Hey guys, it’s been a while! Life got hectic, and it’s still a little hectic, but I’ve found some time to post another article. This time, it’s all about the mini-cut! At the tail end of my 3-month mass, I had managed to build a considerable amount of muscle. When weighing in on the 27th of September the scale read 166.2ibs. A whole 11ibs or 5kg heavier compared to before starting the mass.
While I did put on muscle, I also put on some fat tissue. This is normal and is one of the necessary evils of massing. Luckily I didn’t put on too much fat by keeping my rate of gaining at a steady pace. Aiming for 0.8ibs of weight gain per week. When I reached a peak body weight of 166.2ibs or 75kg it was time to start a quick mini-cut. I also simultaneously completed a period of lower-volume training, which came in the form of strength training. This is needed because, after a while, our body’s growth responses to high-volume training are reduced. The low-volume strength training usually done for about 3 – 5 weeks gives your body a break from high-volume training. This paired with the mini-cut, allowed me to catapult myself into another massing phase. Now I am on track to gain even more muscle!
How does the mini-cut work?
I purposely choose to lose weight a bit more aggressively with a mini-cut, compared to a regular cut aiming for a weekly weight loss of 1% of my body weight. Or 1.6ibs per week. To achieve this target, I lowered my calories considerably. So by the time I started massing, I had more of an appetite to eat more calories than usual compared to eating to maintain my body weight. Just 2 weeks ago I finished up my mini-cut weighing in at 160.2ibs, losing 5ibs or 2kg in the process. Not all of that was fat tissue some of it undoubtedly being glycogen and water weight losses. But looking at the picture on the right you can see the goal of fat loss while maintaining muscle mass has been achieved. So how did I successfully mini-cut? Well, let me tell you how exactly I went about it and some useful things to keep in mind for your next mini-cut. We can break it down into 5 key areas.
- A calorie deficit.
- Macros matter during a mini cut.
- Use days of maintenance eating.
- Prioritize sleep and recovery. Minimize stress.
- Discipline.
1. A calorie deficit.
A mini-cut just like a regular cut or diet requires you to eat fewer calories than your body burns. The fancy way of calling it is a calorie deficit. When you provide your body with fewer calories than normal the body does not have as much available energy. All of the bodily processes, such as muscular contractions as well as cognitive functions need energy or glucose to function. When the body is not getting enough energy from food, as we are effectively starving our bodies of calories it will start to take energy from stored body fat. Which is a good thing for us, if our goal is to lose body fat! But one key difference between a mini-cut and a regular diet is the rate of weekly weight loss. On a regular cut, we may aim to lose 0.5% per week. A regular diet is completed over a few weeks or months which is broken down into blocks of weeks eating in a calorie deficit. Followed by a week here and there of maintenance eating while de-loading so your body fully recovers between bouts of cutting. At the end of a regular diet, you will be a lot leaner. From here you could just maintain your body weight or you could decide to go on a slow bulk or mass. The goal here would be to gain as much muscle as possible and limit fat gain.
The difference between a mini-cut and a regular cut is the purpose for doing each and the desired end result. Both help you lose weight but serve different purposes afterward. On a regular diet, you could just maintain your new body weight indefinitely and that would be that. You lose weight at a lot slower and more manageable pace. Chances of overeating and putting the weight back on are decreased since the drop in calories is not as severe. Together with a phase of eating at maintenance, it makes it a solid strategy to use to shed weight and keep it off.
The purpose of a mini-cut.
With a mini-cut, the goal is not to just lose large amounts of body fat in a short space of time. It is to make gaining weight afterward even easier since we have been feeding our bodies with so few calories over the last few weeks. The lower you drop your calories and the more weight you lose, the more your body wants to put that weight back on by eating more food. This is because we all have a famine clock you could call it built into our bodies. This helped humans survive when there were times of little food. When they found a lot of food all at once, they ate as much as possible. Who knows when the next time food comes around would be?
Because of this drive to eat more food, the mini-cut is the perfect tool to be placed in between phases of massing. At the end of a massing phase, you will have higher body fat levels than before you started. This means the more you train and eat the less of that is going to be new muscle tissue. The chances of gaining mostly fat greatly increases. This makes the point of continuing a bulk redundant. Your calories will also be high if not very high if your like me. At this point, you may be struggling to consume enough calories to continue to keep yourself in a calorie surplus. The mini-cut will give you a break from eating so much food. It will reduce your starting massing calories making it an easier base to start from. This gives you a few more weeks of productive, muscle-building training until you need to cut again.
2. Macros matter during a mini-cut.
Just as placing ourselves in a calorie deficit is important, the macro-nutrient breakdown of the foods we eat also matters. Like when in any cut, protein is going to be the most important macro-nutrient. Protein is muscle-sparing as our bodies break down the protein which contains amino acids. These are then absorbed by the body to be used for growth and repair. If we don’t consume enough protein we are going to lose muscle as carbohydrates and fats don’t contain amino acids or at least give us all 9 essential amino acids all at once. We need all 9 amino acids for the food to be considered a complete protein which can be fully absorbed and utilized by the body.
