Rambo's unofficial how to cut thread and sample diet

[invisible]

Have most of yall had any success with this diet of his? This question goes out to those particularly who have a real hard time lowering BF%.

You see, even with limiting my intake to 1200 cals a day of pure protein (200g+ protein) my BF barely lowers (and yes my thyroid levels are within normal limits, as with everything else. I'm healthy, just apparently have genes that want to keep me from getting lean). I'll lose 5-10 lbs (in a month or so) and it just halts there (taking about another 3-6 months to drop another 5lbs, yes I've dieted that long before). The BF just likes to sit pretty at the 15%-20% range. So I find it hard to understand the fact that this diet which adds carbs and fats (albeit healthy ones) would work better at losing body fat than just protein alone, if anything I feel the extra calories from the carbs and fats would only slow my fat loss.. and believe me if it were any slower it would go backwards.

So my question put simply, which one would produce more fat loss and why:
300g of protein, 130g of carbs, and 50g of fat. or just 300g of protein alone

And to answer the questions you all probably would respond with; I'm 6'0", 188lbs, BF ~16%. Workout 7 days a week in 45-60 minutes, 12 sets per body part at 4-6 reps per set. Cardio involves futbol (or what many of you all know as soccer) 3 times a week for about an hour or so. The 1200 cal a day diet involves whey protein shakes and chicken breast, thats it (yes I can torture myself. I remember when I used to do 500 cals a day, but I would lose way too much muscle)

I know there are many experts here and would love your input, believe me many of yall know more about this stuff then the docs I work with (cant blame them really, during my 4 years of medical school they never went over this in detail)

[gbrice75]

Too tired to get into this tonight, but keeping it bumped for an anticipated good debate tomorrow.

[Back In Black]

Don't really know where to start with this.

Do you ever have energy with your cals that low? Are you really exercising 10 times per week incl cardio? No rest day? Your body must be shot to bits!

1200 calories is waaaaay too low unless you weigh less than 150lbs. My gf is currently on this amount of cals and I think it's too low, she wighs 147 and does NO exercise.

All protein with no fat or carbs is a sure fire way to lose a ton of weight but you will screw up your metabolism and most of the weight lost won't be fat!

Your other plan sounds much better but have you ever tried a 40/40/20 split? I'm not sure why everybody is so scared of carbs nowadays?! Personally, other than a strict keto diet, my best results have always come from a 40/40/20 split.

With your stats I reckon you can get 40g carbs, 40g pro and 9g fat for 5 meals. On your 6th meal at bedtime just drop or limit the carbs. Strictly speaking that's less than 40%carbs but not much and is going to give you about 2200 cals per day. I wouldn't go less than figure with your stats and your activity levels.

[gbrice75]

Agree with Stem on most points stated. Firstly, an all protein diet with as much activity as you're claiming to do, you're forcing your body to convert dietary protein to energy via gluconeogenesis. Not a very efficient process, and obviously counter productive as you want your protein being used as building material, not energy. That's why the other 2 macro nutrients exist.

Secondly, i'm certain that ALL your energy isn't coming from dietary protein. Likely, muscle breakdown is happening as well for the same reason - to provide energy. Furthermore, it takes your body more energy to maintain muscle mass vs. bodyfat (because bodyfat isn't 'active'), so of course your body is going to be more than willing to give up muscle.

The whole ideas of 'starvation mode' and 'feeding your body fat to LOSE fat) are overblown IMO, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Starvation mode/slowing of metabolism is real - it just doesn't happen in 24 hours like so many guys seem to believe. i.e. most people here think if you miss a meal (OMG, I didn't eat 35.6567g protein OMG!!!) or don't eat for 8 hours straight, you'll go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow. This is absolutely ridiculous and untrue.

However, over an extended period of time, severe caloric restriction (which 1200 calories IS for your stats) will lead to these issues.

Instead of a constant 1200 calories, how about carb/calorie cycling? This may work very well for you. Eat at maintenance mainly on workout days, eat well under maintenance on non-workout days/depletion days (create the deficit by carb restriction, i.e. no starchy carbs), and have a modest carb refeed every 7-10 days. That's the way i'd look to tackle this problem.

[invisible]

Informative. And yes SteM, during those 1200 cal diets I felt very fatigued, quite moody, and inevitably lost muscle strength. I required 10-12 hours of sleep or I just wouldnt function. I knew it was unhealthy, but my drive to become lean kept me pushing through (I would give myself a day, Sundays, to eat healthy carbs and keep me from going insane. Calories on those days would range from 2000-3000). My mentality was that the protein would keep the muscles maintained while the absolute carb/fat restriction would force the body to use energy from fat reserves, thinking everytime I would eat carbs it would be time lost burning them instead of the body fat. But I've learned my body can become extremely resilient to this, and after a month the body would adjust to the diet and consequently slow fat loss, thereby keeping me at the dreaded 15% BF plateau.

In comparison to my previous diets, 2200 calories seems like enormous amount to me, as logic would lead me to believe if my body can adapt to 1200 calories then I'd never lose any fat at 2200. Nevertheless I'll be adding healthy carbs and fats to the diet at the expense of a lowered caloric intake, as well as your cycling proposition gbrice, perhaps changing things up might get me past this wall. If this works and I manage to lower the BF below 15% then I will have learned some invaluable information in terms of long term fat loss; that being the importance of a balanced diet over caloric restriction.

Thank you both for the input, it is much appreciated.