High fat, High protein, low carb? Best Cutting macro split?

[Nodnoah]

What do my fellow athletes do when they are trying to lose a bit of water and cut down on their body fat?

I have done the 40/40/20 split (P/C/F) and I find myself happy with lots of energy but I tend to hold more water
Currently trying 40/25/35 (P/C/F) Will update on how I feel

I understand the best way to lose weight is CICO but is there a better way to macro your nutrients?

For some reason I don't always feel satisfied with high fat diets they also leave you a bit depleted.

What's your go to?

 

[Sorbate]

Low carb, med fat, high protien.
I just keep my total calories down, but my protien high, like 300g plus.

 

[Nodnoah]

Low carb, med fat, high protien.
I just keep my total calories down, but my protien high, like 300g plus.

Whats your deficit like? mines around 2200-2600 (5'11 - 180 lbs, Liss cardio ED and 6xWeights) depending on my activity I wouldnt be able to eat that much protein and still get enough carbs lol

 

[Sorbate]

Whats your deficit like? mines around 2200-2600 (5'11 - 180 lbs, Liss cardio ED and 6xWeights) depending on my activity I wouldnt be able to eat that much protein and still get enough carbs lol

Protien is easy to eat.
beef is very high in protien and enjoyable a few times a day. Then tack on a couple scoops of protien powder, lol. That’s 70 right there. One pound steak is 200, lol.
‘When I was leaner, I always ate my meat first, then veggies and what room was left was carbs. I ate fatty meat. Normally id eat 3/4 lb of meat at a time.
Lately I ve been eating more carbs, and not really good ones so I’m fat. The worst problem is carbs are fucking addictive.

But I have almost a year before Oldjuju and I have to compare photos so I’m not worried, except when I have to breathe out to put on my shoes, lol.

When I first start to cut around 3000 cal, then I slowly reduce and increase cardio. Eventually 2 of my 6 meals only become a tabkespoon of MCT oil and a scoop of protien powder in water. I’m around 2000 cal by then and look flat.

Right now I have a huge will power issue (well I have none) so I’m eating anything I want.

 

[ABMonkey]

Carb cycling is the way.

Protein stays the same year round. Then just manipulate your carbs:

High days = high carb/low fat
Baseline = med carb/med fat
Low/Rest days = low carb/higher fat

 

[Brbpuppy]

fat or carbs, isn’t going to matter nearly as much as total calories, so just take your pic. Protein can stay roughly the same, or you could increase it a bit while cutting, and it can help with satiating you and requires more calories to digest.

 

[gondar1]

yes, yes and yes to the fellas above. CICO is all that really matters for common folk but I've definitely found and proved with many guys that carb cycling with the calorie adjustments that come along with it make a big difference with regard to both appearance and performance for bodybuilders and athletes.
To clarify, I'm saying that Protein stays consistent, Carbs get cycled depending on the "workload/CO" and Fat can be regulated to either keep calories consistent or stay consistent so that the CI is varied. For a cut I prefer keeping the Fat steady so the CI varies or I should say at least trying it that way first.

Don't try to hit those percentages every single day but rather averaged over a time period
Determine Average Target Cal Intake.
Then on each day:
Max out your Protein by whatever formula ie 1-1.5+g/lb of bodyweight.
Add in Carbs (low days below 100).
Fill remaining calories available with Fat.
Make smart choices with "healthy" Fats.

 

[storman]

I feel it depends on where someone is coming from. I was once morbidly obese so my bodies use of carbohydrates is shit. So i will always do better when carbs are low even if cals are the same. My wife does just fine on a low fat diet.
I will still lose weight on low fat instead of low carb but it takes twice as long
Protein for me is always very high

 

[Brbpuppy]

I feel it depends on where someone is coming from. I was once morbidly obese so my bodies use of carbohydrates is shit. So i will always do better when carbs are low even if cals are the same. My wife does just fine on a low fat diet.
I will still lose weight on low fat instead of low carb but it takes twice as long
Protein for me is always very high

Something a lot of people don't realize is the reason they're losing weight faster on low carb, is because loss of water weight, not actual fat tissue.

 

[storman]

Something a lot of people don't realize is the reason they're losing weight faster on low carb, is because loss of water weight, not actual fat tissue.

absolutely. Theres also a lot of weight swings with low carb especially if your having cheat meals/days
I lost 150lbs of fat over 20 years ago so basically ive been on some sort of diet since 1998.
Not boo hooing, just my reality

 

[Nodnoah]

yes, yes and yes to the fellas above. CICO is all that really matters for common folk but I've definitely found and proved with many guys that carb cycling with the calorie adjustments that come along with it make a big difference with regard to both appearance and performance for bodybuilders and athletes.
To clarify, I'm saying that Protein stays consistent, Carbs get cycled depending on the "workload/CO" and Fat can be regulated to either keep calories consistent or stay consistent so that the CI is varied. For a cut I prefer keeping the Fat steady so the CI varies or I should say at least trying it that way first.

