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 ). A cutting diet aims to get you as lean as possible while maintaining muscle mass.
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.
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.
Your cut lasts too long
Try and avoid any cutting cycle lasting longer than six weeks – and include cheat days to keep you on track.
In order to lose fat healthily and correctly, you need to give your body time. A proper cut is anywhere between three to six months, and now that winter is coming to an end, it's the best time to start.
The bodybuilding 12-week cutting diet plan consists of 3 types of eating days; high carb days, moderate carb days and low carb days. The high carb day is usually one day a week, the moderate carb days are usually 3 days a week and the low carb days are usually the remaining 3 days of the week (1).
Despite what many novices (and even some strength coaches believe), lifting heavy is still an essential part to cutting. Lifting heavy, relatively speaking, is ideal for preserving strength and muscle mass during the cutting phase.
Conclusion. Yes, you can gain muscle while cutting. However, it may be more complicated than if you were maintaining your weight, trying to lose fat, or trying to gain muscle individually. Regardless, focus on eating a healthy diet and getting enough protein.
In general terms, a person at a reasonable level of fitness will start to see changes after two months of serious strength training, and results should be clearly visible after four. For a truly ripped physique, most people need a minimum of one year's hard work.
Answer: Five weeks is plenty of time to change your body and build muscle and lose fat, but you need to be very disciplined.
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.
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 adjusting your diet so that the loss of muscle mass is minimal.
To get ripped in a period as short as four weeks means that you do a series of intense workouts. It will require you to strength train more and at a higher intensity and even crank up your cardio full-body workout routine.
If your goal is to gain muscle and strength and you aren't concerned with gaining a bit of fat in the process, a bulk may be a good choice. On the other hand, if you're looking to lose fat and maintain muscle, a cut may be more in line with your goals. For individualized guidance, consult a registered dietitian.
The best gains of an entire year often come in the first few weeks after a cutting phase, making that period of time ideal for growth. In fact, you can easily add substantial amounts of real muscle mass in just six short weeks.
You've gained muscle.
And here's an often overlooked fact: Muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue. So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health.
But, can you lose fat during a cutting phase without doing cardio? Yes, you can 100% lose fat, maintain muscle mass, and have a successful cutting phase without doing ANY cardio.
As long as you're using an appropriate volume and intensity in your workouts and maintaining a moderate calorie deficit, you probably won't have any trouble recovering from your workouts, and thus don't need to change anything while cutting. In fact, you may even be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
As a rule of thumb, your total cardio for the week should take no more than half the time you spend lifting weights. So if you spend 90 minutes 4 times per week lifting weights (6 hours), that means you should do no more than 3 total hours of cardio per week.
You simply can't train hard and eat a deficit for long periods of time, which is why 8 to 12 or 16 weeks is recommended for cutting phases. Most research shows that you can lose about 1 pound of fat per week, healthily, without noticeable muscle or performance loss.
A safe, healthy, and realistic goal is to lose 0.5-to-1% of your body weight per week, which is around 1-to-2 pounds of weight loss per week for most people. In other words, you can expect to lose 12-to-24 pounds in a 3-month period.
While the process of getting ripped can take a long time depending on how you workout and what your diet looks like, intense training can certainly produce results in around 2 months. During this time you can expect to see weight loss or gain (depending on your goals) and a basic change in your figure.