How to get last bit of fat off?

Wise Guy
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23 May 2009
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I went from 195lb 'permabulker' to 170lb with tentative 6-pack in 6 weeks. I have been stuck at 170 lbs for over a month despite doing the same things, my metabolism must have become extremely more efficient. It absolutely refuses to give up this belly fat. I want to go down to 160lb (for bike riding, and burn off visceral fat for health) but I cant budge this last 10lb. It's all on my lower abdominal and love handle area.

I've tried adding cheat days, doing even lower cals (got a too grumpy though) for a couple weeks, higher cals for a couple week, fasted training, zero carbs for a week. No change.

What do the ocuk musclemen advise?
 
You are eating too many calories. If you track your calories, weigh everything and make sure you include everything you consume (including drinks).

Also by the sounds of what you've tried, you haven't stuck with any of the weight lose methods for long. Zero carbs for one week isn't giving your body chance to work in a ketosis state. If you want to try a keto diet, stick with it for a couple of weeks.
 
Exercise more. Plenty if CV work will burn the calories.

But belly fat is always the last to go. I went from 80 to 64kg and pretty much bottomed out, it quickly goes.up to 66kg when not training.
 
A month is too long for it to be water retention. Metabolic adaptation isn't going to be enough to make a noticable difference either, so you're either eating too much for your current weight (as they'll be less of you than when you started the diet) or in an effort to reduce the deficit, your body is subconsciously affecting your NEAT levels and reducing your energy expenditure, since next to your BMR this contributes most to your TDEE.

Either lower calories or introduce more movement (doesn't have to be 'cardio', could just be aiming to walk 15k steps a day rather than 5k), track measurements as love handles etc are one of the last places to go on men and perhaps look into protocols like Lyle McDonald's Stubborn Fat Solution which will help make stubborn fat stores more easily available for the body to use for energy.
 
After losing 25lb in 6 weeks your body probably just wants you to **** off and feed it.

How many kcals are you eating now and what do your workouts look like?
 
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I weighed myself today for the first time in a few days and I suddenly dropped to 165lb. My belly fat is still there however and I look like I'm losing muscle now instead of this belly fat.

Exercise routine is moderate weights 3x a week. Some walking. Occasionally some cycling or the rowing machine for 30 mins if I have a lot of extra energy.

Diet is basically 100+g of protein, <100g carbs a day, 1000-1500 cals a day. I eat mostly whole foods and try to get good fats, eggs, avocado, a few nuts, meat, coconut milk, fish and most of the carbs come from fruit and maybe a couple slices of bread or a bowl of porridge. Plus 4-6 scoops of optimum nutrition amino energy through out the day which has BCAAs, caffeine and green tea extract.

I have read what I feel is probably broscience about "metabolic damage" and that you should go HIGHER cals. So I experimented with some cheat days and some extra carbs.
 
I weighed myself today for the first time in a few days and I suddenly dropped to 165lb. My belly fat is still there however and I look like I'm losing muscle now instead of this belly fat.

Exercise routine is moderate weights 3x a week. Some walking. Occasionally some cycling or the rowing machine for 30 mins if I have a lot of extra energy.

Diet is basically 100+g of protein, <100g carbs a day, 1000-1500 cals a day. I eat mostly whole foods and try to get good fats, eggs, avocado, a few nuts, meat, coconut milk, fish and most of the carbs come from fruit and maybe a couple slices of bread or a bowl of porridge. Plus 4-6 scoops of optimum nutrition amino energy through out the day which has BCAAs, caffeine and green tea extract.

I have read what I feel is probably broscience about "metabolic damage" and that you should go HIGHER cals. So I experimented with some cheat days and some extra carbs.

Yes, metabolic damage is a load of ****. As long as you're maintaining the weights on the bar and protein intake is sufficient you shouldn't be losing muscle, at least not a considerable amount BUT if you're only eating 1000kcal then you might well be - extreme low calorie diets like PSMF only avoid catabolism by having those calories come almost entirely from protein with a sprinkling of essential fatty acids, which isn't what you're doing. Saying that, if you're not losing weight at 1000-1500kcal a day you can't be eating 1000-1500kcal, so it may be a tracking accuracy issue.
 
I weighed myself today for the first time in a few days and I suddenly dropped to 165lb. My belly fat is still there however and I look like I'm losing muscle now instead of this belly fat.

Exercise routine is moderate weights 3x a week. Some walking. Occasionally some cycling or the rowing machine for 30 mins if I have a lot of extra energy.

Diet is basically 100+g of protein, <100g carbs a day, 1000-1500 cals a day. I eat mostly whole foods and try to get good fats, eggs, avocado, a few nuts, meat, coconut milk, fish and most of the carbs come from fruit and maybe a couple slices of bread or a bowl of porridge. Plus 4-6 scoops of optimum nutrition amino energy through out the day which has BCAAs, caffeine and green tea extract.

I have read what I feel is probably broscience about "metabolic damage" and that you should go HIGHER cals. So I experimented with some cheat days and some extra carbs.

You shouldn't ever go below 1,500kcals as a male really, you'll just kill your testosterone levels and end up feeling terrible. Keep doing what you're doing in general and the weight will come off, it's just a slow process. I've dieted down to visible abs and obliques and it just took a very long time eating around 1.7kcals and lifting weights.

"Metabolic damage" isn't a thing either, your metabolism, that is the amount of calories you burn per hour, will be lowered by about 10-20% as you lose weight, but it's not a long term thing
 
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