-5 days a week, pretty intense and heavy. I drink the norm PWS of WPI, 5 grams of leucine and 5ish grams of creatine. Only changes to my diet that I can think of would be the addition of coffee and no breakfast and the fact that I have been drinking a little bit more diet mountain dew. Most of the time I would drink them I would try to plan it after I lifted weights as well, so if I do have a insulin response to the drinks it would be after I lifted weights. Any ideas on what's going on? Anyone had this happen to them? Wondering if it's the PWS getting in my way or something else. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance to anyone that responds.
Have you considered extending the ULC days? Instead of 7 days ULC its 14. The podcasts that are on Body.io mention this step for who have a bit more to lose.I bring this up because the carbs you're probably ingesting are being stored a little more than you would like. Extending the ULC days might help. What does an honest average day look like for you?
Thank you for reminding me and responding. I listened to that podcast as well and that carb nite I was referring too was the first one I had after 14 days. My wife and I have stretched them out for the same reasons he's mentioned in the podcast.Typical day looks like this. Breakfast (if I eat it) is around 7:30 am and consists of 3 eggs one white fried in coconut oil with some bacon bits about 3-4 oz of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. If I don't eat I have about 24 oz of coffee with about 3 oz of heavy cream and 3 splenda. Some days I've done both. Breakfast and then when I get to work the coffee. Lunch is around 11:30 am and it depends, but its high fat medium protein. The meal ranges anywhere from 500-650 calories, sometimes more. On my planning period, I'm a teacher, around 2:20 pm, I have some pepperoni. Most likely I little more than a serving size, but around that. I get to the gym around 4:15-4:30 depending on when I get out of work. I lift for about 44-50 mins and like I said I try to lift heavy. After weights I have a PWS with about 25 grams of WPI, 5 grams of creating and Leucine. Anywhere from 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours later I'll have dinner. Depends, but it mostly the same as lunch. My wife tracks everything on my fitness pal, she loves it, I hate it, but macks for her are pretty good. Never over 30 grams of carbs and her fat, protein levels are pretty close depending on the day of where they should be. I figure mine are a bit higher than hers b/c of the shake and pepperoni.
you said the wife tracks your foods.. what's the daily total calories come to?
It's anywhere from 1600 to 1700's per day. Just depends on what we have to eat those days. Again, I would assume mine is around 2000ish.
So your body is starving and holding onto everything it can. Being 280lbs you should be getting a lot more than that. You should be looking at macros more than looking at a caloric standpoint. Do you know what your total looks like? I would think getting around .8g in protein to your ideal body weight or at the body weight now with fats being around the same idea. I would think having a bit more fat and protein will do you good.
you said the wife tracks your foods.. what's the daily total calories come to?
It's anywhere from 1600 to 1700's per day. Just depends on what we have to eat those days. Again, I would assume mine is around 2000ish.
yea for your size you are pretty much starving your body.. what was your diet like prior to CNS? did you do a long stint with very low intake?
+1 to 2k isn't enough food. Last time I did CNS, I was in the neighborhood of 2300 cal and I was 190-200lb.If you up your intake though, do it gradually over several weeks. If you just jump your intake up in one day, you may see some rebound fat storage.
So your body is starving and holding onto everything it can. Being 280lbs you should be getting a lot more than that. You should be looking at macros more than looking at a caloric standpoint. Do you know what your total looks like? I would think getting around .8g in protein to your ideal body weight or at the body weight now with fats being around the same idea. I would think having a bit more fat and protein will do you good.
Good point. Thank you. However, what's puzzling to me is that if I'm starving myself by not eating enough and I'm keeping insulin levels low on my ULC days, how and I gaining weight? That's the part that has me baffled. I eat a bit more than my wife does. Those cal counts was based on about what she eats per day and when I look at it again most likely a decent underestimate. Sorry for not being more accurate. I would estimate that I eat at least 500 if not more calories per day than she does. I eat more at each meal than she does. For example she eats 4 pieces of bacon and two eggs in the morning, I eat 4 with about 4 oz of sausage and about a 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil. She gets over 100 grams of fat a day and anywhere from 110-130 grams of protein with what she eat. I just used her macros and add to it to get a rough idea of where I'm at. I guess the moral of the story is I need to track my own so I can know what I'm taking in per day. My thing is, I can't eat enough food to get to those levels. Based on what I've read and been told I need to eat over 200 grams of protein. I don't think I can. I guess that's another thing I need to work on as well. Thank you for the help.
