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I have taken this from bb.com but I thought it would help most of you so I posted it
****Here is a diet that I have been on and in the process of building for the past 6 months. It is all hypothetical and based on the knowledge I have of bodybuilding and strength training. If there are issues on here that you find to be untrue, please feel free to point them out.****
**** Warning: Very Long read ****
For many of us, size gain and huge muscles are not at the top of our priorities. This diet will be beneficial for people who are interested in gaining strength without the massive increases in body mass. It is also ideal for those looking for body recomposition type effects where the user is looking to gain quality muscle while burning excess bodyfat.
Prolonged periods of underfeeding or overfeeding present many issues with our bodies that can be easily avoided in order to maximize results. This program negates the negatives aspects of both cutting and bulking and concentrates on the positives for strength gain and body recomposition
First of all let?s look at what is normally done on a cut. You cut your calories drastically, Lower/cut carbs, lower/cut fat and add more cardio to your regimen. After a few weeks of this underfeeding and overtraining period, your cortisol levels are higher than ever and testosterone is at an all time low making it difficult to maintain muscle no matter how hard you work out.
Long cutting cycles drastically lower the levels of leptin which in turn slows your metabolism to a crawl. This is the dreaded plateau that is always mentioned. Ever wonder why cutting calories and upping cardio no longer burns fat? Instead you just become a smaller version of yourself.
After a while it takes a lot more effort just to get the least bit of results. Your body gets used to the calorie deprivation and becomes for efficient ant using your calories for fuel.
Many people go through a "bulking phase" where they gain muscle at the expense of fat as well. You pile on the food and then workout heavy hoping to turn those calories into muscle. No doubt it does, but high-calorie diets consumed over the long term increase fat as much or more than muscle.
For professional bodybuilders, this is the most efficient way to net the most amount of muscle by the end of the year or in time for the stage, but for most people it is more important to be strong and look good all the time, not just during "cutting phase" or to peak on the stage for 1 day.
But Like I said before I think this is more beneficial for strength athletes who are looking to gain strength without too much mass, so lets look into that.
For strength athletes, heavy lifting for prolonged periods of time is very taxing on the Central Nervous System and joints as well. When lifting at >90% of your 1RM, your CNS is getting highly stimulated and doing this over time is very taxing on your body. It is often recommended that power lifters have a ?deload? period where they allow the CNS to rest and recuperate. I am taking this deload period and instead of just resting the CNS, instead rest the CNS while burning extra bodyfat and working your muscles through volume training. This will allow you to have a sort of active rest where you are working out the muscles but not using heavy enough weights that will hinder the recovery of the CNS.
The diet consists of a 20 day strength training phase where calorie consumption is 120% of your daily maintenance calories. It incorporates compound lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Military press) and heavy strength training on a 20/40/40 diet, followed by a 10 day period of underfeeding at 70% of your daily maintenance calories. I recommend a ketogenic type diet with a full body depletion workout and volume training workouts targeted for muscle hypertrophy. Another option is a protein sparing modified fast such as the velocity diet.
Maintenance calories can be estimated by using this calculator:
Calorie Calculator - Daily Caloric Needs
http://www.bodybuildbid.com/articles…alculator.html
After a hypercalorie period, your body and metabolism will be primed for fat loss. The increase in metabolism during the bulk weeks would speed up the process of fat loss during the cut week. Your leptin levels would be fully charged and your body has been used to the burning high calories. This also allows your CNS to rest while you work on volume training and muscle hypertrophy. While strength losses would be kept to a minimum during a cut, as strength losses usually occur after 2 or 3 weeks of a underfeeding. Your fat burning during the optimized weeks should shed any extra fat you may have put on during your strength period. Before your leptin and testosterone levels get a chance to drop and your cortisol levels get to far out of control, we begin a period of overfeeding where we get the immediate benefits of switching to a hypercaloric state again.
Each cycle lasts 30 days and consists of 20 days of bulking and 10 days of drastic cutting. This program is sort of a 3 steps forward 2 steps back type program that will give you a net gain in muscle and a steady loss of fat. Try 3 cycles and watch your body change while your strength skyrockets!
These are the 3 core workouts that should be done on a weekly basis. In between these workouts, feel free to add supporting muscle workouts such as arms, calves, abs ect. Just make sure it does not affect the main workouts.
WORKOUT A
Squats: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 set sof 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 1 Set of 8 (at 70% 5RM)
Bench: 5 sets of 5RM
Bent over rows: 5 sets of 5RM
WORKOUT B
Deadlift: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 sets of 3 (at 110% of 5RM)
Military Press: 5 sets at 5RM (finish w/ push press if necessary)
Clean and Press: 5 sets at 5RM
Lat Pull Downs: 5 sets at 5RM
WORKOUT C
Squats: 2 sets of 5RM, 2 set of 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 3 Sets of 1 (Max)
Bench: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 sets of 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 1 Set of 8 (at 70% 5RM)
Bent over rows: 3 sets of 5RM, 3 sets of 8 (at 80% 5RM)
****Here is a diet that I have been on and in the process of building for the past 6 months. It is all hypothetical and based on the knowledge I have of bodybuilding and strength training. If there are issues on here that you find to be untrue, please feel free to point them out.****
**** Warning: Very Long read ****
For many of us, size gain and huge muscles are not at the top of our priorities. This diet will be beneficial for people who are interested in gaining strength without the massive increases in body mass. It is also ideal for those looking for body recomposition type effects where the user is looking to gain quality muscle while burning excess bodyfat.
