End of a long cut/reta use, how long until bulking

[bceagle1]

Since January, I dropped about 30lbs naturally and used reta for the last 30. Have about 9lbs left to go and I should be down to around 11%BF. I have never been through this before and I feel like I need a month of maintenance to get everything in check and I need to retrain my body into eating right and eating enough. My lifts are really off too, so that's a huge concern. On bench, I probably lost over a lb for every lb I lost. Im going to taper down the reta in 6 weeks.

How long do you guys wait when going from a cut to a clean bulk?
I have friends that either bulk or cut, no maint. and also guys that say take 2 months.
My gut is wait until my diet is perfect and the holidays are over.

Anybody else ever been in the same situation?

Thanks

 

[ironviking]

At least 6 weeks of maintenance preferably 8. You hit almost every point right on. Your body and mind need to readjust and it will help you tune into your caloric needs as well. The macro calculators are good but right after a long cut your body may react differently than expected. Also congrats on the weight loss and getting to that low of bf!

 

[Smont]

In my opinion you got 2 ways to look at it. #1 is if your someone who has struggled with weight loss, I would spend 6-8 weeks in maintenance, but only for you to adjust to eating less and maintaining a level of fitness. On the flip side, if you were cutting to get shredded, and you got there, now is the perfect time to grow, the biggest gains in muscle always come after a cut when your starting the bulk at your most shredded.

My question to you is are you actually 11% because that's shredded for the average Joe and if you drop another 10 lb you're going to be well into the single digits. And there's never a better time to grow. I know a lot of people use scales and fitness devices to figure out their body fat percentages and they're not usually correct from what I've seen. This chart probably isn't 100% on point, but it's in the ballpark. The amount of muscle one carries can make BF % look much different from person to person tho.

If you get to, or close to the 8-10% pic (minus the posing oil and the airbrush lol), I would slowly reverse out into a gaining phase, otherwise I'd go into a little break at maintenance.

On the strength thing, that's very normal with upper body strength. I've done a few bench press comps and any time I'm training the bench, my presses goes up about a pound to 1.5 p for every pound I gain in weight. And on a cut, if in not training the bench press specifically for a meet, il loose 2+lbs on my bench for every p I loose on the scale.

After I hit my all time best bench, 370 (198lb class) I decided to try to cut to 180 for a deadlift comp 2 months later. That 18lb cut only knocked a few lbs off my pull, but my bench was down 50lbs


And good job on dropping 60lbs!!!

 

[Smont]

I made a mistake, I thought it said you were already around 11% and we're still going to cut nine more pounds, regardless, my advice remains the same.

I will add that with myself around 11-12% on my guestimate, this is usually where I start to struggle. I can always get to here, but getting past this 11-12% is always very challenging and takes a lot of discipline. I usually don't have the discipline to get there, and when I do get there I'm never able to maintain it for very long and that's just out of my own laziness and urge to eat Pop-Tarts late at night lol

 

[LeanEngineer]

I made a mistake, I thought it said you were already around 11% and we're still going to cut nine more pounds, regardless, my advice remains the same.

I will add that with myself around 11-12% on my guestimate, this is usually where I start to struggle. I can always get to here, but getting past this 11-12% is always very challenging and takes a lot of discipline. I usually don't have the discipline to get there, and when I do get there I'm never able to maintain it for very long and that's just out of my own laziness and urge to eat Pop-Tarts late at night lol

Same here! I can achieve the 11-12% look but getting single digit bf % is pretty difficult.

 

[bceagle1]

I made a mistake, I thought it said you were already around 11% and we're still going to cut nine more pounds, regardless, my advice remains the same.

I will add that with myself around 11-12% on my guestimate, this is usually where I start to struggle. I can always get to here, but getting past this 11-12% is always very challenging and takes a lot of discipline. I usually don't have the discipline to get there, and when I do get there I'm never able to maintain it for very long and that's just out of my own laziness and urge to eat Pop-Tarts late at night lol

I dont think I ever see single digits. I always have had an issue with love handles/lower ab being stubborn, so I would love to see those shed off, but between the picture charts and averaging out the BF% my watch gives me every day, I think I will get close. I struggle with stress eating, so Im hoping there isnt a rebound.

Thanks for the heads up on the weight, been killing my ego. Slowly been trying to eat slightly more this week just to get some energy, but dying to get back to a clean bulk and hoping the weights come back fast.

 

[Smont]

Same here! I can achieve the 11-12% look but getting single digit bf % is pretty difficult.

I dont think I ever see single digits. I always have had an issue with love handles/lower ab being stubborn, so I would love to see those shed off, but between the picture charts and averaging out the BF% my watch gives me every day, I think I will get close. I struggle with stress eating, so Im hoping there isnt a rebound.

Thanks for the heads up on the weight, been killing my ego. Slowly been trying to eat slightly more this week just to get some energy, but dying to get back to a clean bulk and hoping the weights come back fast.

