I've Got A Big Butt And I Cannot Lie (A Little Help, Please)

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello Dr. Feigenbaum!

I’ve been trying to stop being fat for about 7 years now. I’m 6’ and first weighed 330lb 7 years ago, started a simple 3x8-12 rep scheme on the 3 big lifts and went walking for an hour a day and started eating clean, literally sirloin, potato with a small amount of butter, and a boat load of broccoli every. day. I never measured. I dropped down from 330lb to 183lb within about 2-3 years, but I didn’t get strong. I fell off the wagon (it was complicated) and ballooned back to 260lb. I’ve been fluctuating between 225-245 the past couple of years. First it was a severe ankle injury from sliding into base in softball, then a nasty food poisoning incident(?) that I’m still not sure what happened left me in bed bound, unable to eat even an apple for almost an entire week (worst pain I’ve ever felt 24/7 in my life). This past year, I woke up one day and just felt like absolute trash, I wasted all this time and I’m nowhere near where I want to be. So I ate 1750 calories a day trying 3x5 and I’ll just say it was mentally the worst thing I could have done. I was weak and my lifts stalled week after week.

I sought help from a nutritionist who told me to start eating 3,000 calories and to stay off the scale. I started that January 1st of this year. I averaged 2960 calories per day. I’ve been eating ABOUT 230/245/110 P/C/F. I started at 228.6lb and went up to 232lb in the first two weeks, today I weight 231.8lb, neither gaining nor losing since the first two weeks. My lifts went:

Squat: 185->265
Press: 115->130
Bench: 175->200
Trapbar Deadlift: 275 ->360
Power Clean: 135->160

My problem? I’m starting to stall on these numbers and I have a 44.5" waist.

My current routine is 3 compound lifts 3x a week for 3x5 alternating squat/press/dead and squat/bench/power clean. In addition, I average about 1.5 Heavy Bag sessions for about 20 minutes in addition to about 1.5 hours walking each week. My primary goal is to be in healthy, fighting shape. I’m not training for MMA, but I’m going into an occupation where I believe I should be prepared. My first step is to get rid of this fat.

Quick stats:

Male
Height 6’
Weight 232lb
Age 30
Waist 44.5"

My primary protein source is deer meat, greek yogurt, and whey protein. My carb sources are white/jasmine rice, russet potatoes, apples, bananas, pineapple, maple syrup. My fats come from extra virgin olive oil, bacon/bacon grease, and butter, and some cheese. I’ll eat a can of spinach a day or 3 cups of broccoli or mixed broccoli/cauliflower/carrots. You can pretty much count on me eating these things 5-6x a week… Every now and then I’ll make pancakes with sprouted flour or french toast using sprouted flour, or corn tortillas. I’ve found two meals a day makes it pretty easy to hit my calories/macros. I’ll eat a lunch before my workout with primarily protein/carbs and as little fat as I can muster, and the rest I eat at dinner. So a typical lunch might look like:

greek yogurt: 20g of protein
Shake: 36g of protein
Fruit: ~27g of carbs
Maple Syrup: 30g of carbs (I mix it with greek yogurt)
I might skip the greek yogurt and maple syrup and just eat about 50-60g of pineapple with the same protein shake.

I have a second shake of 54g of protein and 3g of creatine after working out. The rest of my calories and macros come from dinner about an hour or so after my workout. I drink either water, UNsweet tea, and coffee.

I refuse to give up, but the more I look back on the wasted time, the warmer I get to more unhealthy drastic measures. I really need to get rid of this fat. What should I change to start actually dropping the fat?

2

RR328,

Thanks for the post and congrats on making some changes in your life.

A few things I’d point out here that may be helpful as you go along:

  1. I don’t think that the size of your Calorie deficit is likely to change your training outcomes at 6 months and longer significantly. In other words, the program you were on was more responsible for your lack of progress than your diet. As you know, losing weight requires a reduction in energy intake compared to expenditure. Larger reductions cause faster weight loss with similar rates of adherence. This is mostly a personal preference thing and I don’t have a firm opinion here without knowing more about you, you preferences, and what would improve your adherence the most. That’s definitely consult territory, but something to consider.

