Figuring Out My Cutting Diet

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey Guys,

I’ve been training seriously with weights for 2.5 years now, the last year and half was completely dedicated to gaining muscle size. Since i started lifting ive gone from 165-170 lbs to 210 lbs.(around 16-17 % bodyfat id guess) As the summer is half way over for me now id like to take the rest of my time at home (go back to school in september) to focuss on leaning up, which ive never tried to do before.

anyways the first step to this is obviously figuring out my how my diet will look. Right now i eat approximately 4000 calories a day and was making decent gains with that. a sample day might look like this

Meal 1:
6 eggs-scrambled
2 scoops Grow!
1 cup raw oats
1 cup frozen blue berries

Meal 2:
2-3 cups 2 percent milk
2 small chicken breasts
2 small potatoes

Meal 3 (preworkout)
2 scoops Grow!
2-3 scoops of gatorade powder

Meal 4:
Porkchop/steak/chicken/fish (some sort of meat or poultry)
2 small potatoes
salad

Meal 5:
2 cans tuna
3 tsbp mayo

of course that wasnt followed to a T every day but its what ive been doing for about the last 2 months

Now I’d like to follow a carb cyclcing approach as it seems that everyone who has gotten good results has done so.

However im not sure where to start modifying my current diet to make it work for cutting. How many high carb days should i have? how many low and medium ones? How can i figure out what my macro nutrient levels should be each day? these are the questions im really unsure and would appreciate some help with.

My supplmentation for the first few weeks will look this:
HOT-ROX
Surge workout fuel
Grow!

Then, after my next paycheck, i might try the Anaconda protocal 2 and use that for the month of august.

as for training i havent quite decided what i want to do yet, but i should have it figured out soon.

Anyways any help given would be very appreciated as im a complete newb to cutting.

2

is it just me or does this not look like 4000 calories? that does look like a pretty solid diet though.

I don’t really like linking to articles, but this article should help you figure out the answer to some of these questions.

How many high, moderate and low carb days really depends on your training. Personally, I would start with 1 high, 2 moderate, 1 moderate- low, and 3 low. As you begin to lean up, you could change the 1 moderate- low to a moderate.

There are guidelines in the article that can assist you with macro-nutrient levels or you could buy Shelby’s macronutrient guide.

[quote]My supplmentation for the first few weeks will look this:
HOT-ROX
Surge workout fuel
Grow!

Then, after my next paycheck, i might try the Anaconda protocal 2 and use that for the month of august.

[/quote]

Personally, I like to keep the fat burner for the end of a cut. It’s pretty easy for most people to initiate fat loss in the beginning, but it tends to stall out. Adding a fat burner in the mix the last month of cutting can help shed those stubborn pounds. Just drink coffee or green tea for stimulatory effect during the beginning of your cut.

[quote]as for training i havent quite decided what i want to do yet, but i should have it figured out soon.

Anyways any help given would be very appreciated as im a complete newb to cutting.
[/quote]

As you may have known, recovery is much more limited during cutting than when you’re bulking. For this reason, I don’t really like to workout more than 3-4 times a week. Personally, I use a 4-day upper/ lower/ upper/ lower split 3 days a week. I like to keep the sessions under an hour. It’s really easy to overtrain while cutting. Your goal is not to build muscle (because you won’t), your goal is to just stimulate your muscles with enough intensity so that they don’t atrophy.

It ends up looking like this:

Monday: Shoulders, back width, triceps

Wednesday: Squat, quads, lower back

Friday: Chest, back thickness

Monday: Deadlift, hamstrings, calves

repeat

Don’t forget cardio while you cut. It will greatly assist you in losing fat. I suggest lower intensity cardio. Incline treadmill walking (hands off the rails), elliptical, walking outside. Start doing this on your off days, and then add them to days you lift upper body as you progress through your cut. Ideally, you should try to do this in the morning and fasted, but it won’t make or break it.

3

Thanx for the info, im going to read over that article closer tonight. The diet is close to 4000 calories, but might not quite be there, eating a legit 4000 i found can be quite hard. Either way i made it to 210 doing this for the last 2 months :D.

Also i should add, it would be my goal to get down to about 10 percent body fat if at all possible

4

To be honest man, you aren’t going to be able to carb cycle correctly because you don’t know enough to make the calls on when you need low/med/high days yet. I don’t either, it’s really a science.

