donkey9512 Member

Thanks for quoting that insightful, well researched article. I am relieved that I don't have to go all keto and give up my spaghetti in order to get ripped! Ok, ok, maybe just eat a little bit less of everything)

Would that work for me too? I am in same boat. I am fed up of starving myself trying to cut while feeling low in energy. Should I bring some cardio so I can still eat? I think that I may benefit from loosing a couple pounds of fat but I am stuck at 141. My body does not want to budge. Unless cut off a limb, I don't think…

Of course it's her choice but at such a low BMI, it's basically tricky call. What about a very gradual slow cut? It would be a shame at such a low weight to start with for her to loose more muscle. She would not want to be skinny fat. I am kind of her male counterpart in same boat. I have these damn love handles I need to…

Are you a lady? Only 129 lbs and 5 ft 5. 25% for a woman is very nice! You probably already look smoking now.. I don't mean to disagree with the esteemed psuLemon but in my opinion 25% is not too high for a lady. So you could go either way. You may want to start your journey to gain some muscle mass or do as PsuLemon…

The revenge will be yours when you reach 40 years old and maintain a healthy weight while your so called friends get fat. It's a lot better to be underweight and have difficulty with weight gain than the opposite! You will be thankful when you're older.

That's one of the problems with very low body fat. Even if you are full of muscles and look great naked, with clothes you tend to look drawn in the face and very small. As mentioned above, if people are accustomed to seeing you at a certain size, a sudden shrinking can be surprising to some. He probably didn't mean to…

It sounds extreme but I read it somewhere and looked at some pictures. It's pretty gross. I know that fat is all jiggily on the body. Maybe the fat has more water? A pound of muscle is hard and dense and a pound of fat is soft and squishy so it makes sense that there is more displacement. If its only 1.1x, then it means…

Indeed it is a wildcard this bf%. Obviously, I am still interested in cutting a bit more. To be honest, I am guessing that my level is 12% based on the picture references all over the net. What I really want to get rid of is my love handles. They are only visible from backside. I have a blurry six pack now.

In a caloric deficit, your metabolism may slow down. Doesn't HIIT counteract this and stoke the metabolism?

Because your shoulder s are so freakin wide dude, the pictures needed to be posted sideways in order to fit!

I am so jealous. I am tired of cutting! Such a pain. I want to get my 10% bf so I can start bulking again! I miss food.

You need to measure and weigh often and take averages and compare at time points month by month. Certainly not daily comparisons and weekly comparisons need to be carefully averaged. I just reread and see you only started 8 weeks ago. I doubt you gained more than 1 lb of weight in a week( either muscle or fat). Water…

Agreed. Also, I read a pound of fat takes up 4 times the space as a pound of muscle. Something to keep in mind when you measure yourself. So if your measurements barely changed, that is an awesome job! It means maybe you lost fat and gained muscle mass!

I love bulking!

Sound like you're doing great! Don't give up! You'll feel so much better. The gains are most certainly healthy gains.

I generally agreed and conceded that fat is gained with muscle. I allow for the possibility that over the course of 6 months it may be possible to gain 6 lbs of muscle and very little measurable fat gain. I don't want to blow smoke. Not likely for most. Maybe we should get back to the OP. I did not mean to hijack the…

I agree with you but it may be possible for some to gain 75% muscle and 25% fat. Humans would have died off 10000 years ago if there was not a bias to store fat. Biological we would haved died off if we could not store fat for the lean months. Fat has something lile 9 calories per gram versus 4 for protien. So calorie wise…

I am glad that bulk and cut worked for you. Why is it that when someone suggests that they gained only muscle that they must be a liar? I don't suggest that you are lying. My fat is different from most folks. My fat is quick to add, slow to burn. My muscles are slow to add and quick to loose. I did not win the genetic…

Everyone is different. The argument s were so polarized that I needed to bring an opposing argument to balance. Back to OP, I think it's possible to gain muscle and minimize fat gains.

Bulk and cut implies fat and then cut. I guess I am affraid the fat will stay permanent. Everyone is different and this is just me. Different strokes for different folks. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have juiced but when he first started but not initially at 15 and started showing potential. If you want to be Mr or Ms…

In general I would agree with you. However, everyone is different. I know that I struggle to not get fat. Some are luckier than others. Back in the day of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane, I doubt they did this yoyo stuff of bulking and cutting. They just knew how to train and eat. Of course they also have a genetic…

They say you generally cannot out excercise a bad diet. Diet and calories in count more. Excercise has benefits beyond calories burned

That's why during a cut, people add more cardiovascular activities. Weight training is not about fat burn during the activity. However, there's the afterburn affect that ramps up your metabolism for 24 hours afterwards. There's where you burn many calories.

Quoting from https://www.verywell.com/ and using height, and target weight of 145, the BMI is 26.5 Everyone carries their wieght differently so take it with a grain of salt. Being overweight is not the same as being obese. Certainly 26.5 is a at worst slightly on the heavier side but not nearly the same as obese. ''Based…

Ditto to what Vintage feline said.

Excercise is catabolic and triggers the adaptive response. Like Shopcary2 says, excercise causes micro tears in the muscle fibers'. Initially, after a heavy bench sensation, don't you feel weaker? 48 hrs later you recover and become stronger.

Sijjoial, please read again what I posted. You still need the exercise. I will add that the catalyst is necessary and is the spark that triggers the protein synthesis. Exercise is a catalyst that starts the process for strength gains. Rest and recovery and food provide the fuel. It is during rest time that we rebuild our…

Thanks. I guess I am a manlet. According to the calculations for 142 pound 5 foot 6 male at 48 years of age and moderate activity, 2250 is about maintenance calarories. Is that too low for maintenance? That is why I use 1850 calories for cutting.

Thanks. Is there a way to reach 10% bf without anything extreme like Keto? I'm Italian and cannot fathom cutting out pasta. I am so close at 12% but been stuck at 12% bf. (I will give up bodybuilding before I give up pasta)

What is 'IF' (Moderators: can we get a glossary of terms?)