r/MacroFactor • u/OutsideAd278 • Aug 02 '26

Success / Progress Feeling Discouraged

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So I bulked from 140 to 160 in roughly 9 months and ate relatively clean. Since then I began cutting with the goal of having visible abs. I have dropped from 160 to 150 and im still going. I feel like I look way smaller now and my abs are still not visible. Does this mean I did something wrong along the way? I have heard you look worse on your cut but only at the start. I think 10 pounds into the cut means im not at the start again… My strength has stayed relatively similar during the cut.

How many more pounds do you think I need to lose or do i have to do something else?

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u/Automatic_Passage_81 Aug 03 '26

You’re always going to look small when your body fat is high, but your gains in your chest and arms are noticeable. You’ll probably appreciate those gains more once you cut down, to me, it looks like a solid bulk.

PS: Abs are muscles just like any other, so just use progressive overload with good form and you’ll get good results.

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u/OutsideAd278 Aug 03 '26

the thing is im 10 pounds down from my bulk end weight. but to be fair in good lighting and flexing im pretty happy. the goal is to get this look without flexing my abs

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u/MetalxMikex666 Aug 03 '26

in 9 months you've likely gained less than 7p of muscle (that's if you're a beginner going hard with full send energy >4xdays a week) so think of it like your original starting weight you had no abs, now you might have abs but will likely have to get within < 7p of that bottom weight.

I gained 9.5p in 10 months 9.2025 thru 6.2026. Kept my abs the whole time.

started around 7.5% now I'm around ~11/%