Another cutting thread in March? Surprise, surprise.
This is my situation. I have been bulking for 12 months now. I’m sitting at ~220 lbs. carrying ~16% BF. My stats last March were 180lbs. @ 10% BF (as seen in profile pictures). I have been around 220 lbs for about 6 months now and am looking to keep my gains but trim down for the summer. (HOT ABZZZZ!!!)
I will be starting the anabolic diet this Sunday, 03/29. Will be doing 4 weeks of maintenance @ 3800 kcal, then dropping to ~3200 kcal. As of right now, my diet is high everything. 400g carbs, 300g protein, and 180g fat.
My question is as follows. I have been considering switching from a modified WSFSB to either ABBH or QD. Would focusing on hypertrophy during a cut be more beneficial than sticking with my beloved WSFSB in terms of keeping my size? Or should I continue to stick with my current program?
For reference, my current numbers are:
Bench: 295
Deadlift: 465
Squat: 365
Standing Military: 185
Any advice would be appreciated, especially from the vets.
[quote]hardgnr wrote:
Focusing on strength is usually the best approach when cutting. If your not losing strength your not losing muscle.[/quote]
That is typically accepted to be true from my experience. If you’re performing a higher output of volume and total weight lifted during your workouts however, you could potentially burn more calories and speed up the process of leaning out. You then run more of a risk of losing more muscle than you may have otherwise though. You’re going to have to play and figure out what works for you. I am a freak and when leaning out can perform SSC one day and then sprint intervals the next on a rotation with minimal losses in strength while shredding fat. I probably wouldnt recommend it for most, but for whatever reason it works for me.
[quote]pro-a-ggression wrote:
hardgnr wrote:
Focusing on strength is usually the best approach when cutting. If your not losing strength your not losing muscle.
Not to sound stupid, but is that correct, surely u could lose muscle but mentally be able to put the same weight up right??[/quote]
Yea your in a caloric defict so its basically impossible to not lose any muscle, but focusing on getting stronger is generally the best way to go about minimizing the losses.
Well the title of your post is “to cut or not to cut?” and you are really asking a different question, so i’ll try to answer both.
Cutting may or may not be a good idea depending on the person. If you’ve been around 220 for quite some time, and can maintain muscle very easily, then a cut may be a good idea. If you are like me, and lose weight very rapidly, and not acceptable amounts of muscle loss, then a cut is a bad idea.
The type of program you use on a cut really depends on you and your diet. This also has to do with #1, but also whether you are going to go low carb or not. The diet has to match the training, so something like WS4SB might be great for high carb bulking, but lowsy for low carb cutting.
Its my belief that the lower the carbs, the lower the volume and total workload should be. This works well with stuff like 10x3. But you CAN try to cut with higher carbs, and then something like GVT might work. You just gotta tweak things around until you start seein results. The main thing is to remember that with less calories, your recovery ability diminishes, and with low carbs this is even greater.
Thanks to all that responded. I truly appreciate the input. Dankid, upon returning to this thread I realize that yes, my thread title and ultimate question aren’t exactly congruent. I apologize for that and I place the blame for my discrepancies on the few beers I was savoring before beginning my journey on the anabolic diet.
I suppose that I was actually asking two separate questions. Namely, “Would it be a recommended to cut right now?” and , “If I decide to cut, would a program other than WSFSB be better suited to keeping lean muscle mass?”
I am of the crowd that tends to lose weight very quickly when on a carb-restricted diet, which is why I decided to go with something a little non-traditional this time around (i.e. the anabolic diet, which I started today).
Concerning the diet so far, I am feeling a little sluggish right now, but my dynamic lower-body day today kicked ass. A workout that would normally take about an hour to finish took me only 45 min. I’m sure the diet had little to do with that, however.
Placebo effect? Possibly. More likely, it was the fact that my gym seemed to be hit with a plague of 17 year-old shadow-boxers , and I wanted to get the hell out ASAP.
I have also been kicking around the idea of adding some sprinting work on the days I’m not lifting, alternating between 40, 60, and 100 yd sprints on separate days.
If you’re under 6 feet, I would say you have a decent amount of mass, you’ve held onto it for a while, and you’re just at the tipping point of body fat percentage where you should cut, so I would say go for it. Drop down to 10% again and then bulk back up if you want to put on more mass.
Wow, your numbers are pretty much the same as mine. My lifts are 295, 485 and 355 (though Box Squat), and I was at 213 with 17% BF 5 weeks ago.
I started cutting and now I’m 204 at around 14%. So far by the measurements I’m not losing muscle but about a half-inch on the waist each week.
The most important thing for training when cutting is to avoid muscle loss, so with restricted carbs it’s hard to do much volume, so I’m doing a full body 4x a week heavy, low volume routine (generally 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 6 for every exercise)
Bulk til you die! seriously though i would try and lose a little bodyfat if i was you. Those lifts need to go up for a 220lb guy. I would focus on keeping those lifts and dropping about 8% bf or so. Who knows maybe you’ll even increase some weights.
Do you know what your going to do for cardio yet? i find some high intensity cardio right after my workout works best for me. Im trying to keep my weight at 195-196 right now while still gaining strength in prep for a strongman contest. The weight classes are -200 and 200+ so im trying to stay right below.
I’m a little over 6 foot, and in November/December I was a little over 220lbs and started dieting and now I’m about 190 in the single digits. Just keep training hard and eat smart and ease into the diet and listen to your body and you’ll do well.