Cutting log

[ballsoutpunk]

Alright, a couple of people have shown interest me keeping a log in my cutting cycle. I am 6' 0" tall. As of the October 1st, I had been right around 200lbs for several months since the end of my last cycle (my peak was around 208), and my body fat was about 16% by best estimate. I used one of the electric grip devices at a doctor's office because I can't seem to find anyone with a set of calipers. I realize that the grip machines may be off by several percent in either direction and aren't the best method, but it should be good enough for a rough estimate. My goal is to get to 8%, and I will consider my attempt better than failure if I get below 10%. I got sinusitis, pharyngitis, and bronchitis around October 2nd and lost about 11lbs during the time I was sick. I decided that I was well enough to begin cutting on October 20th, as I had planned. At that point, I weighed 189. On the cutting phase of this cycle, I am running the following substances:

Test E @ 500mg/wk (frontloaded with 750mg the first week)
Havoc/Epistane clone @ 30mg/day (10mg every 8 hours)
clen @ 60 - 70mcg/day (taken in the AM)
t3 @ 80mcg/day (taken in the AM)
IGF-I LR3 @ 50mcg/day (SC, post workout)
Acetyl L-Carnitine @ 1.5g/day (split into three doses per day)
Na-R-Alpha Lipoic Acid @ 600mg/day (split into three doses per day, taken with meals)
B12 @ 4000mcg/day (methylcobalamin, sublingual)
NADH @ 20mg/day (sublingual)
raloxifene @ 60mg/day

My diet will consist mainly of the following items:
Protein shakes
Very lean meats (chicken breast, 96/4 hamburger, top round steak, etc.)
Low carb, low fat yogurt
Low sodium V8 juice
Leafy green vegetables
Lean beef jerky for snacks
Other, more varied foods, but in small portions

My best estimate of my daily maintenance calorie requirement is around 2600 - 2700 when I am not taking any anabolics or cutting agents.

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October 20th

Total caloric intake: 1201
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 776
Net calorie intake: 425

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 58%
Carbs: 19%
Fat: 23%

Weight: 189lbs

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October 21st

Total caloric intake: 1160
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 681
Net calorie intake: 479

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 53%
Carbs: 32%
Fat: 15%

Weight: 185.5lbs

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October 22nd

Total caloric intake: 1231
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 282
Net calorie intake: 949

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 49%
Carbs: 31%
Fat: 20%

Weight: did not weigh in

This was an off day from the gym for me, so my calorie expenditure was less and I could not use my normal scale (I try to always use the same scale at around the same time of day).

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October 23rd

Total caloric intake: 1250
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 650
Net calorie intake: 600

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 56%
Carbs: 25%
Fat: 19%

Weight: 182lbs

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My thoughts so far:
When I originally set my goal (before I got the respiratory infections), I wanted to lose around 16lbs (8% bf x 200lbs). Well, I've passed that amount already from the point where I had maintained it for several months. A lot of it is water, so I had planned to exceed my goal by at least five pounds. I do not plan to drop below 170lbs or carry this out for more than 30 days. It looks like I'll probably get to 170lbs first (yay! I get to be done with this!). I also plan to slowly increase my amount of net calories from now through the rest of my cutting phase because the 400 - 500 net days are not pleasant and it's hard as hell to push myself in the gym. As soon as I've hit one of the conditions (reached 8% bf, dropped to 170lbs., or the 30 days is up), I plan to add tren E @ 400mg/wk and clean bulk for a couple of months. Hopefully I can build back up to around 200lbs and keep it lean. When I switch to bulking, I'm going to drop the IGF, clen, t3, ALA, ALCAR, and the rest of the cutting agents. I'll also drop the Havoc clone and raloxifene and add arimidex or letrozole. I think that by immediately switching to a bulking cycle and including tren, I can take advantage of the bounce back up in weight that will come with stopping the cutting agents. I will probably put 5 pounds back on just from tapering off of t3 and the decrease in metabolism that results, but I'm hoping the tren will force that increase to be mainly composed of muscle instead of fat.

Please don't hesitate to post any thoughts, questions, or advice.

I'll be updating this every few days until I see it through!

 

[Get_Swole]

nice bro. so what do you think your BF is right now? Looks pretty good. A little low on the cal's but as long as its working for you and your not losing too much muscle then you cant argue with results. Keep it up bro looking forward to following.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

nice bro. so what do you think your BF is right now? Looks pretty good. A little low on the cal's but as long as its working for you and your not losing too much muscle then you cant argue with results. Keep it up bro looking forward to following.

