TLDR: Slow and steady often seems to be recommended for sustainable long term health and fitness. If recomps really work, Why would the average person cut/bulk?

After years in the gym for longevity/strength, I'm now embracing the vain and trying for aesthetics as I near 50.

I'd always thought simultaneous hypertrophy or strength with fat loss was not possible. I'd also never heard of a recomp until this year and after 3 months, I think I'm accomplishing it.

I've gone from 183lbs to 167 and still seeing progression in my current routine. Upper abs are popping, (let's not discuss the lower gut) I have zero diet fatigue, and my energy is better than ever.

I've always yo-yo'd after past cuts. I've never bulked before (muscle gain isn't that hard for me) but if I decide to after a few months, I like the idea of just adding a moderate amount of calories vs a high surplus.

Does a recomp only take you so far? Do you need to aggressively cut and suffer to get to, say, below 15% body fat?

I've been on my fitness journey for almost a year. I've lost 15 pounds in about five months and am holding steady at 165 since at my current albeit light exercise routine and diet adjustments. So while my weight has plateaued, I've noticed real lovely strength gains. Six months ago, I could never dream of doing a controlled single leg squat all the way to the ground, but now I can, several times!!! I may not be able to get back up on one leg, but a gain is a gain.

Looking for an 8-10 week cut program. I’m female. Any recommendations? Would prefer recs that have been tried.

I like the idea of EGYM--structured workouts with machines that let you track your progress--but there aren't any in my area. I'm wondering if there are alternatives that are similar. (I'd prefer not to work with free weights and prefer not to work regularly with a trainer.) Thanks!

I slacked on my diet and exercise routine just ever so slightly the last two weeks of October and reverted one month of progress.

I thought I would reach my weight and bf% goals and be able to kinda relax on this routine. I eat the same 5 meals 6 days of the week (not awful but it's getting boring) and working out 5x a week is honestly pretty time consuming. But what I just experienced is the slightest deviation of this current program and I immediately start gaining weight and inches.

The deviation :

1. I had a couple beer nights where I had like 4 beers

2. I ate one fun sized milky way every day for the last week of October

3. I missed one mesely workout.

I really thought maybe after one year of this routine (I'm 5 months in) I could go back to eating more carbs and not have to push myself so hard in the weight room 5x a week.

I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to my old habits if I wanted to sustain my progress but dam- it's looking like I'm not going to be able to ever eat candy again or drink beer again. Seems to be genetic .. my dad and all his brothers had very similar frame as me in their 30s and by the time they were 50 they all weighed over 300.

Does anyone have any anecdotes of getting yourself to a good place fitness-wise , like you met your goals. What did you have to do to maintain your body? Or did you continue the same routine that got you in shape forever every day until you die?

I'm a 33 years old woman, 120 lbs, 5'2''. Used to only do pilates once a week, and for the past month have been paying attention to diet, and added 4 more workouts a week. 2 weight lifting/resistance trainings with a PT, one by myself, and one cardio session (30 minutes on the electrical), in addition to pilates. I want to lose weight and look more fit, but I'm finding the 1220 daily calorie budget (I'm trying to eat at a calorie deficit) to be quite difficult. I'm not sure if I should just keep going, change my daily calorie intake, or do anything else different. I started at 124 one month ago. Dropped 2-3lbs within the first two weeks, and now progress seems to be slowing down. But to be fair, I started with mostly cardio, and I'm not exactly able to stay within the 1220 budget. Help? Suggestions? Thanks!

36 M ~164 pounds. Lifting minimum 5 times a week for an hour and eating less than 1800 calories per day with 150g or protein. I started my cut at 180lbs. I consider myself fairly muscular and my goal has been to hit 160lbs or a body fat look that I'm happy with. Judging by pictures I'm probably around 17% some absolutely but not super clear without flexing. I was making excellent progress and decided it would be best to start taking creatine on Oct 20th. Now I knew weight loss would be impacted or slower for a couple of weeks but I'm now on week 3 and have been stalled at the 165-162 lb range. It's driving me crazy and I'm fairly confident it's still just water weight. Just looking for confirmation to keep doing as I am or if I should be doing anything different.

