Cutting hints and tips?

[Ruskie]

Looking for personal experiences, tips and tricks.

My idea of it is reduce weights, increase cardio and reduce carbs. Been hitting gym hard and I'm happy with how I'm looking but I have put weight on. Need to slim down a bit and lose a bit of belly.

[goldblum]

Leave weights as they are, maybe even increase. Increase cardio a lot and reduce calories from everything. Knock about 800 cals a day off and in a month you'll see a marked difference.

[Digger]

Clean your diet as best you can, and cardio cardio cardio . . .

Has, and still is working for me.

[Liquid Tuna]

Never cheat.

[Hoofy]

goldblum said:

Leave weights as they are, maybe even increase. Increase cardio a lot and reduce calories from everything. Knock about 800 cals a day off and in a month you'll see a marked difference.

Keep protein levels up, too. Less likely to lose muscle size (although you will lose some due to intramuscular fat).

[SickFish]

Ruskie said:

Looking for personal experiences, tips and tricks.

My idea of it is reduce weights, increase cardio and reduce carbs. Been hitting gym hard and I'm happy with how I'm looking but I have put weight on. Need to slim down a bit and lose a bit of belly.

Cardio is not entirely necessary if diet is on point - I enjoy cardio, some don't.

Continue to lift heavy.... my program doesn't change when I am bulking, cutting or recomping

Are you carb sensitive? If so look into a CKD (cyclical ketogenic diet) protocol, carb cycling is great when you are at 12% and plateauing.

Leangains, i.e. intermittent fasting is a fantastic cutting tool too.

Calculate your maintenance requirement then subtract 500Kcal. That is your daily intake requirement. Keep protein at 1.5g per pound of LBM (lean body mass) - click me - at the bottom of that link there is a BMR calculator, or if you give me your weight (kg) and bodyfat (%) I will calculate your maintenance with a bit more accuracy

Simples

Edited by SickFish on Tuesday 8th April 12:25

[HonestIago]

Increase cardio OR decrease cals, don't do both at the same time. To ensure long term success on a "cut" you need to keep your powder dry so to speak. Evaluate progress each week and then decide whether to add a cardio session OR drop cals by 100-200/day.

[SickFish]

HonestIago said:

Increase cardio OR decrease cals, don't do both at the same time. To ensure long term success on a "cut" you need to keep your powder dry so to speak. Evaluate progress each week and then decide whether to add a cardio session OR drop cals by 100-200/day.

Your post confuses me.....

By increasing cardio, he will inevitably create a deficit... if diet is tracked and on point.

You absolutely can do both.... as long as you are hitting your target deficit it does not matter one jot if the deficit is created through energy expenditure or by energy restriction (or both)

[Digger]

Agreed.

[HonestIago]

SickFish said:

HonestIago said:

Increase cardio OR decrease cals, don't do both at the same time. To ensure long term success on a "cut" you need to keep your powder dry so to speak. Evaluate progress each week and then decide whether to add a cardio session OR drop cals by 100-200/day.

Your post confuses me.....

By increasing cardio, he will inevitably create a deficit... if diet is tracked and on point.

You absolutely can do both.... as long as you are hitting your target deficit it does not matter one jot if the deficit is created through energy expenditure or by energy restriction (or both)

I think you misunderstand me. I KNOW increasing cardio will create a deficit. Thus, I wouldn't decrease cal intake at the same time if one wants to ensure continued fat loss for months into the future. I think I need to be more specific, an example approach to a diet might be:

Week 1: Reduce cals to 2400, no planned cardio
Week 2-3: Maintain 2400cals, add 1-2 cardio sessions
Week 4-5: Reduce to 2200cals, maintain 1-2 cardio sessions

...if weight loss stalls:
Week 6 might be the time to drop cals to 2000 OR up the cardio to 3-4 sessions per week.

Now do you see my point?

[SickFish]

HonestIago said:

I think you misunderstand me. I KNOW increasing cardio will create a deficit. Thus, I wouldn't decrease cal intake at the same time if one wants to ensure continued fat loss for months into the future. I think I need to be more specific, an example approach to a diet might be:

Week 1: Reduce cals to 2400, no planned cardio
Week 2-3: Maintain 2400cals, add 1-2 cardio sessions
Week 4-5: Reduce to 2200cals, maintain 1-2 cardio sessions

...if weight loss stalls:
Week 6 might be the time to drop cals to 2000 OR up the cardio to 3-4 sessions per week.

