Cutting 101: The Definitive Guide To Losing Fat While Building Muscle
Eager to cut fat, but scared you’ll lose muscle? Live in the gym, yet can’t seem to make any visual progress? Barely eat, however the unwanted adipose tissue remains?
Basically been trying everything under the sun and can’t manage to shake the body fat weight, right?
Or maybe you’re done packing on weight and now is the time to cut..
This one is for all of you.
Going on a cut can be a confusing, exciting, and daunting task all stuffed in one tightly wrapped burrito.
You want to retain muscle, you want to lose fat, you want to avoid slowing your metabolism, and you want to plow through plateaus - starting to sound like a gumbo burrito, but the recipe is in a language you can’t speak.
Luckily that’s not the case, regardless even if it was, in this post you’ll find the translation and by that I mean: what a cut is, why you should pace fat loss, what a good pace is, how to cut strategically, what to do if you plateau, and more!
Note: before you do anything, ensure you are in position to go on a cut. Some of you may fare better by bulking first - how to decide if you should cut or bulk.
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What Is A Cut In Fitness
A cut isn’t only something you do to construction paper to help with your 6-year old’s school project. It’s a fitness/bodybuilding term to describe a shift in strategy to losing fat while retaining muscle.
Priority one is dropping body fat, and in such cases priority two is maintaining as much muscle as possible and hopefully building more during the process.
Mastery of this process is the difference between being/becoming lean and muscular versus just lean. This is how you create an aesthetic physique, and for those with the aim of just being more “shapely” you also want to retain muscle.
Gents tend to put off the cut out of fear of “looking small”, but oftentimes a successful cut will give you a larger shirt off appearance than prior to the cut. When dimensions change, so does appearance.
(It’s okay to start getting excited.)
Note: despite common thought, it’s awfully viable to build muscle while losing fat, but the less body fat you carry the more tedious those proceedings become.
Why You Shouldn’t Rush Weight Loss
The recurring theme of a cut is you want to lose fat, yet not that hard-earned muscle. So on a cut one must do the keep muscle lose fat limbo. To pull this maneuver off you have to be detail oriented, methodical even (I wanted to type surgical, but that’s misleading).
You are to be in no rush. Rushed weight loss is largely failed weight loss.
Lose weight quickly? You’re guaranteed to lose muscle.
To avoid that, abide by the cutting principles. I’d never want you dropping 30 pounds in a month, for example.
Muscle loss hurts a fat loss expedition a few ways - slowed metabolism, less possible definition/shape, and higher chance of relapse:
On metabolism
Maintaining muscle is an energy intensive process [3]. Your body has to work overtime to keep it from withering away. The act of allocating resources to hold onto muscle tissue burns calories.
If you aren’t using said muscle consistently and adequately enough to convince your body it's needed - your body will be happy to catabolize the muscle protein for energy.
Your body only wants to be efficient, so it keeps what it believes it needs. So if you’re losing muscle, you’re losing metabolic juice [6]. The difficulty level for a successful cut takes an awe-inspiring leap when metabolism starts to slow.
On definition/shape
Ridding yourself of unwanted body fat will bring you closer to seeing what your shape is underneath. You can influence these aesthetics with intentional training, IE if you want developed quads you work quads sufficiently.
Genetics coupled with how you train will give your body more or less definition with a particular shape. The less muscle you have, the less opportunity for definition you’ll have, and the less opportunity for a particular shape.
Think on the physique of marathon runners, that’s the result of their level of cardio, but also a lack of resistance training. Unless that’s your ideal physique; cut properly.
On relapsing
This is a continuation on the decelerated metabolism point. When your metabolism slows it’s easier to gain weight [4].
For example, if 2000 calories daily was enough to make you lose body fat initially, great. When that metabolism slows.. 2000 calories may only be enough for you to maintain weight. If that metabolism goes any further downhill, 2000 calories will contribute to you gaining weight.
Another issue with quick weight loss is reality. The reality is that a drastic change, like the 1 month 30 pound hypothetical, has to be from the result of a complete life overhaul. From a ton of calories to almost none, from a sedentary lifestyle to hours of cardio and possibly some weight training. Likely a sort of crash diet.. these changes may get you quick results, yet they prove time and time again to be unsustainable.
According to a study reported on by Science Daily, 58-74% of weight loss success stories end in them regaining lost weight [5].
