I’m a new poster who’s lurked here on and off for a while, so just as a quick introduction:
- Almost 34 years old
- 5’10.5"/179cm
- Training on and off since I was 18 or 19, but always making small gains versus having massive transformation
- Used to bucket myself as a “hardgainer” or “ectomorph” which was accurate but I now see why those labels are a bit simplistic; either way I was originally your typical 130lbs + abs teenager before I began lifting
If you don’t care about any backstory, here is the basic conclusion. Starting on January 8th at 183lbs and 33" waist, I decide to do a 4 week mini-cut which ended yesterday, February 4th. In the morning my waist was 30.25" and my weight after breakfast + training was 172.5lbs (I only weigh myself in the gym locker room as I don’t really want to buy a scale for my apartment). In 28 days I lost 10.5lbs and 2.75" on my waist.
Backstory & Details
I don’t want this post to be a long boring history, so I’ll just sum it up simply: I’m coming back to training after the pandemic shut down gyms and then I continued to not go back to the gym for a year after I was able to due to momentum in the direction of becoming a couch potato. It was probably the longest time off I ever took and it coincided with my early 30s and me getting the fattest I’d ever been (35" waist, not really registering as “fat” but I used to be someone who felt like no matter what they ate they would stay skinny).
In the beginning of October I threw myself back into the gym and immediately my diet cleanup followed (I notice when I go to the gym regularly I default to eating better and drinking a lot less alcohol). Within 2 months I recomped down to 33" waist, without making any explicit dietary changes, just falling in line with eating somewhat healthy and drinking less.
I also finally weighed myself almost 2 months in and I weighed 180lbs. The reason I took so long to weigh myself is that I had it in my head I was 165lbs for years. This is because it was a plateau I could never pass in my early-mid 20s and so I gave up using a scale and just followed my weights and the mirror. So I always just imagined myself to be 165lbs permanently at different body compositions. This was silly but whatever. Now I wish I knew what weight I was when I first started working out at 35" waist; did I come down from 190lbs of fat or up from 170lbs of skinny-fat? Oh well.
Anyway, I noticed I was trending upwards in weight from when I started measuring at a trajectory that resembles a healthy bulk so I actually felt invigorated that I had finally passed this boyish weight gain plateau of years ago, even if I was fatter. But I also decided it was time to really get my body fat in check and then maybe try to re-approach a lean mass gaining phase. I also had never once tried cutting before so I figured it would be an interesting experience.
The results of the mini-cut were better than I expected. My reach goal was to lose 1.5% of body weight a week and I missed that goal by just a quarter pound (183*(1-.015)^4 ≈ 172.25). Furthermore, the amount my waist size dropped with just 10lbs gone was also surprising. My waist tends to fluctuate by up to an inch by end of day, but my measurements to compare were all taken first thing in morning, so that should not factor into the conclusion.
However, I also saw what everyone predicts, I have less muscle and more fat than I would have thought. That’s not too surprising as pretty much every cutting guide tells you to expect that reality at the end.
Another positive surprise was that my performance in the gym didn’t suffer at all. I kept moving up in strength, and volume stayed relatively generous. Now, I am still in my muscle memory regaining strength mode. I didn’t set any long term personal records. I just kept progressing upwards within the range I used to work, but now was easing back into. But I didn’t at all feel limited by my cut during this. I think part of this is pre-workout; my pre-workout makes me not feel hungry at all. I used to never use pre until recently and it really does seem to help.
Also, my better arm (left side) kept bicep peak measurement (flexed, unpumped) at 15" the entirety of the cut. Basically, I have no reason to believe I lost significant muscle mass during this.
I did feel pretty food-focused though and tired. I feel like mentally I was not fully there and I think if work had been more stressful in January, I would not have been able to keep up.
My diet consisted 90% of homecooked meals (thanks a lot to my GF who is a better cook than me) with some sushi and burrito bowls filling in the gaps. I tried to eat a lot of vegetables and some meals would just be salad (Niçoise Salad with tuna, egg, and a lot of veggies). Soups also helped, as well as stews and stir fry. I also took casein at night and had whey and creatine and vitamins, as well as Amino Energy pre-workout both for pre-workout and when I was really hungry and needed to feel satiated. I only got on average .65-.75g/lb protein, rather than the usual recommended 1g/lb.
