Posted: 3/22/2012 3:03:21 AM EDT
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I've been doing primal since Jan 2nd and have been following it pretty closely. I'm down to 207 from 233. I've been stuck between 210 and 207 for the last month though. What can I do to get over this plateau? The only things I eat that aren't 100% primal are dairy and legumes. I have a glass of raw, grass-fed, milk every morning and have a little cheese in my eggs. Living in Georgia in a family that all grow gardens, peas and beans are part of life. There just isn't any way around it. On the plus side, the legumes are things like green beans and field peas. They are eaten while still green, so that cuts down on a lot of the negatives. I've had 2 beers since January and tried one carb refeed weekend just as an experiment. That's the extent of my cheating. This is what I ate yesterday. This is close to my normal day, but higher carb than usual because I had a hard lifting day yesterday: Breakfast 2 eggs (laid by my chickens) 1/4 cup of gouda 3 pieces of bacon half of an avocado Lunch 5"x2 1/2"x1" piece of deer meatloaf (no breadcrumbs, just ground deer meat and spices) salad containing spinach, romaine lettuce, a tomato, half of a bell pepper Snack Banana 10 pecan halves Dinner pork roast 1/2 cup Iron Clay peas sweet potato yellow squash with onions My usual workout week looks like this: Monday Mile and a half run with 18 exercise stations on the nature trail at work Tuesday Walk 1 hour Wednesday Hard lift day 6x6 squats, 4x8 rows, 3x8 deadlifts, 3x8 leg press, 3x8 bench, 3x8 curl press, 3x8 lat pulldown, 3x8 curls, 3x8 incline dumbbell press Thursday Walk 1 hour Friday 1 1/2 hour split between cardio and weights |
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A couple things to experiment with: First, I wouldn't worry about the dairy or legumes...you're getting good freash stuff, you're probably ok. - try cutting back on carbs a little. Instead of a banana, maybe lower sugar berries. I LOVE sweet potatoes, but perhaps TRY cutting back (not eliminating). Might help, might not. I understand you were higher carb than usual yesterday, so this may not be too helpful. - I would spread out your lifts. Heavy squatting, then heavy deadlifts means you're not giving 100% into either. Maybe squat bench and walk one day, deadlift, press walk on another day. All in all, your diet looks good so you may just need to be patient...or ramp up your workouts...or cut back on overall calories. |
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Quoted:
- try cutting back on carbs a little. What are your thoughts on carb requirements for lifting? At first glance, I wouldn't think that more carbs would be necessary for somebody doing 5/3/1 or similar heavy work since that's relying on the PCr cycle more or less exclusively. Absolutely necessary for moderate intensity endurance work and probably required for the more metabolically intense crossfit/P90X sessions. For heavy, low rep? I don't see it, but it isn't something I've put much thought or any research towards. |
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Quoted: Quoted: - try cutting back on carbs a little. What are your thoughts on carb requirements for lifting? At first glance, I wouldn't think that more carbs would be necessary for somebody doing 5/3/1 or similar heavy work since that's relying on the PCr cycle more or less exclusively. Absolutely necessary for moderate intensity endurance work and probably required for the more metabolically intense crossfit/P90X sessions. For heavy, low rep? I don't see it, but it isn't something I've put much thought or any research towards. I think it's still required post lifting, but I don't have a lot of experience with that because I'm usually doing some higher intensity stuff too... IMO the OP should experiment a little with carb intake. |
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Thanks for all of the advice. I should have added this in my original post, but I drink at least 64oz of water every day. Sleep is kind of tough, but I do my best to get at least 7 hours every night. I also quit using nicotine in the middle of this plateau, but have worked diligently to not eat more. I've been killing some toothpicks though. I usually lift around 10am. The gym is so crowded first thing in the morning and at the end of the day that you can't really do anything. If I'm not planning on lifting, then I usually work out in the afternoon. Once it starts getting really hot, I'll probably do cardio days in the morning. I have no idea about the total calorie intake and calculated BMI. I need to get a kitchen scale so that I can really see what my total calorie intake is. |
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Quoted: Thanks for all of the advice. I should have added this in my original post, but I drink at least 64oz of water every day. Sleep is kind of tough, but I do my best to get at least 7 hours every night. I also quit using nicotine in the middle of this plateau, but have worked diligently to not eat more. I've been killing some toothpicks though. I usually lift around 10am. The gym is so crowded first thing in the morning and at the end of the day that you can't really do anything. If I'm not planning on lifting, then I usually work out in the afternoon. Once it starts getting really hot, I'll probably do cardio days in the morning. I have no idea about the total calorie intake and calculated BMI. I need to get a kitchen scale so that I can really see what my total calorie intake is. I highly recommend this one. The customer service is great. I own the kitchen scale and bathroom scale by the same company. I had a question on the bathroom scale and somebody got back to me within hours, on a saturday too. |