End of cycle nutrition for fat loss and keeping your gains. Help needed.

[Oldman.]

Stats
36 years old
5’ 6.5” tall
200 lbs
-20% body fat centered around my mid section.

I am in the last few weeks of my cycle and need help getting my nutrition more in order for the end.

There is a calculator to check your caloric intake and I can’t remember what the name of it is. What are you guys and gals using?

I currently take in 4000 to 5000 cal a day. I don’t really track my macros atm so I could not really tell you what the carb/protein/fat ratios are because I eat out almost every day. When I do it’s usually
Ham and eggs with toast and jelly.

I am not very familiar with macros so a good link to help me get a better understanding of this topic would be great.

What is the caloric deficit I should run?

Any other information you need to help just ask.

Thanks for any help.

 

[OldmanRob]

Your not familiar with macros but your near the end of a cycle?

If you can't figure out your caloric intake you should not cycle at all.

Not meant as disrespectful or mean. It's just the simple truth.

Type calorie tracker or calorie counters on a Google search. It's that easy.

4000 to 5000 calls a day while over 20% was never a good idea in the first place.

 

[Oldman.]

Simply put your opinion does nothing to help.

Knowledge of macros is not as important as knowing your body and healthy eating habits.


I am just going to stop asking questions on this board. To much shit to wade through. Post something helpful or not at all.

My min caloric intake to remain at 200 lbs is 3000-3200 cal a day depending on which calculator I use.
https://www.tigerfitness.com/articles/post/tdee-calculator-total-daily-energy-expenditure/

 

[Iron_Yuppie]

Simply put your opinion does nothing to help.

Knowledge of macros is not as important as knowing your body and healthy eating habits.


I am just going to stop asking questions on this board. To much shit to wade through. Post something helpful or not at all.

Ok, so in order to give you any decent advice I will ask you a few questions about how your cycle went and what the before/after is like. What was your weight before you cycled? What was your bf before? What did you use on this cycle?

The best advice you'll get on here--whether it's given nicely or not so nicely--will be to eat out less and spend more time on meal preparation and planning. I'm around your age and I'm a dad with a 9-5 white collar job, so I absolutely understand how hard it can be to prioritize your diet. But I promise you that you can do it and that when you do you'll be much, much better off for it. Anyway, if you can answer some of my questions that I asked above I'll see what kind of advice I can give you. For reference I was once an overweight guy who got skinny through a disciplined diet and then, when I felt I was ready, started lifting weights again. But it was a full 16 months of nothing but diet diet diet before I would even go near the gym. I had to reorient my whole lifestyle and break bad habits before I could trust myself with the kind of calorie surplus that weightlifting required.

 

[OldmanRob]

Simply put your opinion does nothing to help.

Knowledge of macros is not as important as knowing your body and healthy eating habits.


I am just going to stop asking questions on this board. To much shit to wade through. Post something helpful or not at all.

My min caloric intake to remain at 200 lbs is 3000-3200 cal a day depending on which calculator I use.
TDEE Calculator - How Many Calories Do You Burn Per Day?

There is help in my answer, your just refusing to see it.

You need to know your caloric needs. If your already fat then you could have made great improvement with a good routine and maintenance calories.

I offered info on how easy it is to find a calorie counter. Just about all of them tell you calories, protein, carbs and fat in each item.

Your 20 percent plus body fat and your eating 4 to 5 k a day in calories but your guessing. You may be between 3000 to 8000 for all you know.

What did you eat yesterday?

If you can't do that much work then you should not expect a lot of help.

 

[Oldman.]

Ok, so in order to give you any decent advice I will ask you a few questions about how your cycle went and what the before/after is like. What was your weight before you cycled? What was your bf before? What did you use on this cycle?

The best advice you'll get on here--whether it's given nicely or not so nicely--will be to eat out less and spend more time on meal preparation and planning. I'm around your age and I'm a dad with a 9-5 white collar job, so I absolutely understand how hard it can be to prioritize your diet. But I promise you that you can do it and that when you do you'll be much, much better off for it. Anyway, if you can answer some of my questions that I asked above I'll see what kind of advice I can give you. For reference I was once an overweight guy who got skinny through a disciplined diet and then, when I felt I was ready, started lifting weights again. But it was a full 16 months of nothing but diet diet diet before I would even go near the gym. I had to reorient my whole lifestyle and break bad habits before I could trust myself with the kind of calorie surplus that weightlifting required.

Thanks for the assist.

Weight before I started the cycle was 175 I believe. Body fat was 15-18 percent. Now I am 200lbs and 18-20 percent.
Cycle was deca and test with hgh. Slin for the first 8 weeks. Diet was really strict the first 8 weeks as I still had a basic kitchen.

I am happy with the gains I made this cycle. I had higher expectations for some muscle groups but over all it went well. No issues really. I have been getting tapped for two years now and made much more progress during this cycle than the previous 14 month combined.

The main reason I did this cycle was I had a shoulder and forearm injury preventing me from getting past a certain point. I put over 5 inches on my shoulders during the cycle while eliminating the pain.

I already changed my eating habits two years ago. No wheat, low or no sugar, and no dairy products. I do have times of weakness during the holidays but the rest of the year not really.

I don’t eat “fast food” but I do eat out as I don’t have a kitchen right now. I can do the basics though. I have a microwave and rice cooker. So I am very limited on what I can make. I do love my nutrabullett. I was planing to keep it simple, rice, chicken and salads with protein shakes for the next few weeks and see how it goes.

Like I said my min calorie at 200lbs is 3000-3200 so what deficit would you run to avoid loosing muscle. I was told taking out 500 cal a day would be enough? What protein/carb/fat ratio would you run?

 

[Iron_Yuppie]

I suggest some trial and error in regards to your deficit. If you find that you still have adequate energy to train and go about your day while being in a 500 calorie deficit then go with that. The reality is that you will lose some muscle mass no matter what you do when you're cutting. It's one of the reasons that there are so many different cutting cycles out there.

I'd say run your PCT and assess how your body responds to a calorie deficit of 500, then tweak it as needed. The truth is that it's your body, so you'll know better than anyone on here whether or not your diet is working. I know for me I have a caloric sweet spot and if I'm above or below it on any given day I feel like total shit. As far as marcos go I'll leave that to you to search out what fits best with your current dietary plan. I know that when I have a day where I screw up my macros because of work or being too tired to cook properly or whatever I end up being mad at myself for failing. That lousy feeling carries over into other parts of ,h life and it's absolutely not worth beating myself up over. So do what works for you and you'll be just fine.

 

[FlatlandLifter]

You found your maintenance calories already, you will more than likely see a difference in body weight if you do go from your current 4-5k calorie intake down to the maintenance you’ve stated. Once your body weight settles on those calories you’d just further lower them to continue fat/weight loss or add in cardio at that point, then your body will be in a deficit.
As for maintaining what you’ve gained this cycle as you’re entering pct and wanting to diet I’d say it’s a little late. As stated above there’s cycles for that or you could also wait until your natural test returns and then continue dieting for fat loss. The best way to maintain your gains post cycle is to try keep similar training intensity and recover your natural levels as quick as possible.