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TLDR: trying to retain more lean mass on a cut and looking for suggestions
Hey everyone, newbie to the board but have been involved in training off and on for about 25 years. Fascinated by the endocrine system and had some medical training, read a lot about modifiers over the years but never really thought seriously about trying it until recently. I’m open to any and all suggestions but I want to stress that I'm planning on going on the light side of things for my first cycle, although cost is not really a concern my overall long-term health is and I would prefer to mess things up as little as possible!
Stats/Goals: 42 y/o 5’10” 205 lbs about 18% bf (eyeballing it with knowledge from scans, calipers, etc. in the past, hand-held electric thingee says 17.3 and usually shoots a little low). Before training and eating right I was always super skinny (5’11”@165ish). Been banged up pretty good over the years through sports, physical work, car accidents, etc.
Goal is simple really - I’m trying to get down around 8-10%bf range without going all the way down to 175 pounds. I know from bulking and cutting no matter how clean and slow I try my body just doesn’t comply. So I can be 225@22% or 175@8% with a curve that favors fat loss slightly then evens out and then costs more and more lean mass. So right now I am 8 weeks on what was meant to be a slow cut from 225@22% to the [email protected]% so lost about 12.5 fat and 7.5 lean, not the worst ratio ever, but it will get worse. Plus, it is so hard to put on muscle! Losing it is just killing me! My arms are so small when I “shrink”.
My diet is pretty tight, I spend a lot of money on good clean foods. I do 16/8 IF and 40/30/30 carb/pro/fat with most of my carbs post-workout and 2 meals/day. My maintenance is right around 3000 calories. I was doing 2500 for 6 weeks (which should have been a pound a week) but ended up 3 pounds a week(???). Ate 3000 for a week to make sure I wasn’t tripping and added 0.2lb. Cut to 2700 and lost 2lbs in a week. My body is stupid.
Supplements are BCAAs, Whey, Creatine, pre-workouts, fish oil, glucosamine, animal stack. Oh I guess this is a good a spot as any I am on prescribed T4@50mcg due to low thyroid for 5 years now although obviously my metabolism doesn’t suffer. T4 free and TSH Levels are mid-road normal on that dose.
Training has been mostly consistent 5-6 days/week, high intensity but only about 45 minutes. 20-30 minutes low intensity cardio a few days a week.
So….to the crux of this ramble. Recommend cycle to retain as much LBM as possible. If I could end at 185@8% (retain 10 extra lbs) I would be stoked. If I could lose the last 4% of fat without going keto that would be super also. Obviously the more lean mass the better though. Trying to nail this diet with the way my body goes catabolic as soon as I start dropping calories is annoying af and driving me crazy. Thanks in advance!
Hey everyone, newbie to the board but have been involved in training off and on for about 25 years. Fascinated by the endocrine system and had some medical training, read a lot about modifiers over the years but never really thought seriously about trying it until recently. I’m open to any and all suggestions but I want to stress that I'm planning on going on the light side of things for my first cycle, although cost is not really a concern my overall long-term health is and I would prefer to mess things up as little as possible!
Stats/Goals: 42 y/o 5’10” 205 lbs about 18% bf (eyeballing it with knowledge from scans, calipers, etc. in the past, hand-held electric thingee says 17.3 and usually shoots a little low). Before training and eating right I was always super skinny (5’11”@165ish). Been banged up pretty good over the years through sports, physical work, car accidents, etc.
Goal is simple really - I’m trying to get down around 8-10%bf range without going all the way down to 175 pounds. I know from bulking and cutting no matter how clean and slow I try my body just doesn’t comply. So I can be 225@22% or 175@8% with a curve that favors fat loss slightly then evens out and then costs more and more lean mass. So right now I am 8 weeks on what was meant to be a slow cut from 225@22% to the [email protected]% so lost about 12.5 fat and 7.5 lean, not the worst ratio ever, but it will get worse. Plus, it is so hard to put on muscle! Losing it is just killing me! My arms are so small when I “shrink”.
My diet is pretty tight, I spend a lot of money on good clean foods. I do 16/8 IF and 40/30/30 carb/pro/fat with most of my carbs post-workout and 2 meals/day. My maintenance is right around 3000 calories. I was doing 2500 for 6 weeks (which should have been a pound a week) but ended up 3 pounds a week(???). Ate 3000 for a week to make sure I wasn’t tripping and added 0.2lb. Cut to 2700 and lost 2lbs in a week. My body is stupid.
Supplements are BCAAs, Whey, Creatine, pre-workouts, fish oil, glucosamine, animal stack. Oh I guess this is a good a spot as any I am on prescribed T4@50mcg due to low thyroid for 5 years now although obviously my metabolism doesn’t suffer. T4 free and TSH Levels are mid-road normal on that dose.
Training has been mostly consistent 5-6 days/week, high intensity but only about 45 minutes. 20-30 minutes low intensity cardio a few days a week.
So….to the crux of this ramble. Recommend cycle to retain as much LBM as possible. If I could end at 185@8% (retain 10 extra lbs) I would be stoked. If I could lose the last 4% of fat without going keto that would be super also. Obviously the more lean mass the better though. Trying to nail this diet with the way my body goes catabolic as soon as I start dropping calories is annoying af and driving me crazy. Thanks in advance!