You certainly can get to those levels. It is great that you are a teacher because you basically have your eating schedule set in stone and the times are pretty well spaced. Your planning period should include a full meal not just a pepperoni snack, you can add another scoop of WPI to your post workout shake if your supplement budget allows that, you can make your dinner meal a bit larger as well or divide it into two meals as you seem to eat fairly early. Bulk cooking some food for the week on the weekend is a great way to make sure that you always have something ULC to eat during the week.In short undereating causes the metabolism to slow and certain hormone levels to drop/raise. The body knows what it needs to operate and if you are not providing it with an appropriate amount of calories for that it is going to save what it can in the form of fat to prevent itself from starving.
Some people respond well to a flipped macro ratio, also. So eating more fat (in grams) than protein. You could give this a shot and it'd be easier to get down. So if you were wanting 200 pro, 150 fat, you could try 150 pro, 175 fat. That would be appx equivalent, calorically.But that being said... 200g protein is easy to hit. I often go over on accident, ha.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. I'll shoot to consume more food and see if the additional cal, fats and protein make a difference.
Just to add some thoughts. I sorta skimmed some of the replies so I may (or may not) be doubling stuff.For ME I have found that not eating a solid meal until 12:00-2:00pm works great and might work in your schedule. In the mornings I will have coffee with butter and MCT oil once or twice. Lunch is pretty large calorically and if you have a microwave and/or fridge getting pre-cooked protein in is pretty easy. For me I stick to as much natural protein as possible - bacon/grass-fed hotdogs and beef/cheese and butter. I will do the same around 9:00pm for my second meal of the day. No snack in between since the two meals are plenty large. I personally find that keeping the foods as simple and uncomplicated and ULC as possible makes the weekdays very easy and I know I'm not getting anything I'm not intending to get in my foods.You might benefit from trying Kiefer's detox diet. After I did it I pretty much kept to the same foods since it was such a no-brainer.I do agree with them about how many calories you are consuming. Kiefer recently mentioned keeping protein to 30% so I don't necessarily think you need as much as you say but there's many conflicting opinions out there. If you eat/drink butter and MCTs it's actually easy to get the calories up without a lot of fuss.I don't necessarily think you need a CN every 14 days and I'd sure try modifying things before doing that but it's only because I love my carbs lol ;D
So your body is starving and holding onto everything it can. Being 280lbs you should be getting a lot more than that. You should be looking at macros more than looking at a caloric standpoint. Do you know what your total looks like? I would think getting around .8g in protein to your ideal body weight or at the body weight now with fats being around the same idea. I would think having a bit more fat and protein will do you good.
Quick update on my progress or lack there of.I increase my macros like you guys advised. I'm eating anywhere from 2500-2700 calories per day. I upped my fat intake big time to around 190-200 per day and protein is around that same number. Around the time of my last post I was in the 288 range, up 7 pounds from my lowest. I went on a anniversary trip with my wife and a wedding and was off the diet for a few days. I used the vacation protocol that I read about on here and it help limit the damage. Got back from my trip and I was 291. For that week I tracked everything and increase my macros to what I said above. Within about 6 days I was back to 281ish. Very excited that the new levels were the key to breaking my plateau I kept going. 14 days later I had another carb nite. It was a pretty clean one, mostly white rice, cuban bread and a little bit of sweets. Went up to 287. Since then I haven't gone under 283 pounds. I had another carb nite thinking that would help, but I've been around 285 the last 2 weeks. I'm beyond frustrated because March 2nd I was 281! So, basically gained a few pounds and hovered there for the last 2 months.Any other ideas and advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I don't know what else to do. Thank you for your help!!
You do know you were very very low calorie before increasing your macros right? So your body is adjusting and freaking out because it thinks you're going to starve yourself again. So it's holding onto everything it can. Once you continue this progress, and keep fueling/feeding yourself with plenty of food, the body fat will start to fall off. Have to remember you're becoming healthy, and repairing the damage. Once that is done, you'll start getting the progress wanted.
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