r/leangains

Dieting

I am the leanest I’ve been in years. 2 years of diet with 3-4 maintenance phases. I’ve been experiencing some muscle spasms/ twitches that start 36 hours after my workouts. Some of them haven’t gone away and are still happening even after a few weeks. Have any of you experienced this?

Hi guys I’m going on holiday in December for 3 weeks
I’m going to be staying in an remote village no access to any gyms etc

I’m been training for 6 months now got into the best shape I’ve ever been now I’m stressed I don’t want to loose all this work in 3 weeks of none training.

Has anyone got any recommendations how to maintain.

Thanks

Hey all! I recently started working out and my goal is to get leaner, but the nutrition part has me completely lost. Every source says something different: keto, high protein, counting every calorie, intermittent fasting, "just eat clean"...

For those of you who are into fitness, what are you doing in terms of nutrition? Does it matter? Are you using any apps?

One thing I've been curious about during a cut is how people adjust their strength training when recovery starts becoming more difficult.

With a home gym, it's easy to keep the same exercises and equipment throughout the entire cutting phase.

But when calories are lower and performance starts dropping, there are different ways to respond.

Some people reduce the number of working sets while keeping their main lifts relatively heavy. Others change exercise variations to manage fatigue or make training more manageable.

For those following a Leangains-style approach and training at home, which adjustment do you usually make first?

Do you reduce volume, change exercise selection, or try to keep everything consistent for as long as possible?

5 years of lifting. never did a cut.

Started my cut at **67 kg in April 2026**. I don't remember my exact maintenance calories at the time, but they were roughly **2,400–2,500 kcal/day**.

Right now it's **2350 kcal/day**

I'm currently **63 kg**. I started the cut at around **1,800 kcal/day**, and I'm now eating approximately **1,350–1,550 kcal/day**, depending on whether it is a rest day or training day.

I'm planning to continue cutting until I achieve the conditioning I'm aiming

1. for a specific conditioning goal

2. if not, another two months.

My main concern is **what to do after the cut??**

Background:

Always a skinny-fat and have never had clearly visible abs. Fear that increasing my calories on any bulk and gain enough abdominal fat to lose the definition. Similar thing happened last time when I attempted my first ever cut. I'm South Asian, so I have a tendency to store a relatively high proportion of fat around the abdomen.

My goal after the cut is therefore:

* **Maintain as much of my final conditioning as possible.**

* **Keep fat gain to an absolute minimum.**

**What would be the best approach after finishing the cut?**

Internet Solutions. All confuse me.

1. Reverse diet.

2. Immediately maintenance.

3. Stay at a small deficit for a period after reaching my desired leanness and then lean bulk of 200 kcal comprised of carbs.

I'd appreciate advice from people who have successfully finished a cut while already relatively lean and then maintained their conditioning afterward.

edit: used gpt to phrase words. I am anxious and stressed due to this right now so was unable to write myself.

Im 27M Weight: 59kg/130lbs Height:160cm/5 foot 2 inch

Exercise almost daily 1 hour perday like upper-> lower->cardio rinse and repeat

I track calories like around 1700 calories per day which i think its still a lot of food

Body fat probably around 20-25% (still have the love handle and belly fat)

Should i cut more or something?

Lots of lifting experience but now overweight at 50 year old. Just wondering if anyone has any workout routines (paid or free) that helped them get back into shape.

I’ve been pretty physically active for the past 6 years or so—I dropped about 40 pounds during Covid lockdown and kept workout out somewhat regularly since then. My main problem and question is:

1. workout out and eating right was easy until I got married. I still find time to workout, but I am not always the one making meal decisions at home. My partner and I work together to plan meals, BUT I don’t do the cooking. I plan out my breakfast and lunch and then kind of just hope dinner fits into my calories/macros. Do any other recently (or not so recently) married folks know a better way to figure this out without us doing two different dinners every night?
2. I am about 168 pounds but am sitting at 22.5% body fat. I’d ideally like to drop that to 13-15% within 6-12 months. My main problem is that I continue to lift and struggle with progressive overload and whether I should be cutting, bulking, or recomping. I am a healthy weight for my height but have a high body fat % —suggestions?

