Thoughts on current path/recommendations

[Mcpie]

Hi Jordan, thanks in advance for all of your help/advice, it's amazing to have a resource like this. I also apologize for the long read to come.

A brief background. I'm a fat computer nerd by training. After about 6-7 months of dedicated lifting I decided I didn't want to be fat anymore, and starting in January 2012 went through various phases of weight loss using various methods. Long story short, I cut down from about 235ish to a weight of 183 three months ago. I then followed linear progression and Leangains with a mild deficit for three months to get my strength back/get to where I am today, ~175 pounds.

I am not particularly strong. I squatted 3x5 at 350 (but it was a grind), Deadlifted 410 for 5, and have much weaker upper body lifts (Bench is in the 180's or so for reps), and Press is in the 130's for reps.

Nonetheless, I am pretty happy with the way things are going. I've decided that I want to see how far I can take the whole fat loss thing/see if being ripped is as fun as it looks. I am a data geek/measure pretty much everything and have done so for the past 6+ months.

My baseline maintenance is basically 2300 calories on the dot, verified during a 3 month stint of maintenance following a crash diet. During my latest stint I was eating about 2600 on workout days and ~1600 on rest days. This allowed the linear progression above with a mild drop in bodyfat weekly. I've switched my programming to 5/3/1 and have put my weights a touch lighter than Wendler suggests because I want to speed up the fat loss a bit.

Starting last week, I switched to a mild deficit on training days, and kept the fairly hard deficit on off days. I have however started training 4 days a week (Mon/Tues, Thurs/Fri). Such that my calories look like this starting on Monday.

~2000, ~2000, ~1600, ~2000, ~2000, ~1600, ~1600.

I've broken down the macros as follows.

Training: 180c, 180p, 60f
Rest: 110c, 180p, 45f

I adhere pretty damn well to the above, though sometimes sacrifice some fat(s) for more carbs. I train fasted save for ingesting some BCAA's prior/during. I also have some BCAA's on off days because, well, I actually really like the taste

In the end though, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing/am just going by trial and error. Do you have any suggestions on how to tweak things? Should I just leave things alone and continue since things are working so far? Realize I'm micromanaging at this point, but to sum it all up, I track my weight/calories/macros pretty rigidly. Given that, in your idea scenario, how would you manipulate those variables for weight loss while not embarrassing myself in the weight room?

Thanks again.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I'd like to see 2 days a week at ~2500 kCal (slightly above baseline) and then 5 days right at about 2100 (slightly under). I'd also like 1-2 sessions of HIIT training a week, because instead of cutting more and more calories I'd like to increase the metabolism (even transiently) through HIIT and training. I'd only cut your calories even further for a very short period of time while getting stage ready.

So a high day might look like 200pro/300cho/50 fat and a low day might look like 250 pro/150 cho/ 55fat. Save the highest days for your heaviest training days. I'd maybe consider dieting for another 4-5 weeks tops before starting to add fuel to the fire (slowly) so you don't hurt your metabolism.

[Mcpie]

I'd like to see 2 days a week at ~2500 kCal (slightly above baseline) and then 5 days right at about 2100 (slightly under). I'd also like 1-2 sessions of HIIT training a week, because instead of cutting more and more calories I'd like to increase the metabolism (even transiently) through HIIT and training. I'd only cut your calories even further for a very short period of time while getting stage ready.

So a high day might look like 200pro/300cho/50 fat and a low day might look like 250 pro/150 cho/ 55fat. Save the highest days for your heaviest training days. I'd maybe consider dieting for another 4-5 weeks tops before starting to add fuel to the fire (slowly) so you don't hurt your metabolism.

Thank you for the fast response, those are very sensible suggestions and after a bit of time like this, I'll certainly give those a shot/let you know.

In terms of HIIT, how long do you recommend? My office gym has a rower that is rarely used, some ellipticals which are usually packed, and we also have 16 floors of stairs to ourselves. Any thoughts on which is best bang for your buck? How long and how intensely do you suggest?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Use the rower. 6 rounds x 30 s all out effort, 90s-120s active recovery.

[Mcpie]

Thank you for your thoughts/time. I'll let you know how it goes once I start/how things went. Thank you again.