Take It Easy
Cutting doesn’t need to be a super drastic process. It’s all about knowing where to start, taking your time and making the right adjustments at the right moments.
Tip 1: Establish your starting calories & protein (very slight deficit)
I get that we all want to get shredded quickly—the temptation to just dive into a massive deficit and suck it up is very real. But if you do that, where does it leave you if your progress stalls?
Don’t use all your cards immediately. Start with a modest deficit (say 100 calories or so). At the end of the day, as long as you’re in a deficit you’ll start to lose fat, so see how you progress in a small one then if your progress stalls, slightly decrease food intake and/or increase energy expenditure.
It might take a bit longer doing this, but a more methodical approach will mean you’re more likely to keep the fat off. Drastic results lead to rebounds almost every time.
Tip 2: Pick a plan (basically any plan) and stick with it
Cutting or bulking, you gotta lift weights. In order to ensure as much muscle and strength retention as possible, you should be treating your training in a cut exactly the same was you would in a bulk. Stick with your plan.
Sure, you might not be hitting PBs as often or feeling as strong at the end of every session, but training hard will mean that your body knows it has to hold onto as much muscle as possible.
Don’t make the mistake of doing random workouts on random days or, worse yet, only doing cardio! You’ll lose a lot of strength and muscle mass doing that.
Tip 3: Track your training numbers (pen to paper)
As stated, you want to be following a plan: doing more or less the same exercises, week in week out. This way, you’ll retain as much muscle and strength as possible.
When following a plan properly, you should be tracking your numbers. For this I always recommend using a notepad and pen. Using your phone is fine but, especially if you’re more fatigued than usual from the deficit, it can be very easy to get distracted.
It may be frustrating not seeing the numbers go up as quickly as they once did, but that’s fine, just focus on your goal at the time—getting leaner.
Tip 4: Favour pictures over weight (but still track weight)
Let’s be real, you’re probably cutting because you want abs or some kind of definition. You probably don’t really care that much about your weight unless you’re in a sport that uses weight classes.
So why stress over your relationship to the ground? For reference, a good cut would see you lose up to 0.5kg per week, but don’t stress about it. Take pictures. Use the same lighting and the same positioning and maybe take measurements too.
You can pretty much ignore the scales.
Tip 5: Only change things when it stops working
This goes back to the first tip. Take note of your progress in a more moderate deficit and start progressively lowering calories and/or upping cardio as your body starts adjusting and if your progress begins to stall. Would you really rather be in a 700 calorie deficit when you could achieve results in a 300 calorie deficit?
Avoid drastically cutting calories just to accelerate progress. Trust me, the long game works much better. Sure, there might be times when you want to drop a bit of weight quickly (lead up to an event, photoshoot, or holiday for example), but most of the time just be patient and the results you’re looking for will come.
