Jordan, I’ve been following you and your ideas for a while now. 2 years. I’ve seen every youtube video, a ton of IG lives, read every BBM resource, currently in group programming, bought the template bundles, etc. Of particular relevance to my question here is that I’ve read/digested TBAB many times, and have done calorie tracking with various degrees of success. Still have a bit of confusion, so here it goes.
To keep things short yet provide some context…creating a long-term calorie deficit to achieve slow weight loss is difficult for me. Same for gaining weight. I THRIVE easily at maintenance intake. It comes natural for whatever reason. My set point perhaps.
Currently 46 yo, 5’10", 205lbs with ~38" waist.
Strength training about 22 months. SSLP for a few months then almost directly to BBM afterward.
The Positive: I’ve gained about 20 lbs, mostly muscle according to all verifiable metrics (waist size decreased from the untrained state, arm/chest/thigh circumference measurements all went up, fat pinches went down, etc). All good right?
The Negative: All this change happened in the first ~8 months of training. The last 14 months, very little change in body composition. I’ve gotten stronger, and body composition has improved but it’s been very slow.
My Objective: I want to be leaner sooner. I have an athletic build and I’m tired of being fluffy on top of that, especially living on the Gulf Coast where I’m shirtless all the time in my leisure. I don’t care about maximum strength or muscle at the moment, though I do want to increase both over the long term. I feel like the way I eat now, I’m kind of spinning my wheels and will never get where I need to go. I can’t seem to lose the fluff this way and fee like I need to be more drastic. I can’t comply to a moderately restrictive diet long enough to cause a chance. Short term I’d like to drop 2-3" off my waist.
I’ve seen you suggest things about more drastic short term deficits providing good results with no fear of metabolic damage as others suggest. I really don’t care if I get a bit weaker in the process, but I don’t want to lose the muscle I’ve gained either. I’d accept moderate strength/muscle loss.
I’m considering going on a 1000 calorie/day diet for 2-4 weeks, at least during the week. Weekends would be more of my typical maintenance intake, tracked around 2700 calories… I think I can maintain this for 5 days each week before the weekend hits. This would be a huge weekly deficit over my current dieting, hopefully stimulating quick fat loss.
THE QUESTION: Is there something glaringly wrong about this approach? I just want to get the weight off quick so I can forget about it, then return to my more normal eating patterns as I feel like I could likely keep my BF% roughly the same once I get my waist down. I might be wrong on being able to comply with this but it feels doable at the moment.
Thanks for everything you’ve done for me the last 2 years…without even knowing it perhaps.
). I really don’t think a relatively slow bulk with good recovery is in the cards for me anymore at my age (40). But I do keep trying.