Would somebody please explain cutting?

ATCritch
ATCritch Posts: 20 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi, I've recently started eating around 300 calories more than my maintenance to put on a bit of weight, although now I think I've put on a bit too much BF%. I lift heavy 3(4)/7 days and cardio 2/7

What/how/when should I cut?
Do you still lift as much as you were?

I'm 6"3, 180 lbs

Thank you in advance

Replies

  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    there are people on here who are much more experienced than me, hopefully they can provide more insight.

    you need to bulk for quite a while, most things I've seen suggest at least 3 months... and stick to it. You will gain fat, but if you freak out about it and start cutting too soon, you won't gain much muscle. There's a thread in here with an article about "former fat boy syndrome" which basically describes this, i.e. bulking, having a bad day and some water retention, freaking out about fat gain, going on a cut, and ending up getting nowhere because you're not giving yourself time to actually grow muscles.

    If you think you're gaining weight too fast and most of it is fat, you can eat less, say 200 cals over maintenance, and maybe your maintenance calories were calculated wrong. Why do you think you're gaining too much weight though?
  • grandevampire
    grandevampire Posts: 242
    Also, from what I have read, the more your surplus, the more potential there is to gain fat (for calories not used towards building new muscle based on the load you are training them with). E.g. 100 calorie surplus, you could put almost all of that towards building muscle, and your muscles may even demand more depending on how hard you train. 500 calorie surplus, and you are supplying more than your body can use to synthesize muscle, so the rest is stored as fat.
  • PurpleSkull
    PurpleSkull Posts: 5
    Firstly you don't lift as much as you where while bulking, you cut down on the weight and you do more rep ranges as your not strength training, your building muscle (two different things) let me explain.

    When you strength train you build smaller fibers of muscle when you body build 8-12 rep range lower weights, you build bigger muscle fibers.

    Just cut back on calories, start lifting smaller weights for more rep ranges, when you do cut you'd be ripped as hell.

    hope i helped.

    -Purple
  • alyhuggan
    alyhuggan Posts: 717 Member
    Firstly you don't lift as much as you where while bulking, you cut down on the weight and you do more rep ranges as your not strength training, your building muscle (two different things) let me explain.

    When you strength train you build smaller fibers of muscle when you body build 8-12 rep range lower weights, you build bigger muscle fibers.

    Just cut back on calories, start lifting smaller weights for more rep ranges, when you do cut you'd be ripped as hell.

    hope i helped.

    -Purple

    No offence but that was a complete heap of bro-science. You don't gain muscle while in a caloric deficit unless you are just starting out which is still as far as I'm aware still being disputed about regularly. Strength Training is for power lifters, if you are trying to build optimal muscle you should already be using a higher rep range than strength trainers. If you look at some of the greatest bodybuilders in history such as Dorian Yates, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 2012 Mr Olympia winner Phil Heath you will notice the reps are generally between 6-12 compared to most powerlifters 1-5. This is a sample workout from Phil's website http://www.phillipheath.com/sample-workouts/index.php

    Read the part starting:

    "Powerlifters generally train in a low rep range (1-5 reps) while bodybuilders tend to favor a moderate rep range (6-12). The adaptations associated with these rep ranges may explain at least part of the hypertrophic differences between these two classes of athletes (Schoenfeld, 2010)."

    Now that's out of the way cutting is basically cutting back on body fat by lowering your calories and maintaining as much muscle as possible to lower your body fat percentage. You cannot save ALL your muscle while cutting just as you cannot avoid putting on fat while bulking. It's up to yourself how much you cut back on however the more drastic the caloric deficit in general I believe you are more likely to lose some lean body weight. Five hundred calories under maintenance and attempting to maintain your strength in the gym is generally how much people would cut. For more information go check out http://www.youtube.com/user/PhysiquesOfGreatness and http://www.youtube.com/user/twinmuscleworkout for more information about bodybuilding which includes cutting and bulking cycles.
  • PurpleSkull
    PurpleSkull Posts: 5
    Firstly you don't lift as much as you where while bulking, you cut down on the weight and you do more rep ranges as your not strength training, your building muscle (two different things) let me explain.

    When you strength train you build smaller fibers of muscle when you body build 8-12 rep range lower weights, you build bigger muscle fibers.

    Just cut back on calories, start lifting smaller weights for more rep ranges, when you do cut you'd be ripped as hell.

    hope i helped.

