Sumi's Cutting Journey for Photo Shoot

Robles · 07-28-2010, 07:05 PM

Hey BBR! So I want to do a photo shoot in August and wanted to share my experience with the "cut" to get there. Never done this before and the whole process is mysterious to me (i.e., carb cycling, dehydration techniques, card depletion and loading). I'm starting to go super gradual with the drop in Cals. It's my last week on the 12 week Hybrid program and don't want to mess around too much now since I'm blogging it.

Here's the diet I followed for the past 11 weeks (*and boy was this a lot of food for me*):

Meal 1: 8 egg whites, one yolk, ½ cup oatmeal

Meals 2, 3, 4, and 5. 6 oz of lean meat or 7 oz fish, 1 cup veggies, ¾ cup brown rice. 1 TBSP almond butter every other day at meal 3.

Meal 6: 8 egg whites, one yolk, ½ cup veggies, 4 tsps Barlean’s Omega Swirl Fish Oil (yummy!)

So, two weeks ago- I cut the egg yolk out from meals 1 and 6, and then this past week (week 11 on Hybrid) I cut out the carb from meal 5, but still have carbs for meals 1-4. I still take the fish oil for Meal 6 but cut out the every other day almond butter. Next week, I am dropping the protein sizes by 1 oz for all meals.

I'm finally actually kind of hungry between meals!!

As a result of these changes, I have not noticed any decrease in energy levels. I'm not seeing any strength decreases yet, but I'm not seeing any increases in strength either. I saw some awesome increases on the porgram though-esp from weeks 3-8.

Anyway- comments welcome and I'll be sure to share my progress here!

Time to go eat...

markus · 07-28-2010, 08:15 PM

Part of your strength situation is probably the common effect of running a routine through a 12-week duration. This is just a general rule of thumb, but the adaptation time for most people is anywhere from 8-16 weeks, depending on intensity used, diet, previous experience, etc. This is a factor in the recommendation to use the hybrid routine for an initial 12-week period, and assess the situation when the 12 weeks are done.

Another part is that the hybrid routine is not optimized for maximum strength gains. You certainly will be stronger from using it, but the parameters are not meant to have the same degree of extended strength results that a pure intensity routine would elicit.

Because of the different weekly training modes that you have been using, your caloric intake has been successful in helping you gain strength and muscle without much added fat. This means that you successfully avoided the dreaded overeating syndrome that plagues a lot of people when they use some sort of bulking routine. Therefore, you are wise to start with moderate caloric decreases as you retain your hard-won muscle. (When people have gained more fat during their bulking phases, they can cut kcals more severely in the beginning of their subsequent cutting phases.)

But how much time do you have until your photo session? August is only a few days away, so are you going to be cutting for only 2-3 weeks? You don’t have much fat to lose, judging from your latest pictures, but for competitions, many bodybuilders and fitness competitors cut for far more time than that. Your deadline will affect your overall program and your expectations.

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