Don't try to hit those percentages every single day but rather averaged over a time period
Determine Average Target Cal Intake.
Then on each day:
Max out your Protein by whatever formula ie 1-1.5+g/lb of bodyweight.
Add in Carbs (low days below 100).
Fill remaining calories available with Fat.
Make smart choices with "healthy" Fats.

See im doing LISS ED, 35 min 400 calories burned. I also lift 6 times a week, so almost every day is a "heavy" work load day. I do have one refeed day where I eat everything on my plan plus 2-4 cups of (oats, rice, etc) and 1 cheat meal a week.

Carb cycling is the way.

Protein stays the same year round. Then just manipulate your carbs:

High days = high carb/low fat
Baseline = med carb/med fat
Low/Rest days = low carb/higher fat

So on a day your doing cardio and lifting, would that be a baseline day? Or how many baselines compared to high days do you have?

 

[ABMonkey]

See im doing LISS ED, 35 min 400 calories burned. I also lift 6 times a week, so almost every day is a "heavy" work load day. I do have one refeed day where I eat everything on my plan plus 2-4 cups of (oats, rice, etc) and 1 cheat meal a week.

So on a day your doing cardio and lifting, would that be a baseline day? Or how many baselines compared to high days do you have?

I have 5 baseline, 1 rest and 1 high right now.

 

[Brbpuppy]

absolutely. Theres also a lot of weight swings with low carb especially if your having cheat meals/days
I lost 150lbs of fat over 20 years ago so basically ive been on some sort of diet since 1998.
Not boo hooing, just my reality

Holy smokes that's a lot of weight loss, congrats man. I went from 260 to 160 about 10 years ago, so I have a good idea what the battle is like haha. Still have a tiny bit of loose skin from it, but the last little bit is slowly shrinking away.

 

[Nodnoah]

I have 5 baseline, 1 rest and 1 high right now.

Is your "high" your cheat meal or a refeed day.

 

[storman]

Holy smokes that's a lot of weight loss, congrats man. I went from 260 to 160 about 10 years ago, so I have a good idea what the battle is like haha. Still have a tiny bit of loose skin from it, but the last little bit is slowly shrinking away.

I dont have much loose skin but the trouble areas i have, have not gone away in 20+ years. Its a bitch but it could of been a lot worse

 

[ABMonkey]

Is your "high" your cheat meal or a refeed day.

Same food just more of it. Right now it looks like:

Meal One
120g cream of rice
100g banana
60g isolate
40g HBCD

Meal Two
8oz beef flank
8oz potato
200g Pineapple

Meal Three
8oz chicken breast
225g rice

Meal Four
8oz ground turkey
225g rice

Meal Five
8oz chicken breast
8oz potato

Meal Six
80g oats
60g cream of rice

500g carbs, 3500 cals. Rest days cals are just above 2000, training days 2600 cals. I'm 4 weeks out till end of diet phase.

 

[Nodnoah]

Does this not put you outside of your Caloric defecit? I thought CICO was the only way to determine weight loss on a weekly basis

Same food just more of it. Right now it looks like:

Meal One
120g cream of rice
100g banana
60g isolate
40g HBCD

Meal Two
8oz beef flank
8oz potato
200g Pineapple

Meal Three
8oz chicken breast
225g rice

Meal Four
8oz ground turkey
225g rice

Meal Five
8oz chicken breast
8oz potato

Meal Six
80g oats
60g cream of rice

500g carbs, 3500 cals. Rest days cals are just above 2000, training days 2600 cals. I'm 4 weeks out till end of diet phase.

 

[gondar1]

See im doing LISS ED, 35 min 400 calories burned. I also lift 6 times a week, so almost every day is a "heavy" work load day. I do have one refeed day where I eat everything on my plan plus 2-4 cups of (oats, rice, etc) and 1 cheat meal a week.

So on a day your doing cardio and lifting, would that be a baseline day? Or how many baselines compared to high days do you have?

Getting away from diet for a second here but I would suggest that you vary your intensity over those lifting days. Light/Medium/heavy days over a 10-14 day period would be best. Then vary the carbs based on those days. Light and heavy days alternating for each body part at the minimum. Point being that going hard each and every session is not suitable for anyone but the genetically elite. There is a reason for periodization, waves or training blocks that you see discussed. Especially when you are young and excited it seems intuitive to give it your all every time but recovery is often way overlooked.

That is my opinion and experience fwiw

 

[Sorbate]

I feel it depends on where someone is coming from. I was once morbidly obese so my bodies use of carbohydrates is shit. So i will always do better when carbs are low even if cals are the same. My wife does just fine on a low fat diet.
I will still lose weight on low fat instead of low carb but it takes twice as long
Protein for me is always very high

You know I used to think it was my metabolism for why I was always so lean, and I bet it had something to do with it, but when I was lean, I really didn’t eat a lot of carbs. Let’s say dinner, I might have a big tablespoon of rice, or potatoes, or nothing, just a huge chunk of meat and some veggies.
only carbs I ate was potato chips, but that was only on the weekend watching a movie, or popcorn.
I used to eat a lot of sun flower seeds as snacks. You can graze on them for an hour and not really eat a lot.

I may have to go back to my old ways.
One day I decided I needed to eat carbs to get bigger, and I did, around my waist, lol.