A year ago I was skinny. Very skinny. I started eating more and got to around 4000-5000 calories a day for a period of 8 months. Filling out after my growth spurt plus this new influx of calories meant I got 50lbs bigger in 8 months.
I made a thread about hitting 200lbs for the first time around this time. I was slightly chubby, I definitely lost my visible abs. For the past 6 months I’ve kept my calories at 4000-5000 which seems to be maintenance for me now. I’ve added sledgehammer training and similar things to increase my total activity over the week.
I’ve kept my weight constant at 200-210lbs. But my waist has decreased from 37 to 33 inches. My strength gains have been steady as well.
Now I have a question. Is bulking without getting very fat and cutting without losing size/strength as simple as setting a calorie point (ex. 5000) and letting yourself grow under it until it becomes maintenance for you? At which time you increase total weekly energy consumption (it naturally increases as you get stronger I guess) until you slowly lose the fat and can set a new point maybe 1000 calories higher and grow again?
This is how it seems to be working for me.
Any comments? Am I just reiterating common knowledge here? Is this related to G-flux? (I’m not very familiar with how it works)
Prof X mentioned something about this, and I can relate to a lesser extent.
I believe that when you have been constantly forcing food into your mouth and hitting the gym hard, you will definitely increase your BMR. Right now, if I ease up on the food just slightly i’ll lose weight slowly. Prof X said the same thing.
So yes, i’d say that this can be an effective technique rather than say going on a full-blown cut. Once you’ve gotten your body used to digesting a ridiculous amount of food you only need to ease up a bit and continue working hard in order to lose weight.
Agree with what’s been said so far. The only variance will come when you look at losing weight under time constraints. At that point you may need to get slightly more technical. There’s no need for that now though since you seem to be happy with the progress you’re making.
Keeping it simple works better. If your at 210lbs and eating 5500 calories and wanna get down to 200lbs…slowly reduce your calories OR up your activity.
Changing things slowly is better then fast for the long term. And after such a long bulk; you want to continue to keep things doing that well.
I’m going to boost my intake to 6000 soon and see if I can repeat this. I’ll try to reach 230-240lbs.
It’s cool to see that you can lose fat (albeit very slowly) and get stronger/more muscular at the same time if you eat enough while being very active.
Although getting only 10lbs a month on my squats for the past few months has been kind of tedious. Hopefully with more calories strength gains will come faster.
[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
I’m going to boost my intake to 6000 soon and see if I can repeat this. I’ll try to reach 230-240lbs.
It’s cool to see that you can lose fat (albeit very slowly) and get stronger/more muscular at the same time if you eat enough while being very active.
Although getting only 10lbs a month on my squats for the past few months has been kind of tedious. Hopefully with more calories strength gains will come faster. [/quote]
Sweet mother Mary you have a fast metabolism. Good job on the gains. I’m trying to hit 230 in the next couple of months as well. More if I can get it.
[quote]PRCalDude wrote:
LiftSmart wrote:
I’m going to boost my intake to 6000 soon and see if I can repeat this. I’ll try to reach 230-240lbs.
It’s cool to see that you can lose fat (albeit very slowly) and get stronger/more muscular at the same time if you eat enough while being very active.
Although getting only 10lbs a month on my squats for the past few months has been kind of tedious. Hopefully with more calories strength gains will come faster.
Sweet mother Mary you have a fast metabolism. Good job on the gains. I’m trying to hit 230 in the next couple of months as well. More if I can get it. [/quote]