Hey guys,
I’m about to go on my first serious cut and I was wondering if there was anything special I could do with my training/cardio to keep as much muscle as possible. Also with the diet aside from eating 1g+ or protein per pound of lean mass. Thanks.
Never do anything intense in a fasted state; lift heavy during your workouts.
Those are the two main things I stand by when recomping, has worked well for me.
[quote]ArmyOf1 wrote:
Hey guys,
I’m about to go on my first serious cut and I was wondering if there was anything special I could do with my training/cardio to keep as much muscle as possible. Also with the diet aside from eating 1g+ or protein per pound of lean mass. Thanks.[/quote]
-Don’t reduce calories by too much (slows metabolism down). For me, I don’t like to go lower than 2500-3000 cals/day. If you don’t keep the tank “fuelled” regularly, your “fat burning engine” will stall. Don’t torture yourself with starvation! If you want to keep that engine running well while maintaining muscle, favour more activity rather than reducing calories by too much.
-Don’t over-train. Keep weight training volume pretty low/moderate (but intensity/strength high). Same applies to cardio (better to be frequent and brief…increase when needed)…don’t overdo it. Twice a week is a good starting point, 5 times per week would be a good max (relatively speaking).
-Interval training is your friend (as long as it’s not overdone).
-Have periodic re-feeds (e.g. maintenance calories or slightly higher). The leaner you are (e.g. near or at single digit bf), the more frequent/extreme the refeeds can be (e.g. every 3 or 4 days for the leaner people, for “fatter” people, once every 6 or 7 days).
-Be more sensible with your food choices. Getting in 3000 calories from crap is not the same as a “healthier” 3000 calories. Keep protein high (e.g. at LEAST 1lb/1lbs bodyweight). The quicker you lose fat with good food choices etc, the less chance of losing muscle (due to having to diet for longer).
-Don’t loiter/linger on this phase, get your goals firmly fixed in mind and get it over and done with.
I’ve lost about 38lb since last summer and i’m currently the strongest i’ve ever been.
I’d reiterate what the others have already said, especially when it comes to lifting heavy. Don’t drop your weights/increase rep ranges while on a cut. A few exercises will probably stall (my incline BB plummeted) but keep hitting them hard. If something does stall completley, DROP IT for something similar. Example: my pulldowns stalled at 265 x 10. After like 4 sessions I said f-this and put in seated cable rows with a v-handle; also threw in weighted pullups which are great. I’ve been progressing on both.
Also, if you find yourself losing too much strength you are probably doing something wrong. Like I said, my incline BB plummeted but everything else for the most part has gone up. That’s a good indication that you are, at the least, maintaining your muscle.
For cardio I stuck with fasted steady state, no longer than 40 minutes. I’ve never done HIIT so don’t take this as an implication that fasted morning cardio is better; i’ve been wanting to try HIIT sometime but my progress has been so good there’s no reason to change anything.
Start with as few cardio sessions as possible in the beginning. Add a session at a time, maybe 30-40 minutes. If that doesn’t help, increase a couple of them by 10 minutes or so. Fortunately I haven’t had to do more than 4 a week.
Diet has been about 40g protein/20g fat per meal. Roughly 35g malto with 2.5 scoops whey before workout. Eggs, whey, almonds, 90% lean ground beef with a few caps of fishoil and fiber choice make up my diet monday through saturday.
I do a refeed every sunday. They start out with more junk food and I gradually clean them up. Now i’m having oatmeal for breakfast, rice for a couple meals and then I always include one true cheat meal like a pizza.
[quote]ArmyOf1 wrote:
Hey guys,
I’m about to go on my first serious cut and I was wondering if there was anything special I could do with my training/cardio to keep as much muscle as possible. Also with the diet aside from eating 1g+ or protein per pound of lean mass. Thanks.[/quote]
Ever try reading some articles?
Don’t let carbs get too low, for too long. I see countless ‘dieters’ lose their muscle this way.
S