Starting a cut

larsminnaar
larsminnaar Posts: 56 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hey guys,

I know this isnt the right forum but I feel that the people with expertise on the cutting subject are in the gaining weight forum and not in the diet and weight loss forum.

So I started my training journey in February where I tried to bulk up. Starting out with 82kgs (180 Pound) at 1.91m (6.26ft) I have now managed to gain 1.7kgs without gaining too much fat. Id estimate my bodyfat to be around 20-22% so I figure its a good time to start a cut. I ate 3300 cals for the first 3 months and last month I upped it to 3500. Now I slowly want to move it back starting with 3200 this week.

What would be your recommended macro settings? I bulked with 40-30-30 (carb-protein-fat) and changed it to 30-35-35(carb-protein-fat) now.

Thanks!

Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    edited June 2016
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    Hey guys,

    I know this isnt the right forum but I feel that the people with expertise on the cutting subject are in the gaining weight forum and not in the diet and weight loss forum.

    So I started my training journey in February where I tried to bulk up. Starting out with 82kgs (180 Pound) at 1.91m (6.26ft) I have now managed to gain 1.7kgs without gaining too much fat. Id estimate my bodyfat to be around 20-22% so I figure its a good time to start a cut. I ate 3300 cals for the first 3 months and last month I upped it to 3500. Now I slowly want to move it back starting with 3200 this week.

    What would be your recommended macro settings? I bulked with 40-30-30 (carb-protein-fat) and changed it to 30-35-35(carb-protein-fat) now.

    Thanks!

    I tend to let all things bulk/cut stay within this forum. You are right, it has a lot more specialty and I have been figuring out how we can alter the names of the subforum to clear things up.


    Anyways, so you only gained a little over 3 lbs? Over what period?


    Macros should be based on grams, not percentages. Generally, you should aim for .8-1g of protein per lb of lean body mass, .35-.6g of fat and the remainder should be carbs.

    So at 3200 (I don't think you look 20%, so I based it off being 15% so there is a bit more protein:

    Protein: 153g = 612 calories
    Fats: 53g - 92g = 477 - 828 calories
    Carbs: 440g - 527g


    Obviously, you can exceed protein and fats a little and decrease carbs if you would like.
  • Jams009
    Jams009 Posts: 345 Member
    I second what @psulemon said... spot on.
  • larsminnaar
    larsminnaar Posts: 56 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    Hey guys,

    I know this isnt the right forum but I feel that the people with expertise on the cutting subject are in the gaining weight forum and not in the diet and weight loss forum.

    So I started my training journey in February where I tried to bulk up. Starting out with 82kgs (180 Pound) at 1.91m (6.26ft) I have now managed to gain 1.7kgs without gaining too much fat. Id estimate my bodyfat to be around 20-22% so I figure its a good time to start a cut. I ate 3300 cals for the first 3 months and last month I upped it to 3500. Now I slowly want to move it back starting with 3200 this week.

    What would be your recommended macro settings? I bulked with 40-30-30 (carb-protein-fat) and changed it to 30-35-35(carb-protein-fat) now.

    Thanks!

    I tend to let all things bulk/cut stay within this forum. You are right, it has a lot more specialty and I have been figuring out how we can alter the names of the subforum to clear things up.


    Anyways, so you only gained a little over 3 lbs? Over what period?


    Macros should be based on grams, not percentages. Generally, you should aim for .8-1g of protein per lb of lean body mass, .35-.6g of fat and the remainder should be carbs.

    So at 3200 (I don't think you look 20%, so I based it off being 15% so there is a bit more protein:

    Protein: 153g = 612 calories
    Fats: 53g - 92g = 477 - 828 calories
    Carbs: 440g - 527g


    Obviously, you can exceed protein and fats a little and decrease carbs if you would like.

    Thanks Sulemon. are those numbers based on a bulk now or on a cut? Or should i always use these percentages?
    And those lbs are unfortunately only after the 4 months so I kinda messed up my bulk.
    The picture however is not 100% accurate since it was after training and before i altered calories to 3500. Now i feel like all the ab visibility is gone which i figured was a good time to start a cut.
  • larsminnaar
    larsminnaar Posts: 56 Member
    For those months ive been eating 250gr protein, 330 gram carb and 140gr fat so that is probably a big part of my mistake
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    Hey guys,

    I know this isnt the right forum but I feel that the people with expertise on the cutting subject are in the gaining weight forum and not in the diet and weight loss forum.

