To all you university students, (and anyone else who would like to offer some advice ;) ) if you are in a cutting cycle when exams come up what do you do??

do you continue cutting? does it affect your concentration?
or do you hold off on the cutting for the one-two weeks in which you have exams?

thanks

In the non exam mornings, I did fasted state cardio early in the morning, while reading my exam notes. A good 50 minutes of revision, coupled with 50 minutes of cardio isn't a bad thing. I've found that as long as you have enough carbs, i'd say 30 protein, 50 carbs, 20 fat, or more carbs, you should be ok.

On the exam mornings though I generally had some quick sugary treat and a red bull for breakfast, not too high in calories, but enough to make sure my brain had enough sugar to cope with the exam. The red bull helps too.

I've never had a problem in a cutting/fat loss cycle during exam time. I've always gotten very good marks. I think if someone's cutting effects their concentration, then they're not eating enough calories and/or carbs for healthy cutting. Are you asking about fitting exercise in? Time can be tight, but I find that you're not gonna study all day. Even if I studied for most of the day, I'd have time for 1. a workout and 2. some short relaxation or socialization with other people. I don't think that something sugary has any benefit before an exam. Something caffeinated might. I think the best meal is one of moderate size of complex carbohyrdates and protein that will provide enough energy for the entire exam. I don't think the type of meal matters so much for a normal length test that's largely memorization and a little applied knowledge and thinking outside the box. But for the LSAT (which is a very long and menatlly grueling test) I had a meal such as I described and a healthy snack (an Odwalla bar I think) during the break. I felt sharp and alert the whole test. No crashing or ebb and flow of energy. And I ain't complaining about the results.

Cutting and starving are two different process and situation. I never had problem doing anything while cutting, but if you are feeling a bit moody, lack of concentration etc.. Then you better check your diet, usually the problem here is too low on carbohydrates :mad: Anyway, don't forget to feed you body with optimum nutrition so that it'll supply your brains with all the energy it needs for you to think. :tu: Oh, and one more thing, during cutting and exam period, I still do my cardio and weightlifting, no problem with that... Good luck on the exams :gl:

i could certainly relate with this post. this april is going to be gruelling for me. coincidentally, i am also thinking of what shall i do about it ie continue cutting or maybe maintanence. well, i guess i would do maybe something in between. would up my calories intake a bit but still below maintenance level for a small deficit to occur. but, i think this is the period when most people would think of having a cheat meal, maybe sugary stuff perhaps?hmm.... for me, i think of cheating when i am hungry. so i usually eat lotsa vege even when i am not hungry to prevent the hunger from setting in. and have lotsa fruits :) of course.

if one has trouble concentrating, most probably is due to lack of carbs so increasing it would be the ideal solution. our brains need carbs to function ;)

For me, there's two issues:

Cutting with carbs is not all that hard. As long as carbs are not too low, I don't go into mental shutdown.

With a requirement of studying perhaps all day and all night at times, workouts can be nearly impossible. Of course preplanning comes into play here, but sometimes it's unavoidable or the dieter in question (like me) has a problem with procrastination. This leads to, if the dieter wants to cut calories to compensate for the decrease in caloric expenditure, perhaps too harsh a drop in calories for adequate energy levels. This all goes to compound the problem of sleep issues besides the lack of energy in studying.

Now, one could always increase carbohydrates more to get a greater increase of temporary energy, but the glycemic response will trigger a greater insulin response, which then crashes blood glucose. Crashing blood glucose -> rebound hunger (difficulty in diet maintanence) and energy crash. Energy crash then makes the problem of sleep and energy maintanence even worse.

Of course, this is just an exagerrated effect of dieting under normal conditions.

I like chocolate topped fruit and nut cereal bars before exams. Instant boost of sugar, and then a slightly slower release of sugar into your system. The fat in them slows down digestion enough so that it lasts through the exam. I'm not looking forward to 3 hour exams though...

Oh, I also take a lot of caffeine + ephedrine every 5 hours.