I hate to sound cheesy or sound like an excited 9-year old waking up Christmas morning, but I am really enjoying this cutting phase and it's only been 4 weeks.
With my calories higher than they have ever been, this is kind of like uncharted waters for me. However, it's a double-edged sword, in a sense.
On the one hand, I am growing; I am getting stronger either by adding weight or adding reps at almost every workout right now. On the other hand, the progress of leaning down is slow in the sense that my scale weight isn't falling much, at all. This is where I have to trust my experience and rely on the visual instead of the scale.
A lot of people say to throw the scale out but that's silly. The scale is a great tool for gauging progress. It only becomes a problem when there is TOO MUCH focus on the scale. So, I am using it but not relying on it.
Visually, I am significantly leaner than 4 weeks ago, but I weigh only 2 pounds less. I did something very similar to this when I came back from a 14-week break of not training, at all, later in 2018. I recomped over 12 weeks and only ended up weighing 3 or 4 pounds less on the scale but had a radically different composition due to being very lean in the end.
My progress has stalled just a bit in the last 7-10 days so I am going to make a small change to my diet by dropping only about 400 calories on training days and just over 300 on my non-training days. Not a huge change, but I do think it will warrant a positive response. Even with this change, my calories will still be significantly higher than they have ever been even at the start of a prep. If I don't get the response I need, I will make another change in another week.
I have yet to Skipload in the last 4 weeks and I have only had one high-carb day, though I have another one scheduled for tomorrow. It isn't that I am "sticking it out" and not loading, I just have not needed one, yet.
I will come into this next phase (with this diet change) at 228 pounds, again, only 2 pounds down from 4 weeks ago.
I basically have no more nagging issues with minor injuries, at all. My right hamstring is good. My oblique is now good and my back is in great shape, as well.
I absolutely destroyed legs, yesterday, and it was supposed to be a lighter day. However, I got in there and was squatting and felt great so I hit a PR over last week, adding 5 reps to my top squat set. I then went on to one-legged leg presses (iso-lateral) and hit a PR on that, too.
Everything is firing on all cylinders and I will do my high-carb day tomorrow before heading into another heavy training cycle for the next 5 days before going another 5 days with a lighter cycle (though still high-intensity).
I anticipate the scale weight falling more during the month of March because I can't keep recomping forever. I will ride it as long as I can but it isn't going to be long and the scale weight will have to fall (and it already started to fall within the last few days).
The process right now is fun and I can't remember the last time a cutting phase has been this enjoyable. Of course, it's early, but I still am in a different place than I've been in a very long time.