The Official Nutrition Thread - Tips, Recommendations, Current Diets

[Suiteness]

In September 2019, I started training 4 days/week and eating just below maintenance cals with the goal of losing fat/increasing muscle/strength - just getting leaner. I pretty quickly began losing weight and went from 173 -> 158 pounds over 19 weeks with an assist from a stomach flu towards the end.

Fast forward to two months ago. I gained pretty much all that weight back during COVID. I'm right around 170. I headed back to the gym, starting with a version of GSLP 3 days/week and yoga twice/week.

I am also supplementing creatine this time around. For some reason, I'm not dropping any weight even though my macros are the same as when I was losing weight in 2019. I'm just kind of stagnant from where I started at 170. Stupidly, I didn't take any photos or measurements when I started.

Any explanation for what's going on here? Is it the creatine? Lack of volume with my training? Or am I just burning fat but picking up some muscle mass?

How long have you been back at the gym? Are you tracking your calories daily? If your weight has been stagnant for weeks, you simply need to reduce your daily caloric intake. Maybe try going with 150-200 calories less per day and see where you are after a week.

 

[Minnewildsota]

In September 2019, I started training 4 days/week and eating just below maintenance cals with the goal of losing fat/increasing muscle/strength - just getting leaner. I pretty quickly began losing weight and went from 173 -> 158 pounds over 19 weeks with an assist from a stomach flu towards the end.

Fast forward to two months ago. I gained pretty much all that weight back during COVID. I'm right around 170. I headed back to the gym, starting with a version of GSLP 3 days/week and yoga twice/week.

I am also supplementing creatine this time around. For some reason, I'm not dropping any weight even though my macros are the same as when I was losing weight in 2019. I'm just kind of stagnant from where I started at 170. Stupidly, I didn't take any photos or measurements when I started.

Any explanation for what's going on here? Is it the creatine? Lack of volume with my training? Or am I just burning fat but picking up some muscle mass?

how long have you been stagnant?

You mention you're taking creatine this time. That could likely be the cause. Creatine will make you hold more water weight.
How have you been loading your creatine? It can take up to 4 wells for your body to get to Max creatine levels/absorption, depending on how you’re loading.

You could cut creatine out and see if you start dropping weight or you could continue on with the expectation that after you’ve successfully loaded your water weight will remain consistent and the scale will start dropping from fat (and possibly some muscle) loss.

 

[DMB06]

Getting a little discouraged, Ive mentioned before that i've torn my acl/meniscus. I've been going to the gym anyway and have been doing the elliptical at a good level, i burn between 600-1000 calories. Then i will move on to do 3 or 4 seated machines and have been avoiding legs as i dont want to injure my knee more. I'm currently at 250lbs. I want to get down to 200. I've been focusing on my diet and have tried to stop drinking. I've had beer twice since the end of January.

I've been getting up and going to the gym at around 6am at least 4 days a week

My typical diet during the week is:

- Scrambled Eggs for breakfast
- 1/2 cup of lightly salted almonds
- 1 cup of greek yogurt
- salad with chicken/ground turkey or chicken noodle soup
- 22oz diet dr pepper
- muscle milk
-chicken/salmon or ground turkey for dinner with broccoli, veggie pasta or greenbeans.

I've cut out any sort of late night eating and stopped eating chips.

I know it will take time, but at one point in my life i lost over 100 pounds in 5 months, so im used to seeing better results. I have lost maybe 1 pound in 3 weeks.

Not sure what else i should be doing.

I know this post is old, but in the off chance you see this, if you're having a very hard time losing weight it often times is because of high insulin resistance. Insulin is a storage hormone, if it's too high it will store most of what you eat as fat. It also "locks" away the fat making it impossible to burn. Lowering your insulin "unlocks" the fat as a fuel source.

Fasting is the key to all of this.