6-week mini cut results

@johnacola First off, congrats! Your results are truly inspiring! And don't worry about turning 30, the best is really, honestly and truly, yet to come. I turned 45 last year and I have never felt better in my whole life and am in the best shape I have ever been in.

We have very similar stats, I am 5'2", 111#. I share this because I think you can slowly start to increase your maintenance calories above 1500-1600. It is a super slow process, but I am quasi recomping quasi cutting at almost 1800. I lift 4x per week and do LISS cardio 2x. I also work a desk job, so no extra activity, just some random walks around the block to break up the day or after dinner to get out of the house.

Anyway, I started 12 weeks ago at 114#, calories around 1650. Every 2-3 weeks, I bumped up 50 calories, let my body get used to it and then make another small bump. I am ultimately down 3#, but my body is completely changing shape, which is why I am basically recomping, but I am obviously in a slight deficit because the scale does trend down, albeit slowly.

My main goal is fat loss as I carry a lot more fat on my body than you do. But I am making really good progress with the slow increase in calories and I can feel that I am also gaining muscle because I am able to use higher weights. I wanted to share this because I think it is possible for you to have a higher maintenance calorie allotment. I have a long history of chronic dieting so part of this process for me has been metabolic repair (which I actually started in Oct. 2019).
 
@walknlight I did something similar over the last 2 years. I’m also 5’2 and had been weighing between 112 and 114 with a maintenance of about 1400 with heavy weight training. I gradually increased my calories to where I was maintaining closer to 2000 a day (pre covid shutdown) and weighing 108-110. I built a good deal of muscle over two years and dropped quite a bit of fat (Nbody had me going from 26% bf to about 18%)

I’ve cut back to about 1700 since I can’t lift and am only doing yoga but I’m maintaining 107-109. I’m 40 btw and also ate in ridiculous deficits in my younger years so I had fixing to do as well. It took about 3 years to get my maintenance to go from 1200 to 1400 as well.
 
@linamali How did you do this without gaining? Did you cut to a weight you were happy with first and then start increasing maintenance from there? I’m 5’2” and 125 with 5-8 lbs I’m working to lose and I feel like maintenance is 1500ish...late 30s and have also dieted off and on for years. Would love to hear more specifics of your process!
 
@capebuffalo I didnt cut...I just lifted as heavy as I could and when I plateaued I'd add like 50 cal to my day and then stay there for awhile until I plateaued again. It was a very slow recomp. I should also note that I didnt add any calories if my lifts were progressing.

My lifts went from a 125lb deadlift to a 215lb deadlift in that 2 years for example.
 
@linamali This is my goal. I would like to be maintaining around 107-109, closer to 2000 cals per day.

I also need to put on a few pounds of muscle, which I am also slowly working on. I am currently at 21% BF (per DEXA), so my goal is to put on 2-3# of muscle and get down to 18% BF and be in that 107-109 range. It is very slow going, but I am willing to play the long game :)
 
@johnacola Sis you look amazing!! Your ‘before’ body is already #goals to me. I’m 5’ and had been struggling to lose fat by lifting only (tried from Jan till the gyms closed in March). Instead, I ended up looking even bigger. I’m focusing on doing cardio/endurance for now while the gyms are closed.

Could you share more details about your workout?

I am also around the same age as you (turning 29) and in my experience, only hiit has worked well for me. 5 years ago I lost a significant amount of weight by doing insanity and have been maintaining that by doing hiit workouts. I’ve recently discovered my love for lifting, but unfortunately, I was not getting the results that I wanted.
 
@nomad4life
For weight training on MWF, I try to keep it under an hour. I have a bad habit of stretching out my rests between sets and I found I feel much better with shorter more intense sessions.

Aesthetic split:

Upper A - Bench, rows, incline, pull ups, lat raises, dips, curls

Upper B - OHP, DB single row, flyes, 21s, skullcrushers

Lower A - Squat, split squats (THE WORST), SLDL, calve raises

Lower B - Deads, lunges, goblet squats, resistance band adductor

All lifting days ending with ab work.

So the weeks look like: UA, LA, UB / LB, UA, LA rinse and repeat

For cardio, 5k if running, 30 min which is typically jump rope 10 minutes + 20 minutes of a circuit I threw together (jump squats, high knees, mountain climbers, sprints, random dancing).
Click to expand...
 
@johnacola I found your minicut while traveling and have been inspired to do my own. Can I ask if you did a specific set/rep plan while weightlifting?

Also - we’re the same height and weight! :) But you are definitely slimmer than me. Gotta work on my muscles!
 
@johnacola Wow! You look awesome, girl. And you looked awesome before too. :)

You seem to have a really good sense of how many calories you need. Do you find the watch gives you an accurate assessment?
 
@dawn16 I'm that height and have been that weight. And did not look like that. For so long I was so confused about why other people my height looked so good at 115-120. Spoiler alert: they have a lot more muscle than me, like awesome OP! Great job to OP, building that muscle takes a lot of hard work!
 
@amberb Yep! I'm 163cm (5'4") and was 46kg (101.5lbs) at one point in my life and I looked softer than OP for sure. I was a classic skinny fat person, like I had literally never worked out regularly in my life before.

I weigh 52kg (114.6lbs) and am way happier with how I look now.
 
@amberb Yeah OP is ripped!! I had 112 the other day and I still look so... Soft. I know it's the lack of muscles and I'm working on it but it takes as long it even longer than just losing weight 😥
 
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