Where to begin? Cut cals?

mrs_jorgenson

Pardon this rant--
I got my book yesterday and read it in one sitting. Very excited to start, but don't really know where to begin. I have done Stronglifts for 12 weeks at maintenance, but definitely wasn't engaging my glutes to full potential. I then switched to Livefit from bodybuilding.com, and after a month I am over it (not willing to step it up to 6 days at the gym plus steady state cardio pshh), but did have some fat loss and upper body definition through it. I am now experimenting with cutting cals, a modest amount, I have about 8 or 9 lbs to lose. I did the beginners workout A today and it felt very easy.
So my questions are:

-Should I skip to the last phase of the beginners program, increasing weight, and then go into advanced? Or just go straight to advanced? Or do just lower body and do some HIIT incorporating some upper arm movements (pushups, rows, burpees, etc) to shed some of my fat?
-I know this is THE MOST redundant question, but should I continue to cut cals and expect to have a good butt when the fat is gone, ie building gluteal muscle while in a deficit? Should I workout at maintenance for a while and then cut down or vice versa?

Thanks to anyone who cares to answer!

__freckles__

If you've been lifting for a while just do the advanced program.

You cannot build muscle while eating at a deficit, but you can retain the muscle you already have. When you eat at a deficit, you will burn fat and the muscles will "pop" because they become more visible.

If you have around 10 pounds to lose, I would reccommend eating at a small deficit and using the program. If you want to build some muscle afterwards you can do a bulk.

Personally I used the program to bulk and am now cutting with a different program, but I kept the glute bridges and hip thrusts and it's done wonders for my booty.

Good luck! :flowerforyou:

mrs_jorgenson

Thanks that's really helpful. How long did you bulk for, and how many additional calories did you eat? I knew building muscle while in a deficit was too good to be true. Part of me thought, since I hadn't engaged my glutes until uh, this morning, maybe I could get some newbie gains in just that one area. Ha. But since I am going to cut till I'm down to GW, I guess I'll just go with the flow. Thanks again!

__freckles__

That's an interesting concept about newbie gains just in your glutes. Who knows? Maybe you will. If anything you'll get the extra muscle pump after your workout. :bigsmile:

I bulked for 15 weeks. I ate 200 calories over TDEE for the first 6 weeks, then bumped it up to 400 calories for the remainder of the time. I gained about 8 pounds. Half of it was no doubt water weight, some of it was fat. So realistically I'm probably looking at about 2-3 pounds of muscle that I actually built. It's HARD fricken work! I plan on doing another bulk at the end of this year/beginning of next. But with Strong Curves I focused my muscle building entirely on my lower half and I can really see a difference in the booty!