Cutting Help

[ZioGio]

Hi All. First time post but long time lurker. Hoping to get some feedback on how you guys have successfully determined calories and macros for cutting as well as mild cycles to assist. I’ve managed to drop a good amount of body fat by eyeballing and portion management, but am getting closer to low-teens body fat and things have slowed down.

FWIW I’m 6’, 195 (down from 225) and 50 years old. Doing a four day hypertrophy program. I’d like to get as lean as possible now and then do a smart, lean bulking cycle this winter.
I’m also running 2u HGH daily and TRT dose upped to 300mg weekly. Just added Primo 300 weekly as well.

Any helpful comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[system]

First you can’t eyeball food if your serious about bodybuilding. Buy a kitchen scale and a measuring cup.

Your TDEE minus 1000 plus cardio and low carbs, Lower test to 200-250mg wk unless your a bad responder because higher test means more bloat. 300mg a wk bloats me too much on a cut.

Use Anavar 50 ED if you like, Or tren if your BNC and can handle its sides. 350mg of ace a week plus 250mg test works well for me on a cut. The fat just melts off with cardio 3-4x a week.

Stay disciplined and don’t give yourself “cheat days”. You should have no problem losing BF this way if you have strong discipline.

 

[MrMetal]

@99powerstroke Pretty much what he said. Try to keep your protein as high as possible, and up your iodine/selenium intake but in general make sure you’re getting sufficient micro nutrients. If you’re open to injecting more shit it wouldn’t hurt to use water based TNE as a pwo (oral Anavar too would be great in conjunction with the TNE as a pwo) and use L-carnitine to supplement fat loss.

 

[processbuild]

Find a place locally that does a DEXA scan or a metabolic test via indirect calorimetry. They are relatively inexpensive and will give you an accurate determination of your RMR. To get TDEE, you can estimate based on your weekly activity pretty easily. Alternatively, you could use something like nSuns TDEE sheet and carefully track calories and weight for a couple of weeks to get a good idea of your typical TDEE. At your age and weight I wouldn’t push much more than 1-1.5 lbs per week, and you can maintain that pretty much indefinitely with a refeed day every couple weeks.

Most steroids aren’t particularly great for cutting unless you’re already lean. Even basic test will help you maintain muscle mass while in a deficit, though.

 

[Mister.Piccolo]

@ZioGio So for me, “portion control”/ “eat healthy” only took me to 15-20%, and that was with daily cardio and lifting. To actually get below those numbers, I calorie track by weighing my foods and using the calorie info on food labels. I’m gonna make a step by step process to doing this:

• STEP 1: FIND TDEE- A good estimate of your metabolic rate is your weight X13-15 (13 for less active people, 15 for more). You can also use a calculator like this one to estimate: https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator. The most accurate option is to just track calories (explained in step 2) for 1-2 weeks, and make sure you don’t gain/ lose a significant amount of weight over the period (average weight of 7 days should be no more/ less than 1lb of difference).
• STEP 2: Begin Tracking Calories- Get a food scale (Ozeri pronto is $10 on Amazon), and start weighing your food and tracking it with the calorie information on food labels. You can use an app (like myfitnesspal) to help you, or just do it the old-school analogue way with a notepad & paper (and probably calculator). I weigh all my food raw (I eat a lot of rice, meat, etc. that changes weight when cooked), and add up the calories via calorie information on the food labels (which most apps can even scan for you)! Once you’re comfy with this, its time for the last step!
• STEP 3: CREATE A DEFICIT- You’ve tracked the calories, found your TDEE, and are ready for the weight loss! I’d start with a TINY deficit and milk that bitch for all its got before moving on. We’re talking -100 up to 300 cals to start. You can also do a cutting cycle (certain compounds affect cals out), and add in cardio. Me personally, I use as small a food-based calorie deficit as possible, and slowly reduce food as the cut goes on. Maybe -100 or 200 extra cals when weight loss stalls. Then I slam back my fat burners/ stack (which frankly do most of the actual cutting here), and begin with +10 mins cardio daily. When WL stalls, drop cals, add 5-10 mins cardio, and possibly raise doses of fat burners. Typically, I never drop my cals below 2K and never do more than 30 mins cardio. When I plateau HARD, I just raise cals to maintenance for 2-4 weeks, come off all my gear, and reduce cardio to 5-10 mins again. Then I’ll restart the cut in a few weeks. Basically, I personally like to sprint for 4-6 weeks, lean on the gear, come off, then sprint again.

Hope that helps!

 

[ZioGio]

Great advice. Thank you all very much!

 

[Jay]

Mister.Piccolo said:

@ziogio , I just raise cals to maintenance for 2-4 weeks, come off all my gear, and reduce cardio to 5-10 mins again. Then I’ll restart the cut in a few weeks. Basically, I personally like to sprint for 4-6 weeks, lean on the gear, come off, then sprint again.

Hope that helps!

I think everyone covered the main bases. I personally do my cuts almost like this guys 4-6 on 2-4 off. I feel It’s a happy median of not suffering or getting burnt out. Also allowing you to ‘prime’ the metabolism as opposed to crashing it into the ground and rebounding from a 12+ week cut.

Also, dieting from let’s say 30% down to 15% is a hell of a lot easier then dieting 15% down to whatever. So find what best stabilizes your satiation now because the binges will come. I find keeping a stable blood sugar level is the best to stay point.