Hello IST I’ve been working out for the past 8 months or so and lurking this board.
I’ve put on a good bit of muscle and want to know if it’s time to cut?
I am 6’1 and 248 lbs roughly 27.5 % body fat
Bench is 225x2
Squat is 315x3
Any help would be much appreciated.
If top left is current then you should have cut three months ago. All jokes aside, cut when you feel like you are too pudgy/fat. Personally I wouldn't go over 20% body fat at the very most.
>27.5 % body fat
cut forever
Start cutting in january so youre cut for the good spring/summer weather. The whole point of lifting imho is to build muscle AND look sick dont forego one for the other, put some weight on build some miscle but show the world the muscle come summertime you get what im sayin?
If he starts cutting now he might have abs in June. It takes a painfully long amount of time to get there when you are fat like OP.
Tbh i didnt think hed get abs shredded by march i just mean he can be slimmer come that time and even if you slim out and have no abs the rest of your muscles should get better definition. Dude could look tank top great by march i think
january? lol. with 15 years of experience i can confidently say that OP has absolutely zero possibility of having abs by summer. You dont just go from 28% bf to 12% in one swoop. Even in a perfect theoretical world that is 2% bf loss in a month for 8 months = 16% bodyfat difference. But how often does that happen? How often do you diet for 8 months straight with not a single rebound, frick-up, stagnation etc? You can often times double very safely the amount of time ppl think they need to cut ie. if you think you get ripped in 3 months from march to june, double it to 6. So start in december.
OP needed to start his diet half a year ago at the latest but the next best time to start is today. And you will not have abs by summer even if you start today just btw for OP but that doesnt mean you shouldnt do it. You need to get your baseline WAY LOWER. Your peak bulk should be around 15-16%, not 28%. THEN you can actually get abs pretty reasonably within 3 months. It's not good or healthy to diet for longer than that. Also its fricking hard.
I have done it, but I am a machine. It's not something you should ever have to do though. Get your shit together and never allow yourself to be more than three months away from abs. Carrying more fat than that is just stupid.
Can't he cut more aggressively at first though? He's at a high bf%, usually you can afford to be in a higher calorie deficit when you're a lard ass. If OP isn't an insecure b***h then he'd cut aggressively and not give a frick about his strength for a while. He could probably even benefit from fasting for a week or two since he's so beyond the healthy range
Agressive cut is 1% body weight per week. There's no way of knowing how much of that 1% is fat vs muscle, but obviously earlier in the cut it'll swing heavily towards fat loss.
A 1% bodyweight per week cut for 16 week would probably bring OP to 13% bf if he keeps his protein high and trains hard. Some people have visible abs at 13% bf, but a 4 month cut that's gotta be that strict will be pretty brutal.
I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ve gotta have a brutal couple months of cutting to get semi-fit. I’ve already got my weekly calories/workouts planned
Oh idt hed have abs by then i just think hed be slimmed and trimmed up for spring and summer and overall look better even if he doesnt have visible abs by spring. Good info tho
Thanks for the feedback man. Yeah I get what you’re saying but my main concern is cutting and then not having a lot of muscle under the fat. Like how do I know when I have enough muscle?
You kinda wont know unless you start the cut i guess maybe you could use a rope ruler and pull it tight on your skin when flexing and it might give you a decent idea of whats under there but just off the pics here alone im sure youll be fine you wont become frail i promise you that much
It's time to cut when you are fat, which you are. There is nothing else to do when you are fat. Next time watch what you eat.
I know I’m fat but before I started working out I couldn’t even bench 1 plate. Figured I might as well pack on muscle while I’m fat
I'd start cutting now if you want to get the a decent bf by the summer months
Also I’m not entirely sure about the bf accuracy. Anyone know where I’m supposed to measure? I measured around the hips for waist(basically on the bellybutton) but someone said I’m supposed to measure above that?
I've said this many times, if your waist measures more than 48% of your height then cut. If less than 45% then bulk.
You won't get super shredded this way, but you will look fairly decent all year round.
>this blob of fat looks big just because of genetics luck
my man you have breasts and a spare tire, this shouldn't even be a question
cut now and pray your skin is not permanently ruined. cut fat below 10% calories and add cardio. even if your skin is nit permanently fricked it will take like a year until it gets tight again when you reach sub 15%bf. good luck.