And why do you have that? You seem to be in an emotional state with how you look, I understand that, I won’t hijack the thread but feel free to skim through my log and I’m certain you’d realise I can sympathise.
As an outsider that doesn’t know you personally, this phrasing
makes me feel some concern for you.
You shouldn’t do a “fast cut” on 531. You could lose some fat, but even on the most suitable template for fat loss a harsh deficit is unlikely to prove fruitful. Furthermore, seemingly when people are in an emotional state about how they look they tend to go as hard as they possibly can in every dimension that they believe would influence their body-fat levels. Not only do they go into a state of very low calories, they also increase their activity levels, and their training volume.
The initial increase in activity levels might not be entirely voluntary and emotionally driven, as in some individuals there can be some biological processes that triggers a “flee from famine”-response that occurs.
Maybe, but let us postulate that you could not do this and that the best thing you could accomplish is maintaining your strength levels. Would you still want to cut?
Some lifts are more sensitive to bodyweight and bodyfat changes than others. Maybe you improve your technique during this period and are able to make progress that way. But maybe you regress.
Training demands recovery, part of the recovery component is calories in. If you are going to be in a hypocaloric state you’ll have less energy available for recovery. And being in a hypocaloric state means you have less energy available for everything. And your body will adjust all the processes that it does when it experiences being in a low-food environment. Hell, there is a reason that people have less frequent bowel movements when they are in a deficit and it is not solely related to passing less foodstuff - the body literally stops wriggling the viscera as much because that is not as essential from a survival standpoint. Energy availability matters, especially with regards to performance, as food is such a corner stone of recovery.
If your energy availability is high you can expect a degree of healthy weight gain, or weight maintenance. This is when you’d be able to train as much as conceivable (intensity, frequency, volume).
If it is slightly less, then weight would be maintained and a lot of training can still be endured but not as much.
If energy availability is subclinical that can be tolerated for shorter periods during a well-constructed weight-loss program.
And if it is clinical there’d be health implications with impairment of many body systems including training adaptation and performance.
Since all of these states feed into your recovery, you can expect improved performance if you are very well recovered or well recovered (highly or somewhat energetic) and expect similar performance if you are between somewhat and moderately recovered. If you are very poorly recovered to the extent where you are extremely tired you’d expect declined performance.
I think you should get Forever. Read everything under the section “Get a better body in 36 months!”. If you are going to do 531, that is a more suitable approach. Again, as other posters have mentioned: 531 is for performance. You can be performant and look good, but you’ll nuke your performance if you make looking good your priority above all else. And you might not end up looking the way you had imagined either.
