Hi Scott and Comunity.New Year,New Goal so my goal for this year is to get my six pack for the summer because who doest love six packs right(im talking about the girls Xd)Im currently 18 years old 5.83 and about 208 pounds(could be a litte bit less) im training for about 2 years now 6 times a week push pull legs workout.So my question is should I Bulk or Cut or Lean Bulk ( If Im correct thats when you want to cut a bit but you also want to bulk)?I got a decent musle mass but the six pack is missing XD.

If you are happy with your current muscular size and are after a six-pack, then you have to do a cut. All muscles are fully developed it is the amount of body fat that hides them. You will lose some size when you cut without the use of drugs but if you keep your calorie deficit in the 250-500 calorie range and do it slowly (which means start now and give yourself a good 6-8 months) it will minimize the muscle loss.

If you want to lean out a bit but maintain or gain more size, then lean gains is the way to go. However, unless you already have a six-pack and low body fat lean gains will not make this happen. It is best used when your body fat is already low (less than 12%) and you want to add more size with very minimal fat gain.

John

@niko9926 the answer is pretty simple and John has given it to you mostly. If you want abs but don't have them showing yet, it means your bodyfat % is too high and therefore you need to cut. But.. you're only 18.. so unless you're way overweight a cut isn't hugely important.

Do you know roughly what your current bodyfat is? You might be able to get away with a mini-cut and then get onto some lean gains to keep growing while keeping your abs.

Thanks for the quick response Scott and John.This is my condition right now also im doing 4 times a week cardio (2 times stairs after the leg day and 2 times bike or treadmill on the pull day)

OK so your bodyfat percentage is probably getting up there.. could be heading towards 20%. Are you doing HIIT cardio?

You could probably do a very short minicut from here if you want to get the abs showing a bit more..could help you add more quality mass if you're leaner as well. But don't put yourself in a deficit for too long.. probably 4-8 weeks MAX because you're at that age where you still want to get enough food to maximize growth.

Thanks for the quick answer Scott.Yeah sometimes I do hiit but I usually do it wrong what method u could suggest me for the bike or the treadmill and how many times I need to do it I a week ?

Try doing sprints. Sprinting is one of the most explosive cardiovascular and fat burning workout you can do. Best thing is that it targets all the muscles in your body and requires no equipment.

Also compared to low intensity activities(like jogg) it will save you much more time and burn more calories which is the most important thing.

Do them twice a week and that would be great.

Of course,break them with rest intervals.

1:2 ratio for example.....20 sec high effort sprint followed by 40 sec of rest X 10 rounds.

Of course this is just one way to do a HIIT.

Find something you like and be consistent.☺☺

All the best brother !

Thanks For The Advice andrija04 . Also how properly should i do this mini cut cuz i never done this thing before ?

@niko9926 @andrija04 is right! Basically you should use a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio when you do your HIIT training. So you could even go 1 minute fast run / 1 minute jog or walk, or you could do something like the 20:40 suggested above or 30 seconds sprinting / 1 minute jogging/walking for about 15-20 minutes. Try doing this 2-3 times a week.

To properly do a mini cut, it's basically the same as a normal cut - you lower your calories so you're about 250 below maintenance (this will mean weight loss is a bit slower, but will help you preserve muscle mass), and because you are only going to do it for a short period (4-8 weeks), that's what makes it 'mini'. So you're not aiming to get super shredded, just lean enough so that it will start to reveal more of your hard work and actually help you add more lean mass when you go back into a surplus.

Getting down to around 13-15% bodyfat would be a good option.

Thanks for the answers.I've started using the my fitness pal app to calculate my calories im currently at 2320 calories ( carbs about 40 %,protein 40% and fat 20%).Any suggested adjustment will be great cuz im new at this.

Yeah I would readjust carbs and fat. Aim for at least 1.2g-1.5g protein per pound of lean body weight, and at least 0.3-0.5g fat per pound of lean body weight. Then you can try filling in the rest with carbs. For example, some numbers might be...

Protein: 225g (1.2g per pound of lean body weight) (1000 Calories)

Carbs: 150g (600 Calories)

Fat: 80g (720 Calories)

Total Calories = 2320

Do you really need to be at 2300 calories for fat loss though? Remember you don't want to drop too much too quickly.. did you use the calculator on the @mealplan page to get this number?

No i used my fitness pal to calculate my calories a day.I went to the meal plan but it shows some weird numbers like i need to eat 140333 calories XD here's some pictures :

Yeah.. that is because you put that you are 179 METRES tall haha. You need to put '1' in the metre section and '79' in the cm section 😊 

Oh my bad here we go kinda getting confused witch one to follow this one or the fitness pal one XD i hope i put the numbers correct :

OK so being around 200lbs, it would make sense that you can have a few extra calories for weight loss. How long were you eating 2300 calories a day, and what results did you see? Rapid fat loss? Average loss? More importantly.. do you know how many calories you were eating when you were in a surplus?

If you were at around 3500-4000 on a surplus, you should be able to cut at about 2800-3000 no problem. The only changes I would make to the numbers you got from the calculator would be to reduce the carbs quite a bit.

Hi again,so im following this since 17 of january and i cant say i see a drastic results i still weight around 200 pounds but the weirdest thing was that yesterday i was at the gym and the scale said that i weight around 197 pounds and today at home the scale said that i weight 200 (maybe its because i eat a breakfast before i measured myself).To be fair before i cant say haw many calories a was eating some day maybe 2800 the other day if i wasnt that hungry 2500 the problem is that i wasnt calulating how many calories i was eating.And today after waking up i feel like sh*t,i have a weird headache, i have sorenes almost everywhere so i decidet to take a bit of a brake today but im thinking shound i deload this week or no cuz i last time i had a break for the gym it was around cristmas and i took it because i wasnt at home.Mabe im getting sick because right now in Bulgaria there is a Flu Epidemic and most of the people are sick can be from this ? idk . So my main question is shound i recalculate my calories and put them around 2972 or i shound stick with the 2300 calories amd how many carbs,fat and protein shound i eat in order to lose that layer of fat i have and after that to lean bulk ?