Merging from a cut to a lean bulk

[muscle99]

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this has been covered before, so decided to start a new thread. I am four weeks (probably less, but xmas day is my goal date) out from completing my super cut. I have consistently remained at 1500 calories per day the whole way through. However if I need to do it again I will gradually reduce the calories & focus on maintaining strength/muscle mass.

From experience I know I need to consume between 3100-3400 to build lean muscle at 5-6 hours intense exercise per week.

I have heard somewhere before that if one goes from a low as calorie diet straight to maintenance or beyond, they will stack on a heap of fat, at the beginning at least.

I will take one full week off weight training before beginning my lean build.

How should I go about increasing up to eating about 3200 from 1500?

How many days out from the first day of my build should I return to eating properly?

Cheers

[Mike Zero]

From experience I know I need to consume between 3100-3400 to build lean muscle at 5-6 hours intense exercise per week.

Not anymore :pfft:

If you plateau before christmas (assuming you will if you're not making anymore changes, unless you're losing weight at an extremely fast weight right now), your new maintenance will be 1500 calories for that energy expenditure. If you're doing cardio right now and you want to reduce that your maintenance will be even less.

Just add a little bit more food in every 2 weeks and watch your weight carefully. By a little I would say around 250cals/day. Don't worry if you don't put any weight on at first, better than going the other way. Most newbies cut hard and fast and rebound the same, so they have to lose a lot ov weight again when it's time to cut again (most likely in 4 weeks time). Small changes are good, in either direction.

But yeah, it's not rocket science. Just add more food slowly and see how it changes your bodyweight.

[muscle99]

From experience I know I need to consume between 3100-3400 to build lean muscle at 5-6 hours intense exercise per week.

Not anymore :pfft:

If you plateau before christmas (assuming you will if you're not making anymore changes, unless you're losing weight at an extremely fast weight right now), your new maintenance will be 1500 calories for that energy expenditure. If you're doing cardio right now and you want to reduce that your maintenance will be even less.

Just add a little bit more food in every 2 weeks and watch your weight carefully. By a little I would say around 250cals/day. Don't worry if you don't put any weight on at first, better than going the other way. Most newbies cut hard and fast and rebound the same, so they have to lose a lot ov weight again when it's time to cut again (most likely in 4 weeks time). Small changes are good, in either direction.

But yeah, it's not rocket science. Just add more food slowly and see how it changes your bodyweight.

Thanks for that. I slightly plateaued before but am doing cardio every third day now & defiantly back in the game. So far I can't do cardio anymore often as it makes the following day or two real real hard. I still have multiply times each day that I feel real depleted. Some training sessions I have to stop earlier.

Is this a sign my fat stores are still getting tapped into?

Would a high carb day now & again be of use to boost my metabolism?

Cheers

[greemah]

Have you been cutting for quite a while now? If you have been eating 1500 calories every day for a while without a change I would eat a few days of like 2000-2300 calories with higher carbs, then go back to the 1500

1500 sounds fairly low though, are you losing strength?

[muscle99]

Have you been cutting for quite a while now? If you have been eating 1500 calories every day for a while without a change I would eat a few days of like 2000-2300 calories with higher carbs, then go back to the 1500

1500 sounds fairly low though, are you losing strength?

Yeah I have, not to worry though, I will gain it all back plus more. I made the fatal mistake of dropping from 3500 to 1500. Also I have been on a high protein/high fat diet. Today I have changed to a low fat diet with a lot more carbs. Never felt so good in two months, heaps of energy & even regained some strength. So tomorrow dropping to 1200 cal & an increase in cardio frequency.

Learnt heaps from my first time super cut so it has been successful.