Where to go?

[jwill105]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum so I apologize if this is the wrong place for my topic/questions. I worked very hard for 3 years in the gym going from 165 to 205. I threw it all away however as I got more busy with school and a demanding girlfriend. Here I am a year later now single and lacking confidence as I have lost 15 lbs but am significantly fatter so I lost a ton of muscle. When I left my 1rm on bench was 235 and now it's at 155 haha. My profile pic is my current body and there is a picture in my gallery of when I was in my best condition. My goals with working out are purely ascetic and the gain in strength is a nice plus. My question is where do I go from here? I'm not good at judging my body and projecting what it would look like after x action is taken. At this point I'd be fine with a smaller but more cut look at around 170lbs and then bulk after that. The reason I don't want to bulk now is because I'll just get even fatter short term. My last question: Is it true that the mass will come back faster the second time? I would really appreciate any responses and if you've made it to the end of this novel I appreciate that too. Thanks so much.

[carlray]

I can relate, I worked hard to put on muscle and then life happened. I was out of the gym for years and started back again in Dec. I pretty much just started all over again as I kept a log book when lifting before I just started back at page 1. Then I realized that I didn't want to end up right where I was before and now I'm doing my first cut ever. I'm trying the keto diet along with a variation of SL 5x5 and I'm losing fat while gaining strength. It's a long road and frustrating since I've been down it once before but that's all the more motivation to stick with it this time. You've done it before, you can do it again. Good Luck.