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For the past four weeks I seem to be in Plateau Hell. I will start from the beginning. I saw an article in Men’s Fitness about the Carb Nite Solution and started to implement it around the second week of February. I didn’t weigh myself at the time, but a guestimate would be somewhere in the 205 – 210 pound range (I am 5’ 9” and 51 years of age). By 3/17 my weight was down to 192 pounds, so in a little over a month I had lost approximately 10 – 15 pounds, so far great. On 3/24 I was 190.2, 3/30 – 188.2, and on 4/7 – I weighed 186.4. This is where all progress stopped. On 4/14 I was up to 186.6. My first thought was it is a blip in the weight radar and everything would be okay the next week. On 4/21 I weighed 186.2 and I started to get frustrated. In two weeks I had dropped only 2 tenths of a pound. Then yesterday morning’s weigh in occurred and I was up to 188.8 or more than I weighed on March 30th. I can’t figure out what is going on. I purchased the book a few weeks ago and discovered this forum. From this I realized my fat intake wasn’t even close to what was being recommended, so two weeks ago I started adding Heavy Cream and Coconut oil to my coffee, eating fattier types of meat, and using cream/butter sauces to get my fat and protein ratio close to equal. Before this point I was keeping my carbs to between 10 and 15 grams per day and eating chicken, fish, and turkey to keep my fat intake low. I am still keeping my carbs the same, so only difference in my diet is the increase in fat. I also go to the gym six days per week on the following schedule:Sunday – Chest/Biceps with 25 minutes of HIIT (on an elliptical trainer).Monday – Stomach and 25 minutes of HIIT.Tuesday – Back/Triceps and 25 minutes of HIIT.Wednesday – Stomach and 30 minutes of light cardio on a recumbent bike (I keep my heart rate between 115 and 125 bpm).Thursday – Legs/Shoulders.Friday – OffSaturday – Stomach and 30 minutes of light cardio.In a typical week I burn around 4500 calories working out.During the week I get up at 4:15 AM and get to the gym around 5 AM. On the 3 days I lift I drink a VPX Protein Rush Shake with Creatine and Glutamine added after working out. I also take a serving of BCAA’s post workout that contains 460mg of L-Leucine, 384mg of L-Valine, and 156mg of L-Isoleucine.The other days I drink coffee with 2 tablespoons of Heavy Cream and 1 tablespoon of Coconut oil added.At 9 AM I eat a homemade flax muffin that is 207.5 calories, 15.625 grams of fat, and 11.5 grams of protein. Around noon I will eat Roast Beef or Hard Salami with cheese. For dinner I have been eating a salad with blue cheese dressing, meat, bacon, and hardboiled egg added. I am finished eating between 6 and 6:30 PM.Saturday is my Carb day which begins at 2 PM and continues until 8 PM. I haven’t counted my total carb intake during this time, but I usually eat mash potatoes, pizza or a grilled sandwich, french fries, donuts, cookies, corn bread, etc. I do experience night sweats afterwards.Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong. Right now my BF is 25.4 up from 24 % two weeks ago. My goal is to get my BF down in the 15 – 17% range by the second week of June when my summer work schedule moves to a four day week. I will then start Carb Backloading and working out in the afternoon from 4 - 5:30. Any help would be much appreciated.Thanks!
First of all, stop doing the HIIT at the same time as your workout. You need to spread those out by at least two hours otherwise your strength session will be hurt by the amount of cardio that you're doing.I don't know what's in your protein shake because you didn't list the ingredients, but I would suggest just doing hydrolyzed whey protein and leucine and/or creatine.Otherwise, it's hard to say what's going on with your progress because we didn't know your starting body fat percentage at the beginning. Scale weight is not a good indicator at all of your progress but you continually seem to be mesmerized by what the scale says. I'd suggest tossing it away and finding a good way to see you bf%, and remember that fat loss, weight loss, strength gains are never linear. Or it might even help to reset your body by taking a week off the diet completely or going to Carb backloading for a week. Then go back to Carbnite and see if that reset your hormones to make better progress.
You should definitely ditch the protein rush. The flavor I'm looking at online right now has Ace-K listed 3 times. And has 40g protein to 5g of fat. IMO that ratio is way off. Don't use premixed drinks anyway, The whey protein is destroyed by pasteurization. Just get some powder and a shaker bottle. And read the ingredients! Most people here go for stevia sweetened stuff.Are you training in a completely fasted state? Thats what I gathered from your post. Personally, If I haven't eaten anything, I will take a half serving of whey or 10 grams of BCAA 10-15 mins before training.I would separate any cardio from weight training by 5 hours myself. IF I did cardio at all. Its really not nessesary and could be hurting more than it's helping. I droped cardio altogether for 3 months while doing lean gains intermittent fasting and the body fat melted away.
Oh I should also add that I would do my carb night after training something like chest, legs or back rather than abs.
I disagree about taking the BCAA's before your workout, it's just going to spike insulin and not really going to help you like other simple things like coffee and creatine will.
I disagree about taking the BCAA's before your workout, it's just going to spike insulin and not really going to help you like other simple things like coffee and creatine will.
