The Key to successful dieting!

Sci

Sci

Well-Known Member
In the past, my main problem in bodybuilding was a difficulty with proper bulking and cutting. This is a very common problem, and one that is easily addressed, and is mostly psychological.

What I mean is this: when trying to add muscle to my frame, I wouldn't eat enough to really gain a lot of weight, as inevitably there is fat gain along with the muscle gain. So as soon as I noticed a little fat gain, I would freak out, think I must be eating too much, and stop gaining weight. Of course, this had the adverse effect of halting my muscle gain along with the fat gain.

On the opposite side, when I was trying to get lean, I would diet, and of course within a short time, I would start to look smaller, lose a little muscle mass along with the fat loss, and freak out and stop losing weight, and thus never get really lean!:(

Finally, I have seen the light! The key to successful dieitng in bodybuilding is mostly psychological. When bulking and trying to grow your muscles, just accept the fact that you are going to gain some fat mass, and you are going to look a little chubby. Just accept that you are going to look fat while bulking, and revel in it and the bulking will be much more successful. Right now, I am hovering around 207 pounds, I have gained 17 pounds in a relatively short time, I am a bit chubby, and I am loving it!!! Why? Because my muscles are growing like never before, and my strength levels are at an all time personal best!:D

Now, when I am finally a big, fat monster at 220 pounds, I will be proud of my accomplishment, and my arms will be bigger than 99% of the people in the gym! Then, when it is time to cut, I will employ the exact opposite strategy! By this I mean: I will accept the fact that I am going to lose size, strength, and most likely some muscle mass in my pursuit of a lean body. So, as I am dieting off the bodyfat, I will not freak out when I lose size in the mirror, or my strength levels drop a little, but I will have already accepted this fact up front, and revel and enjoy the process of watching my body shed the fat and shrink a little!

So simple, yet so effective!
 
Probably one of the hardest parts of it all is how long everything takes. It's all about incremental changes adding up over time. When you diet, you want to see a six pack within a couple weeks and that just isn't going to happen. Patience was probably one the harder parts for me to learn.
 
The important thing is not to fall into the trap of yo-yoing up and down in weight without there being any muscle mass added. Even the pros (with all their assistance) get this wrong from time to time. Somewhere (probably an old M&F mag), I have a sequence of pics showing Tim Belknap at different stages during a year of training, initially bulking up and then cutting back for a comp. He ended up smaller at the end of his cut than he had been at comp time the previous year! Not a great use of time and resources. :-/

This is why bulking up too fast and for too long and then attempting to diet down to very low levels of body fat are not really smart things to do, especially if you are a natty lifter. Keeping accurate records and measurements should all help ensure that this doesn't happen.

Also, have reasonable expectations; don't expect to look like the people adorning the pages of the muscle mags, unless you are prepared to do what they do.
 
IMO, if someone does a long bulk, then a long cut and ends up smaller than when they started, there is something seriously wrong with their training and/or diet program!!!

It seems most guys mess up when cutting, and they lose a ton of muscle mass. Most people don't eat enough protein when dieting, they don't lift heavy enough to retain muscle, and they do too much cardio, all of which causes muscle loss.

Lucky for me, I have the HST forum, and three books by bodybuilding guru Lyle McDonald, so I know how to diet without losing all the hard earned gains!

Good point though, Lol.
 
I think reasonable expectations is a big one. Obviously some of us have a skewed idea of what is possible because of how prevelant steroid use is.

But yes, cutting in a dumb fashion has been the downfall of many. I think that long bulks can be good as long as you are responsible and don't do anything stupid. This is where it is sometimes better to get outside help with managing your diet so you don't do anything you shouldn't. Many people don't realize that the longer you bulk, the longer you are going to have to cut if you want to keep what you built. I remember my one long bulk I did where I got to 20% bodyfat or so, I made some great gains but it took me half a year of cutting to get back down to 10% bodyfat. I was dieting forever, it sucked, but I stuck with the plan and didn't do massive amounts of cardio while cutting calories massively, since I know that it is incremental changes over time that is important... and when I finally got close to 10% again, I was significantly larger than the last time I had been that lean. That's how you do it, slow and steady, always looking at the long term.
 
Yeah. Bodybuilding is a hobby that takes enormous patience. Especially if you are "natural", it takes years to make dramatic physique changes. YEARS. I am prepared to do this for at least 5 more years before I get near my genetic natural limits. But, yeah, when I first picked up the weights, I got frustrated when I didn't look like a pro bodybuilder in 6 months, lol. I had no idea how long serious hypertrophy takes, and no idea how much drug use has been practically universal among Pro bodybuilders since the 1960s.

Anyone who is just getting started in this hobby needs to keep in mind that unless they dedicate several years to serious training and diet, they may as well not even get started. So many people quit lifting, because unfortunately, without heavy androgens, or other bodybuilding drugs, it does take a very long time to make dramatic physique changes.
 
