Hi - should I cut or bulk?

then get rid of that fat or else you will never be happy with it user.

Excess skin from being fat for too long. Though usually you shouldn’t see it if you were only like low 200 lbs unless you are 5 feet tall. Different skin genetics I suppose

Sounds like you are already doing the right stuff. If you are already training in a fasted state in the morning 3/4 days a week, then each day you don't train, go find a steep hill and run up it as fast as you can a couple times. Let me clarify:
> 1. find a hill 60 - 100 meters in length
> 2. slowly jog it a few times as a warmup, do some dynamic stretches to get your body ready
> 3. start slow, at a jog but increase your speed such that by the halfway point you are all out sprinting as fast as you can.
> 4. repeat step 3 as many times as you feel comfortable. Three sprints are usually good without being too demanding that you would feel sore the next day.
Do this after you wake up, before you have eaten or drank anything (including coffee). Wait 30 minutes after the sprints to eat or drink anything as well.

As far as dropping water weight, when you think you are ready for a deload week, cut out all sodium intake that week. At the end of the week take a day where you eat nothing at all and drink nothing at all (not even water). It sucks but it is doable if you focus on your goal of losing the "camel hump hips". Do some light jogging and stretching on this dry fasted day. Also in my experience cold showers help a lot when your dry fasting, as water will be moved from outer tissue to inner tissue and can more easily be used by the body

Ignore the meme answers, there is some loose skin as you can see on your navel but also some fat, keep cutting until its just lose skin and then bulk. In the long run you’ll fill out whatever lose skin you have anyways, so for now get rid of the last few kilos of extra fat
This

Also I want to clarify that "deload" week means you greatly reduce the amount of weight you are lifting or decrease the number of sets/reps durning this week. DO NOT drastically cut your sodium intake if you are heavily exercising

which ones are meme answers? Sorry I am not that experienced..

The worst one is , doing cardio whilst dehydrated is a good way to fuck your shit up, dry fasting is dangerous as well. isn’t as bad, doing cardio is always good and you should definitely hit lats a lot, but yohimbine is a meme with no real evidence to back up its effectiveness. Keeping your weight constant as says will waste a bunch of time, just cut and then bulk at a reasonable pace.

Okay buddy, can't believe my shits not fucked up since my wrestling coach had the whole team doing it for 6 weeks every preseason to cut us down to 8% bf. As for dry-fasting, its one fookin day of it and thats just scraping the tip of the iceberg of what we had to do to make weight for weigh in.

Youre right about the yohimbe shit, ill give you that. But youre woefully uneducated about the human body if you think a couple of hill sprints prior to drinking water is going to leave you all fucked up. Good lord, you must be a physical therapist or something.

Look dude, take the advixe that I know is true but still don't follow. Come to terms with your loose belly flaps and fill it all with a strength induced concoction of mass. Fat is okay, as long as it's there to supplement the muscle. If you go ham with higher weight shit, you'll eventually develop thicc muscles in your chest, and then nobody will give a shit about your core. Keep in mind, if you spring for this mode, don't ignore the arms or legs or you'll look like Mr. Mime

Making weight for a contest is fine, but it’s completely pointless for someone trying to get lean as you don’t permanently lose the weight, you just dehydrate and will regain the weight right afterwards. Fasted cardio is fine if you like it, but is more of a meme than anything backed by scientific evidence. Dry fasting is risky, and unless you are doing it under supervision and need to do it it’s irresponsible to recommend it to a complete beginner

I think you misread my posts friendo, you do the fasted cardio for a few weeks to lose the fat. Then later, during a deload week you cut sodium intake and do ONE DAY of dry fast.
>more of a meme than backed by scientific evidence
That is patently false. When you exercise in a fasted state, your body expending energy without the suitable glycogen stores to supply it.... where does the body get energy? By breaking down fatty acids and proteins to produce glucose, and since the body prioritizes lean body tissue, the vast majority of what is catabolized is adipose body fat. That is science. Full stop.
>you don’t permanently lose the weight, you just dehydrate and will regain
Listen, okay, when your cells retrieve lipids from adipose tissue, they are volumetrically replaced with water. This is scientific fact. You could burn a pound of fat but see no change in your body since cells that previously stored fat, despite having less fat now, are still full of water. You have to remove the water, so that the cell can shrink and the cellular constituents can undergo autophagy. This is textbook biology.

