2nd Cycle down.

charr, you will want to lean down to an acceptable level first before attempting to build muscle, because anabolic resistance will route more of the incoming calories to fat stores the fatter you are, with insulin resistance preventing the muscles from soaking the energy up. Also we shouldn't forget that more fat stores "aromatase" more of the available testosterone (by converting it to estrogen) and less T remains to do what we as people interested in building new muscle want it to do. In short: try to get rid of the extra fat if you have any, consider getting down to 10% or below first.
 
I tried Rihad. But I couldn't get leaner and I was getting tired of going to the gym and not having results. After 1 and a half years I needed to increase calories so I could start progressing in the gym again for morale as well as trying to build muscle
 
charr, there's no such thing as being unable to lean down, it's physiologically impossible, simply eat less to lose weight. Depending on your current bf% you can either eat at a small deficit until you reach at least 12% (judging by when rate of BW scale numbers decreasing slows down significantly), then you can start combining periods of eating at a deficit with periods of eating in a surplus, to avoid the effects of metabolic adaptation, where our body scales everything (hormones, processes, etc) down to spend as little BMR energy as possible as a result of a long-term deficit.
 
Like Rihad said, when you dieted down for such a long period (too long IMHO), did you incorporate regular refeeds and periods of maintenance cals?
 
I don't think I did lol. I sometimes had a cheat day on saturday. But towards the end I took 2 weeks off at Christams (inlcuding training) I ate what I wanted and gained about 4 pounds. After Christmas I went back to my 2000 kcals a day. I only lost 3 pounds in 3 months. So I came off my diet
 
It would definitely be worth getting your test levels checked. Something is amiss and this is an obvious place to start looking for an answer.
 
2000 kcals is a relatively huge daily intake. An intake as little as 1800, 1500 or even 1200 is worth considering, especially if you don't move around much during the day. Because not only does BMR accommodate the decreased bodyweight, there's an adaptive component in metabolic slowdown as well - so that's another 10% decrease. The truth is 2000 ended up being your new maintenance and you didn't lose any more weight. Simple as that.
 
I'll look into getting them checked. Rihad. I don't think I can go lower than 2000 cals. I did try but it's too uncomfortable and I can't stick to that
 
What about the 2k cals is uncomfortable? Being hungry or something else? If it is just hunger you can eat a bunch of calorically sparse stuff like veggies to keep yourself full but within your cal goal.
 
I do cardio when I'm trying to lose fat. Usually 2 miles 2 - 3 times per week.

2000kcals is tolerable adpowah. Going under that i'm usually too hungry to stick at it
 
charr said:
The numbers don't really add up for me. There are many guys I speak to at my gym who are my height and stay lean on 4000 kcals a day. I follow lean gains and one of the success stories there is someone who put on 10lb of lean muscle over 7 months while eating 3000 cals a day at my height and at a lower weight than me. I gained 14 lbs in less than 3 month.
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Chris,

What is your job, if you work in an office and they work as labourers or another physical type job then they would need more calories, years ago when I worked in a factory I used to eat anywhere between 4000 & 6000 calories per day depending on bulking or not, now working in an office I eat between 2000 & 3500 per day. For the record your BMR at 6 foot and 200lbs is1902 calories and exercising 3 times per week you TDEE would increase to 2655 so at 2000 calories per day you should lose 1lb per week. Even if you lost 14lbs your BMR would be 1838 and TDEE would be 2528 so 1lb per week is still theoretically possible at 2000 calories.
 
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charr said:
I do cardio when I'm trying to lose fat. Usually 2 miles 2 - 3 times per week.

2000kcals is tolerable adpowah. Going under that i'm usually too hungry to stick at it
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You have to want to get lean. If you don't want it, you won't get it. Determination is required.
It's quite possible to eat less calories than 2k/day and feel sated. Lean turkey, chicken or fish with a plate full of veggies or salad and a few non-oily condiments, lemon juice, vinegar etc. can make for great low-calorie meals. Take a few fish oil caps and a multi-vit each day too.
It is also possible to do a PSMF if you would rather feel more full once a day: have most of your daily cals in one large evening meal.
 
As Lol said, you have to want it. My maintenance is over 3000 calories a day and I can handle eating 2000 or less when I have to. You just need the determination. Either do it or don't do it, it's your choice. You can't say "I can't eat under 2000 calories" and expect that to be a valid excuse because it's not. You CAN eat less than 2000, you just don't want to. Yeah, it sucks. Dieting is always going to suck. You will always be hungry when dieting. That's because you are starving. That's what a diet is. Eating less than your body needs. When you eat less than you need, guess what happens? That's right, you get to be hungry pretty much all the time. If it was easy, everyone would be lean.
 
Just to chip in: the leangains method helped me lean down proper. I have my eating window between 1pm and 9pm. I basically skip breakfast, that means I can eat 3 relatively large meals, go in a deficit AND, most importantly for me, go to my bed feeling full. I was on ca1200kcals on my rest days and anything in between 1700 and 2200kcals on training days. Its all about finding a method that works for you.
 
Mick. My job pretty much has me sitting down all day. So my calories will be less.

gbglifter. I like lean gains. It freed me from the fact I thought I had to eat 6 times a day. I naturally don't feel like eating upon waking up so skipping breakfast is easy for me. Before reading lean gains I would always force something down even if it was just a pint of milk as thought I had to.
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I think I just lost motivation after being on a cut for so long. Next time I will try harder and this time I won't cut longer than 8 weeks before before switching back to a bulk. It will give me a target to hit and keep motivation I think.

I need to solve the problem of building muscle and not getting fat though for the rest of this cycle.
 
I usually dont let it go 8 weeks before I refeed properly. Ive been cutting since christmas but have been taking it in chunks. Ill refeed every week then every few weeks Ill eat more for a good few days. What Ive put on in those few days dusappears aftet a few days and the fat loss continues. I just bulked far too much. I wanted to weigh three figures(100kg) once in my life.y future bulks will be much less extravagant :)
 
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