Diet for upcoming cycle

[Damienm05]

Good morning, everyone,

First off, I haven't been on these boards in 6 years or so. I was once a very productive member here, especially in this forum. After blowing out my left knee playing sports in 2011, I got discouraged and totally withdrew from bodybuilding, as well as my involvement on these forums.

During this time, I still always maintained excellent conditioning and very low body fat, but gone were the days of repping 300+ on bench, 400+ on Squats, and maintaining a weight of ~220 lbs with almost no body fat. Or so I thought. I don't know what got into me, but after leaving my wife last year and re-embracing the single life, I got back in the gym like a wild animal let out of its cage. I'm currently as lean and strong as ever (muscle memory is an amazing thing), and will be starting the following cycle in November:

Week 1: Test E 1000 MG
Week 2-14: Test E @ 500 MG
Week 8-16: Anavar @ 60 MG/day
Week 1-14: Adex @ .25mg/day
Week 15: Adex @ .25mg/eod

OK -- thanks for bearing with me through all that! Here's where my question comes in:

I practice intermittent fasting and train fasted. I work out early in the morning with BCAAs pre/intra/post and then don't start pounding food until 2PM, sometimes later. I basically stuff my face with absurd quantities of fish, nuts, oats, fruit, hummus, carrots, greens, legumes, brown rice, and sweet potatoes until around 8PM. My total calories are typically between 4000-4500 (tracked fastidiously on my Fitbit) with about 25% coming from protein, 30% from fat, and 45% from complex carbs/fruit/berries. I haven't posted a specific meal plan because it's just too variegated. I'm a good cook and sometimes my entire day's carbs/fat come from some healthy low GI variation of things like a giant batch of black bean brownies or banana bread made with oats, protein powder, and maple syrup. Other days it's more like a typical BB diet with several small traditional meals spread through my eating window.

I've made pretty incredible gains eating this way and haven't added an ounce of fat. In fact, early on, I was losing a good bit of fat with a distinct recomp effect. That's also where my concern arises: I have no doubt this is the perfect fat loss/recomp eating style for me, but will my gains be hindered on cycle? I know trends are always changing in bodybuilding. Hell, half the things I used to advise other board members on (anabolic "window of opportunity" PWO, fruit = bad for cutting, body can only absorb 20-40g protein at once, etc, etc) seem to have been bullshit bro-science, now largely debunked. Can I really make the most of all this exogenous test training fasted and not having a PWO meal for several hours? Am I really absorbing all my cals efficiently with cramming so much food into a 4-6 hour window? Would all my calories from fruits and nut be better used for more complex starchy carbs? Should I reconsider not ever having simple carbs? I also encourage any other input members may have for me.

Note: I am not okay with gaining body fat. I'm willing to sacrifice a small percentage of my gains to ensure they're totally lean.

Thanks guys!

[Windex]

I would get a more specific caloric intake set up with your meal plan because a 500 calorie differential is pretty substantial, given over a 1 week period that's 3500 calories (500x7) which equates to 1lb.

I use to demonize fruit at the beginning and I have it as part of my daily meal plan even when cutting and have found it very beneficial. I start my day with greek yogurt, frozen fruit, and zero calorie chocolate sauce. Gets the sugar and dessert cravings out of the way from the beginning and I've found I almost never crave a cheat meal since implementing. I try to follow a more Good -> Better -> Best approach. A "better" nutrition program that you can commit to 90-100% of the time will always beat the best nutrition program that you can only follow 80% or less of the time. I'm more than willing to sacrifice the few points of optimization by eating fruit if it means I never crave junk food.

Can't help you with your fasted PWO question on cycle as I've never done that myself. Just from my own experience, I am the most hungry after my workout and I find my body responds best to the PWO meal being the largest caloric meal of the day.

[RaginCajun]

Holy hell man!

Welcome back!!!

Miss your knowledge in this section

[RaginCajun]

I practice IF most of the time. I find when I hit the weights really hard in the morning, I only fast about 14 hours and start eating or downing a shake around 10ish.

I think if you are trying to cram a lot of food in a short amount of time, you could hinder some gains. If you can get all of the cals and macros in, then it would be hard to see it hindering any gains.

Glad to see you back man and hope you start a thread to track this!