Hey guys, thanks for everything that you do. I apologise for the ‘cut or bulk bro’ post but previous threads have had fairly individualised responses which I didn’t want to presume would apply to me.
Gender: male
Age: 22
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 81kg/178 pounds (morning, empty stomach)
Waist: 36 inches (I am South Asian)
Bench 80kg 1x5
Squat: 120kg 1x3
Deadlift: 140kg 1x5
Goals: look good and be relatively strong (in that order of priority)
Training history: basically 6 months of consistent training doing a self made upper/lower split. Progress was reduced by shoulder, hip and back issues, probably caused by my poor ‘programming’.
Diet: gain ~1-2kg a month on 3000 calories a day. Consume about 120-140g protein a day. Eat a fair amount of ‘bad’ food like pizza, ice cream.
So, I’m quite fluffy but not particularly strong, and I have some nagging joint issues.
The plan:
Start focussing on whole foods, eating more fibre and up the protein intake to ~180g/day over the next month. This should drop my calories to the ~2700ish range without me having to focus on ‘cutting’, while still letting me gain some strength. Then adjust calories as needed to recomp until Christmas.
Questions:
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Does my nutrition plan sound like a reasonable plan for the next three months, in order to reign in my waist and gain some strength, or would a ‘cut’ be preferable, followed by a weight gain phase?
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Which of your templates would I be best suited for? I like the look of the hypertophy ones but I accept I may need to use a more novice-style program.
Hey Alex,
Thanks for this. I would probably have you do the following:
- Start Beginner Template on Phase II (also read the accompanying text)
- Reduce daily calorie intake by 250-500kCal to produce weight loss until waist <32"
- Profit
-Jordan
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Thanks Jordan! I’ll get right on it.
What sort of timeframe and numbers should I be looking at? Just want a rough idea of how long I’ll be losing weight for and how my lifts ‘should’ look after the next 3 months or so, so I know what I’m getting into
I would aim to lose ~2.5% BW per month and see how that works for you. Your strength should improve , though it is impossible to say by how much given how differently people respond to training.
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Sounds good, thank you for your help!
I’m going to start phase 2 once I have a plan on how to work around my hip and shoulder pain (already posted in injury section so dw I won’t bug you about it!) so that I can sustain the increased squatting frequency.
Alrightie then doc. So, it’s been a few months and I’m now looking ahead to plan what’s next.
My waist is down to 32.5ish at a bodyweight of about 74-75kg. Strength was progressing on the squat prior to a back tweak, otherwise all lifts are slightly improved, as is my work capacity.
My back tweak is nearly sorted out, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for some of the heavy singles and high intensities in phase 3. Would there be any value in re-running phase 2 (as I have been doing recently, in order to avoid phase 3 while I rehab) when I eventually return to maintenance calories or should I just forge ahead into phase 3 and lift whatever I can handle with tolerable discomfort?