Here is all the information you need to know about cutting!
And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!
What is cutting?
Cutting means that you decrease the calories you consume below your maintanance calories, with the goal of losing fat and preserving as much muscle mass as possible.
Types of cutting
There are 2 different types of weight loss that you can choose from.
1. Slow-long term weight loss
2. Mini-cut
Slow-long term weight loss
This type of weight loss, usually lasts several months, and is focused on being a long term solution, and changing your life in the long run.
Thats why this is the type of weight loss that you will be doing 95% of the time.
With this approach you should lose around 0.5 to 1 pound of bodyweight per week.
By losing your weight slowly, you will most likely preserve most of your muscle mass while dieting, and you will be less likely to experience the so called "yo-yo effect".
Mini-cut
As the name suggests, the mini cut usually only takes roughly 4-8 weeks and is more aggresive than a slow cut.
This is definitely not a long term solution, it should be used as a tool to get rid of couple of pounds and then switching to maintanance when you reach your goal.
This can be handy if you need to lose a couple of pounds before the holidays, etc.
The goal has to be realistic and sustainable though.
You simply cant expect to super-crash your diet and lose a bunch of weight, and then just stay there like its no big deal.
It sadly doesnt work like that.
What will happen, is the before mentioned "yo-yo effect".
How long to cut?
The answer to this question, depends on your end goal and on the type of cut that you are doing.
So set a realistic goal, and try to get to it, generally the slower – the better.
Stopped losing weight..what now?
This is very common, because you weigh less, your body needs less calories to maintain your current bodyweight.
Thats why you will have to decrease your calories over the time even more.
The next reason being, that your NEAT decreased.
NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
Which is basically the stuff that you do on daily basis without even thinking about it, like fidgeting and other movements like that.
When you are in a calorie deficit, your body will try to preserve as much energy as possible, thats why you will subconciously stop fidgeting and generally become a little lazier.
These calories that you burned previously from NEAT could have been the difference maker between losing the weight and just being in a maintanance. So you should always keep this in mind.
Common mistakes
The biggest mistake that most people do when they decide to go on a weight-loss journey, is that they cut their calories way too drastically right at the start of their cut, and then they have no more room to decrease the calories later, when they hit a plateau.
And then the whole diet colapses.
You should not be losing more than 1% of your bodyweight per week, if you are, it probably means that your calorie deficit is too big.
You should be in a calorie deficit of roughly 300-500 calories per day.
The next mistake that is very common, is not tracking your calories properly or just not tracking at all.
You should always be tracking your calories when you are cutting.
This is especially true if you have never tracked your diet before in your life.
When you get more experienced you will be able to roughly estimate how many calories is in the food that you are about to eat, even without counting the calories.
But even people who are expirienced and can basically eyeball it, are still tracking their calories.
Switching to maintenance
Now let me tell you about what to do, when you mentally feel like you cant continue your weight loss journey anymore.
After you have dieted for a good amount of time, and you feel that you cant really keep it up for much longer, because you just feel completely out of it.
Its time to switch to maintanence for couple of weeks.
By doing this you can mentally reset, eat some more food for a bit and then you can get ready to continue your cut!
Its also a great opportunity to re-calulate your maintanance calories, to make sure that you wont be stuck in the future!
Cardio while cutting
The next question that a lot of people have, is, do i need to do cardio when cutting?
Well, you dont have to do cardio to lose weight, as its just calories in and calories out, but i would highly reccomend you to do so as it provides a lot of benefits.
When you are doing your standard cardio session, on like a treadmill or something, you are not burning that many calories, so you shouldnt rely on cardio to be the difference maker in your calorie deficit.
Its much easier to cut out a little bit more food, than to try to outcardio a bad diet.
Tips for cutting
1. – Start eating low calorie high volume foods, stuff like spinach and zucchini are a life saver when it comes to dieting. Because the high volume low calorie foods will be highly satiating so you are less likely to feel hungry or binge something unhealthy.
2. – Keep your protein intake high, as it will help your to prevent muscle loss and protein is also very satiating.
3. – Dont buy junk food, if you know that you have some junk food at home, its just a matter of time before you have a weak moment and just completely binge on the full bag of some high calorie snack. If you dont have it at home, then you simply cant cheat.
4. – Weigh yourself everyday in the morning. If you weigh yourself only like once per week, it might not be accurately representing your currect weight due to water fluctuations and stuff like that. So by weighing yourself everyday, and writing down the number each day, you can then average out your real weight at the end of the week. This will give you a more accurate number in the long run.
5. – Track your protein intake, this might seem simple, and you might think you are hitting your protein no problem, but when you actually count it, you find out that you are missing out, so dont sleep on the simple things!
6. – Have most of your carbs before and then after your workout. If you are really deep in a cut, and your energy levels are very low, you wanna utilize your carbs to give you as much energy for your workout as possible, so you can perform your best. And after your workout carbs are also important, especially for replenishing your glycogen stores.
7. – Be patient. Its gonna take time for you to lose a significant amount of weight. It simply does not happen overnight.
8. – Avoid liquid calories, this is the exact opposite of bulking, when you are cutting, you dont want to consume your calories in a liquid form, as it will be less filling and you will be hungry way faster than if you consumed a proper non-liquid meal.
9. – Caffeine timing, caffeine can be a great tool for weight loss, if you use it in the right way, caffeine has appetite suppressing effects, so you might want to reserve your caffeine for when you feel really hungry! Either coffee or energy drinks can work just fine, but remember, no liquid calories, so go for sugar free versions!
10. – Eat a good amount of fiber. Fiber is very satiating so you will feel satisfied after your meal. Plus it will help your digestion. Fruits and veggies are crucial.
Well, thats all you need to know about cutting!