Cutting- The questions which would solve it all for me

[snorkles]

Hi I would like to ask IMPORTANT NUMERIOUS questions about cutting which I plan to carry out from march-april for next summer. I have read tons and tons of articles about cutting but I want answers from successful personal expeeriences please.

my details (clean bulking at the moment)
18yrs old
5ft 5"
158lbs
Lowest BF I have been last summer was 10% (first cut every, by trial and error), abs were visible but couldnt say I had a six pack, was very close. So I need to clarify some things.This summer I am aiming for better results.

ps: After calculating etc I need estimate 2600 cals daily for weight maintenance.

1. IMPORTANT What are the amounts of macronutrients I should have? (in %)
I heard people (succesfully) cutting on very low carbs such as less than 100g and even less than 50g. But keeping their protein high.

2.How much cardio per week and for how much duration per session?

3. Jogging or HIIT (sprinting)?

4. IMPORTANT what should I do as not to lose many muscle?

5. Are there any supplements which helped you during your cut?

I've been recommended Animal Cuts

6. IMPORTANT what do I do regarding lifting when cutting?

I heard different people give different views: some told me to lift heavier than usual but very few reps to preserve the muscle whilst others told me to decrease the weight and increase reps to 10-15 to tone the muscles.

Thanks. Your answers basically will be everything that I need.

 

[Sim882]

There are no "correct" answers.

For Diet:
- most would do high protein 40+, unless doing keto. You could do either
(1) keto
(2) high protein, mod fat, low carb
(3) high protein, mod carb, low fat.

Check out this discussion: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/d...w-carb-low-fat-low-carb-high-fat-95862-2.html

Carb cycling or refeeds are probably desirable under any approach.

Different people will have different opinions. The more cardio ur doing, the better (IMO) it would be to include a moderate amount of carbs, but still 40% max.

At the moment, I'm trying 35/45/20 5 days per week (500-700 cals below maintenance), 50/35/15 2 days per week at maintenance. It is working fine although I may have gone backwards Dec 25-Jan1 (I had major pizza pig out on Christmas, and allowed myself too many PB/cashew indulges during the christmas/new years break. My mum thought she was being nice to me by buying a kilo of cashews for Christmas lol!), so I have had to refocus.

I tend to get muscle pains and find it hard to sleep because of aching muscles if my carbs drop below 30. But I also play comp tennis, so I need some carbs. I have never tried keto

Of course, clean foods are desirable. My diet at the moment purely consists of (in order of significance)
- (for carbs): oats, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, green peas
- (for protein): kangaroo, chicken, salmon, tuna, casein/whey shakes, omega 3 eggs
- (for fat): salmon, flax, omega 3 eggs, almonds, peanuts, oats
- (spices): cinnanon, garlic, other herbs
- (for nutrition): brocolli, spinach, cauli, cabbage, red peppers, cucmber, tomatoes, onion, carrots
- (for sanity): diet coke, strawberries

I have avoided dairy except on maintenance days, but am not really sure if there was necessary. I was preivously drinking 2 litres per day.

CARDIO:

A lot of larger bodybuilders will do minimal or no cardio because of fear of losing muscle. You have to remember though that these people have considerable amounts of muscle, and therefore, aerobic adaptation is a genuine fear and mechanism in which muscle could be lost.

Judging by your stats, my body is probably similar to yours. IMO at our size, cardio is less likely to cannibalize muscle because aerobic adaptation is less of concern. There are many pro atheletes who do cardio and are more muscular (check out the Australian sport of AFL for countless examples).

Nonetheless, I think intervals are probably best, particularly if your concerned with losing muscle mass through cardio (sprinters after all have great bodies).
HIIT on the oval perhaps being my favourite HIIT intervals. I still normally do 1 10km run a week, simply because there is something therapeutic about it to me. I aim to make the HR average over 160, peaking at 180-5 for intervals and at the end of a 10km run (sometimes). I would regard myself as very fit though (resting pulse 36-40)

If ur going to do keto or very low carbs, you may consider low intensity cardio only, given that HIIT requires some carb ingestion to not cannabilise muscles. Low intensity cardio would however be very boring to me - I think I recall one of your earlier posts, where you said you wanted to be fit and muscular - lower intensity cardio will obviously not make you fit.

For weights:
- Muscle tone is basically muscle without fat. I would stick to your current training regime during cutting. If that put the muscle there, it can keep it there. I would consider though incorporating a lot of compound lifts whilst cutting, e.g., squats, deadlifts, chins, bench, dips, power cleans, rows, SLDL because these burn more calories than isolation exercises. However, these exercises are also desirable for bulking, so incorporate at least some of them now if you haven't already.