    So I started my training journey in February where I tried to bulk up. Starting out with 82kgs (180 Pound) at 1.91m (6.26ft) I have now managed to gain 1.7kgs without gaining too much fat. Id estimate my bodyfat to be around 20-22% so I figure its a good time to start a cut. I ate 3300 cals for the first 3 months and last month I upped it to 3500. Now I slowly want to move it back starting with 3200 this week.

    What would be your recommended macro settings? I bulked with 40-30-30 (carb-protein-fat) and changed it to 30-35-35(carb-protein-fat) now.

    Thanks!

    I tend to let all things bulk/cut stay within this forum. You are right, it has a lot more specialty and I have been figuring out how we can alter the names of the subforum to clear things up.


    Anyways, so you only gained a little over 3 lbs? Over what period?


    Macros should be based on grams, not percentages. Generally, you should aim for .8-1g of protein per lb of lean body mass, .35-.6g of fat and the remainder should be carbs.

    So at 3200 (I don't think you look 20%, so I based it off being 15% so there is a bit more protein:

    Protein: 153g = 612 calories
    Fats: 53g - 92g = 477 - 828 calories
    Carbs: 440g - 527g


    Obviously, you can exceed protein and fats a little and decrease carbs if you would like.

    Thanks Sulemon. are those numbers based on a bulk now or on a cut? Or should i always use these percentages?
    And those lbs are unfortunately only after the 4 months so I kinda messed up my bulk.
    The picture however is not 100% accurate since it was after training and before i altered calories to 3500. Now i feel like all the ab visibility is gone which i figured was a good time to start a cut.

    Those were based on 3200 calories based on where you said you were going to set your calories at. And I wouldn't even call 3lbs a bulk. I would call it maintenance. With the increase in calories, you would see an increase in glycogen storage as well as waste in your GI system, and potentially an increase in sodium. Either way, you will probably need to cut back to around 3K. By doing that, I would just back on carbs and maintain the fat/protein grams.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    For those months ive been eating 250gr protein, 330 gram carb and 140gr fat so that is probably a big part of my mistake

    Not really. Protein is excessive, but it's not going to hurt your results. Excessive protein will convert to glucose through gluconegensis. What hurt you was the lack of calories.
  • larsminnaar
    larsminnaar Posts: 56 Member
    So that means my maintenance is only at 3300 cals? I guess that makes sense considering that i wasnt really gaining felt more like recomping since my body started to look more muscular. So in that case a bulk would be around 3700 cals and a cut at 2800? And since ive been eating 3500 isnt a sudden change to 3000 to rapid?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    larsminnaar wrote: »
    So that means my maintenance is only at 3300 cals? I guess that makes sense considering that i wasnt really gaining felt more like recomping since my body started to look more muscular. So in that case a bulk would be around 3700 cals and a cut at 2800? And since ive been eating 3500 isnt a sudden change to 3000 to rapid?

    I would start a cut around 2850 calories to see how things go (~15% less then TDEE). Since you where jumping a bit, it's hard to exactly pinpoint the maintenance level.
  • larsminnaar
    larsminnaar Posts: 56 Member
    Thanks Sulemon, am gonna give it a shot at 2850 and see from there
  • FireMike05
    FireMike05 Posts: 16 Member
    Good advice here and I'd just like to add my 2 cents... Start somewhere as far as calories and then be consistent for a 5-7 days and see where your weight goes... I'll usually weigh myself first thing in the morning after I use the bathroom on an empty stomach to be a consistent as possible... Also keep in mind that if you take that route that fluctuations will always happen especially if you eat dinner at 1700 versus eating dinner at midnight... Same thing goes for the morning weigh in, weighing in at 0500 versus noon will yield different weigh ins. So that again goes back to consistency. I'll usually try to eat dinner between 6-7pm every night and usually wake up around 0600 every morning but things do happen so just keep that in mind when you are weighing yourself! Once you determine you are gaining/maintaining/losing weight after the initial 5-7 days, make make small adjustments the following week until you start moving in the direction you desire. Hopefully that helps a little bit. This lifestyle takes time so don't rush it just continue to be consistent and fine tune cals and you'll get the results!

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