What happens is you end the phase that created change without gaining the know-how for keeping the change. Learning how to do a proper cut will give you the knowledge for maintaining any achieved results, in that all you have to do is adjust your combo of calories and activity levels to maintenance.
Note: if you have a quickly approaching, unexpected event you may need to cut a little faster than in the ideal world where you have time to plan. Wedding, photoshoot, competition, etc.. these cases occasionally call for you to break a rule or two, however the consequences of your actions still remain, unfortunately.
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How To Pace Weight Loss On A Cut
“Well you said don’t lose weight too quickly, well then what pace?”
I got you, I got you right now.
A solid cutting pace for maximizing muscle retention is a weight loss of 0.25-3 pounds weekly.. 4 or more would usually be for cases of obesity.
Note: during the first week or two you may have high, low, or no weight loss. This adjustment period could leave you shedding a lot of water weight, which would ramp your numbers. On the other side of the spectrum it could consist of copious bodily adjustments that result in a stalemate - no weight change at all.
Again, this suggested pace puts you in position to retain more muscle. It means you’ll consume enough calories to fuel your body’s ability to perform. And realize near, if not complete skeletal muscle maintenance, while depriving yourself of enough fuel to show adipose tissue the door.
This pace bodes well for stalling the rate in which your metabolism slows when in a calorie deficit also.
Muscle atrophy is one reason, but another way your metabolism loses speed is from not taking in enough calories.
The body is the master adapter.
Cut calories? First the body is shocked. Continue this new lifestyle? Now the body begins to modify.
“Oh, you want to hold out on calories? Bet. I’ll take it easy on natural processes to conserve energy since you’re now an unreliable host.”
When that happens stress increases, fatigue overtakes your life, and you burn less calories. When/if this situation gets severe enough you’ll need to reverse diet, but more on that later.
To compound why a deliberate loss is preferred.. it gives you more room to make adjustments later. If you play your best hand upfront you have no moves left.
To elaborate if you create a huge calorie deficit day one, you lose a lot early. However progress will stop early, as well and you’ll have no more calories to cut.
Steady loss can go on for a loooong time before you “run out” of adjustments to make.
Chip away at the fat.
But there’s more: lifestyle adoption.
Mentally and biologically a gradual change is easier to stomach (pun intended) than a complete reversal of your current way of doing things. Slight, continuous tweaks will more easily realign your mental/biological homeostasis.
To pace your rate of loss I suggest tracking your weekly weight average.
Daily your weight will fluctuate, don’t be alarmed fluctuation happens (11 causes of weight fluctuation). To account for the randomization, weigh yourself daily under the same conditions, IE first thing before breakfast or even water, yet after using the latrine. When the week ends add each day and divide by 7.
This number is your weekly average weight.
Compare that number week over week and you’ll notice trends.
With those trends you’ll make proper adjustments.
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How To Cut While Maintaining Muscle
At this point you know what a cut is, you know why you should pace yourself, and you know the optimal pace.. this is the put it all together part.
How to cut successfully involves creating a calorie deficit, consuming a sufficient amount of protein, quality resistance training, a decent amount of cardio, excellent recovery habits, staying hydrated, being as consistent as consistent can be, and tracking progress.
Create A Calorie Deficit
To lose weight one must consume less calories than they burn over time. Doesn’t have to be every day, but the numbers are to average out to a lesser amount in your chosen period of time. This is called a calorie deficit.
Without a calorie deficit you will not lose fat.
I repeat - without a calorie deficit you will not lose fat.
No matter how healthy you eat, how much you train, or how much you speak it into existence.
Can’t happen.
To best implement a calorie deficit you first need a solid idea of how many calories it takes for you to maintain weight with a normal metabolism.
You can estimate this number by using a calorie calculation tool, there are plenty online. I suggest the Katch-McArdle or St. Mifflin-Jeor method.
After filling in pertinent information, you’ll get the numbers you want to manipulate. If you already have a relative idea of the amount of calories you consume regularly, and you’re in the ballpark of the maintenance number you found or happen to be above more days than not..
Your metabolism should be ready to go.
If you have no worldly clue of how much you consume daily, take a week and log your calories. After that week use your average calorie intake per day as your current number.
If you find yourself equal or above maintenance calories you’re good to go. If your number is more than 700-1000 below maintenance I suggest a reverse diet (more on that later).
These are noteworthy/game changing steps, because habitually fat loss enthusiasts come to me wanting to lose weight, but start at a metabolic disadvantage.
Why?
