"Punctuated Bulk"

[Ruthenian]

As I enter another cutting cycle I was wondering if there might not be an easier (and more interesting) way to approach this.  There are some advocates of a “slow bulk” here, but I suspect you would have to be dialed in exactly right and, even then, some don’t believe it works well.

I currently do long cycles with weekly weight increments, typically starting at 80% of RM and going for 4 weeks per RM range (except 15 RM, which stays at two weeks, or could be skipped). I was considering what might be called a “punctuated bulk” where I would add a fifth week to each range that duplicates the 100% RM week.  The difference is that this would be a cutting week.  If you gain the targeted 1 lb/wk on your bulk, with ½ being fat, a four week mesocycle would presumably add 2 lbs of fat.  It is relatively easy to take off 1.5, even 2, lbs of fat in a week, so you would reduce the need for longer cutting cycles with this approach, maybe even eliminate them if your numbers are right (or using periodic fasting, whatever).

This seems a fairly obvious variation and I have seen some limited discussion on other boards, so I am thinking folks may have tried something like this.  It is sort of a variation on a slow bulk, but with the known effectiveness of periods of full bulking caloric intake. I can think of several advantages relative to longer cuts:

-  avoids tedium of longer cuts
-  avoids metabolic slowdown and the need to keep reducing calories on longer cuts
-  avoids strength loss that can happen toward the end of longer cuts

Comments?

 

[quadancer]

TBH, it sounds fairly good to me. Similar to some diets but doing it also with the exersize adaptations. And the "cut" week being maximal, lines up with current knowledge. But all this depends upon an instant fatloss, and I'm not so sure that the whole of the week is going to be losing fat.

 

[Ruthenian]

I hear you - that is why I am looking for input.  My thinking is that by going down in calories fairly quickly over the weekend or at the beginning of the week, your metabolism will still be set for higher calories and and consumption of energy stores will begin quickly.  My current cut started a week ago and the theory seems to hold.  I am not sure how stored glycogen would figure into this, but my diets have never gone ketogenic, so apparently that is managable.

At the end of the week, you can ramp up over the weekend.  I am cutting at about 1,000 kcals under my bulking intake right now, so would go up 500 kcals a day.  Again, your body would not have had time to significantly reduce metabolism, so you shouldn't store the increased calories as fat.  I also do cardio on weekends, so this would syphon off some of the increase. It takes longer with a longer cut, as last time I had to reduce caloric input by over 1,500 as the cut progressed and my metabolism had clearly slowed considerably.