@dynamitex Thank you! I’ll try to stick with eating at maintenance and see where I go from there
Not sure whether to continue cutting, stay at maintenance, or eat at a surplus (progress photos)
- Thread starter imalamb
- Start date
-
- Tags
- female fitness
swiftbreeze
New member
alwayslearning1130
New member
@swiftbreeze You slowly bring your calories back up to maintenance.
Like +100 calories a week until maintenance.
Like +100 calories a week until maintenance.
alwayslearning1130
New member
@joshua371 I have read 12-16 weeks and then a diet break.
@alwayslearning1130 Thanks so much for your reply.
Does someone know how long that break has to be?
Does someone know how long that break has to be?
saintearistotle
New member
@joshua371 Depending on how long your cut was I’ve read anywhere from 1-4 weeks
@joshua371 I’ve seen that it should be the length of the cut.
I felt like it’s time to change my diet, I just wasn’t sure. Thank you!wallflower1104
New member
@imalamb Damn! Your progress is GREAT! That looks like more than an 8lb loss, which likely means you've put on a good bit of lean muscle mass. I'm not an expert in bulk/cut cycles, but I'd personally stick to maintenance and continue trying to build your lean muscle mass without much change to your overall weight.
@wallflower1104 Thanks so much! It’s crazy I never really felt like I was making much progress until I saw the pictures side by side. I’ll plan on sticking to maintenance and see where it takes me in terms of how I’m feeling and performing at the gym!
@imalamb Hey looking great. Good progress. If I were you I would go hard with the strength training and be focused on building a stronger foundation in the big lifts. I would follow a recomp diet plan to cause you to at minimum maintain muscle but if you still have newbie potential which you probably do you can gain muscle as well as lose fat. These are the rough macros I would recommend
P 150-180
C 70 - 90
F 70 - 90
P 150-180
C 70 - 90
F 70 - 90
@sheyla I agree that recomp while eating at maintenance is probably a good choice for OP, but what are you basing your suggested macros on? Even aggressive high protein splits stay around the 30-35% protein range. And with both fats and carbs so low this macro split is going to be very difficult to sustain for any appreciable amount of time, OP will likely start feeling drained. 40%-30%-30% (carbs-protein-fat) is a good starting point for a macro breakdown during maintenance and then it can be adjusted to fit a person's preference. Even going off of the previously used 1g/lbs of bodyweight you have set protein way past the point of efficacy, and current research indicates that the 1g/lbs is already too high. 120-140g a day should be sufficient for OP to recomp on.
@jacob2848 I'm basing the macros off of another post I read.
1.1-.1.3 g/lb protein
.5-.7 g/lb carbs
The rest fat
This broke down to about 40% protein 40%fat 20%carbs
I knew the protein was high as I usually base by protein on kg but couldn't find something referencing kg. (Quick Google search) Thanks for the article I will use it in the future.
1.1-.1.3 g/lb protein
.5-.7 g/lb carbs
The rest fat
This broke down to about 40% protein 40%fat 20%carbs
I knew the protein was high as I usually base by protein on kg but couldn't find something referencing kg. (Quick Google search) Thanks for the article I will use it in the future.
@imalamb I'm seconding the other commenter that you shouldn't follow those macros. For best performance in fitness, you need a lot of carbs. More carbs than protein, actually, since carbs are what is broken down throughout the day to give you the energy to move, walk, think, and exercise. You could increase all your macros by a bit when you go to maintenance. Or you could just increase carbs.