Opinions Please: Time To End Cut?

[wickedsushi]

Stats: 6’5”, 37 yrs old.
Starting weight: 110.3kg
Current weight: 98.7kg

So I’ve been cutting for 3 months now. Not a cut in the typical sense, to be fair to everyone who have cut after putting the hard yards in the weights room. The last time I trained seriously was about 5 years ago.

Anyway, I decided it would be better to cut off the excess fat before dedicating myself to a muscle building phase and sculpting out the figure I used to have. I have been doing a very minimalist full body routine 3x a week, along with 1 hour cardio sessions 4-5x a week and running on ~1300-1500 calories/day.

The goal was: get to 95kg. Then, up calorie intake to mantainence (to begin with), cut back on cardio and really ramp up the weights with a solid upper/lower routine 2x a week.
As you can see, I’ve kicked 11.3kg to the curb. I’m 3.7kg off of my target weight. Overall I’m really pleased with progress. Here are some photos I took yesterday:




Still a bit of chub around the stomach and on the chest. My hips are always last to go as well, as you can see.

However, a few things:

Ok, so obviously the calorie restriction was on the extreme side. I know I was risking losing muscle mass, but as I hadn’t “earned” any muscle at this point and fat loss was the primary objective, it was a calculated risk. It was manageable the first two and a half months. A little more tired than usual, but not enough to interfere with life. The continued drop on the scales was enough motivation.

However, over the past 3 weeks (about when I hit 100kg), things have become a struggle. Motivation has dropped off, as have energy levels. I’m normally shattered in the afternoon. Strength wise – I was making steady gains in spite of my calorie deficit, but they have since plateaued and have actually started to drop off. Weight loss has also started to slow down.

This week I started back determined to put 5 days in at the gym, but by Tuesday I was absolutely spent. So, I’ve taken the rest of the week off, started eating bit more. Still, two days of rest and extra food and I’m still unusually tired. Still, I'll take the rest of the week off and refuel my body ready for next week - whatever I decide to do.

In any event, I think it might be best to move to the next phase now, as opposed to grueling it out getting down to 95 kg and potentially losing more muscle. I picked a pretty severe calorie deficit mainly for speed and efficiency. There’s no denying it worked. However I’ve been over 100kg in the past and looked better than this – obviously due to extra muscle. My thinking is, if I keep pushing down to 95kg with the same tactics I’m not going to look any tighter in my physique, just a slightly smaller version than what you can see here. I’m not sure I see the point now.

So, there you have it. Looking at the above pics, what would you suggest… start eating properly again and pack some meat on those bones, I hope! Thanks in advance.

[sunsean]

Congrats on the weight loss, looks like you're still carrying a good bit of fat...you are "skinny fat" now, which means you have to both build muscle and lose body fat to get an "aesthetic" physique. As you've already been cutting a few months I think it's fine to focus on building some muscle.

Follow a good lifting program, one that has progression built in so you don't have to think too hard. Fierce 5 is a good and popular one.

Even though you're focusing on gaining muscle, don't eat too much over your maintenance to avoid additional fat re-gaining.

If you can handle it, lifting hard while continuing to cut might give you the best results, but I understand if you want to switch gears. You should have been lifting and following a good routine while cutting the past few months, but you can't change the past, just make the right decisions moving forward.

[JohnCyr]

Congrats on the weight loss, looks like you're still carrying a good bit of fat...you are "skinny fat" now, which means you have to both build muscle and lose body fat to get an "aesthetic" physique. As you've already been cutting a few months I think it's fine to focus on building some muscle.

Follow a good lifting program, one that has progression built in so you don't have to think too hard. Fierce 5 is a good and popular one.

Even though you're focusing on gaining muscle, don't eat too much over your maintenance to avoid additional fat re-gaining.

If you can handle it, lifting hard while continuing to cut might give you the best results, but I understand if you want to switch gears. You should have been lifting and following a good routine while cutting the past few months, but you can't change the past, just make the right decisions moving forward.

My thoughts exactly!! Congrats on the loss!! If I were in OP's shoes, I would dump cardio for now, focus on a simple yet solid weight lifting routine yet keep slightly below maintenance, between 300-400 deficit.

[wickedsushi]

Thanks.

The dreaded "skinny fat"... LOL... Argh. I knew that's what I was seeing but - thank you for confirming. Sorry I don't have any before photos. IIRC I was up over 115kg early 2018. I managed to shave a few kg off with some adjustments to my diet before I started training.

So far as the routine I was doing, it's something I picked up from the aworkoutroutine website. It was for beginners (or detrained):

A Workout
Squat 3 x 6 - 10
BB Row 3 x 6 - 10
Db Chest Press 3 x 6 - 10

B Workout
Romanian Deadlift 3 x 6 - 10
Lat Pulldown 3 x 6 - 10
Db Shoulder Press 3 x 6 - 10

Hard to get much more minimalist than that. Bit of an adjustment; back in the day when I had an aesthetic physique I gained my best results doing PHAT. Talk about two extremes so far as volume! But, when I search my memory of everything I've done over the years, my body HAS responded to volume. Like I said though, I really wanted to make fat loss the priority. Although I probably haven't done my metabolism any favors.

You've both suggested a similar strategy and it actually aligns with what I've been leaning towards since I posted this thread. Instead of looking at the next phase as a complete 180 in terms of diet and training, look at it as more of a transition phase: Less restrictive cut, less/no cardio, more weight training. When I look at these photos I feel that even a basic "aesthetic" look won't be achieved with my current training model. I had hoped to be tighter before I switched it up, but ideally more intensive weight training and keeping calories under maintenance will take care of the fat while I get on with fleshing out my frame with the right stuff!

Cheers guys.