Planning my 1st bulking/cutting cycle - did I get it right?
kapoorpk
Posts: 244 Member
Current state:
Past my weight loss, I have being eating at maintenance and lifting progressively heavy (recomposing). Made significant muscle and strength gains, but also fat with it. So, I am planning to use this proven cycle approach using cutting/bulking to shed some fat.
Am I thinking of it right if I do the following for CUTTING:
Diet - Cut total calories by about 10%, all from carbs, keep protein and fats at current level
Workout - maintain current lifts, would not be able to progress, if see drop in my ability to lift, increase intake to maintain current lifts PLUS increase cardio to 4 vs. 2 days of HIIT (currently doing) a week.
Do this for 4-6 weeks and get back to maintenance for 2 weeks
Then switch to 10% surplus and fuel progressively heavier lifts for 6 weeks.
Is this how cutting/bulking work? Any corrections or suggestions for higher effectiveness would be mush appreciated.
Thank you!
Past my weight loss, I have being eating at maintenance and lifting progressively heavy (recomposing). Made significant muscle and strength gains, but also fat with it. So, I am planning to use this proven cycle approach using cutting/bulking to shed some fat.
Am I thinking of it right if I do the following for CUTTING:
Diet - Cut total calories by about 10%, all from carbs, keep protein and fats at current level
Workout - maintain current lifts, would not be able to progress, if see drop in my ability to lift, increase intake to maintain current lifts PLUS increase cardio to 4 vs. 2 days of HIIT (currently doing) a week.
Do this for 4-6 weeks and get back to maintenance for 2 weeks
Then switch to 10% surplus and fuel progressively heavier lifts for 6 weeks.
Is this how cutting/bulking work? Any corrections or suggestions for higher effectiveness would be mush appreciated.
Thank you!
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Replies
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Sounds good just a few suggestions
Cut calories by 10-20% depending how far you want to get down (you can start at 10 and as you drop weight, reduce calories further as well.. so example you start at 2100 calories, lose 10 lbs, drop to 1950 or something)
I wouldn't just cut from carbs, just cut it overall but keep your macro percentage the same (so 40/40/20 or whatever) cause you still need carbs..
Your workout shouldn't change, you should always be trying to increase your lifts, and I wouldn't add more cardio.
Looking forward to others comments too on this.0 -
Thanks.
Don't you get hungry when cutting, given all that muscle mass looking to feed itself and a higher BMR wanting more calories?
May be what we are saying is that let the hunger eat the fat cells when cutting? Right? So, tolerate the hunger when it strikes or eat low calorie fiber to manage satiety??!??!0 -
Don't increase intense activity when going in to a cut.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html
"An additional idea that most likely came out of the drug use of late 70′s and early 80′s bodybuilding practices is that training frequency and volume should go UP while dieting. Before addressing anything else I want to address that. The basic idea of increasing either training frequency or volume in the weight room while dieting is completely *kitten*-backwards on a tremendous number of levels. If there is a single time when overall recovery is going to be reduced (unless you are using steroids), it’s when calories have been reduced. Trying to train more frequently in the weight room on a diet makes no sense."
Since HIIT - if you are actually doing HIIT anyway and not just the fad name attached to something else, is as close to lifting with cardio you'll get.
So in essence, some muscles are getting through an lifting type workout every day.0 -
Ok, so the consensus forming here is that keep the activity level same but reduce total calories. Again, to to my last question, which the revved up metabolism that's driving the intake, what do you do when cutting when you still feel hungry? You are going to feel that now, wouldn't you?0
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I wouldn't say rev'd up metabolism, it's correct for your amount of LBM probably, and your TDEE is correct for your amount of exercise.
I'd just get that TDEE to cut from based on real results.
Your body has gotten used to extra calories to do the recovery and building it's been able to do in response to your workouts.
It should not be happy about what you are doing.
You now get to suffer under the bar and, huh, standing in front of a bar .... Well, that comparison analogy went nowhere.0 -
I'd just get that TDEE to cut from based on real results.
How do you mean? I've mostly just used the TDEE using available calculators, a few of them to ensure the one I was using was not an outlier. Real TDEE....track actual calorie burn wearing a HRM or something? How else?0 -
And, I know there will be some suffering when cutting!!0
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I'd just get that TDEE to cut from based on real results.
How do you mean? I've mostly just used the TDEE using available calculators, a few of them to ensure the one I was using was not an outlier. Real TDEE....track actual calorie burn wearing a HRM or something? How else?
Look at any block period of gain - longer the better, hopefully 3 weeks available doing the same program you plan on doing still.
How much did you gain in total over those days?
What did you eat in total average during those days?
From studies looking at body recomp with no weight change, you can trade a lb of fat for a lb of LBM, unsure of how much muscle though in that LBM, but doesn't matter, you only care about the fat.
Needless to say, that means the 3500 still applies for bulking math.
lbs gained x 3500 / days = surplus over real TDEE doing whatever you did during that time.
Avg eaten - surplus = TDEE
So if you gained 3 lbs over 3 weeks eating 3000 calories daily avg.
3 x 3500 / 21 days = 500 surplus
3000 - 500 = 2500 TDEE0
