Proper diet during SD prior to 1st cycle

J

jsraaf

New Member
About to begin SD prior to my 1st HST cycle, and am curious what would be the "proper" diet (macronutrient ratios, etc.) - and level of cardio, if advisable - during this time.

FWIW, I'm age 40 & relatively new to lifting (regularly for a couple months now) and been trying to maintain a bulking diet as of late, though I know I'm coming up short on calories. Need to watch more closely during my cycle, but the amount of food for aboug 3000 cals/day is staggering to me.

Thanks in advance. :D
 
You should try to "eat up" for the cycle, i.e. gradually get used to the food intake. Just try to get in 25% of calories from healthy fats and adequate protein (1g/lbs bw) and you should do fine. Some find it very conducive to increase carbs during the 15 rep phase to compensate for the glycogen depletion and caloric expenditure. Try to do the minimum amount of cardio you feel comfortable with if your goal is to gain muscle mass.
 
I've been wondering about proper nutrition during SD too. Might there be any merit to actually eating poorly (specifically, low protein) during a deconditioning period? I know that sounds weird, but every time SD rolls around for me I wonder about this.

I am relatively ignorant about nutrition, but the idea would basically be that you are further weakening your muscles defenses by depriving them of nutrients.

Plus your body may become more "sensitized" to the influx of protein once you resume proper training and eating. (Sort of along the lines of protein pulse feeding, though obviously PPF involved manipulating protein levels over the course of a day, not months.)

Is this totally ridiculous?
 
It may be that I'm not properly awake yet, but...what you're suggesting sounds more like breaking down muscle tissue by eating like a pig, instead of keeping the hard-earned muscle and make it more sensitive to resistance training.
 
At the end of the day it doesn't matter when you ate, just how much and what you ate.


That's weird, I was posting to another thread. Oh well.
 
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