They’ve tried dieting on their own in the past.. usually not eating much, 1-2 meals daily then a binge sprinkled in on random occasions.
This is a metabolic killer.
Losing fat isn’t about simply eating as little as possible, there’s more to it.
If you are a habitual under-eater, to achieve long-term fat loss results you’ll have to repair that damaged metabolism. Don’t let this scare you away.. a reverse diet is highly effective and easy to implement.
So, a calorie is a unit of energy, always know how much energy you’re taking in. This is the main key to body manipulation - no matter the direction you want to take yourself. If you track your energy consumption you can tweak it to your advantage.
Yes this means tracking calories and even tracking macros if you’re serious.
To implement a calorie deficit you’ll take your estimated maintenance level of calories and subtract 300-1000 in most cases on average per day.
A pound of fat is roughly 3500 calories, for the record. The more you subtract the faster you’ll lose, but remember slow and steady is best.
Example: if you want to lose 1 pound weekly you’ll want to average a 500 calorie deficit per day.
Anything over a 1000-1500 calorie deficit starts jeopardizing muscle tissue unless your body fat is “above average”, but for more on that shoot me a message.
![[1] Body fat percentage chart](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58cc17b9e6f2e17898b30e4e/1611861332245-DH2XQTCC65MBO7X304EV/body+fat+chart)
[1] Body fat percentage chart
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The number you come up with is what you want to average as your deficit. I say average, since you won’t stay at this number daily, some days you’ll go above and some below.
Varying your calories on various days is called calorie cycling or the zig zag method. On the days you consume more calories you’ll usually raise your carbohydrate intake and the other days your carb intake will be lower - this is carb cycling.
Example: for simplicity say your maintenance calories is 2000 daily. You decide on a calorie deficit of 300. This means you want to average 1700 calories per day. In addition lets say you decided on 1 high carb/calorie day per week.
1700 x 7 = 11900 calories to consume per week
On your high calorie day you’re going with 2500 calories
2500 - 11900 = 9400 calories left to spread over 6 days
9400 / 6 = 1567 calories per day
In this example you’ll consume 1567 calories 6 days per week and 2500 calories 1 day per week.
Carb/calorie cycling has a few benefits, I suggest doing so 1-3 times weekly early on, then down the road when you want to make adjustments you can slow it down to once every 10-14 days.
This method forces your body to use fat as fuel at a higher rate, yet refills your glycogen stores on high days to help maintain energy when lifting weights, and the higher calorie aspect will service keeping your metabolism stable for longer.
The reason is your body will take extra time to notice it’s calorie deficient if you give it a surplus here and there.
That way you can diet for an extended period before having to rebuild your metabolism and restart the process.
On your high calorie days go 300-500 calories above maintenance and ensure it’s always on a day you lift. Do that and the excess calories are undoubtedly for the greater good.
When your body stores adipose tissue it’s just putting “energy” to the side for later use.. cycling carbs helps use that saved energy faster, while sparing more muscle.
Note: types of carbs matter, so get familiar with the glycemic load and index (how to choose the right carbs).
Remove Unscheduled Cheat Meal Temptation
If you wanted to quit smoking, cold turkey, what would be your first move?
Not a smoker, but I can make a strong guess here..
Probably would want to rid myself of all remaining cigarettes. I’d want all of that temptation out of sight and eventually out of mind.
Improving your diet is no different.
Make it less strenuous on yourself; get the junk food and things of the like that aren’t permissible, according to your new standards out of the house.
If you don’t live on your own this may be more easily said than done, but your loved ones will more than likely support you in your endeavors and assist by keeping the goods (or ‘bads’ I should say) out of your face.
One of the ways many of us fall off the brick road is reaching for what we wouldn’t reach for if it wasn’t so convenient. Junk food would be considered anything too sugary, high on the glycemic index (unless used strategically), too high in sodium, and items with too many dietary fats and carbs together; they’re not a good duo for your compositional desires.
Quickly: consuming high glycemic carbs spikes insulin levels. Insulin shuttles nutrients around, a spike does so at a higher clip. Dietary fat, although extremely vital, structurally converts to adipose tissue more easily than other macronutrients [8]. If your insulin is spiked while consuming a high amount of dietary fat you give yourself a greater chance of storing body fat in the moment.
The path to your goal isn’t a straight line, yet you can trim some of its crookedness; trash the junk.
