First a quick thank you again for the thorough and very useful TBAB article, definitely the most useful article I’ve come across in terms of broad prescriptive advice.
Few questions:
(For reference: age 32, height 6’1", training age: unsure really, did very little for a few months after back injury in June of 2021 and have been slowly scaling over time. Lots in the past but barbell lifts are somewhat recent, so probably later beginner/intermediate?).
Similar history to one or two other recent posters: gained some fluff after back injury, starting rehab’ing and have become comfortable with progress/loading/exercise selection/etc. Was gaining for a while and hit about 187 at about 17% BF. Fast forward about 9 months – quite a bit of semi-chronic abnormally high stress (all manner – new baby, kids + sickness, social, work, renos, etc), and generally poor sleep. Workouts faltered and was mostly trying to maintain main lifts (one or two smaller back tweaks in this time likely due to the aforementioned stresses/sleep/lack of lifting). Long story short – Navy Method BF is currently around 22%, weight is 200.5lb. Longterm goal is probably about 210-215 and reasonably lean (15ish%). I don’t seem to be genetically gifted with putting on muscle without fat. Do I recomp or cut at this stage?
What kind of calories am I aiming for? I subcontract light industrial work 2-3x a week (think painting mostly – up and down ladders, moving ladders, roller poles, etc) and other work is mostly sedentary, and lift about 3x/week. Walking a few days a week with kids but no other cardio currently other than occasional yard work (chainsawing, cutting firewood, etc), though I do want to change that. Using the calculator Jordan recommends I’m getting recommendations of about 3400 for maintaining, but other calculators give me vastly different estimates (i.e. 2800).
Do you still recommend a higher carb intake, generally speaking? I seem to have an easier time with higher fat intake as it’s foods I naturally gravitate toward that keep me more satiated and seem to keep me more clear-headed for creative work, and I find carbs easier to adjust daily. Generally 150-200g of carb is what I hit on workout days and maybe 150g on non-workout days, but may increase this as I increase intensity relative to tolerance. Always shooting for about 1g/lb of protein (around 200g), should I up this?
I think 150 to 200g of carbohydrates is fine along side 1.6g/kg/bodyweight/day of protein. Fat and carbohydrate intake in excess of this is mostly personal preference.
Waist circumference is 36.5, neck is 14.5. Navy calculator puts me around 22%.
I tried the NIH BW planner but I’m wondering if it’s overshooting calories or if I’m overestimating my activity level. Not sure whether I should be going for a recomp or cutting, but it had me at about 3100kcal a day for dropping 5lb to 195 in 5 weeks. It says maintenance is about 3400kcal.
Haven’t tested maxes in a long time due to recovery/load tolerance increasing, but only back squatting about 85 and RDLing the same for 6. Haven’t tested barbell OHP either. Now that I’ve gotten sleep and stress in check I’ll be pushing those again as I haven’t in quite a while. Also been sort of flying by the seat of my pants for programming but still planning out weeks and intensities.
Sample day shooting for around RPE 7 (barring back tolerance-related lifts) would be i.e.:
Backsquat – 3x6
Neutral grip pullup – 3x6-7
Side delt raises – 3x12
Bicep curls/tricep press – 3x20 each
Side planks – 3x10sx3
Trying to keep a reasonable amount of variation as I’d like to include more dynamic movements in the future and cycle bigger lifts with more exercise variation. I should note while I’m aiming to get stronger in core lifts, I’m not aiming to powerlift per se.
Re: Protein – I thought I recall a ballpark of about 1g/lb bodyweight/day. Do you recommend less now, or did I simply misread?
Looks like weight loss would likely be best. I do not think that the NIH BW planner overestimates energy needs in general, but I would have most people pick ~1.6 as the multiplier. I’d consider one of our templates or similar to structure your training.
The protein guidelines are ~ 1.6g/kg/d to 3.1g/kg/d. 1g/lb is in that range. While most people don’t need that much, it’s not necessarily bad.
So the aim being somewhere in the 15% BF range before maintenance and then gaining?
I’ve been considering a template as I’m not that interested in writing out a program thoughtfully with everything I’ve got going on. Much easier to be accountable that way.
Good to know re: protein. Was essentially wondering as your TBAB article seems to indicate a generally much higher dose than 1.6g/kg for most, especially for fat loss, curious to know if anything changed.
TBAB was published like 10 years ago and new data has emerged since then with respect to protein minimums, though all of the recommendations still fall within range.
If you’ll indulge me briefly: what’s the rationale for when to recomp vs cut weight? Is it mostly to do with total gains made/relative training stage, along with i.e. age? I imagine in my case cutting is probably wisest given the rehab process in place plus the fact that I’m not pushing anywhere near maxes currently (at least for lower body barbell lifts), combined with being 32 rather than 18? Would you advise switching to a surplus down the road or again, given age, would it be more optimal to shoot for very marginal increases in energy intake with a horizon of i.e. 215lb @ 15% in 5y?
If someone is training in a manner or environment that’s less likely to grow muscle and/or they’re not a beginner and/or they’re carrying at or above a healthy amount of body fat, I’d have them cut.
This is age independent. I think it’s possible to get to 215 @ 15% body fat in ~ 10 years, sure, but I think may benefit from losing body fat right now.