One month into training should I be cutting or gaining?

heybales

Lipsmahoney wrote: »

Following this thread for tips and help.
Being so strict eating for weight loss and now having trouble getting my head around eating enough to build without going back to the 300 lbs me. I do cardio once a day on the weekends and twice a day during the week (1000+ total a day) plus fairly heavy weights 6-7 days a week. It is all starting to close in on me.

Have you even done a week of the heavy weights without nearly that much cardio to get a good idea of how much negative impact the cardio has?

It has some, may not be as bad in a surplus compared to diet, but recovery time doesn't drop to 0 because of eating more.

Is all the cardio so you can eat more in general?

Is the daily weights part of a split program, or experienced enough after 3-4 years to need 1x weekly program for muscle groups?

heybales

Si_Brooks wrote: »

Imo the only way you can lose fat and gain muscle is by bulking. 250 - 500 cals over maintenance. This way you are building muscle and putting on more weight, therefore reducing your body's overall body fat percentage. A 100kg kg guy at 17 % BF looks a lot leaner than an 80kg guy at 15% in my opinion.

Except you would NOT be gaining just muscle, you would be gaining more fat too.

But true, just the mere transformations to body, even if just recomping, can mask whatever may be going on with weight or BF%.