For context, I have a home gym with dumbbells, medicine ball, jump rope, incline/flat bench, treadmill, power tower, and battle ropes. The husband and I also do a walk 6 nights per week on top of my 3-night per week lifting sessions.

Day 1: Legs

• Squats: 3 × 6*

• Romanian Deadlifts - 3 × 8*

• Calf Raises: 2 × 10

Day 2: Push

• Bench Press: 3 × 6*

• OHP - 3 × 8*

• Close Grip Floor Press: 2 × 10

Day 3: Pull

• Deadlifts: 2 × 5*

• Rows - 3 × 8*

• Straight Bar Curls: 2 × 10

Exercises with * are RPT

Hi guys I’m a 23F that started working out consistently in May 2026. When I started I was already skinny (around 110) but I wanted to get toned. I started taking creatine in August. I take 3g of the Arrae gummies. At first I was looking really toned and slim but now I feel like I’m looking bulky and bloated. Definitely getting stronger but I really want that toned look. I’m around 118 now and Ik it can cause water weight gain so I’m not that angry about that, just how I’m looking.

I eat around 1800 calories a day but I’m wondering if I should start precise calorie tracking again. I’m getting super frustrated as I love working out and I felt like I was getting somewhere but now I look worse than when I started.

Let me know what you guys think and if you have any advice

Guys I need help on what to eat. Right now I am on deficit for longer period and its time where i dont know what to eat and how much times per day to split my macros and eventually to “complete” them at the and of the day. If you guys are willing to share some of your meals with macros and “weights” and than i will ajust that to my macros inetake.

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I have a specific question about exercise and meal timing. AFAIK, there is no study isolating the effects of exercise timing in intermittent fasting. Specifically, when fasting in a ~16:8 scheme, what are the differences in eating right before the eating window (a) vs. a couple of hours before (b). In both, exercise would occur fasted.

I've done both, depending on my schedule. I try to do (a), if it works with my schedule, but (b) is often unavoidable. My bro-intuition and some superficial research says that (a) could have slightly more hypertrophy and faster regeneration, while (b) might have some other metabolic benefits coming from mimiking a longer fast. Potentially also less fat gain in the eating window? Of course weight gain/loss should be equal with equal calorie intake.

Does anyone have more experience with that? Possibly done a personal study on themselves or know about a study that isolates this?

180lb, male 34.

I have been trying to gain weight in a clean fashion. I lift 5 days a week, really focused on bringing the weight down and doing controlled reps 10-15.

I am logging foods on macrofactor - really trying to have a limited use of bread, and focusing my calories with whey, oats, rice, bison, chicken, cream of rice and some fruit. I do tend to add some olive oil based butter and bread into the diet or an uncrushable once a day to bring the calories up. Im eating around 2900-3k daily and still have not gained a pound in the last 2 weeks or so.

Im pretty much full all of the time. My thought is incorporating some more calorie dense, not as clean foods in to up the calories - maybe a beef sandwich here or there or some peanut butter sandwiches. Im torn between clean bulking and if it fits the macros argument. Any advice is appreciated!

Yea I walk a shit ton even when lean bulking coz it has stuck with me since cutting + it became a routine thing after getting a walking pad at home.

Just wanna get some advice on whether I should increase cals or reduce steps. Is there any scientific evidence that leans towards one over the other?

Or it ultimately comes down to just personal preference (eg cut steps to get more rest, or increase cals coz it’s easier, etc).

Thanks in advance!

Good evening,
I really seek some advice here.

I’ve got extensive experience in cutting and fitness overall, I’m currently engaging a more aggressive cut.

I need some advice on the effects of breaking up with my gf - and even though we weren’t together for long (1 month in total), everything was VERY intense.

It’s the intensity, the memories etc. that, only on occasional days now, fuck up my day - like out of nowhere.

That is when I engage in walking even more, thinking…. ending up at 25k steps and being so drained.

Emotionally, physically, energetically.

I’m an ambitious person, 26 yrs old btw, and it was my first relationship with intimacy etc.

I’m currently in the 3rd week of my cut, and I do not want to have this experience hinder my cut. Until now it’s not been an issue, fat loss is going great, but what I see occasionally (maybe once every 1.5 weeks) is how sometimes certain memories come up, where from that point onwards my entire day feels fucked.

I hope it kind of makes sense how I’ve described things to the best of my ability haha.