Now do you see my point?

Are you factoring in the deficit created by the cardio or are you adding it as an additional deficit? I burn nearly 900Kcal when running so your new net Kcal intake on week 2 would be ~1500Kcal (give or take).

Far too much of a drop in just two weeks IMO.... but hey, what do I know

A much more linear (and trackable) method (IME) is maintenance Kcal - 500Kcal and adjust so that around 3-5lb loss is seen a week. The loss is dependant on BF % and current weight (obviously).

Edited by SickFish on Tuesday 8th April 13:22

[HonestIago]

SickFish said:

HonestIago said:

I think you misunderstand me. I KNOW increasing cardio will create a deficit. Thus, I wouldn't decrease cal intake at the same time if one wants to ensure continued fat loss for months into the future. I think I need to be more specific, an example approach to a diet might be:

Week 1: Reduce cals to 2400, no planned cardio
Week 2-3: Maintain 2400cals, add 1-2 cardio sessions
Week 4-5: Reduce to 2200cals, maintain 1-2 cardio sessions

...if weight loss stalls:
Week 6 might be the time to drop cals to 2000 OR up the cardio to 3-4 sessions per week.

Now do you see my point?

Are you factoring in the deficit created by the cardio or are you adding it as an additional deficit? I burn nearly 900Kcal when running so your new deficit on week 2 would be ~1500Kcal (give or take).

Far too much of a drop in just two weeks IMO.... but hey, what do I know

A much more linear method (IME) is maintenance Kcal - 500Kcal and adjust so that around 3-5lb loss is seen a week. The loss is dependant on BF % and current weight (obviously).

You've lost me completely. When I talk about calorie intake I am talking about how many calories you put in your mouth, not some "net" figure derived by guessing what my cardio burns.

FFS "1-2 cardio sessions" was a totally arbitrary amount to (hopefully!) illustrate my point. Just because YOU burn 900cals running matters not a jot. Some people may only "burn" 200 cals in a session. So long as one has a rough nominal figure to work from (either cals burned on an electronic readout or total minutes/miles etc) that is all that matters.

Edited by HonestIago on Tuesday 8th April 13:05

[SickFish]

HonestIago said:

You've lost me completely. When I talk about calorie intake I am talking about how many calories you put in your mouth, not some "net" figure derived by guessing what my cardio burns.

FFS "1-2 cardio sessions" was a totally arbitrary amount to (hopefully!) illustrate my point. Just because YOU burn 900cals running matters not a jot. Some people may only "burn" 200 cals in a session. So long as one has a nominal figure to work from that is all that matters.

I think we are both in agreement, but not voicing it that well!

What I have done, and what I get my clients to do is something like the below:

Maintenance - 500Kcal

Lets say that the this persons maintenance is 2500Kcal. Therefore they can either eat 2000Kcal or eat 2500Kcal then do 500Kcal of training.

Each week body weight will decrease, bringing maintenance down therefore reducing Kcal intake and/ or needing more training to create the deficit.

This is of course totally over simplified but I think you get the idea?

Sorry I am not great at putting words to "paper" but hopefully you understand.

[HonestIago]

We're saying exactly the same thing then...I think

Although, I'd argue the reduction in "maintenance" level from a few weeks weight loss is not worth considering and just causes undue complications.

I'd say if one is eating eg 2400cals and doing x amount of cardio and losing 1-2lbs per week, there is no need to change anything. If weight loss stalled, I would not even attempt to recalculate "maintenance", I would just knock off cals OR add cardio and then repeat until weight loss stalled again.

[SickFish]

HonestIago said:

We're saying exactly the same thing then...I think

Although, I'd argue the reduction in "maintenance" level from a few weeks weight loss is not worth considering and just causes undue complications.

I'd say if one is eating eg 2400cals and doing x amount of cardio and losing 1-2lbs per week, there is no need to change anything. If weight loss stalled, I would not even attempt to recalculate "maintenance", I would just knock off cals OR add cardio and then repeat until weight loss stalled again.

In around about way I think we are aligned....

Agreed, initial weight loss in the first few weeks will be primarily water weight/ glycogen stores.

I have a spread sheet that I give to clients that use it to log their food and track weight loss, in turn it generates their maintenance, optimal deficit and macros so its quite easy (for me) to recalculate regularly.