So I've been doing bodyweight leg raises for a couple years in a captains chair or body ball. I also use the crunch machine or (once in a while) do cable crunch I just haven't ever progressed on leg raises but they're hard and I do feel a good burn Anyway, I also do pull ups a and dips and engage my core I've never had abs except at low body fat. How much will this an routine help them grow, assuming I progressive overload on crunches? I also pair abs with cardio but that's often because abs alone isn't worth the trip to the gym, and I like cardio anyway.

Does anyone know if any good apps offer Black Friday subscription discounts? I was thinking of doing a year subscription for Myfitnesspal but thought I would wait another few weeks to see if there is a sale. I also use Strong.

On days I work out I burn about 3200 cal for my TDEE.

On days, I don’t work out it’s more like 1900 .

Should I not eat my usual 25 to 2700 cal on off days?

6’3 212

6 days a week: incline walking at 15° 3.2 mph for 45 minutes. Weight lifting for 60 minutes. Walking to and from the gym for 40-60 minutes total.

The single hardest lesson for me to learn was to listen to my body. That muscle fatigue wasn't a sign of success. I use to LOVE muscle fatigue, that sensation of my muscles screaming in pain thinking I did a good job.

I have caused internal bleeding, I've injured my right collar bone, ripped my top left ab muscle, ripped my mid left ab muscle, sprained my right knee, left ankle, and tweaked my back all within a 5 month period... I use to think muscle fatigue was a sign of success and I use to drive my body into the ground.

It's been a little while since I learned to listen to my body and stopped getting injured. I learned what my body was capable of doing and I rode that line until that capacity started to move. You have to listen to your body.

I now do periodization training where cycle for 32 miles on my high intensity days which I call my spike days and 20 miles on my low intensity days which I call my lull days. I do this 7 days a week and haven't had a day off in 41 days. I do not take rest days with cardio, I understand strength training may be different and I do strength training daily as well just not to the level of intensity my cardio is.

Learning that it wasn't about how much you can do but how often you can do it was a hard lesson. I use to always want to go harder and harder but then I was too sore to keep doing it and needed to take a day or two off to recover. Now I just listen to my body and stop at my limitation.

For context to those that wish to tell me "You have to take rest days!";

I do this because my doctor, my doctor's department's psychologist, that department's dietician and my nutritionist told me I could. I have a team of doctors fully approving my fitness routine exempt from days off.

What was your hardest lesson?

45M, 200 lbs 6 ft(down 20 lbs from when I started). I started back into lifting ~6 months ago, experienced some great noob gains across the board, very excited about lifting right now. I’m doing a mostly full body workout every 2 to 3 days. I’m able to push myself in what feels like an appropriate manner to continue to slowly gain in upper body but my legs I’ve never trained very effectively. I’ve been doing leg press and leg extension reliably nearly every workout, a common example for leg press for me is 249x7 255x7 269x7 269x8. I focus on good technique, powerful concentric with slow eccentric to a deep stretch each rep.

I feel like I’m not pushing myself hard enough as I’m ready for leg day the next day.

Should I increase weight or reps or sets or not change? Not looking to be a bodybuilder but don’t want to overlook easy gains if I’m not pushing hard enough.

I’m hesitant about going up to quickly as I’ve read I could build muscle faster than joint strength and this could cause injury, is this a serious concern?

Women over a certain age are told to lift heavy a lot. What is considered “heavy”, though? Tens of lbs or closer to hundred or more?

Hello everyone. I hope yall's fitness journeys are going well. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on improving shoulder mobility. I've noticed more shoulder discomfort lately, especially on bench and back squats. I haven't injured myself or experienced pain yet but it almost feels like its just a matter of time without making changes.

