First cycle finished - Motivation, Gains??

D

dohste

New Member
I've just decided today to start my SD a session earlier than orig planned. I basically had one more session of 5s left, but thought I'd be better off with 12 days of SD as opposed to the 9 day min.

So far I've finished my first cycle but I'm not overly impressed with any significant gains. I'm definitely eating enough as the one thing I do see getting bigger in the mirror is my gut! Which makes it hard to keep the motivation up - I've to talk myself out of going on a cut and just stick with at least one more bulking cycle on HST.

Don't get me wrong here - I'm not ditching HST at all! I like the program and I have noticed strength gains with it. So it's obviously working.

But my question is: How many cycles are normally required for visual gains in the mirror?

Ideally, I'd like to put in the effort for a couple of months, reach my goals and then cut and just maintain. So by maintain I do mean to continue hitting the gym but just eating maintenance Cals.
 
I seem to have the same problem, i'm currently doing my second cycle of HST, eating loads and only seem to be putting on a little bit of fat and weight. I thought by doing a 21 day deconditioning at the beginning of my second cycle it would really help me see better gains but i seem to be pretty much the same and i'm now on the 1st week of 5s. But perhaps the 5s and Negatives will prove to be better.....

I imagine that there isn't a straight answer to your question and it depends on person to person, how much you eat and what you eat ect.
 
The visual gains you see in the mirror will depend on your body fat. Obviously someone low in body fat will be more likely to see differences as opposed to someone with 18%+. You've stated that your eating loads of food, which leads me to believe that your not really monitoring your food intake (at least to be able to view your gains in a positive manner). How much have you gained in lean body mass (LBM) during your last cycle? That means lean gains, not total body weight.

A method that I use to monitor this is by using calipers every month to check my bodyfat. In addition, I use a measuring tape to check all bodyparts for size increases/decreases. This gives me a very good idea of how much LBM I've gained in the previous month as well as if a certain body part has stopped responding or not. If I've gained 2lbs of muscle and my body fat has also increased by 2%, I know that I'm probably consuming too many calories. However, If I've gained 0lbs of muscle and my body fat has increased 2% I can assume that I either need to start SD or that I need to re-evaluate my training (under the assumption that my diet and sleep is up to par).

If you dont mind, could you post up your daily diet? (aka the criteria below)
Just the macros, i dont need a list of the food names.
Total weight:
bodyfat %:
Protein:
Carbs:
Fat:
Total Calories:
Also what activity level are you at:
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Thanks for the reply!

I probably didn't make it sound like it in my post, but I have been making a decent effort at tracking my progress and been using Fitday PC to track Cals and Macros.

So my average daily diet (Cals and Macros) have been:
~3,400 kcals
~200g Protein
~380g Carbs
~120g Fat

As opposed to calculated that's an average over a while from Fitday PC. I did, in the last two weeks, go down to ~3,300kcals. Macro wise set ~200g Protein as a target and don't norm worry too much about Carbs and Fat as I reckon the I get plenty of those eitherway.

According to the new dig scales I'm using at home I'm ~83kg but the mechanical ones in the gym all seem to say I'm in about the 80kg mark (up from about 75-76kg when I started).

Activity level:
Well it would low (i.e. desk job) + the 3 full body HST workouts a week = so prob moderate.

BodyFat:
I've no idea - I tried using one of those electrical resistance devices to measure it but it said it was unbelievably low, like down about the 7or 8% mark, which I don't believe (this was back about a month before I started bulking). Whereas it def wasn't as low as 7% it wasn't high!

I've also tried very much to keep a proper track of my progress with measurements, but that's not been going well! The problem is all scales seem to be different which is ok, but I can't find a single one, either at home or in the gym, that at the same time of day seems to give me believably consistent readings over say a week. But depending on the scales etc I can say that I've put on maybe 4kg or so. Just can't get consistent readings accurate enough to monitor on a weekly basis.

Tape measurements I've had my gf do, but again not sure there's perfect consistency there so...
 
Your diet seems fine and if it's accurate and consistent then you should be seeing gains. Otherwise it would be a result of inadequate training or sleep. However, i'd assume that you are gaining LBM you just cant tell so I'd suggest buy a pair of calipers and a reliable weigh scale and take monthly measurements. Check your bodyfat then subtract that percentage from your total weight. Then you can monitor this more accurately and know exactly what is going on.
 
You aren't going to see any results the first cycle other than increase in the weight you can lift broseph stalin....

go 2-3 more cycles and you'll begin to see.

I use to have a 205lbs 5rm...

now im doing 230lbs :D
 
@ Wobbles - yeah I think and really hope I am gaining LBM - maybe it's just hidden behind the extra fat that came with it. I might look into getting a calipers like you suggest.

@ Greenlantern11B - I'll def do at least one more cycle anyway. I have seen strength gains so that's encouraging and def suggests I'm moving in the right direction. Suppose it's just going to come down to how much of a gut I'm willing to gain before giving up and cutting!!
 
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