I would go with a simpler approach (doesn’t mean it’s less effective) or hire someone if you are convinced you want to use carb cycling for fat loss.

Personally, I would just stick with 40c 40p 20f and adjust calories as you feel the need.

5

Carb cycling is a chore if you follow it to a T. IDK if you need to do so unless you’re already leaner.

Keep it simple:

Keep protein high, lower overall calories to below maintenance (i.e. lower carb and fat intake), use more carbs on training days and less carbs on non-training days.

If you’re not leaning out lower calories again and/or add high intensity cardio or do some steady state for 20 min AFTER your lifts assuming peri-workout nutrition is good.

Supps: green tea/coffee + quercetin, fish oil/flax, multi vit + minerals (calcium!),

some ppl like CLA (it works for me)
get enough vit D
you could also consider creatine as it will burn some extra calories while helping keep strength and workouts better

hope that helps

6

I’m telling you man, having protein as the highest macro in your diet DOES NOT work!

7

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
To be honest man, you aren’t going to be able to carb cycle correctly because you don’t know enough to make the calls on when you need low/med/high days yet. I don’t either, it’s really a science.

I would go with a simpler approach (doesn’t mean it’s less effective) or hire someone if you are convinced you want to use carb cycling for fat loss.

Personally, I would just stick with 40c 40p 20f and adjust calories as you feel the need.[/quote]

what do you think i should start of my cals at if im doing round 4000 now for gaining?

keep in mind i only have 8 weeks to get lean, i know its better to go slow, but i figure 10 percent is possible with minimal muscle loss

8

Hey Dude !

just wanted to tell you that we are like in the exact same places !

im also 210 and i want to lean down for the new season.

im doing Warp speed fat loss from cosgrove tho !..

im doing a log on this site if you want to follow you would be welcome ! im starting out monday so i have a day to shop all the items…

but good luck with the diet and everything !

9

[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
To be honest man, you aren’t going to be able to carb cycle correctly because you don’t know enough to make the calls on when you need low/med/high days yet. I don’t either, it’s really a science.

I would go with a simpler approach (doesn’t mean it’s less effective) or hire someone if you are convinced you want to use carb cycling for fat loss.

Personally, I would just stick with 40c 40p 20f and adjust calories as you feel the need.[/quote]

what do you think i should start of my cals at if im doing round 4000 now for gaining?

keep in mind i only have 8 weeks to get lean, i know its better to go slow, but i figure 10 percent is possible with minimal muscle loss[/quote]

Well I was losing roughly 1-2 pounds a week with 3300 cals at a bodyweight of 250, so I’d say you need to be well below that. You might want to start tapering down to around 3000, don’t make an immediate jump, and see how it works.

10

[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
keep in mind i only have 8 weeks to get lean, i know its better to go slow, but i figure 10 percent is possible with minimal muscle loss[/quote]

That’s not gonna happen man, sorry. 6-8 weeks is pretty much the minimum IMO before you even start to actually see visual changes.

11

Separation is really showing now Way. Nice job.

12

[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
Separation is really showing now Way. Nice job.[/quote]

I appreciate that man, thanks!

13

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
keep in mind i only have 8 weeks to get lean, i know its better to go slow, but i figure 10 percent is possible with minimal muscle loss[/quote]

That’s not gonna happen man, sorry. 6-8 weeks is pretty much the minimum IMO before you even start to actually see visual changes.[/quote]

damn, we’ll see, this will be a learning process for sure.

thanx for all the help.

Ill take what you guys said in this thread and let it swirl around in my head before i decide what exactly i want to do

right now there are two burgers infront of me which need to eaten though :slight_smile:

14

bump, unfortunately no pictures right now

but im about to start on my 8th and final week of dieting now

actually started around 213ish now down to 198 as of friday

waist size was about 34 or 34.5 at the start, now its down to about 31.75

lifts stayed mostly the same except i lost a bit of strength on incline bench press (main movement for chest) and seated military, lost about 5 lbs top set weight on each.

bodyfat hasnt made it to 10 percent yet, but its not very far off, another 3 weeks and i think i could of gotten it for sure.

might bump with pictures soon if i ever figure out how to take half decent ones!