I’ve been averaging 20K steps a day (at a moderate-to-fast pace) for the past 3 weeks as i’m trying to cut down to 10% BF.
Currently, I lift 4 times a week for an hour each time, and do 30 mins of cardio (mix of LISS and HIIT) twice a week. And then the 20K daily steps of course. Getting a lot of protein.
I mean, I can walk the 20K in one go without feeling anything and I could walk for hours straight without issues - but something tells me that even though I feel good, I might be losing a bit more muscle than I would without all the walking.
So i’m wondering if I should at least take a break from the walking one day a week, or just reduce it overall? Anyone with experience?
Yeah, good point. At the moment, the goal to reach 10% is more important. So, I guess it’s not so much the gains i’m worried about, but maintaining as much muscle as possible. I edited my original post
Well, I started lifting again 2 months ago after a few month long hiatus, so right now my lifts are still going up slightly (a couple or so extra reps per week) but it has been slowing down. So at the moment it’s tricky to say if it’s due to the fact that i’m close to regaining all of my previous strength, or the walking having a negative effect… i’m not on a particularly aggressive cut either.
But looking at my past cuts - my lifts have never really gone down. Only stalled. But I have never approached 10% before - currently at around 13-14 and that’s probably the lowest i’ve ever been, so I don’t know how this will continue…
I think you’re good. I’ll ramble out a couple bullet points, but overall I wouldn’t worry about it.
Your goal is the fat loss - focus on that.
Strength maintenance is a pretty solid indicator you aren’t losing muscle.
All you’re trying to do in these phases us maintain muscle, not lose it.
I think some of these muscle loss concerns are very overblown. Glycogen and water are “lean mass” losses, but that’s not the same.
We’re only trying to get to 10% here, not stage lean; totally different realities.
You can maintain muscle on ~1/3 of the volume as it took to build (now that’s not accounting for reduced calories, but still).
Walking simply isn’t that stressful.
Even if you did lose a little, so what? If you lost 10 lbs of fat and .25 lbs of muscle, I’d wager you’d still be happy with the outcome.
When I’ve gotten lean, it’s always frustrating and I’m sure I’m losing all my muscle. That’s never the case. I just don’t fill out my extra-medium t-shirts the same way so I feel smaller. Once the fat actually comes off and I’m willing to take my shirt off in public, or a conference room at work, or the grocery store, I look big.
I’d stay the course and try to not think about anything but the goal. Focus on keeping your strength up with the lifting, and it will take of itself.
Duuuuude. Your goals are your own, and we have no business telling you what to do, but I think you may be carrying a lot less weight than you think you are. I don’t know what’s left to come off in this “cutting” phase.
Good on you for answering the call and posting the pics. That’s manning up.
I don’t think I have too little mass on my legs, compared to the rest of my body.
My ass has always held on to a lot of fat. I understand that gaining more muscle would change the perception, but it would still not look lean, lol. My glutes and hammies aren’t exactly weak either.