Side Note: cut soda. Out of all of the clients I’ve worked with over the years a recurring theme is soda. Soda here, soda there, there’s a soda everywhere; look at soft drink sales. We in the USA almost drink as much soda as we do bottled water. In 2022 soda consumption was at 36 gallons per capita, bottled water came in at 46 gallons per person [7]. Soft drinks don’t come to play they stay to play, so deeply in fact that if I fail to specifically ask “what is your relationship with soft drinks?” during the nutritional portion of a consultation, it often doesn’t dawn on them to mention. Merely unloading a desire for these high sugar carbonated beverages will jumpstart your fat loss endeavor.
If she doesn’t act soon my whole face is about to be in that container.
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Conduct Resistance Training
Do you have to lift to lose weight? No.
Should you lift to lose weight? Indubitably.
Should you lift weights on a cut? I don’t even know if you could label it a cut without resistance training.
I repeatedly say lift, but I mean resistance training in general. This could be your body weight, resistance bands, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, water bottles, your kids.. anything.
Just training with the goal of challenging muscle tissue.
If all you do is cardio and cut calories it’s true, you can lose a great deal of weight - I’m intentionally emphasizing the word weight here, being that you’ll lose muscle along with that unwanted fat.
We talked about what happens when you lose muscle.
Cardio warriors get conditional results. It’s conditional, since once you slow down even a bit on your physical activity, that fat will be ready to rush back like it forgot something if your diet isn’t ironclad.
This can happen with lifting too, don’t get me wrong - but it’s a bit more difficult.
Here’s why..
So you’re lifting for 3 reasons: possibly build more muscle, maintain muscle, and to burn extra calories.
These three reasons have bearing on your metabolism. The first two have bearing on your resting metabolism AKA basal metabolic rate (BMR). Again, the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism because muscle tissue requires energy to maintain.
If you’re curious about frequency, I’ve had success and prescribed success with lifting 2-9 times weekly. Up to 75 minutes per session, not including the time it takes to warm up.
The mindset I want you to approach resistance training with is to lift like you want more muscle. Your methods aren’t to change simply because your main goal is fat loss. High reps or anything of that nature aren’t a must, but they aren't banned either (you can lift heavy and lose weight).
What is a must is progressive overload.
When ready, up the challenge continuously. This tactic is so your body always has adequate stimulus to force adaptation (ways to progressively overload over time).
Note: I mentioned lifting up to 9 times weekly. Unless your calendar is different from mine, this would involve some two-a-days. Don’t hit two-a-days for lifts unless consulted with or you are years in with your training experience. Two-a-days are fine without consultation if it’s lifting and cardio on the same day.
In closing - If you don’t put those muscles to use your body will get rid of them, trust me.
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Do Cardio
I just hyped resistance training and seemingly bashed cardio, but this constant motion.. sweat-inducing activity has its place in a cut and my heart nonetheless.
You’ll burn extra calories and preserve/build your stamina, which supports lifting. There isn’t much worse than being unable to get through a resistance training session due to a need for oxygen.
Cardiovascular exercise also lowers your resting heart rate, which is good for stress relief, and assists in your body’s ability to use fat as a dominant fuel source at a higher rate than if you were a less aerobically-trained individual [2].
There are two types of cardio: low intensity steady state (LISS) and high intensity interval training (HIIT).
Low intensity cardio is easiest on your central nervous system (CNS) (more on the central nervous system later) and easier on your joints, but takes longer to burn calories.
High intensity cardio burns more calories minute by minute and even up to two days later you’re still burning calories, due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Yet HIIT is usually tougher on the joints and certainly more taxing on your central nervous system (what is the best way to do high intensity cardio).
I recommend 1-6 cardio sessions per week.
LISS should last 15-60 minutes.
HIIT 10-30 minutes max.
Adopt Good Recovery Habits
An understated aspect of fitness, regardless of endgame is recovery.
Recovery considers sleep, total workload, days off, stretching, self-myofascial release, and even nutrition.
The basic definition of recover is to regain something lost. When you train, if you recover properly, you gain. But in the meantime training causes a loss.
You lift, the lift tears muscle fibers (loss), with adequate recovery those muscle fibers repair better equipped to handle a similar load in the future.
Some of us wish we could workout from sunup to sunup without repercussion; some of us are sad that we can’t.
Our energy stores have limits. When you train you deplete those (loss). We also have a central nervous system (CNS), and the CNS has its limits.
When you train, it’s taxed (loss).
The central nervous system is your command center. All of your stressors in life, physical and mental, impact its ability to perform. If your workload exceeds your ability to recover it will crash. This condition is called overtraining syndrome.