I would really like to know what my BF is, and I really need to find a set of calipers. I have friends that are medical students and access to nice health facilities, so you'd think I should be able to get my hands on a set somewhere. I can say that I've lost an inch on my pants size and a good deal more than that around the navel and love handles. Don't get me wrong, I was not super fat to start with, by any means - just a little too much so over the abs and sides. I'm very lean in pretty much every other area of my body and vascular everywhere but my abdomen. I just had too much fun with too much drinking for a couple of years and no gym access. The good thing is that since I don't have much fat anywhere else, most of what I lose should come from the area I'm trying to lose it. I guess those are the "last 10 pounds" that everyone complains about. Like I said in the last post and as you've mentioned, I don't know that I can continue keeping my calories this low, but I have been able to see changes from almost one day to the next over the past week. That much is inspiring!

I believe that I am losing muscle mass even with the anabolics, but I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of it is water and glycogen, not nitrogen. I'm still strong on my first sets, but my endurance has fallen through the floor, hence my suspicions. I look well defined - more now than ever in my back, arms, and legs, but like I think I described it earlier I think I look "deflated'. Sounds like water and glycogen to me. I feel like I can gain any lost muscle back when I start lean bulking. This whole cycle for me is meant to be one big recomp and to re-establish a base that I can cleanly build on later.

By the way, the calculator at livestrong.com estimated my initial (200lb) BF to be around 13.5% based on my measurements. I don't know if that's more or less reliable than the electronic devices. Damnit, I really need calipers! :wink:

 

[Get_Swole]

i dont think those are accurate I have a scale at home that does body mass index and supposed to use the well helli dont know how they work but similar to the one you hold and it says im 32% bodyfat lol. Im right around 18 32% i would have a fuggin heart attack tomorrow lol. Its hard for those to work for me too because im only 5'10 and 250 so right away the machine is like WTF your fat.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

i dont think those are accurate I have a scale at home that does body mass index and supposed to use the well helli dont know how they work but similar to the one you hold and it says im 32% bodyfat lol. Im right around 18 32% i would have a fuggin heart attack tomorrow lol. Its hard for those to work for me too because im only 5'10 and 250 so right away the machine is like WTF your fat.

Ahh, yes, the old calculate it based on BMI method. That would work in a world where everyone's body composition was exactly the same, wouldn't it? Too bad that isn't the case. I've had those same scales and calculators put me way into the 20% range, too. The electronic handheld ones use BMI and the electrical resistance across contact points to make the calculation, but you could probably throw that off just by using lotion or testing yourself on a low humidity day. I'd like to think that they're somewhat accurate because I've seen some doctors use them, but who really knows?

 

[ballsoutpunk]

nice bro. so what do you think your BF is right now? Looks pretty good. A little low on the cal's but as long as its working for you and your not losing too much muscle then you cant argue with results. Keep it up bro looking forward to following.

I was just doing a little research and found out that my employer's wellness program covers the cost of body fat composition testing twice per year and for $5 per test after the two free ones! I'll try to get my bf% properly tested this coming week.

 

[teedubgee]

I think you're keeping your calories way too low. You shouldn't risk losing all that hard earned muscle in order to cut up. My advice would have been to start at 2600 (the low end of your maintenance) and throw in the AAS and chems. If that wasn't enough, keep the calories the same and play with your workout/cardio. Keep messing with that before you mess with your diet, then when you stop making gains you can lower cals by 150-250/week. The smallest change along with consistency should prove effective. You want to progressively change your routine and diet in order to keep moving forward. It will be very hard to do so starting with such low cals.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

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October 24th

Total caloric intake: 1686
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 359
Net calorie intake: 1327

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 34%
Carbs: 36%
Fat: 31%

Weight: did not weigh in

Notes: Off day at the gym, ate a cheat meal of a bowl of chili and several slices of buttered garlic bread, hence the lower protein and higher carb and fat calorie breakdown

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October 25th

Total caloric intake: 1075
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 500
Net calorie intake: 575

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 50%
Carbs: 31%
Fat: 19%

Weight: 182lbs

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October 26th

Total caloric intake: 763
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories):0
Net calorie intake: 763

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 58%
Carbs: 29%
Fat: 13%

Weight: did not weigh in, off day at the gym.

