Hi guys.
I've been doing pretty well with my fitness goals but making some changes and wanted some extra opinions on how much of an effect these changes could make.
Some basic stats:
Age 35
Height 178cm
Weight 73kg
RMR estimated at 1726 with all activity logged through a wearable
TDEE fluctuates between 2226 - 2426
Body fat (dexa checked) 14.6%
Goal was to get to 12% before slowly going to maintenance and then slowly going to a clean bulk
Spanner in the works - turns out through recent metabolic testing my RMR is actually 2117 so my real TDEE is more closer to 2617 - 2817
So before I started my cut I was at 18.7% bodyfat and over the last two months I've lost 4.1% which equates to 4kg of fat. *I've managed to hold onto a reasonable amount of muscle and only lost 1.6kg of muscle during this time. *
My diet is clean getting the majority of all macros from vegetables aside from a little bit of tuna, cottage cheese and eggs. *All my micros are on point due to the vegetables I'm eating. In total I've been eating about 1800 calories per day which consists of 17% fat (32g), 51% carbs (227g) & 32% protein (145g).
So I've been losing fat, reasonably retaining muscle and overall feel great but my libido has gone. *I know I'm not eating enough healthy fats and this could be a contributor so I've reworked my diet to start with 0.8g fat per kg bodyweight and 2g protein per kg body weight and fill the rest with carbs. *This means that I'm doubling my daily intake of fat to 60g and this is the hangup I'm having. *Technically I'm still in a deficit although I'm also wondering if my body has become used to the cutting diet as my progress has more or less stalled in recent weeks. *
Conventional thinking would say do what's right for the body, if the total calories are still in deficit I'll continue to lose fat and lower my overall bodyfat percentage but what I can't shake from my thoughts is that if I double my fat intake my body will end up burning those last for energy and it may stall my overall goal given that I've not seen any progress lately anyway. *Could be that I'm so low on daily calories that my body has now adjusted and holding what I give it to ensure it can keep functioning.
I'm wondering if anyone with more knowledge on how nutrition affects the body can weight in on what I'm doing and give some advice. I suspect that my libido going is a mixture of not only not enough healthy fats but keeping a large caloric deficit for 2 months. *Looking forward to going up to maintenance but I won't do it until I hit my goal first so that's why I'm putting so much emphasis on that tiny bit of extra fat I'm putting into my diet. *It's 270 calories per day which over time would push out my goals further (or will it?). *I'd rather get to my goal faster and then work on going back to a healthy maintenance diet, in the interim my head keeps telling me to trust the science and stick to the new meal plan which is overall better for me even though it's re-worked to include double the fats than what's its used to.
What do you guys think?*
I've been doing pretty well with my fitness goals but making some changes and wanted some extra opinions on how much of an effect these changes could make.
Some basic stats:
Age 35
Height 178cm
Weight 73kg
RMR estimated at 1726 with all activity logged through a wearable
TDEE fluctuates between 2226 - 2426
Body fat (dexa checked) 14.6%
Goal was to get to 12% before slowly going to maintenance and then slowly going to a clean bulk
Spanner in the works - turns out through recent metabolic testing my RMR is actually 2117 so my real TDEE is more closer to 2617 - 2817
So before I started my cut I was at 18.7% bodyfat and over the last two months I've lost 4.1% which equates to 4kg of fat. *I've managed to hold onto a reasonable amount of muscle and only lost 1.6kg of muscle during this time. *
My diet is clean getting the majority of all macros from vegetables aside from a little bit of tuna, cottage cheese and eggs. *All my micros are on point due to the vegetables I'm eating. In total I've been eating about 1800 calories per day which consists of 17% fat (32g), 51% carbs (227g) & 32% protein (145g).
So I've been losing fat, reasonably retaining muscle and overall feel great but my libido has gone. *I know I'm not eating enough healthy fats and this could be a contributor so I've reworked my diet to start with 0.8g fat per kg bodyweight and 2g protein per kg body weight and fill the rest with carbs. *This means that I'm doubling my daily intake of fat to 60g and this is the hangup I'm having. *Technically I'm still in a deficit although I'm also wondering if my body has become used to the cutting diet as my progress has more or less stalled in recent weeks. *
Conventional thinking would say do what's right for the body, if the total calories are still in deficit I'll continue to lose fat and lower my overall bodyfat percentage but what I can't shake from my thoughts is that if I double my fat intake my body will end up burning those last for energy and it may stall my overall goal given that I've not seen any progress lately anyway. *Could be that I'm so low on daily calories that my body has now adjusted and holding what I give it to ensure it can keep functioning.
I'm wondering if anyone with more knowledge on how nutrition affects the body can weight in on what I'm doing and give some advice. I suspect that my libido going is a mixture of not only not enough healthy fats but keeping a large caloric deficit for 2 months. *Looking forward to going up to maintenance but I won't do it until I hit my goal first so that's why I'm putting so much emphasis on that tiny bit of extra fat I'm putting into my diet. *It's 270 calories per day which over time would push out my goals further (or will it?). *I'd rather get to my goal faster and then work on going back to a healthy maintenance diet, in the interim my head keeps telling me to trust the science and stick to the new meal plan which is overall better for me even though it's re-worked to include double the fats than what's its used to.
What do you guys think?*
