How to Start a Cut?

Diet and Nutrition
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Hey everyone I’m wanting some advice on how should I go about starting a cut. Currently I’m 5’9 ~195lbs. Body fat is probably around ~25%. My goal is to reach around ~12% body fat. Lifting 3-4x per week. I just bought a treadmill which I can use to keep steps up. Any advice on starting calories, step goals and how fast I should aim to lose weight each week? My biggest concern is losing strength, but I realize going from fat to lean some strength loss is prob gonna happen.

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Maintenance calories is a somewhat arbitrary number, but start with your TDEE and follow that for a week while weighing yourself. Weight should stay stable.

To lose 1lb/wk, you will need to drop 500 calories per day from your intake. You can bring this as high as 1%BW/wk, but wouldn’t recommend going any higher.

Your absolute strength is likely to go down, but your relative strength will probably go up when you’re done cutting. Besides, being lean is healthier and more rewarding than being strong. Normies don’t know what a heavy lift is anyways.

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@Andrewgen_Receptors answered your most basic portion about TDEE and calorie deficit. Here is my take. If you’re 25% BF you are already above average and into unhealthy territory. First focus is to choose healthier foods, get into a rhythm walking on the treadmill, and make sure you are not missing your strength training workouts. That alone should make vast improvements. Limit your cheat meals or out to eat meals to no more than two evenings a week. Not all day… just a meal and keep it reasonable. This alone should have you approaching 20% or normal male BF levels in a few months. Then start tracking your macros and reduce calories. Not many people hit 12% BF, I never have. But if you can get into the mid teens I think you’ll be happy.

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Thanks everyone for the replies. I have an idea on where to start now. I will be logging everything here in the training log section to hold myself accountable. But I’ll start around 2100-2200 calories and aim for 200g protein. For cardio I’ll just focus on keeping steps to around ~6k for now. I’ll make adjustments to this overtime.

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Don’t let the latter derail you. What I mean by that is if you are at your calorie goal for the day and have eaten 150 g of protein, don’t eat more to get the protein IMO. Your goal is to cut. Muscle memory is a real thing IMO. When you start to eat more, that muscle comes right back. Because of that, I prioritize overall calories more during cutting.

Get your calorie burning up over time. Start slow. Like 20 minutes at a time. Building the habits are important for long term success (including keeping the fat off). Don’t go so intense on it unless you enjoy it. Just burn the calories. I do low to moderate intensity just by walking on an incline. I am at about 35 minutes 4 days a week now. It is automatic now. When I started I did about 20 minutes 4 days a week.

Don’t eat or drink things that are crap. Try not to drink any calories (that goes for not cutting as well). Look at alcohol consumption, that can derail a lot of good plans. You don’t need to eat just chicken salads, but things like ice cream, pastries / deserts, soda, and fried food should be out for now IMO.

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Thanks man. Appreciate the reply. Good call on building the habits up slowly. I think getting the treadmill and having it in my room is going to be convenient. I work from home. So I can get a walk in during my lunch break. I also agree with focusing on overall calories vs meeting certain macro targets. At the end of the day calories come first and that’s what will dictate the fat loss. I only set a protein target so I won’t eat a bunch of crap foods, which is my biggest problem. So setting a highish protein number will force me to make better food choices.

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Thank you! I totally agree with this. I stay my fattest by justifying that I have to keep crushing the perfect amount of protein… and all the fat and calories that comes with it.

Even in the 12- to 16-week studies (well, the meta reviews I’ve bothered to read…), the differences in skeletal muscle mass and NPS between consuming .5g/lbs. and 1.2g/lbs. is nearly negligible to an actual human eye. I’m not saying underconsume protein as a lifelong rule, but fat loss should be a temporary goal.

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Me too!

I basically just track calories now. My eating has gotten to the point that all my meals end up being high protein anyways.

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I’d imagine for those of us that prioritize protein, our weekly average is coming out in the right range.

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IMO, you need to assure that you don’t eat crap food. At all. Do you want this, or not?

I used a feedback system and never counted calories.

  • Clean up your diet (no sugar or processed foods)
  • Eat at least one gram of protein per pound of your body weight
  • Eat some good fats (essential fatty acids in particular). You will get some fat eating meat protein.
  • Eat both fibrous carbohydrates and starchy carbohydrates
  • Eat five to six meals every day.
  • Eat about the same things everyday.

Now for the feedback system

  • Eat the same for about 2 to 3 weeks and see if you are gaining/losing/staying the same weight.
  • If you are gaining weight drop some starchy carbohydrates
  • If you are losing weight don’t alter your diet.
  • If you are staying the same weight, drop some starchy carbohydrates

You need a strength metric and use this feedback system:

  • Monitor your strength every week to see if you are getting stronger/weaker/staying the same.
  • Pick at least on upper body compound exercise as you strength metric
  • If you are losing strength, add in some starchy carbohydrates.

Now all you need to do is deal with an eventual paradox. What if you are losing strength and you are losing weight? Now you must choose to either continue losing body weight or adjust to regain your strength. I let the mirror assist in this decision. There is no perfect answer here.

IMO, with a real clean diet you can work off about half of your body fat and never feel like you are on a diet. Sugar and processed carbohydrates are running your insulin mad. Flattening your blood sugar will go a long ways in reducing your percent body fat.

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