    -Purple

    No offence but that was a complete heap of bro-science. You don't gain muscle while in a caloric deficit unless you are just starting out which is still as far as I'm aware still being disputed about regularly. Strength Training is for power lifters, if you are trying to build optimal muscle you should already be using a higher rep range than strength trainers. If you look at some of the greatest bodybuilders in history such as Dorian Yates, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 2012 Mr Olympia winner Phil Heath you will notice the reps are generally between 6-12 compared to most powerlifters 1-5. This is a sample workout from Phil's website http://www.phillipheath.com/sample-workouts/index.php

    Read the part starting:

    "Powerlifters generally train in a low rep range (1-5 reps) while bodybuilders tend to favor a moderate rep range (6-12). The adaptations associated with these rep ranges may explain at least part of the hypertrophic differences between these two classes of athletes (Schoenfeld, 2010)."

    Now that's out of the way cutting is basically cutting back on body fat by lowering your calories and maintaining as much muscle as possible to lower your body fat percentage. You cannot save ALL your muscle while cutting just as you cannot avoid putting on fat while bulking. It's up to yourself how much you cut back on however the more drastic the caloric deficit in general I believe you are more likely to lose some lean body weight. Five hundred calories under maintenance and attempting to maintain your strength in the gym is generally how much people would cut. For more information go check out http://www.youtube.com/user/PhysiquesOfGreatness and http://www.youtube.com/user/twinmuscleworkout for more information about bodybuilding which includes cutting and bulking cycles.

    Sorry if i was misunderstood, i was saying for him to lose BF while keeping muscle he should lift within 6-12, i wasn't saying he was gonna get stronger or build more muscle.
  • default
    default Posts: 124 Member
    If you are bulking, I don't know if the cardio is necessary, seems counterproductive.
  • Mia_RagazzaTosta
    Mia_RagazzaTosta Posts: 4,885 Member
    OP, check out this group. You'll be glad you did.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/10067-eat-train-progress-
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Hi, I've recently started eating around 300 calories more than my maintenance to put on a bit of weight, although now I think I've put on a bit too much BF%. I lift heavy 3(4)/7 days and cardio 2/7

    What/how/when should I cut?

    When to cut:

    If you're training for aesthetics then a general recommendation would be to cut at around 15% bodyfat to about 10%, but that's certainly not a hard and fast rule. You can also just cut when you think you've gotten "fat enough".

    Despite the title it is covered here:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html

    How you should cut:
    Reduce calories.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
    Do you still lift as much as you were?

    In an energy deficit recovery may be impaired/reduced. If you get to a point that you have issues with your training, the first thing to reduce would be training volume in most cases (keep lifting heavy but reduce number of sets before reducing weight on the bar generally speaking). You can read about that here:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-2.html

    Chances are, if your current routine is reasonable, you won't really need to change anything provided your caloric deficit isn't massive and provided you aren't trying to cut down to very lean levels of bodyfat. It's likely that you can just reduce cals, go lift, win.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    Firstly you don't lift as much as you where while bulking, you cut down on the weight and you do more rep ranges as your not strength training, your building muscle (two different things) let me explain.

    When you strength train you build smaller fibers of muscle when you body build 8-12 rep range lower weights, you build bigger muscle fibers.

    Just cut back on calories, start lifting smaller weights for more rep ranges, when you do cut you'd be ripped as hell.

    hope i helped.

    -Purple

    no......

    See SideSteels advice...
  • drefaw
    drefaw Posts: 739
    Firstly you don't lift as much as you where while bulking, you cut down on the weight and you do more rep ranges as your not strength training, your building muscle (two different things) let me explain.

    When you strength train you build smaller fibers of muscle when you body build 8-12 rep range lower weights, you build bigger muscle fibers.

    Just cut back on calories, start lifting smaller weights for more rep ranges, when you do cut you'd be ripped as hell.

    hope i helped.

    -Purple



    NO NO NO NO .... this is so wrong .......Listen to SS on this one, ...please ...
  • ATCritch
    ATCritch Posts: 20 Member
    I'm at work just now but I appreciate all of your input, and will get round to soaking in the information later! Thank you!
  • belgerian
    belgerian Posts: 1,059 Member
    bump
  • sarahmoo12
    sarahmoo12 Posts: 756 Member
    interesting reads!
  • mud7urtle
    mud7urtle Posts: 500
    Cutting is simply losing fat while maintaining muscle. Accomplished with calorie deficit and weight training (cardio optional but can help)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyY8mfrjP0

    You train on a cut just as intense as you would train while bulking. You want your body to "need" the muscle, essentially.
  • stevansrb
    stevansrb Posts: 65
    This ^^^^^

    Calculate TDEE...Stay in Deficit...Proper Exercise (cardio can be done to speed up fat loss but is not needed) and have fun doing it!
  • ATCritch
    ATCritch Posts: 20 Member
    Extremely helpful. Thank you all for your contribution :)
  • ivorysteele
    ivorysteele Posts: 1
    Very Helpful. IT makes sense.
  • ATCritch
    ATCritch Posts: 20 Member
    Spot on advice thankyou very much!
  • michaelmadonna
    michaelmadonna Posts: 105 Member
    Keeping for reference

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