Cutting, Recomping?

I'm trying to find information on the in's and outs of cutting and recomping. The reason I ask is because the scale weight is going down pretty slowly. I don't know if I should drop calories more or not. I took a pic of my self a couple weeks ago and one recently and I've seen a little bit of tightening and I've lost 1.25 inches on my waist.

Is recomping typically something that is possible for someone who is secondary hypo and takes 40mg of test cyp twice a week. (816 total, 21.6 free) I don't consider myself a noob so I don't think anything I might be gaining is considered that.

Do people on TRT typically gain muscle when they are at a caloric deficit or are they mainly maintaining?

I have maintenance calories on non workout day's set at 2500 and on workout days 3000-3300 (depending if I do cardio or not). I have been very consistent weighing my food and taking in 2300 a day. Protein: 225-250g Carbs: 150g Fat: 78g

Stats:
Age: 39 Weight: 213 Height: 6'1 Bodyfat: 14.9% (7 site calipers)

Program:
- 4 day a week upper/lower split
- 60 minutes LISS cardio on off days and 20-30 post workout twice a week while drinking BCAA's.

Responses are appreciated.

71 people have lurked this thread, but don't have the information to help me out.

thanks

I lost fat and gained muscle for a bit after I started TRT. I wouldn't change much if you are losing one or two pounds of fat a week. Drop some calories if you want to cut more than that, but make sure you are getting enough protein.

buck when i started trt i was 1month into my cut. i started at 213lbs and 22%bf. the weight steadily came off until i hit 195 (which also was around the middle to end of my second month on TRT (160mg per week split into 2 shots). from there i stayed at 195lbs but my bf% kept going down. this in turn created more LBM. the only logical conclusion i could come to was the test was helping me gain muscle at approx the same rate i was burning fat. it was awesome!

if ur on TRT and ur bf% is dropping and ur waistline is dropping but ur weight isnt dropping my guess is the same applies to u. enjoy dude and dont change anything unless its maybe reducing cals coming from carbs or increasing cardio.. (assuming the rest of ur diet is in check)

id also like to note i was eating at the time 950cal deficit from my tdee. also u wanna regularly chek ur bf% with calipers..

In my personal experience I watch the mirror more than the scale. I've been cutting as well and my grand total weight loss from beginning to now has only been 5lbs, but I've dropped a lot of body fat. Went from no abs visible to the bottom 2 start to show through just a bit.

Seems to me the higher your beginning bf is the more fuel your body has even in a calorie deficit. Making it easier to recomp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dpyle

In my personal experience I watch the mirror more than the scale. I've been cutting as well and my grand total weight loss from beginning to now has only been 5lbs, but I've dropped a lot of body fat. Went from no abs visible to the bottom 2 start to show through just a bit.

Seems to me the higher your beginning bf is the more fuel your body has even in a calorie deficit. Making it easier to recomp

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I believe this is correct as well. I've been cutting and my strength has being going up, but I started with higher bodyfat.

Likely once my bodyfat gets close to where I want it to stay, will have to reverse taper, and bring my kcals closer to maintenence level, with still keeping a small deficit as the last of the fat comes off.

Those people who have a lot of bodyfat really have a lot of stored fuel, and I'm thinking that fuel can actually be used as the needed calories for muscle gain, so long as they are getting in enough protein, sleep, training etc...

Now That's What I'm Talking About.

Much thanks too you all for taking the time and letting to let me know your experiences on TRT. This helps give me some perspective on what might be going on.

I just got back from my upper body power day. 3 weeks ago I did my 1 rep maxes on all the major lifts. For the bench press my max out was 275.

Today's flat bench workout
245 x 6 (1 rep max calc has this set worked out to a 285 max)
255 x 4
265 x 3
245 x 4

I am definitely gaining strength on my cut. This is very encouraging. Once I get my bodyfat under 10% I will never let it get out of control again. It takes a hell of a lot of work to get it off.

Have you been to the HRT section? You might want to talk to those guys over there as well.