Dropping from 4,500cal to 2,000cal for cut, over what timeframe?

[Big G]

Title says it all. If I wanted to do a quick cut (2lb/week-ish) and wanted to drop my calories from around 4,500 to around 2,500-ish how should I do it; go to 4,000 for a few days, then 3,500, then 3,000??

NOTE: I maintained 2,500cal-ish Nov'06-Mar'07 while running3-4x/wk and lost over 30lb. This time will be to lose only maybe 10-15 between Mar & Apr (put me at 7-8%bf for spring).

Thoughts?

 

[P-funk]

that would not be wise. why would you drop your calories that fast? You are going to drop calories by 50% over a short period of time.

Start with a 10% deficit and go until you aren't seeing progress anymore and then cut some more.

I don't even remeber a time when I dieted and didn't get to my goal and never had to drop down to 50% of my normal caloric intake.

 

[XFatMan]

Start with a 10% deficit and go until you aren't seeing progress anymore and then cut some more.

That's exactly what I would do. Dropping too much too quickly is not very healthy.

 

[Biggly]

The lower your bodyfat the more you DO need to shock your system, so a fairly rapid drop is fine. I'd avoid working out for a day or two and then to alter your workouts to suit, ie more heavy and short, less of the long and high rep sessions at first - then go high rep towards the end before your refeed.

For the refeed you should go big calories rapidly, or you lose the entire point of it really.

It defeats the purpose of calorie cycling to do it slowly so the body can adjust, we're talking calories, not weight on the bar!



B.

 

[Big G]

Thanks.

This is actually kind-of an old thread now. It got bumped back up amidst the recent post due to the "Buy Anabollocks" spam above.

I'm 3-4 weeks into my cut at the moment. Down 14lb and counting. Had hoped 180lb would put me at about 8% but it looks more like 10-11% to me. Hopefully I'm not losing too much meat while cutting. Hopefully my strength will return quickly even if I have lost some meat.

1month on this cut to go. Whether I'm losing LBM or not, I'm going to complete this little 8wk cut. It's the only one I'm doing this year, so I gotta make it count. I'm going to bulk my way through the end of the year, but probably only on around 3,800cal, not 4,500 like I was doing (That just packed on fat too fast).

Thanks for the advice though. I'll refeed next weekend if I haven't made much progress this week. I've been losing ariound 4lb/wk for the past few weeks. That's a lot, I know, but it just fell off!