Dismantle My Approach to Cutting

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

By that I mean give me input that would help improve it, anything will be taken into consideration.

I HAVE NEVER CUT BEFORE in my life. I’ve been doing random ‘research’ (basically reading random articles during class) and have come up with ideas that I THINK will work.

For the past 4 months, (since June) I have been bulking. Brought myself up from 158 to 180, but abs are starting to disappear so I believe it’s time to get shredded at least for a bit…

WORKOUT:
4 day split; Chest/Bis (or tris, alternate), Legs, Shoulders, and Deadlifts/Back and tris (or bis).
(if you need to know the details of specifics please tell me)

For bulking I did about 3 sets of 5-6 reps for every major lift (bench, military press, squat, deadlift…)
but am now considering switching it to 10-12 reps and resting about 45-60 secs as opposed to my usual 2-ish minutes. -Would this help the ‘cutting’ process?-

-I’m a believer of ‘cardio, not even once’… would I need to do it if I wanna have a successful cut?-

EATING:
During my bulking period I aimed at a ballpark caloric intake of 3500-4000 (I know, wide) per day, didn’t count macros too much just focused on eating healthy, vegetables, eggs, chicken, steak… so on.

I have been hearing of IF (intermittent fasting) and how it’s great for cutting… so far I know:

  • 8 hour window is all you have to reach your macros, rest of time you’re only allowed to drink water/black coffee.
  • first meal should be 2nd biggest, post workout meal should be biggest.
  • 8 hour window is based on when your workout is.

It would be cool if anyone added to this as clearly I have limited knowledge on how to follow this, although I know what the benefits are.

For someone my age,size,weight to maintain my weight I would need to take 2700 calories (is what some random site I just googled told me), So I would assume if I ate about 2500 per day it would suffice. I will basically be eating everything I ate during my bulk, but in smaller quantities and no mass-gainer.

What supplements should I take on a cut? At this point I’m looking at just taking Whey protein and caffeine.
(inb4 glutamine/olive oil, jk)

I plan on hitting 185 before I slowly cut down to 175.
I am 19 years old and 5’11-6’0.

Thank you to whoever takes time to read this, I appreciate it.

2

Keep bulking stop worrying about your ABS and put mass on. Its turning to winter now any way so beach and shirt off season ie not for another 5 months any ways. Continue to eat and lift and continue to grow. At most just clean up your diet but keep calories high.

3

Well considering I still need to gain 5 lbs to get to 185 and it’d probably take until late November, there’s a chance I’ll remain bulking up until January.

I’d just like to know way in advance how the approach is looking and if there’s anything I should start adjusting or something I should think about.

EDIT: Just lurked on your act for a sec (no homo), insane overhead press man

4

I’m on IF just to experiment and I like it ALOT. I like because 1) The times when you have to eat, I have nothing going on and can cook and eat and just go all out. 2) It’s easy 3)Works great for my schedule
Ex. on Monday Wednesday and Friday I have school from 9-2 and I always lift at 530 so my 8 hour window will be from 4-12 , pretty easy

5

[quote]chobbs wrote:
Ex. on Monday Wednesday and Friday I have school from 9-2 and I always lift at 530 so my 8 hour window will be from 4-12 , pretty easy [/quote]

Is your window day-specific, by any chance? Meaning, would you have a different 8 hour window on the weekend or Tuesday and Thursday?

6

Thanks man I love overhead best movement in the world.
I’m not one for the cutting bulking seasons per say I try to stay in constant bulk mode. But to each his own and I wish you luck.

7

“Abs are starting to disappear”

This is the killer time in your bulk, when vanity causes things to unravel. Believe me, I know what you’re feeling. I was a skinny with cut abs guy not long ago, so being a little chubbier temporarily stings. I’m not sure it’s a great idea to abandon the bulk this soon, unless there’s a specific reason. I know plenty of people who complain about not gaining muscle, yet jump to cutting as soon as their abs begin to disappear and lament that they’ve lost their (small) gains too. Keep it in perspective: 185lbs at 5’11"-6’ isn’t big at all for that height, though is still a damn good improvement on 158.

8

[quote]AirJavier25 wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:
Ex. on Monday Wednesday and Friday I have school from 9-2 and I always lift at 530 so my 8 hour window will be from 4-12 , pretty easy [/quote]

Is your window day-specific, by any chance? Meaning, would you have a different 8 hour window on the weekend or Tuesday and Thursday?
[/quote]
Yes its day specific, I’m not sure if this is exactly how you’re supposed to do it, but it’s how I’ve done it. This is my 3rd week I think and I’ve lost 4 pounds. I don’t know if that was bloat or something else.

EDIT: This is my first time doing anything other than a “bulk” diet, and doing any conditioning other than a sport.

9

Its quite easy, eat less than you need and train balls to wall, I would suggest against changing your training split. It worked great for building muscle, why do you want to change it?
If your maintenance is around 2700-2800 kcals just start eating 2500~ and substract when you stall.
It doesn’t matter how many meals you take, if you fast, etc. Just keep the protein high and the calories low.

Anyway, if I were you I would keep bulking until 200 lbs or so, just clean your diet a bit if you are gaining too much fat.

10

Bulk to 200, eh?

Well here let me show you some pictures so you can tell me yourself:

June 05th, 2012

Oct 09th, 2012

I think the main contributor to my weight gain was the fact I had weak legs and didn’t deadlift, and now they’re LESS weak, but I’ve put in a lot of work in developing my legs nothing to be proud of yet but I’m definitely not disappointed.

Back to the 200… That sounds like a lot ! From your personal experience what benefits would I acquire from going up to this weight and then proceeding to cut?

Thank you !

PS: Yes, the abs disappearing is somewhat disappointing haha specially since I’m an ectomorph, telling girls at bars I’m on a bulk nowadays is a process I’m starting to get used to

11

^ umm, also it’d be cool if someone showed me how to post pictures as clearly that didn’t work

12

I hope you’re not serious. I just took a look at the pics. If you cut now you’ll probably look exactly the same as you did before your bulk. You’re still really lean. If your goal is to look athletic then you are pretty much already there but this is the wrong website.

13

Well the point of the bulk was to gain muscle not to look fat. Why would I even decide to cut if the end goal is to look like when I started? Obviously I’ve put on some muscle in the past 4 months.
And when I cut I intend to lose fat, not burn my own muscle… Regardless I’ve decided I will def stay bulking for a bit longer than I thought I would