Body Recomp, Mini cut or Dedicated cut

[starlight360]

Hey there

I’m kind of in a weird situation at the moment. I’ve been lifting for about a year now and I’m currently sitting at about 20-22% bf and weigh 65kg (143 lbs). I’ve been in a little bulk for about 2 months I’d say now and I started at around 17-19% body fat.

What I’ve noticed is that most of my weight gain has been fat (70-75% of total weight gain) even though I’ve only been gaining upto 0.5kg (1.1 lb) a week.

After looking into it, I realised that at a higher body fat % you’re more prone to gaining fat as opposed to muscle. Now I’m not too sure what to do as for the majority of my fitness journey I was in a deficit (approx 7 months, started at 85 kg and stopped at 65 kg), so I don’t want to go back into a long deficit and lose out more gains. But if I keep bulking as I have been, I’ll continue to gain more fat.

(Like I mentioned earlier I don’t think the problem was that I was in a large surplus as I was only gaining upwards of 0.5 kg a month)

Also, I looked into doing a minicut but after watching Renaissance Periodization’s minicut guide, I think that may not be the right approach for me as he suggests to not go higher than a 1.25% weight loss/week deficit

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could provide me with some advice. Thank you.

 

[sam100]

@starlight360 I would try body recomposition. Increase your protein intake, stay around your maintenance calories and try to progress in your training.
If you can't progress for 2 weeks then increase your calories slightly.

Edit: are you male or female?

 

[starlight360]

@sam100 I did consider this but I’ve heard that body composition isn’t too worth it if you’re not a newbie lifter or someone getting back into lifting. But if I can’t figure anything out, that might be the way to go. Also sorry I forgot to mention in the post but I’m a male

 

[mommajulesberry]

@starlight360 "P ratio" of fat/muscle gain at 20% bodyfat is probably irrelevant

you are gaining mostly fat because you are gaining over 1lb/week which is considered fast if you are not a starving african child. if it is 70% fat then you're still putting on 12-15lbs of muscle in a year which by most metrics is pretty ok.

you will be able to maybe not improve that over time because more advanced gains are slower, but keep improving your ability to make gains as a lifter by sticking to a decent intermediate program and keep watching dr mike.

 

[starlight360]

@mommajulesberry I thought 1lb / week was considered fairly low. What would you consider a better weekly weight goal that would lead to less fat gain ?

 

[mommajulesberry]

@starlight360 try half that. if you put on 26lbs of pure muscle in a year you're a fucking god no 2 ways about it. i personally enjoy bulking for as much of the year as i can because that is productive time making gains and not dieting and i dont think gaining weight any faster will do anything special that i wont get from just bulking for longer.

https://assets.researchsquare.com/f...-a20d-408e-bd87-aadea544b5f2.pdf?c=1699283249 (effects of small vs large surplus on strength, muscle etc research paper)