Some great choices for burning calories include walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, weight training, interval training, yoga, and Pilates. That said, many other exercises can also help boost your weight loss efforts. It's most important to choose an exercise that you enjoy doing.
Adding cardio into a cutting phase is not necessary, however, it can help in that it burns additional calories. In some instances, burning 200 calories more a day may be easier than eating 200 calories less per day. That is ultimately up to the individual.
Lifting heavy, relatively speaking, is ideal for preserving strength and muscle mass during the cutting phase. Many novices and ill-informed individuals will lift with “light weights and high reps” thinking this will give them a “toned” look. While this is better than not lifting, this can lead to some muscle loss.
Use HIIT rather than steady state cardio
If you're trying to burn through body fat in a cutting program, you'll generally have 4-8 weeks to get rid of as much fat as possible. A HIIT program in your week of lifting can really help cut down fat in as fast a time as possible.
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 ).
Choose cardio that is easy on the joints (low impact) and easy on the muscles in subsequent days (won't make you sore). Rowing, cycling, swimming, elliptical trainers, or even lightweight barbell or kettlebell complexes could all be used.
Most research recommends 150–300 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week, or roughly 20–40 minutes of cardio each day ( 35 ). Running, walking, cycling, and swimming are just a few examples of cardio workouts. Studies show that the more aerobic exercise people get, the more body fat they tend to lose.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT): It is probably one of the fastest and most efficient ways to lose stomach fat and reduce the overall body fat percentage. HIIT is a high-intensity short period of exercise that usually doesn't exceed 30 minutes, with short breaks of recovery periods of 30-60 seconds.
You sure can. Working on your muscular endurance and maintaining a calorie deficit at the same time are going to double your efforts towards achieving a leaner and more toned appearance. You'll be improving the condition of your muscles and reducing the amount of fat that surrounds them.
“If your main goal is to burn fat, then a full-body circuit is a good way to train,” says Jay Moore, fitness manager at Virgin Active Aldersgate. It's simple maths; work more muscles, burn more calories. It's why belly fat-burning deadlifts will earn you a quicker six-pack than endless crunches.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Strength training specifically leads to gain lean muscle gain. These are fat-free tissues that are highly metabolic, allowing more caloric burns than any other tissue in the body. Essentially, this is why strength training works best: it loses fat while maintaining muscles that burn calories.
Running is the winner for most calories burned per hour. Stationary bicycling, jogging, and swimming are excellent options as well. HIIT exercises are also great for burning calories.