 It's the diet
I don’t know what your program is like, but I think switching to high reps (over 12 per set) is a mistake. Remember why we lift weights–1. to gain muscle during our growth phase and 2. To maintain muscle during our cutting phase. Lifting weights in the 8-12 rep range during cutting gives your body a reason to hang on to muscle. Don’t use weights for the primary goal of calorie burn. Why? First, because it’s not that great for it from an efficiency stand point. Second, it will tax your CNS into a state of overtraining. The other thing is that 8-12 rep training burns more calories after the workout repairing all the damaged muscle. The only difference in my program when I’m cutting is my diet. The workouts are the same, with a word of caution. Depending on what exercises you like, I’d think twice about heavy lifting (ie. under 8 reps) while super lean and dieting. I’d think thrice about ballistic lifts, such as cleans when dieting. You lose pressure in your joints when you get lean. It takes some time to re-learn some lifts because your hollowed out joints.
With that said, I didn’t achieve super leanness with little muscle loss and the ability to maintain that leanness until I learned one thing–how to count calories. I don’t care if you’re a low carb, low fat, or balanced diet guy, to monitor your fat loss with precision and with the utmost vigor in maintaining your muscle mass, you must monitor how much energy you are putting in versus putting out. It took me many cutting phases of just “instinctively” eyeballing it only to lose a bunch of muscle real fast to realize this.
You want to find your magic daily calorie intake that allows 1 pound of weight loss a week. Nice, slow, pure fat loss. You might lose 3-5 pounds in the first week or two just from water loss. One measurement is of utmost importance to you–your waist. Measure it once a week at the same time (ie. Friday morning). Don’t hang up on body fat percentages--they're never the same and hardly ever accurate unless you do the submersion. Watch and measure your waist. It’s the poor man’s body fat monitor. If you lose weight and your waist doesn’t shrink, then you’re just losing water and/or muscle which means your carbs and/or calories might be too low. Also, your poundages in the gym are your muscle loss indicator. Expect to feel weaker. You'll lose a couple of reps on a 12 rep weight. That's ok. That's from low glycogen levels. (which is why I hate and completely disagree with low carb diets for bodybuilders--but that's another story). You just don't want to drop reps from say 12 to 6. That probably means you're losing contractile protein--real muscle mass.
You might find that a good round number for daily calorie intake is a good starting point. You might try 2,500 cals a day for a few days. Take note of how you feel. You should be just mildly hungry at night. No light headedness, no dizziness, no low energy. The calorie deficit should be very mild–only about 500 a day. If 2,500 gets you 1 pound a week, then great. Bump it up or down 300 cals a day until you find your magic number. Oh yeah, you'll never eat exactly 2,500 cals a day, so don't try. Hit a range. Your goal would be to come in under 2,600 a day. Who cares if its 2,300 one day, 2,400 another and 2,600 or maybe even 2,650 another. As long as it averages out to about 2,500 you're good. Also, round your calories off to make your math bodybuilder easy. Ie. Don't add 115 calories of bread. Add 100. Don't count that chicken breast half as 135 calories, Add 150. They're all just calorie estimates anyway, so don't become obssessive compulsive about the count.
Throw in some cardio, but not too much. I like walking or pedaling. It’s low impact and a pure fat burner. Some people like high intensity cardio. I do some myself, but weights are high intensity intervals if you really think about it.
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02-13-2005, 04:50 PM
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