Hi all , first post here as I've only joined yesterday.
We all tend to over estimate our lbm and under estimate our bf when big and bulky , I'd not done a decent cut in over 10 years and it took six months to get from 22 percent down to 10 by losing twenty five pounds - 185 pounds to 160. End result - five pounds more of lbm than the last time I competed.Currently following HST on my second cycle and some IF protocols to stay lean and will be doing so on a permanent basis. I ended up at 1200 calories for a month......wouldn't do that again but had to get it done as I entered a contest (wasn't any where near tight enough but have a main one in 16 weeks and needed the experience). Recomposition as opposed to big 90's type bulking periods is far more sustainable.
The beauty of HST from my viewpoint is it allows the body to function optimally for your goals as it gets the proper volume for naturals and gives you much better focus on your diet -far easier on the joints as well - particularly if you're of a vintage that remembers The Monkees:cool:
 
I don't know how common this is, but so far during my bulk cycle, my mass gain has been sporadic. By this, I mean that I will go a few weeks with very little gains, then suddenly my body will go into hypertrophy mode, and I will gain a chunk of weight on a short time! I am going with it, as it seems to be keeping the fat gain under control. For example, At first, I went from 190 to 196 fairly quickly....mostly water weight gain etc, after my cut. Then I didn't gain anything for a couple of weeks, then during the heavy 5s, I jumped up to 200 lb.s in a few days! Then I stayed at 200 lb.s for a few more weeks, before hitting another growth spurt, which I am currently finishing off at about 207 lb.s!!! My theory is that hypertrophy occurs in large spurts, and is not a slow, gradual process as may have been thought. So my body will be under training stress for several weeks, before getting to the point that it signals significant protein synthesis, and the hypertrophy is rapid. Then there are a few more weeks where the protein synthesis subsides, the training stress builds up again, and the strain gets to a "tipping point" and the body signals heavy protein synthesis, which starts another hypertrophy spurt. By following my body's internal hunger signalling, etc. I can eat at maintenance during the non-stages, and then eat like a bear during the growth-spurt stage, and maintain optimal lean mass gains. I am still gaining fat of course during the pig-out stages, but my muscles are definitely growing larger and stronger this way, and the fat gain is well within acceptable ranges,

Obviously, I have no scientific evidence of this, beyond my own perception and experience, but I am going with it, as it seems to be working excellently, even without any sort of anabolic drug use.
Thoughts? Anyone else experience this?
 
Do you carb or calorie cycle during these spurts?.......partition your nutrient intake around training times? ,I would think your diet might be a major factor if it's not a same day every day type of plan , could it be glycogen supercompensation after a period of regulated low carbs and then a major food fest.
 
Nagels said:
Do you carb or calorie cycle during these spurts?.......partition your nutrient intake around training times? ,I would think your diet might be a major factor if it's not a same day every day type of plan , could it be glycogen supercompensation after a period of regulated low carbs and then a major food fest.
Click to expand...

No, I try to eat the same calories every day, except that during the non-growth stages, I don't force-feed myself after I get to the point of feeling sick or wanting to puke! Then I am shocked when the scale doesn;t move during this time, as I feel I am eating more than I even need. Then during the growth-spurt, I dont even count calories, as the hunger and thirst are practically insatiable around these days. I admit, its a bit weird, but my theory of sporadic hypertrophy spurts would explain it well.
 
When you cut or bulk, do you eat for the body you have when you start the diet, the body you want when you end it or do you adjust your diet as you go?

I'm just thinking that there must be quite a difference between what a body of 190lb and one of 210 lb needs - calorie-wise..?

EDIT: I just calculated the difference in how many calories my body would need when I am 209 with 15,6% bf and 192 with 8% bf - the difference was a staggering 4 kcal!!! :confused:
 
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You need to adjust your intake based on your goals, as you progress towards that goal. As you lose fat, you'll probably need to cut out some more and vice versa for when you're bulking.
 
You need to figure out your calories as you go, as Alex said. If you eat for 192 when you are 209 then you are more likely to lose lean body mass.

For what it is worth, it is extremely unlikely that you will be able to go from 209 @ 15.6% to 192 @ 8%. More likely you will have to get down to the mid to low 180s in order to get to 8% bodyfat.
 
Unless getting ready for a show, 8 percent bodyfat is very lean. Most people way underestimate their true bodyfat. A true 10 percent bodyfat is lean enough for most non competitors.
 
I'm in no way getting ready to compete for anything, just cutting down to better be able to se what my gains are (it's kinda hard when it's all covered in blubber :))

I just put my data into the bodybuilding.com bodyspace calculator, my height, weight and current bf% and told the machine that my goal was to have a body like a fitness-model (their description!) and it told me that I would have to lose 7 kgs of fat and gain 0,7 kg of LBM to achieve that goal - so that's what I'm aiming for - don't really know (or care) what my bf% is when I get there, as long as I look awesome :P
 
Like any tool use it as a guideline not as gospel which it sounds like you are. One word of advice is use photos taken from same camera over mirrors. You would be surprised what lighting can produce. I have seen two photos of that someone that they took of themselves through a mirror and bragged how well their dieting was going. Well one they had clearly defined abs and the other they looked soft. It turns out it was taken 2 minutes apart with a change of lighting. Not good when your judging your caloric needs for the week.
 
yes of course it's only a guideline, would be downright stupid to keep eating too much and perhaps even gain weight, just because some formula somewhere on the interwebs told me to :P I am very aware of what lightning can do, I know exactly what lighting can do to your before/after pictures, I've helped many of my friends take great pictures (i.e. making them look slimmer via correct lightning ;)) I am going to be using my friends camera on a stand with no lighting other than what is there naturally - it won't look very impressive but it will be realistic - and then when I actually have something to show - I will! ;)
 
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