Supplements
- not my area of expertise never tried them. For natural ones, consider
- green tea, caffeine (pre-exercise), fish oil, calcium, chromium, glutamine. I think the evidence for chromium, glutamine is pretty weak to non-existent though, although a friend of mine insists on the latter being useful to him.
- eggs, dietary cholestoral, zinc rich foods, cabbage/brocolli may all boost testosterone. See http://ezinearticles.com/?Discover-Natural-Testosterone-Boosters&id=159249.
Also avoid soy for test

Zinc and vitamin E may prevent help decrease in leptin (can't remember my source for this sorry), as may refeeds. I think this is more debatable though

 

[NJL52]

I'd type up alot but sim covered a good amount. So I'll just say, order Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Best collection of dietary info I have ever seen.

 

[snorkles]

There are no "correct" answers.

For Diet:
- most would do high protein 40+, unless doing keto. You could do either
(1) keto
(2) high protein, mod fat, low carb
(3) high protein, mod carb, low fat.

what do you use?

 

[Sim882]

what do you use?

Read my post - closer to 3 (35/45/20 5 days per week; 50/35/15 2 days).

But whilst I have read a lot - and I mean a real lot - and am knowledgeable from a theoretical experience, I am a newb in reality from practical experience, this being my first real cut and my entire weight training experience being less than 1 year. I have just noticed that my muscles ache a lot of if I cut carbs any further, and in addition drop calories ever below 2000. Also, I live at home with parents (for next 6 weeks and then move), and I would feel odd if I told my mum to stop buying oats, sweet potato, pumpkin and anything with more carbs than brocolli or almonds if I was to do keto or something. Plus, the keto diet sounds really boring.

Also, when I was bulking, I was probably eating 55/30/15, often consuming carbs in evening, and not gaining too much fat, so I assume I cannot be too carb sensitive. I note too that my 2 brothers have a high carb diet, don't exercise that much, and are naturally quite lean for non-exercises (b.f., under 12) so this reaffirms my view that genetically my body can deal with carbs.

I think you can only know what works for you if you have done this more often.

If I fail to reach my goal of 7% (my avatar is my current picture - taken 2 weeks ago and hasn't improved because of Christmas/New Years), then I may try a more aggressive, low carb approach - even keto approach - and just deal with the muscle pains that could follow. I will consider trying this if I don't reach my goal in 2 months. Keto would be a last resort though - I think I would go something like 20/50/30 (with carbs time only around workouts) b4 keto.

 

[NJL52]

Sim; You should try a 3low/1high approach. Going 5 days in a row without carbs allows your body to react to the low carb style and start lowering metabolism. Then the 2 days afterwards will raise you back up a bit, but it will also cause a bit of storage.

I have found that 3/1 provides an excellent balance. I was plateuing prior to tryinig 3/1, but 3/1 is provideing me with rather quick weight loss. Gaining noticeable ab definition changes just about daily after struggling for about a month on a standard cut.

Oh yea, don't do keto unless you are going to a competition or something similar. Keto causes alot of water loss and huge metabolism problems. As soon as you stop keto you will gain a good bit of fat. Keto's only benefit (IMO) is that it peaks you much higher then a standard medium-high carb diet can.

 

[Sim882]

Thanks.

It's kinda what I do.

My diet is
Sat-Sun; Tues-Thurs, 2200 calories, 35/45/20; and
Monday, Friday, 3000-3200 calories, 55/35/15.

Average calorie - 2400-2500. This is not an aggressive deficit I think (i'm doing weights 3-4 times a week, high intensity cardio 5-6 -normally HIIT but sometimes stead state - for 30 or max 40 minutes, so I'm guessing maintenance is 3000).

I have actually increased strength on bench, deadlifts, and chins/pull ups during my cut, but not squats (that is 3 of my 4 most regular lifts, so I use them as measures of my progress), so I'm confident there has been no muscle loss.

This means I have at most 3 days on low carbs. On Monday and Friday, I try to take advantage of the high carbs by having my heaviest weights workouts.

Is that what you had in mind, or would you consider slightly lower carbs on the low carb day?

If my weight loss plateaus, would you cut carbs further, or just lower calories by say 200-300, or both.

THANKS

Sim; You should try a 3low/1high approach. Going 5 days in a row without carbs allows your body to react to the low carb style and start lowering metabolism. Then the 2 days afterwards will raise you back up a bit, but it will also cause a bit of storage.

I have found that 3/1 provides an excellent balance. I was plateuing prior to tryinig 3/1, but 3/1 is provideing me with rather quick weight loss. Gaining noticeable ab definition changes just about daily after struggling for about a month on a standard cut.

Oh yea, don't do keto unless you are going to a competition or something similar. Keto causes alot of water loss and huge metabolism problems. As soon as you stop keto you will gain a good bit of fat. Keto's only benefit (IMO) is that it peaks you much higher then a standard medium-high carb diet can.