# My most successful cutting diet (IIFYM, IF and Calorie Cycling)



## simonthepieman (Jun 11, 2012)

Now I won't say this is the best diet for everyone, but this is what work best for me. In both ability to stick to it for longer than a week and also retaining strength, in fact i made PRs on bench and deadlift on this cut. I am also a lifetime natty (if you exclude clen which i used ever so lightly)

I'm also not claiming anything revolutionary. Its something I pieced together from other peoples ideas and thing that fit my lifestyle and few other theoretic ideas (which I still believe), but won't elaborate on as there is no science to back it up so there is no point saying its a factor that makes this diet work.

If you aren't a fan of IIFYM, IF or anytime of extreme dieting, then you might as well stop reading as you will hate this. I've always felt starved on the traditional -500 cals, 6 meals a day diet, but this works for me. Each to their own.

I've since read its not disimilar to Lyle McDonalds PSRFL diet, which is far more prescribed that this (and his saturdays are far less fun).

First I follow IIFYM (which i won't discuss now), but if you eat cal dense food on the low days you will struggle to feel full. Also, i'm not a bodybuilder and never plan to be, I just want to be strong, in decent shape and enjoy the life and food i enjoy.

I was also living in Australia at the time so ice cream was one of my fav snacks on hot days and some of the food may not reflect UK food ie different fish, veg and better quality beef and lamb

So here we go.

I split the week up into 5 low cal days. 1 med-low calorie day and a weekly re-feed/fun day.

I chose the days based on need, so for me, saturday was a big night out with friends partying or a night out with the missus eating out (and big)

My TDEE was approx 2800 on eating consistent cals each day (well less disparity between days anyway)

*LOW DAYS*

*
*typically 1800 cals

typicals macros approx 40/30/30 or 50/30/20 depending on what I ate.

a typical diet example

fast to lunch time, but with plenty of green tea and black coffee.

20g of BCAA's (I don't believe they are anthing specially, but they are a low cal, high protein drink that for me doesn't make me crave carbs like whey does)

10g of creatine (i had a massive bulk bag i was tring to use up)

Pre-work out was generic pre-work out formula

Lunchtime workout

post work out meal: steak and chips and salad or half a rottiserie chicken and a packet of fiberous fresh veg (triple serving)

50g whey in the afternoon as a snack

dinner was typically meat (beef, salmon, lamb, various lean white fish and lots and chicken) and carbs if my GF made them, which was typically bulgar wheat or brown rice and salad

snacks or dessert (budgeted to cals consumed):

red wine

dark chocolate

home made protein flap jacks

*Med low cals day*

*
*The same as above, but cals around 2200

*High Calories days (my favorite)*

*
*Anything I wantaround 4000-5000 calories

typical diet was

eg Breakfast : 2 poached eggs, white buttered bread, wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms, chorizio, potatos + whatever my GF didn't finish on here plate +2 cappuchinos

lunch Chicken pad thai - restaurant + some kind of starter

snacks through the day: Ice cream, giant frozen yohurts covers in sweets, chocolate

Dinner: typically italian. Whole pizza or massive carb dish. Fish and chips. Australian tapas

evening - anything ranging from 5-10 beers or 2 bottles of wine.

yes, that was on a cutting diet. In case you are to do this, I recommend eating high GI carbs on the refeed day. i can't be ****d to explain why, but there is plenty of information on the web about it.

*Training*

*
*again this is what I did, not what I prescribe for you to do (but wouldn't be awful either)

I didn't Wendler 5/3/1 (again look it up if you don't know what it is)

My set up was

Bench 5/3/1

DB Shoulder press

Rows or chins

DB bench

Deadlift 5/3/1

front squats

50 chins in as few sets as possible

OHP 5/3/1

bench

chins

another press

squat 5/3/1

SLDLs

squats 3 x 10

abs

the assistance was 5 x 5 one week and 3 x 10 the other week.

