I found the Dirty Gerdy training thread to be a pretty interesting read so I was inspired to start another.
Stu, looking at your new avatar pic it looks like you’ve gone/are going through a pretty successful cut. Care to share your basic cutting philosophy, what has worked for you and what hasn’t, nutrition, etc.?
As someone of roughly the same age, I’d love to hear how you’ve gone about it. I’m currently trying to get to 240lbs. by the end of March and do a cut of my own.
Thanks for sharing.
Whoah, a thread for me?! -lol
Well, I have been kind of running my own little log of my experience leading up to my 1st BBing show (tested show), although I guess because I named the thread a question I had at the beginning of my prep, maybe a few folks skipped over it (“Thoughts on Contest Cal/Carb Cycle?”)…
For anyone interested, I’m about 5’8/5’9, and usually hover around 205/210 lbs (unless I’m seriously force feeding myself on a bulk). I came down slowly to about 190 as of 3 weeks ago, and have since started a ‘real’ contest diet (boy I’m hungry). I’ve now reached 186/185 lbs, and have about 10 weeks until the actual show (May 2nd).
If any of the Mods can change the name of my thread to something a little more appropriate, I’d certainly be obliged 
S
looking good bro
Looking solid in those pics stu.
One question though. Are you about to fall over backwards in the front-double bi? lol jk
If you look at good only 2 weeks in, I don’t really see you losing unless you have to deal with fuckers using peptides.
What weight do you plan on coming into the show at?
And best of luck too.
Yeah Yeah, I know… my two front shots (double bi and lat spread) look bad. I think I was just so cramped from hitting the back shots, and making sure my lumbar area was flexed, that I’m all tilted backwards. I also think it makes my waist look thicker, as it looks a lot tighter in the other shots.
Well, tonight I weighed in at 185, so I’m guessing coming in just under the weight limit for middleweight will be a lot better than being at the very bottom of light heavy.
Of course I can do crossovers into three classes (I think I posted this on another thread), so I can do OPen Middleweight, Novice, and Masters 35+ (damn I’m getting old)
S
Thanks Stu! You look good and you are always ready to offer some good advice.
Do you have a go to tip that you can share?
Any tips to share? -lol. Well, I’ll be the first to point out that this is my first real contest prep. After training for 16 years though, I like to think I’ve got a good handle on my own training and dietary matters. Still, consciously dropping myself below 200 lbs (for the first time since I originally reached it after starting my training at 150 lbs) has been more of a mental thing than a physical one for me.
My own body hasn’t always reacted the way I think most peoples’ do. For example, I’ve never really been able to eat tons of carbs, and every proposed diet seems to stress carb intake. I used to be able to, in college, when I regularly engaged in a few ‘athletic’ activities each week, but I couldn’t gain any muscle at the time, so had to make some adjustments (no one had heard of the term ‘insulin sensitivity’ yet).
Cardiowise, I can’t handle a lot without losing lbm. I was able to get from 205 down to 190 without any cardio, but have since started doing 2 sessions of HIIT per week on an eliptical machine (only 15 min each session) simply because I see the levels of conditioning contestents sport at some shows.
Tip wise,… I guess if I were to really push any approach as far as dropping weight goes, is that weight training will have a lot more effect on your body than all the cardio in the world. I’ve always liked to think that if youre body is constantly in a state of repair, your calories will have something to do instead of just being stored.
My father’s pretty overweight, and a couple of years ago he was able to drop 25 lbs in 2 months with just a few simple rules I outlined (keep in mind he’s an older guy):
1-Hit the gym 3x a week. 40 min weights, 20 min very light cardio (he’s a BIG guy)
2-Eat every couple of hours (a new concept for most people, who will feel like theyre actually eating more)
3- Protein at every meal, carbs with breakfast, midmorning, and preworkout feedings (he trained at night, and our main goal was weightloss, so we eschewed the PWO approach)
I’m sure it’s all redundantly basic to any of the regular folks who read T-Nation.
Tips from my own limited cutting experience would probably be limited at this stage to ‘Salads in a Bag’. You know you have to stick to your numbers, but your growling stomach just doesn’t care, so you grab a bag of lettuce, and dig in -lol
S
Looking real good, bro. Very lean for 10 weeks out.
I’ll have to look at the carb cycling thread a little more closely. Would be great to hear how your planning/philosophy about the cut changes as you get closer to the contest.
