Thoughts on my 1 month diet break? (pictures)

[torpstar711]

So I cut for 8 months from August to March and dropped from 224 to 192. Towards the end of march I was eating around 1900 calories and was taking a huge hit mentally. I was tired all the time, unmotivated, and had absolutely no libido (brought 2 girls back to my place in the same week at the end of march and was unable to get it up either time). Literally no sex drive or morning wood, it was awful. I was also on my way to developing an ED (always felt the need to binge), so I decided it was time for a diet break.

Mid april I upped calories to 2700 but binged for a week (probably eating ~3500 calories a day), and stuck to 2500-2800 calories for the next 3 weeks, all while continuing my dietary trend of only eating whole foods (meat, eggs, nuts, fruits, veggies, etc) and making sure I was getting my protein and fat requirements of 1g per lb and .4-.5g per lb respectively.

It took a little while but this past week I've been feeling much better, less tired, better mood and have finally got morning wood again, but I'm up to 202 lbs. I definitely have no regrets because I feel much fuller, stronger and better overall, but can you guys see any noticeable fat gain?



Also, my lifts are waaaaay up, and my BW exercises are relatively the same (pullups, dips, etc). For example.....

DB Shoulder Press: March = 90 x 4 May = 100 x 5
DB Incline Press: March = 95 x 3 May = 110 x 3


(Left side is march @ 192, right side is may @ 202)


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[DoubleLifts]

Don't see any thing noticeable but forget that. Having a diet break is a great thing when cutting for so long or on a huge deficit. The stress from low calories and working out just caught up to you. In the future plan a refeed every week on low calories. Up the calories to your maintenance with a high ratio of carbs and fats.

[ComeOnFFS]

The only difference I can see is you look maybe 0.05% better in the latter pics as you look a bit more muscular.

If you're stressing about the difference in those pics you may well have the first hint of an ED as you'd have to be body dismorphic to think anything resembling even a hint of a problem has occurred.

[anonymous]

instead of taking a "break" next time just eat at maintenance for 2 weeks that way you won't do any damage

[Luclin999]

If you are 22 and "couldn't get it up" for two girls then you probably weren't eating enough fats in your diet. Minimum should be about 70-80g per day for someone your size dieting.

Hell, I'm 50 and last year spent 10 months at 1800-1900c/day (with roughly 85g/day from fats) and never had any problems in the bedroom...