My first week I had an average of 1924 calories/day, my second week was 1710 calories/day, my third week was 1623 calories/day, and my fourth week was 1658 calories/day.
Photos
Before
Relaxed
Posed
Double bicep
Relaxed
Posed
Double bicep
After
Relaxed
Posed
Double bicep
Relaxed
Posed
Double bicep
My own notes on my photos
First of all, the expected but disappointing reality is that 10lbs was not enough to become shredded. As usual, more fat less muscle than you may wish. In fact, the photos are not even super obvious as to what is before and after; I can definitely tell in the mirror but it is not some gigantic transformation in spite of the numbers. That isn’t really too disappointing but it is interesting.
I think my delts have been developing nicely and my 15" arms are proportional for the rest of my frame.
Similarly, I think my legs are athletic looking for my frame. I actually used to have such over-developed legs and under-developed torso (relative to my size) maybe back when I was 155lbs or so, that I think it looked very unattractive, like an upside-down Y. I go on a rant about this below regarding my early training/pec development.
My goal physique is very much a bro physique without chicken legs; I don’t want tiny legs, but I prefer a Y to an X shape. Not to dig up controversy but I’m from the Zyzz era and still like that look, even though I’m not naive and know that he was on stuff.
I bought into the “abs are made in the kitchen” mantra a bit too much. I used to have pretty good abs and I don’t now because I stopped working them directly as much. As a kid and teenager and early lifter, I did tons of situps. I know that now according to the internet situps are apparently the worst possible exercise ever in existence and will send you to the emergency room for spine damage (seriously, when did situps become a bad exercise, I feel so old) but I have to get back into doing my decline situps and hanging leg raises like I used to. No way around it, I should have better abs at this body fat, and I think I used to have better abs at this body fat, and the reason I don’t is from believing all the lies that direct ab work is unnecessary.
I still have some fat on my lower back and stomach, even after all the cutting, which I guess is typical for men.
My pectorals need work. I could go on a whole rant but basically I began lifting when strength training and minimalism were all the rage (late 00s). Because these routines and their figureheads were pushing back against Jersey Shore-style bro routines, they basically got a lot of noobies like myself to think squats were the most important lift of all time, even if your goal had nothing to do with powerlifting. Bench was an after thought and supposed to only be done for powerlifting reasons with a barbell. All accessory work was vain and pointless. Powerlifting mindset leads to physique ends. Blah blah blah. Ugh. I can’t believe I used to buy into that. Anyway, I never had a bro-ey “pecs and arms” phase as a teen which I think I should have had in retrospect. I’d rather have overindexed on show muscles during peak puberty hormones while slowly maturing and learning more functional and strength work, than to allow myself to be tricked by others into thinking I cared about strength or functional training more than I cared about having a nice physique while neglecting overly-showy bodyparts in some weird overcompensatory anti-bro-training self-own. Oh look I went on a rant lol. Anyway, I am now fully leaning into pectoral development, every workout hitting pecs a bit at different angles and in different ways, and not touching the barbell bench which has never served me well in the history of anything but rather treating low incline dumbbell bench as my primary.
As for my back, I think it has a pretty good v-taper for someone who is clearly not going to be on stage. I always feel like my torso from the back looks way better than my torso from the front. I really need to clean up the abs and pecs.
Conclusion
I’d say this mini-cut was a success, it definitely got me back to a much healthier level than I was at. Excited to really try and go all in on another massing phase after not doing one for a while; I think it should be easier now than it was when I was younger. This time, I am hoping to really drive pec development forward by getting 6-10 sets in per workout for a 3 day a week routine, and doing pushing variations and fly/crossover variations at every angle to make up those sets. I already feel the mind-muscle connection increasing and they have definitely experienced some growth since I came back to lifting.
Anyway I hope this could be a data point for someone as I was doing a lot of “mini-cut expectations” Googling before I started.
But whatever, this is pretty good I think. I’ll get pics near the end
