Q&A I always played sports growing up, but I’ve had a skinny-fat physique for as long as I can remember. During a bulk, I reached around 195 lbs, but at least 30% body fat, and built somewhat of a base deadlifting 315 lbs 5×5, incline benching 185 lbs 5×5, and overhead pressing 140 lbs 5×5. After that, I did a long, aggressive cut (~6+ months) down to ~140 lbs on very low calories (~1,350–1,500/day) with lots of fasting. I lost a lot of fat but definitely muscle too. Even though I was beat and depleted after the cut, I felt much cleaner, lighter, and healthier—with inflammation reduced, face and body acne gone, etc. It’s kinda crazy saying I ate this low and was this aggressive for so long, but it showed me that I definitely have grit (learned a lot trying to force my body in AMPK)—I’m the type to do whatever it takes, always keeping the long term in mind and patient if the result will be better in the end. After that, I reversed calories very slowly up to ~2,200/day for about 3 months, gaining strength and feeling better and filling back up a bit. Currently, I’ve dropped calories back to ~1,350 for the past 3 weeks, and I’m maintaining all the strength I gained during the reverse, maybe I should’ve dropped slower. But my short-term goal is to get to 10% body fat so I can set up a proper lean bulk and never go above 15% again. I also think I may have a bit of muscle memory built up compared to how I look right now. 5’10 155 lbs 27 years old, around 19–20% body fat, training 4x/week with mostly myofibrillar/strength/CNS-focused training (8 reps at the most). I do 40 minutes of steady-state cardio on cardio days. I get 10,000 steps daily, and on days I don’t do cardio, I aim for at least 15,000 steps. I practice intermittent fasting so I can enjoy my meals more instead of spreading calories too thin. Year-round, my diet consists of whole foods: chicken breast, lean grass-fed ground beef, sockeye salmon, eggs, Greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, avocado, fruits, and vegetables. I set my maintenance at ~15× body weight (~2,325 calories) and adjust up from there. Protein 1g/lb body weight, 25% calories fat, and the rest carbs.