@porfin I lowered my body fat percentage first to below 8%. I ate at a deficit but still built muscle because I was a beginner at the gym. So my body fat percentage went down but the scale went up because I gained muscle as a beginner. It's up to you if you feel confident enough in your body and do a bulk to cut later. I didn't feel good in my body and didn't have a lot of confidence so I wanted to lose weight first.
I did
StrongLifts 5x5 first to get stronger as fast as possible. Building strength and adding weight each week to make progress. Than I switched to
Ivysaur 448 for a more optimal training program. It should get you results faster than StrongLifts 5x5. I've you've still got potential to apply progressive overload regularly I would do Ivysaur 448 untill you are barely making progress and then switch to push pull legs.
You'll have to apply lineair progressive overload basically adding weight after a week. I switched from StrongLifts 5x5 to Ivysaur's 448.
Ivysaur's 448 focuses more on volume, frequency and DUP(Daily Undulating Periodization) to get better results in less time. Read
Two Easy Ways to Make Your Novice Strength Training Program More Effective which talks about periodization and volume. Mike Zourdos talks about DUP in a
video for those of you who're interested as you can apply it to any program. Here's his
AMA about DUP. Also read
The Bogeyman of Training Programs (and why it may be just what you need) with an example of DUP.
With Ivysaur's 448 you'll do bench press and overhead press each workout but with a different volume by alternating between 4x4 and 4x8 as seen
here. If you want better results over time you should definitely check this out. I did this for more than a year for more strength. It seems more complicated but all it takes is a bit of calculation to determine the weight. I also added bicep curls, seated row and lat pulldowns. You could also include pull ups.
You have to calculate
TDEE and you have to eat enough to fuel your workout. I play football, go running and ride my bike off season, I walk a lot and I go to the gym so I have to eat 3600kcal or more. It's about calories so eat a bit less(300 to 500kcal) than your body needs and you'll lose weight. Eat a bit more(300kcal) and you'll gain weight.
I have a meal plan and be creative it's just about the calories and protein want to eat more veggies? Eat less oats or whole wheat pasta. I make wok, lasagne, spaghetti, curry, chili, wraps and so on. Don't let it fool you. Be creative!
Eat a whole foods plant based diet so eat oats, brown rice, potatoes, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas! I eat a high carb low fat diet with 3600kcal and 1a70g of protein. I lowered my body fat percentage from 12% to below 8%.
Here's a
typical day of eating for me while bulking with 170g of protein and 3600kcal.
Here's a
typical day of eating while cutting with 120g of protein and 2000kcal without a protein shake.
Another
typical day of eating while cutting with 94g of protein and 1500kcal without a protein shake.
Another typical day of eating while cutting with
112g of protein and 1505kcal including a protein shake.
Here's a meal plan with 1173kcal and 92g of protein including a protein shake.
1173kcal 92g protein Meal plan 64% carbs, 9% fat, 27% protein
Use
cronometer to track calories.
According to this article you don't need to overkill on protein :
https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle for natural trainees. This already includes a mark-up, since most research finds no more benefits after 0.64g/lb.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867436/
Study from 2018, Protein supplementation beyond total protein intakes of 1.62 g/kg/day resulted in no further RET-induced gains in FFM. Credits AromaticLab7.
I'm 72kg and need max 120g of protein and min 100g of protein. When cutting I had a protein shake.
