Yeah man, you have no business cycling anything. IMO, it doesn’t matter what your labs say if you havent done the pre-requisite work of learning how to train and eat properly.
Keeping your calories down to 2000 is not eating well. Get your calories up, keep protein high, and see how it looks 6 months later.
But to answer the classic question of “Bulk or cut” - neither. Eat when you’re hungry, till you’re full, and stick to single ingredient whole foods.
My specific workout routine is a 3 day split of push pull legs. So Monday push routine involved working chest shoulders and triceps. I focus on no more that five exercises which include overhead press 3 sets of 10 to 8
Flat barbell bench 3 sets of 8 to 10. Incline dumbell bench press 3 sets of 8 to 10 and finish of with accessory work such as dips and cable extensions as well as side delt raise. . Tuesday push where I work back and biceps. I focus on bent over barbell rows lat pull down seated cable row shrugs and rear delt using reverse grip on pec machine. Rest one day. Then legs focusing on 4 sets of 10 squats. 3 sets of 8 leg press. 3 sets of 15 leg extension. Then finish of with a few sets of leg curls and straight leg deadlift.
Then repeat push pull leg routine. I may have push a and push b day. So go heavy on bench on push a. And go heavy on overhead press push b.
My diet mainly consists of helathy carbs and protein. Yesterday for example I ate 2 slices of brown toast with one teaspoon of butter and 3 eggs scrambled. And one total fage 0 percent fat Yoghurt with some honey. Went to gym. Had a my protein whey shake with water. Post workout meal was half a pack of uncle Ben’s brown rice with two skin on smoked salmon fillets and brocolli. Evening meal I had two skinless chicken beat fillets roasted with two small sweet potatoes and boiled mixed veg. Then before bed I had half a cup of greek yogurt with one teaspoon honey. This is my typical diet I. A day to day basis consisting of chicken fish and eggs. I know I am in a deficit. And can easily eat more if neccessy.
Can’t afford a coach the cost of one cycle will only get me a coach for a few sessions
But it will do much more for you than a cycle would. Email a few online coaches and get a price for a month.
Honestly dude something is most probably amiss with your training effort, consistancy, diet, or a combination. Drugs will not make any of those things better.
I honestly believe and I have recommended this to many people in your position that your best way of getting results is joining a boxing club and going twice a week. Make that your main focus with a day or two of weights on the side. That will transform your body.
You realize that a few sessions of proper coaching will get your way farther than one cycle? Especially when you’re not maximizing your cycle from not knowing how to train properly?
Your diet sounds like you got it off of Glamour or Cosmo magazine tbh.
There are plenty of better programs out there than what you’re doing.
I actually gained around 25lb of lean mass in a bit under a year doing something pretty similar, although I would change a few things I don’t think it’s that horrible.
What would you change?
I want to be clear that execution of reps, effort and diet would be factored much higher than the actual routine but I will give the exact routine I did. I would go push/pull.
Day 1
Squat variation 4x8-12
Chest press variation 4×8-12
Shoulder press 3×8-12
Leg extension 3×8-12
Close hand press up 3×failure
Day 2
Deadlift variation 4x8
Chin up 3×max
Db row 3x8-12
Hamstring curl 3x8-12
Bicep curl 3×8-12
Alternate between the two. Its simple and boring. But it’s all about quality and progress. Make sure you beat your numbers without sacrificing rep quality.
I feel like we need a hotkey to recommend this program here. @isdatnutty did a hell of a job on it.
Finally was able to review your pics - I spend more time on here at work than I should, and I don’t think having pictures of a shirtless dude on my screen would look very good, so I scrolled past quickly.
You’re not fat, but you’re not skinny either. Mostly you’re lacking muscle mass, so the guys telling you to eat a lot but eat healthy are the ones to listen to. Push your training hard and get strong while eating right and I think you’ll see a difference.
^ also to add to that, OP doesnt look much different from his before pic than his after pic, other than being skinnier in the face.
Losing weight is easy for some, hard for others. Same with gaining muscle. So you’ve lost weight and that’s great. Now it’s time to focus on adding the muscle. If you don’t do that naturally then you’re going to give up any gains you’ll make from steroids. They don’t give you permanent muscle unless you already know how to grow and maintain. And no offense, but you don’t know that. Not yet. Train better. Change your routine and tinker until you find something that works. German Volume Training packs on size like nothing else. Eventually you’ll use a program like that. But for now do something else and hit it hard for a few months and assess progress. Rinse. Repeat.
Thanks I think that because I used to be fat I am scared of eating more. How do I ensure that by eating more I gain muscle and not fat.
Fat gain on a bulk is inevitable. The goal is to minimize it as best you can and be prepared to spend some time cutting a month or so after you’re done bulking. If you want to get bigger you have to eat. If you eat you’ll end up with some amount of added body fat. Can’t fight mother nature.
By working out and feeding your muscle cardio clean eating and focus on building muscle groups . I like to feel the muscle at work when im working out and actually focus on the motion and muscle it self . If you can dial in on a good workout routine and get good gains before thinking about cycling work hard!
How long should the bulking phase be?
See below
Isn’t eating more bulking?
Not when you’re at such a major deficit
So am I eating at maintianence?