Switching Focus-When Did You Know It Was Time?
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Will_Thrust_For_Candy
Posts: 6,109 Member
Hey all!
My question today is for anyone that has made the transition from a cut to recomp. At what point did you decide to make the transition and what were your deciding factors in making the decision.
Here is where I'm at:
Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of when I started losing. I've lost 71lbs and over 55" inches overall. I have been in a deficit for the most part of that 3 years.....exceptions being a few vacations and a couple of months last summer when I just decided to eat intuitively for a bit (probably because I wasn't seeing results because I was not in as much of a deficit as I thought). In any event, psychologically this has been my life for 3 years.
I am finally within like 10-15lbs of what I think is my goal weight (I'm at 162lbs right now....160 was my original goal....thinking about 150lbs now). Doing 19 weeks of half marathon training really contributed to finally getting down to 162. Fit2Fat military body fat calculator puts my bf% at 27.6%, although I tend to think that is a little low.
I am back to a lifting focus now (doing a strength program by Bret Contreras- 30 day glute challenge with a compound upper added to each workout).
My goal is not to be super lean. My goal is to have a fit body, but still somewhat soft and curvy. Back in July my mom told me that she thought I should be done....and I laughed at said no way! But then, looking at my progress pics from yesterday....I can't help but wonder if she is right.
My thought was to switch to a recomp focus until next running season. Then re-evaluate and if I still would like to drop 10lbs, take care of it then.
Thoughts? Experiences? Suggestions? Advice?
Thanks in advance ETP crew :happy:
My question today is for anyone that has made the transition from a cut to recomp. At what point did you decide to make the transition and what were your deciding factors in making the decision.
Here is where I'm at:
Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of when I started losing. I've lost 71lbs and over 55" inches overall. I have been in a deficit for the most part of that 3 years.....exceptions being a few vacations and a couple of months last summer when I just decided to eat intuitively for a bit (probably because I wasn't seeing results because I was not in as much of a deficit as I thought). In any event, psychologically this has been my life for 3 years.
I am finally within like 10-15lbs of what I think is my goal weight (I'm at 162lbs right now....160 was my original goal....thinking about 150lbs now). Doing 19 weeks of half marathon training really contributed to finally getting down to 162. Fit2Fat military body fat calculator puts my bf% at 27.6%, although I tend to think that is a little low.
I am back to a lifting focus now (doing a strength program by Bret Contreras- 30 day glute challenge with a compound upper added to each workout).
My goal is not to be super lean. My goal is to have a fit body, but still somewhat soft and curvy. Back in July my mom told me that she thought I should be done....and I laughed at said no way! But then, looking at my progress pics from yesterday....I can't help but wonder if she is right.
My thought was to switch to a recomp focus until next running season. Then re-evaluate and if I still would like to drop 10lbs, take care of it then.
Thoughts? Experiences? Suggestions? Advice?
Thanks in advance ETP crew :happy:
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Replies
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I'm rambling here but here are some things to think about:
1) Are you still in a deficit and have you been for a while? (has your weight been going down)? If you've been weight stable for a while now, you could make the argument that you are already recomping.
2) How is your gym performance?
3) Are you happy with your level of leanness? Alternatively, would being leaner make you happier with your body?
4) How are you feeling about food?
And #3 is a big one because ultimately that's going to guide you to whether or not it's time to recomp. The other questions are still relevant because you may just need a diet break for example.
And this isn't to say that you shouldn't just recomp now. If you are happy with your physique and don't desire to get leaner right now OR if it's not worth the additional stresses required to get leaner right now then the answer could be to maintain for a while.0 -
Thanks Patrick!
1. Yes, I'm still in a deficit now and have been running, quite frankly, a very aggressive deficit for months now. I maintained AT LEAST a 500 calorie/day deficit (sometimes closer to 1200/day) while half marathon training and I did that for 19 weeks. For the first 11 weeks I was also still doing strength training. At about week 8 or 9 of the first HM program I stopped lifting altogether because both was too much. During that time I dropped about 15lbs. I just started lifting again last week. This program is lifting 6 days/week and I also still run about 5k 3x/week (although this running is a lot more intervals and leisure "fun" than training run). I'm still holding on to that 500 calorie/day deficit for the most part. This data is based on the information from my Polar Loop.
2. My gym performance is good. I'm feeling good with my performance although with that being said, performance is always better when the deficit is not as great.
3. I would really just like to see some fat loss to be honest. The lower abdomen and legs to be specific. Obviously I know I can't "spot train" but these areas have greatly improved over the summer with all of the running (and weight loss.) I would like to see some more of the cellulite disappear and I can't help but wonder if going back to a strength focus after losing a nice chunk will help with the firmness of the legs.
4. I'm hungry quite often. I crave carbs regularly (and I'm not doing any sort of low carb diet or anything). I just kind of...want to eat all the time lol Now I fully realize that could also be because I've gone back to lifting full force.
I think I'm having the most difficulty with the psychological aspect of it. I mean all I have been doing (for the most part) for 3 years is cut. Even if there are times that I haven't been (errors in logging, etc,) mentally it's what I've been doing so I'm having a hard time letting go of the deficit concept, if that makes any sense?0 -
Yes it makes sense and you should probably get out of a deficit for a while with the understanding that you can always go back to a fat loss phase in the future.
You could take a 2 week diet break or you could rapidly reverse out to maintenance (try to reach maintenance in about 2 weeks) and sit there for a couple of months and monitor how things go.
6 days/week lifting might also be a bit taxing on you mentally even if it feels like a good idea. I'm not going to suggest that you're overtraining because I have no idea what your training looks like and that's obviously relevant. Plenty of people CAN train 6/week if done intelligently. Alternatively you could discover that 3-4/week training keeps you sharper so to speak.0 -
Yes, that all makes a lot of sense....thanks Patrick!
I think I will ease into it be going to about a 10% deficit for a bit, see what happens with that and then go from there.
The 6x/week strength is just for this 30 day challenge, it's a program designed by Bret Contreras, and while it's challenging, it's really not too horribly over the top. So far I feel quite good and it will take me up to my beach holiday where I will finally have a nice diet and exercise break lol
Thanks for your advice...it's certainly appreciated :drinker:0
