When are you supposed to Cut???

When Are You Supposed to Cut?
When body fat is too high! Cutting, also sometimes called shredding is essentially just dieting. We’re now talking about intentional weight loss not weight gain. The most optimal time to cut is the opposite of bulking so ideally you’d begin when body fat is over 18% and 28% for men and women, respectively.

In fact, most people starting their fitness journey will need to cut first seeing as the average person is sedentary and pudgy.

You continue cutting until you reach optimal body fat levels for health/hypertrophy as discussed earlier. Once here, you’ll have appreciable muscle definition. You can then decide to maintain your weight here or switch to bulking to get bigger muscles.

How to Maintain Muscle Mass While Cutting
A suitable caloric deific, protein, lifting, and sleep are most important. When cutting, your body is focused on breaking down tissue. You’re now restricting calories to reach a caloric deficit. On a daily basis, you’ll be taking in less energy than your body burns off aka a caloric deficit.

Muscle loss during a cut can be a major concern, but if you know what you’re doing, this shouldn’t happen.

The 4 keys to preventing muscle loss are as follows:
Don’t drop calories too low. Big giant deficits below a 30% deficit will cause more fat loss, but also trigger muscle loss especially in leaner people (4). This is why tracking calories is so important. You not only ensure you’re eating in a deficit, but that your deficit is not too low. Just like many things in life, there’s always a sweet spot.
Keep protein high. The average person eats too little protein. Fitness junkies love their protein because it’s the key nutrient in retaining and even growing muscle during a cut. Getting is 1.6 grams per kg of bodyweight daily is recommended (5).
Strength train. Lifting weights is the ultimate anabolic style of training. It builds significant slabs of muscles compared to other styles of training and evidentially, what builds the most muscle during bulk will retain it best during a cut (6). Simply put, you can’t afford to not strength train when cutting.
Sleep. Sleep is quite underrated, but it’s been shown to improve the composition during weight loss. With adequate sleep, you’re more likely to lose fat and less likely to lose muscle (7).
What to Eat When Trying to Shred/Cut
Fruits, vegetables, lean protein and switching sugars for artificial sweeteners where you can. Nutrient dense foods are key to health and as you can see were great choices for bulking. Cutting is deeply similar. These foods are highly beneficial, but with cutting you now are playing a similar game with less resources (fewer calories allowed).

To maximize consistency, you have to learn to manage hunger and thus some choices become more or less crucial based on satiety.

Fatter protein, full fat dairy, nuts, and fruit juice become poor choices despite their health benefits because they provide a lot of calories with disproportionately less satiety.

On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein become increasingly important. They’re generally the most filling foods in the world while providing minimal calories. Most fat loss meals should consist of these.

Furthermore, another option to suppress appetite and combat cravings are artificial sweeteners. Research shows they’re safe and can aid in weight loss (8).

Ultimately, you’ll have to adjust the specifics towards your individual needs and preferences. At the end of the day, it’s about staying in a reasonabl