Weight Plateuing on a Cut? You May Be Overtraining.

[xKyle10]

Got this from my buddy over at bb.com whose log I follow, Josh Hyaduck. He is doing a show soon for the first time in a few months and is absolutely massive, he is being prepped by Jim Cordova currently. Here are some pics:






More: Bodybuilding.com - jhyaduck's BodySpace

Originally Posted by jhyaduck

So someone sent me a PM with a question that really related to my current situation, body weight plateauing while leaning out. Although with my current situation, we (Jim and I) have found the solution, I thought I would share with everyone his question and my response to it as I'm sure it could help a lot of you out.

I appreciate the compliment! I do hear that a lot and even Jim himself tells me all the time that he thinks I will be the future of Natural Bodybuilding. It's a lot to accept and a lot to live up to, as I never thought myself to be such, but we'll just see how things play out over the next couple years!

Your question is a good one, not the average question that I get which can simply be researched in a matter of minutes...

The truth is, I can't tell you what to do as far as calories are concerned. I have had the same problem for literally months! Which is why I have not uploaded any new progress pictures in a while. I have hit a serious plateau but have just recently found out how to break it. This may or may not be the solution to your problem.

I have been cutting off of 1700-1900 calories for the past 3 months and have been stuck around 172-175lbs for 1-2 months. Weight training 5 days a week on top of HIIT 5-7 times a week, sometimes even multiple times a day! When you reach a plateau you can do one of two things. First you can decrease calories, which it sounds like you have done. Second you can increase expenditure per day via more activity. That activity can come from more volume in your weight training, more cardio, or simply just more of everyday activity (chores around the house for example).

So really, it is still calories in vs. calories out.

Now there comes a point where it's just too risky to reduce calories any further, which is why Jim has refused to let me drop under 1700 calories. So he kept telling me that I simply had to put out more expenditure. Well, I got to the point where I started doing cardio 3-5 times a day on top of weight training to prove to him that something was not right. There was no reason why I should have been plateauing from all of that expenditure. The answer was, I had been overtraining. A term that I thought you would never hear me use...but I was, in fact, overtraining. I took 2-3 days of rest, complete rest. No cardio and no weight training while I kept calories the same. I recovered over those few days and hit the gym with an intensity like no other the day that I stepped back into the gym. And it got my weight dropping once again.

So perhaps you just need a little time to rest. You could be training as hard as you possibly can at the moment but I assure you that if you rest 2 or 3 days you will put out so much more next time you step foot in the gym and that extra "boost" may break your plateau (This is assuming that you have reached the point of overtraining prior to this rest.).

As for my diet - I do not think it will help you because different things work for different people, but here it is. It's very simple.

250g Protein
150g Carbs
40g Fat

That's it, everyday. I don't carb cycle or anything. Those macros are actually higher than what I was doing for the past 3 months but I am still losing weight now because I let my body recover. For the past 3 months my macros were as follows.

250g Protein
100g Carbs
30g Fat

Even those ridiculously low could not get my weight to drop. So I can tell you firsthand, that overtraining is a very real thing.

I hope this helps. Great question!

Thought this was pretty interesting, so just goes to show that sometimes you can be overtraining on a large calorie deficit unbeknown-st to you, and it can be easier to do than you think.


Here is his log if anyone is interested, it is pretty cool because he achieved a lot of recognition simply from bb.com and is now in magazines and is sponsored by MuscleTech getting trained by one of the top natural bodybuilders in the world.

Jhyaduck's Training Log.....Man or Machine!? - Bodybuilding.com Forums

its a very good read.

[BendtheBar]

Interesting read. Below 1800 is such a dangerous level (reference the Minnesota Starvation Experiment). It's hard to fathom bodybuilders going that low, especially younger guys like him. Props to anyone with that dedication.

[xKyle10]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Interesting read. Below 1800 is such a dangerous level (reference the Minnesota Starvation Experiment). It's hard to fathom bodybuilders going that low, especially younger guys like him. Props to anyone with that dedication.

i know i cant imagine going below even 2000, on top of the cardio he does its insane he can stick with it.

[Violent Volume]

The miracles of modern chemistry.

[xKyle10]

Originally Posted by Violent Volume

The miracles of modern chemistry.

if you read his log you would be convinced he is natural. i hate when people make claims without doing research

[kman025]

Originally Posted by xKyle10

if you read his log you would be convinced he is natural. i hate when people make claims without doing research

not to be rude, but i have a hard time believing this guys natural (along with a lot of other guys who claim natural)

[BendtheBar]

He could be natty.

He is 5'6" 171 pounds at the moment. His maximum potential at 6% would be 177. the numbers are in his favor. He does have some amazing muscle density and maturity for his age.

Do you know how he trains?

[xKyle10]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

He could be natty.

He is 5'6" 171 pounds at the moment. His maximum potential at 6% would be 177. the numbers are in his favor. He does have some amazing muscle density and maturity for his age.

Do you know how he trains?

i dont really have the time to dig it up specifically but:

Originally Posted by jhyaduck

I've had kind of a weird way of going about my training for the past year or so as I'm sure anyone can see who has viewed my other thread. It hasn't been very organized or consistent (it's been consistent as far as me training daily but my workouts just had no real setup really). I've been seeing amazing results but I haven't really been planning out my workouts in anyway so it's kind of hard for me to explain what I was really doing. So, I will now start organizing the things I do as far as training and hopefully it will give you a better look of how I train.

I look at training in two ways and only two ways. Sure there are many other ways but these are the only ways I have ever trained. I pretty much just see everything in terms of sets/reps. So for power/size I like to do 3 sets of 6-8 reps per exercise (I may do one or two more sets on the initial exercise to get a warm up going). Usually 4, maybe 5 exercises per bodypart. For size/condition I like to do 3 sets of 8-12 reps (which is what I have been doing for the most part, for the past few years). So I've been pretty one dimensional for a while as far as training goes but starting July I will go back to the power/size setup and will alternate between the two styles monthly.

For arms now, neither of these really apply. I've gone about a different way of training for arms and I can't really explain why I like it, but I do. I pretty much just do one exercise 4-6 sets of reps ranging from 8-20. Starting off with the lighter weight for high reps and increasing the weight until the point of something that is heavy for 8 reps. Not sure how effective this will be, I started doing it about 3 weeks ago. So my arms are something we can all watch as time goes.

I do things as a 4 day split and resting on the 5th day, then I start over on the 6th day. My Split goes Legs, Shoulders, Back/Bi's, and Chest/Tri's. If I were to train arms differently with more exercises then I would go to a 5 day split and they would have their own day (like I used to do). I do not train abs. If I do, it's one or two times a month and it will be Hanging Knee Raises, 4 sets of 15 OR Knee Ups on a bench, 4 sets of 30.

I haven't been training calves like I should have but I have started to recently. I train them 5 days a week now usually 2 days on and 1 day off. Standing Calve Raises, 6 sets of 50 reps with 45lb dumbbells. Hopefully my calves can be something we can look forward to seeing come out over the next few months.

but he has really good genetics, here is him in HS:




pics of him next to cordova:





people have to realize that proprtions/symmetry are a lot more important in this sport than just overall size, his stats are not overly impressive but he has a ridiculous physique.
i have been following this guy since june/july of last year, and i did my research before putting my faith into him or made any accusations, i believe 100% that he is natural.