Hi
I can understand how you feel, my trainer told me you cannot bulk muscle and cut to be ripped at the same time.
Look at it like how I do if you can.
Late summer heading towards winter, eat anything(not too much crap) but eat alot to bulk up, when in the gym, train for hypertrophy, lifting heavy, short rests between each set. Your goal in this cycle is to build bulk, improve strength, reduce the body fat, which will happen with the growth of muscle mass.
Lats few months of winter, starting spring, still try to maintain lifting heavy as possible, but alter your diet drastically. Try to avoid any white starchy carbs, white breads, pizzas, potatoes, rice, pasta. Look for wholewheat or wholegrain options to displace them. Switch to sweet potato, cottage cheese (high in l’arginine one essential amino acid), and eat 6-7 small meals, the size of your fist at 3-3 hour intervals each day. Switch out one or two of these meals for a protein shake, particularly the meal before bedtime, try to find a good protein powder, even casein that has a very gradual release of protein which will suffice your muscle feeding during the night when you are not actively consuming any food or drinks.
So generally you are eating cleaner, more regularly but you will notice after 2 hours or so, you will be hungry and have to fight the hunger pain to the next meal.
Some people say having a cheat day is fine, but I would try to avoid such a mindset, and sure its gonna be a real challenge, right now I feel my body craving carbs, sweets, cookies, but thats a personal battle all people cutting have to fight against the temptation. One thing for sure, at times when you get these cravings, you’ll find out just how badly you want to achieve your goals of being cut.
Find a picture of a body hsape you’d like to aim for, and put it in the wall so you can see it each day.
But dont expect to notice any body change for 3 months, no point getting in the shower and looking down for the definition of your abs after 1 week, even 1 month, because it wont look any different. Dont be disheartened, just stay focused on training, the cardio, and eating cleanly.
Add in 20 mins of cardio per day, at minimum you should run to a 65% pace of your max sprint, alternate some days with sprint/job/sprint/jog intervals for this 20 mins, use swimming, but even if the rain is beating down, get on a raincoat and job along for at least 20 mins.
If you do not cardio for 20 mins per day, refine your diet, you will never be cut or ripped.
Im not a guru on cutting, or bodybuilding, but I have learned what works for me. I had a huge belly, even now I cannot see my lower two abs, but I have made progress.
I measure myself with a set of scales(with BMI, Visceral Fat, Muscle Mass readings - Tanita is a good brand), sure they can be generally inaccurate, but they give you a rough guideline, I tried the calipers and various readings, but its not easy to get a real reading, unless you have someone there to help take the readings.
I dont eat any cereals, when cutting even oats, I wont have them, they offer complex carbs, but I find I wasnt losing any bodyfat in my mid area when eating porridge, so I cut it out completely. This morning I had a protein shake, tomorrow Ill have eggs, I vary it this way.
My last hint is to try to do your cardio as early on in the day as possible, preferably before eating anything. Your body burns stored fat at this time 300% more optimally, but again we are just human, and running first thing in the morning is a hard sell for any of us.
This is just my advice, and whats working for me, no doubt some people will dismiss my advice, but hey thats fine, I found in the bodybuilding world, there is so much advice which contradicts others advice, so you probably will have to try a variety of different advice, and then see what gives you the results.
But I really believe, you will not see any change, without some hardcore eating, cardio changes, and 3 months minimum.
good luck, and never give up!
