Can't get leaner

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey there. I’m sure you’ve heard this one a million times, but I’m really at my wits end. I’m 38, 5-11, 220 and have estimated 1rep maxes of 285/225/405.

I have always been heavy/large. Currently have a 37 inch waist. I’ve also despite my size never been particularly strong. Also part 2: despite my size, I’ve never eaten to excess, don’t eat junk food, have always been active, etc. I have come to believe I might just be wired to carry excess body fat. (especially around my mid-section. My arms and legs are fairly lean).

Long story short, I love weight training. But it just doesn’t seem to be working for what I want, which is to get leaner–I need to reduce my waist size.

For example, for the last four months I’ve had a 5 day SBD split (adapted from the bridge after I ran that program, it’s basically the bridge but broken out into 5 days instead of 3 to have shorter workouts), including three days of HIIT training. One complete rest day each week. I strictly adhere to this. I also eat a very simple (but perhaps problematic?) diet EACH day (no variation, no alcohol, no snacks, etc.): (1) AM protein shake (400 calories; 40g protein) and black coffee; (2) mid-morning omelet, oatmeal, and banana (500 calories; 30g protein); (3) afternoon protein shake (400 calories; 40g protein); (4) HelloFresh or other “homemade” dinner apportioned to approximately 700 calories and 40g protein (5) evening protein shake (400 caloriesl 40g protein). TOTAL: 2400 calories and 190g protein. During this time I have gotten stronger. My weight is also up 3 pounds and my pants/shirts are tighter (opposite of what I want). Given my size and activity level I cannot imagine I am eating a surplus of calories.

Questions:

  1. Any glaring issues with what you’re seeing here?
  2. Should I consider dropping my calories even more? It gets harder to approach 200g protein as I drop more calories. Is it even realistic to consistently get 200g protein from 2000 calories? At my size, should I be more concerned with dropping calories to get leaner even if it means I’m coming in around 150g protein?
  3. At what point would you ever consider an inability to lose fat/get leaner a genetic issue, how can I “test” for this or otherwise confirm, and what are the next steps (e.g., nutritionist if its a diet issue, MD if its a health issue? FWIW I had a physical recently and all my tests were normal, including testosterone and thyroid activity).

Finally–I know this is is a question you get all the time (“I am doing everything but can’t seem to lose weight!”) but for the sake of curiosity, can you please describe what the process looks like if you take it as fact that physical activity and diet are near optimized and one still cannot get leaner? I keep waiting for my hard work and adherence to training and diet to pay off. I’m afraid that soon I’m going to look into “fat freeze” or even worse…start long distance running.

Thanks.

2

kflymceids,

Thanks for the post and I can appreciate the frustration. A few thoughts:

  1. I think if the programming isn’t working for you to get stronger, it could use some adjustment. If it is working, great! Carry on. I do not suspect that the training has a significant impact on your daily energy expenditure, which at present seems to be a Calorie surplus given the objective results. That said, energy balance changes take time to manifest, so a quick 3lb jump doesn’t mean much to me.
  2. If you want to lose weight and you haven’t been doing so over the last month, you need to reduce energy intake further. I suspect you’re eating more than you think.
  3. Genetics are involved in weight management and body composition 100% of time and individuals respond differently to interventions. That said, your genetics play very little role (if any) in how you’d respond to an actual energy deficit. If that were achieved, you’d lose weight 10/10 times, though the amount of weight you lost may be different than an individual with a different genetic makeup. This does not require medical management for your genetics, but you may benefit from additional support from professional nutrition management and potentially medications to make adherence to a health-promoting diet more automatic.

I would never accept it as a fact that someone is in an energy deficit and not losing weight outside of a fluid retention problem.

I know this isn’t the answer you wanted, but I think there are actionable items here.

-Jordan

3

Thanks for the response. A couple follow ups:

  1. Is there any problem with replacing traditional meals with protein shakes/Huel for the bulk (or entirety) of my eating? If I can get 200g protein on 2000 calories of shakes, is there anything wrong with that? The common response is always “you’re eating more than you think” but I’ve already exactly calculated all my meals except dinner, and based on the prepared nutritional information from HelloFresh, I am pretty certain that I’m +/- 100 calories on that estimate.
  2. The 1g protein for pound body weight…I weigh 220 but it’s obviously not a lean 220…should the 1g protein be based on estimated lean body mass? Short of going all shakes, I don’t know how to get 200+ g protein in 2,000 calories or less on a regular basis.

Thanks

4
  1. I would not recommend this for a health-promoting dietary pattern. I would skip the HelloFresh stuff if you’re concerned about it’s accuracy.
  2. All data on protein recommendations are for total body weight, not lean body weight. I don’t recommend 1g/lb of BW, but rather ~ 1.6g/kg bw/day and higher.

-Jordan

5

Hey Jordan,

If OP is a male trying to lose body fat wouldnt the To Be a Beast fat loss reference protein recommendation be 1.25g / lb of body weight (for OP 275g /day)? 220 lbs is ~100 kilos. 1.6g per kg of bodyweight would be 160g a day. Thats a 400-500 calories difference. Did the evidence or basic protocol change or are you adjusting something for OP specifically? Thanks!

6

Anything over 1.6g/kg/day would be fine. The recommendation isn’t wrong in TBAB, it’s just incomplete. 1.6-3.1g/kg/day is the range we advocate for per our latest protein recommendations .

7

Great, thanks Jordan!