I’ve been weightlifting for the better part of a decade but always had spurts of a a few weeks of consistency followed by months of being lazy. I’ve always had it in my mind that I wanted to be in super good shape for my 30th birthday, so when I realized it was coming up 6 weeks ago I started a short “summer shred” to see how lean I could get. My bday is on Tuesday so here are the results!
Stats: 5’ 3” (160 cm) 110lbs (50kg)
Beginning weight was 112.4 so not even a 3lb difference.
Vids & Pics (NSFW)
What I did
Routine – Went from half-assing a modified version of Ice Cream Fitness on Tues, Thurs, Sat with NO cardio (I’m talkin’ none. Zip.) to an aesthetic split on MWF with running or jump rope/cardio interval training on Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun with no missed workouts during the cut. I am VERY LUCKY and have an entire basement gym set up so the COVID gym closures didn’t affect me too much (although I did miss my gym for things like cables and getting tf out of the house)
Nutrition – For the past 8 or so years I’ve followed intermittent fasting (16/8 window) and IIFYM. For this cut I went on a slight deficit. WARNING: I am small and have a desk job, so besides my workouts I am on my butt all day until my Apple Watch yells at me to stand up. These numbers reflect that.
My calories and macro split for this cut is 1299 cals 98P/43F/130C. This is only about a 250cal deficit from my maintenance, which is proven by my steady ~.5lb loss per week of the cut. I eat a lot of whole eggs, Greek yogurt, chicken breast, lean turkey, cheese, potatoes, whey protein powder, fruits and veg. Due to IIFYM I also have chocolate, rice krispie treats, or cosmic brownies every night depending on my mood and what fits haha. I haven’t gone over my calories in the entirety of the cut except on the day I donated blood where I upped my intake a bit to compensate. I don’t feel hungry, I feel fueled for my workouts, no fatigue.
Other tidbits - I completely cut out alcohol. I hate to say it but I think this was a MAJOR factor into the progress I made during the 6 weeks. I went from drinking a ton of beer and wine (and tequila, and whiskey, and… you get the point) to completely dry. I also upped my water intake from "barely any" to at min 64oz/day and cut down coffee to 2/day instead of my usual 4-5.
Where to go from here – I’m having an epic food fest on my bday, took the day off and everything to basically stuff my face. After that, I’ll be upping my calories back to maintenance and will work on recomping to develop weaker areas (back, hamstrings, would like to get dem capped shoulders a la Sarah Connor in T2). Will probably drop my cardio down to 2 days a week vs my current 4.
Thanks for reading!
Stats: 5’ 3” (160 cm) 110lbs (50kg)
Beginning weight was 112.4 so not even a 3lb difference.
Vids & Pics (NSFW)
What I did
Routine – Went from half-assing a modified version of Ice Cream Fitness on Tues, Thurs, Sat with NO cardio (I’m talkin’ none. Zip.) to an aesthetic split on MWF with running or jump rope/cardio interval training on Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun with no missed workouts during the cut. I am VERY LUCKY and have an entire basement gym set up so the COVID gym closures didn’t affect me too much (although I did miss my gym for things like cables and getting tf out of the house)
Nutrition – For the past 8 or so years I’ve followed intermittent fasting (16/8 window) and IIFYM. For this cut I went on a slight deficit. WARNING: I am small and have a desk job, so besides my workouts I am on my butt all day until my Apple Watch yells at me to stand up. These numbers reflect that.
My calories and macro split for this cut is 1299 cals 98P/43F/130C. This is only about a 250cal deficit from my maintenance, which is proven by my steady ~.5lb loss per week of the cut. I eat a lot of whole eggs, Greek yogurt, chicken breast, lean turkey, cheese, potatoes, whey protein powder, fruits and veg. Due to IIFYM I also have chocolate, rice krispie treats, or cosmic brownies every night depending on my mood and what fits haha. I haven’t gone over my calories in the entirety of the cut except on the day I donated blood where I upped my intake a bit to compensate. I don’t feel hungry, I feel fueled for my workouts, no fatigue.
Other tidbits - I completely cut out alcohol. I hate to say it but I think this was a MAJOR factor into the progress I made during the 6 weeks. I went from drinking a ton of beer and wine (and tequila, and whiskey, and… you get the point) to completely dry. I also upped my water intake from "barely any" to at min 64oz/day and cut down coffee to 2/day instead of my usual 4-5.
Where to go from here – I’m having an epic food fest on my bday, took the day off and everything to basically stuff my face. After that, I’ll be upping my calories back to maintenance and will work on recomping to develop weaker areas (back, hamstrings, would like to get dem capped shoulders a la Sarah Connor in T2). Will probably drop my cardio down to 2 days a week vs my current 4.
Thanks for reading!
