Cutting diet critique?

[Twiggy]

Hey there,

I have been "bulking" in terms of diet for about three years now... I recently finished my first cycle (a light one; EQ at 400 for 8 weeks) and decided to take 12 weeks to get as lean as I can before hitting the next cycle I'm planning. Thing is, I've never seriously followed a cutting diet before (was always too skinny .) That being the case, I'm hoping to get some feedback, advice, etc. from more experienced folk

Current stats: (one week into diet) 21 yrs, 6'1", 220, estimated 12-14% bf

Proposed diet: Isocaloric, approx. 2800 calories, 230 grams carbs, 230 grams protien, 105 grams fat.

Training: 3 day push/pull/legs split, with cardio 30 minutes 3 times weekly.

Goal: 7% bodyfat in 11 more weeks of dieting.

What do you think? Is this realistic? I know the protein seems low, but I've seen people do well on this type of thing...

In the 8 days I've followed this plan, I've lost about 10 pounds of scale weight... I'm assuming this is mostly water and depleting glycogen stores, as I don't feel or see any physical differences yet... Plus, I'm slashing my caloric intake by almost a third... (from 4500 or so to 2800) If I'm sabotaging my metabolism and/or my lbm, though, I'd like to be set straight now rather than later... hehe...

What do you guys think of my approach as compared to the more commonly seen keto (or near keto) diet schemes?

 

[blood_drinker]

Find your AMR first. Subtract that by 500, and that's the amount of cals you should be eating.

Be sure to drink your ass off (5L at least for best results)

The rest sounds good, although we really can't tell,....post the diet entirely.

 

[BigDogg]

If you already dropped 10 lbs.. then thats pretty damn good, I wouldn't change a thing.. But if you really arent satisfied, I'd cut the calories down a little, maybe to 2200.. Your protein intake is fine for cutting down. Keep up the good work bro

 

[Nathan]

I don't think you should cut calories yet. It sounds like you have a fast metabolism so you may even need to up calories a bit. If in the next week or so you lose much more than 2 lbs., up calories a bit cause your body's probably dipping into too much muscle for energy. I have a pretty fast metabolism as well and cutting calories by 500 less than maintenance was way too much for me. The only other advice I might offer would be to take away a bit from your carbs and up the protein correspondingly.