  2. I think your program is fine for meeting the physical activity guidelines from a resistance training standpoint, but probably would benefit from greater exercise and rep range variations in addition to autoregulation. We discuss this extensively in our Beginner Prescription and Template. To be clear, there’s nothing special about 3x5 or those exercises and I think at this stage of your training you would benefit from more variety for nearly every conceivable training outcome.

  3. Your program also has about half of the recommended minimum aerobic conditioning training volume. I think this is a fine place to start, but would be looking to significantly increase this.

  4. I see nothing wrong with the diet you report except for issues with adherence, which is why you’re here. Identifying areas for improvement in ease of sticking to this (or similar) type of diet will be key to your success.

  5. If you’re not losing weight right now, you’re not in a Calorie deficit, which will require behavioral change to increase activity and reduce energy intake.

-Jordan

3

Thanks, Doc!

I understand these things, in my rush I left out the changes I had been planning to make or wondering about. Since I have stalled across the board with those lifts, I was thinking about switching to Christian Thibadeau’s Built for Battle. Just in case: It’s a star complex program utilizing 5 lifts performed for 5-4-3-2-1 reps for 5 days a week with heavy and light days with accessory lifts on light days. I would be selecting Power Clean, Push Press, Back Squat, Seated Row (I’m too fat to do a neutral grip pull up), and bench press. I tried this program out last year trying to go super low on calories to primarily lose fat. I ended up incline walking on the rest periods and eating no more than 2250 calories. After about 5-6 weeks, I couldn’t keep up, the heavy days made me a walking zombie for the next two days and I couldn’t even get the light day lifts. That’s when I crashed. That week it was flu like energy levels, didn’t make it to the gym at all, went back to 3x5 after a couple of weeks.

I really enjoyed the program while I was on it. It was fast paced and I actually enjoyed the volume and “ramping” nature of the workout. I would be taking a 30 minute walk every day and heavy bag training instead of the accessory lifts. The thing stopping me is the nuance of nutrition. I know I cannot sustain 2250 calories on the program, but I also know it worked well for those 5-6 weeks.

Just in case, here’s the gist of the program:

Monday: Test for 3RM
Tuesday: Ramp 5-4-3-2-1 rep of 3RM from Monday
Wednesday: Ramp to 92.5% of 3RM from Monday (+Heavy Bag)
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Ramp up to 110% of 3RM from Monday
Saturday: 90% of 3RM (+Heavy Bag)
Sunday: Rest

I want to lose fat, ultimately. I can adhere to caloric and macro restrictions. Out of the past two months, I had one day where I ate 3,027 calories. I was told to eat 3,000 and stayed between 2900-3000 every day, religiously. I FEEL great and I understood that I wouldn’t be LOSING anything eating that many calories, I used it as a reset, I suppose. But I’m ready to get back into losing the fat without the Zombie crash.

The “To Be A Beast” article, for fat loss, you suggest:

Calories = 11.43 x weight in lb
Protein = 1.25 x weight in lb
Carbs = 1 x weight in lb
Fats = .27 x weight in lb

Which would put me at:

Calories = 2,652
Protein = 290
Carbs = 232
Fats = 63

My plan was to start at this level, go through the Built for Battle program for 6 weeks and see what progress was made and how my energy levels were. If my energy levels still felt okay, I would weigh myself and readjust calories and macros based on the new weight and repeat my way down to my goal. If my energy levels were falling I would eat maintenance (going by the maintenance numbers suggested by the article for the new weight I would be at) for the first week of the next 6 week “cycle”.

Would this be a good starting point? I would actually like to have consultation, but my money is currently being funneled into my last semester of school. I’ll have to wait until summer.

Thanks again for all you do, I’ve enjoyed the podcasts the past few weeks and it’s pretty incredible how much information you put out there.

4

Yea I don’t think that is the program I would choose, as it has multiple drawbacks with respect to programming as far as I can tell. I would do our Beginner Template or similar if you’re asking me. That said, if you’re excited about the other program- go for it.

I think reducing Calories from where you’re at is the move and based on your results, I would adjust energy intake as necessary.