maintenance diet with bulking/cutting cycles

[gwenyfora]

Hi. This is my first post, but i've been lurking for a few months. I am 6 weeks away from ending my cutting phase (I've been on for about 8 weeks, with 1 carb-refeed night, and 1 cheat day per week). Even though 6 weeks is a long time out, i'm already trying to plan what/how i'm going to eat. . .

I'm wondering if i combined the Dual-Factor Hypertrophy training method with a bulking/cutting diet cycle, would i gain muscle and fat in a ratio similar to a straight out bulking cycle, followed by another damn cutting cycle. the plan is to do 2-3 weeks of intense training, while on a bulking diet, and then to do 1-3 weeks of active recovery while on a cutting diet, and cycling this until i've built up enough muscle. I'm thinking of doing this because i'd rather slowly build muscle (mainly just trying to build out my ass) and keep the fat gain at bay, so as not to have to suffer another 12-16 week cutting cycle.

so my question is, would this in fact help me to gain muscle over time? or would it be too much "one-step forward, two steps back" to be worth it? I'm not doing this for any shows or anything other than my own satisfaction, so i'm not working with any real time constraints, i just hate the idea of getting fatty after working so hard to lose all this excess fat.

thanks.

~G

 

[gwenyfora]

bump

 

[CobraUTAH]

It can be done but it's much harder for the normal person to gain muscle without gaining some fat. I found it to not be so bad bulking up for a few months, gaining some great size and strength and then cutting. It takes less work to do one or the other, but when you try to stay lean and get bigger it takes much more effort and thought.

 

[Tagio]

I've found that after 2 months of dieting/negative calorie balance, there is no way in hell I'm going to diet anymore. your body gets terribly stubborn after a while (for me it's about 2 months, it might be different for others).

Also I think there's a tendency to get scared about fat gain when you've spent a long time dieting.

I lost 35 pounds last summer, mostly fat, and I was absolutely paranoid I'd get fat again if I started eating. So I wasted the first semester of school trying to lose another 3 or 4 percent bodyfat. eventually (second semester) I said "I'm too weak and small" and started bulking B-fold style (eating everything in sight).

I definitely gained some fat - but not even close to the amount I had lost before. I also gained 10 or 12 pounds of lean mass.

after bulking for a few months, I decided to diet down a little because my goals are athletic (vertical jump) and include being lean.

3 weeks into dieting, I'm already leaner than I was before I started buking. The fat I gained by eating huge amounts of whatever I wanted for 3 or 4 months came off in 2 weeks. I'm only going to need 3 or 4 more weeks to get where I want to be in terms of bodyfat.

So I came to the following conclusions
1) more lean mass = easier cutting phases (even just 10 or 15 pounds)

2) dieting right after a bulking phase has amazing results - WAY better than dieting after years of maintenance eating and being sedentary.

so instead of cutting in your active recovery/deloading weeks, I'd try
eating at maintenance. I'd say only resort to cutting in your off weeks if fat gain gets out of control (which I doubt will happen if you're lifting with a smart plan like dual-factor)

 

[gwenyfora]

mmmm....much relieved to hear that dieting after bulking was not as lengthy as initial cutting. will take your advice and not worry too much about avoiding fat gain, and mostly just concentrate on building lbm. Thanks!