BW: 86kg
Activity:
Misc: So far no doms but i know that may well change ..
Diet Compliance: 14/14, 0/5, 9/9, 0/2, 4/4, 0/2, 11/11
Rest...
Less than 200 days left! Yikes. Im neither lean, strong nor fit. Need to do better.
lol, I feel the same. My bulk= maintain strength add fat. My cut= lose strength and muscle at same rate as fat
You can do this better using EC for muscle sparing. Not sure where you live but you can buy Bronkaid from pharmacies like CVS by showing them your ID. Also use a lot of protein. Cut down on extra activity to minimise unnecessary fatigue and have high quality lifting sessions where you maintain the weight on the bar during the cut. Sleep really well. Also cut down the number of training days per week to around 2.5. That will help a lot.
disagree with the EC/Bronkaid advice, lol 
Agree with the sleep + protein (if alot is just adequate). Disagree with cutting down activity - one of the best ways to maintain muscle mass, is to use it, so training more frequently, in preferably short sessions (45-90 min), will help maintain mass. Long sessions with inadequate nutrition will definitely cause you to lose mass. Short, frequent, "intense" sessions with adequate nutrition (even if it's slightly deficit) will help you maintain mass.
Don't need any of that EC stuff IMHO. Want muscle sparing? Just perform 3 x 10-12 reps full body (push pull lower) 3-5x/week, nice and light .. and eat clean + get in adequate protein (at least 1g / kg bodyweight).
The best way to cut fat, is to do it slowly through a more healthy lifestyle change: cardio + clean diet. Drastic changes are more risky, and might cause one to return back to normal or even fat-supercompensate by eating everything in sight. Take the slow road, it's easy psychologically & it also helps you maintain mass easier.
also fwiw, this was me in early 2015 @ 207 lb, fat, probably in the obese category, absolutely no muscle definition anywhere, belly etc: https://cdn-enterprise.discourse.org/tnation/uploads/default/original/3X/4/4/4432554d44c83b71ee0050b4bd278b26c5689c81.jpg .... and you've probably seen late 2016 photos or my 2017 photos now. I don't lift anymore so it's harder for me to maintain abnormally high muscle mass given my frame, but when I was dunking, at ~145-150 lb I had abnormally large thigh mass, which was intended from squatting. So, through clean diet+exercise & lifting for strength (and to maintain muscle mass), I had no problem keeping muscle mass on the muscle groups I actually wanted to have muscle mass maintained.
pc!
I actually think this is a highly personal thing and in my book EC is perfectly safe. Have used it in the past and would use it again if not for living in a nanny state where it's completely banned. My best experience with EC was 18 months ago when i used EC while cutting down to ~165 while increasing muscle mass and strength on a pretty significant caloric deficit. And i was training super hard (not just lifting). The muscle sparing benefits along of it on a cut are worth the sides (which only last a couple of days before subsiding). It's the most researched (scientifically) fat loss drug and was safe but people are dumb and overdose and ruin it for everyone etc.
However i will say that FDL is fat enough atm to not need any EC but if/when it becomes an issue it's worth considering it if you are worried about retaining muscle. Maybe once he's down 20-30lb from now? Actually EC is one of those things where its fat loss effects actually improve with chronic usage. But i think it's better to use it sparingly (ha ha) in short hardcore cuts (10-20 days) with big deficits. Up to the individual to decide. It's just one option.
One thing to keep in mind is if you need to cut a very long time (eg in this case) then towards the tail end you do actually suffer from the muscle wasting problem a lot more than if your cut is relatively brief (say 6-12wks).
cool, I respect that. I'm not completely anti-supp, so if it's effective and safe, i'll consider "not attacking it". My issue was mostly with the timing of the advice - like you said, once he's down maybe 30 lb, then it might be worth considering. I still don't think it will be, but that's the appropriate time for sure, not now. So I was just disagreeing with it more on the timing perspective.
I mean, if people do their research and want to take PED's with the help of some medical team, as long as it's not cheating in the sport, then I guess go for it .. but, if they are considering this, they better be topped out athletically with many years of dedicated training, for me to be able to comprehend it. So that's where I come from on these things, the idea of whether or not there has been enough focused, hard, dedicated work, to justify taking supplement X or PED Y.
If you look on these bodybuilding forums, it's absolutely batshit. It seems people just want to take substances. It doesn't even seem like they want to achieve an effect, IMHO. From what i've witnessed on these forums, it's more about just "taking shit" than actually achieving anything. These people dish out roid advice & all kinds of crazy supplement/PED stacks to people who are literally training noobs, it's insane. People who were once athletic, now many years old, coming to a forum talking about how they want to get unfat, and asking about 20 different supplements and getting back all kinds of responses about what, when, and how to take chemical Z. To me it's absolutely baffling.
I personally believe, the best way for 99.9% of people/athletes to stimulate a specific change (more/less muscle, more/less fat, more/less conditioning, more/less strength, more/less power) is through simple methods of training, training frequency, nutrition, nutrition timing, and sleep.
So as a very simple example, if you want to achieve more fat, less muscle, less strength, less power, and less conditioning, you would alter your training regime to include less training, more food, and even improper sleep. We talk at length about the reverse, but I think talking about the inverse is also important, which we rarely do.
"Hi I would like to go from 10 pullups to 0 pullups, what should I do?"
That should be its own thread, "The Training Inverse" thread.. kind of like my "reverse hypertrophy" terminology
But back on topic, the human organism's potential for adaptation is absolutely beautiful .. finding the right external stimuli to cause our bodies themselves to produce the desired hormonal, neural, muscular, bone, etc adaptations, is where it's at IMHO. Simply ingesting/injecting manufactured chemical compounds and such, removes "the work needed for our bodies themselves to create these effects". That work, IMHO, is the key. Another quick example, taking CHEMICAL X (WITH N SIDE EFFECTS) to drop fat vs taking months to drop fat using cardio: the work, "cardio", will also improve heart, lungs, and other enzymes related to human performance, while in the process of burning fat.
peace!
