Week 1

Here’s important advice for a successful cut:

A standard caloric deficit is 500 calories to lose about 1 pound per week. This means you would subtract 500 calories from your maintenance calories. Keep in mind, the activity level you select may add a lot of calories to your BMR which is why I always like to underestimate rather than overestimate my activity level. Here is a quick outline of the activity levels to make sure your do not overestimate yours:

• Sedentary – (5000 steps per day) you sit most of the day. You minimize the amount of walking you take to get to your destinations. You may go on a short walk (<15min) from time to time.
• Lightly Active – (5000-7500 steps per day) – You do small workouts most days. You may go on walk more often than not. 
• Moderately Active – (7500-10,000 steps per day) – You workout hard most days but you do not intentionally do any extra cardio. You do not have a physically demanding job.
• Heavily Active – (10,000-12,500 steps per day) – You actively do some cardio or have a physically demanding job most days in addition to going hard at the gym to workout most days.
• Athlete – (+12,500 steps per day) You have a very physically demanding job or you actively do a LOT of extra cardio most days. You also go to the gym and workout hard most days. Most of your day is spent moving.

Once you have your maintenance calories, subtract a caloric deficit with this in mind:

When you choose to cut more aggressively, anywhere between a 750-1500 calories surplus on top of your maintenance, you run a risk of losing muscle over time (a risk which increases as you increase the deficit), but you will lose the maximum amount of fat in a given period of time. I would recommend only cutting weight for 4-16 weeks, running a maintenance block (maintenance calories and lower training volumes for 4 weeks) to assess your physique composition and let your body return to normal physiological levels before deciding what to do next (bulk or cut).

When you choose to do slower cut, anywhere between a 250-500 calorie deficit subtracted from your maintenance, you run a risk of not being in a caloric deficit the smaller the deficit and not changing your weight at all (so make sure your maintenance calories and your eating is accurate!), but you will minimize the amount of muscle you lose. This approach is better for more advanced lifters, and those who are concerned about losing muscle. I would recommend 8-20 weeks, before running a maintenance block.

Once you have the amount of calories you need to eat, download the appropriate calorie amount from the site.

If you need more guidance to talk through your particular situation, reach out to schedule a time for a 1-on-1 coaching session.

Week 2

You might be feeling hungry, but stay hungry my friend!

This is the part where you begin to feel:

• More Hungry
• More Flat
• A Drop in Performance
  • These are good indications that you are actually in a caloric deficit!

Week 3

This is a great week to make any small adjustments to your approach.

You should see some progress in your weight by now:

• Some people hold onto water which may make the weight scale misleading
• Some people look worse when they are flat and still have not lost a lot of fat, this is okay!
• REMEMBER, you are losing the most fat when you are flat!
  • However, if you are flat, your performance drops. And when your performance is low for a long time, a more advanced lifter may begin to lose muscle.
  • HOWEVER, new people: JUST TRAIN HARD AND YOU MAY EVEN BUILD MUSCLE.
    • Being New and/or Good Genetics is the Cheat Code to Fitness.

Week 4+

Time to decide on some questions:

Option 1: Continue Your Cut

Option 2: Maintain

If you need more guidance to talk through your particular situation, reach out to schedule a time for a 1-on-1 coaching session.