What should the cutting to bulking ratio or cycle be for optimal results?

[SuppKnight]

Let's say a person wants to drop 40 lbs of total weight (meaning probably drop 60 lbs but gain 20 back in muscle).

What would be the optimal cutting/bulking cycle be?

1. Lose the 60 total lbs first and then try to gain the 20 lbs of muscle.

2. Lose 5 lbs, gain 1.7 lbs of muscle, repeat until goal.

3. Lose 10, lbs, gain 3.4 lbs of muscle, repeat until goal.

2. Lose 20 lbs, gain 7 of muscle, lose 20 more, gain 7 of muscle, lose another 20 and gain 6 of muscle.

3. Lose 30 lbs, gain 10 of muscle, lose 30 more, gain 10 of muscle.

4. Other

[SuppKnight]

Can anyone at all who has bulked help me here???

[CrazyBassGuy]

I like to bulk as much (and as lean) as I can until I am about 14% or 15% bf
(or I feel to fat and wimp out)
Then I cut down to about 7% fat keeping my lifting just as heavy - reducing the quantity of lifting and adding cardio (mainly cycling & swimming)

[alwaysgaining]

cuting and bulk are a huge wast of time unles your traing for a comp other wise u have all the time in the world to be lean and big. try to get biggr cleanly then just clean up your diet and stay clean eat big and clean and u wont have to cut. keep training on the intense side and it will keep u lean

[EasyEJL]

it depends some on what bodyfat % you are when you start. you should try to get down to the 12-15% range before seriously working on adding new muscle, as at that point your ratio of muscle added to fat added is best. Unless you are a fresh new lifter, adding muscle while losing fat is a slow difficult process.

[SuppKnight]

it depends some on what bodyfat % you are when you start. you should try to get down to the 12-15% range before seriously working on adding new muscle, as at that point your ratio of muscle added to fat added is best. Unless you are a fresh new lifter, adding muscle while losing fat is a slow difficult process.

I was at decent to great BF% a year ago, but due to illness I gained a lot in this past year. I'm about 225 lbs at 5'8, from 175 lbs a year ago. That's without lifting for the whole time, so I'm pretty sure my BF% is through the roof right now.

The thing is, I started lifting again a little while ago and got some decent gains. I don't really want to lose all the muscle I gained, but I recognize I have to lose BF% by the bucket. That's why I am asking about the best approach.

I feel if I lose too much weight before bulking again, I will lose all the muscle I've gained, whereas if I lose a few lbs. then bulk, then lose a few more and so on, I can reshape my body without losing all my progress.

Am I correct in that assessment?

[EasyEJL]

I feel if I lose too much weight before bulking again, I will lose all the muscle I've gained, whereas if I lose a few lbs. then bulk, then lose a few more and so on, I can reshape my body without losing all my progress.

Am I correct in that assessment?

nope. If you lose the weight slowly, at 1-1.5lbs a week, and are doing it through regular cardio, not just caloric restriction then you'll hardly lose any muscle. Try and lose 2.5-3lbs a week, and you'll lose muscle. Or even lose 1.5 through caloric restriction only, and you'll lose muscle.

[SuppKnight]

nope. If you lose the weight slowly, at 1-1.5lbs a week, and are doing it through regular cardio, not just caloric restriction then you'll hardly lose any muscle. Try and lose 2.5-3lbs a week, and you'll lose muscle. Or even lose 1.5 through caloric restriction only, and you'll lose muscle.

I don't know, cardio is pretty catabolic, from what I've learned. A slight calorie restriction of 500 kcal daily and weight training amounts to about 1.5 lbs per week for me and should yield less muscle loss than cardio. Other than basketball on the weekends I never did cardio before and was at 180 lbs with good BF%.

[EasyEJL]

Then that should work, just go that way. It just seems to me that cardio's raise in body temp + heart rate seems to liberate more fatty acids than caloric restriction alone.