FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Perfect this makes sense.
I just want to be as true as possible to your training plan so I can completely immerse my self into it.

Does it make sense to do it this way?
4 fat loss days combined with the 3 higher caloric training days.
OR
Stick to the 4 day program and only have 3 dieting days.

Perhaps 4 days training with a lower surplus would be more effective than 3 days with a higher surplus on those days. This is what I am undecided about....

Regarding time to train that is not a problem.

I think, in a post-contest situation where you're adding back calories, the more often you can couple a training stimulus with the nutrients needed to sustain muscle growth, the better off you'll be.

If we just consider the MR days as a three day part of the week, we're considering two scenarios:

3 day / week program: Only 1 of these 3 days you train. The other two you'd be keeping kcal low to prevent fat gain. (I think you're considering the ASC next year, right?... Classic BB'ing?...)

Regular FT (4days / week): Two of those 3 days at the end of the week you'd be training. You've got the metabolic expenditure of the training and the EPOC (which seems to be high) twice as often (and probably bleeding into that third day when your'e not training). So, you can take the same or perhaps a bit more workload and spread it over those two days (vs. a single monster workout in the 3day / week scenario) and keep kcal higher more days of the week.


In the 3 day / week program, you're focused on simply trying to keep fat gains at bay (more low cal days), whereas with the regular FT you can focus a bit more on growth. When leaner / dieted down, it's typically easier a smart move to spread a give workload out over more training session for most folks, too (e.g., take a 4 day / week program, shorten training sessions and train more times / week).

So, I'd go with regular old FT, but I do think you can make the other way work, too. Personally, I'm for whatever works best for you, and you may find that having a couple days off in a row is a godsend, too.

-S