Being hungry with 2.5 months to go seems tough. I’m having the opposite problem right now. I’m eating a ton and can’t seem to get past 232lbs. I won’t go into that however as I don’t want to hijack the thread.
Is the contest in NYC? If yes maybe I can check it out.
Looking good Stu, you should kick ass at the show.
tdrink- originally I was going to cycle my carbs/cals all the way through, but now I’ve decided to shift to that more towards the end, and just do a series of ‘drops’ every 3-4 weeks.
Hopefully I won’t lose too much muscle in the process, as I’m a little concerned about dropping too quickly,… although I’d certainly rather be a little smaller and shredded than bigger and just downright fat -lol.
The show’s in NJ, I’m actually surprised how many people have expressed an interest in going… a little more incentive to bust my ass for the next 10 weeks. Again, I’m viewing this as a learning experience.
It’s my 1st show, and I won’t be surprised if things don’t all go according to plan; Hence the detailed notebook log I’ve been keeping.
I’ve always tried to be open and honest in my time on here when people have approached me with training/nutrition questions, and I will continue to do so throughout this little endeavor.
Of course I have no ego in this regard, and also appreciate all the suggestions and advice I have been receiving, in posts, and PMs.
S
Lookin’ mighty stu!
Looking good man; seems like you should be able to cruise into the show. You might even be able to bump the cals up some as the show gets closer and grow into it a bit. Good luck, bro.
yeaaaaaaaa stu
new jersey!!!
its ok, we love nyc too
Lol, well, it’s not too far to the locale, I think I mapquested it to be about an hour and a half for me. Still, I’ll probably try to find a hotel the night before, just so I can wake up and have my ‘tan’ painted on without worrying about having to sit in a sweaty car for a ride in.
I actually trained a few times at Bob Bonham’s Strong n’ Shapely gym, and despite it being in Jersey (I Keed!), it’s probably the best gym I’ve ever been in.
S
Hey, here’s a question for my NJ brothers… I’m honestly hoping to find an IHOP right after the show,… but then it occured to me,… are there DENNYs in Jersey?! I figure I could house several Grand Slam Breakfasts after the hunger I’m going through right now -lol
S
I’ll be with you in the process Stu. I started since Jan like a pre-cutting phase, because my goal is just to drop to about 8%. I feel very anxious since now, I don’t what I’m gonna do 'till May (my deadline too).
I have one year to go yet for my first contest. You have the balls Stu! you look like 3-4 weeks ahead. I wish you the best luck.
Something I did, which was probably smart, was that I tried to slowly get down a bit before starting an actual contest diet. I knew there was no way in 12 weeks that I could drop over 20 lbs. So by starting at 205, I slowly (over a few months) came down to 190 (still eating 3000 cals a day, and no cardio). So in my ‘official’ contest diet, I’ve come down from 190 to the low 180’s in the last 5 weeks. With 9 weeks left until the show, I need to get under 175 (the upper cutoff for the weight class), enough so that my carbup won’t put me over. So the way I look at it, I did a 2 stage drop (knowing that if I tried to drop it all at once, I would lose way too much muscle).
A full year is a lot of time to plan things out. What are you looking like now? Be realistic! -lol
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Something I did, which was probably smart, was that I tried to slowly get down a bit before starting an actual contest diet. I knew there was no way in 12 weeks that I could drop over 20 lbs. So by starting at 205, I slowly (over a few months) came down to 190 (still eating 3000 cals a day, and no cardio). So in my ‘official’ contest diet, I’ve come down from 190 to the low 180’s in the last 5 weeks. With 9 weeks left until the show, I need to get under 175 (the upper cutoff for the weight class), enough so that my carbup won’t put me over. So the way I look at it, I did a 2 stage drop (knowing that if I tried to drop it all at once, I would lose way too much muscle).
A full year is a lot of time to plan things out. What are you looking like now? Be realistic! -lol
S
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As soon as I get near 10-8% bodyfat I’ll post some pics and you judge me, deal? It would be around may this year, after your contest I think.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I figure I could house several Grand Slam Breakfasts after the hunger I’m going through right now -lol
[/quote]
Good luck man, even if you don’t win the worst thing that will come out of it is a body that is better than 99% of people’s on the planet.
And stop fucking thinking about IHOP; shit isn’t going to do you any good right now.
