Thank you very much for your extensive support and knowledge. Your Beginner Template is awesome. I made good progress, reaching 300/225/405 for comfortable singles in those 3 months.
Stats now: 81 kg @ 20-25% BF | 5’10.5" (seeming to maintain at 2400-2600 kcal)
Desired outcomes: As much jacktitude and strength as possible @ 12% BF in the fairly near future
I have a number of questions regarding cutting. Please consider my short experience in training (I’d wager about 5 months of proper strength training consolidated from years of inconsistency). Questions 2 and 3 tie in together. 1. I like strength training, but am definitely open to other types of programs to maximise muscular mass. Which program would you recommend?
2. For someone trying to gain muscle, you recommend consuming protein every 3-5 hrs to keep MPS rate elevated. Would you recommend the same for someone who is in a calorie deficit, or don’t have strong feelings between 3 big meals or 5 smaller meals with protein equaled?
3. Does a protein shake and some juice pre-workout help significantly with outcomes if I train first thing in the morning? I get sick from the whey. Also, I eat a good meal within 30 min of finishing training.
4. What would you think is a reasonable time frame to reach my goals? I’m completely okay with any approach that will help with my desired outcomes (apart from that shake in the morning). As top preference though, I’d like 3 big meals with 1 snack somewhere.
Also, I have some questions on the Renaissance Periodization diet templates, that I’ll ask on another post.
I think that at this point in your training, the majority of our programs would likely maximize muscle mass while also improving strength, conditioning, etc. In short, I don’t think you need a hypertrophy-specific plan, unless you prefer that type of training. I’d probably do General S/C I or Powerbuilding I for you.
Compared to not eating, it may improve workout performance. However, if total energy and protein intake are the same, I don’t think weight loss or body composition outcomes are likely to be different.
Probably going to take at least 3 months to get as lean as you want.
I’m not going to answer questions about RP templates, as it would be inappropriate for me to comment on them.
I’ll happily start with PB 1. The revised version looks juicy. On a tangent, why were the calibrating sets @6 and @7 removed? Was it just to give a cleaner look, but still necessary to perform?
I’ve a couple of weeks’ nutrition + body weight data (where I deliberately ate cleaner - mostly single ingredient foods, consistently eating over 180g protein and between 2400-2600 kcal). Initially, body weight dipped slightly, but has stabilised at 81 kg.
I suppose I’ll start at roughly 2100 kcal, 180g protein, 175g carb (net?), 75g fat and measure progress from there. If it slows too much (<0.3 kg/week), I’ll subtract some fat and carbs.
I understand your response on the RP question. May I word it differently - Do you think it is worth the effort, for someone at my level, to cycle carbs/fat on a meal-to-meal and daily basis based on workout volume and intensity?
I just don’t really think it’s important if people do them or not as long as they get close to the appropriate weight.
I do not think most people who want to get leaner need to cycle macronutrients, much less with that level of granularity. The evidence doesn’t support this practice either.
(seeming to maintain at 2400-2600 kcal)