I feel like I've started to find some really good foods to eat that are healthy but still low calorie. Egg Beaters are awesome as far as being nutritious, low cal/carb, and high in protein. I think I could have a couple of protein shakes, some V8 and mixed greens, and all of the Egg Beaters I want during the day and feel full. Egg Beaters are the best; they make me feel full, taste good, and I feel better mentally (not the slow, low glycogen feeling) after eating them. I can drink soy milk at the moment because I'm on anti-E's and do not have to worry about suppressing my natural test. There are a few other things as well. I learn about more things that fit my needs every day.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

I think you're keeping your calories way too low. You shouldn't risk losing all that hard earned muscle in order to cut up. My advice would have been to start at 2600 (the low end of your maintenance) and throw in the AAS and chems. If that wasn't enough, keep the calories the same and play with your workout/cardio. Keep messing with that before you mess with your diet, then when you stop making gains you can lower cals by 150-250/week. The smallest change along with consistency should prove effective. You want to progressively change your routine and diet in order to keep moving forward. It will be very hard to do so starting with such low cals.

Hey bro, thanks for your input on my new thread /I know we disagree a little on this issue, but I'm not kidding; I do respect your input. It sounds a lot like what I'd normally tell myself.

First, do you suggest increasing my total calorie count or the net count to the maintenance level? I'll be working in the direction you suggest with my total calorie intake, but I probably will still be well short of maintenance when you subtract the amount I burn off on the elliptical and other cardio on gym days. I really didn't intend to continue to keep my calorie count as low as it was in the first few days, my goal during the first week was to push it and go ahead and drop the water weight that comes off initially, then to slowly increase my caloric intake depending on how I feel, how I look, and to a much lesser degree, what the scale says. Toward the end of this week, I plan for my daily net intake to be at least 1200. My total intake will probably be around 1800 - 2000. I should have gotten rid of all of the water and what I lose from here on out should be mostly fat.

I know that there will be some muscle loss with t3 regardless, but I feel like the test and IGF should do a pretty good job of keeping it to a bare minimum. I have done exactly as you recommend when trying to lose fat for most of the past few years of my training (that is, to use chems and anabolics and keep my calories a few hundred below maintenance. That worked really well to get where I am, but I seem to have hit a wall with that technique when it comes to my gut and love handles. Neither are huge, but I'd like to turn my 2-pack into a 6-pack and get a little more of a V shape down to my hips. I haven't had much success in those areas until now, but I'm definitely seeing a change. I'm willing to sacrifice a little muscle to get there. The less the better, but I just haven't had much success in these spots with anything except what I'm doing now.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

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October 27th

Total caloric intake: 1363
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 659
Net calorie intake: 704

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 53%
Carbs: 29%
Fat: 18%

Weight: 182

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October 28th

Total caloric intake: 1276
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories):0
Net calorie intake: 1276

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 50%
Carbs: 30%
Fat: 20%

Weight: did not weigh in, couldn't go to the gym. Spent morning before work and evening after work acting in and doing voice overs for a commercial. Do not look for me on a TV near you.

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October 29th

Total caloric intake: 1539
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 620
Net calorie intake: 919

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 42%
Carbs: 25%
Fat: 33%

Weight: 181

Notes: My weight loss has slowed recently. I think this is because, with my most recent injection, I should have reached my steady-state level of test for the dosage I'm taking. I'm probably adding back on some of the water weight that I dropped at the outset. For the next few days, I plan to start eating more complex carbs and to start bringing my net calorie intake over 1000 and my total intake around or slightly above 1500. At this point, I've lost about as much fat as I want to on my sides, but I've still got more to go right around my navel and the back part of my love handles. I'm getting there! I'm also decreasing my cardio to about 200 cals/day and increasing the time I spend lifting. I was doing 400 - 600 cals of cardio (not counting long walks and other stuff I do) and lifting 3 sets of 3 exercises per day by muscle group. I'm going to bump my lifting back up to 3 sets of 5 or 6 exercises per day. When I start bulking, I'll drop cardio for the most part and do 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 7 exercises per day, but that's still a couple of weeks away.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

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October 31st

Total caloric intake: 1249
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 176
Net calorie intake: 1064

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 48%
Carbs: 32%
Fat: 20%

Weight: 177

Notes: I've lost about as much weight as I want to lose. I am going to try to maintain around this weight for the next two weeks or so, but try to continue to lose fat and add muscle by increasing calories and focusing on weight training and HIIT.

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November 1st

Total caloric intake: 2498
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 0
Net calorie intake: 2498

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 30%
Carbs: 43%
Fat: 27%

Weight: off day - did not weigh in

Notes: I'm allowing myself to eat some nutritionally crappier foods this weekend as a little gift to me now that I'm in the range of my goal as far as weight is concerned.

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November 2nd

Total caloric intake: 2682
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 280
Net calorie intake: 2402

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 26%
Carbs: 30%
Fat: 44%

Weight: 178

Notes: Same as yesterday. I ate two big cinnamon buns and felt sick as hell. I haven't had that much sugar in quite a while now and I think my body wasn't ready for it. Damn, it tasted good, though!

