Hi, everyone! It’s been two weeks since I last touched base with an update on my current cut, and a lot has happened since then.

My wife and I traveled to Boston for a weekend, my birthday came and went, and a mixture of progress and struggles took place. It’s been a whirlwind, but now we’re past the halfway point and really in the stretch run of this cut.

This might sound like a silly metaphor, but I relate the second half of any cut to the second half of the season in any sport. You want to be playing your best hockey, football, basketball, etc. down the stretch in order to make the playoffs and have a real chance at winning a championship.

The same goes with weight loss. When you have a date in mind in which you want to reach your weight loss goal, you need to start adjusting and making progress in the second half of the diet to ensure you’re going to reach your goal.

Right now, I’m in a serious plateau. I’ve been stuck right around 183 pounds body weight, which is about 10 pounds down from the start of this cut. I’m on pace with my original goal, which was to lose 20 pounds. However, more recently I posted that I’d like to look better than I ever have and lose as much weight is necessary to do that. What does that look like? I have no idea. But I’m interested to see how it turns out.

I’ve made quite a few changes to the diet and training program in order to keep progressing. So far, it hasn’t allowed me to break through my current plateau, but I’m optimistic it eventually will.

Let’s dive into what’s going on…

Training

My training results have dropped off just ever so slightly — and I mean slightly. I’ve noticed being perhaps a rep or two short occasionally with my accessory/hypertrophy work. That’s nothing to be too concerned about, and it’s something that often eventually happens as weight continues to go down.

In terms of my strength training, I’m still hitting all of my numbers and moving my heavy singles of 80, 85, and 90 percent without any issues. That’s a big plus.

The training program is doing what it should — I believe I’m holding on to my strength and muscle mass and maximizing fat loss. All good things.

I chose to do a de-load week during Week 6, which is essentially where you cut volume back drastically to more or less have a period of active recovery. That was helpful, and translated pretty well as I dove back into my regular routine in Week 7.

In Week 7, I also chose to increase my cardio to 300 calories per session on at least four days per week. Cardio is going to be my most effective avenue for energy expenditure, so I’ll plan to slowly increase the effort of these sessions over time.

The only thing that may change as I continue into the weeks ahead is to keep some “reps in reserve (RIR)” based on how I’m feeling within each workout. What that means, is I’ll stop short of failure within sets in order to prevent overtraining.

Nutrition

My nutrition plan has seen the biggest changes thus far, and that has all happened over the last week or so.

In Week 6, I took a de-load from training. My calories and macros remained the same during that week, and in Week 7 I introduced another significant drop in calories.

Now I’m operating on 2,000 calories a day, which equates to approximately 185 grams of protein, 45 grams of fat, and 215 grams of carbohydrates.

That is around 400 calories down from my previous numbers, and combined with my increase in cardio I’m hopeful it will eventually kick start my progress back into gear.

Food selection is largely the same, just in smaller quantities — lots of chicken, steak, rice, cheese, apples, and shakes. The diet is no longer interesting (at all) but it gets the job done. And for 5-6 more weeks, I can tolerate a boring diet.

Conclusion

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You may have noticed above that I said “I’m hopeful” my calorie reduction + increased cardio will result in more weight loss. I’m hopeful, because surprisingly over the past week it hasn’t happened.

This could be because of any number of factors. I haven’t been sleeping well, my stress levels have been higher than normal, I’ve been somewhat out of my routine due to travel… There’s been a lot going on.

I can’t lie — it’s tough to deal with mentally. After a full week of busting my butt in the gym on lower calories, it’s a bit demoralizing to see the scale stay static. But I truly believe in my plan and my structure. I’m sure if I keep giving the same effort more progress will follow.

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CGF