Another Bulk/Cut Post

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Dr. Feigenbaum,

I’ve been reading through the forum looking for similar questions to my own and have noticed that:

  1. Your recommendations unsurprisingly seem to be relatively individualized: sometimes maintaining weight and reducing weight, sometimes reducing calories to reduce waist, sometimes a 36” bulking cut-off, sometimes recommending not going over 35”, etc.

  2. The more information given, the more specific a response is likely given.

That being said, I thought I’d give some background info and see if I might get a somewhat individualized recommendation from you as far as my nutritional strategy goes.

I’ve been training since March, 2017. The first 6-8 months was random not great programs from YouTube gurus. The next 10-12 months I inconsistently ran, stalled, reset, and restarted SSNLP. For the last 10ish months I’ve been running BBM templates. Legacy 3-Day Hypertrophy —> Legacy 4-Day Hypertrophy —> Bridge 3.0 —> Hypertrophy I.

I’m male, 32yo, 5’11”

Since March, 2017, my other stats have changed as follows:
Weight: 155 —> 189
Waist: 31.5” —> 34.5”
Body Fat (Navy Method): 13% —> 15%

These changes have happened with the vast majority of time being in caloric surplus. I’ve done a mini-cut or two for about 3-4 weeks a piece to get body fat in check along the way. Long term goals are to continue gaining weight with the goal of eventually getting to around 200-205 while still being relatively lean (33” waist?). I realize this is a process and will take a while, but every time I get to about 34-35” waist measurement I start questioning which direction to go. If I’m in the middle of gaining weight I start thinking maybe I should cut. If I get to 34.5-35” and decide to cut, as soon as I get to 34” again I start considering gaining weight again.

So my questions are:

  1. At my height/waist/training age/etc, do you recommend continuing to gain weight, reducing calories to reduce waist measurement in order to make room for further gaining, or trying to reduce waist measurement while maintaining weight?

  2. If you were me, what would you likely use for hard waist measurement cut-offs for gaining and losing phases, with the goal of gaining weight while managing waist measurement over time? I think having some hard cutoff guidelines in both directions would help prevent questioning everything once I end up in the not lean but not fat middle ground.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and possibly answering. I know you get these cut/bulk questions a lot and I’d get it if you skipped this one, but a little guidance would be helpful in getting me through this dietary sticking point, if you will.

Thanks again!

2

Brandon,

Thanks for the post.

Your body fat is likely much higher than 15% given your weight and waist. I don’t think I’d let your waist increase anymore at this point. Would try to see that trend down under 33" before starting weight gain.

  1. Can do either. I am not sure how you will respond.

  2. I don’t think I would have any hard rules about this to be honest. That said, people love concrete answers so I wouldn’t go over 35" on your waist for bulking. Cutting should be done to taste.

-Jordan

3

Thanks so much for the response! I’ll focus on getting under 33” and then go from there.

I’ve been running mostly hypertrophy-focused programming for the last year so I was thinking about running Strength I. Since I’m focusing on waist circumference reduction would it maybe be a better idea to run Powerbuilding I instead? I have both templates so that’s not a factor.

4

I think if you’re interested in strength acquisition, I’d run strength I in this case. You can still lose weight on the template!

-Jordan

5

Thanks so much! I’ll run Strength I while getting waist measurement under 33” and report back some big (hopefully) PRs here in 13 weeks!

6

Awesome. Get after it, dude :slight_smile:

7

Jordan,

A little update: I’ve decided to do a meet at the end of January, which puts me 17 weeks out starting this coming week. I was wondering if you could give some guidance as to which direction on structuring training going into the meet. I was thinking basically two options:

Option A
Continue running Strength I through week 7 (low stress), followed by the full Powerlifting II template right into the meet.

Option B
Run weeks 2-5 of Powerbuilding II, followed by the full Powerlifting II template right into the meet.

Pros for Option A: Two developmental blocks instead of a GPP/Hypertrophy block followed by one developmental block.

Pros for Option B: I remember seeing you mention somewhere else on the forum that people typically don’t respond as well to back to back developmental blocks, and that you prefer to program a short GPP or Hypertrophy block in between. Option A doesn’t seem like it affords enough time to do something like that, unless the two consecutive low stress weeks (week 7 of Strength I and week 1 of Powerlifting II) would essentially accomplish that.

I’m excited to have a meet to train for! Thanks for the feedback and advice!

8

Maybe I should also add that, for whatever reason, Option B seems more appealing to me initially.