Who is on a cut?

[Wilhelm]

Well, today is kind of a free for all calorie wise.
May even make it into a surplus for one day.
Having some spaghetti, one of the freshly made bran raisin muffins, and i already added extra amounts of PB and whey to my lunch and dinner shakes..
right around 3k calories today.
"refeed"
Been in a deficit for over 3 months at this point
Then tomorrow i'm going on maintenance until my march 18th meet.

191/192lbs AM weight is where i made it to.
210 was my heaviest in 2022, early/mid October

[CaptainAwesome]

It sounds weird, but I honestly find caloric maintenance to be harder than caloric deficit. Striking the right balance is so hard. All I had to do to cut was knock a meal out of rotation and keep my dinners subdued. 5 weeks later I'm down 14 pounds. I'm gonna have to do a lot of tweaking when I try to do maintenance for a month in 3 weeks.

[lheugh]

Dropped down to stage-lean 90.1kg at 6'7 over the past 6-8 months. Feeling the physiological and psychological side effects of it and am looking forward to massing again! Plenty of room to grow from this point.

[BostonRugger]

It's day 10 of the cut. I'm down 5lbs from 225 to 220. This is the lightest I've been for 8-10 years. I'm happy that I managed an actual maintenance phase after my last cut, with only 1-2 lbs of weight gain over a 6wk period. I'm doing 3 running sessions per week as well.

The plan is 10-12 weeks holding around 2600cals. Should up between 205 and 210.

216 this morning. Rate of loss has slowed from the first two weeks, but if I can keep losing ~1-1.5 lbs/wk for 8 more weeks, I should land right at my goal. Haven't been that light for maybe 15 years.

[lheugh]

Down to 89.6kg - people are starting to worry

[dw]

Ended my cut yesterday and had my first bulking workout today.

This cut I went lighter with intensity while keeping sets and reps about the same as previous cuts. Unsure so far if I lost more strength. Leaning to no though.

[JohnHelton]

Down to 89.6kg - people are starting to worry

Congrats! Pretty crazy at your height. What is your waist size down to?

[lheugh]

Down to 89.6kg - people are starting to worry

Congrats! Pretty crazy at your height. What is your waist size down to?

Yeah I think I'm done dieting soon! I last measured my waist circumference on the 31st of January. It was around 78 centimetres. I expect it's a bit narrower now, but I've always had a fairly narrow waist. The Navy Method on that date put me at 5.4% body fat, but we know the error rate on those sorts of things!

[lheugh]

Also, remind me to start a log. It will be interesting to see what happens when I start eating again.

[JohnHelton]

@lheugh 78 cm is crazy lean! Did you count calories or do it by feel?

[lheugh]

@lheugh 78 cm is crazy lean! Did you count calories or do it by feel?

No I'm very diligent about tracking my calories and macros (bordering on a neurosis if I'm honest). I adjust where necessary after a minimum of 1 week without progress and a a maximum of two weeks.

[Wilhelm]

I've been eating maintenance for 2 to 4 pounds lighter than i *was* , along with mixing in a few surplus days.
Def time to be supporting my lifts as the meet approaches.
But i weighed 190.5lbs this morning.
Lightest i've been.
Stealth cut at this point.

[JohnHelton]

I'm cutting once again. My waist blew up at the end of last year, as I was eating out every meal during a kitchen renovation. Got up to 36.5". Down to about 35.2" right now. The leanest I have been is 33". I want to go below that. Maybe 31.5". I'm introducing more cardio to get my TDEE up.

[Bliss]

How are you, guys, modifying your training program (if at all) on a cut?

And do you tend to skew your training (if you do) towards more bodybuilding style with fewer heavy singles, keep a balance, or follow the SS approach of more intensity and less volume?

[JohnHelton]

How are you, guys, modifying your training program (if at all) on a cut?

And do you tend to skew your training (if you do) towards more bodybuilding style with fewer heavy singles, keep a balance, or follow the SS approach of more intensity and less volume?

I try to ignore the fact that I'm on a cut when I'm in the gym. I'm still trying to get stronger, sticking with a powerlifting focus. I don't think you can make excuses in your mind if you want to hold on to as much strength as possible. That said, I autoregulate the weight on the bar.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

How are you, guys, modifying your training program (if at all) on a cut?

And do you tend to skew your training (if you do) towards more bodybuilding style with fewer heavy singles, keep a balance, or follow the SS approach of more intensity and less volume?

I copy Mike T's strategy:
- bulking (+200 kcal/day) during development cycles (lasts about 6 weeks)
- cut (-500 kcal/day) during pivot cycles (lasts about 2 weeks)

The training during cutting is higher reps, less barbell work, less volume in general (it's laid out in my training log if you're interested, just look for the pivot blocks).

[Wilhelm]

189lbs this morning.
I started the "gut cut" yesterday by not having pasta.

I had upped calories for about a month to around 3k.
The last 5 days i'm at 2,650, and that's my mark until the meet.
14 calories per pound bodyweight, so in the maintenance range.
Today is the first day of no oats, so i should lose some right there as far as gut content.
The preponderance of carbs is now in the form of oat milk.
Otherwise it's whey and PB for my 3 shakes.
Doubled half and half in coffee so that's 160 cals total.

If i make it to 85kg i'll be delighted

Meet is Saturday, so 5 days of ^^this, then fuel up after weigh in.

[rjharris]

i am currently trying to cut to 165 with the idea of bulking back up to ~181. mf tells me my trend weight is 171.4 today, so not too much far to go. the food focus is real though, much more so than previous cuts. it's not that i have a desire to eat, it's that i just can't stop thinking about food. i'm reminded of an ep of iron culture where eric helms describes bodybuilders off stage at a show writing down extremely long lists of what food they're going to eats in the off season while they're in the middle of their season months away.

i will say, mf has helped me not to be a total asshole about cutting calories. currently it has my expenditure at 2850 something, with me eating between 22 and 2400 depending on the week.previously i would have just cut to like 1700 and white knuckled it as long as i could before i decided to say "fuck this shit." now i'm eating significantly more and much less lethargic throughout the day. helpful when you have an eighteen month old.

[Wilhelm]

It's looking like i'll make in down to 85kg at weigh ins today.
I just add a pound to what my scale says, so it will be interesting to see what the meet scale reads.

[Wilhelm]

Weighed in at 84.7 kg, and just made my 350 DOTS score goal.
350.459

I'm going to keep cutting hard the rest of March, and maybe beyond, but more gradually.