Anyone cutting after a bulk?

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Replies

  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 887 Member
    edited February 2020
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily
  • Mr_Healthy_Habits
    Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,588 Member
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?
  • imfornd70
    imfornd70 Posts: 552 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    imfornd70 wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    imfornd70 wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    imfornd70 wrote: »
    I just have a hard time buying into traditional cutting bulking - Lean bulking is far healthier and far more obtainable long term - movement of 300 calories up and down are far easier than 700-1000

    Oh wow I don't know who bulks with those numbers, I usually don't see a recommendation for higher than 500 per week above maintenance (for males) if they want to keep fat gain at bay. If they just want to get as big as possible then hey, that is their own prerogative.

    I agree but I see it more often than not - I hang out in the 300 range and up my HV workouts to burn off the xtra

    If you are burning some off then your surplus must be really minimal and lean, which is fine if that's your goal!

    for me I like to be withing 4-5% of the lowest fat % 7% in my case so i never reach more than 12 or so - well after the holidays I gave myself a couple extra LOL

    I don't remember but do you compete ? In that case it's beneficial to not go too far from your stage leanness, just enough to relax and build a bit. I don't compete so I don't mind packing on some extra weight after getting super lean especially since I feel too scrawny

    Back in the day - Im 50 now so ummmm I leave that to the new lions - I hate the extreme dieting that came with it so it was jsut easier for me to stay leaner and cut a bit rather that feeling like crap for the last 5 -6 weeks
  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 887 Member
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?


    Ball park 300-500, the main thing is for me to make sure I’m actually in a decent surplus, nobody actually knows how many calories their burning each day or exactly how many calories they are eating it’s all estimates and best guesses
  • RepswithRyan
    RepswithRyan Posts: 171 Member
    watts6151 wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?


    Ball park 300-500, the main thing is for me to make sure I’m actually in a decent surplus, nobody actually knows how many calories their burning each day or exactly how many calories they are eating it’s all estimates and best guesses

    Damn, 6000.

    Powerlifter or strongman competitor?
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,216 Member
    Geez, I'll just sit quietly in the corner with my ~2500 cal TDEE
  • Mr_Healthy_Habits
    Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,588 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    Geez, I'll just sit quietly in the corner with my ~2500 cal TDEE

    My fitbit tells me my TDEE is about 3500 calories, but based on the scale and calorie intake... It's probably closer to 2500 per day... I just can't lose weight eating more than that and I'm a pretty active guy...

    I've always wondered if my metabolism has slowed because of all the weight I had lost... But maybe I'm just eating more than I realize too... Or blowing it on the weekends more than I realize, or both...

    I've got a pretty low resting heart rate... Low 40s, not sure if that's an indication but maybe...
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    I have to admit to having some nerd shame but I'm gonna own it anyway. I've been cutting for a while so I created a spreadsheet that figures out my average rate of weight loss over that time period, how many calories in deficit that corresponds to, and then uses that to estimate my maintenance level. It's got me at about 2700.

    I'll see how accurate it is after I finish this $^*! cut and start bulking, assuming I ever finish this cut!
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,216 Member
    GaryRuns wrote: »
    I have to admit to having some nerd shame but I'm gonna own it anyway. I've been cutting for a while so I created a spreadsheet that figures out my average rate of weight loss over that time period, how many calories in deficit that corresponds to, and then uses that to estimate my maintenance level. It's got me at about 2700.

    I'll see how accurate it is after I finish this $^*! cut and start bulking, assuming I ever finish this cut!

    I use one for TDEE I found on r/fitness. It's limited to just over a year so I mirror data entry in a full log file... 927 consecutive days of data so far.
  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 887 Member
    LvlUpStr wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?


    Ball park 300-500, the main thing is for me to make sure I’m actually in a decent surplus, nobody actually knows how many calories their burning each day or exactly how many calories they are eating it’s all estimates and best guesses

    Damn, 6000.

    Powerlifter or strongman competitor?


    Just a gym rat focused on physique

    Maintenance in the summer months is around 4000

    Maintenance in winter can often be over5.5k

    It’s early morning starts, attempting to juggle family life, running a business, getting into the gym then making sure the dogs walked,
    Many times in winter I’m walking the dog after 11pm trying to get to bed before midnight. Often I’m eating a whole litre tub of ice cream before bed just to get the calories in
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
    edited February 2020
    watts6151 wrote: »
    LvlUpStr wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?


    Ball park 300-500, the main thing is for me to make sure I’m actually in a decent surplus, nobody actually knows how many calories their burning each day or exactly how many calories they are eating it’s all estimates and best guesses

    Damn, 6000.

    Powerlifter or strongman competitor?


