Sorry for the double topic but reading through the forum I’m under the impression you’d prefer new topics than going off tangent in existing threads…
I’ve been eating in a slight surplus for a while now and have just reached the point where visible abs are becoming less of a thing. After getting up to 200lbs last year I hated it so much I immediately went on a cut and lost 25lbs over 5-6 months. This time I’ve gone up much slower and although my abs don’t look as great at 190lbs as they did at 175 I feel great and training is going very well. To cut (no pun intended) to the chase my long term goal is to get bigger and put on more muscle mass, do you think it is inevitable that throughout the process you have to accept that there will be periods when you’re not going to look as shredded? What I don’t want to do is end up spinning my wheels in a cycle of constant bulking and cutting that ends up getting nowhere.
Also, what’s your opinion on body recomposition? Have you experienced or witnessed someone stay at the same weight and add lean body mass while losing body fat? It’s been a busy few weeks and although I’ve done my best to track and stay on target I do wonder if just tidying up my diet could help.
Yes, you’re unlikely to be very lean for your entire training career, particularly during periods of muscle gain.
I don’t think most people, save for untrained or those with very good genetics, are able to gain significant amounts of muscle mass and lose significant amounts of fat at the same time. You can always try to do this by eating at maintenance and record your results.
Thanks very much Jordan. In theory then could I remain in a small surplus until the body fat got too much?
I guess the difficulty would be staying at maintenance forever. I follow some people who say they just ‘maingain’ at the same weight but actually they just fluctuate up and down in a range of 5 pounds or so around their target weight which I presume is just bulking and cutting albeit on a smaller scale.
That’s where it gets a bit difficult to say what to do as my waist measurement is 35" which probably paints the picture of being a little chubby but I’d say I’m still quite lean, just about visible abs, still get in my 32" dress trousers, etc. Even at my very leanest with deep ab cuts I don’t go below a 32" waist measured below the naval.
To be honest I’m really happy with how this weight gain has gone, I’ve tried to do it as slowly as possible and looking at comparison pictures I definitely look leaner than last year at this weight so hopefully that means less far and more muscle.
This post probably come across as incredibly narcissistic, I’m not that obsessed with the body image side of this, honest!
Hi Jordan, I found your video on checking waist measurement and found that I was actually measuring wrong and my waist is just under 34".
Do you think waist measurement can be used to judge when to bulk or cut? Say bulk at 32" and start cutting at 36"? I feel like I always want to cut as soon as start losing visible abs and wonder if I’m selling myself short.
