OK, so, I am going to be studying abroad for 9 weeks and I leave in 5 weeks. Long story short, I have been cutting for 4 months or so (pics below). I had been planning to continue my cut until I go to europe to be as low BF% as possible before I "have no control" of my diet while traveling for 2 straight months all over, but upon reading several posts on various threads here, I am wondering if It would benefit me more to clean bulk and put on a few lbs of muscle mass before I go.

Pics are below. I don't have a current side one. The side pic is actually like 6 weeks old but I would say that the profile of my abdomen looks pretty similar now. I have always had and still have a nice little pouch under my belly button and around my sides a bit. Like, I mentioned above, I had planned on cutting until this went away, but do you think I would benefit more from a few lbs of muscle or should I just stick to my plan?

I should probably note that I have been making pretty good strength gains throughout my cut, improving my starting squat from around 160lbs to 300lbs and my starting deadlift from around 150lbs to 375lbs... Haven't been so good with soft tape measurements so not sure on exact muscle size gain, but I am 21yrs old, 5'11" tall, and weigh 167lbs for the stats in case anyone would care to know before answering.

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/6826/questionxt9.th.jpg (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=questionxt9.jpg)

**I wasnt sure whether to put this in bulking or cutting so my apologies on that.

Stick with what you are doing. In five weeks you can tighten up more. But in five weeks you will NOT "put on a few pounds of muscle". Muscle gain is much slower.

Keep trimming to buy yourself and extra pant size before your diet turns to croissant and "ein mass bitte". :tu:

Agreed with Hort ~ in 5 weeks you could be looking pretty ripped.

yeah i figured i could add like 2lbs muscle max, but thanks for the advice, i'll stick to my original plan :tu:

yeah i figured i could add like 2lbs muscle max, but thanks for the advice, i'll stick to my original plan :tu:

keep this in mind when you think of building muscle:

to lose fat all you need to do is shrink existing fat cells.
to gain muscle, your body needs to physically create new muscle cell and fiber.

therefore, it takes alot longer to grow muscle than it does lose fat ;)

Cool read.

Does muscle build off of fat cells, or does muscles build and then use up fat cells to work. Not sure if i'm clear...

Does muscle build from scratch or does far transform into muscle?

Because in other cases (not this, I agree you should rip up for 5 weeks) would it be better to do only strength training all the time?

5 weeks isn't a whole lot of time to try and make noticeable mass gains....may as well trim a little more so that while you are off the program the damage won't be as bad....and when you get back...bulk time! :nod:

But that's a tough one....just go with your instincts...

Cool read.

Does muscle build off of fat cells, or does muscles build and then use up fat cells to work. Not sure if i'm clear...

Does muscle build from scratch or does far transform into muscle?

Fat doesn't transform into muscle, and neither does muscle turn into fat.

Fat cells are funny things - more are produced as needed, but they will never go away - they just shrink.

5 weeks isn't a whole lot of time to try and make noticeable mass gains....may as well trim a little more so that while you are off the program the damage won't be as bad....and when you get back...bulk time! :nod:

But that's a tough one....just go with your instincts...

the thought wasn't really so much as to make noticeable gains, but whether or not it would really be worth it to build say 2 more lbs of muscle before i go, as opposed to dropping say 5lbs...

my original plan was to cut until i leave, consider my two months overseas a dirty bulk (lol) and then bulk when i get back until feb/march and the go on a cut as necessary.

this is my 2nd time around cutting (i fell off the fitness wagon last year for like 9 months after a 3 month cut). i am at basically the same weight as i was at the end of my first cut and i look 10x better. i suspect if i stick with it through the winter and make some muscle gains, i'll be looking much better 3rd time around on my cut ha