Who is on a cut?

[Wilhelm]

Weighed in at 84.7 kg, and just made my 350 DOTS score goal.
350.459

I'm going to keep cutting hard the rest of March, and maybe beyond, but more gradually.

Well, i'm actually just going to continue cutting down into the -82.5kg class from here.
2,200 to 2250 calories per day for a moderate rate of loss.

Goal is 360 DOTS at next year's state championship meet.

[Wilhelm]

Bitting the bullet and going with 2k calories per day.
Now that i'm a little leaner, doing 2,250 is just going to drag things out way too long to get to target.
Best to do it now while training weights remain lighter.

[Wilhelm]

Continuing to cut while training weights are lighter.
Still have a decent amount of fat on low back, old man belly (but that has improved) and probably my ass.
Looking to drop about 2.5kg from here.

[augeleven]

Stress eating and drastically cutting training volume caused my weight to shoot up like 10 pounds this month. Probably gonna do something drastic, and probably stupid for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

[broseph]

@Wilhelm “stubborn belly fat” gets all the attention, but nobody wants to talk about that low back fat. That stuff must be physiologically essential or something.

[CaptainAwesome]

@Wilhelm “stubborn belly fat” gets all the attention, but nobody wants to talk about that low back fat. That stuff must be physiologically essential or something.

It's probably one of the last places to go, kinda like buttcheek fat. That's why sometimes when you hear bodybuilders talk about cutting, "glute striations" is usually considered the point where you're actually in contest shape.

Also, in case anyone might have been wondering, I can contribute my own anecdote. Maintenance phases absolutely fucking work. I did an 8 week cut that was running into a lot of trouble getting to 278. Ran a 4 week maintenance, and three days into cutting again now I'm already down to 278. The diet from the end of the cut vs the beginning of this new one is no different. That shit works.

[Wilhelm]

Getting pissed off the scale isn't moving.
Impatient, since outside of 6 weeks at maintenance before the meet, i've been cutting since late october.
I may have had 3 or so surplus "refeed" days in there as well.

I think it's that i'm leaner now too that caused me to underestimate what it's going to take for these last 6 pounds.

Removed one more Tbsp PB today, and am coming in just a little over 1,800 calories.
150 grams protein.
Once i hit target i should be able to maintain with close to 2,500
Can hardly wait.

**I'm thinking i will just cut down to 82.5kg/ 181.8lb rather than push farther on.
That leaves me only 4lbs

I had great success this last meet just doing a gut cut meet week, and stopping eating and drinking completely around 9am Friday.
I also spit 1 1/3 lbs using the wrestler's trick with cinnimon gum.
Meet is nearly a year off anyway.
I'm sure if i maintain in the class, i can come in well under day of.
360 dots is still the goal
I'll need to be at maintenance sooner than later as my training weights will be going up.
I have started light, but that won't last forever.

[Culican]

I track my calories and weigh myself once weekly (on Saturday) first thing in the morning. For the last three months my calorie intake has bee constant at ~2350kcal/day. I eat twice a day and breakfast is always the same; dinners have some variety but I repeat a lot of them so my tracking is fairly accurate.

On August 1, 2021 my weight was 201.5lb. Since then I have done a long slow cut transitioning to maintenance in October 2022, at a weight of 169lb.

I see that many people track their weight daily. For me it seems impossible to draw any short-term conclusions from even weekly weighing as the example below shows. Does anyone else have fluctuations like this?

Without any change in caloric intake I have gotten these results:
12/31/22 171.0
01/07/23 171.0
01/14/23 171.5
01/21/23 170.0
01/28/23 170.0
02/04/23 170.0
02/11/23 171.0
02/18/23 171.0
02/25/23 169.0
03/04/23 171.0
03/11/23 174.0
03/18/23 173.0
03/25/23 173.0
04/01/23 171.0

[CaptainAwesome]

I track my calories and weigh myself once weekly (on Saturday) first thing in the morning. For the last three months my calorie intake has bee constant at ~2350kcal/day. I eat twice a day and breakfast is always the same; dinners have some variety but I repeat a lot of them so my tracking is fairly accurate.

On August 1, 2021 my weight was 201.5lb. Since then I have done a long slow cut transitioning to maintenance in October 2022, at a weight of 169lb.

I see that many people track their weight daily. For me it seems impossible to draw any short-term conclusions from even weekly weighing as the example below shows. Does anyone else have fluctuations like this?

Without any change in caloric intake I have gotten these results:
12/31/22 171.0
01/07/23 171.0
01/14/23 171.5
01/21/23 170.0
01/28/23 170.0
02/04/23 170.0
02/11/23 171.0
02/18/23 171.0
02/25/23 169.0
03/04/23 171.0
03/11/23 174.0
03/18/23 173.0
03/25/23 173.0
04/01/23 171.0

I try to weigh-in daily. I don't conclude on what the trend actually is until like a week of data is in. But yes, fluctuations like this can be normal. A lot of this is probably your varied dinners. Also daily activity can fluctuate and influence this. If you have something like pizza for dinner, it'll make you come in heavier the next day.

