Lifts:
Bench 185 x 5
Deadlift 230 x 1
Squat 220 x 1
Have been working out for 2 years consistent with measuring my food intake around
200 P 200 C 60 F
Question is I want the hard/ripped body but I don’t if I should bulk or cut at this point
alot of my friends tell me I’m looking skinny now that I should bulk however I feel like I still have fat left. What should I do its driving me insane keep switching between the two? When I was 365 pounds at my largest it was easy because I knew I had to lose.
Congrats on the progress, but I think a hard/ripped body is gonna require some cosmetic surgery/tucking
I think you can do some work with your lifts, so I wouldnt worry about bulking or cutting and instead eat at or around maintenance and get your lifts up, and hopefully build muscle in the process
AMAZING man keep going! dont fall into some cut or bulk plan. Your lift numbers are in lbs? since you wrote weight in kg before, they would be high if they were in kg.
Because of the loose skin I would keep going -get down to 200lbs and evaluate. Maybe try switching around your macros to include more good fats as this might help also
Don’t bulk or cut - that’s language used by competitive bodybuilders that we recreational athletes tend to misuse. As an aside, “recreational” doesn’t mean we aren’t dedicated - we just literally aren’t getting on a stage.
I’d keep eating well - it’s obviously been hugely successful for you to this point, so don’t mess up a good thing! As far as exact calories, you likely can eat a little more, but don’t go crazy. You’ve done an amazing thing for yourself, your health, and everyone that counts on you - don’t break that because the Interwebz tells you to “bulk.”
Try little increases that are comfortable, and evaluate. If you’re gaining more than .5lbs/ week, it’s not muscle. In all reality, you probably still don’t want to be gaining significant weight yet; you’re in a good place for the elusive “recomp;” you can keep losing a little fat and gaining a little muscle.
I think you should just start lifting like a bodybuilder (we still want to learn from that camp, just not the diet extremes they use to get on stage because that isn’t our goal). There are plenty of plans on this site, but I’m partial to the John Meadows Reactive Pump plan; if that doesn’t float your boat, people have rave reviews about Christian Thibaudeau’s Best Damn Workout series. It all works - just do some compound lifts and some isolation lifts for a decent amount of volume.
Lastly, and likely not what you want to hear, you may be in a position where your goals will require a little nip/ tuck. That’s not a bad thing - you earned that opportunity through your hard work. Obviously, we aren’t doctors and we don’t know anything - I’m just mentioning it to preemptively get ahead of any frustration; you deserve to keep feeling good about your hard work and discipline.
So…
Keep calories/ food quality under control with objective measurements (weight)
Lift like a bodybuilder, picking a plan you like (as much as possible)
Nice job dude congrulations. Besides diet what exercises did you do to help you lose? Was it mostly cardio? Are those compound exercises the ones you did to help you lose weight or what you want to do to get jacked?
Keep it up