Prolonged periods of underfeeding or overfeeding present many issues with our bodies that can be easily avoided in order to maximize results. This program negates the negatives aspects of both cutting and bulking and concentrates on the positives for strength gain and body recomposition
First of all let?s look at what is normally done on a cut. You cut your calories drastically, Lower/cut carbs, lower/cut fat and add more cardio to your regimen. After a few weeks of this underfeeding and overtraining period, your cortisol levels are higher than ever and testosterone is at an all time low making it difficult to maintain muscle no matter how hard you work out.
Long cutting cycles drastically lower the levels of leptin which in turn slows your metabolism to a crawl. This is the dreaded plateau that is always mentioned. Ever wonder why cutting calories and upping cardio no longer burns fat? Instead you just become a smaller version of yourself.
After a while it takes a lot more effort just to get the least bit of results. Your body gets used to the calorie deprivation and becomes for efficient ant using your calories for fuel.
Many people go through a "bulking phase" where they gain muscle at the expense of fat as well. You pile on the food and then workout heavy hoping to turn those calories into muscle. No doubt it does, but high-calorie diets consumed over the long term increase fat as much or more than muscle.
For professional bodybuilders, this is the most efficient way to net the most amount of muscle by the end of the year or in time for the stage, but for most people it is more important to be strong and look good all the time, not just during "cutting phase" or to peak on the stage for 1 day.
But Like I said before I think this is more beneficial for strength athletes who are looking to gain strength without too much mass, so lets look into that.
For strength athletes, heavy lifting for prolonged periods of time is very taxing on the Central Nervous System and joints as well. When lifting at >90% of your 1RM, your CNS is getting highly stimulated and doing this over time is very taxing on your body. It is often recommended that power lifters have a ?deload? period where they allow the CNS to rest and recuperate. I am taking this deload period and instead of just resting the CNS, instead rest the CNS while burning extra bodyfat and working your muscles through volume training. This will allow you to have a sort of active rest where you are working out the muscles but not using heavy enough weights that will hinder the recovery of the CNS.
The diet consists of a 20 day strength training phase where calorie consumption is 120% of your daily maintenance calories. It incorporates compound lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Military press) and heavy strength training on a 20/40/40 diet, followed by a 10 day period of underfeeding at 70% of your daily maintenance calories. I recommend a ketogenic type diet with a full body depletion workout and volume training workouts targeted for muscle hypertrophy. Another option is a protein sparing modified fast such as the velocity diet.
Maintenance calories can be estimated by using this calculator:
Calorie Calculator - Daily Caloric Needs
http://www.bodybuildbid.com/articles…alculator.html
After a hypercalorie period, your body and metabolism will be primed for fat loss. The increase in metabolism during the bulk weeks would speed up the process of fat loss during the cut week. Your leptin levels would be fully charged and your body has been used to the burning high calories. This also allows your CNS to rest while you work on volume training and muscle hypertrophy. While strength losses would be kept to a minimum during a cut, as strength losses usually occur after 2 or 3 weeks of a underfeeding. Your fat burning during the optimized weeks should shed any extra fat you may have put on during your strength period. Before your leptin and testosterone levels get a chance to drop and your cortisol levels get to far out of control, we begin a period of overfeeding where we get the immediate benefits of switching to a hypercaloric state again.
Each cycle lasts 30 days and consists of 20 days of bulking and 10 days of drastic cutting. This program is sort of a 3 steps forward 2 steps back type program that will give you a net gain in muscle and a steady loss of fat. Try 3 cycles and watch your body change while your strength skyrockets!
These are the 3 core workouts that should be done on a weekly basis. In between these workouts, feel free to add supporting muscle workouts such as arms, calves, abs ect. Just make sure it does not affect the main workouts.
WORKOUT A
Squats: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 set sof 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 1 Set of 8 (at 70% 5RM)
Bench: 5 sets of 5RM
Bent over rows: 5 sets of 5RM
WORKOUT B
Deadlift: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 sets of 3 (at 110% of 5RM)
Military Press: 5 sets at 5RM (finish w/ push press if necessary)
Clean and Press: 5 sets at 5RM
Lat Pull Downs: 5 sets at 5RM
WORKOUT C
Squats: 2 sets of 5RM, 2 set of 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 3 Sets of 1 (Max)
Bench: 3 sets of 5RM, 2 sets of 3 (at 110% of 5RM), 1 Set of 8 (at 70% 5RM)
Bent over rows: 3 sets of 5RM, 3 sets of 8 (at 80% 5RM)