HST: Strategic Deconditioning and Diet.

Hi, I'm finishing my first HST cycle, most of which I was on diet. Weight loss was limited, only about 3 lbs in 8 weeks. I had few snaps in my diet. However, I definitly gained few pounds of muscles. My definition had imporoved and I lost over 1 inch off my waist. Strength went up, in some cases significantly.

Currently, I'm on low carb diet. I consume roughly 80-100 grams of carbs a day, mostly in the morning and after work out. The rest is protein and fat. I maintain about 500 calories a diet deficit. My problem is that in about a week I would have to stop lifting for 2 weeks for strategic deconditioning. I'm afraid that my metabolic rate will take a dive as soon as I stop lifting. What would be good strategy to avoid that? I'm kind of split between two options. One is to half caloric deficit to about 250 calories a day. Second is to do more cardio. How much cardio is needed to maintain metabolic rate?

By the way, how much cardio is ok while trying to build/maintain muscle mass? Right now I don't do any.

Congratulations.

You're probably either overestimating your caloric needs OR you're underestimating your caloric intake. If you were at a 500 calorie a day deficit, you'd be losing more weight.

First off, as I said above, I don't think you're currently at 250 calories a day. Your calories aren't really restricted to the point where you have to worry about metabolic shut down. When you stop working out, you're going to have lower caloric requirements... so instead of eating more, you should eat less. Secondly, cardio primarily just adds to your caloric requirements but since you're not going to be lifting, it's just going to offset what you're losing (to some degree and based on how much you do.)

Just take the two weeks off and eat a little less than you are now.

Very few people will do cardio at a high enough intensity to really interfere with muscle growth. If you add in a day or three of cardio for 20-45 minutes per session, you're just adding a little to your caloric requirements. If you've got problems with getting winded walking up steps or whatever and you're worried about your conditioning, add in some cardio and eat a little more.

Watson (the pencil neck) Davis

Thanks.

Like I said, I had few mistakes in my diet. True, I still trying to find my BMR, but huge plate of Chicken Parmasian with lots of coffee at 3AM after 5 beers is not good diet.

Cool. That means that I have to watch my diet even better. I'm pretty much convinced that bodybuilding is pretty much all diet. I spend far more time counting calories, shopping for food, preparing my food, and eating than I do in the gym.