Thanks for the info. To answer a few questions:
Im male, 45, 5'2" (cant help that) and have been lifting off and on since high school but I have been real serious with proper nutrition for the last 3 years. The past year and a half has been more bulking to get some mass back. I went from 135lbs (after a sustained cut from 205 with a 45" waist) to 160 at around 20% bf. Now I wish to cut to 10% without losing my muscle mass this time.
I have cleaned the diet over the past month and have been eating between 2000 to 2200 cal per day in 5 to 6 meals. Macros were 40 30 30 CPF but I have made a move three weeks ago to 40 40 20 CPF. I believe I need to nudge the calories down a tad and up the cardio effect ( by doing more cardio or going for 30 second rests between sets).
Im currently doing an antagonist set hitting two muscle groups back to back then getting a 60 second rest and going for another set. I have been changing up the reps some going for 8 one week then 10 another then 15 on another. I hit each muscle group twice weekly. Some muscles like two sets. Others seem to like 4.
Things I notice: when I go 8 reps. Some muscles respond, others do not. When I go 15 reps, all seem to respond and seem to get fuller and stay fuller on the off days.
I have read somewhere from maybe it was LM or TV or perhaps another well known trainer or coach that posts on the internet that during a cut, calories will be less than needed to properly build new growth and strength and that the less than optimal calories, coupled with increasing overload such as when calories are abundant will lead to muscle not getting repaired properly and thus some loss of muscle will happen. Is this not true? It did go on to say that the muscle still needed to be stimulated well and that keeping intensity high but short would provide the stimulation without major overload to help the muscle maintain itself.
Other thoughts?