    Just a gym rat focused on physique

    Maintenance in the summer months is around 4000

    Maintenance in winter can often be over5.5k

    It’s early morning starts, attempting to juggle family life, running a business, getting into the gym then making sure the dogs walked,
    Many times in winter I’m walking the dog after 11pm trying to get to bed before midnight. Often I’m eating a whole litre tub of ice cream before bed just to get the calories in

    My go-to is Costco sized bags of Totino's Pizza rolls (pepperoni) and a marinara dipping sauce heavy in olive oil. I can scarf down a plate of those in a few minutes and it's a ton of calories especially if I wash it down with a mass shake. I struggled pretty bad when I was near 5K a day - hated it. Eating anything became a chore and my appetite took such a dive that I was never hungry. I have no idea how you handle such a high maintenance.... ugh.
  • happysquatter
    happysquatter Posts: 91 Member
    GaryRuns wrote: »
    I have to admit to having some nerd shame but I'm gonna own it anyway. I've been cutting for a while so I created a spreadsheet that figures out my average rate of weight loss over that time period, how many calories in deficit that corresponds to, and then uses that to estimate my maintenance level. It's got me at about 2700.

    I'll see how accurate it is after I finish this $^*! cut and start bulking, assuming I ever finish this cut!

    No shame in that! Nerds end up ruling the world 🤓 after all

    I have my own spreadsheet going back to July when I started down this journey seriously. Daily cals, macros, some micros - weight weekly/bf% and every single rep I’ve ever done : biggest help for me has been correlating good workout or bad workout sessions with the variables that I have access to

    Also, hi all - first post on this thread. I realize it’s no longer about cutting so I feel I might have something relevant to contribute 😎
  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 887 Member
    jseams1234 wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    LvlUpStr wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    watts6151 wrote: »
    I've always found it interesting how actors like the rock and the avengers will claim to eat 5-6k calories per day when adding muscle for a movie and still manage to not gain fat...

    First of all... I know they are not burning it all off everyday in the gym 8hrs per day... Your body just couldn't recover from that, joints muscles etc...

    And even if you could and did burn it all off every day, you wouldn't get any bigger...

    I mean it's possible they just simply starve themselves for 3 months before filming like some bodybuilders do...

    And then there's the obvious ped's... It's a mystery to me honestly

    No mystery, hours of training facilitated by a top noch trainer, dietitian and the best pharmaceutical drugs money can buy

    Depending on the time of the year my bulking cals are often over 6k daily

    Holy smokes... What kind of surplus are you in when bulking?


    Ball park 300-500, the main thing is for me to make sure I’m actually in a decent surplus, nobody actually knows how many calories their burning each day or exactly how many calories they are eating it’s all estimates and best guesses

    Damn, 6000.

    Powerlifter or strongman competitor?


    Just a gym rat focused on physique

    Maintenance in the summer months is around 4000

    Maintenance in winter can often be over5.5k

    It’s early morning starts, attempting to juggle family life, running a business, getting into the gym then making sure the dogs walked,
    Many times in winter I’m walking the dog after 11pm trying to get to bed before midnight. Often I’m eating a whole litre tub of ice cream before bed just to get the calories in

    My go-to is Costco sized bags of Totino's Pizza rolls (pepperoni) and a marinara dipping sauce heavy in olive oil. I can scarf down a plate of those in a few minutes and it's a ton of calories especially if I wash it down with a mass shake. I struggled pretty bad when I was near 5K a day - hated it. Eating anything became a chore and my appetite took such a dive that I was never hungry. I have no idea how you handle such a high maintenance.... ugh.

    Maintenance or especially trying to bulk in winter isn’t fun, at first it’s happy days, basically a see food diet but gets old very quickly.

    My struggles start when the work calms down and I decide to cut, suddenly that 6k goes down to about 3.5k and I’m starving constantly, currently at just under 3k and findinding it really difficult
  • Mr_Healthy_Habits
    Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,588 Member
    Another 0.5lb ☝🏼, ≈ 9lbs since mid Sept...
    Waist measurement and caliper pinch the same 👍🏼

    Measurements everywhere else, up slightly in certain areas, negligible change in others...

    I did add a bit to my bench, row and leg press, among reps and weight on other exercises, and just beat my shoulder press pr by 2 reps 😌

    So I'm not going to worry too much about not seeing the measurement increases I was hoping for... But I'll take them were I did see them...

    Not sure if it's time to increase calories or not yet, eating about 2600-2800/d... Odd considering I probably burn 3-4k/d...

    Started from the bottom now I'm here



  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member
    Two more weeks of bulking, according to coach. Gonna check deadlift 1RM, then a mini-cut. I am soooo ready. 204 lbs this morning.
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
    I've had the flu for the last week. I think I'm finally over it - no fever for the last 24 but hopped on the scale today and lost 9 pounds. I was slamming protein drinks left and right and hoping I didn't drop too much lean mass. I feel and look deflated though. I made sure I kept hydrated as I could.

    I still don't think I'm ready for the gym yet. Maybe Wednesday. :(
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    jseams1234 wrote: »
    I've had the flu for the last week. I think I'm finally over it - no fever for the last 24 but hopped on the scale today and lost 9 pounds. I was slamming protein drinks left and right and hoping I didn't drop too much lean mass. I feel and look deflated though. I made sure I kept hydrated as I could.

    I still don't think I'm ready for the gym yet. Maybe Wednesday. :(

    If it's any consolation the few studies I've seen say that you can take up to 2-3 weeks off strength training before you experience any muscle atrophy from "detraining". Prior to that most of the appearance that your muscles are shrinking is just due to glycogen depletion and dehydration, which comes back quickly when you can start eating and drinking normally again.