Musclestack's cutting progress log

[musclestack]

Hey, everyone. Well, after gaining back my LBM after my horrible attempt at cutting a couple months ago, which resulted in me losing a lot of muscle from a combination of too much of a calorie deficit and an hour of low-moderate intensity cardio 6 days a week, I'm back to try again with a more educated and "learned-from-experience" approach.

I will post my diet in this same thread tomorrow, but for now, a few details on my training: While bulking, my reps ranged from 8-10 on any given exercise, with about 3 minutes in between sets. I made amazing strength gains and gained quite a bit of size with this approach. During my cut, I will be increasing my reps to at least 15 reps per exercise, but reps will be anywhere in the range of 15-25, depending on the exercise. I will also only be taking 1 minute rests in between sets. I'm going to use this approach as both a 'weight session' AND as a HIIT form of cardio. I will also be doing about 15 minutes of cardio on the punching bag, 4 days a week after weights. This will also be HIIT.

My stats are:
5'9"
188lbs
~15%bf (although I need to get this checked)
28 years old (29 in one month)

My TDEE is about 2,400 calories. I got this number from taking LBM x 15. I lose muscle quickly if I'm not careful, so I'm going to play it safe and start at 2,500 calories per day and see how it goes, adjusting after 2-3 weeks if necessary. I plan on continuing this cut for 12 weeks.

Supplements: I will be taking clen throughout at 80mcg/day, along with Ketotifen to keep receptors clear. I will also be cycling ECA and F**k Off Fat, swapping them every second week.

My goal is to get to at least 10%bf, so that is a total fat loss of roughly 10 pounds (it's hard to say what my actual weight will be after I reach this goal because I know I'm holding some water right now due to eating nearly 4,000 calories a day and quite a bit of sodium from my bulk).

I hope everyone here will follow along with my log as I progress and help me out with any questions/advice if I stall or run into any other problems along the way. I will try to update my status every few days.

Here I go!

[musclestack]

Okay, so I've put together my diet as listed below. I will run this for a couple weeks and see how I respond to it, unless anyone here has some input on anything they would recommend altering. Macros are listed as P/C/F.

Meal 1 (9:00AM)
50g Whey Protein 36/3.75/1.65
100grams oats 12/52/9
1Tbsp Natty PB 4.5/2.5/7

Meal 2 (1:00PM)
6oz. chicken breast 36/0/2
100grams rice 7.6/78.3/1.5

Meal 3 (6:00PM)
6oz. chicken breast 36/0/2
100grams rice 7.6/78.3/1.5

Meal 4 (PWO-8:00PM)
50g Whey Protein 36/3.75/1.65
100grams oats 12/52/9

Meal 5 (10:00PM)
2 cans Salmon (400grams) 84/0/18

Protein: 272
Carbs: 271
Fat: 53
Total Calories: 2,649
Split: 41/41/18

I would like any opinions on my diet. I was thinking fat is a bit low, so I'm debating on bringing fat up to about 60 and protein down a notch, still leaving me at about 2,600 cals. Any thoughts?

Also, do you think my protein in my last meal is too high? I've yet to see any evidence that the body can only digest a certain amount of protein at a given period, but I'd still like to have your thoughts on this.

[aussie made]

That's more of a lean bulk with that split. Drop the carbs to cut. U will not lose muscle mass. Protein keeps that. Try like 2000-2200. It would be a slow cut at 2600.

[musclestack]

That's more of a lean bulk with that split. Drop the carbs to cut. U will not lose muscle mass. Protein keeps that. Try like 2000-2200. It would be a slow cut at 2600.

Thanks for the reply, aussie made. Before I started this diet, I made an attempt at cutting with over 300 grams of protein, 200 grams carbs, and 45 grams fats, thinking the protein would help me keep the muscle while in a calorie deficit. I'm not saying this is the sole reason why I lost so much strength and LBM during this period (I also did low-moderate intensity cardio for 45 minutes after each weight session, 5 days a week, so I think this also played a role, which is why I'm using my weight training as a form of HIIT).

Anyways, this approach failed miserably for me, so I'm just trying to switch it up a bit, diet-wise and cardio-wise and see where it takes me. What do you think?

[musclestack]

Update: First week into cutting today, and so far it's going pretty well. I need to work on my endurance as I'm finding it a bit difficult to keep up with the 60 second rests in between sets about mid-way through my workout. It's also a lot different pushing 15 reps on each set rather than my old style that ranged from 6-10. I will say that I'm enjoying the intensity though! I've decided to skip out on the 15-20 minutes on the punching bag post-weights for now until I can see how I respond with what I'm doing now with my new weight regime and diet. If needed, I will add the extra cardio and, if still no desired results, I will, at the last option, reduce calories VERY slowly.

I weighed in yesterday at 190.5lbs. I think most of my water weight is gone, so now I will have more accurate numbers to work with in the weeks to come.

I'll keep you guys updated on how it's going!

MS

[aussie made]

The problem why you would of lost all your muscle was the 45 min cardio. Hiit is best for cutting. I only do 15min twice a week and having great results. With weight training in my opinion. Stick to high weight low rep. You will increase strength still, hold gains, and only loose fat. Train how you use to just add on hiit twice a week