Plus if you look at all the diet fads the one thing they have in common is they cut your calories below what you burn. The goal for me when cutting weight is to get 200 calories less a day than I need. I also am careful to not try and make strength gains when dieting. It really is as they say 80 % diet. Look at all the folks you see sweating day in and day out at the gym and a year later they still look the same.
The other big thing if your stuck conditioning is to do sprints. They helped me get a lot faster and still build muscle. The other thing I wish I could afford right now is bouldering. It will work your body in ways you couldn't imagine but the local climbing gyms are super expensive. I have thought about trying to build one in my backyard but just the grabs and holds are pretty pricey. Watch some of the World Bouldering Tournaments and you will see what I mean. Guys swinging on one arm and gliding up the face of rock to catch maybe two fingers on a nub 6 feet up. I went once when I was in the best shape ever and this skinny little kid that worked there put me to shame. I was trying to muscle through it and when your clinging to an expanse with a 1"x1" nub for one foot and nothing for the other with just a few fingers holding you you quickly realize size isn't everything and there are a lot of muscles that are hard to hit when training just at a gym. The way the kid explained it was my arms might be stronger than his but his whole body was stronger than my arms. It is interesting to problem solve through a route and I would spend an hour on one little short distanced which probably seemed boring to top ropers but it was a challenge to me.
