If you were in my situation would you try to cut or keep bulking?

Hi guys,

Bit of a quick run down of my current situation, im currently at a defence training establishment, and i am posted here until around August next year. The situation with nutrition here is a tough one, the food they serve here isnt exactly bodybuilding friendly, to get any decent amount of protein there is a lot of carbs and fat that goes along with it. Not being able to cook in my room means that im limited to supps or eating off base ( not the most affordable option ) or just settle for the fact that to gain lean mass here im going to have to take on a fair bit of fat with it and be forced to rely on supps. Before i joined i was living off chicken breasts/red meat, rice, oats, broccoli, nuts etc. all good food and i got to 84kg at 5`10 and overall was quite happy with what i had.

Currently im sitting on around 90kg BW at 5`10 but BF % is higher than i would like it to be. My lifts have all gone up though and i have definitely gained a fair bit of size all around.

Current training program is pretty standard sorta stuff, 4 day split with day 1 being back ( deadlifts, rows, WG chins, shrugs, hanging leg raises ) day 2 chest/tris ( bench, DB bench, push press, weighted dips, tricep extensions ) day 3 legs/arms ( squats, hyper extensions, lunges, WG chins, calf raises, BB curls ) day 4 shoulders/misc ( military press, power/hang cleans, rack press, DB shoulder press, plate raises, weighted dips ).

Current lifts bench around 100kg, squat 140kg, deadlift 190kg, overhead press 65-70kg, push press 75-80kg.

If you were in my situation would you settle for these lifts at this stage and cut right down BF% wise by eating a bit lighter and just training to maintain these lifts the best i can ( which would probably take me a few months ) Or just keep on training until i leave this place and can cook clean food again and cut then? Im still a fair way off my goals lifting and size wise but im a bit scared that if i continue to train heavy and eat heavy im going to get myself up to a point where its going to be a big job cutting. If i cut down on the calories ( which im trying to keep at around 3000-3500 a day ) i know my progression under the bar will stagnate so its either cut or bulk for my body it doesnt really respond to well to the clean bulk kinda deal if im clean bulking by relying on supplements rather than clean food.

We have PT on duty here twice a week which ranges from intense to just sports and quite soft; add to that my 4 days of weight training and it doesnt leave much room for extra cardio to try and cut some fat, recovery time is tough enough to get as it is.

Im leaning towards just keeping on training heavy and eating as good as i possibly can until i get out of here but i would be interested to hear any advice towards this kinda situation that could get more out of this situation without affecting recovery time or complicating things to much.

Your diet will cut fat not cardio.

Do they have control of your food? What do they give you?

Hamburgler, yes mate im aware of that, but i havent got a lot of control on my diet here, thats the dilemma. To get 200 or so grams of protein a day im consuming a hell of a lot more calories than i need to be because i have not a great deal of control over the food they have for lunch and dinner. For breakfast i have oatmeal with low fat milk and usually either some almonds or a protein shake so i can get away with 500 calories for breakfast and in that 500cal i get around 20-30 grams of protein, 50g carbs, 20-25g fat. Meal 2 and meal 4 i usually have just a protein bar and some almonds so around 400 calories and 30g protein, 20g fat and 10g carbs. Its lunch and dinner that they provide that i cant cook myself thats the tough part, its usually hot meals or you can make a cold sandwich but the cold meats are usually processed meats and the meat in the hot meals is barely even visible at times. Im having no trouble bulking up on the excess carbs in the food im getting at the moment, not sure how i will go if i decided to start cutting and maintaining LBM with the limited amount of protein in the food, if i eat less food im not going to get stuff all protein and thats going to lose LBM for sure.

Mate have you got a frontline there?

We do mate, most of the stuff they sell is deep fried though, and the line is usually that long that by the time you get your food your eating it with less than 5 minutes of your lunch break. At the moment we have to pay for the mess even if we dont eat there which kinda is the reason why i eat there or else im paying for it ( which isnt cheap considering how much you can buy chicken breasts and veggies for ) and if i dont eat there im basically spending double for food then what i should be. After 6 months we can not pay for it and use that cash to buy our own food. Its really only this next 7 months im here that are a challenge, once i get posted out on my own and i can live off base i will be set, will be able to prepare food ahead of time and go back to being 100% in control of my calorie intake and choice of food.

Was really tough at recruit training having to go nearly 3 months on strictly 3 meals a day and little to no protein, lost a LOT of muscle mass in that time, my deadlift went from 180 to 160, bench went down to under 80kg, BW dropped to nearly 80kg so its taken me from the time i got here at my new unit in July till now to get up to 88kg and get the lifts beyond what they were before i joined. Obviously the diet here is working on increasing strength and size, maybe im just being a bit impatient with this and need to simply accept the BF for now as part of getting bigger and worry about cutting when im closer to my goals. Just sucks not being able to do a clean bulk and still get over 200g of protein a day without having to consume 3500+ calories to get it.

Dam mate, that sux..... Well if I were you i would just keep going with the bulk and just try to do as much cardio as you can reasonably fit in to burn those carbs off.
Good luck with it mate.

NJA82 said:

We do mate, most of the stuff they sell is deep fried though, and the line is usually that long that by the time you get your food your eating it with less than 5 minutes of your lunch break. At the moment we have to pay for the mess even if we dont eat there which kinda is the reason why i eat there or else im paying for it ( which isnt cheap considering how much you can buy chicken breasts and veggies for ) and if i dont eat there im basically spending double for food then what i should be. After 6 months we can not pay for it and use that cash to buy our own food. Its really only this next 7 months im here that are a challenge, once i get posted out on my own and i can live off base i will be set, will be able to prepare food ahead of time and go back to being 100% in control of my calorie intake and choice of food.

Was really tough at recruit training having to go nearly 3 months on strictly 3 meals a day and little to no protein, lost a LOT of muscle mass in that time, my deadlift went from 180 to 160, bench went down to under 80kg, BW dropped to nearly 80kg so its taken me from the time i got here at my new unit in July till now to get up to 88kg and get the lifts beyond what they were before i joined. Obviously the diet here is working on increasing strength and size, maybe im just being a bit impatient with this and need to simply accept the BF for now as part of getting bigger and worry about cutting when im closer to my goals. Just sucks not being able to do a clean bulk and still get over 200g of protein a day without having to consume 3500+ calories to get it.

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What I used to do is give them a call and order a double steak burger cooked with very little oil and no margarine on a whole meal roll with no sides. The mess can be a hit or miss sometimes but most days you can work around it.

If its only for 7 months just bulk like a mother fucker.

i didn't even read the thread and id say bulk

edit - after reading your first post... when you said you have poor nutrition, you do realise a calore is a calorie? Does not matter where it comes from

I would buy a heap of protein powder, a good multi vitamin and recovery vitamin, choose wisely at the lunch and dinner feedings provided and supplement with the lean protein powder to up protein intake to a more reasonable level.

May be if you can buy some cooked chicken and/or Turkey from woolies and make some meals out of that.