Cutting For 2 Weeks

C

Chris Bickley

New Member
I am wanting to start cutting for two weeks sometime while doing HST.

When would you suggest starting?

I'm sure i saw someone suggest last week of 10's and first week of 5's?

Any ideas?

Many Thanks.
 
What you mentioned will work fine. Similar to what I do. I try to stay at maintenance for SD and 15s. Then cut when I get into the 10s and through my 5s. Then I deload a bit by going back to the 10s and work my way up again. That roughly works out to be 8 eight weeks of cutting. Then you can eat at maintenance for a couple weeks to get the metabolism revved up again and then repeat. Something like that anyway. Keystone
 
Thanks Keystone.

Anyone else?

How much do people decide to cut? I was thinking of cutting about 4 pounds for every 8 i put on.

Is that too much, too little?

I am bulking at the mo and have put on about 7 pounds over the past weeks, and i feel i need to cut a few pounds soon.

Should i be putting more on first?

Any feedback would be grateful.
 
what is your ultimate over all goal?
is it to be bigger/more muscular or is it to be lean with some muscle or ? ? ?. once you know what it is focus all your efforts in that direction for some time.

the reason i say that is 8lbs is not that much for a bulk plan (especially if you think 1/2 is fat) and 2 weeks is not that much for a cut plan.

your goals are your goals and im not suggesting one direction or another but doing brief periods of one followed by the other is sure way of NOT reaching either destination.  there is some good reading in the diet/nutrition section for both slower bulks (hopefully better then 1 to 1 musc/fat ratio) as well as cutting strategies that will help you keep the muscle and lose the fat.

good luck
 
I think, if it's possible, you should get a bf analysis done.  They're not perfect, but otherwise it's going to be very difficult to gage your progress.  

For example, it would be better to know that "I put on 4 pounds of muscle and 4 pounds of fat on my last cycle, based upon bf analyses before and after", as opposed to saying "I put on about 8 pounds, I think 4 is fat, so now what?"

Also, unless you're pretty ripped already (@10% or less bf), 2 weeks of a cut isn't going to do much.  In the first couple of weeks, you'll lose a lot of water, and much of your glycogen stores.  As a result, your clothes may fit a little looser, but you're not going to look at all different in the mirror, and worse yet, your muscles will appear flat & shapeless.

But I think you need to determine where you're at, first
smile.gif
 
Just remember that if you do try to track your body composition, it is not very accurate. The only really reliable way of determining body fat percentage is to die and have an autopsy performed upon your corpse, but I think that's a little extreme just to determine body composition.

What you can do, instead of relying on an estimate of your bodyfat percentage is to just pay attention to your skin folds and that will give you a better idea of how your body composition is changing. If you are able to maintain strength and your skin fold measurements are going down, then you are losing fat and probably not losing very much muscle.

Anyway, like bluejacket said, a two week cut is a bad idea. You shouldn't do short periods of cutting/bulking, because it will lead to disappointing results. Further, you will always want at least one week if not two weeks of maintenance calories between before switching between bulking or cutting.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">What you can do, instead of relying on an estimate of your bodyfat percentage is to just pay attention to your skin folds and that will give you a better idea of how your body composition is changing. If you are able to maintain strength and your skin fold measurements are going down, then you are losing fat and probably not losing very much muscle.</div>

That is tracking your body composition, and that's the way to do it as long as you are consistent.

As other said, there is no point to cut for two weeks unless you have some specific goal or competition at the end of the two weeks.
 
I agree with the others esp. Tot, blue and slapz.

My observation: It's taken me nearly three months to drop 20 lbs and I still feel I have a long way to go to get really lean. At the end of my last bulk I reckon I was between 15 and 20% bf, judging by my calliper readings and by visual inspection.

I started my cut cycle with 10s and moved on to 5s. Then I continued on with the 5s but did a deload on Mondays for all exercises (2-3 x 10 reps), max squat for 5s on Wednesdays and max deads for 5s on Fridays. I increased the loads any time I could but tried to maintain otherwise.

I have now stalled out and am starting to feel weaker, partly because I'm starting to get minor injuries (slight groin strain, muscle pull in left forearm). I think I will drop back to a few weeks of 10s and see if I can get over the niggles. If not, I'll call it quits, SD and eat at maintenance for a week or so and then start over on a slow bulk.

I think, in future, I will keep bulking until I am, hopefully, 10-15% stronger for all my main lifts. Then I'll do a cut to get back to &lt;10% bf whilst attempting to keep my top loads as high as possible. If I can't make those strength gains before I hit 20% bf I'll just have to start a cut anyway.

(Just wondered if any of you also get more injuries when you cut? I told the guy who runs my gym about a few of my muscle strains and his immediate response was, &quot;Are you cutting?&quot; So it would seem that it is a common side-effect. Cutting sucks!)
 
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