A few signs are: body aches, unexplained weakness, high blood pressure, elevated stress, and even the shakes.
To prevent overtraining as best as you can take at least 1 rest day weekly and monitor your body keenly.
How much rest you need will be earmarked by the amount of calories you take in, stress level, intensity of workouts, training experience, and so on.
Expend great effort in giving calorie burning your all while avoiding overtraining, for such a position will slow your metabolism and is a hindrance to quality of life.
You’ll be moody and moody is no fun for the people in your proximity, they’ll kick you and your prepped meals to the curb.
6-9 hours of sleep most days, hit your calorie/macro goals, stretch 4-7 times weekly, self-myofascial release 2-4 times weekly, and deal with life’s stressors as best as you can (How to manage stress since they never taught us in school).
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Consume Enough Protein
Protein is one of the three distinguishable, yet valuable macronutrients. Carbohydrates and dietary fat being the other two. Protein is the building block of all muscle and without it you will lose muscle.
Without it you won’t gain any muscle.
I’ve seen and prescribed success with clients consuming 1-1.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. It’s common for folks to have trouble keeping their protein numbers up, be intentional about it. I recommend 1-1.8 grams per pound, but at least get 0.7 grams per pound in (6 high quality protein sources).
Note: remember carbs are being cycled, but dietary fat is to remain pretty consistent day after day.
When creating your diet plan always start with protein, then build from there.
High carb / calorie days : 40-60% carbs, 20-30% protein, and 15-25% fat
Low carb / calorie days : 10-20% carbs, 30-50% protein, and 30-40% fat
Another note: these percentages are more of an estimation than an absolute. Each person will have a little variance for optimal results, but you can start here.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
I won’t give much here since I talk about it so often, still get your water in and choose the best source of drinking water for your scenario.
It benefits muscle building, fat loss, mood, and more. Start at half your body weight in ounces daily, but after considering all factors you’ll likely need more. -> How Much Water You Need
Be Consistent
I’m intrigued by the amount of people who believe their results will and should come almost immediately. How long did it take for you to reach this point that you want to change so urgently again?
It’ll in all likelihood take less time to reach your goal than it took to hit this place where you’re unhappy with yourself (if you’re unhappy), but either way be patient, thorough, and consistent.
On the other side of consistency is your ability to gauge what is or is not working.
If your methods are volatile.. just all over the place.. how are you to know what moves to keep, what moves to throw out, and what moves to tweak?
Can’t evaluate the data if there’s not enough data, be consistent.
Track Fat Loss Progress
You’re going and you’re going.. you need to know if you’re going in the right direction, so it’s a must to gauge results. Don’t rely solely on the scale though.
Take progress pictures (how to take and use progress pictures), use the scale, monitor body fat percentage, and tape measure if you dare.
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How To Break Through The Inevitable Weight Loss Plateaus
(Or start progress that never started in the first place)
Picture yourself treading along at a nice pace.. fat melting off your body like an untouched ice cream cone on a sunny afternoon.
Nothing, but gains by losses until one sad day actually nothing.
There's a stoppage.
Not just one day.. the whole week. Then the next week.
What happened?
Normalcy happened - it’s part of the process.
You will hit a plateau if you have more than a couple percentage points of fat to lose. Any weight changing goal that requires time will involve plateaus. That includes cutting.
But this is where you adjust, not quit.
Once a cutting plateau occurs, first step is a self-diagnostic:
Have I been consistent with calories for each intended day?
Am I hitting my macros accordingly?
How has my sleep been?
Am I on point with water?
Do I still progressively overload?
Have I executed on all my workouts?
If you answered yes to each question it’s time to alter.
Fat loss is all about a calorie deficit right? So for this you have two categorical options: burn more calories, consume less calories.
You also have a third option if those aren’t moves you want to make in the moment: reverse diet.
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Burn More Calories
To burn extra calories you can lift more often, for a longer duration if you’ve been short of 75 minutes (anything above isn’t optimal hormonally if you’re a natural), do supersets to increase your load, and so on.. but be aware you’re still lifting as if you want to build muscle.
Your lift shouldn’t turn into an immeasurable cardio session; it’s still a lift.
You can also raise the calorie burn by raising cardio frequency or extending cardio sessions, yet keep yourself in the time windows for high and low intensity cardio respectively.
The last major strategy to elevate calorie burning is less intense than the others.
