Rusty740 Member

Yeah, could be TDEE would go up significantly. I made the mistake of thinking it's me walking around all day, and I don't weigh that much. It's going to depend a bit on your weight. 145 lbs like me, not much, 200-250?, lots.

No to worry, you'll need much longer then a few weeks to lose muscle. You'll lose some fullness, glycogen, but it'll come right back. Eat at maintenance to not gain fat, or even use it as a short cutting opportunity and keep your protein higher than the bulk.

It was actually pretty close for me, I think, but I know it's just using a pretty normal formula. For men it's going to be pretty close any way, for women, probably not close at all. No way you're 50% though. 35?

Guidelinieish, if that makes sense. You should try to make them, but if you miss, it's not the end of the world. Macros probably account for 10-25% of your success.

I'm in favour of OP doing what gets him the fastest into a place where he can bulk and cut with reasonable speed. If he bulks, he will have a long cut ahead of him at some point, if he cuts for a couple months he could be down at 13% and then bulk for a few, then cut to 12, and be in a good place for medium length bulls…

Glad to hear :)

Yeah, this is the answer. It's to do with the estrogen/progesterone switch around day 14 or so and water retention. The good news is it is only temporary, the bad news is it'll drive you crazy :smile: . The best way for women to track weight loss is to compare the same weeks in their cycle to each other, not go from week…

Don't worry about it. Too many whole foods are the least of most peoples' problems. I'd say that if you're going to eat carbs, first eat vegetables, then fruit and grains etc, then go right to ice cream, so I'd say you're doing just fine. If you want to tighten up your macros that's great, but I wouldn't worry too much…

The calories you burn at work are not likely to be very significant, even doing a fair amount of running around. A couple hundred extra maybe. Eat more :) Have a coke. You'll need to figure out your TDEE over several weeks. The most accurate way is to do the calculations online, go for it, and adjust in a few weeks…

I totally get you. I got down to a low BF and wanted it to stay that way but the path to what I wanted (beach body)was through increased weight (bulk). It's taken several months for me to accept the extra bit of fat around the midsection as a result of bulking, but I've also found that the weight/lean body mass ratio for a…

That's a long time. I'd take a maintenance break for a month or two, get your NEAT up a bit (it's suppressed at the moment), then try again. You are assuredly losing some muscle with the fat and getting a lower BF will be counter productive at this point. Could be better to bulk first, gain some pounds and try again with a…

I think there's a couple things going on. One is that you are probably stressed out after your commute, and the stress is making you crave some comfort calories. To get around this you might set yourself a "no-eat" time of say 1/2 hr or something, enough that you can get home, de-stress and relax. Water is ok of course. It…

Ah ha!! Need less protein, more carbs. That extra protein isn't going to muscle beyond about 0.8 g/lb, and carbs are a must for bulk. Try 0.8 g/lb body weight (min), 2g/lb carbs (min) & some good fats 0.45 g/lb (min)

Nah, you can't gain fat in one day. Probably nothing. I think you should go to a full body 3 day/wk program though, with 3 or 4 rest days. Can you describe the exercises, weights (%1RM), sets, reps please. I'm guessing you do low weights high reps to really get a good pump. Fill those suckers up with water and glycogen but…

How long have you been cutting?

Here's a great article by Lyle McDonald with female numbers. http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html/ Looks like he uses 19 to 24-27% as the range to stay between (i.e. bulk at 19 and cut at 24-27), but the article's worth reading. I'm not sure, but I think the top end of…

I think you've got the right idea. Your bulk seems about right, the cut of 2 lbs per week will be hard but you might as well cut as fast as you can in the first few weeks. A good limit is sometimes espoused as 25% less than TDEE, if you go lower you may risk more muscle loss than necessary. 1,000 calories per day deficit…

Yeah, I'd do this too. A long cut like you've done has a greater chance of losing muscle mass than a short cut. Maintain for a month or so, see how you feel. Mike Israetel likes to recommend that when you need to lose a lot of BF, that you do it in stages, then maintain, then cut again. He says there is evidence that over…

I think that would be just fine. 3 month/1 month .It really depends on your goals and you will be able to figure it out after doing a 4 month cycle of that to see if you like it. I personally think that 3 months bulk, 1 month cut is a nice way to break it up for someone with no competition or anything to get prepared for.…

I'm thinking you should go maintenance for 2-3 months. I'm not sure if I think you should bulk or not, that usually means you should cut some more, but I'm thinking your body might be telling you that you need a break from cutting. If you cut for too long, you'll risk losing some muscle. It's totally up to you but if you…

This is what I'm thinking too. While I see that he says 3500 while accounting for fat gain, said fat gain is still ideally very small. This is equivalent to a perpetual lean bulk. We know that Lyle is a loud proponent of making sure to read articles for what they say and do not say. Lyle has provided the calories for a…

Do what works. Of course carb cycling could increase your total weekly calories, maybe that's good or bad depending on what you are going for. It can also serve as a "once per week" break from a cut. Like a re-feed. If I were you, getting started, I'd try to keep it simple first, then add different techniques as you need…

Here's a weird one I won't really recommend long term...sleep less and find something to worry about. Seriously, these are culprits in the majority of overweight folks and a serious concern for professional bodybuilders trying to lose fat. Since you are trying to gain, and to increase your appetite. This could be something…

Actually way more effective to do this^ too, but not if you do want the extra fitness :)

If you just go for a 30 minute walk each day I think you'll be better off. You want this to be something you can continue to do. You don't want it to make you all sweaty, walking is perfect. I promise you, do this each day and it will be a difference maker. When I started weight loss, I did 2, 15 minute walks each day,…

Great choice! Find them in the frozen vegetable section or with the nuts or bulk in dried form, sometimes salted. If you get the frozen ones, just thaw them out and snack like peas.

First things first. You will need to eat more calories to gain weight. If you are eating 1850 and not gaining, then either you are not eating 1850 or 1850 is not enough. My bet is you aren't eating 1850. Thin people tend to overestimate the amount of food they eat. Either way the solution is the same, eat more. Up your…

If you like your coffee and everything's still workin', then by all mean, have your coffee

I'm thinking maybe 0.5 lbs per week. It's decent, but slow enough to keep a bit of workout strength, if you can do 1 lb per week for the first 3-4 weeks that would be good, but it will get much harder so you might end up only losing 0.25 lb per week by the end anyhow. I'm guessing maybe 12-16 weeks. You could stop at 135…

It's simple. Cut Here's why. If your method of BF% puts you in the 15% range, then it's close enough. Let's pretend it's either 13 all the way to 19. Either one of those and you'll still do better to cut. The basic idea is that at more than 15% BF, the body (males) tends to favour fat over muscle for storage. You still…