Should I keep cutting?

Qonix

Qonix

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
I know I know.. The same question, but I'm really stuck with this decision.

I've been cutting since April going from 184lbs (eating 2900kcal) to 165lbs today (eating 1800kcal). I'm 6'.
Body fat dropped from 15% to 10%.

My goal was to reach 8% but now I feel like I'm starting to lose strength on major lifts (especially bench and squat).

I've been working out 3 times/week and doing cardio 1hour 2 times/week. Also carb cycling (which I find a great method).

What would you suggest? Calorie-wise I'm pretty low and I could just maybe switch to a 4 times/week schedule plus 2 days of 1hour cardio. Do you think I could hit that 8% in a reasonable amount of time? Or is just not worth?
 
AntM1564

AntM1564

Legend
Awards
4
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
I know I know.. The same question, but I'm really stuck with this decision.

I've been cutting since April going from 184lbs (eating 2900kcal) to 165lbs today (eating 1800kcal). I'm 6'.
Body fat dropped from 15% to 10%.

My goal was to reach 8% but now I feel like I'm starting to lose strength on major lifts (especially bench and squat).

I've been working out 3 times/week and doing cardio 1hour 2 times/week. Also carb cycling (which I find a great method).

What would you suggest? Calorie-wise I'm pretty low and I could just maybe switch to a 4 times/week schedule plus 2 days of 1hour cardio. Do you think I could hit that 8% in a reasonable amount of time? Or is just not worth?
You've been dieting for 16 weeks or so now. That is a pretty long time if not going into a contest. If you reached 10%, I would reverse for a month to two months and then go back at getting down to 8%
 
snowwolf

snowwolf

Member
Awards
0
Yea that seems like a very long time, do you have current pics you can post.
 
Qonix

Qonix

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
You've been dieting for 16 weeks or so now. That is a pretty long time if not going into a contest. If you reached 10%, I would reverse for a month to two months and then go back at getting down to 8%
don't you think 2 months of reverse just to start cutting again would be a loss of time?
 
JDybya

JDybya

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Reversing has a ton of hormonal benefits. Cutting will be way easier after too. Play the long game.
 
AntM1564

AntM1564

Legend
Awards
4
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
don't you think 2 months of reverse just to start cutting again would be a loss of time?
Not at all. Why do you need to get to 8% so quickly? 1800 cals is very little. Your body will thank you for a month or two of a break. It's not like you're going to balloon to 12%+ in 4-8 weeks.
 
mkretz

mkretz

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
Listen to these guys they known their stuff
 
Qonix

Qonix

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
I guess I have to reverse, increasing slowly my kcal.. And after 2 months should I jump back straight at 1800kcal?
 
The Solution

The Solution

Legend
Awards
5
  • First Up Vote
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • Best Answer
Doing a metabolic reset will not only help your metabolism, it will make dieting down to 8% easier. Giving the body a little more food will help raise leptein, hormone, and tesosterone levels after long term dieting (all which drop to a significant degree). This will also give the body a little bit more food to help with mood, sleep, and performance in the gym.

Think about it this way. You can only run a car for so long before you need to fill up the tank. If you try and take it too far what happens? You run out of gas. Same with dieting. You try and take things to the extreme this is when the body will start fighting back (low levels of BF, long term dieting, and muscle loss/strength loss).

Giving yourself a reset for a good 2-4-6-8 weeks will do the trick. Work your metabolism back up, slow and steady wins the race with dieting and with bulking. Its not a race, slowly add back kcals and drop cardio, then just reverse back into dieting, no need to plunge back to the depths you are at now.

If you can lose with calories higher then do so. This allows for more flexibility and variables to change when you stall.
Hope this helps explain things into context and the big picture.
 
Lynks8

Lynks8

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • RockStar
Great advice in here. I would also suggest a reset for a month or two. One thing you can do to stay lean while adding calories without negatively impacting your hormones, (as much as just reducing calories), is adding a bit of cardio on top of what you're already doing. I always get better results by adding cardio compared to just reducing calories, particularly with HIIT. I'd taper up (over a week or two) to ~2100 kcal per day and throw in 3, ~20-25minutes HIIT sessions per week. I guarantee you'll stay lean and feel better. When you're ready to cut again, I'd taper down on cals instead of jumping immediately back to 1800. With a better hormonal profile and perhaps, a bit of added muscle from the reset, you may not need to go quite as low to achieve a true deficit again.
 
Qonix

Qonix

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
I'll try your advice from next week, let's see if it gets better!
Even if I think once I'll start bumping up calories I'll keep with bulking instead of going back in a cut.. But let's see :)
 

Similar threads


Top