Accipter, I’m no expert, but from my experience, your metabolism is a very fluid system. Meaning that what was once maintenance may now elicit fat loss, and vice versa. For me, after V-Dieting, I could gain on 2,000 kcals a day at 175lbs. Now, I’ve stopped gaining at 3,500 kcal a day at 195ish lbs, and need to up my cals. Depending on all kinds of factors, including musculature, activity, etc…your maintenance has probably gone way up.
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
I’m going to try and stick to the steps on the spreadsheet pretty strictly. Ideally each one of those steps will be one week. Step 6 will probably be for a couple weeks. Step 7 is the step I’ll stay at for a while, but I could go much lower, I just haven’t planned it out yet. The Non Workout Days portion I’ll be doing on my conditioning days, starting when I’m at step 5 of the cut.
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IMHO Its great to plan some transitions but I would only make them based on your progress not according to a schedule. I believe its much more important to be able to track your baseline weight independent of water\carb\gym and then make informed adjustments than it is to set fixed cals\macros before-hand.
If you are on a 7 day rotation a weekly weigh-in will be fairly predictable but if you have a 4-day rotation then a weekly weigh-in will be affected by the variation in the day before’s activity\carbs.
[quote]hlss09 wrote:
Accipter, I’m no expert, but from my experience, your metabolism is a very fluid system. Meaning that what was once maintenance may now elicit fat loss, and vice versa. [/quote]
Absolutely agreed - thats why I would only set cals based on what happens to your body comp and not because of some formula, article, study or erm… forum posts!
yah after sleeping on it I think I’ll proceed to each step only when progress has stopped at the current one
I’m also going to tweak a few earlier steps slightly as well, since the net carbs really dont go down that much. For the 4 steps between 3 and 6 they only descend by 17.
[quote]Benway wrote:
I like that you’ve broken your cut into steps. Is this an unwavering plan or just a general template? Also, how long will each of those steps last for?
I think if 5,000 kcal is enough for you to gain/maintain your bodyweight at around 230, then starting at almost 4900 kcal probably isn’t going to elicit any weight loss at all. If your intent is to transition into a hypocaloric diet, then you might want to keep your calories at a level just below “maintainence” while gradually lowering them.
As far as macronutrient breakdown is concerned, I’m a really big proponent of high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets for improving body composition. Insulin has very potent inhibitory effects on lipolytic enzymes, which causes a reduction in fat mobilization and oxidation.[/quote]
I especially agree with the last paragraph. If fat loss is your goal, as long as your body is getting enough protein and good fats, i’d put my carbs as low as possible, IMO they’re just adding unnecessary cals when you’re trying to loose weight. The less cals the faster you’ll loose weight. Plus carbs just break down into glucose in your body which burns as immediate fuel but also prevents your body from burning the fat in fat cells storage. The only time I eat carbs when cutting is right after lifting, i try to stay under 20-30 per day other than that.
Again, this is just my opinion from what ive learned and what has worked for me.
its been a little over a week now… how are things going?
I actually started on March 1st, so it’s 2 weeks. Down 2 lbs. so far. I’m on step 3. Going to go to step 4 next week, and then stay there for a couple weeks probably and see how I lean out before moving on
just wanted to post a quick update, I tinkered some, and here’s how it ended up looking as a final draft. I’m currently at step 7. I’m down to 223 lbs, so down 8 from March 1st, about one pound per week, although it’s been about 1.75 the last few weeks as calories have really been shorn off along with carbs. The first 3 weeks I think I only lost 2 lbs, I’m due for a weigh in tomorrow morning after I get up, so I’ll see how much I weigh then. On conditioning days I do the Low days that you see illustrated there, they’re actually much easier than I thought they would be. I actually have a hard time packing in all that food on them. I think I might end up with a Step 8 of even lower daily carbs/cals, and a 3rd Low day with even lower carbs as well.
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
just wanted to post a quick update, I tinkered some, and here’s how it ended up looking as a final draft. I’m currently at step 7. I’m down to 223 lbs, so down 8 from March 1st, about one pound per week, although it’s been about 1.75 the last few weeks as calories have really been shorn off along with carbs. The first 3 weeks I think I only lost 2 lbs, I’m due for a weigh in tomorrow morning after I get up, so I’ll see how much I weigh then. On conditioning days I do the Low days that you see illustrated there, they’re actually much easier than I thought they would be. I actually have a hard time packing in all that food on them. I think I might end up with a Step 8 of even lower daily carbs/cals, and a 3rd Low day with even lower carbs as well. [/quote]
Good work. I looked at the spreadsheet and am not at all surprised you only lost 2 lbs in the 1st 3 weeks. But it seems like you got it dialed in now. What is your target weight at the end of the cut?
I’m aiming for about 205 @ 8% around early june. Still on pace. 222 this morning, going to take some pics tonight probably and post them in the horrifying RMP thread I have going.
^^ It’s not horrifying Dearie
Keep it up, I wish more people were as organized and serious about this as you.
[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
I’m aiming for about 205 @ 8% around early june. Still on pace. 222 this morning, going to take some pics tonight probably and post them in the horrifying RMP thread I have going. [/quote]
205 at 8% is going to be very impressive at your height. Awesome that you’re on pace for it.