Should you be eating a calorie surplus or deficit?
vienna_h
Posts: 428 Member
If you are skinny fat, trying to lose only a few pounds of extra flabbiness while gaining and toning muscle, should you be eating at a calorie surplus or a deficit?
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Replies
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deficit...0
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Do bulk/cut cycles. Lose the fat while eating at a deficit, keeping your protein high and your lifting heavy to maintain as much muscle mass as possible. Aim for losing half a pound a week or so. Then after 6-12 weeks (pick your cycle length, but no shorter than 6 weeks each way), add 500 calories to your calorie goal so that you would be gaining half a pound a week, keep the protein high and the lifting heavy. This is the only way to gain muscle and lose fat unless you are obese. Keep doing these cycles until you get where you want to be! The good is that you will be stronger and more bad*ss than most people. The bad is that since you are female, a 12 week cycle like described will most likely only have you trade 1lb of fat for 1lb of muscle. It definitely will take a while, but be worth it.
I will be starting my first bulk September 2nd. I wanted to wait until the end of summer before bulking for obvious, cosmetic reasons. I will also be at my ideal weight (145) by then. The last, and grandest reason, is that this will allow my 2nd bulk to cover Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, when we really like to bulk anyway
Add me if you would like to join me! 0 -
thanks for the advice! this makes a lot of sense
one more factor i should have mentioned is that I gained weight because my cortisol levels spiked for months after I had surgery last year. I've been eating at a deficit but haven't lost any weight, it's been over 2 months
I was 103 lbs before the surgery, got up to 118, was 115 before I started working out and since then I've been fluctuating from 114 to 116. I'd like to get back down to 105 - 110. and being skinny fat, im just flab, no muscle at all, no lean, no tight. at first i focused on cardio, but the past month I've been focusing on strength training.
I will try the bulk cut cycle. might be even slower for me because all the problems this cortisol is causing me, but if I follow a plan that makes sense, sooner or later my cortisol levels will be normal and it should start working 0 -
This makes a lot of sense and I'm going to go for this immediately. It's been very hard to find not only someone who is asking the same question as me, but a good answer as well--thanks to you both! :-)0
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Competitive bodybuilders use cut-bulk cycle as described by lilawolf, because it works.
I'm cutting until I completely lose my belly fat, then I'll begin the cycle.0