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November 3rd

Total caloric intake: 1713
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 472
Net calorie intake: 1241

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 44%
Carbs: 32%
Fat: 24%

Weight: 180

Notes: Back to lower calories today, but the crappiest food I ate over the weekend was after I weighed in yesterday, hence the higher weight today. Water seems to readily bind to carbs and drive weight up fast after carb intake has been low for a while, at least that's what my roommate - a biology major with a concentration in nutrition says I'm doing my test shots weekly at the moment and today was the day. My weight always seems to jump up a pound or two the day of and after an injection, also due to water I'm guessing. I stopped clen today. My current t3 dosage is 100mcg/day and has been for a week now; I'll probably begin tapering that down in a week or so. My IGF dosage has been about 60mcg/day for the past week. I'm doing injections PWO (so only on workout days, which is four to five days a week).

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November 4th

Total caloric intake: 1664
Caloric expenditure (excluding maintenance calories): 467
Net calorie intake: 1197

Calorie breakdown:
Protein: 40%
Carbs: 40%
Fat: 20%

Weight: 177

Notes: Looks like those bad carbs and associated water weight are out of my system - the weight is back down. I'm also reducing epistane to 20mg/day and beginning letro at 2.5mg/day. That change might also cause my water retention to drop a bit

I'm changing adapting my workout scheme so that I alternate days between lifting and doing HIIT. I lift four days per week, so that's a total eight days when interspersed with with HIIT. I take two days off during the training cycle, so the whole thing repeats every 10 days now. I've been shifting in this direction for the past week, and it seems to work well for maintaining weight and recomping. I'm still going to stay in a calorie deficit for another week or so, but not to the extent that I was initially.

 

[ballsoutpunk]

I think you're keeping your calories way too low. You shouldn't risk losing all that hard earned muscle in order to cut up. My advice would have been to start at 2600 (the low end of your maintenance) and throw in the AAS and chems. If that wasn't enough, keep the calories the same and play with your workout/cardio. Keep messing with that before you mess with your diet, then when you stop making gains you can lower cals by 150-250/week. The smallest change along with consistency should prove effective. You want to progressively change your routine and diet in order to keep moving forward. It will be very hard to do so starting with such low cals.

I would like to point out that teedubgee was right; I have sacrificed a decent amount of muscle. My lifts are down a little (not an incredible amount; probably proportional to my weight) and my endurance while lifting sucks. My rest periods need to be a lot longer now. I knew that I would lose some muscle using t3 and running such a calorie deficit. It was a little more than I estimated it would be, but not outside of the range I expected. No huge surprise. I should not have any problem putting that muscle back and adding a good deal more during my upcoming switch to bulking. My plan is to be lifting more when I finish bulking than I did at the peak of my last cycle and to be significantly leaner, which should work out. The upside is that I lost more weight and did so faster than planned, which is nice to be able to say.

Anyway, if you do not plan to bulk after cutting (which would be more normal), teedubgee's advice about keeping calorie deficits no more than a few hundred calories and doing HIIT (as he's recommended in other posts) would be the way to go. If you don't mind sacrificing some muscle, and want to get the weight of fast, what I've done works, and it hasn't taken long.

 

[teedubgee]

So far it seems like everything is working out just the way you planned. I can't make a concrete judgment just by your weights, so use the mirror as your scale. If you're losing fat and muscle is staying on, I wouldn't change much if anything. Good log man, keep at it!

 

[teedubgee]

Whoops, didn't see your last post until I posted my response. So you're switching to bulking pretty soon, huh? Make sure you don't get into too much of a rush to put that muscle back on. Take your time and increase your calories progressively. Again, use the mirror as your scale, but make sure you don't confuse water retention with fat gain. I just don't want you to over do it, and end up putting fat back on after your cut. Take some time and do some reading to better plan your attack. Good luck man and stay focused!

 

[ballsoutpunk]

Whoops, didn't see your last post until I posted my response. So you're switching to bulking pretty soon, huh? Make sure you don't get into too much of a rush to put that muscle back on. Take your time and increase your calories progressively. Again, use the mirror as your scale, but make sure you don't confuse water retention with fat gain. I just don't want you to over do it, and end up putting fat back on after your cut. Take some time and do some reading to better plan your attack. Good luck man and stay focused!

I'm definitely looking better in the mirror. My girlfriend says I feel like a skeleton now, and she's impressed with my more prominent "ass dimples" (her word for the area that dents in between the outside of your hips and the peaks of your glutes). Too much information, huh?

