Macro Target Recommendations for Cutting

[skibob1027]

Hi Jordan,

I've been lurking for several months and have really enjoyed reading through your archives as well as the other SS forums. I'm hoping you can give me some guidance on macros for my current plans relative to my goals, so without further adieu here's my background:

• 25, male

• Program: Advanced Novice SS, alternating DL and cleans every other workout. Light squats on Wednesdays to continue progression. Progress has slowed dramatically recently due in part to a more strenuous schedule that is impacting my recovery/rest. No other conditioning currently.

• Squat 315, Deadlift 350, Bench 200, Power Clean 150, Press 130

• 204 lbs at ~25% BF

• Consistently getting at least 150g protein every day. Usually more on workout days (M/W/F). I've admittedly indulged too often on junk in the last month, but have the proven ability to buckle down to meet goals.

After screwing around in the gym off-and-on for over five years, I have been loving SS as my first time focusing on strength goals instead of fat loss. Previously I've fluctuated between 210 and 180 lbs and used strength training, HIIT, and a low carb diet to drop weight. It always works like a charm, but I never "got" the strength side of things until reading Rip's book. SS has taken my lifts up dramatically while I've maintained a body weight of 200-205 and gained a ton of muscle.

Now that my lifts are stalling, I would really like to cut down to 12% BF or so and then make another serious run to ring any last precious drops out of my novice phase. I really don't want to regress on my strength during the cut, so my plan is to drop to two days per week and keep my work sets at the same weights while decreasing volume to 2x5 instead of 3x5 on most exercises. Additionally, I plan to add two days of interval training (sprints or recumbent bike, although I'm open to other suggestions).

What macro targets would you recommend in this situation? Any suggested changes to the training plan? Finally, do you think dialing in my macros and continuing the advanced novice as currently planned is a better first step?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

How tall are you?

[skibob1027]

5' 10.5"

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Non training days: 265/215/60
Training days: 235/375/55

I'd stay on advanced novice, drop the middle squat day, and switch day 3 to ramping sets.

[skibob1027]

Awesome, thanks Jordan. By my quick calculation that's around 2350 calories on off days and 2800 on training days. Do you think I should still expect to add weight to the bar at those levels? I honestly have never counted total calories before, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Also, on the Friday ramp should the work sets start at 80% and work up to a new PR?

Thanks again.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Yes, you should be able to add weight to the bar for quite a while. Yea let's say on day 1 you did squats at 315 x 5 x 3 sets. On Friday, go 295 x 5, 310 x 5, 320 x 5 or something like that.

[skibob1027]

Beautiful. I'll give it a run and check in with the results after a month or so. Thanks again and keep up the good work on the forum.

[LimieJosh]

Non training days: 265/215/60
Training days: 235/375/55

I have been strictly measuring for the last month to get a sense of what I had been eating. To offset the moderating effect that measuring can have on intake I would, for the most part, make my decisions and then measure it out to see how much I’d intuitively selected to eat. With the odd exception of a splurge day (a 4000Kcal dinner of fried wings and beer), this is just about what my typical day would come to, maybe 100-150kcal higher, mostly from fat, on training days. I treat hard conditioning, which I only do once a week (about as much as my hips can tolerate), as a training day, and the lighter cardio I do twice a week as a non training day. This has produced a good maintenance level for me. My weight has been completely stable at 210lbs (height 6’1.5”) with gains on my lifts coming slowly and hard earned.

If I wanted to dial in my approach moving forward, while I am currently leaner than most I am not as lean as I used to be and would like to be again, what do you think the most effective modification would be? An overall reduction in calories on all days? On non-training days alone?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I'd prefer to have a reduction in calories on non-training days or, if training is very frequent, then 4-5 days per week. This reduction would mainly come from carbohydrate reduction, also.

[LimieJosh]

Thanks, jordan. Currently Strength training 3 times a week, one hard conditioning and two light cardio days that I do more for the sake of keeping my sore hips loose and limber.m so drop maybe 20-30g of carbsnon the 3 non- training and light cardio days?

On a related note I had the ammonia sweats today. I think that was an issue timing (training began about 20 hours since my last dose of carbs) rather than an absolute deficiency of carbs