cut bulk cycles vs other

[noah]

Can one make efficient progress (gain muscle, lose fat) by having deviations above and below maintenance in calories consumed, higher some days, lower others, or is it better to be in either a calorie loss or calorie excess state for a longer period of time (cutting / bulking cycles)?

In other words, is there some sort of 'overhead' that would keep the body from being able to switch between losing fat one day, and gaining a little muscle the next?

I suspect standard cutting / bulking cycles are better, but was curious as to why.

 

[Tcup]

Your body is not a machine that you can turn on and off. It takes some time to your body to adapt new situations. Hence bulking/cutting every other day is not wise.

 

[Louno]

I have been working out for about 1 year and 3 months with hst and ive lowered my bf and gained muscle, i was at 135 before and today im at 159.
All i did was do my best at eating at least at maintenance, and idealy maybe a 100-300 caloric surplus than maintenance, i tried to eat my body weight in proteins my prime goal...
the problem is that i dont think i achieved those goals everyday for all kinds of different reason, so sometimes if i knew i didnt eat enough the day before i would eat a bit more the next day...
So i guess in my case, if i eat just a little above maintenance i wont gain fat that much.
Although i know that when im eating ALOT during a week im gonna make some great gains, but i gain fat too, so i go back to a little over maintenance which enable me to keep my weight and slowly add more muscle...

dont know if im making any sense...

 

[colby2152]

Luono, you make a lot of sense. What did your bf% go from in the past 15 months? I eat slightly above maintenace - around 300kcal most of the time. Some days I can eat upwards over 4400kcal or so, and some days it could be less than 2,000 (days when I am too busy to eat or celebrations are going on), but by the end of the week I average out slightly above maintenace.

 

[Totentanz]

Well technically, if you gain a fair amount of lean mass and not very much fat, then your bodyfat percentage will probably drop, just because the ratio of fat to muscle is different, not because you actually lost fat.

 

[Lance]

Old and Grey used to talk about similar results eating 200-300 calories above maintenance.

 

[Rakki]

Quote[/b] (Totentanz @ Oct. 25 2005,8:09)]Well technically, if you gain a fair amount of lean mass and not very much fat, then your bodyfat percentage will probably drop, just because the ratio of fat to muscle is different, not because you actually lost fat.

are you serious?

dang it makes sense

 

[Jester]

Yeh, if you're 100kgs, 15kgs fat then you're 15% BF right?

Gain 2kgs of LBM, you're now 102kgs, 15kgs fat and your BF% is 14.7%...not a huge change, but that's the logic.

 

[Rotlex]

I tend to fall in the same category as Luono. I'm currently in a "bulking" phase, and usually try to eat 500 cals above my maintenance level. (Maintenance for me is around 3000, so I try to hit 3500). There are days when it's just not possible, and days when I dip as low as 2800. (of course, there are those days when I break 4000 as well, LOL).
I've been at this, trying to bulk, for maybe the past 6 weeks with this type of calorie fluctuation, and have actually made some decent gains. So far, I'm up roughly 10-12 pounds, and have only increased BF% by 1. When I look at Fit Day at the end of a week, I'm usually always at least 300 cals above maintenance. Sometimes more.
I guess in the end, one day's change doesn't really matter, but for me, what I do over the course of an entire week seems to make the biggest difference in gain or loss.
Eh, don't know if that makes any sense, but it works for me, hehe. At least I know that when I'm done with the bulk, dropping weight back to where I want it shouldn't be a problem with the proper calorie cut.