Cutting/keeping muscle

[mchadcota]

Just wanted opinions on if I’m on right track. Spent all winter trying to build muscle and only gained about 4-5 lbs muscle. Trying to lean up now. I’m 185 lbs and 12% BF. I am trying to run about a 2-300 calorie deficit. I’m only using cardio once or twice a week to help with that deficit. I’m trying to keep protein at 180 g or better. I’m also keeping my lifting up and trying to keep my strength up to avoid losing muscle. I would appreciate any suggestions

[smokinal]

Really the best way to keep muscle on a cut, imo, is to keep proteins high; at least 1g per body lb, continue to lift heavy and intense as you would if you were on bulk, and don't lose more than 1lb per week (on average...I know weight loss will fluctuate...don't freak out if it's 1.5 lbs one week and .75 the next)

That's about all you can do man

[mchadcota]

Really the best way to keep muscle on a cut, imo, is to keep proteins high; at least 1g per body lb, continue to lift heavy and intense as you would if you were on bulk, and don't lose more than 1lb per week (on average...I know weight loss will fluctuate...don't freak out if it's 1.5 lbs one week and .75 the next)

That's about all you can do man

Thanks a lot! I do an inbody scan one a week during cut. Over the last week I lost two lbs. According to scale, the two lbs I lost was muscle in the legs. Upper body muscle increased a little and legs lost two lbs, and I burned zero fat. I’m trying to make sense of this to make adjustments but I can’t make sense of it. Any thoughts?

[Tommy W.]

Thanks a lot! I do an inbody scan one a week during cut. Over the last week I lost two lbs. According to scale, the two lbs I lost was muscle in the legs. Upper body muscle increased a little and legs lost two lbs, and I burned zero fat. I’m trying to make sense of this to make adjustments but I can’t make sense of it. Any thoughts?

youre making this too complicated. FORGET the machine as those are notoriously inaccurate and that will make you stress over things too much. Simply keep a measurement at your navel. If that’s going down you’re losing fat. Train properly, get in your protein and you get what you get. Doing it right with a small deficit and you won’t lose much, if any, muscle. If you’re at a true 12% there’s a good chance you should stop cutting. Post a pic for better feedback.

[lsiberian]

Sounds like you should keep bulking and get some more muscle first before going back down. But I know summer is near and who wants to bulk before summer. Maybe just don't worry about losing a little muscle and just get leaner. Then after summer you can bulk until next march or april before cutting again.

[mchadcota]

youre making this too complicated. FORGET the machine as those are notoriously inaccurate and that will make you stress over things too much. Simply keep a measurement at your navel. If that’s going down you’re losing fat. Train properly, get in your protein and you get what you get. Doing it right with a small deficit and you won’t lose much, if any, muscle. If you’re at a true 12% there’s a good chance you should stop cutting. Post a pic for better feedback.

Thanks for the response. I use the inbody because it helped me a lot last summer. I started at 13% bf and ended at 7.5% from may until July. So I use it to give me feedback along the way. But you’re right in the sense that it stresses me out a lot. I just don’t want to go a month of losing weight only to find out it was a lot of muscle loss.

[Tommy W.]

Thanks for the response. I use the inbody because it helped me a lot last summer. I started at 13% bf and ended at 7.5% from may until July. So I use it to give me feedback along the way. But you’re right in the sense that it stresses me out a lot. I just don’t want to go a month of losing weight only to find out it was a lot of muscle loss.

It can't tell you if you lost muscle or not. No machine or apparatus can do that especially with small deviations. Read post #4 again.

[mchadcota]

It can't tell you if you lost muscle or not. No machine or apparatus can do that especially with small deviations. Read post #4 again.

Thanks a lot! That’s good to know because I put a lot of emphasis on the lean muscle mass readings from the scan. If it tells me I lost a lb of muscle I adjust my diet but that’s good to know that it might not be reliable. I’ll just look at bf from now on.

[smokinal]

Any thoughts?

Yeah...throw that machine in the trash. If you are keeping you lifts heavy, proteins high, and only losing ~1 lb per week, your body cannot tell where to take the energy from; it has no choice but to take it from stored fats.
You have to trust the system

[mchadcota]

Yeah...throw that machine in the trash. If you are keeping you lifts heavy, proteins high, and only losing ~1 lb per week, your body cannot tell where to take the energy from; it has no choice but to take it from stored fats.
You have to trust the system

Thank you! I’ll do that