Post cut weight gain

**maverick** · 05-Jul-05, 09:53 AM

How much weight do you guys typically put back on in a short period after your cut (1-2 weeks)? I'm in a maintenance period til next week and I've been off my cut for a week. My weight has gone from 163 to 176 in just 8 days. I measure at the same time on the same day under the same conditions every week.

Granted, I had a 3 day binge for 4th of July weekend as a celebration of 6 months of strict diet and exercise, but there's no way that could have accounted for more than 3 pounds. I know the body retains more water when you up your carbs (I went from ~150g a day ~350g), but what are some other reasons? I'm looking for someting more in depth than "water weight".

Klinger · 05-Jul-05, 10:54 AM

A couple thoughts: When you dropped to 5% BF and then started on the deserved free-for-all, your body got the signal that you no longer were starving it. Its reaction was to store everything it could in prepartion for another possible deprivation period. That will adjust itself as you iron out your bulking diet, I think.

Two: The body can store several pounds of waste. If you have been irregular, you might be full of crap, quite literally.

**maverick** · 05-Jul-05, 10:59 AM

Your second thought sounds, uh, interesting. And quite possibly true.

As for the deprivation, I'm not sure how much my body would immediately store as I went a full week at a 3000 calorie maintenance to let my body know its not starving anymore. I'm guessing its like you said though, it'll probably iron itself out once I get back into my eating rhythm (I hate the word "diet", but thats a whole other discussion).

rbuchman · 05-Jul-05, 01:14 PM

Unless you are a serious bodybuilder (who needs to look good on a specific date) I personnally don't really see the need to go through dedicated bulk/cut cycles. If you want to add muscle eat slightly more if you're getting pudgy eat slightly less.

**maverick** · 05-Jul-05, 01:59 PM

The advantages I've found are pretty simple. One, if I'm eating more during my bulk, I'm stronger in the gym and have more energy. this will result in more muscle due to heavier, harder workouts. Two, its easier to identify if your body is reacting to your diet and training. Its harder to see yourself gaining .1 pounds of muscle a week. And three, its easier to set goals when you are focusing solely on gaining size or cutting fat. Quantitative goals are one of the main reasons I stick to my regimen.

All of these are based on personal preference though. Once I hit my ideal size, I would definitely NOT be bulking and cutting to look a bit better for the beach, I'd use your method.

06-Jul-05, 01:04 PM

Accepting your thought that you should have no more than 3 lbs. of weight gain, and leaning towards Klinger's #2 comment, that means you have 10 lbs. worth of crap to unload :confused:

Get a couple of good magazines and go sit on the can and get to work.

**maverick** · 06-Jul-05, 01:21 PM

Not quite man

I know I've stowed away some additional waste from my irregular eating habits (not 10 pounds!), and that I added about 2-3 pounds of actual fat gain. In addition, my extremely upped carb intake has caused me to retain a few additional pounds of water. I checked the scale this morning and I was down 3 pounds from yesterday. The scale can be fickle when your eating isn't uniform.

I have a feeling that by Monday morning when I start my bulk, I'll be somewhere in the 170 pound range (+/- 2), putting me 8 pounds over my lowest weight. This assumes that my eating gets back on track, which it is now and will remain as such. That seems totally reasonable considering how low I cut my BF% and how few calories I was taking in by the end.