Body Recomp vs Cut/Bulk

n00bpoker

Hey all. Im a 46yr old male whos goal is to go from 93kg down to the range of 80-85kg but also have some lean muscle.

My question is how is it best to start? Should i just calorie deficit and go on walks until im down to 80-85kg and then start a bulk/cut cycle for the lean muscle

OR

Should i try to body recomp and do heavy weights and HIIT in a deficit from the start

zebasschick

start working out now to build. there's literally no reason not to.

AnnPT77

n00bpoker wrote: »

Hey all. Im a 46yr old male whos goal is to go from 93kg down to the range of 80-85kg but also have some lean muscle.

My question is how is it best to start? Should i just calorie deficit and go on walks until im down to 80-85kg and then start a bulk/cut cycle for the lean muscle

OR

Should i try to body recomp and do heavy weights and HIIT in a deficit from the start

There are other options between those extremes.

Heavy weights from the start are right for your goal - heavy for you. So would be slow fat loss (small calorie deficit), good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively ample protein). Maybe recomp, which would be maintenance calories or close to it, by definition.

I've never seen anyone say they wish they'd waited to start lifting. I've seen a lot of people here say they wish they'd started lifting from the very beginning, even alongside deficit and fat loss. Yes, a deficit limits potential for muscle mass gain, but lifting in a deficit at minimum helps preserve as much existing muscle as possible alongside fat loss, giving you a better starting point for gains once you reach maintenance calories (or a small surplus).

Cardio is good, an essential element for well-rounded health and fitness. But HIIT? It's more likely to interfere with recovery from more effective strength training, can be unnecessarily fatiguing (so reduce daily life calorie expenditure), has more potential for injury. HIIT is waaaay overhyped these days.

IMO, on the cardiovascular side, more suitable for your goals would be steady state cardio that fits your time budget, at an intensity that's as intense as you can sustain for that time period (allowing for a short warm up and cool down) while feeling energized for the rest of the day(s), rather than exhausted. (A few minutes of "whew" right after the workout is fine.)

High intensity work of some type has a role in good cardiovascular fitness. I don't know your history, but it isn't great for beginners. Starting by building an endurance base is a better beginning, from a CV fitness perspective. For the longer run . . . even elite athletes don't do all (or even most) of their CV workouts at high intensity (HIIT or otherwise), and they have the best fitness advice money can buy. High intensity cardio is more of a condiment or side dish in the exercise menu, not a main meal.

zebasschick

AnnPT77 wrote: »

n00bpoker wrote: »

Hey all. Im a 46yr old male whos goal is to go from 93kg down to the range of 80-85kg but also have some lean muscle.

My question is how is it best to start? Should i just calorie deficit and go on walks until im down to 80-85kg and then start a bulk/cut cycle for the lean muscle

OR

Should i try to body recomp and do heavy weights and HIIT in a deficit from the start

There are other options between those extremes.

Heavy weights from the start are right for your goal - heavy for you. So would be slow fat loss (small calorie deficit), good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively ample protein). Maybe recomp, which would be maintenance calories or close to it, by definition.

I've never seen anyone say they wish they'd waited to start lifting. I've seen a lot of people here say they wish they'd started lifting from the very beginning, even alongside deficit and fat loss. Yes, a deficit limits potential for muscle mass gain, but lifting in a deficit at minimum helps preserve as much existing muscle as possible alongside fat loss, giving you a better starting point for gains once you reach maintenance calories (or a small surplus).

Cardio is good, an essential element for well-rounded health and fitness. But HIIT? It's more likely to interfere with recovery from more effective strength training, can be unnecessarily fatiguing (so reduce daily life calorie expenditure), has more potential for injury. HIIT is waaaay overhyped these days.

IMO, on the cardiovascular side, more suitable for your goals would be steady state cardio that fits your time budget, at an intensity that's as intense as you can sustain for that time period (allowing for a short warm up and cool down) while feeling energized for the rest of the day(s), rather than exhausted. (A few minutes of "whew" right after the workout is fine.)

High intensity work of some type has a role in good cardiovascular fitness. I don't know your history, but it isn't great for beginners. Starting by building an endurance base is a better beginning, from a CV fitness perspective. For the longer run . . . even elite athletes don't do all (or even most) of their CV workouts at high intensity (HIIT or otherwise), and they have the best fitness advice money can buy. High intensity cardio is more of a condiment or side dish in the exercise menu, not a main meal.

Agree with every word a thousand percent.

Retroguy2000

Everything Ann said.

You only have about 20 pounds to lose, so it will be slow anyway, and you won't have a huge calorie deficit. Definitely lift, and if you're new you should get some noob gains even in a small deficit. Don't expect to make huge muscle gains while losing 20 pounds though, especially at your age. You'll get health benefits in other ways from it, including protecting the muscle you have while you slim down.

Do the steady state cardio like Ann said, not HIIT. And don't do a lot of it in the same session as weights.

Then when you reach your goal, or are taking a maintenance break if it comes to that, stay at maintenance while increasing the lifting. You don't want to go big on a calorie surplus and especially not too soon after losing weight, or you risk gaining back all the fat you just lost. After you've maintained for a few months, try a small surplus of +200 or so and see how you get on.

nossmf

"Heavy" is not only relative per person (one person's max is another person's warmup), but the choice of "heavy" vs "moderate" has a lot to do with your goals. If you are starting out lifting, you do NOT want to be working with your absolute max effort right away. Start your lifting journey slow, learning proper form and technique with sets of no less than 8-10 reps, for several months to a year before branching out into truly "heavy" weights which you can only lift a few times. This will help teach you how your body responds to lifting, along with preventing injury.

This thread has a lot of information about introductory strength training, while this one has a large variety of lifting programs to select from, including many designed especially for beginners.

tomcustombuilder

When dieting down it's of utmost importance to be weight training otherwise you'll just look like a smaller version of your former self as weightloss without resistance training will cause muscle loss as well as fatloss so your goal is fatloss and MUSCLE MAINTENANCE. Adding muscle while in a calorie deficit can be difficult if not impossible in some instances so best not to expect it, plus people tend to run too small a deficit when trying to add muscle simultaneously. You'll get to the muscle building diet after you've lost fat.

So you'll want a realistic calorie deficit and be on a proven weight training program that consistis of mostly compound exercises, a decent amout of protein and if you're fairly sedentary during the day throw in come cardio, which is never a bad idea regardless due to the CV system benefit.