I’ve been doing SS since August of 2017 and basically Paleo style diet, no weight loss. Starting in March, I lost a couple pounds doing keto (70%fat, 25%protein, 5% carbs, 1921kcal/day) but it was very slow and I was worried about insufficient protein for recovery so I switched to the following:
Current macros:
1700kcal/day
200g protein
60g fat
20g carb
Four weeks ago, I added one session of HIIT/ week: 5 min warm up, 7 intervals of 20s/240s, 10 min cool down. Week 1 I lost 2 lbs, week 2 I lost 2lbs, week 3 switched from 1921 kca/day to 1700 kcal/day lost 0.4lbs. Added second session of HIIT (Tuesday/Thursday), gained 1.2 lbs. Still doing strength training 3x/week, MWF.
My weight and waist circumference put me in a high risk category. No current known comorbidity (HbA1C is 5.6 (that was before going keto, keto typically lowers my HbA1C to 5.0), BP is always low normal, hormones in normal ranges). Do you think I should minimize the strength training now and focus on fat loss entirely considering the risk/benefit?
This is a very interesting topic for me as I am also currently trying to drop body fat and like yourself I seem to have stalled. I’m facing the same issue with protein as I don’t want to drop it too low so don’t have a lot of calories left for carbs / fat. I look forward to seeing where this goes. My only advice is just hang in there and good luck.
This is 1420 kCal, not 1700. That said, I don’t think you’re eating this daily.
Four weeks ago, I added one session of HIIT/ week: 5 min warm up, 7 intervals of 20s/240s, 10 min cool down. Week 1 I lost 2 lbs, week 2 I lost 2lbs, week 3 switched from 1921 kca/day to 1700 kcal/day lost 0.4lbs. Added second session of HIIT (Tuesday/Thursday), gained 1.2 lbs. Still doing strength training 3x/week, MWF.
I would’ve had you start with LISS over HIIT, 2x/wk, and you need to reduce calories more. I would not recommend going keto or Paleo over a diet with whole grains, more fiber, and less tendency to eat more dietary fat given your recent issues with weight loss.
I think you should also still strength train, though you will need to modify your programming after novice LP stops working.
Eat at a calorie deficit. This is what you need for fat loss. If you are not losing weight, you are not eating less than your body burns. This has been my experience. Are you weighing and measuring everything that goes into your mouth? Plus, the macros don’t quite work out unless I’m doing my math wrong. 200g of protein(2004)=800, 60g of fat(609)=540, 20g of carbs(20*4)=80. 800+540+80=1,420. Also, I’m not a keto expert, but typically I thought it was higher protein and higher fat. Did you get your macro breakdown from IIFYM.com or another source? Are the macros based upon height, weight, age, type of job, and physical activity?
I’m not Jordan, or a coach, but something that worked well for me was finding my maintenance calories (which in my case, Myfitnesspal is really close with its default setting you may have to mess with it some), drop my calories by 500/day, and average out the loss to 1lb/week. I would do this for six weeks and then take a week off and eat at my new maintenance (not a “free” week where I ate garbage, still good just more). Then go back to the deficit. This resulted in about 6lbs down every seven weeks. I went from 235 to 163. I chose the six week thing after a little trial and error because that is when I was at my most hungry.
For this to work you have to measure everything you eat even if you eat something bad like a candy bar or something. So if your maintenance is 2,400/day, eat 1,900/day. You should also set a timer or something once an hour to just get up and move, a small walk or something. Your body will fight back by ceasing NEAT, so you just have to make yourself.
I would also “eat” my conditioning calories. So if I burned 400 calories on the bike, I would eat them that day. I used an Apple watch to track (and again, it work well for me but not so much for everyone). This helped me as well as struggling against hunger (even boredom hunger) was the hard part for me. If you don’t have this issue just ride out the calorie deficit as long as you can first then eat your conditioning.
I was able to maintain a lower weight for a few years before we had a baby (he has some special needs and health issues so there was a lot of living in hospitals and eating whatever was present that sent me off the wagon). I hope this helps, if not I’m sure someone else has an idea that will.
I just started the Bridge this week. Any modifications to your recommendations? Does the GPP on Thursday count for my 3 sessions of LISS/week or should it be in addition to the LISS I’m already doing?