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500 or 1000 cal deficiet on cycle? for cutting
- Thread starter vickrx7
- Start date
you gotta try it out.. maybe ease into it.
I know I have done it for short periods of time. also make sure you refeed every once in a while or carb up every now and again. generally that will give you the best results for fat loss but you are obvioulsy losing out on some of the muscle building potential in that stack.
I know I have done it for short periods of time. also make sure you refeed every once in a while or carb up every now and again. generally that will give you the best results for fat loss but you are obvioulsy losing out on some of the muscle building potential in that stack.
when i was cutting on lower doses than you, i was hitting about 500 deficit on lift days, and 800-900 deficit on cardio days. you wont hit crazy PRs every week like you would at closer to maintanence/bulking levels of calories, but personally i didnt lose anything, and my strength was still way above what it is when i'm off
edit: if you want to get some ideas for your diet, i posted my diet (that i am doing now) in smokescreens summer diet thread, but it was the same thing i ate while i was cutting, except for the carbs - i dropped the carb up day, only had carbs in the AM, preworkout, and post workout on lift days, and in the morning, and post workout on cardio days. i am about the same size as you (shorter though) but our caloric needs may be similar
edit: if you want to get some ideas for your diet, i posted my diet (that i am doing now) in smokescreens summer diet thread, but it was the same thing i ate while i was cutting, except for the carbs - i dropped the carb up day, only had carbs in the AM, preworkout, and post workout on lift days, and in the morning, and post workout on cardio days. i am about the same size as you (shorter though) but our caloric needs may be similar
yeah well i'm up about 15lbs already while staying just as lean, all my 5RM lifts are wayy up bench is up 40lbs, squats up 60lbs and back rows are up 40lbs, I'm pretty much as big as I plan on getting, just not as lean....the stack i chose was mostly for lean mass and I was going to bulk throughout the whole thing, but It's nearing summer and I'm going to be needing to have my shirt off for the beach, so if i bulk right through i'll have to continue eating like a bulk through PCT and end up a little chubby where i'd wrather just cut while on cycle to preserve mass and think it will be easier to maintain the "final" gains by the time PCT rolls around
thanks for the reply...to clarify it a little
my PW meal is about 500cals by the time i have my shake and fruit
If i just cut that out on my cardio days it would work out to -500 on Mon Wed Fri and -1000 on Tue Thur Sat Sun, which would be a total def of approx 1.5lbs a week? That is doable to keep a majority of that loss fat right? I'd like to end up around 190lbs 6-7% bf, and am currently 201 about 10?
sounds like you have it figured out already dude, just gotta stick to it and not psyche yourself out.
i think you can do it without losing hardly any muscle or strength (if any). some may strike me down for this, but i believe you could even BUILD a little bit of muscle, and add a bit more strength, while burning up fat (depending how much longer u have on cycle). your muscle wont disappear.
you are already super lean at 10%, i have never been below that, so hopefully you can keep us updated on the details of your progress, and maybe snap a few pics.
goodluck
sounds like you have it figured out already dude, just gotta stick to it and not psyche yourself out.
i think you can do it without losing hardly any muscle or strength (if any). some may strike me down for this, but i believe you could even BUILD a little bit of muscle, and add a bit more strength, while burning up fat (depending how much longer u have on cycle). your muscle wont disappear.
you are already super lean at 10%, i have never been below that, so hopefully you can keep us updated on the details of your progress, and maybe snap a few pics.
goodluck
Will do, I feel lean at 10% but i don't always look it, unfortunately my genetics have me hold all my fat in my chest and love handles, and none on my legs lol, my bf caliper says 8-9% once i run all the numbers, but I usually add some because the things aren't very accurate, could be anywhere between 10-12% i see many people say add 2-3% to them
edit: i guess i shouldn't complain though, because i also hold most of my muscle in my chest, for an amature i bench a decent amount at 200lbs I can bench 350lbs which i consider pretty good (touching my chest), I never used to touch my chest and could bench more, but decided to start touching to see what i could really do
Id say no more than 500cals a day. On top of that ditch grains (all forms, including rice, oats etc) and dairy. Stick to fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats and nuts and add in HIIT/tabatta/CF style metabolic conditioning workouts and you should melt the fat off.
Okay everything sounds good except for the HIIT...not sure if that's a good idea for me, since i'm doing a 5x5 program, wouldn't HIIT be a little rough on my legs on the off days, since i'm squatting 3x's per week, I feel as if they need a little more recoop time in between. I was planning on 45min low intensity cardio like swimming laps, rollerblading, incline walking, eliptical etc. is that okay?
I dropped most grains, not 100%, but quite dramtically, mostly stickin to the 3 groups you suggested, it's a kind of a less strict paleo diet, but if the thought of chicken and veggies is going to make me puke on a day or two, i'm going to eat some whole grain something lol
here's an example of a day, actually it's exactly what i ate yesterday if you care to comment or suggest anything
Food Cal/Pro
Whey Protein in Coffee 150/35
Omlet + Fruit 380/26
Hummus Fruit Veggies Tuna 340/35
Steak n Corn 425/52
Gatorade (during workout) 150/0
PW Shake + Banana 340/50
Chicken + Potatoes 480/62
Casein 110/25
Total 2,375/305
the total doesn't include vegetables which i usually add about 100 or 150 cals and 10grams of protein so i would guess my actually total is about 2,500/315
is my protein too high? should i dial it back a bit, replace some cals with some nuts or something? any advice would be great, i'm new to the whole diet thing, have only been watching what i eat for just over a year now, i know some of you guys have a lot more time under your belts haha
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Personally I still see HIIT/tabatta/CF the way to go, just keep them say 8 minutes or less so they dont detract too much from your 5x5.
HIIT doesnt have to be just leg work, just High intensity, ideally mix it up and include a bunch of exercises.
Simple stuff like as many rounds as possible in 8 mintes of
5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats (just your body)
could do 30 jump ropes, 15 situps, 10 push ups
The key is to not work to muscle failure on the stuff but you want some muscle burn from high heart rate. I gaurantee that 8 minutes, if you give it all you got, will be significantly more effective that your 45 minute slow cardio.
The long slow cardio DOES NOTHING besides burn a couple hundred calories. There is no other benefit to! So if thats all it does, simply skip it and cut out 200 more cals from your diet.
The tabatta/HIIT/CF route actually improves metabolic conditioning, increases your VO2max and has a Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption effect that keep you burning calories for many many hours after the work.
I dont think your protein is too high at all. I question the use of gatorade though, not a big fan, especially if the one you use has any corn syrup in it, HFCS actually gets stored directly as fat. Try some coconut water.
Id also make sure you are getting lots of good fats from nuts like almonds, Avacadoes and olives. Sub some in in place of your corn and potatoes.
Holy sh!t man haha, you've given me a ton to think about...sounds like your really know what your talking about and I would MUCH rather do 8 minutes of high intensity than 45 minutes slow haha, the gatorade i drink when i do weights is the "gatorade performer" i'll look into the corn syrup thing.
Are you saying i should do 8 minutes of high intensity on my off days, or every day?
