Starting new cutting up cycle...

LittleBigHorn

New Member
Hey people,

I'm starting a new cutting up cycle, currently @ 15% BF, weight around 185 lbs, hoping to get down to 11% in a couple of months. Here come the questions:

First off, last time around I burned myself out by doing HIIT cardio first thing in the morning. If I were to do lower intensity cardio for 30 minutes around 4 times a week, would it produce the same results as intense, short sessions of HIIT 3 times a week? Another cardio question: if you eat most (if not all) of your daily carbs during the first two meals of the day, and do your HST workout in between them, would you reap at least some of the benefits of empty glycogen cardio if you did your cardio on the same day, later in the evening once your muscles aren't as saturated with glycogen any longer? And also, is the muscle loss that accompanies low intesity cardio really as pronounced as it's cracked up to be, or is it an exaggeration?

Second, another mistake I made during my last cutting up phase was that I took in too many calories from bad carbs during my once a week refeed days, only to discover that they aren't necessary at all unless your BF is extremely low. However, would it still be beneficial to take in, say a few hundred extra cals from good carbs once a week later in the cycle if you plan on cutting the carbs more aggressively?

Third, should you consume less post workout carbs when cutting up? I'm assuming it is a double edged sword, since it can lead to impaired insulin sensitivity (which is what will happen to some degree anyway since you're cutting down on the carbs).

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
If I were going to cut carbs, my post-WO meal/shake would be the last place I looked. These carbs prevent/decrease the protein breakdown (dkm posted a link to thread about this recently somewhere), and also go towards muscle glycogen stores right? They don't entirely replenish right away - this takes a few days, but that's where they go.
 
Jester, that is exactly what I thought. I'll be sticking to my regular sized post workout maltodextrin shake, then.

One more Q (I'm probably getting on people's nerves already with this overflow of questions
happy.gif
): when doing a cutter, you should reduce volume from your weight workouts to avoid overtraining, correct? Now, since the standard HST layout is 1x15, 2x10 and 3x5 (personally I do 1x15, 2x10 and 2x6), where would you reduce the volume from? The 10s or the 6s, or both? Would it be advisable to do 1 set per exercise throughout the whole cycle?
 
I dunno, if I was cutting, I'd probably increase my volume, doing 2 sets at least on the 15s...
 
im doing a 6x a week for my 15s with moderate carb/carb load if my fatigue is bad. I'm leaning out pretty well, on the 5th day of it and feel fine, looking better too. Maybe the high frequency will work for you. im trying to drop from 17%ish to around 12-15%. If i don't feel satisfied with my results i'llj ust continue the 6x a week until i am.
 
Totentanz, why would you want to increase volume when dieting? Wouldn't that simply lead to an increased risk of overtraining? I can understand the reasoning behind increasing frequency, but I'm not quite following you here. :confused:
 
Maybe toten was just trying to say, up the volume so you could burn more calories in general therefore cutting? I tried that on maintenance cals and i was totally fatigued, but i guess some people react to higher volume better than higher frequency and likewise the other way around. Not quite sure on that one. But just remember that it's about calorie in vs calorie used. On HST i think this applies like i've posted elsewhere calorie in > calorie used = bulk. calorie in < calorie used = cut.

On that glycogen note. Others have advised me that if i am using moderate carb and cutting that i should have a refeed day when i feel fatigue is comming up on me or burnout.

Dkm sugessted to me that if i didn't want to worry about glycogen replenishment and all that honky dory stuff that I could just do Steady State cardio for 30-45 mins on off days while doing 3x week HST until i felt i was cut enough. So i think the muscle loss wouldn't be too high since you'll be maintaining with HST :)
 
Back
Top