Hey all, I've almost finished my first bulk, and I'm really impressed with the results. My arms have grown over an inch. And other parts are visibly different.
I'll be posting some pictures soon. I'm going to be starting a cut soon, hoping to hit 8-10% body fat by the end.
My aim is to cut over 10 weeks, I think this is achievable. This will be my first cut, so I'm new to the idea. And obviously, I'd like to loose as little muscle as possible. My training routine will still be varying from week to week to keep the muscles going, but sticking to good training principles. Parts of my diet I will be changing will be adding lean meats (chicken), changing my carbs from HI GI to LOW GI (pasta to sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa, oats), eating a lot cleaner and doing a few HIIT cardio sessions.
A few specific questions I have:
I'm currently at 3500 calories per day. When I start my cut, should I cut to 2500 calories straight away or progress slower, 3500, 3250, 3000, 2750, 2500 weekly or, even quicker than that or straight away? I'm not sure how much this would affect anything?
Do you think that 10 weeks is a viable period to cut to 8-10% body fat from 15-17%?
Anything I haven't thought of or should think of?
Last thought:
Lean bulk once cut? To maintain over summer months.
Then March or similar start a stronger bulk?
Thanks
Daniel
I think you're over thinking things. If you're bulking on 3500, dropping to 3250 isn't going to do anything to shed weight.
What are you maintenance cals? Work that out and then drop 300-500 below that. Give it some time and assess the situation and see if you need to drop more or not.
@Repacked
Maintenance is 3000. I've been bulking on 3500. I was thinking a slow decrease would be the best way to insure that I didn't plateau quickly. And decrease chance of muscle loss. I'll start my cut in one-two weeks.
I think I'll have to loose 5-7kg. Seeing as I started at 14% body fat and 83kg. And I'm now 16% body fat and 90kg.
Either way if I cut back down to 83kg and at 8-10% body fat, I'll be a hell of a lot leaner but still the same weight. But more mass.
9000 x 7 = 63000 cal deficit over 10 weeks.
63000 / 10 = 6300 per week.
6300 / 7 = 900 per day.
So 500 caloric defict. Plus 400 calories from weight training & cardio?
Seems reasonably easy for me. It's hard for me to calculate my weight loss from training.
I used a calculator online. My longish weight sessions burn close to 700 calories which I do 3x per week.
And my 1x vigorous shorter workout very much the same.
Works out like 2500 calories per week burned from weight training.
Plus 500 deficit every day = 2500 + 3500 = 6000.
So I wouldn't have to do too much cardio to start burning weight.
I'm hoping that I loose virtually no muscle. Reason for advanced planning towards cut.
I struggle with fatigue quite a lot of the time even with sleep. And I find that I function really well with carbs, so loosing too many would be back for me.
There are plenty of diets.
@ 3500 calories my macro's are basically 250 P, 90 F, rest carbs 350-500.
@ 2500 calories my macro's will be 220 P, 80 F, rest carbs 210-240.
I'm using the IIFYM calculator. I'll make sure I have a cheat meal each week to keep me going well.
I don't drink, probably which is one of the reasons I got overweight in the first place!
Thanks for all the advice man. Appreciated, oh thanks for the disclaimer too
So by your calculations I have made a nice gain of muscle, which sounds about right. And looks about right after looking at myself in the mirror.
It's definitely noticeable. Noob gains I think. Hopefully the next bulk is just as easy.
Additional daily cardio of 400 calories is just going to be too much for me, I'll set a limit, I can't totally kill myself.
I've got exams coming up this term, so have to keep my energy up.
This is the sort of cardio I could be doing. I think 7kg may be too much also.
I think I'll put the bar at 5kg, then see how lean I become. And how I look.
If I don't, it's not amazingly hard to drop 2kg more in a few weeks if need be.
3x days per week of 20 mins HIIT on running @ 14.5kph, and walking @ 6.5kph - one minute on, one minute off - calories burned830
230 calories unaccounted - burned through occupation/walking
Recalculating at 5kg over 10 weeks. 500g loss per week.
9000 calores x 5 kg of fat
= 45000 / 10 weeks of dieting/cardio
= 4500 calories / 7 days
= 650 (rounded)
= 650 - 500 calorie deficet
= 150 cardio per day x 7
= 1050 calories burned by cardio per week
Drinking too many weekends, helped me get overweight
Refeeding on a Sunday will be nice.
Big thing though don't over-think things too much - start with X calories and X training and monitor your results week to week - if something isn't working then drop the cals and play around with things abit - the 1st cut is always going to be trial and error.
I have cut 2 ways -
- Slowly decreasing my calories over time - i.e 3500, 3200, 3000, 2800 etc etc
- Calories/food remaining the same but increasing training - either weights or cardio sessions and/or time week to week
I personally had better results with the 2nd option - increasing training and/or cardio week to week - and leaving my food intake pretty much the same every single week.
I do though think if this is your 1st cut start with the 1st option as I do believe the 2nd option needs slightly more training experience - drop calories slowly - if your not dropping the weight then drop the cals abit more - towards the end though I would start to ramp up the amount of cardio you are doing.
You will drop abit of muscle but that is impossible to stop.
Big thing though don't over-think things too much - start with X calories and X training and monitor your results week to week - if something isn't working then drop the cals and play around with things abit - the 1st cut is always going to be trial and error.
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