I NEVER trained to failure where possible.

results:I dropped nearly 6KG in 8 weeks

82KG - > 76KG

and hit PRs in deadlift and bench. The only exercise i struggled with was OHP, but didn't go in reverse.

I don't want to use this as a perscription on what is best for people, but a few people have asked me about this diet. I have a gotten pretty fat in the past year with moving back to England, living out of a suitcase for half the year and most recently being in the US for a month eating in restaurants for 3 meals a day with yank sized meals so I will give this another run soon.

I have Christmas and another month in the US before I can commit to this so I might make a more dramatic transformation then


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## Fatstuff (Mar 2, 2010)

Bang on the money there mate, reps, that is very very similar to how I have been dieting for past few months.

2000cals a day, fasting until lunch,

Non WO days break fast with protein and fat, minimal carb meal.

If training, train fasted - have something with meat and carbs. (All dependant on work shifts)

Usually a midday snack - pork crunch and piece of fruit

And a decent meal.

Cheat/refeed once a week, more by choice as opposed to design, usually KFC and few beers in the evening. Probably hit 2700 cals with food and the rest beer.

Dropped 2 stone in few months


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## Fatstuff (Mar 2, 2010)

It seems we get our reading material from the same sources as well lol


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## chelios (Jun 26, 2010)

Nice one mate, subbed for a read later.


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## Paul R (Oct 1, 2012)

Did you lose much muscle mass dieting like this?


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## Tom90 (Jan 29, 2010)

Great stuff guys, I've also been following a similar thing. I've fasted until 2PM everyday, I finish work at quarter to 2 so it's convenient.

I've eaten around 1800 cals for 6 days, then have a refeed on the weekend which is usually a KFC bucket and some ice cream.

I went from 93kg to 84.6kg in around 11 weeks.


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## DoubleXL- (Feb 13, 2012)

I do something quite similar myself too,

Fast til dinner time 5-6 days a week, well I say fast, I usually drink tea or coffee and have milk in it so technically it's not a fast but it helps me keep my overall daily cals lower.

Then either one big (600-800g chicken) protein meal or two (300-400g chicken) meals a day with a shake or two. Pretty much my daily diet other than one day a week where I will go on a mad one, still keep the protein high but smash the calories well in the 5k range.

Seemingly worked for me too!

18 stone 9lbs - February










15 stone 10lbs - November










Got a long way to go but I'll get there if I carry on the way I'm going, currently sitting at 15 stone 7lbs so a little bit leaner than the 2nd picture, think it's about time I started working abs!


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## simonthepieman (Jun 11, 2012)

Paul R said:


> Did you lose much muscle mass dieting like this?


Not a single bit. I know most people won't believe me, but my back actually slightly. A few shirts I had got tighter on my lats. Although that could be the washing machine shrinking my shirt 

Thanks everyone. I was expecting flames for this. Especially the booze.


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## chelios (Jun 26, 2010)

Really good read guys. Going ti start this just after xmas. Similar to lean gains.


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## robc1985 (Jan 28, 2010)

This is what I'm following mate. Check my journal


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

simonthepieman said:


> Not a single bit. I know most people won't believe me, but my back actually slightly. A few shirts I had got tighter on my lats. Although that could be the washing machine shrinking my shirt
> 
> Thanks everyone. I was expecting flames for this. Especially the booze.


No need for flames at all. You've done what most people who find their own best working formula do, and that's look at existing diets with sound nutritional theory and good practical results and incorporated the elements of each that best suit your lifestyle and physiology... 99.9% of dietary success is how easy that diet becomes a consistently practiced lifestyle, and rarely does that happen with generic diets that aren't personalised.

I look at all the main dietary approaches as templates to be tweaked, is what you have to do to get the best of them.

In respect of the alcohol, the Med diet includes it and is one of the better mainstream diets out there for good health and improving body composition - small amounts of alcohol are not a problem, it's continual excess that causes issues.


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