[quote]pumped340 wrote:
lol Scott I’m the same way when it comes to hearing about refeeds. Last wednesday I had a full box of pancakes with syrup and whipped cream and later in the day a giant bowl of pasta. Technically not completely a skipload though.
Sloh, you mentioned that in the past you cut before holding your weight. So basically the process of 125 → 200 wasn’t all in one go? How many times and at what weights did you try cutting at before getting to 200?[/quote]
I’ll preface this by saying that I made progress in spite of some of the things I did. I was not perfect along the whole way but I learned from it and tried to move ahead.
But since you asked…the 125-200 was not all in one go. I always knew in the back of my mind that at some point, I had to at least hit 190 if I ever wanted to compete at 154. There was a point in time in the beginning when I hated the fact that I had to bulk up where I told myself that I wanted to compete in the bantamweights and look like one of the older members on this site “gottatrain” for reasons that I would not have to bulk up as much. Now, I am not bagging on gottatrain’s physique at all. He looks great and he, himself, had also stated that he had to bulk up at least 30 lbs past his competition weight. I can’t find the exact post but he has stated it on this forum in the past…you guys can do a search.
But I absolutely grew to love the physiques that people around the height of 5’5-5’6 carried who competed around 154-165. An example from this site is BA_Warner. Do a search for him and look at his pictures…he is on the very right. I talk about height so much because I believe a couple inches in height makes a world of difference in terms of how big you can look at a certain weight.
I exchanged a few PMs with him and he revealed to me that his highest weight was around 200. He also said that his ideal weight is around 170-175 and anything heavier than that, he just gets fatter…and he recommended me to stay around 10% bodyfat during my bulk.
To be honest, I have heard many people say this over the years after they are big and lean. But IN MY HONEST OPINION…and this is my opinion only…I believe him bulking up to 200 allowed him to compete at 155-160 looking the way he did. Sure, he may not have gotten that heavy again in the future…but he did once…and that is my point.
I’ve gotten to the point where when I see someone around my height who competes around 155-165 and has the physique I like, the FIRST question I ask them is “What is the heaviest you have been in the offseason?” 90% of the time, it’s always AT LEAST 30 lbs heavier. That is the most important question for me…everything else may be important, but I like knowing that first.
Here is BA_Warner’s offseason pic.
I am going a little bit off tangent here but my point is…I believe me throwing in diets along the way from 125-200 hindered my progress. In my opinion, I could have hit this weight in probably similar condition, and in a less amount of time had I went from 125-200 without dieting. However, I would have thrown in maintenance weeks for my body to do recomps. I.e. 125-150…maintain calories high and recomp for 3-4 weeks…continue going up.
I dieted probably twice along this entire journey of 125-200. One time at around 140-150 (yep pretty pathetic) and one time around 170-180. I lost around 10 lbs each time. Each time, I also lost strength right off the bat…because I didn’t maintain and I dropped the cals drastically. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had done a full blown cut then and lost more weight? When I returned to the pre-bulked weight, my body composition was not that drastically different either. Learn from my mistakes.