vacation and cutting

[painrage]

Sup peeps. So I'm going camping for 5 days and want to do some serious hiking and adventuring. I got a chronically sick wife and a five year old in tow so I'll pretty much be making the whole trip happen on top of my adventures.

What i would like to know is how much of a break should i need to make sure I'm at a good energy level for the trip?

I'm at about a 1500- 2000 cal deficit right now while hitting my macros and will have been cutting for 14 week s when we leave for our trip. I plan to do a couple all day mountain hikes so ill need to skip leg day that week, but is it usually OK to have one solid week off of lifting while cutting? Or should i just keep the whole thing rolling and eat a little more for energy?

After the trip i plan to continue on with the cut and would also like to know if i should ease back into deficit or just strait jump down there again?

Thanks and happy lifting

[Ralikar]

What's the point of lifting and macros at -2000/day? You'll probably strip off your muscle anyway. Just do cardio and return to weights later. Or just do a bp/day of some drop sets and make it fast then spend your time dropping serious weight.

[ScubaDave]

I'm at about a 1500- 2000 cal deficit right now

You're at at 1500-2000 cal deficit? Deficit from what? If it's from your base metabolic rate, then you're starving yourself, and that's not good. If it's from your usual caloric intake then that's meaningless since no one knows what that is. I'm not sure what "cutting" means to you either, so it's hard to answer your question. I tend to view "cutting" as something bodybuilders do to get down to contest weight and condition. For the rest of us, we're just trying to drop weight, and we do that through a healthy caloric deficit - not starving ourselves, keeping the proteins high, and enough fats and complex carbs to fill out the macros, with little or no alcohol.

You've dropped nearly 50 lbs in the last year, which is highly commendable. What is different in the last 14 weeks versus the previous 38? Why wouldn't you just keep doing what you've been doing?

"Or should I just keep the whole thing rolling and eat a little more for energy?"

What do you mean by "the whole thing"? If you're out in the sticks, it's going to be hard to lift, so if that's out of the picture, what else is there to keep going? I'm just not clear on what you mean.

Happy to help in any way I can - just not sure what you're asking.

Dave

[Whiskeyjack]

If you are goibg camping for only 5 days but plan on hiking and have a chronically sick wife in tow plus a little kid, I'd suggest focusing on them and hold the training and dieting until you return.

[ScubaDave]

If you are goibg camping for only 5 days but plan on hiking and have a chronically sick wife in tow plus a little kid, I'd suggest focusing on them and hold the training and dieting until you return.

Wise words...

[scullin]

Alternate between carrying the wife and the kid and there's your workout right there. I'm kidding......mostly I'd probably do something like that at least once. But seriously, I don't know your entire diet but I'd keep eating whatever you're eating now or less and just do a lot of hiking, swimming, maybe some pushups / situps, etc for your workout for those five days.

[painrage]

You're at at 1500-2000 cal deficit? Deficit from what? If it's from your base metabolic rate, then you're starving yourself, and that's not good. If it's from your usual caloric intake then that's meaningless since no one knows what that is. I'm not sure what "cutting" means to you either, so it's hard to answer your question. I tend to view "cutting" as something bodybuilders do to get down to contest weight and condition. For the rest of us, we're just trying to drop weight, and we do that through a healthy caloric deficit - not starving ourselves, keeping the proteins high, and enough fats and complex carbs to fill out the macros, with little or no alcohol.

You've dropped nearly 50 lbs in the last year, which is highly commendable. What is different in the last 14 weeks versus the previous 38? Why wouldn't you just keep doing what you've been doing?

"Or should I just keep the whole thing rolling and eat a little more for energy?"

What do you mean by "the whole thing"? If you're out in the sticks, it's going to be hard to lift, so if that's out of the picture, what else is there to keep going? I'm just not clear on what you mean.

Happy to help in any way I can - just not sure what you're asking.

Dave

my TEE is around 4000 cal I say around because it depends on that days lifting and cardio exactly what I burn. I don't feel starved actually I don't always feel hungry which is also why I bring all this up. Cutting to me means dieting while lifting and eating strict clean foods. What I've been doing is mostly unstable though I really had to get allot of PT stuff done before I could be serious about my athletic health. So what I've been doing I've only been doing as a " cut" for the last 14 weeks. I can keep up the lifting until the day we leave so that's what I mean by the " whole thing" .

