Advicenordicdan·2 Jul

Cut has been stuck at 84kg for 3 weeks. Reverse diet or push through?

M29, 178cm. Started cutting in March at 93kg on 2100 kcal. Went well until about 85, then slowed, then stopped. Weekly average has been 84.1, 84.3, 84.0 for the last three weeks.

Still tracking everything. Protein 180. Steps around 8k. Lifting 4x. Sleep is honestly not great, 6 hours most nights because of work.

Options as I see them:
a) drop to 1900
b) hold and wait it out
c) 2 weeks at maintenance (~2600?) then go again

Everything online says "diet break" but I am worried I will just gain 2kg and lose the plot. Anyone actually done the reverse / break thing and had it work?

6 comments

coachraf·2 Jul

Three weeks flat after 4 months of dieting with 6 hours of sleep is not a mystery. Two things are true at the same time:

Your maintenance is lower than it was at 93kg. You lost 9kg. 2100 might just be close to maintenance now.
Low sleep makes you hold water and makes you hungrier, so your tracking is probably a bit worse than you think it is.

I would not drop to 1900 yet. Do the 2 weeks at maintenance, but at 2300-2400, not 2600. You will go up 1-1.5kg of water and glycogen in the first 4 days. That is not fat. Then cut at 2000 for 6 more weeks. And fix the sleep if you can at all, it matters more than the 100 kcal.

nordicdanOP·2 Jul

The "maintenance is lower now" point is obvious when you say it but I had not thought about it that way. I set 2100 in March and never updated it.

maria.v·2 Jul

I did a 2 week break in a very similar spot last year. Went up 1.4kg, panicked, nearly quit. Stayed with it. Dropped back below the plateau in week 2 of cutting again and lost another 4 kg over the next 2 months. The scale jump is the price of admission.

benchmarked·3 Jul

Measure your waist. If calories are the same and waist is still going down over 3 weeks, you are losing fat and holding water. If waist is also stuck, then it is actually stalled. Scale alone cannot tell you which.

nordicdanOP·5 Jul

Update: measured. 86.5cm, was 88 three weeks ago. So probably water after all. Going to do the maintenance fortnight anyway because I am tired and I think I need it.

bigdawg_lifts·2 Jul

Counterpoint, I just pushed through at the same calories and it broke after 5 weeks. Sometimes it is just a whoosh waiting to happen. But I was sleeping 8 hours so your situation is different.