First you cut the fat, then you cut the water. Then you see the permanent change in your physique assuming you don't overeat in the weeks following your efforts.

PLEASE DONT LISTEN TO HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT

So is it safe to do this? Assuming eating 1600kcal and doing this twice a week plus 3 4 strength sessions.

>and do real core work, not just crunches.

Such as what? I'm also weak in that department.

No, I understood what you were saying. Yes, obviously your body is using fat for energy if you are doing fasted cardio in the morning, but that doesn’t actually change the calories in vs out. Also your body can use either ketones or glucose for fuel, and would be using largely ketones in that scenario.
As for cutting down sodium and the day of dry fasting that’s fine for a contest, but especially the reduction in sodium is completely pointless for someone trying to lose fat, if anything you need a reasonable amount of sodium for your body to perform normally, can’t cut it out for more than a few days at most.
The part about your weight plateauing due to water retention is true, though you will lose the water anyways. If that weren’t the case people wouldn’t be able to lose weight by just restricting calories, and clearly that works. Your cells won’t just retain the water forever without the fat, it’ll be gone in a matter of days without having to risk your kidneys by dryfasting

If you are 178cm, you need to be eating more than 1600kcal or your body will breakdown with that level of activity. It is fine to eat 1600kcal on days you are not lifting assuming you have met your protein requirement, but on days with your strength sessions you need to be eating above maintenance, which for you is probably well above 2000kcal. As I said before, only do the sprints to a level that you feel physically comfortable. Start by doing just one sprint each day you don't do strength sessions and see how sore you are the day after. Dont overwork yourself or you will have injuries. Always sprint uphill if you don't have a base of running experience, or you will get shin splints, stress fracture etc.

Disclaimer: I have been an athlete my whole life, track&field, xc, and wrestling, so what I consider safe may not be safe for everyone. ALWAYS START SLOW when you introduce new activities in your life

PS I'm not a dietician.

I'm 180cm and I cut on 1500cals while lifting 3x a week and doing cardio. Maybe my BMR is somehow low but idk how people cut eating 3k cals at this height

>Ketones (chemically known as ketone bodies) are byproducts of the breakdown of fatty acids. The breakdown of fat for fuel and the creation of ketones is a normal process for everyone

And for the last fucking time, you reduce sodium and perform a short dry fast to expel/reclaim the unused water that is inhabiting the now lipid-less fat cells so they can shrink in size and undergo autophagy. This ain't rocket science. Nobody is abstaining from sodium for more than few days, and I also said to REDUCE activity level during this period. And if was that dangerous, why is my father on a medically prescribed very low sodium diet by his cardiologist?

Secondly, there is ZERO FUCKING RISK from ONE DAY OF DRY FASTING. When I was a child my church would have all the kids do a 30 famine every six months, which is literally 30 hours of dry fasting and we would donate all the food and water we would have eaten to the local food bank. >B-b-but my kidneys

>Your cells won’t just retain the water forever without the fat, it’ll be gone in a matter of days
Alright jackass, first you say dont exercise in a fasted state because it doesn't burn fat. Then you bring ketones into the mix, but say ketones (a fuel from exclusively burning fat) would be largely used in that scenario? Then you act like you understood what i was saying despite me telling you three different times that the sodium and dry fasting has nothing to do with the burning of the fat. THE POINT IS NOT TO REMOVE THE WATER BUT TO REMOVE THE CELLULAR TISSUE ALONG WITH THE WATER VIA AUTOPHAGY SO THE BODY DOES NOT PREFERENTIALLY USE THESE PARTICULAR FAT CELLS IN THE FUTURE FOR FAT STORAGE.

CICO is fine for fatties, but this man has reached a point where he will no long see benefits from under consuming calories. He needs to build muscle and perform body recomposition. He can do that easily via the steps I suggested or he can flounder on bulk/cut for the next six months feeling bad about himself

IDK man Im 183cm and eat 2800kcal when I cut

idk maybe my metabolism is somehow fucked up but Iswear I eat 1500cals and lose weight at a normal pace... maybe my food scale is broken though

Depends on your activity level and muscle mass. I also don't eat much carbohydrates