Summer Client Results Selection

Tl;dr: Cutting slowly while training hard is probably the right move.

Can you recomp?

When it comes to goal setting, it is imperative that the outcome is measurable if we are to gauge success and correct our course of action if we fall short of our targets. This is true of all things in life, physique change is no exception.

Muscle gain and fat loss can happen simultaneously, to a degree, at nearly any stage of physique development, excluding the most advanced trainees. However, the degree to which this happens simultaneously diminishes with training advancement, meaning that the changes become increasingly small and increasingly hard to measure.

When results are hard to measure, it is both tough to make objective decisions and stay motivated for. Therefore, experienced trainees are often best served prioritizing one goal over another, fat loss, or muscle gain first, and then proceeding to develop their physique in phases. This is known as cutting and bulking, respectively.

Whether you are still enough of a newbie to still get both at the same time depends on how much you have been fucking around in these 13 years with your training and diet. If you think this might be you, set your calorie intake at maintenance and train hard and see what happens.

If you’ve determined that a recomp is not working, here’s my advice:

Choosing between a fat loss or a muscle gain goal

A cutting phase entails weight loss, meaning there is a caloric deficit. It is possible to gain muscle during a calorie deficit. However, as the rate of fat loss will outstrip the rate of muscle gain, the muscle gain can be hard to detect. Though training progression indicates that there has likely been some muscle growth, all body measurements will generally go down, chest/back and limb measurements included. This is because there is fat under the skin (and to a small extent, inside, the muscles) that will be burned away in these areas also.

A bulking phase entails weight gain, meaning there is a caloric surplus. Excluding steroid users and under-weight, rank-novice trainees, fat loss will not happen as muscle is gained. Furthermore, it is entirely unrealistic to try to gain muscle only without fat. It just doesn’t happen in the real world, therefore, a little fat gain needs to be accepted when bulking.

So, we are left with a choice: Chase a muscle gain target and accept some fat gain, or chase a fat loss target and delay the muscle gains for a while.

In my mind, there is only one sensible option and that is to cut first. That’s because:

• Fat cells, once created, don’t ever die, and that can have a longer-term impact on hunger signaling, making sustaining a lower level of body fat permanently harder. (Fat cells can fill up and empty themselves of the fatty acids, giving the appearance they have disappeared, but don’t actually die.)
• The leaner you start the bulk, the easier it is to gauge progress and thus stay lean, and the longer the bulking phase can be before you need to cut the fat off again. This makes sustainable programming for progression easier also.
• And potentially, per pound of body weight you gain when bulking, more of it will be muscle, if you start from a leaner body-fat percentage. (This is a small, technical, possibly theoretical point concerning improvements in insulin sensitivity that come from being leaner, bearing calorie partitioning advantages – i.e. more to the muscles, less to the fat stores.)

So, though I know you desperately want to gain muscle, it might be best to cut to shreds first, even if that means getting leaner than we like and possibly even feeling skinny. It’s certainly better this way than getting fatter than we would like and then having to stop the bulk before we have made enough significant progress, to start cutting again.

This is where most people mess themselves up and find themselves spinning their wheels without making any real progress – they end a cutting phase prematurely before they have gotten lean enough for the definition to come through, and they end the bulking phase prematurely (because of it), before they have gained a significant amount of muscle.

No matter the level of training advancement, all people feel like this at the end of a cut and bulk (too skinny, and too fat), thus, both are mentally tough. The end of a cut is often especially tough, because your clothes will be loose, and this will exacerbate the feelings of being skinny. Unfortunately, unless you wish to compromise your physique progress based on your wardrobe, this is just tough shit. It might be time to consider getting some new clothes at that point.

Hope this helps, David.

Fair enough Marc. When looking to compare yourself with Jackman, consider not just total weight lifted but his bodyweight to lift ratio – you have him beat right?

Glad to hear that. Better taken and absorbed with meals I believe.

Hi Alex. Absolutely, they all used the method explained in the guides on this site.
You’ll find in there that for fatter individuals I still have the refeeds but make them more modest. Relevant articles covering this: The Nutritional Hierarchy of Importance – #2 Macros, Fibre & Alcohol and #4 Meal Timing & Frequency, Calorie & Macro Cycling.

Hannes, thanks for the comment.

If you’re an intermediate lifter and have just gained weight, seemingly due to a lot of stress and getting out of previous habits, then it’s going to be much easier for you than the guy that’s starting from scratch, cause you’ll still have a muscular base there.

However, can I do it for you? Not at this time, no. You can do it for yourself though.

Stress is a key piece of the puzzle, nothing goes well when people are stressed. It sounds to me like you could use a break. After that, it’s probably better for you to take things one step at a time to keep the stress low. Example: Training -> quitting the shitty foods -> cutting down on alcohol -> thinking about calories & meal timing -> sorting out some macros. Hiring me right now would be to add in several layers of complication at once which isn’t a good thing at this time.

Also, pushing yourself financially can increase stress. At the end of the day, online coaching is a luxury item, not a necessity, so I usually ask people to reconsider if they say they are on a tight budget and mail me at a later date.

Supplements? Screw them, not necessary.

Have a good look around the site and I’m sure you’ll find everything you need. Consider starting with this guide, Intermittent Fasting & Leangains – Step by Step Guide which I rewrote last week.

Most welcome, good luck Hannes!