Newbie gains, cutting, strength gains and other questions

[Ilk]

Hey everyone,

I have been lifting the past years but very inconsistently. 2-3 months on, 3-4 months off. I have worked on my general conditioning just to lose weight and keep a basic level of performance.

Now I have been pretty serious about my work outs. I am training many times per week working on different aspects - soccer (I play amateur soccer), boxing (I want to learn to fight for self defence purposes mainly) and Strength and some hypertrophy.

I have been losing weight the past months I went from 94kg to 85 in the past 3 months. I have been very serious about my lifts the past month and a half. About my boxing and my soccer performance. I am counting calories and etc. However I am quite un educated and I am receiving mixed reviews and advises.

1. Advice number 1. I should stop the cut for 2-3 months and work on hypertrophy. According to a top coach in Sofia. He advised I have been cutting weight for too long and my metabolism is going to slow down. He also strongly believes that winter one should work for strength, spring and autumn for hypertrophy and summer for conditioning. So he told me - March to start adding food and work on hypertrophy if muscle gain is one of my goals until May or June. Then I start cutting again. And yes looking sexy is one of my goals.

2. Advice number 2. I should eat way more protein. I am eating about 100-150g per advice from myfitnesspal. Actually the app tells me to eat 95g of protein. But a friend of mine tells me I am losing way too much muscle. I am not sure how it works, but my back, legs, and chest are bigger now than ever, even if I am cutting like a mad man. However my friend tells me I should have even a better muscle definition (whatever that means).

3. I should cut less. I have set it up to lose 0.5 kg per week. And my calorie intake is 1700 per day. I am told this is way too much for me. However I really do not feel hungry and since I increased the intake of cottage cheese I feel full as phuck. I am also working at least 7 times per week - 3x Strength, 2x boxing and the rest is either soccer practice games, or running. So I eating almost every day over 2000 calories, on soccer day over 2500.

And now the questions:
1. How do I gain strength while cutting. I lift very light still and I have improved slightly on my strength gains, however, man, I can barelly bench 60kg for 3 reps.
2. Is my protein intake and calorie intake good enough?
3. Should I stop cutting for 2-3 months? I am fat. 173-175 cm tall, and 85-86kg.... that is about 20%+ fat. I was targeting 78kg and about 15-16% fats before going for hypertrophy.
4. How do newbie gains work? I think I am getting some undeserved muscle, while my friends think I should be looking even better from a muscle gain perspective.

 

[Zanatos333]

Its very difficult to gain muscle while losing fat unless you are significantly untrained and fat. You will experience noob gains, for how long and to what extent varies substantially by the person. You will eventually run out of noob gains. No one can tell you exactly when. I'm not even sure what you have been experiencing can be considered as such, since I don't know how much you were lifting when you started and how much you are now. I don't think you are considering you said you have made only slight improvements to strength gains. True noob gains can be pretty impressive drastic, think 20 plus pounds(8 kgs) on to your squat a week.

My advice would be to get down to 78kg if that was your goal. You are only 7kg away. If it took you 3 months to lose 9kg, you could probably eat a bit less. 1700 seems reasonable for someone your size who wants to lose a bit of weight. Since you are so active a little more wouldn't hurt. General rule of thumb, is gram of protein per a pound of lean body mass so about 2.2 grams per a kilogram. I would think keeping it about 150 should fine for someone your size.

Ultimately, what you have been doing has been successful so far, so I wouldn't completely change what you are doing. Considering getting around 2000 calories a day, with about at least 150 grams of protein. I would start lifting heavy and often, if you want noob gains. It will be inefficient because you are on a deficit but you probably can still get stronger and lose weight at the same time. At the very least, you wont lose a lot of muscle. Do something along the lines of starting strength but skip the gallon of milk a day. That with your cardio, you should be well on your way to 78kg.

Good luck.

 

[corpse]

1. stop thinking in cutting and bulking phases. if you wanna lose bodyfat and minimize muscle and strength loss then do low carb for a while and eat a good amount of protein. 150 g a day should be plenty.
2. protein is good, calories are too low i would say. 0,5 kg a week is a good progress, though. so just keep doing what you are doing.
3. stop bulking/cutting and just establish good eating habits. avoid junk and don't binge eat on a daily basis. keep counting calories until you are at your goal weight and then try to just pick the right foods at the right quantity. keep counting calories if you feel you need it to stay in control of your weight.
4. don't listen to your friends. pick a sound routine with a sound progression, starting strength/stronglifts e.g., and just work on your lifts. you absolutely can lose weight and become stronger as a newbie. so just keep on, don't eat shit foods and enjoy your progress.

 

[miaou]

I can barelly bench 60kg for 3 reps.

173-175 cm tall, and 85-86kg.... that is about 20%+ fat.

I have been very serious about my lifts the past month and a half.

At this point in your life all you need is to eat healthy, train properly, and be consistent over a long period of time.

Read this: http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/strength-power-faq-v2-0.1339105/

And this: http://athletic-development.blogspot.gr/2014/12/sports-nutrition-understanding-basic.html

And forget about "cutting", counting calories, your "metabolism" and all that jazz.

 

[Ilk]

1. stop thinking in cutting and bulking phases. if you wanna lose bodyfat and minimize muscle and strength loss then do low carb for a while and eat a good amount of protein. 150 g a day should be plenty.
2. protein is good, calories are too low i would say. 0,5 kg a week is a good progress, though. so just keep doing what you are doing.
3. stop bulking/cutting and just establish good eating habits. avoid junk and don't binge eat on a daily basis. keep counting calories until you are at your goal weight and then try to just pick the right foods at the right quantity. keep counting calories if you feel you need it to stay in control of your weight.
4. don't listen to your friends. pick a sound routine with a sound progression, starting strength/stronglifts e.g., and just work on your lifts. you absolutely can lose weight and become stronger as a newbie. so just keep on, don't eat shit foods and enjoy your progress.

1. Thanks about the protein amount. I really though 200g is a lot of protein to look forward to. I am already a gas releasing machine with 150gs.
2. I will keep it up. Thank you
3. My eating habits are good. My breakfast consists mostly of eggs, cottage cheese, Greek Yogurt, musli. My lunch of potato and rise with meat, recently I added white bean, lens soup, green bean with my grandma moving to live with me. And my dinner is usually some kind of a salad with no dressing - mostly greens and meat or fish. I snack with wallnuts, protein, a tblspn of homemade honey, and fruits. My grandma has also rised my cousin who did bodybuilding back in the days and surprisingly she is freaking educated about healthy food
4. My Strength routine was made from Sano who is familiar with what I do as other activities. This is my log - http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/a-wanna-be-fighters-log.3490301/