Need help overcoming cutting plateau

[Yo Daddy]

I've hit a plateau for the past 3 weeks or so. I've been heavy for basically my whole life, and all the fat I've gained over the last 2 years has burned off in about 2 1/2 months (26 lbs or so). I'm wondering what would be a good idea in order to kind of reset my body's "natural" body weight it tries to maintain. Also, what would be good diets and cardio/weight training regiments to look at to keep the losses coming? (i.e. what works for you?)

I have been doing Body for Life, which consists of basically 3 parts:
Diet: 6 meals per day, 1 portion of lean protein (portion = fist or so) and 1 portion of low-gi/clean carbohydrate (fats are taken via meats/small bit of dairy/etc. and supplemented w/fish oil,etc).

Cardio: 20-30 mins of HIIT cardio, in the evening about 3 hours after my last meal, on the cross-country elliptical 3-5 times/week. **This week, I've switched it up to 45 mins of low intensity on the bike (still in the evening 3 hours after my last meal), in order to give me some diversity as well as the hope to kick in fat burning again.

Weights: 3 day split: Legs, Back/Tris, Chest/Shoulders/Bis. Set progression is 12/10/8/6/12, with last set as a superset of 12 reps with main exercise and 12 reps with another exercise working same muscle group. Idea is to work up to an intensity of 10 out of 10 on the last superset, and the rest have an intensity of 6/7/8/9. **The last week I've switched to a 4 day split giving shoulder/traps their own day and the rest being legs/push/pull.

Supplements: CLA (3g 2x/day), ECA (3x day), Creatine Ethyl Ester HCL (3g 3x day), glutamine (5g 3x day w/creatine), aminos (15g 3x day w/creatine and glutamine), vitamin C (1g 4-6x day), green tea extract @ 400 mg/pill (2 pills 2x/day). Waiting for my multi-vitamin (Mega Men) to come in as well as my potassium chloride.

Stats:
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 258 lbs.
BF %: ~24-25%
Body Type: Freakishly easy gainer meso/endo... hard loser (on both muscle and fat)

Hopefully this covers all the info needed to give some input. Also, I'm a full-time college student so the fundage is low and prep'ing extensively for meals is challenging. I tried to the carnivore diet by SYL and didn't get any results (was on it for about 2 months). Honestly, I don't think I was able to give it all it needed to be successful, but I'm convinced doing a ckd type diet on campus, for me, is nearly impossible. I get out of college in 3 months, so I'm really looking at utilizing my time right now to get in the best shape possible. Thanks in advance.

[Twistdenigma]

A ckd isn't impossible. If you can afford all of those supplements, you can pack food in a backpack and eat during or in between class. If your fatloss is stale, try calorie cycling. It's simple to do and was the most effective approach to dieting I've ever taken.

[Twistdenigma]

Also, it never hurts to take a week off every now and then.

[Yo Daddy]

Originally Posted by Twistdenigma

If your fatloss is stale, try calorie cycling. It's simple to do and was the most effective approach to dieting I've ever taken.

Please explain what exactly this is and/or where I can read about it. Thanks. Good call about taking a week off. Might not be a half bad idea.

[Twistdenigma]

It's simple. Basically, rather than looking at caloric intake as a day to day thing, look at it as a weekly thing. If you caloric intake is 3k per day, that translates to 21k per week. You would end up with something like this

Monday 3300
Tuesday 2900
Wednesday 2700
Thursday 3100
Friday 2800
Saturday 3400
Sunday 2800

I used 3k because it's simple. It's easy to follow, because your low cal days are only one day, followed by a higher cal day, so you kind of gut it out for that day and look forward to the next.

[Yo Daddy]

At 258 lbs (117.3 kgs) I end up with a BMR of roughly 2830 kcals. I would subtract 500 from this for a dieting calorie range correct... would I use 2300 (i.e. subtract 700 from all ur numbers in example?)?

And how does it work out for macronutrient %'s? Is it 1g/lb for protein still?

[Twistdenigma]

Not necessarily. I just tossed numbers up there to come up with 21000. It doesn't have to be a 500cal swing, just so it works itself out by Sunday. As far as macronutrients, use percentages inline with whatever diet you're comfortable with. 40/30/30, whatever. Out of being hardheaded, I don't skimp on my protein, so usually carbs go first. You can always tell when I'm on another hopeless dieting endeavor. I'm usually more miserable than normal.

[Mr.X]

how many refeeds do you have per week yo daddy?

[Yo Daddy]

One day per week is dedicated to refeeding. I don't count calories precisely but eat what I want within reason. I eat more of the good stuff (eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, rice, etc.) but I also may have some pizza, cookies or something else.

[Yung Wun]

calorie cycling is one option. or adusting or calorie intake and macronutrient ratio based on your activity level.