+1Also, the only amino in BCAA's that has been proven to work is leucine - you're likely wasting money on that.
Oh I should also add that I would do my carb night after training something like chest, legs or back rather than abs.
+1 !
Thanks to all that have replied so far. Because of my work schedule the only time I have to do HIIT is immediately after lifting. Would I be better off not doing HIIT and just doing some light cardio or none at all? I understand HIIT should be done within three days of Carb Nite, so that is the reason I am doing it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.Not 100 percent sure what Ace-K is, so I will list the ingredients from the other protein powder I use to make my flax muffins. If this one is okay I will start using it in place of the Protein Rush. If it isn't and you have suggestions of what to purchase please let me know. Although I have been lifting off and on (more on than off) for more than 30 years I don't know a lot about supplements.Whey Protein ConcentrateWhey Protein IsolateCocoa PowderNatural and Artificial Flavors (of course)Acesulfame Potassium and Sucralose130 Calories2.5 grams of fat3 grams carbs1 gram fiber1 gram sugar23 grams proteinAgain, thanks in advance for all your help.
After you use it up, get a lower carb whey isolate, not concentrate or a mix. Asulfame potassium = ace-k and spikes insulin. I'd omit the HIIT if you can only do it with weight training.
Thanks to all that have replied so far. Because of my work schedule the only time I have to do HIIT is immediately after lifting. Would I be better off not doing HIIT and just doing some light cardio or none at all? I understand HIIT should be done within three days of Carb Nite, so that is the reason I am doing it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Doing it after a heavy workout actually deactivates a lot of the growth signaling triggered by resistance training.And the light cardio is basically useless... unless you're talking about just plain walking, in which case, go for it.If you want to be making better progress on Carb Nite, forget about the cardio, schedule a single HIIT session apart from any resistance training on the day after your carb nite, and just resistance train the rest of the week (2-3 days). That's it!
Naomi – Thank you. I have stop doing HIIT after lifting for the past two weeks and my strenght is improving. However, I am still not losing much weight or BF. I think part of the problem is I am not ingesting enough fat during the day, but for some reason when I try to increase fat intake I end up with an upset stomach. I can tolerate Heavy Cream and cheeses, but Coconut oil and some other fats (pork rinds) cause me to have ulcer like symptoms. Any other fat suggestions?
Thanks to all that have replied so far. Because of my work schedule the only time I have to do HIIT is immediately after lifting. Would I be better off not doing HIIT and just doing some light cardio or none at all? I understand HIIT should be done within three days of Carb Nite, so that is the reason I am doing it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Doing it after a heavy workout actually deactivates a lot of the growth signaling triggered by resistance training.And the light cardio is basically useless... unless you're talking about just plain walking, in which case, go for it.If you want to be making better progress on Carb Nite, forget about the cardio, schedule a single HIIT session apart from any resistance training on the day after your carb nite, and just resistance train the rest of the week (2-3 days). That's it!
Hey Naomi, wich references do you have for the cardio after a workout lowering growth singnals? Not that I doubt you but I haven't come accros scientific articles with that conclusion yet...
Also since on CN I have hit 2 major plateaus, but afterwards my weight loss is great than any previous weeks. I have a hard time with MCT’s, I had to drop the MCT’s and get coconut oil, walnuts, and bacon to supplement the fat.Typed fast:
Also since on CN I have hit 2 major plateaus, but afterwards my weight loss is great than any previous weeks. I have a hard time with MCT’s, I had to drop the MCT’s and get coconut oil, walnuts, and bacon to supplement the fat.Typed fast:
Did you do anything to break through your plateau? Did you do another reorientation phase? Change your workout routine? etc... etc... etc...Or did you just let the diet run its' course and you stayed patient?
I have a similar issue. I started at around 320lbs and strictly using low carb dieting, was able to get down to 280ish. That's when the plateau hit (around 2 months with no progress). Believe me, i understand that weight is not the only indicator, but when you have 40+ lbs of fat to lose still… I tried taking a couple of weeks off of the low carb diet and then getting back on, but saw little gains. I finally decided to try carb back loading for a while. I absolutely love my workouts again (way more energy), however, I still have a lot of fat to lose. How long of a break from CNS should I take before switching back? I'm at around 30 days right now.Thanks.
I have a similar issue. I started at around 320lbs and strictly using low carb dieting, was able to get down to 280ish. That's when the plateau hit (around 2 months with no progress). Believe me, i understand that weight is not the only indicator, but when you have 40+ lbs of fat to lose still... I tried taking a couple of weeks off of the low carb diet and then getting back on, but saw little gains. I finally decided to try carb back loading for a while. I absolutely love my workouts again (way more energy), however, I still have a lot of fat to lose. How long of a break from CNS should I take before switching back? I'm at around 30 days right now.Thanks.
A break from CNS to CBL? Mhmm...well it all depends on you personally. If you feel that progress has somewhat "stalled" then switch to CBL for a while (like you've done before) then go back into CNS to "shock" the body. I'm in that Plateau Hell situation as well, along with Life hitting me...it sucks.
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