Hi,
I am trying to figure out what to do now regarding my diet.
I lost 12-15 kg (around 30 pounds) from September to December 2018 and 10 cm (4 inches) waist circunference. I decided to maintain this weight and I kind of did it, I lost 1-2 kg in the last 3 months and 3 to 4 cm waist circunference.
I am planning on increasing my kcal to maintenance or a slight surplus to put some muscle while keeping my fat under control (it would be great if goes down actually).
Does this make sense? I am waisting my time doing this? It would be better to lose some more fat first and get in a real bulking phase when I am leaner than now?
I am currently 84 kg (185 pounds) at 1,75cm (5,8 fee) and 91-93 cm ( 36 inches) waist circunference. 37 years old and just started the 3 day hypertrophy program.
I would consider myself as a novice or closer to novice than to intermediate at least. I have been training for 4 or 5 years but never more than 3 - 5 months in a row.
My current lifts look like this:
Squat: E1RM 115kg (250 lbs)
Bench: E1RM 90kg (200 lbs)
Deadlift: E1RM 135kg (300 lbs)
Press: E1RM 54kg (120 lbs)
I’d probably try to eat above maintenance slightly and see what happens – shooting for 0.5 lbs/wk. If your waist goes up significantly (more than an inch) at the end of this template, then you’ll probably have more luck leaning out more first either by “recomping” (eating slightly less than maintenance) or leaning out aggressively.
But given your lifts and stats you’ll probably be able to put on some muscle without a whole lot of fat on this template.
I asked about your long term goals because if you’re really interested in getting stronger as the first priority then I’d recommend the above. If however, you’re really interested in the body strength training gives you (which is perfectly cool) I’d probably cut more first.
That’s what I was thinking @FredM , try to find my maintenance and go maybe 100 kcal above and see how it
​​​​works. I am weighing myself daily and taking measures of my waist every 4 weeks ​​so I will stop if the waist goes up more than 2,54 cm in the next 8 weeks.
I also think that it should be relatively easy to put some muscle without much fat because I am pretty low on muscle and strength.
I am interested in getting stronger and gain some muscle in the long term, something that It’s already happening since I started with the BBM templates.
For the past years I have been doing 5x5 stronglifts, after 2 or 3 months my lifts stalled and I didn’t knew what to do so after a couple of deloads I give up for a while and started again from with empty bar some months later. In this years I never squat above 90kg and since I started with the bridge in January I had been able to squat 100kg for the first time, so I am pretty happy with that.
So, I will try to do that: eat slightly above maintenance, check my waist regularly and keep running the 3 day hypertrophy template once or twice at see what happens.
I would measure your waist more frequently than once a month. Personally I do it daily and track an average, but I’ve seen plenty who suggest a weekly measurement at a consistent time/day.
in the next 8 weeks.