effecient caloric intake for someone who wants to cut and utilize muscle memory

[kattanib]

Hello all


Long story short, I want to know what is the most effecient kcal target I should aim for given my situation which is as following:

- Didn't workout for 6 months straight and I'm heading back

- my max skelital muscle mass that I have reached previously is 36 kg (I am 5'7)

- currently I am at 32.5 kg SMM and overall weight of 72 kg (160lbs) at 21% body fat

- last time I was in such a situation (@ 16% bf) I bulked for 2.5 months and went from 31.5 kg SMM to 36 kg but also gained 3.7 kg of fat (total gain of around 18lbs in 75 days! It was an out of body experience and took time to get used to my new dimensions ... Used to hit doors frames all the time lol)

- used to be a hard gainer until I started to eat seriously .. more of skinny-skinny guy lol



Keep in mind that my question is about effeciency given that I have 3.5kg of SMM I can easily gain due to muscle memory.

My objective is to lean down to around 12% bf and then from there lean bulk 6 weeks and cut 2 and repeat. When I reach 12% bf in 2.5 months, will I be able to reach 36kg SMM even at a deficit due to muscle memory? Or is it at best I'll gain 1 or 1.5 kg or something along that line?


- my intake is around 1650 kcal

- I do a push pull legs over a schedule of 5 to 6 days and repeat ... Around 4 sessions a week .. progressive overload

- protein isn't that high tbh but I believe it's sufferint nevertheless ... 115 to 120 grams a day




And a shout of thank you to this beautiful community who has helped me learn a lot over the years



Edit: btw my age is 27 and not 48 .. still figuring out how to fix that in my bio