Hi guys, I need help with this, I have stopped for few years and currently trying to lose weight. This are my stats :

Lifting the past 1 yr after stopping for 3 yrs.
Bw =77kg
Height =168cm
Bodyfat =35%wtf
Maintenance calories 2300 cal
Current caloric intake 1900 cal
Macros 166g protein, 166g carb, 63g fats

Currently on week 7 of cut, started off at 80kg. Initially, I manage to lose only 0.5kg total in the first month after a full month of hard work, I then tried IF + carb cycling for the second month and I have been dropping 0.5-0.75kg/week.

Cardio Hiit once a week, lifts 4days/week

Good thing is my strength is still good, I am still beating PRs now, I'm on Wendlers 531 program.

Question 1. Is it advisable to jump to carb cycling in the early stages of a cut? Or we can just maintain same amount of carbs everyday and all we have to do is make sure we lose 1lb/week? I started to feel weak listing fasted and on low carb days of carb cycling.

Question 2. Do we need to get 1g protein /bw or 1g protein /lean body mass?

Question 3. I notice the fat% went up by 4% since cutting which means I'm losing muscle but my lifts are still ok, and I see myself leaner in mirror with smaller waist, what am I doing wrong here? Bf machine error? It uses BIA calculations, some electric stuff

This post has been edited by Richkierich: Jun 23 2018, 05:39 PM

1) I keep protein constant. I cut either fats or carbs depending on how I feel on that day.
2) I take 1g/ lbs. To me that is sufficient. For some, it is more than sufficient. Don't be over obsessed with protein.
3) Those machine is crap. Try to measure now, then go drink 2 glasses of water, then go measure again after half an hour. You will see the difference in the reading. Look at the mirror.

thanks man, doubts cleared

Thank you, from what I researched, the key is to be in a caloric deficit in order to lose weight right? And to make sure I am losing within 1-2lbs per week, anything more or less, we would have to adjust the deficit.

And that this deficit come from energy expenditure and can either be from a caloric deficit or cardio or both. The other techniques like going keto, intermittent fasting, carb cycling etc are just icing to add to the cake. The fundamental factor is the deficit.

And our macros would determine if the weight loss would be from muscle or fat, this means we need to maintain the protein sufficiently, while the carbs & fats we can adjust after getting our needed protein. While fats be around 25% of our total calories, with carbs making up the balance. Question: Sometimes I might overshoot on the fats to 50% or more but I would always consume lesser carbs that day to make total calories same, is that ok? I ask this because my line of work requires me to eat out and that would mean I couldnt calculate macros

The keypoint here is consistency. you need to be consistent in terms of your overall calorie intake. If you gonna eat outside, i find it easier to guesstimate by choosing simple foods.

Just a question as a matter of interest.
You are a cutting cycle losing 3 kg in 7 weeks on a calorie deficit and currently at 35% body fat.

Could you be insulin resistant at this body fat level which causing fat loss to be slowed down despite at a calorie deficit?

I am not sure, I don't think so, it was the deficit, I noticed the deficit I was in wasn't enough, I had to go lower calories to lose weight. The calculation I got from website was actually around maintenance, when I reduced cal I lost weight. As for the fat %, I am not sure man.

To lose 1 kg of fat, you need to burn 7500kcal and vice versa if you want to gain fat.

With this, you can work backwards to check how much calorie deficit you had for a certain period, if you have issue with calorie calculator.

So let say you manage to lose 1kg of weight in 1 week, it means that you have total of 7500kcal deficit which is 1070kcal per day.