[Bliss]

I track my calories and weigh myself once weekly (on Saturday) first thing in the morning. For the last three months my calorie intake has bee constant at ~2350kcal/day. I eat twice a day and breakfast is always the same; dinners have some variety but I repeat a lot of them so my tracking is fairly accurate.

On August 1, 2021 my weight was 201.5lb. Since then I have done a long slow cut transitioning to maintenance in October 2022, at a weight of 169lb.

I see that many people track their weight daily. For me it seems impossible to draw any short-term conclusions from even weekly weighing as the example below shows.
...

In your maintenance example, I'd posit that you would have better data if you were weighing every day.
Reason is exactly as you stated yourself: daily fluctuations. However, my argument is that with daily weighing, the fluctuations would more likely cancel each other out, whereas in your 1/7 weighings, you might be "catching" the "unfortunate" peaks and troughs.

Of course, I'm assuming a person doesn't just look at the weights each day and try to draw conclusions from it, but instead uses a weighted moving average - either manually (pain in the ...) or with an app (Libra or similar).

Read the online book "the hacker's diet" about this whole topic, it's really interesting and much better worded!

[Culican]

I track my calories and weigh myself once weekly (on Saturday) first thing in the morning. For the last three months my calorie intake has bee constant at ~2350kcal/day. I eat twice a day and breakfast is always the same; dinners have some variety but I repeat a lot of them so my tracking is fairly accurate.

On August 1, 2021 my weight was 201.5lb. Since then I have done a long slow cut transitioning to maintenance in October 2022, at a weight of 169lb.

I see that many people track their weight daily. For me it seems impossible to draw any short-term conclusions from even weekly weighing as the example below shows.
...

Of course, I'm assuming a person doesn't just look at the weights each day and try to draw conclusions from it, but instead uses a weighted moving average - either manually (pain in the ...) or with an app (Libra or similar).

Read the online book "the hacker's diet" about this whole topic, it's really interesting and much better worded!

I actually do calculate a moving average where I give 60% weight to the current scale reading and 40% to the previous weeks average (which is itself an average of all the previous weeks). Why 60%? It just seemed like a good idea when I set the spreadsheet up. Below are my weights with that in the rightmost column. Looking at my moving average, my weight has been slowly increasing for the last three months.

Date --- Wt --- Mov Avg
12/31/22 171.0 169.5
01/07/23 171.0 170.1
01/14/23 171.5 170.6
01/21/23 170.0 170.4
01/28/23 170.0 170.2
02/04/23 170.0 170.1
02/11/23 171.0 170.5
02/18/23 171.0 170.7
02/25/23 169.0 170.0
03/04/23 171.0 170.4
03/11/23 174.0 171.8
03/18/23 173.0 172.3
03/25/23 173.0 172.6
04/01/23 171.0 172.0

[augeleven]

I eat like a complete idiot most of the time. I’m working on it. But my daily calorie intake fluctuates a whole lot. Having a rolling average of daily weigh ins smooths out the sometimes 5 pound daily difference

ETA weight fluctuations are probably more to do with the days when I jog, and have less water in the body TBH.

[Wilhelm]

Little bit of sauerkraut is very effective in staving off the munchies desire to gorge.

[lheugh]

Glucomannan powder mixed with water and flavour drops can make a zero calorie jelly that is actually filling as it expands in the stomach. I've employed this little creative practice when being stage-lean and hunger issues abound.

[Wilhelm]

[Hardartery]

Very nice progress!

[Wilhelm]

Very nice progress!

Thank you.
Last slot on the PAL to first after the adjustment.
But the lever has never been there since i got the belt.

Crazy eyes Willy

[CaptainAwesome]

Very nice progress!

Thank you.
Last slot on the PAL to first after the adjustment.
But the lever has never been there since i got the belt.

Crazy eyes Willy

God damn, at 61 no less? That's damned impressive work. I'm 38, and the last time I was that lean I was a teenager. Have you found as you've gotten older the body seems to fight more to hold onto more fat? It really feels that way for me.

[Wilhelm]

Have you found as you've gotten older the body seems to fight more to hold onto more fat? It really feels that way for me.

*Edit, did you mean it fights hard *and * holds onto fat more?
If so then yes lol.


This is my first really serious cut since i started lifting in late 2016.
I did lose 50lbs in 6 months then, but i had gotten fat AF by that time.
Started losing weight in early October, and started lifting in later November.
Almost all my adult life i was lean, and around 163/165lbs, but i was a pretty hardcore road cyclist until right around 50 years old.
Tapered off the miles some at 45ish.
But started really logging lots of miles when i was 15.
But i kept eating the same way when i wasn't riding that way, and got fat pretty fast.

fwiw, i had bulked to 95.25kg by October last year, and have been cutting since then outside of 6 weeks of maintenance leading into my March 18th meet.
I'm roughly 83.5kg am weight now.

[BostonRugger]

It's day 10 of the cut. I'm down 5lbs from 225 to 220. This is the lightest I've been for 8-10 years. I'm happy that I managed an actual maintenance phase after my last cut, with only 1-2 lbs of weight gain over a 6wk period. I'm doing 3 running sessions per week as well.

The plan is 10-12 weeks holding around 2600cals. Should up between 205 and 210.

Got down to 211. Was somewhere between 245 and 250 last fall.


ETA: Wilhelm looks diesel