Cutting....2x 500cal cardio/day. When/how much should I lift?

[BBJT200]

I'm currently doing a split of 500cal am fasted cardio, 500cal evening cardio at least 4 hours after my last small meal, and on a 1500cal diet.
For reference, I statted at 179 15% 5'9" on aug 31, currently at 170 13.5% on sept. 8. I'm not claiming my electronic scale is God, but i'm using it for reference.

At this much of a deficit, I'm feeling pretty weak when I lift. I'm finding that I can go heavy just fine, just can't do even half the volume i am accustomed to. The deficit is what it is, I have to be sub 10% by oct. 6 for work. I'll lose a bit of muscle, but life isn't always fair.

What would you guys recommend for split/volume of lifting? I don't want to be breaking my muscles down just to feed them to my body. Thanks!

[gearbox]

You just need to go 300-500 under your daily calories based on the websites scale and am cardio with a strict diet and you will be gtg.
Get your macros in order. Protein/carbs/fats

[BBJT200]

That was a very unhelpful response. I don't think you quite read my post. I didn't ask about diet at all, as this is the "Lifting techniques and workout questions" forum. I have my diet dialed in for fat loss, just wondering about suggestions for a lifting split.

I'm not going to settle for 1lb a week of fat loss, that's a waste of time and for people who are out of shape. I did 1650cal worth of cardio today over four total hours, in two sessions. Today's deficit: 2000cal.

APPROXIMATELY 230g protein, 65g clean carbs(broccoli, green/red peppers, 1 cup whole wheat pasta post w.o.) , 28g fat.
~60% protein, ~20% fat, ~20% carbs.
~1500mg sodium
30g glutamine, spaced out through out the day (primarily before/during cardio to prevent muscle wasting)
2.5gals water w\ a total of around 30g aminos in it from Xtend.

With this, i've dropped from 15.5% bf to 13.5% bf in about a week with no visible muscle loss.

[pasha]

hey brah, with that much cardio you are doing.. you are gonna burn up your muscle no doubt... if you do what gearbox told you above with your calories, do some cardio but not hours like you are doing now.. and lift you will keep your muscle and lose that body fat that you wish.. lifting heavy burns more calories than cardio anyways.. If you wanna keep your muscle then you must change your approach towards training..

[baseline_9]

Ok, well if u wannat drop body fat as quick as possible you want to be in a catabolic state (meaning breaking down).... So the obvious thing to do would be to deplete your body as much as possible by doing long cardio sessions and lots of high volume workouts each week....

However..... As you state you do not want to be breaking down too much muscle.... This means you also want to be in an anabolic state or at least a state where muscle catabolism and anabolism are balanced...neutral...

That's hard to achieve TBH... It's pretty much impossible simply because of the way that we (humans) are designed to survive....

Your best bet is going to be to burn as much fat as possible while limiting the amount of muscle that you loose..... Achieving this by switching between a catabolic phase and an anabolic phase.... As fat loss is the goal obviously we are going to spend more time in the catabolic phase..... This is micro dietary periodisation... Well that's what I call it anyway...

Depending on your availability to workout and the days where u want a re-feed to be there are lots of routines you could follow.... Here is an example.... It has a catabolic phase and an anabolic phase...

During the catabolic phase the goal is to deplete glycogen stores as quickly as possible... Thus vastly increasing fatty acid oxidation.... You achieve this via low/no carbs, cardio and depletion type workouts....

During the anabolic phase the goal is to replenish glycogen stores, stimulate muscle growth, adjust metabolic halt and give you some mental relief from the no carb depletion days....

This is what a plan could look like... Again I would look to build a routine that looks something like this...

Day 1 - no carb - HIIT cardio
Day 2 - no carb - HIIT cardio
Day 3 - no carb - lower body depletion workout - cardio PWO
Day 4 - no carb - upper body depletion workout - cardio PWO
Day 5 - interval cardio (60 mins AM) - High carb (carbs in evening only)
Day 6 - moderate carb - lower body power workout
Day 7 - moderate carb - upper body power workout

[baseline_9]

And I wanna see pics and a progress log dude..... 15% to 10% in less than a month is going to be hard/ almost impossible without drugs and the like.....

Hit it hard and keep a good log so we can see your progress... Pluss I need a little motivation for my 6 week cut LOL