Transferring from a bulk to a cut

Rowlsty · January 2014

Hey guys.

At the moment I am coming to the end of a bulk. I've been eating roughly 4750 calories a day, (my metabolism is bloody annoying). I am going to start a cutting phase in a few days to pretty much lean out to between 10-13% body fat (as I'm looking to be moderately ripped but am also planning on starting another bulk as soon as I've dropped a bit of fat so I'm not too concerned with getting my body fat to the very low %ages).

My question is this: I obviously need to reduce calories as part of leaning out so how do I do it? How fast do I reduce them? I've read at one site I should drop 500 calories a week til I'm down to around 2400 and another place said to drop 200 cals a day for a while. Really confused. I know whatever I do I will have to maintain levels of fat and protein but it's just the speed of reducing I am totally unsure about. If anyone with good experience can also tell me why their method is correct that would be amazing.

Any help will be massively appreciated.

sonytomtp · January 2014

If it were me, I'd start off cutting with around a 200 to 300 calorie deficit and see how that goes for a month or so. If the scale and mirror show me good results then I'd stick with that but if not, then I might change the deficit to a larger value, probably 500.

To be honest just use trial and error and do what works well for you and keeps you happy.
I would say about 1-2 lb's weight loss per week is what I'd go for, although again, do what you want to do.

As you lose weight, you'd obviously have to alter the calories to continue losing at a steady pace, which I'd do by just keeping the protein and fat intake the same and lowering carbohydrates.

Rowlsty · January 2014

Thanks for the response.

When you say deficit do you mean just minusing 200/300 from what I'm currently eating or are you saying I need to find a maintenance level of calories then minus 200/300 from that?

sonytomtp · January 2014

When I said deficit I meant number of calories below maintenance.

If you know how fast you was gaining weight with your 4750 calories, then you should be able to figure out your maintenance daily calorie intake value from that. And then lower that maintenance value more (by 200, 300, 500 or whatever) to get your daily calorie allowance while cutting.

Generally I've found many websites suggest 500 above maintenance (called surplus) for a bulk and 500 below maintenance (the deficit) for a cut.

LishieFruit89 · January 2014

So you want to go from 4700 to 2400?
Man that is a very drastic cut.

Why the 50% cut in calories?

I think I'd do -50-100cals/day to make it a more bearable drop.

Your cut calories should end up below maintenance.
The amount below depends on how big of a deficit you want.
I'd go with 250-500 so life doesn't suck

Rowlsty · January 2014

So you want to go from 4700 to 2400?
Man that is a very drastic cut.

Why the 50% cut in calories?

I didn't say thats what I was planning to do. It was from a site that said to cut 200 a day until you get down to a low amount. But thanks for the response.

If you know how fast you was gaining weight with your 4750 calories, then you should be able to figure out your maintenance daily calorie intake value from that.

Hmm. I've never really trusted those calculators (even the sophisticated ones) as they were telling me to eat like 3000 calories to gain weight even with all my exercise input etc. My weight gain was fairly random (between 0.4-1.2lb a week eating the same amount of food) but there was an overall positive trend eating 4750 a day. How would you go about working out maintenance with all that in mind? Thanks your response too.

LishieFruit89 · January 2014

It sounds like you've got a lot of trial and error in your future lol

Little jealous of how much you get to eat lol

TavistockToad · January 2014

If you know how much you have Gained over a period of time you can workout how many cals you need to reduce to get to maintenance, and then cut from there.

A cut of 250 cals will help you keep as much muscle as possible.

sonytomtp · January 2014

Another approach (seeing as things seem a bit random for you) could be to just drop your daily calories by maybe 100 or 200, try that for a while, maybe a few weeks, then decrease again and repeat until you get to steady rate of weight loss.
If you do it this way, it might be an easier transition from bulking to cutting too because there isn't such a drastic change in your diet all of a sudden.

I expect the randomness of the weight gain might have been due weighing yourself at different times of the day, or maybe just body weight fluctuations due to eating and drinking. If I eat lots of vegetables and carbohydrates and my sodium intake is high and I drink a lot, then the next day I can weight 4+ lbs more the next day.

cwolfman13 · January 2014

So you want to go from 4700 to 2400?
Man that is a very drastic cut.

Why the 50% cut in calories?

I didn't say thats what I was planning to do. It was from a site that said to cut 200 a day until you get down to a low amount. But thanks for the response.

If you know how fast you was gaining weight with your 4750 calories, then you should be able to figure out your maintenance daily calorie intake value from that.

Hmm. I've never really trusted those calculators (even the sophisticated ones) as they were telling me to eat like 3000 calories to gain weight even with all my exercise input etc. My weight gain was fairly random (between 0.4-1.2lb a week eating the same amount of food) but there was an overall positive trend eating 4750 a day. How would you go about working out maintenance with all that in mind? Thanks your response too.

If that is the case then roughly 500 calories less your 4750 would be roughly maintenance....so cut another 250 to lose at rate of about 1/2 Lb per week. You don't want to cut too fast.

Rowlsty · January 2014

Cheers guys.

I'm thinking I'm going to reduce to 4000, so thats -500 to supposedly reach maintenance then another -250 on top to hopefully be a deficit... and i'll see where I go for a week.

Starting my cut on the 4th. Thanks again for all the advice

Transferring from a bulk to a cut

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