How to Successfully Cut Your Weight: The Complete Guide to Maintaining Muscle and Losing Fat
Discover how to successfully cut while preserving your muscle mass. Nutrition, training, and recovery for visible results.
Table of Contents
Key points to remember:
- Cutting aims to lose fat while preserving your muscle mass.
-
Create a moderate calorie deficit (15-20%) with a high protein intake (1.4-2g/kg).
-
Combine strength training (60%) and cardio (40%) to optimize results.
-
Maintain sufficient carbohydrates (2-3g/kg) to support your performance.
-
Prioritize sleep and recovery to avoid muscle catabolism.
Want to refine your figure without sacrificing muscle? That's the key to a successful cut. This demanding period requires a strategic and methodical approach to effectively transform your physique. From targeted nutrition to tailored training, discover how to optimize every aspect of your program to reveal a defined, muscular body while maintaining your energy and performance.
What is a dry cut and what results can you expect?
Cutting represents a specific phase in your fitness journey aimed at reducing your body fat percentage while maintaining your muscle mass. Unlike a simple weight loss diet, the goal is not just to lose weight, but to sculpt your body by highlighting your muscle definition.
For realistic and lasting results, aim for a loss of 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week. Any faster than that and you'll likely experience significant muscle loss, which is counterproductive to your goal. The ideal length of a cutting phase is typically between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on your starting point and goals. Any longer than that and you'll put your body under excessive metabolic stress and potentially stall your results.
How to adapt your nutrition for effective cutting?
Calorie Deficit: The Key to Controlled Fat Loss
To successfully cut, you need to create a moderate calorie deficit, about 15-20% below your maintenance needs. This gradual reduction allows your body to tap into its fat reserves while preserving as much muscle as possible.
Accurately calculate your calorie needs based on your weight, height, age, and activity level, then gradually reduce your daily calorie intake rather than taking a drastic approach. Too severe a restriction would activate your body's "survival mode," which would then begin breaking down your muscles for energy—this is called muscle catabolism. This is exactly what you're trying to avoid while cutting.
Proteins: the essential allies for preserving your muscles
During a cut, increase your protein intake to 1.4-2g per kilogram of body weight to limit muscle loss and maintain protein synthesis [1]. This higher than normal amount compensates for the body's natural tendency to draw on muscle protein during periods of calorie deficit.
Choose lean protein sources like chicken, fish, eggs, and low-fat dairy. To supplement your intake, especially after exercise, our Whey Isolate provides 24g of protein per serving with rapid absorption, ideal for preserving muscle mass during this critical period.
Carbohydrates: Energy Sources to Manage Intelligently
Lipids: quality fats to include daily
What training program should you adopt during your cutting period?
During a cut, the objective of your training is twofold:
-
Stimulate your muscles enough to preserve them despite the calorie deficit.
-
Increase your energy expenditure to maximize fat burning.
The ideal combination is about 60% strength training and 40% cardio. For the strength training portion, maintain a relatively heavy load (70-80% of your maximum) with sets of 8 to 12 repetitions, favoring compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, or bench presses, which use more muscle mass and increase calorie expenditure.
For cardio, alternate between moderate-intensity sessions (30-45 minutes) and 15-20 minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions, which have been shown to be effective at mobilizing fat while preserving muscle mass. For example:
-
Moderate running : Maintain a pace that allows you to talk without getting out of breath for 30-40 minutes, ideally in a heart rate zone between 65-75% of your maximum.
-
HIIT on the bike : After a 5-minute warm-up, alternate 30 seconds of maximum effort with 30 seconds of active recovery for 10-15 minutes.
L-Glutamine may be particularly beneficial during this time to support your recovery and preserve your muscles under significant stress [3].
How to optimize your recovery to preserve your muscles?
Sleep: The Key to Optimal Muscle Recovery
During a cutting period, your body is under increased stress and sleep becomes even more crucial. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night to optimize your growth hormone production, which is essential for muscle preservation and fat burning [4] [5].
Poor sleep quality can compromise your metabolism and increase stress hormones like cortisol [6], promoting fat storage and muscle catabolism. For athletes who have difficulty falling asleep, our Sleep+ supplement (containing melatonin) can help reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.
Stress: Managing it to maintain your performance
Chronic stress increases the production of cortisol, a hormone that promotes abdominal fat storage and muscle breakdown [7]. Incorporate stress management techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or light yoga between your intense sessions.
Food supplements: allies for your recovery
Certain supplements can effectively support your body during cutting. In addition to the already mentioned protein and L-glutamine, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) help prevent muscle catabolism, while antioxidants combat increased oxidative stress during this period.
Common mistakes to avoid during your drying process
To succeed in your drying, avoid these classic pitfalls:
-
Too great a caloric deficit, which would lead to muscle loss.
-
The complete elimination of carbohydrates, which would decrease your performance.
-
Too much cardio at the expense of weight training.
-
Neglecting recovery, which would compromise your results.
-
Impatience, which would lead to extreme and counterproductive methods.
Remember that successful cutting is a process that requires patience—and consistency! By following these guidelines, you'll gradually transform your physique while maintaining your health and performance.
SOURCES
[1] International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: proteins and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8
[2] International society of sports nutrition position stand: nutrient timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4
[3] The Influence of Oral L-Glutamine Supplementation on Muscle Strength Recovery and Soreness Following Unilateral Knee Extension Eccentric Exercise. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2014-0209
[4] Physiology of growth hormone secretion during sleep. The Journal of Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(96)70008-2
[5] Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men. JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.710
[6] Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. Lancet https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)01376-8
[7] Stress, cortisol, and obesity: A role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity. Domest. Anim. Endocrinol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004
