Day 75 - Cutting Phase Over Early

This evening I chose to end the cutting phase of my ABCDE diet cycle. The short of what I did was 12 days of bulking followed by 12 days of cutting. The end result is that after the 24 days I should have a couple pounds of new lean muscle mass and dropped a bit of fat.

That isn't what happened to me.

Over the 12 day bulking phase I put on approximately 3 pounds with a average daily intake of 3250 calories. I should have put on more so this was my first hint that I wasn't eating enough and had miscalculated my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). When I started the cutting phase I actually bumped up my daily caloric allotment to 1700-1800 calories per day to handle this miscalculation. Over the next 7 days I ate approximately 1750 calories daily with a diet full of good stuff - fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Not much junk. Check out my calorie tracker if you're curious was I was injesting.

This morning was the start of Cutting Phase Day 8. When I weighed myself this morning the scale registered 135. That is no joke. 135 pounds. I'm 5'8" and weighed 156 lbs last winter, 148 lbs at the beginning of this P90x experience, and 140 at the beginning of my bulking phase.

The whole mess has backfired. My goal was to put on weight consisting of lean muscle mass. I am now somehow 5 pounds lighter than I was 3 weeks ago. What the fuck? This raises a ton of questions. How much lean muscle mass have I put on? Or even worse, have I actually LOST lean muscle mass (in addition to fat) over the last 3 weeks. This is crazy, 5 pounds over 3 weeks when for over half of that I was actively trying to put on weight. Let's break this down.

First off, I clearly miscalculated my TDEE. I must be a metabolic machine. My body, without any physical activity, is likely burning more calories than I gave it credit for. Next, my activity level is higher than I gave it credit for. I work out HARD 5-6 times per week. I play hockey twice a week plus 3-5 hours of volleyball. I get 20-40 miles on my bike in. It adds up I guess. I previously estimated my TDEE at about 2100-2200 calories. I'm now thinking that I'm more like 2500.

Next data point, I am still getting stronger. Nearly without exception, I continue to put up more weight or do more weight. Look at my power graph, the numbers don't lie. Every heavy workout has a definite linear trend - there are no plateaus yet. So this diet cycle didn't harm my lifting performance. That's good.

So I'm burning (at least) 2500 calories a day yet consuming 1750. That's a deficit of 750 which is high but acceptable according to this article I just dug up. Phew! Except for the bulking phase I was eating approximately 750 calories excess! So shouldn't I weigh the same as when I started?

Ugh. The short of this, I have no friggin clue what to do. I'm considering going through another bulk/cut cycle in a few weeks (but eating 500 more calories per day) to see what happens. If I end up getting fat I don't really give a shit. I can clearly drop weight insanely fast. It's worth trying.

One thing about weighing 135. I'm embarrassed by that. I'm cut as hell right now. Back when I started this 2nd P90x program I was thinking that if I could put on 10 pounds of muscle (which is a lot, I know) and be 158 I'd be huge. I didn't realize how much fat I was carrying around with me. If I put on 10 pounds of muscle now I'll be 145, huge(r), and still less than what I weighed before.

I think I need a trainer. Do those guys really know anything though?