Hey everybody,

I've been bulking for over 1.5 years and I'm now considering cutting. If possible, I'd like some opinions on my plan. I want to continue bulking for the remainder of this month and then begin cutting May. My goal would be to lose 10-12lbs (8% BF) My bodyfat is around 15% now.

Stats:

Height: 5 10
Weight: 187lbs
Waist: 35in (at naval)
Neck: 15 in
Bicep: 13.25 in
Forearm: 10.75 in
Chest: 37.5 in
Thigh: 25 in
Calf: 19 in

Photos:

Attached

I know my arms are slightly out of proportion to the rest of my body. I am working on improving those so please take that with a grain of salt.

Any advice on this would be great!

Thanks

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anybody?

Could you post your diet and workout?

To be brutally honest mate, I think more bulking!

Well, I've been following a program called Stronglifts 5x5. Take a look at the attachment.

After, a year of training, I switched to a diet called the Anabolic Diet. Basically, it is a 5 day, high fat/protein and 2 day carb loading. It's worked very well for me as I don't feel very well on a carb based diet.


Thanks for responding

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I agree here....

I'd also say you need to bulk.

Alright, most agree on bulking though summer. My goal was to reach 200lbs by May but I'm a bit short of that because of the amount of food I have to eat (4500 cals for 2lbs a week). I guess I'll keep going.

I was just using 200 as a general guideline but I'm not sure what size I should go for. Someday, I want to compete in a bodybuilding competition (you can laugh now) so I would like a large frame but still be able to do sports and other cardio activities with a low BF%.

Thanks for the responses

Nothing to laugh about out all as that is a very admirable goal.

I would def concentrate on building lean mass right now if your goal is to compete.

Can you give more detail on your diet? Your waist measurement is almost the same as your chest which means you're carrying a bit too much around the waist but don't have much development in the upper back and chest

Thanks LV. Hopefully in a couple years I will be big enough to qualify.

Well, I don't know if you really want more detail on my diet. It is very different than what most do. I can give the exact foods I eat if you want but the ratio is roughly 65% fat 30% Protein and 5% carbs on weekdays and 60% carbs 25% Fat and 15% Protein.

Plenty of red meat, eggs and veggies during the week and as many carbs as I can take on the weekend. I also take a multi vitiman

My upper body has always been a problem for me. I bench press, squat, deadlift, powerclean, overhead press and have recently thrown in some arm isolation exercises. For my bench, I just switched over to the barbell from dumbbells.

I suppose the only reason I want to cut is because of my waist size. I really don't like walking around with my gut hanging over my pants lol (which is what is starting to happen). Considering the time I've been bulking (almost two years), it's not so bad if you put it in perspective, though.

Thanks again

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That doesn't sound right. By 'carb up' most people would take that to mean a couple of meals with some wholemeal rice, pasta or a bit of bread, not an all-you-can-eat deal.

LV's journal is a must read for you if you're trying to regulate carb intake

Glycogen stores are depleted by the weekend so in order to re fill them a 48 hour carb loading is recommended. Some do less, but I need the carbs for my activity level. A couple pieces of bread would leave me dead in the gym the following week.

I think you might be over-estimating how many carbs you need to replenish stores. 300g of carbs for a couple of days over the weekend is easily enough to keep you going the next week

Assuming what activity levels? I'm just going by what's recommended in the official book. PM me if you would like to take a look at it.

I don't know mate - to me you look like you need to bulk big time. Let's be clear: I'm not judging you or anything, because I'm nothing much to look at myself.

If you look at the BB forums on the stronglift thread you'll see that people on this program don't advise cutting unless you have something to cut to. I've read figures of 220 minimum, obviously that's suggestive because depending on height. But still - you look nowhere near that, so I'd say just bulk!

Personally I use a Tanita scale to keep me motivated - sure I went from 16 to 18% BF in two months but I also gained 4 kilos of muscle and doubled all my lifts, which is complete madness (and joy).

Frankly I don't care having a belly, because it's easy to lose afterwards. If the last sentence makes you go 'uh?' - all I can say I have lost a lot of weight safely in the past, so really I do believe it's easy to lose that excess fat. Much more important for me is getting stronger. I'll cut when I'm f'ing huge