Yes, strength training during a cutting phase is critical to maintaining as much lean muscle mass as you can during this lower-calorie phase. The more muscle mass you can maintain, the lower your body fat gets as you drop weight.
Losing muscle strength while on a cutting diet is common, but it is not unavoidable. Because weight loss inevitably involves the loss of both fat and muscle, you cannot expect to make any gains during your cutting phase, and you can expect your lean mass to decrease slightly as well.
Your strength will drop if you are truly cutting. You still want to lift relatively heavy/intensely to maintain the muscle, but understand you will get fatigued more easily. Bodybuilders tend to use lighter weights and increase the reps, though they may drop the number of sets.
For beginners, it isn't too uncommon to build muscle while cutting. For intermediate or advanced lifters, maintaining your muscle mass during a cut is often a more realistic goal, and if you are able to train hard enough to actually increase your muscle mass while cutting, then that is just a bonus.
A cutting diet lasts 2–4 months, depending on how lean you are before dieting, and is normally timed around bodybuilding competitions, athletic events, or occasions like holidays ( 4 ).
Likewise, “if you cut your calories too low, you'll feel depleted because that quick energy source is no longer there,” Antuna says. Anything too abrupt and/or too extreme taxes your body. A better approach is to throttle back on carbs to lose weight over time, he says.
We recommend losing somewhere between 0.5 to 1 kilogram (or 1 to 2 pounds) of body weight per week. That rate ensures you can keep all your muscle and lose more or less only fat weight, as long as you engage in strength training and eat enough protein.
You'll probably lose 15% of your mass if you do an aggressive cut more if you do it for a longer window. The idea is to grow more muscle than you need in hypertrophy and strength training so you have some to spare.
Furthermore, the longer the cut, the more muscle mass is lost overall since it is impossible to avoid muscle loss, so keep this in mind. Most bodybuilders do not exceed cuts of 4 months but usually do at least 2 months.
Skeletal muscle can regenerate completely and spontaneously in response to minor injuries, such as strain. In contrast, after severe injuries, muscle healing is incomplete, often resulting in the formation of fibrotic tissue that impairs muscle function.
Summing It Up
It's pretty simple. If you're lean enough to bulk (10-15% body fat or less for a man, or 18-23% or less for a woman), you should probably bulk first. If you're above these ranges, you should cut first. And if you're a beginner who's somewhere in the middle, you should recomp.
Your diet is what makes or breaks your cut. Two to three 20–40 minute cardio sessions per week are enough for most bodybuilders.
Competitive bodybuilders typically follow a cutting diet for 2–4 months . A person can decide the duration of a cutting diet according to their individual needs, but it is not a long-term diet. Bodybuilders usually go through a bulking phase before a cutting diet.
But if you cut calories too quickly, muscle tone will seriously suffer. “Calorie restrictive diets may cause your body to break down the muscle for energy and fuel,” says Satrazemis. In addition to waving goodbye to your shapely guns and rear, a loss in muscle mass can slow your metabolism.
THE CASE FOR SLOW AND STEADY
Often, people find a smaller calorie deficit easier to accomplish day-to-day and stick with over time. Fast weight loss can also make a person lose more muscle and body water than slower weight loss. “This indicates that slow weight loss can perhaps help you maintain more muscle mass.
For a slower cut, an decrease of 10-15% calories is advisable. I often advise starting with a decrease of 10% for a few weeks, take measurements (weight and photos) and see how things go. If fat is being lost, stay with the 10% deficit until things stall and then lower to 15%.
So, what are the best rep ranges for cutting? The best rep range for cutting is one that allows you to sometimes train with heavier loads to preserve basic strength (5-10 reps) and more moderate to light loads to allow you to retain as much muscle while training in higher volumes (10-20 reps).
How Long Should You Mini-Cut? As a rule of thumb, it will need at least 2 weeks to lose enough fat to be worthwhile. At the other end of the spectrum, dieting for more than 6 weeks will start to increase your risk of muscle loss. So, 2-6 weeks is the range for mini-cuts.