Hey all, I am looking for all sorts of feedback to help me along. I want to get more muscular since I’m tired of not having much to fill my frame. I started out at 78kg in Nov 2024 (about 15 months ago) ago, now 88kg. Calorie intake started at 4500 then reduced gradually. Currently on 3000 cals daily, with macros at 260p/330c/70f. I’ve been on high protein since starting. Diet is quite clean, I’ve kept up a meal plan well, home cook everything etc.. Sups are creatine and whey gainer.
Im 42, 6ft tall. I have gotten stronger, increasing volume in workouts and inching closer to lifting goals. Those goals are not 1RM though, I am currently lifting each 5x5.
I am worried that if I drop calories to lose belly fat, that I will lose muscle gains.
Just recently switched back to 3 day full body workouts with a mix of strength and hypertrophy exercises, from a 4 day split only focussed on volume. I reduced to 3 days since I can’t fit In that 4th day anymore.
Any advice on what I should do next? … reduce calories?
Would be more than happy to post post-workout pics with a good pump but thought these might be best for a more realistic set of shots.
We all worry about this, and we’re all being silly. Unless you’re doing something insane for a relatively long period of time, you’re not going to diet all your muscle off. When you see it in studies, it’s usually because they are measuring “lean mass,” which consists of water, glycogen, and tons (well, pounds) of other variables that aren’t skeletal muscle. When you see if in bodybuilders, it’s because they’re pulling out all the stops to get a lot leaner than you or I are looking to do; something has to go. When you see it in soccer moms, they are not lifting or eating any protein for, like, ever.
For the rest of us, we’re usually actually going to look bigger once we trim down (yay!). We’ll go through a period on the way down where we look worse, because we’re flat but still fat, but ya gotta power through that. We also tend to not have all the muscle we thought we did, and will have to see lower numbers on the scale than we wanted in order to look lean.
Keep lifting and eating protein, and don’t crash diet more than about 1% of your weight off per week, and you’ll do great.
@TrainForPain I took your advice and held a steady reduction in calories to 2600 since March 1st. I kept protein high at a goal of 260g per day. Carbs also at 260g and fat at 58g. Give or take I held it steady and dropped to 86kg.
Despite a weight drop I increased my lifting volume over the same period, which is great! I think I’ll keep this up and see where it goes in terms of adding mass to my upper body and keeping an eye on my waistline.
Maybe I need training on how to take photos of myself but hopefully the difference is noticeable enough here!
Sounds like you’re losing about a pound a week, improving your performance in the gym, and your calories are still high enough to make me jealous… nothing to it but to keep that rolling!
Thanks again man. Will certainly do! Really appreciate the support @BethB and @taylortooswift. I’ve read loads of posts on the site and the content and community looks great. @alex_uk kudos for keeping up such a great training log!
You gave him good advice and he listened, implemented it and is getting the results. I love to see stuff like this. As much as I get a kick out of the threads where people with no results try to argue why they’re right and you’re wrong, it’s kind of refreshing to also see the site Used what it was created for!
Thanks for the kudos, the logs are a great place just to get stuff down, and process your thoughts, with other people who can often give good insights.
Mine often just turns into a stream of consciousness or ramblings about everything and anything, I’m always happy to see it go down lots of little rabbit holes!
Kudos to you for having a plan and executing it! Results will, and are, following!
Still keeping at it. Maintaining 2600 calories my weight seemed to have dropped to 84.2kg. Sounds crazy. I’m thinking it can’t be right and must be some odd fluctuation in body fluids or my scales needing a break. Anyway, I’ll weigh up again next Sunday morning and see what happens. I liked the higher number.
I dropped protein from 260 to 195 in order to invest calories in more carbs increasing from 260 to 325 and boy what a difference in recovery time! Got a PR on bench press hitting 95kgx6 reps x2 sets then 97kgx 6reps x2 sets (paarp).
Here’s a couple of progress pics. Post-training so I might be cheating with a bit of a pump and a flex.
I finally realised I’m doing hammer curls wrong. Bringing the weight up across my chest is way better than taking it forwards. Hopefully I’ll finally see some growth there. Any tips to (1) break plateau and (2) get my left arm to be as strong as my right? Left tends to lag by a couple of reps and measures slightly smaller. Maybe I’m being fussy.
