Hi loseit!
First of all, a bit of context. I'm 37M, 183cm (6'0"), 87kg (191lbs). Around 5 years ago, I lost around 35kg (75lbs) by doing mostly CICO, not much exercise except walking and taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I've maintained that weight for years without even trying; I guess I did a good lifestyle change and I got used to eating a normal amount of food, my health is great too. However, I'm not that happy with my body, I look ok in clothes, my face, legs, and arms look great, even my upper torso (visible collarbone, decent shoulders) but I carry most of my fat on my abdomen, and it is flabby and hangs, I'm very conscious about it.
A couple of months ago (early December) I decided to try to focus on having a more lean physique. I'm not looking to get jacked or have a six-pack or anything, just a body without giggly fat without looking too skinny and weak. I'm only a few kgs overweight according to the BMI, but I guess my body fat percentage is too high so I thought that, along with the deficit, I should focus on building/maintaining muscle by lifting weights. I started lifting weights 3 times a week (at home, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises) plus 2 or 3 days of a 20min HIIT routine (other than that, I'm pretty sedentary). I also started a 500 cal deficit, eating around 1700 cal on average (1500 6 days a week, and 2800 on Fridays, where I have a special dinner with my girlfriend). I do IF (16:8), but I've been doing it for years, so nothing new for me. I drink tons of water, around 4 o 5 liters a day. My objective was to get down to 75kg (165lbs) maintaining as much muscle as possible and then reevaluate.
Here is the thing: after 2 months, I've lost around 1kg (2.2lbs) only, and I'm getting to a point where I'm very physically tired, I'm soo sleepy and cold all the time (but not hungry). It's like I'm getting signals that I'm eating too little for my level of activity (I calculated my deficit based on a sedentary lifestyle), I've been noticing a clear decrease in energy in my workouts for the last few weeks, but at the same time, I'm not losing weight.
"You are probably retaining water because of the workouts", you'll say, but it's been too long, two months seems too much to hold water due to an increase in exercise. "Maybe you are not in a deficit, you are not counting correctly", you'll say too, and even if I consider that it could be the issue besides my experience counting calories and the extra exercise not eaten back, why am I so tired all the time then? Honestly, if I've been maintaining for years without much activity, that means I was eating at maintenance. I'm eating considerably less than that now, but mostly the same kind of food, so I think it's very unlikely I'm not in a deficit. I've noticed improvements in my body, but I think they are related to weight lifting, not fat loss. I think my shoulders, biceps... look better, I feel a bit "harder" everywhere, but my stomach looks the same. I've measured my waist during the process and I haven't lost an inch (it's also difficult to measure considering how squishy it is).
So, my objective now is to determine what is happening, I really want to trust the process but I don't want to lose time indefinitely. My question for you guys is, what could I try to figure out what's going on? I have these ideas:
- Stop the exercise for a week or two, keeping the same deficit. If I start losing weight rapidly, then it's very likely I was retaining water in my muscles that masked the fat loss.
- Drop the exercise for now and reduce calories even more. Maybe I need a larger deficit, even though that means I don't have the energy to do any exercise, but it doesn't seem sustainable or reasonable to me, I probably will lose a lot of muscle mass.
- Increase the calories, maybe to around 2000 per day, and see if that does something to my body. It should improve my workouts and overall energy at least.
- Change my macros. I'm currently eating high protein, moderate fat and moderate to low carb (around 100gr or so), maybe I should increase carbs to improve performance, perhaps carb cycling on training days, keeping the same deficit? That should improve my workouts, but not sure it would make any difference for fat loss.
- Don't change anything stupid, and give it time! I'd like to think I'm being impatient, but if I were noticing less fat on my body even if the scale is not moving... I compared progress pics and I look the same, so it's really discouraging.
I'd very much appreciate your opinions. Sorry for the wall of text and for my English, I'm from Spain.
Cheers
EDIT: typo
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