I can tell you guys that aside from the select few that are just always lean, great genetics for body fat distribution and all that, most of the people to see that maintain 8-10% bf are meticulous about their diets, they're doing their fasted cardio, they have strategic planned cheat meals, they leverage things like metformin and berberine and other glucose disposal agents and nutrient partitioners when they go out to eat or cheat and they often line them up with the day before legs or a big workout. The discipline is way more necessary in the diet then it is in the training at that point. I also often will start going off the rails those final weeks where it's really important. In these situations, I think a 4-6week diet break where your just over maintenance is a great reset tool.


When bulking to a new high in muscle mass tho, I always say a 6-8 week maintenance phase to adjust that new setpoint. If I put on 15 lb and immediately start to diet, I tend to look pretty much the same at the end of the diet. But when I hold for a little while and then diet back down, I'm always a little bit bigger and a little bit leaner than previously.

I also incorporate phases in the year where I just maintain for the hell of it, honestly I've been in maintenance mode for like the last 2 years. I've had a few small cuts and a few small boats but I have not pushed be envelope on anything new. Currently though I am trying to cut down to my all-time smallest ever in the past 20 years so this will be interesting lol

 

[Smont]

At least 6 weeks of maintenance preferably 8. You hit almost every point right on. Your body and mind need to readjust and it will help you tune into your caloric needs as well. The macro calculators are good but right after a long cut your body may react differently than expected. Also congrats on the weight loss and getting to that low of bf!

I didn't see this post, but I also agree here, more for the mental and giving your body a rest after dieting for so long.

 

[bceagle1]

I can tell you guys that aside from the select few that are just always lean, great genetics for body fat distribution and all that, most of the people to see that maintain 8-10% bf are meticulous about their diets, they're doing their fasted cardio, they have strategic planned cheat meals, they leverage things like metformin and berberine and other glucose disposal agents and nutrient partitioners when they go out to eat or cheat and they often line them up with the day before legs or a big workout. The discipline is way more necessary in the diet then it is in the training at that point. I also often will start going off the rails those final weeks where it's really important. In these situations, I think a 4-6week diet break where your just over maintenance is a great reset tool.


When bulking to a new high in muscle mass tho, I always say a 6-8 week maintenance phase to adjust that new setpoint. If I put on 15 lb and immediately start to diet, I tend to look pretty much the same at the end of the diet. But when I hold for a little while and then diet back down, I'm always a little bit bigger and a little bit leaner than previously.

I also incorporate phases in the year where I just maintain for the hell of it, honestly I've been in maintenance mode for like the last 2 years. I've had a few small cuts and a few small boats but I have not pushed be envelope on anything new. Currently though I am trying to cut down to my all-time smallest ever in the past 20 years so this will be interesting lol

I dont have the discipline for sub 10%bf. Between eating on the run, lunch meetings, dates, its tough. I try and stick to fish and a salad, but tough. The one thing I love about bulking is steak and a sweet potato.

I'm 54 and before I went on TRT I was taking forever to recover and gain muscle. It has definitely helped retain muscle during the last year. I know its will help a ton.

 

[LeanEngineer]

I can tell you guys that aside from the select few that are just always lean, great genetics for body fat distribution and all that, most of the people to see that maintain 8-10% bf are meticulous about their diets, they're doing their fasted cardio, they have strategic planned cheat meals, they leverage things like metformin and berberine and other glucose disposal agents and nutrient partitioners when they go out to eat or cheat and they often line them up with the day before legs or a big workout. The discipline is way more necessary in the diet then it is in the training at that point. I also often will start going off the rails those final weeks where it's really important. In these situations, I think a 4-6week diet break where your just over maintenance is a great reset tool.


When bulking to a new high in muscle mass tho, I always say a 6-8 week maintenance phase to adjust that new setpoint. If I put on 15 lb and immediately start to diet, I tend to look pretty much the same at the end of the diet. But when I hold for a little while and then diet back down, I'm always a little bit bigger and a little bit leaner than previously.

I also incorporate phases in the year where I just maintain for the hell of it, honestly I've been in maintenance mode for like the last 2 years. I've had a few small cuts and a few small boats but I have not pushed be envelope on anything new. Currently though I am trying to cut down to my all-time smallest ever in the past 20 years so this will be interesting lol

I like food too much to push myself to the single digit bf range! ha

 

[bceagle1]

Just an update...
Got down to 168 in mid December and stopped Reta and redid my workout from the ground up and started gradually upping calories to 500 over maintenance and already up to 182, I cant stop eating and the muscles are growing insanely (I figure a combo of getting filled with glycogen again and muscle memory)

I'm actually debating throttling the calories down, but I literally cannot stop eating...even when I am full I want to eat. If I see food I want to eat it, even junk food. I may go to a low, low dose of reta to control the appetite. Never felt this voracious.

 

[ironviking]

Ain't no shame in staying with the reta. On 500 surplus after a few weeks it'll start going more to fat. You might want to throttle it down to keep the excess fat off. Awesome job on getting to your target!!

 

[cheftepesh1]

Ain't no shame in staying with the reta. On 500 surplus after a few weeks it'll start going more to fat. You might want to throttle it down to keep the excess fat off. Awesome job on getting to your target!!

This is good advice. I’m prone to reaching a goal and the rewarding it to much. Go to maintenance calories and see how it goes before adding.