I'm 6'5 and have a crazy arm span, so when I bench I struggle my ass off. I can do about 140 at the moment, (actually been there for some time now) but I have to go a looong way to rack it. It's a little discouraging like I don't want to hurt myself trying to get it up (I use smith to be safe) but I my goal is 2 plates on each. Any other tall folks with the same problem, or can share some advice.

Hi all

After some advice on best course of action.

I’m mid 40’s male. 6’2. Down to under 20% fat. I’m now around 200 pounds.

Lost about 20kg/44lbs of weight this year to get in shape. I have a home gym and my goals are to get toned and build some more muscle.

I’m torn between cutting my fat down to say 12-14 percent and then increasing food and weights to grow muscle on a lower fat frame, or just continue to work on burning fat while trying to build muscle.

In your experience, what is the best road to go down?

Thanks for reading!

This is my 38 month transformation. I cut my carbs down from 250grams a day to 50grams or less. I spent years bulking to 235. Loss a lot of muscle and fat dropping the weight down to something I felt/looked healthier at.

*had to repost for not following the rules..

I’m a couple months into doing my first intentional bulk. I’m eating 180-200 grams of protein a day and doing Boring But Big 531. I’m wanting to start my cut in January. Should I continue to try and do BBB or change up to a different “cut” workout program? Any advice on macros? Thanks in advance!

How important and/or how often do you do planks? What is a good escalation plan for planks for an early 40ish, athletic guy that wants to get more toned? Do you even recommend planks? Any other core exercise that you absolutely would recommend? I realize this is fairly vague, just wanted to shoot this question out quickly. TIA.

TL;DR: I'm planning on bulking and I'd like to have some advice on how to face the mental struggles of gaining weight as a woman

Hi everyone!

Next week I'm planning to start my first ever bulking fase and I'm both excited and terrified lol, I've been out of for the last 3 months or so, due to traveling on vacation and also training for a 10km race I'll be running on Sunday, so lots of cardio but no strength training during this time. Prior to that I've been going somewhat consistently to the gym for the last 3-4 years.

The reason I want to start bulking is because I was checking my training log and all I'm seeing is the same numbers in pretty much all lifts for the past year, I'm also on the lower end of normal BMI and lately I've been noticing some lower energy and lower sex drive, so I wanna give my body the chance to gain some weight and see if all these things improve.

Some info about myself and my plans:

• Height: 1.69m (6'5") Edit: 5'6"
• Current weight: 53kg (116.8lb)
• Training: I'm planning to do a 3 day full body program that I'll be logging on Boostcamp for progressive overload, I'd also like to keep in 1-2 easy 20 min runs in between, but I'll be prioritizing strength training
• Current maintenance cals: around 1800kcal
• Starting bulking cals: 2000kcal

Now, I'm afraid about the mental aspects of bulking, especially as a female, I also don't have a huge apetite, so we'll see how I manage the surplus once I need to bump up the calories, but mainly the mental struggle of seeing the scale going up and the body changeing and getting bigger, do you have any advice on how to navigate this?

Also, do you know of any female influencer who shows her bulks? All of them seem to be so skinny all the time, even when they claim they're bulking!

Thanks!

Just a PSA and a vent. I'm 38yo, 190cm and 87kg with good muscle, and no one has ever considered me overweight. Loved my vegetables, did 3x weights sessions a week, and generally looked pretty healthy. Yet I had grabbable belly fat, I loved my dairy and fatty meats, and basically did no cardio at all.

For most of this year I'd been feeling awful. Headaches, fatigue, nausea, and at times upper abdominal pressure/pain were the main symptoms. Drs gaslit me for a while, but finally because my blood pressure and fasting blood sugars were not amazing, I insisted on an ultrasound and found the results I needed to heal. Metabolic fatty liver disease, with liver inflammation and an enlarged spleen. I couldn't believe it, neither could my Dr. But there it was.

