Successful Bulk/Cut Cycle rotation Ideas

kapoorpk

I am past my 70 pounds of weight loss, down to 19% body fat and now focused on lifting heavier while pushing BF% down to 15%. Of course, as you all know, you can't cut without muscle loss and can't gain without fat gain, so I am wondering about what strategies have worked the best for people who have done this successfully building mass while keep BF down.

I am currently doing a 2 day split rotating push, pull and leg/kick muscle through those two days with 4 days of high intensity interval cardio a week. 2 day split meaning: M-push muscles, T-pull muscles + cardio, W - cardio only, Thu - legs+abs...repeat the pattern.

On just the cardio days, I cut my carb intake by 10-15%, keeping protein and fats the same. On all other days, eat at par.

Macros are: 50/30/20 for C/P/F

In total, I eat my maintenance calories + 1/2 of exercise calories. So, not quite a bulking surplus, but helps keep the fat down given that fat grows faster than fat.

Any thoughts on this approach or any others you have found to be more effective?

tomcornhole

tagging to follow. Might want to post this to the eat, train, progress group as well.

ndj1979

how much cardio are you doing?

You might want to back off the majority of your cardio to preserve as much muscle as possible.

As far as calorie intake, I am just going off what others have posted on the topic, but I have read that the best strategy is slow bulk like 100 calories over maintenance see how that affects gain/bloat and if no real issues then increase to 150/day and then 200/day until you are at a good comfort level of maximum gains with minimum fat loss...

I reserve the right for others to correct me...:)

DopeItUp

Tagging, currently in the same situation around 16-18% BF after 28 months in a deficit, curious what others' experiences have been. Personally I'm gonna try a ~12 week bulk once I get under 15% and then try to cut as close to 10% as I can.

evgenythe2nd

RIP

kapoorpk

I am past my 70 pounds of weight loss, down to 19% body fat and now focused on lifting heavier while pushing BF% down to 15%. Of course, as you all know, you can't cut without muscle loss and can't gain without fat gain, so I am wondering about what strategies have worked the best for people who have done this successfully building mass while keep BF down.

I am currently doing a 2 day split rotating push, pull and leg/kick muscle through those two days with 4 days of 30 minutes of high intensity interval cardio a week. 2 day split meaning: M-push muscles, T-pull muscles + cardio, W - cardio only, Thu - legs+abs...repeat the pattern.

On just the cardio days, I cut my carb intake by 10-15%, keeping protein and fats the same. On all other days, eat at par.

Macros are: 50/30/20 for C/P/F

In total, I eat my maintenance calories + 1/2 of exercise calories. So, not quite a bulking surplus, but helps keep the fat down given that fat grows faster than muscle.

Any thoughts on this approach or any others you have found to be more effective?

kapoorpk

how much cardio are you doing?

You might want to back off the majority of your cardio to preserve as much muscle as possible.

As far as calorie intake, I am just going off what others have posted on the topic, but I have read that the best strategy is slow bulk like 100 calories over maintenance see how that affects gain/bloat and if no real issues then increase to 150/day and then 200/day until you are at a good comfort level of maximum gains with minimum fat loss...

I reserve the right for others to correct me...:)

30 minutes at a time.

kapoorpk

bump

jeffrw1234

Bump

jayche

Some thoughts:

HIIT before leg day?
Shouldn't you be consuming more carbs on cardio days instead of reducing intake?