This is a fairly long post, but I think it’s better to outline things, then to just post pictures without explaining anything. But if you can’t be bothered to read, then just look at the pictures.
29yrs,
5’10
99kg 2012 (bulked up to 99kg by June, lost 2kg working at the Olympic games, then diet down for back packing, left at 93kg, came back 3months later 84.8kg 
then bulked to 91.5kg in about 9/10 weeks)
93.5kg Feb 2013
90.5kg start of cut
84.5kg end of cut, 83.3kg lowest the previous week
Total lost 6kg 13.2lbs
Training history:
14yrs competitive weightlifter, past 6yrs at National level, more general strength work for the first 3yrs then done sparingly when I could be bothered.
In the end it was a fairly slow and lazy cut with a few breaks in-between due to going on holiday and because I had enough mentally. 27 week was way too long. It was my first cut and I learnt a lot about dieting down. Dieting down for competition conditioning is going to be VERY humbling and insane. I can only imagine what the last 4 week is like. You got to really want it and you MUST set a comp date or you will just be cruising around. I guess I’m 8-10 weeks out from competition condition in my best pics? I’d have to do cardio as well to shorten the amount of time I diet down for as well.
Method
-Calorie restriction and counting
-High protein, lowish/moderate carbs and moderate fats
protein 40% (protein shakes, bcaa, steak, mince, chicken, salmon, zero fat greek yogurt)
carbs 25% (wholemeal pita bread, rice, potato croquettes)
fats 35% (nuts - brazil, cashew nuts, peanut butter, salmon, olives, olive oil, omega 3 fish oils)
veg (broccoli, carrots, kale, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, gherkins, beetroot, peppers, onions, garlic, steam veg bags, multi vit)
2210cal 138c 83f 220p
moved cals to 2400 150c 93f 240p after 8 weeks
Training adjusted for more BB training from 3-4x weightlifting a week to 2x weightlifting and 2x BB.
Routine:
Mon: Chest, biceps, abs
Wed: OLift (FS, Sn, Sn pulls), doubles tennis, shoulders, hammys
Fri: Chest triceps
Sun: OLifts (BS, Sn, CJ), back
-No cardio as I’m lazy and I wanted to see what sort of shape I could get in to without cardio. I played doubles tennis about once a week 2/3 of the time during my cut.
I’d mixed up my rep and set schemes for my exercises. The compound stuff I’d just go heavy and rarely do higher than reps of 6s. Some 4/5 week training blocks I’d go heavy and the next I’d only do one top set Dorian Yates style. Then I’d do more moderate rep and set schemes post holiday as I had loads of carbs during my holiday.
Mistakes made:
-Cut too hard too early, next time I’ll start my cut on 3000calories
-Due to too few calories I was binging a lot during my first 4/5 week to slow the weight loss down. And I was completely new to eating like this and it was a nightmare lol. Now that I’m more experience and after moving my cals up it was easier to manage.
-DO NOT binge for a week, it literally took 3.5 weeks to get back to where I was. I did look fuller and leaner when I got down to comparable body weights though
-squat ended up dropping at least 20-25kg for reps LOL the early hard cut crushed me
-Clean and Jerk felt impossibly heavy being weaker, really affects me and most lifters hard for the Clean and Jerk, less so the Sn
-cheap pizza tastes terrible and is such a huge let down when you want nice pizza
-most things you treat yourself NEVER tastes as good as you imagine them to be lol
Positives:
-weightloss did not stall once when I hit my macros and didn’t binge
-lowest weight I’ve been for about 8/9yrs. 83.3kg
-bench press went up +5kg from 140 to 145kg, 120kg from 4reps? went up to 10reps
-military press +2.5kg from 85kg to 87.5kg and I can mp over bw now
-BP and MP went up as I rarely done these exercises in the past 2yrs with any consistency
-Snatch 117.5kg at 83.3kg, most regardless of bw this year and most I’ve ever done sub 85kg. Most I had done was 115kg at 91.5kg the day before my cut, that was about 25/26 weeks ago
Food discoveries (foods I didn’t really make/ eat pre cut)
-zero fat greek yogurt
-broccoli cheese bakes
-fried mushrooms
-cajun chicken
-beef casseroles
-beet root
-gherkins
Thoughts:
The difference between myself at around 86-84 isn’t too much IMO. There are tiny differences, but for all intents and purposes it simply doesn’t matter unless I’m going to do a bodybuilding competition or getting paid to look leaner. I’m plenty lean and I feel good. It’s getting to the point where I’ve just had enough of cutting and it’s just nicer to eat more carbs, some junk and whatever I want. I haven’t had a pizza yet in about 6 weeks and i LOVE pizza. I’ll have a pizza next week after my last oly comp of the year. Hopefully qualify for Nationals as an 85kg lifter as they have raised the standards this year.
I don’t feel as lean as I look in my pictures. I wanted to see a split on my biceps but that was starting to show slightly but I’d have had to get down to 81 or lower to get it really visible. No feathers on triceps.
I’ll maintain 86-87 and see where my weight goes. I’ll eat much cleaner than before but allow myself more carbs. I’ll be focused on getting my squats up to pull up my Sn and CJ. It’s pretty hard going in to the gym knowing you are getting weaker on a fortnightly basis. In the end you just accept this fact as you are cutting and you hold on to as much strength as you can.
Christmas tree was present which was cool. Never heard about it until I read it somewhere
Feathers on legs look more pronounced. You could just about see feathers on my right leg pre cut.
Striations on chest and shoulders
I’ve had some EPIC binge days though LOL.
Highlights
-8.1k in a day, felt absolutely terrible, huge system shock and just down right greedy
-7k 4-5x
-food challenge, flaming burger challenge dispatched in sub 19mins, fastest they’ve measured in a while
-all you can eat ribs and a big bowl of ice cream
-3 large double McD meals a few times lol
I had at least one person ask if I was on steroids pretty much every single week when I was helping my parents out at their takeaway. One evening I had about 4 different people ask. It’s pretty dam ballsy to just flat out ask someone! People ask if I go to the gym or work out as well.
Everyone is surprised when I tell them I do no cardio.
I may do a comp next year or the year after but nothing really ties in well in England for sometime in October/ November. I have the British Champs in May/June then I’d lean down afterwards.
Thanks for all of the info and articles etc. They have been really helpful and I have learnt a lot and I’ll continue to learn a lot 
Daily weigh in
Sunday weigh in, Weekly average weigh in, Weekly average cal
All taken late afternoon about an hour post training. Generally I’m about 1.5kg heavier than my morning weigh in
Weekly Progress
http://imgur.com/lU687Qf
http://imgur.com/rD4UTnt
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