FINAL DAY OF THE CUT!
(warning: slightly lengthy post)
Today is the 27th December and thus the final day of the cut; I just have a bench workout to go today, and that will conclude our 17 week cut. I weighed in this morning and took all my measurements - but first, yesterday’s training.
26/12/20
Short session today, not much time.
Squat
Warmup: 20kgx10, 40x5
Set 1: 67x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 75.5x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 84.5x6 (1+ @95%) (needed 7, but managed to beat last week by 1 with a bit of strategic breathing)
Assistance –
Superset: Pullups 8, 6 (just), 5, 5 (24 reps, 4 sets) with weighted dips (+10kg) 9, 7, 6 + 3 rest-paused (25 reps, 3 + 1 rest-paused sets - rest on the rest-pause was a little long since I had to fiddle around with my dip belt)
Pullovers, 2 sets
In the evening: 2 hours of football (soccer) game. I am not a very good football player, lol. But it was a nice run around and I burnt a few calories. It’s the only cardio I’ve done for like a week, lol - I’ve been out and about a bit so I haven’t had much time.
Now we come to today. Here are the figures, with the change from 17 weeks ago:
Weight: 161 lbs/73.0 kg (-24 lbs/11 kg)
Estimated body fat: 15% (-5%)
Shoulder width: 20 3/8 inches (No significant change)
Shoulder circumference: 48 inches (-2.5 inches)
Chest: 44.5 inches (-2 inches)
Waist: 31 inches (relaxed and let out, just under 30 controlled) (-5.25 inches)
Hips: 37.5 inches (-3 inches)
Leg: 21.5 inches (halfway up quad) (-1.5 inches)
Calves: 14 5/8 inches (-5/8 inch)
Arms: 14.25 inches (-1 inch 
)
For comparison, here are the stats from when I started the cut 17 weeks ago -
And, for reference, here are the stats from when I started this log:
As you can see, the last 17 weeks have very much been fat loss-centred to the exclusion of everything else. In some respects, I’m actually back where I started (e.g my arms and chest are the same, or smaller, than when I started this log.) But, crucially, the waist is significantly down, which means I’ve achieved what I set out to do - to lean out in preparation for a smart mass phase.
Appearance-wise, I’m not exactly looking big, to say the least. I think I’ve sort of ended up with a slightly swimmer-esque phsyique, maybe with a bit more mass than the average swimmer - which all makes sense, I suppose. My ab shapes are a bit munted lol, but you can see the outlines of the top two and the various other core muscles like the serratus, especially in the right light. And if I pull down the skin over my stomach I can almost see all of them. I’m not really big on being super-shredded, but that’s pretty cool.
If you’d told me four months ago that I’d be 160 lbs now, I’d probably have fainted, but here I am. To be honest, as small as I am looking, I think I’m “happier” (or at least less disgusted) with my physique now.
However make no mistake, I’m not looking big by any stretch of the imagination. Even though the frame and shape of my physique is the same, there’s not a lot of mass on it. To be honest, I was small before too, but I think I’m more aware of it now, and it’s more obvious because of the lack of fat padding/water/bloat etc.
As far as the massive cheat meal I was planning goes, well I don’t really even want to go mental now. I was planning to do a huge binge and go round to KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King and the local donut shop, and then go home and stuff my face with chocolates, but I haven’t even been feeling super deprived lately. I think I’ll just do something small - perhaps just go and have a Big Mac meal and a donut or something instead. It’s probably for the better - no point in being stupid about it.
On the topic of how I’ve been feeling, I’ll talk a little about how I felt during the cut. Obviously the hunger and the cravings surfaced at times, and there were occasions when I felt pretty smashed recovery-wise, especially with all that cardio… but overall, it was relatively painless. It was frustrating to see such poor numbers in the weight room though. The only interesting thing is that I don’t seem to have much stomach capacity any more - I get full quite quickly, which is interesting. Still if your stomach can get used to eating bigger quantities of food when bulking, I suppose there’s no reason why the same can’t apply for smaller quantities when cutting. I’ll have to get used to eating big again very soon though!
Well that covers that. I still have a bench workout today, so I’ll do that later and report back. I’ll head out for a burger then too haha. I will be starting my new programming on Jan 1st, so I’ll do a write-up here of what my training is going to be looking like both for the next 4 days or so, and then for the first 13 weeks of 2021 as I run BBB Beefcake and BtM.
Thank you to everyone who has dropped by my log in the past few months, I really appreciate your advice and support. And of course a special thank you to @T3hPwnisher and @carlbm, who are responsible for sending me on my cutting journey in the first place. I’m glad I listened to you two. Now the fun begins - time to get big!