3 months on I am running 25km a week, eating a Mediterranean diet and have halved my portion size. I have lost 10kg and gone down 2 belt sizes, numbers and healthy, and amazingly my liver is healing. I feel so much better.

So just to say, if you don't feel great and have some belly fat, think about investigating. I felt like a dodged a bullet. Don't let it get to diabetes and liver fibrosis. And I'll be using this sub to continue my fitness journey. Thanks for listening!

This question goes out to the experts and masters— give me some tips for protein surging foods. Preferably real foods rather than supplements or powders. I often make like 20 hardboiled eggs at a time and snack on them over the course of a few days. I also cook a lot of chicken, beef, etc., and I do drink an organic pea powder protein shake. But I want to see if there are any even better things to do. Any ideas?

43yo woman, 5’5” 137lb down from 150 and aiming for 125. I think…

I’m tracking calories and exercising 3-4 days a week (fairly intense cardio for 20-45min depending on how much time I have) as well as participating in a hobby that isn’t physically demanding but does have me walking a decent amount. I also work a job that has me standing all day, which I know isn’t exercise but I’m not sitting 40 hours a week. I’m keeping it at or under 1200kcal a day, some days as low as 980 to compensate for the higher days

At 1200 a day that’s 3 meals at 300 each and 2 150kcal snacks, which is so difficult. I can do it, and I have been, but it’s a bummer

I’ve been stuck at 137 for a week now and really don’t feel like I have more room to cut calorie-wise. At the same time, I don’t have much more time to spend working out

Am I being a baby? Do I just find more time to exercise? I already get up at 5:30 for work and get done around 5-6p, so that leaves 4-5 hours to take care of my house and dog, work at my hobby, see friend and family. Do I sacrifice 90 of those minutes to work out more? Do I cut more calories? Even a boring, unappealing snack is 150…

Hello! Im a social worker, I work in an office/ out in the community. I've recently restarted my fitness journey two weeks ago and I'm down 7 lbs using IF, walking, calorie deficit and yoga.

I've started doing flights of stairs on my back ( in all of my high heeled boots which is great for your calves/ bum. I can definitely feel it)

Is there anything else I can be doing while at the office or on a break for exercise? Id like to maybe have something to do while I'm doing my admin work in my office. Are those stairs stepper things still around? 😂

Also protein shakes that won't make you feel nauseous?

I'm in my mid 40's and very focused on staying fit for my health and because I want to not look like an old unhealthy man. I work out 4-6 times a week which generally consists of at least two days of weightlifting and two days of cardio. I push my self reasonably hard with workouts rarely under an hour each day. So I'm doing okay there.

The problem is that I'm trying to be more healthy with respect to diet and lifestyle. About 8 years ago, I cut sodas out of my life. I was only drinking about one a day but I thought it would be good for me. I haven't had a sip since. Caffeine has always had a strong high and then low effect on me so a few years back, I cut that out too. If I drink coffee, it's decaf. I may cheat if I'm on vacation but it's not common. Also, I've been losing a few pounds over the last couple of months and eating only 1500 calories a day is not exactly fun. Alcohol is tougher to deal with in the mornings so I really don't drink much at all anymore and when I do, it's almost never more than 1-3 drinks. Now I'm starting to see I have an issue with sweets. I can avoid them if they're not around but put a box of cookies anywhere near me and I will eat everyone then lie to your face about it. So I'm thinking I need to cut out sweets completely to avoid these binges.

Does anyone else struggle with feeling like all they're doing is depriving themselves of things they want to stay healthy and to feel good? I mean I feel better when I don't drink, eat healthy, avoid caffeine and don't binge on sweets but damn, now life is just going to work and trying to stay healthy. It's a little exhausting. I'm very happy in my career and with my family but the mental load of abstaining from skipping the gym and eating/drinking whatever I want is annoying. But maybe I'm the only one.

About a year into my fitness journey of cycling, rock climbing, strength training and running… definitely not at the destination but really enjoying the journey… what are some things that keep y’all moving forward?!