Diet long or diet hard, THAT is the question!

[SteelWeaver]

Dieting hard results in greater muscle loss, right?

But the longer you diet the more you mess up your metabolism, no?

Any guidelines, ideas, on this?

 

[MS]

Do neither. Never gain so much fat that you have to diet long OR hard

 

[SteelWeaver]

I know.

Too late.

I think I'm at the 12-week-out stage but still have 3.5 weeks to go before I'm ACTUALLY 12 weeks out. I'm trying to decide if I should start cutting back now, or just carry on trying to gain as much muscle as possible and just hope for the best once I start dieting again. My strength gains have skyrocketed, and I've definitely gained a lot of muscle, but I'm looking fat (not as fat as before, but nonetheless ...)

Despite multiple attempts to deal with it rationally, this whole BB diet stuff has pretty much wrecked my ability to stay away from sweet stuff. I thought it would tail off and normalise as I got further from my comp, but it hasn't. It pains me greatly to admit this, but the kind of willpower that pulled me through the first half of this year has eluded me recently. I'm not out of control - not by any stretch, but I'm not fully IN control. Sigh.

It's all good in wa way - now I know what I will and won't do after the next comp. But I still have 12 weeks of dieting ahead of me AAARRGGG!

 

[MS]

If I were you, I would consider starting your diet now but planning a 1-2 week break half way through. This gives you a shorter term goal, will be beneficial for your metabolism and will generally ease the journey. You could even plan 2 breaks of 1 week each say in 4 weeks and then again 4 weeks after that. So the answer is still do not diet long OR hard....

 

[=w=]

wow that is a really good idea based on your situation

 

[MuscleDm]

MS is right, schedule some sort of break. That will make the goal easier to accomplish, and you will need it. When I was getting ready for teen and collegiate nationals....I made myself diet for about 8 months.......I haven't been the same since....hormonally or mentally. Trust me!!

Ryan

 

[SteelWeaver]

DOH! That's BRILLIANT, MS. What a bad student I am to have not thought of that

That's EXACTLY what I'm going to do Thank you.

MuscleDm: I know just what you mean - I dieted for 5 months from January this year, and now, despite getting plenty of good clean calories, and generally watching my macros/cals very carefully, I'm CONSTANTLY plagued by cravings for chocolate - I just can't get away from it. It's driving me nuts. I don't know if it's just mental or what - I was never into sweets before. Most days I exercise my right to say no, lol, but I cave in several times a week. Not bingeing - more like one cookie, but the power of that damn cookie ....

I don't know about hormonally - haven't been checked yet, but if acne's any indication ...