What I want to do is pause in lifting and dieting for weight loss for 10 days, or how ever many days is needed to make sure I have good energy and little weakness during the trip. Then go right back into weight loss and lifting when I get back. I know it may seem easy to most but I've just never been on as strict of a diet and lifting plan as I am now and don't want to waste effort. So hoping to get some feed back from those with more experience than me.

[painrage]

If you are goibg camping for only 5 days but plan on hiking and have a chronically sick wife in tow plus a little kid, I'd suggest focusing on them and hold the training and dieting until you return.

This is pretty much what I'm thinking I guess I'm just looking for some ninja smoke like " Bam" you've had a great vacation and now you 10lb lighter

[HumblyMuscles]

This is pretty much what I'm thinking I guess I'm just looking for some ninja smoke like " Bam" you've had a great vacation and now you 10lb lighter

Hi Painrage, If you're doing lots of hiking, you'll probably burn up quite a few calories anyway in addition to your normal deficit- it's cardio at low- medium intensity- perfect for fat burning. Don't drop your calories. If anything you may have to increase them! For variety you could always do some ab work- leg raises, crunches etc. Or squats with no weight ( or hey if you find a big log! ) Chin ups on a tree branch, or dips between rocks. Stone lifting to work your arms and shoulders. I'd be eating plenty of low GI carbs so you have fuel for your long hikes, keep the protein up so you don't lose any muscle.

All the best and have a good time off with your family! Cheers

[AAOBob]

Vacation is maintenance time. I went on a cruise recently (food heaven) and ended up gaining about 1-2 lbs total just doing what I eyeballed as maintenance and cheating a little. On a hiking trip I wouldn't even worry about it.

Added:When I go on vacation the water weight seems to pile on, especially for outdoors ones. I was 200 the first day back on my last one, was down to 195 the next day and 193 soon after.

[Taurus78]

I love to go camping. You can get a great workout by chopping your own wood. Keep plenty of wood on hand and a large fire stoked at all times. If your wife is sick then set up everything while she watches. More calories burned.

Take your boy fishing and depending on the age lift him over all the fallen logs. More calories burned. Get back to camp and cook over an open flame. Nothing better plus you know what is in each dish.

Take them both for a hike, if its not long enough, when you get back to camp and they're tired go back out to look over things for the next day.

Thousands of things you can do. If you're at a large site they might have a lake where you can get in a nice cardio session doing distance/laps while mom relaxes on the shore watching junior.

Possibilities are endless. Good luck my friend

[painrage]

I love to go camping. You can get a great workout by chopping your own wood. Keep plenty of wood on hand and a large fire stoked at all times. If your wife is sick then set up everything while she watches. More calories burned.

Take your boy fishing and depending on the age lift him over all the fallen logs. More calories burned. Get back to camp and cook over an open flame. Nothing better plus you know what is in each dish.

Take them both for a hike, if its not long enough, when you get back to camp and they're tired go back out to look over things for the next day.

Thousands of things you can do. If you're at a large site they might have a lake where you can get in a nice cardio session doing distance/laps while mom relaxes on the shore watching junior.

Possibilities are endless. Good luck my friend

ya I'm really excited look forward to it. i'm just anxious about my progress. I got really bad about it for a couple weeks and was kind of going bonkers, but mostly now I'm just enjoying the changes in me.

[painrage]

Vacation is maintenance time. I went on a cruise recently (food heaven) and ended up gaining about 1-2 lbs total just doing what I eyeballed as maintenance and cheating a little. On a hiking trip I wouldn't even worry about it.

Added:When I go on vacation the water weight seems to pile on, especially for outdoors ones. I was 200 the first day back on my last one, was down to 195 the next day and 193 soon after.

Thanks sounds good. I'm planning on giving my self a couple days rest before we leave to I'm not sure how badly the altitude change will effect me and that'll make me tired the first day there any ways. It's snowed our first day there last year and I was so fat and beat up from work all I could do was waddle around. The only thing saved my pride was the inlaws came with us and where slower so . . .

thanks for the piece of mind

[weiss1967]

5 days of hiking is a lot, again depending on what do you call hiking. If you do 30km on your first day, you may be limping on your both legs next day, I mean if you are not doing somehting like that routinely. Like someone suggested, it will be hard to know your calories expenditure, 6000 or 8000 or would it be just 4500. I personally would just try to have fun, making lotsa pictures. Could be your memories for some time from what it sounds like, not really time to think about calories