But, what does it mean? Cutting is nothing more than lowering your fat percentage by adhering to a strict diet plan. This makes your muscle mass more visible. The difference between cutting and a regular diet is that with a regular diet you often lose muscle mass.
Cutting is a term for losing body fat to make your muscles more visible, by “cutting down” on body fat. You cut by adjusting your diet to maximize fat loss, while you continue to train to gain muscle. It is possible to gain muscle while losing body fat, but the realistic goal is often to maintain it.
In fact, you can expect a whopping 20–30% of the weight you lose by cutting calories will come from muscle, according to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dieters should not lose more than 1% of their body weight each week. Cutting more than 1% can result in greater muscle loss, which ultimately works against a lifter's long-term fitness goals.
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.
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 ).
The truth is that working out for the first time after a break will probably be challenging at first, but I have some encouraging news: It is actually a lot easier for your body to regain strength and muscle than it is to start from scratch.
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.
If you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible and you're at or below 10% (men) or 20% (women) body fat, then you should bulk. And if you want to lose fat as quickly as possible and you're at or above 15% (men) or 25% (women) body fat, then you should cut.
Bulk vs Cut (or Recomp) FAQ. Should you bulk or cut first? If you are underweight, you should bulk. If you are overweight, you need to cut; however, the less training experience you have, the more likely it is that you will gain muscle simultaneously as you lean out (though you'll lose weight overall).
Don't Worry, Your Muscles Remember New research shows that muscles actually have a memory of their former strength level that may last indefinitely. That means that if you've worked out before, it may be easier to get that lost muscle mass back later.
The good news is that when you resume your lifting routine, your previous hard work will not be for naught, thanks to muscle memory. This mechanism within the body helps you regain strength and muscle mass in about 1/10 of the time it took to originally get it.
According to the research of pro bodybuilder Jeff Nippard, the timeframe to get your muscle gains back is typically around half the time you took off. So, if you had a 2-month break from lifting, it might take just a month to get all of your gains back. Took six months off? You'll need three months to gain it all back.
While in a growth phase, we typically recommend consuming about 2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight (1g per pound). However, during a cut, you should actually up your intake slightly, somewhere in the range of 2.3g/kg-3.1g/kg (1.1g/lb-1.5g/lb) (Helms et al. 2014; Ribeiro et al. 2019).
Once you reach a body fat percent of 15% for men or 25% for women, that's when you'll want to start the cut. With a calorie deficit and ensuing weight loss, you'll start losing that fat gain you've put on over the winter months.
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.
It comes down to hormones and genetics. Chances are, you've probably heard before that every body is different, and on a physiological level, that's really true. For example, some bodies are primed to put on muscle more easily than others.
This is because our genetic inheritance influences everything from bone structure and body shape to weight and muscle mass differently. Some bodies are simply genetically primed to put on muscle more easily than others.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
So, if you're a skinny-fat guy with high body fat percentage (over 15%-20%+, which is almost everyone) you should lose fat first with a cut phase before bulking.
The easiest way to know if you should cut or bulk is to take note of your current body fat percentage. If you are a female with greater than 25% body fat or a male with more than 15% body fat, you should cut. Conversely, if you are a female at or below 20% body fat, or a male at or below 10% body fat, you should bulk.