[quote]dsrivade wrote:
My long term goal is aesthetics, not interested in participating in bodybuilng contests, but to have a nice, healthy and especially functional body.[/quote]
Those aren’t goals, they’re just ideas, and very vague ideas at that. “Aesthetics” and “healthy and functional” mean different things to different people, which basically means they mean nothing at all. Even your own definition of those terms can change over time. Figure out specific short and long-term goals to help design a better plan.
I’d say it’s time to get on a new program. This was a start, but a bunch of plans in the Archives here will get you moving forward.
1800 calories is already kinda low for a guy your size. Even less than that on non-training days is very low. Read up on the concept of G-Flux:
It’s basically increasing calories and training to make good stuff happen. So a few days of hard lifting and tough conditioning/cardio, plus a (smart) increase in daily calories.
[quote]My strategy after hearing all your positive words is:
- Take a month in maintenance calories to give my body some break and maybe some recomposition and gaining some strength
- Dieting for an extra 8-10 weeks to get the body fat till 12-13%
- Making a clean bulking.[/quote]
I agree that slightly increasing your average daily calories is a good idea. If you’ve figured out that 2,400 is your maintenance level, then even sticking with that for a few weeks will help get you “leveled off”, since you’ve been having days with fewer calories. From there, maybe consider something like G-flux (choose an appropriate training plan and gradually increase cals).
As for the rest, I think it ties back to determining a specific long-term goal and then breaking it down into short and mid-term targets.