I was in somewhat reasonable cardio shape from the start, so it didn't take long. I could crank out an hour on the elliptical or exercise bike a few weeks in. But, that sort of thing is very individualized. The important thing IMO is to develop good habits and to work up to where you need to be at your own pace within your own strengths and limitations.

The adage that it's a marathon, not a sprint, is apt here. After all, you want to stay lean forever. If you're thinking on a decades-long time scale, the difference between a couple of weeks isn't very relevant. For example, the old log post of mine that you mentioned is about a decade old. Looking back, being two weeks faster vs. two weeks slower had no bearing at all on where I where I ended up nine years ago, much less on where I am today. But, the good habits did.

So how do I cut? I've bulked up pretty heavily the last few years, from 120 to about 175. I got a dexascan today and it has my body fat at 29%. Yikes.

So now I want to go on a cut. Up until now I've been doing heavy lifting, eating as much as possible and no cardio. I've always been a hard gainer though recently it's gotten easier I think because my increased muscle mass is increasing my metabolism and my appetite.

Is the basic idea that you want to go on a slight caloric deficit with high protein intake? Should I add cardio into my exercise routines? I've been working out 3x a week, heavy lifting only.

You've pretty much got it; try and ballpark your TDEE, 200-500 calorie deficit with high protein (2-2.5 g/kg of bodyweight is plenty), add in some LISS if you want (walking is great) and see what happens.

Are you me?

Yeah I'd agree with montecore and IMO just start by logging your food and avoiding junk food. You'll get a picture of your TDEE within a couple of weeks and have a lot of options for reducing calories from there.

That's probably all of us natural lifters. And giving up the dream and just being lean and fit is part of the process that will take you years to accept. But when you finally do, its beautiful. See you at 150lbs and then come back with a new Dexa.

I punched my numbers into a TDEE calculator and it says that according to "Martin Berkan's formula" my maximum muscular potential is 160 lbs @ 5% body fat, 168lbs @ 10% and 176 @ 15% body fat. I'm at the 176 now, just gotta replace about 25 lbs of fat with muscle. And people say you can gain about 1 lb of muscle a month so it should take maybe 2 years? LOL well life is a journey and not a race.

And how are you supposed to get 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight?

Here's a typical daily diet of mine:
2 bananas (~1g each of protein) 180kcal
Can of beans (21g) 420
A microwaveable chicken meal (19g) 330
A weight gain protein shake (50g) 1250
2 cliff bars (9g each) 500
Can of fruit (3g) 300

That puts me at about 3k calories but only about 115g of protein/day. I've been eating like that the last few months. And now I'm going to try to cut to 2500 calories and still hit that 175g/day of protein. I can cut the fruit to lower the calories and not lose too much protein but I'm still way short of the 1g for 1 bodyweight pount. Am I supposed to chug protein shakes all day (the non-weight gain ones) to get there? Or eat nothing but rice and chicken breast?

Right off the bat, you can get rid of those Cliff bars and replace them with real food or with a higher quality protein bar. Same for the weight gain powder. You can also replace the canned fruit with fresh fruit. Other than that, as you noted, it is usually easier to just subtract non-protein foods once you know what to look for. Again, as you noted.

Next, try adding eggs, lean meats, or even protein powder to bring up your number. Once you have established your protein intake, it becomes easier to substitute back-and-forth than if you did not have a baseline established in the first place. You can also check out plenty of logs here of people who detail diets that meet what you are looking for.

You have any recommendations for a high quality protein bar?

Metrx makes the best dirty (400 cal/31g) protein bar. Quest makes the most popular clean bar (190 cal / 20g) but there are a lot of clean bar competitors and they all taste equally gross.

Protip: get the metrx peanut butter flavor for the best of both worlds. It's 300/29g so ratio is about as good as quest, but it tastes somewhat better.

Honorable mention: Builder chocolate mint (280/20g).

Yea pretty much this. Plus doing some cardio and eating a bit less would be healthier for him overall. He was only working out 3x/week, barely moving around and eating like a turd.

Going to be building out a smallish home gym area soon. I have a treadmill, a bike, and a power rack / barbell. Flat bench and adjustable bench.

I'd like more to do overall than just SS style lifts. I assume any kind of weight machine like a Bowflex is utter trash and FPS? Should I just get an adjustable dumbbell set and STFU?

Just within the realm of barbell lifts there's a ton of squat/bench/dl/press variations. You can pause, alter the tempo, lift from pins (dead bench, pin press, pin squat, rack pull). I'd be thrilled to just have a good bar, rack, and bench at home.

Some alternatives to bowflex:

- a dip attachment to your rack

- some plyo boxes

- a dip belt for doing weighted chins and dips. could also be used to do belt squats in conjunction with the plyo boxes

- this thing is kind of intriguing if you really need cables and don't want to spend two grand. Most of these types of movements can be replicated well enough with resistance bands though

If your power rack doesn't have a bar for pull-ups, I'd add one. If it came with a just a single bar for pull-ups but you want to do neutral-grip pull-ups, you can add something there. A dip bench or dip attachment like Renton mentioned would be good too.

