Thread: I need Help with cutting guys.

Anyone any suggestions?

Originally Posted by poloblue22

Anyone any suggestions?

Here's what I would do if I were in your shoes...

The first thing I would do is figure out how many calories I am burning daily. One useful measure is called the Basal Metabolic Rate--this will tell you how many calories your body is using just to stay alive, basically. Then, add the calories you are burning through your normal daily activities. Finally, add whatever calories you are burning through cardio/weight training.

There are a ton of websites out there that have calculators for just this sort of thing. I've been using www.fitday.com for this, among other things. For an example, I've been burning about 3500 calories per day (my "maintenance rate").

Once you know your maintenance rate, then the basic rule of thumb is to take in 300-500 fewer daily calories than your maintenance rate. It is generally believed that a larger calorie deficit will lead to significant muscle loss. This is exactly what happened to me last year when I got overzealous in my weight loss program. I did A LOT of running, and I've calculated that I was running at about a 1,800 DAILY calorie deficit. I got shredded, but also lost a lot more muscle than I should have.

About your weight training, while cutting it is important to lift heavy. If, instead, you lift light with more reps, your body will lose incentive to keep your current muscle. Basically, your body will say to itself "okay, we're not using these particular muscles, so lets convert them into energy to make up for this calorie deficit" (aka catabolism). Realistically, being on a sustained calorie deficit will hurt one's endurance (at least, for most folks), so you might well find yourself doing fewer reps than you would be able to on a bulk. Nonetheless, keep those weights at least as heavy as before to protect your muscle.

About your cardio, my suggestion is to do as little cardio as you can while still getting results. The problem with prolonged steady-state cardio is that it promotes muscle catabolism. Say you go running for an hour. Once your glycogen stores are depleted (say within 20 minutes), your body will have to turn to one of two places for energy: your body fat, or your body muscle. With steady-state cardio, your body will dip into both. HIIT--"high intensity interval training"--on the other hand, is a great way to cardio while on a cut. For example, if you were to run, try running as fast as you can for a short period of time, then jog for a while to recover, then run as fast as you can again, then jog for a while to recover, and so on. It is short in terms of duration (thus minimizing catabolism) but long on metabolic boosts (that is, HIIT will speed up your metabolism long after you're done exercising).

There are quite a few threads here that discuss all the stuff above in much more detail. Whatever might interest you, search it. And if I've messed anything up in the details, anybody, please go ahead and correct me.

Good luck to you!

Well here are some of the figues I just want to make sure I have these right.

My BMR = 2240.4

According to the calculator my Daily calorie intake should be around 3397.5

And my target weight lose is around 2lbs per week, and it recommended I cut 500 calories per pound I want to lose, since I want to lose just a bit over 2lbs to be in my goal range that would be a decrease of 1200.

So if I didn't do much of lifting or anything here would be the figures.
DCI = 3397.5
-BMR=2240.4
-decrease of calories = 1200

The daily deficit would be -42.9 but this will increase according to what I am doing that day.

I would say protein bars, shakes, and meal replacements between meals. Half way between meals have a scoop of protein in milk or water. And before bed have a low carb mrp with water.