Just as you recommend, I have been slowly increasing my calorie intake. It was initially at a low of just over 400 per day, but is now up to more than three times that. I'm going to bring it closer to my maintenance level over the next few days and keep it there for a week or so, then try to get it up to at least 3500 per day in the weeks following that. I'm going to be starting tren before I get to the really important part of tapering off t3 - the part where you reduce the dosages lower than your normal endogenous production. During that taper period, my overall metabolism will be lower than normal and so will my maintenance calorie level. I'm hoping that tren (always along with test, of course) will be strong enough to ensure that the surplus of calories I'll be getting at the time are stored as muscle. One of the reasons I chose tren for the bulking phase is its ability to keep mass gains lean. Once I'm mostly or fully off of t3 and my metabolism has picked back up, I'll be adding insulin. I plan for the initial part of the bulking phase (test, tren, and insulin) to last about 8 weeks. After that, I'm going to switch to test prop for about 4 weeks so that it will clear my system quicker and make PCT easier and recovery faster. I also plan to run NPP along with the test prop to try to pack on a bit more mass toward the end and because nandrolone is supposedly the best steroid for gains retention. After around five days, I'll begin PCT, which will consist of toremifene and IGF. The anabolic components of the whole cycle in all of its phases will look like this (I'm currently in week 3)...

Cutting phase: weeks 1-4
Test E @ 500mg/wk
Epistane @ 30mg/day
IGF-1 LR3 @ 60mcg PWO
A crapload of other chems as listed in the initial post (clen, t3, Na-R-ALA, ALCAR)

Bulking phase part 1 (long esters): weeks 5-12
Test E @ 400mg/wk
Tren E @ 400mg/wk
Humalog @ ~8iu PWO beginning between weeks 6 and 7 (I'm waiting until I'm off of t3 and my metabolism has stabilized before beginning insulin - I don't want to get fat again!)
Dbol @ 40mg/day beginning week 8 (no orals from week 5 until week 8 - my liver will need a break after the Epistane)

Bulking phase part 2 (short esters to prepare for PCT): weeks 13-16
Test prop @ 400mg/wk
NPP @ 400mg/wk (this will be a short run; it will end during week 15 to allow time to clear out ahead of test before PCT)
Humalog @ ~8iu PWO
Dbol @ 40mg/day (will drop this before week 16 if any symptoms of liver compromise become apparent)

---Waiting 5 - 7 days before beginning PCT---

PCT: weeks 18-21
Toremifene @
180mg/day week 17
120mg/day week 18
60md/day weeks 19 and 20
IGF-1 LR3 @ 40mcg/day

Complicated enough, huh? I'm trying to do everything I can to maximize the efficiency of everything involved and to pair chemicals up exactly with my goals. I'm also trying to keep things pretty safe (for example, the monthlong break between orals).

I suspect that I'll put on 10 pounds the first week I start bulking because of increased water retention due to increased carb intake and because my metabolism will be lower than normal while tapering off of t3. If I do not lose any more, that would mean that I need to put on about 20lbs of lean mass to get back to the weight that I was. I think that should be easily doable with this cycle. I will be very careful to eat as little fat as possible after slin and will reduce the dose if I look like I'm packing any fat onto my belly.

Other than it being overly complicated, do you have any suggestions? Now's the time!

 

[ballsoutpunk]

I guess this will be my last post on this phase of my cycle, but I have nothing exciting to report. I stayed at 177 - 178 for about a week as I upped my calories to begin bulking. I lost a lot of fat, but a significant amount of muscle at the same time. Even though my employer pays for body fat analysis twice per year, I was unable to get anyone at the facility to help me set up an appointment for testing in a reasonable amount of time. Inefficiency at its best. Therefore, I have no ending body fat percentage, which is disappointing to me. I've gotten several comments from people that I look a lot smaller fully clothed, and several people have commented that I look more muscular with my shirt off. I've definitely leaned out. Most of my lifts are down around 15% and I've lost 14% of my body weight. I would say that I'm close to 10% body fat or slightly above now. For anyone who is considering t3 - it is definitely catabolic to muscle, even in light of everything I was taking. I dropped weight much more quickly than I had planned to, so the stuff I used in conjunction with a very low daily net calorie count was better than I expected.

I've now started to eat >3000cals on non-workout days and >4000 cals on workout days and have gained about 3 pounds in the past three days on nothing but 500mg/wk of test. I'm certain that tapering off of t3 has drastically lowered my metabolism and made my body more efficient at storing calories. Hopefully, it won't be too much of a challenge to put the weight I lost back on in mostly muscle.

Sorry that the conclusion isn't more exciting, but it's just been more of the same. Feel free to leave any comments or questions and I'll be happy to respond.

Thanks for reading.