Mid Cycle Calorie Adjustment

D

Dave C

New Member
I'm sure this has been asked before but I could not find any post referencing it. If there are any posts answering this question please send them to me.

I have just finished my first HST cycle and I am now in SD. I'm trying to plan my next cycle but I'm having trouble deciding what to do. I gained several pounds during my first cycle but unfortunately some of it was fat. I'm planning on zig-zagging my bodyweight up to keep the fat to a minimum while gaining weight. To do this I would like to spend the first 3 weeks of my next cycle cutting and the rest of it building mass. I will then go on to my third cycle (after SD) and just concentrate on building mass. I would then repeat the second cycle to lose any fat gained.

Is there any problem with adjusting my calorie intake in the middle of a cycle to make this happen? In other words, is it okay to adjust calories from cutting levels straight to mass building levels with no ramping of calories in between? I don't want to lose a week of productivity by having to remain at maintenance calories levels during some ramping period in the middle of a cycle. If a ramping period is needed, how long does it need to be?

Thanks

Dave C
 
Yes, it's okay to go from cutting to bulking in a cycle. (Not sure about the other way around, though.) I remember a post by Blade, I think in the results thread, in which he said that during the 15s he dieted off the fat he had gained in the previous cycle.

A couple thoughts on the ramping period. I don't have a definitive answer, but I know that the premise of ABCDE is to go from a ~2 week cutting/maintenance phase directly into a ~2 week bulking phase. The claim is that by suddenly consuming a massive amount of calories, you're body will enter into an extremely anabolic state. Whether ABCDE is effective or not is a different story. I just thought I'd point out the similarity.
 
Wanna know what I do? 8 week calorie cycling, for 8 weeks starting with 5's I slowly ramp the calories up past mantainence over a period of 4 days or so, then for the next 8 weeks I'm high calorie till the beginning of the next 5's, where I go back down to low again until the next 5's. I take a 2 week decon in there too where I eat at mantainence. I plan to change it though since I've discovered that I need to add more sets to 5's in order to grow the same as I do in 15's. From now on I'll be starting the high calories during the 2nd week of SD just 4 days before I start the new cycle, then I'll stop at the end of the first week of SD after the cycle and start cutting for the next cycle.

That probably doesn't answer your question other than to say yes its fine to do that and it wouldn't hurt, but I don't think it'd help either. I say its best to start bulking during SD before a cycle, ramp up to where you're past mantainence when you start, then ramp back down when the cycle ends and go the next cycle low cal to cut the fat gained in the previous.
 
Thanks Savagebeast and Mindwraith. I appreciate your help.

I guess my questions really have to do with the time frame with which the body reacts to changes in dietary intake. How quickly can one switch their diet without detrimental effects to their body composition? Does the body go from a catabolic state directly to an anabolic state with a large overnight change in calorie levels (800-1000 calorie swing) provided the training stimulus is constant? Or is there a period of time where those calories are predominantly partitioned towards fat accumulation before anabolism kicks in? Is the reverse true? If one drops calories in a large overnight swing, does the body immediately go into a catabolic state? Just how fast does the hormonal balance in the body change?
 
Hi Dave,

You ask a very good question. But let me direct your thoughts towards enzymes, rather than hormones. The ratio of metabolic enzymes, those used to metabolize stored fuels, determines what your body will burn predominantly and what it will store. The adaptation to a change in diet usually takes between 7-14 days, with women sometimes taking longer to adapt to a high fat diet.

During exercise however, there seems to be less of a difference in fuel utilization. Cardiovascular exercise increase fat oxidation during exercise regardless of what type of diet you are one.
 
Hi Bryan,

Bear with me; I’m new to this black magic called nutrition.

You answered one important question I have (I think). I’m assuming from what you wrote that the type of diet you choose is extremely important if you wish to adjust calories from deficit levels to surplus levels within an HST cycle. It appears that if someone tries to cut using a ketogenic diet and then tries to switch to mass building by immediately increasing their calories using carbs, they will need to go through some adjustment period (7-14 days) while the ratio of enzymes readjusts to accommodate that diet. That being said I’m also assuming that much of the excess carbs will end up as fat (At least until the enzymes readjust). In other words, they would waste (too strong a word?) 25% to 33% of their cycle time readjusting to the new diet.

Now for my next question (I have lots of these, so again bear with me)

Let’s say that during the 15s someone was in a calorie deficit using a semi-isocaloric (or a 40P/30C/30F) diet and they decided to increase calories to surplus levels using carbs at the start of the 10s, would this readjustment period be necessary?

By the way, very impressive website.

Best Regards,
Dave
 
Don't take my word for it, but I'm betting its the same regardless of the macronutrients. But this does answer my question on why and how long to take when ramping up calories. I've usually taken about 7 days or so w/o even realizing it, it takes time for you to even mentally adjust to a surplus of food much less digestively adjust.
 
Hi Mindwraith,

After looking into some other things I tend to agree with you.

It looks like the body needs some form of signal to tell it there are excess calories and to shift fuel supplies and change into an anabolic state. That signal appears to be the deposition of fat and the release of leptin. So I'm assuming that if you just shocked your body with excess calories you would just put on fat (after glycogen replenishment) until your system caught up. (This is really oversimplifying what really goes on!)

I think the post you made earlier is a simpler and probably more efficient way of adjusting calories. Hold them steady and adjust them gradually at the end of a cycle or even during SD to prepare for the next cycle.
 
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