Cutting advice

Wjames43

This is my first real attempt at cutting. Anyone got any advice? I can maintain on 2300 calories and was thinking of a deficit of around 1900 - 2000 calories bringing carbs down to under 200.

LiftHeavyThings27105

Good afternoon! I am sure that people are going to ask (and you know who you are!!!) so I will ask for them:

What are your stats, man! How tall? How much you weigh? What is your age? What is your "fitness level"? How often do you train in the gym (or, whatever your "thing" might be)? What is your diet history (meaning, yo-yo dieter or a couple of times....seems like this is your first time 'dieting')? What are your goals?

Whew! I think that I got em all!

Davidsdottir

LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »

Good afternoon! I am sure that people are going to ask (and you know who you are!!!) so I will ask for them:

What are your stats, man! How tall? How much you weigh? What is your age? What is your "fitness level"? How often do you train in the gym (or, whatever your "thing" might be)? What is your diet history (meaning, yo-yo dieter or a couple of times....seems like this is your first time 'dieting')? What are your goals?

Whew! I think that I got em all!

Yeah, you pretty much covered it lol

sardelsa

So in order to cut successfully and most optimally, in general:
-Do not have a really aggressive deficit (at max 1% of your bodyweight per week)
-Get adequate protein (0.8-1g per lb bodyweight minimum)
-Follow a progressive lifting program

Your stats, history and what you are doing in the gym will help too.

PokernuttAR

Generally you want to cut about 500 calories from your maintenance amount. I'm 46yo, 5'7", 185, and I cut on 1700 calories. You'll want to play with your macros, but I try to intake about 185 grams of protein per day.

Wjames43

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

Motorsheen

Wjames43 wrote: »

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

Chieflrg

Wjames43 wrote: »

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

I would suggest cutting at 10% of your TDEE to start and go from there. Not knowing what your definition of eating clean is, I might add that calories consumed is more important than the types of food assuming you are getting the correct amount of macros.

Up your protein to around 200 grams at your current weight. As we get older we become less efficient on muscle synthesis, therefore we need more protein as well as better quality with the proper amount of leucine(3-4g per meal). We want you to have optimal results of MPS not just follow a standard of not being deficient.

Also up your volume this will help prevent muscle and strength loss. Not knowing your programming exactly its hard to determine exactly what intensity or volume would be appropriate, but I will go to say generally you might drop intensity very slightly across the board or keep your intensity the same and add a back off set(s) of 5-10% less than your working sets. Either way is a possibility that could work for different types of responder. So increase volume, but not necessarily intensity is a good plan to start. Most people make the mistake of dropping volume and this is just a poor plan that will definitely cause more losses than just weight. We want you to at the very least maintain strength and if your programming is on point you will actually gain strength on a cut.

Feel free to PM me with any questions you might have.

Davidsdottir

Motorsheen wrote: »

Wjames43 wrote: »

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

OMG can I trade in my kid for that one?!

LiftHeavyThings27105

Wjames43 wrote: »

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

Welcome, man! You are in several forums today. I like that! :-)

LiftHeavyThings27105

Chieflrg wrote: »

Wjames43 wrote: »

Hi lol yeah some stats would be good.

Im 5ft 9 tall, 44 years old weighing 180lbs. I have a reasonable fitness level training 3 days a week. I dont diet as such just eat clean and train hard. Ive recently made a concerted effort to gain weight and went from 172lb to 187lbs ( took about 3 months of upping calories and lifting heavy) I started cutting 4 weeks ago. My goal is to gain good lean muscle mass then cut up. First time ive tried anything like this.

I would suggest cutting at 10% of your TDEE to start and go from there. Not knowing what your definition of eating clean is, I might add that calories consumed is more important than the types of food assuming you are getting the correct amount of macros.

Up your protein to around 200 grams at your current weight. As we get older we become less efficient on muscle synthesis, therefore we need more protein as well as better quality with the proper amount of leucine(3-4g per meal). We want you to have optimal results of MPS not just follow a standard of not being deficient.

Also up your volume this will help prevent muscle and strength loss. Not knowing your programming exactly its hard to determine exactly what intensity or volume would be appropriate, but I will go to say generally you might drop intensity very slightly across the board or keep your intensity the same and add a back off set(s) of 5-10% less than your working sets. Either way is a possibility that could work for different types of responder. So increase volume, but not necessarily intensity is a good plan to start. Most people make the mistake of dropping volume and this is just a poor plan that will definitely cause more losses than just weight. We want you to at the very least maintain strength and if your programming is on point you will actually gain strength on a cut.

Feel free to PM me with any questions you might have.

I will say this.....and I speak from experience.

I was training, dead lifts (for example), three or four times a week and working at 85% or 1RM all the time. I was doing 5x5 or 8x3 or 6x4 or 4x6 - so I was mixing it up a little bit there - but I was always at 85% (or higher) of 1RM. I was fine for a period of time and then I would hurt myself. Go figure, right? Oh, and I *NEVER* had a de-load week (or whatever) and I never did any 'back off sets' - at all! It was go big or go home. I had some goals in mind and dang it!

Anyway, I am 51 and in pretty good shape - if I do say so myself. But not in such good shape that I could withstand what I was doing. Please allow me to be the dummy in the group. I will take it. Shoot! I earned it!

Wjames43

Thank you all for your advice. Much appreciated 😎