[quote]J-J wrote:
waylanderxx wrote:
On topic…dropping bodyfat to somewhat low levels (not contest prep levels, but say 8-10%) becomes fairly easy the more muscle you hold. If you are physique conscious and know what you are doing, IME it becomes harder to gain bodyfat and easier to lose it once you are carrying quite a bit of muscle.
Basically when you are big enough you have to manipulate fewer variables, so I would say cutting is much easier. I could start doing this right now if I chose simply by adding fasted AM cardio and cutting out fats late at night, but that would interfere with my goals at this time.
I hope I did a decent job of explaining that hah.
If you meant to say that it is easier to lose fat than it is to gain it, then you did a GREAT job.
Of course it isn’t quite as you put it… but what the hell.
Your theory isn’t about size so much as it is about experience. It isn’t the size of your muscles that make this the case, but more the fact you are experienced enough to be able to walk the fine line between gaining weight and losing weight by default, and simply add a few calories to gain and drop a few to lose.
I understand as it is what i do too…
If you are really talking increase in muscle size, then that would be related to increasing the metabolism, therefore the same calories you ate to maintain would now be a deficit… then this also doesn’t have real world effect. (I know, i’m a cunt!)
You do not notice this increase when it comes to fat loss, as you NEED more and a deficit is a deficit regardless physiologically and psychologically.
Technically if you gain 20lbs of muscle on a frame of 200lbs LBM, you caloric expenditure raised by approximately 200kcals a day (if you never venture off your back all day - just beating the heart and breathing the lungs). Great.
(BMR = LBM x 10)
However it doesn’t work out like that when it comes down to it.
To look at it a little more deeply - at your new found size using the basic equation above, your BMR will be ~2200kcals. If you want a deficit while you lay in bed all day every day, then you can eat as much as you did when your were 200lbs, which would have been around 2000kcals - ergo, your BMR has raised due to the muscle and your previous requirement to maintain (your BMR) is now a deficit.
HOWEVER - it is no different (physiologically or psychologically) if you were 200lbs, and didn’t put on that mass, yet wanted the same effect. You’d just eat 1800kcals instead. This wouldn’t feel like less calories to your body than 2000kcals did at 220lbs - as you are still only eating 200kcals less than you need physiologically!
Age actually makes these things harder… which IS a very real variable.[/quote]
really well put i like it!
but on the subject i base it solely on time. i takes years to gain serious muscle while it only takes months to get a lean physique.
The main thing with cutting is psychological, as said before.
i think it particularly bad when dieting that chest and arm fat shed pretty fast. but your waist and back fat hold for dear life… so now your cut an inch off your upper body and your belly is about the same. and to add to that you might not put up as much weight. terrible.
in the end though you can go from 15% bodyfat to 10 within 3 months. and to go from 15 to 10 is ridiculous, and youll look perfect. but to add serious amounts of muscle is a marathon there is no question bulking is harder