A few dumbbells or a pair of adjustables like you mentioned would be good. Appropriate flooring (rubber mats, maybe a lifting platform, etc.) too.

Other than that, maybe think of how you train now and if you'd like to replicate some lifts at home exactly as you do them in the gym, versus making do with alternate lifts with what you have now. For example, if you really like triceps pushdowns, you could buy a pulley system for home, or you could do lying triceps extensions and stuff like that instead. A lot of that will just come down to your space, budget, and needs.

Dip attachment and bands sound like great ideas. Thanks. Also lol at the pic for that cable attachment thing.

Yup definitely planning for the appropriate flooring and perhaps a Dl platform. I still want to dl and ohp and bench and what not, just sometimes want to do bro stuff, which I guess dumbbells cover enough of.

Probably best to start small with like bands and dumbbells anyways before I go YOLO on crazy machines

A pulley that mounts to the top of your rack isn't nearly as much as you might think. I would personally be fine with barbell and dumbbell triceps work. It was more an example of thinking about what you do in the gym and how you'd replicate it at home.

Hi Davidmary, welcome to the forum. If you have a general question pertaining to fitness or a form check you can post it in this thread.

You can also start your own log if you have some goals you would like to track your progress towards.

There's also a political discussion thread you can post about your religious and political beliefs in as well.

Good luck!

TLDR update
Still at it. Moving up in 2.5 kg increments up to 15 kg weights yesterday.

Current program is (2 sets of about 10 reps)
1) Dumbbell stair climb - four storeys-worth of stairs. (basically take the elevator down four floors and go back up, two stairs at a time so the legs are at the 90 degree step angle. Obviously come to a stop after each step so as not just let momentum take me up.) This replaced the dumbbell dead-lift as steps are supposed to exercise the same muscles. I wasn't really confident enough that I could do the dumbbell dead-lift with the correct form, given I don't have a mirror etc. so this seemed the best option.
2) Bent-over dumbbell rows - one set of those is usually done at the half-way point of the stair-climb (so that number 1 is also broken into 2 sets).
3) Dumbbell suitcase squat (i.e. a normal squat with arms hanging at the side holding the dumbbells for extra weight)
4) Plank - can now do 60 seconds. I sometimes do a set of sit-ups instead - I know we're not really supposed to do sit-ups but I like actually being able to do them after never having been able to do them properly.
5) Dumbbell floor press (i.e. like a dumbbell bench press but lying on the floor). Occasionally I do some press-ups instead of one of the sets of this - for similar reasons to 4).

When I can do 12 reps as part of each set then I move up to the next weight.

Questions
I'm finding I get "burn" in my forearms (probably Palmaris longus or Flexor carpi radialis muscles) when I am doing exercises that I would have thought shouldn't really be stressing them, such as "suitcase dumbbell squats" and the "dumbbell stair climb". Is it likely I'm holding them wrongly or should I just accept it's part of my forearms to getting stronger the same as everything else?

Also thoughts on the current program? Should I do 3 sets of everything rather than 2? Should I move up earlier (like as soon as I can do 8 reps of everything at a weight)?

Burn in your forearms is likely related to grip, given the exercises involved.

As long as you are progressively overloading the way you are going, keep at it. Eventually you won't be ablentonlrogress in even jumps on DBs, so you can move to adding more sets as a way of generating enough stimulus for adaptation to keep occurring.

Just to be clear - you mean it's normal for them to burn, not that it's from "bad grip".

It sounds normal to me as well.
If you're holding dumbbells in your hands, you are using your forearms in some capacity. For the suitcase DB squat and the dumbbell stair climb, though, you'd actually expect a large load on your forearms. In fact, both would be good for your grip, with the latter actually being a good grip training exercise. Same for the dumbbell rows that you mentioned in your original post.

This is a good thing. Just keep at it and your forearms, and grip, will increase in strength.

I have one more thought that I wanted to put in a separate reply because it applies to many beginners. You may soon have a dilemma. If your grip fails before your larger muscle groups, do you go lighter until your grip catches up, or do you use wrist straps and allow your grip to fall further behind?

I am of the mindset that one should not let larger muscle groups get held back by smaller ones. However, with grip, once it falls behind, it can fall way behind, with such people using wrist straps for everything. OTOH, if your grip keeps up, standard lifts like deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, and other exercises become grip exercises too.

Straps have their place in lifting, but I'd advise most beginners to avoid straps and, if they have to use them, to do specific grip training exercises like farmers' walks (dumbbell stair climbs without the stairs) to bring it up.

Yes, it's not an issue it's probably.just lactic acid building up in your forearms from use. They'll adapt. I agree with rich about straps generally, however in a case where we don't have non-grip alternatives for whatever reason, then I might consider straps to ensure legs are getting enough work in for example.

Yes, it seems to subside pretty quickly when I put the weights down.

Ok thanks. I think the best approach then is to keep at it without straps and if it takes longer to get to where I want to be then it's worth it to do it "better".

I think someone (Rich?) posted something about how he shouldn't have worried early on about whether something was taking an extra week because it's about lifetime habits, so forearms might be the "slowest ship in the convoy".