Since we now collectively live our lives as humans in a less mobile manner, it’s essential to supplement what would have previously been more calorie burning movements.. like tracking down a saber-tooth tiger (or trying not to be tracked) each day for simple survival.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is what I’m getting at. NEAT is any physical activity outside of exercise that burns extra calories, excluding eating and biological processes. We only spend so much of our day in the gym, there are many hours outside of that sanctuary.
Take more steps.
Go for a walk, curate the yard, sweep the house, park further, pace on the phone, check the mail on foot; just get moving.
Stride it out and cut more fat by being mobile in and outside of the gym. At least 5,000 steps daily, most smart phones have built-in trackers.
Consume Less Calories
On the other hand, or both hands simultaneously, you can slash more calories. Try dropping your average daily intake at the point the plateau occurred by another 100-500 calories. This should restart things or start things if the number you chose early on has yet to pan out.
Most of your calorie subtraction should come from carbs on lower carb days, but eventually you’ll likely have to drop fat and protein a tad too, but never below 0.7 grams per pound of body weight for protein.. roughly 15 percent of total calories should be your floor for dietary fat.
If no progress takes place after 2 weeks of these changes, go through these plateau steps again.. and again and again.
It’s part of the journey.
Start A Reverse Diet
There may come a point when you don’t want to drop calories any lower nor add to your workload, yet you are faced with a halt in progress.
If you’re not flexible about burning more calories or about consuming less calories, then your next option is to temporarily put the cut on hold.
With the cut on hold you’ll implement a reverse diet, which you can recall is a nutritional strategy that involves introducing more calories. The goal is to speed up a slowed metabolism.
Doing so will give you the ability to start cutting calories once again with greater success.
To implement a reverse diet readjust your calories to your current suggested maintenance level, or up to 500 calories above on average per day for 2-6 weeks.
After reversing for the time period, resume the cut and you should start progressing once more with prime metabolic function.
Note: it’s not out of the realm of possibility that you’ll begin making progress while reversing, but the likely experience is more energy and better workouts.
Another note: a big reverse diet fear is losing progress or going far in the opposite direction. A slight calorie surplus for a few weeks may result in slight water weight gain, however the opportunity to pack on a high amount of body fat just isn’t there. Your calorie surplus won’t be large enough for such an occurrence.
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My Thoughts
Buckle up, it’s a rollercoaster. Fat loss is no straight line, but it’s a downward trend when done intentionally.
Expect to eff up. Your goal is to progressively limit those eff ups to the point they become insignificant. When those eff ups take place, get right back on the path, ASAP. No time for feeling sorry for yourself.. the best reward is adjusted behavior.
The more aspects you account for the better off you’ll be. I use an online calorie/macro tracking app. The lion’s share of those have free features that’ll get the job done.
For workout tracking, I use a notebook. There are online fitness journals too, I’m just old school (Why and how to keep a fitness journal).
Along the route cheat meals will occur, I encourage them in fact. Still cheat meals and lack of determination are the biggest culprits for non-compliance in my experience. Limit these to 4 or less monthly. A great tactic is to schedule your cheat meals on high carb days, that way you scratch an itch, yet get the benefit out of it (How to do cheat meals properly). If you find yourself struggling to avoid cheat meals.. at least adhere to your total calorie intake for said day while working on disciplining yourself for the future as the cut prolongs.
Glutamine can be your best good friend when cutting too. As a conditionally-essential amino acid it’s part of the construct of protein (What is glutamine and why should i use it).
HMB is another supplement you could benefit from with its ability to help spare muscle tissue.
I’m aware. The process may seem overwhelming, trust me though. It’ll be as easy as brushing your teeth if you commit and stick to the strategy. If you need help or just would rather be told what to do I’ll make room for you.
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So, It’s About That Time To Cut
I wasted years of training by spending time in that middle ground of not quite bulking and not quite cutting.
When you make the decision to drop body fat, do it. Do it passionately, strategically, and aggressively.
Take the unwanted fat off one step at a time, it’s the best way for long-term success and it’s the best way to retain muscle. Comment and let me know your favorite tactics for a successful cut. With that said there are no limits when you put your mind and muscles to use - Be Great.
Sources:
[1] Pinterest.Com/Pin/362187995026019266/
[2] Nesta: Personal Fitness Training Manual
[3] Ncbi.Nlm.Nih.Gov/Pmc/Articles/Pmc3661116/
[4] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/
[5] sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160402112741.htm
[6] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5161655/