Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

I have been plateaued on fat loss for over a month now and it's driving me insane.

I went from 168 to 151 in two months, the past month I have been stuck right around 151. I started with 1500 cals a day running 5 to 6 miles 3 or 4 times a week on the treadmill.

I took some advice here and switched to shorter HIIT runs, figuring I had destroyed my metabolism by eating only 1500 cals.

Two weeks ago I started taking diet accellerator made by top secret nutrition. It's supposed to boost metabolism. I also started p90x2 at the same time. I have been doing this for two weeks straight, and have supplemented the p90x2 with HIIT cardio 2 or 3 nights a week. I upped my calorie intake to 1675.

My diet consists of very healthy foods, tons of protein, fruits and veggies.

I am still at 151. I'm 5'10 and skinny fat, approx 20ish percent body fat measured with calipers.

I have been building a bit of muscle but the fat is not going away.... help!! It's starting to drive me insane. I take TSN's NO 370 before the p90x2 workouts for the creatine and it helps me push myself a bit further during the workouts.

This week I am going to try eating "whole foods" only fresh with single or limited ingredients.

Suggestions or advice?

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

whole foods won't help. What are your macros like specifically your fat intake. I bet it's low. I would try a diet break. Eat at maintenance for a few weeks. You are super low on calories for such a high level of activity. Do you lift weights of just the p90x?

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

The only weight lifting I do is what is in the p90x2 routines plus push ups and random sets of bicep curls....

I don't understand how to calculate marcos... I've tried reading the nutrition stickies but they're so overwhelming.

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

Come on, man. I'm 16 and I calculated it perfectly. Anyway, someone posted this calc and after comparing it to the numbers I've gained from the math in the stickies, it came out to be pretty damn accurate. Just adjust the protein macro a tad bit. http://1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

You need to join a gym and do some lifting. You will get noob gains and maintain what LBM you have.

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

And we have discovered your problem! At such a low level of calories I'm almost certain you aren't getting enough fat. People always think fat makes you fat so it's the first thing they eliminate when going low calorie. Counting macros is easy. You should take in 1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass. If you are 20% BF @ 151 lbs your protein needs to be at least 121 grams. Fat should be .45 grams per lb. Thats about 68 grams. Those equal about 1100 calories. The rest of your calories can come from carbs. If you want higher protein thats fine but the minimum you need is 1 gram per lb of LBM. I have no clue how many calories you are burning from double p90x + HIIT but I'm sure it's a lot and you aren't eating close to enough. You need to take a diet break for at least 2 weeks, maybe a month. Eat at maintenance I would skip the p90x all together and lift heavy weights in the gym 3-4 days a week.

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

Can you suggest some healthy fats I should be eating? I don't want to go out and eat big macs if you know what I mean... but you're right, I am definitely not eating enough fats in my diet.

I spent a lot of money on p90x2 so I definitely want to continue with the program, but I certainly could switch out the gym cardio for weight lifting.

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

Oils
Pizza
Nuts
French Fries
Chicken Nuggets(these are a personally favorite. Nice protein + fat)

The list goes on and on.

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

That calculator only allows you to set a goal to gain weight.. I don't want to do that. And it says I should be eating 3400 cals a day on workout days... uhhh... trying to lose fat not gain it!

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

You can set it for several goals, many of them are weight loss

 

Plateau, plateau, this god damn plateau, help!

Sir, I dub you incompetent. If you can't even work a calculator with a GUI that user-friendly, you will have many problems in life aside from your physique.

Here's a different idea.

Consume 2500 cals a day for 3 weeks, track your progress. If you stay the same, congratulations, that's your maintenance, now subtract 500 from that. If you drop 1 lb, keep doing that. If you gain weight, drop to 2200 for 3 weeks and track progress.

Rinse and repeat until you find what calorie limit allows you to lose 1 lb per week.

Don't overthink things.