After protein, carbohydrates are going to be the most important, as they are protein-sparing. The body always prefers to use carbohydrates for energy so will use the glucose from carbohydrates instead of using protein for energy. If we don’t give ourselves enough carbohydrates, protein will be used for energy and the risk of muscle loss is increased. Carbohydrates also help us to keep training with high volumes which is needed to hold onto muscle during the cut. We only need to eat just enough fats to make sure our body carries out its normal functions and fat also helps with the absorption of important fat-soluble nutrients.
When to consume protein, carbohydrates and fats and how much?
We should consume protein in equal amounts throughout the day when cutting. Why? So our body absorbs all of the amino acids and doesn’t waste any. To calculate your protein requirements you can take your body weight in ibs and eat a gram of high-quality protein for every ib of body weight. Then all you have to do is divide that amount into at least 4 equal servings throughout the day. For me, that would be 160g split into 4 servings of 40g spaced a few hours apart. Remember to eat some protein at least the first 1 hour from when you stop training to maximize its absorption and receive the greatest outcomes. However, if needed, we can delay ingestion of protein for at least 1 hour because we are consuming very few calories. Depending on when you train, consuming too many and too quickly after training could make it hard to stick to your calorie target. Taking care of our hunger and eating at the appropriate times will make or break sticking to your calorie target.
Carbohydrate and fat targets.
Carbohydrates should always be consumed along with protein to increase the uptake of both. Consuming extra or the majority of your carbohydrates before and after your training session makes the most sense. On a mini-cut our calories are low, we also need to train hard enough to maintain our muscle mass. To train hard we need energy from glucose which is derived from carbohydrates. To sufficiently recover from exercise we need carbs too. Eating more carbs shortly after training speeds up the recovery process. But we first must look at the total amount of calories we are consuming throughout the day and know when we feel our hungriest. If you don’t feel as hungry after training, save those calories for a little bit later in the day if it means sticking to your calorie budget is made easier. Some carbohydrates ingested a few hours from bedtime may also help you get a good night’s sleep.
As for fats, they can be consumed along with the carbohydrates and protein. Timing of intake is not as important as when massing since we have more carbohydrates to play with. You may be asking “how many fats should I be consuming?” Eating 0.3g of fat per ib of body weight is a good goal to aim for. This allows us to maintain our normal bodily functions while leaving all of the rest of the calories (once protein has been taken care of) for carbohydrates. Carbohydrates always rank above fats for their use in training effectively and conserving protein for what its meant to do: build and conserve muscle mass.
3. Use days of maintenance eating.
This one is important and comes more with experience and paying attention to your body and mind daily. I know when I cut, at times I do find it tough. C’mon, I like food just as much as you! When I have to go without higher-calorie foods which I like, it does make me crave them that much more. We are already eating low calories so even lower calorie foods like fruits we maybe only able to eat in small amounts. This leads to increased psychological stress and paired with other life stressors such as work, family, and training (which in itself is a stress.) it can make you feel super stressed and bothered.
Some days you’re not going to feel your best. That extra portion of brown rice looks very tempting today after a poor night of sleep. The work meetings seem to be just getting started. Stress is higher today than it usually is and it’s bugging you. In this case, it makes more sense to eat at maintenance calories for the day. If it means we don’t eat overeat and lose the progress we have so far managed to achieve. When we are feeling able, we go back to our deficit. This leads to increased feelings of being able to stick to the deficit for that bit longer and successfully see it through. That’s more fat lost and progress in the long run. The other result is giving in to your cravings, there is a lapse in willpower, and together with the added stress of mini-cutting, you eat just too much of that cake that was sitting in the office. By now you have eaten way past your maintenance calories which have only dropped during the mini-cut. This leads to extra fat gain and may put you right back where you started or even worse. I have done it and it is not a nice feeling. I don’t want you to experience that feeling.
Listen to your body and make the right decision.
So during this past mini-cut I made sure to play it smart by including some days eating at maintenance instead of trying to play the hero but really failing miserably. Don’t be that person! Someone who has experience dealing with this problem as well as you paying close attention to how you feel on a particular day will help guide you on when is a good time to use a day of maintenance eating. If you need any help I would be glad to help you!
4. Prioritize sleep, recover and minimize stress.
While in a mini-cut, sleep and recovery should be a priority. Without proper sleep, your body won’t recover in time for the next session and you’ll go into the session tired and fatigued. This will lead to sub-par performances in the gym making it harder to progress each week and you may even see a quicker decline in performance compared to if your sleep was spot on. Remember you will be consuming fewer calories than usual so you need to be doing everything you can to recover and come in with as much energy as you can muster up. A lack of sleep also leads to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which makes losing fat harder and is catabolic to muscle growth and retention. Poor sleep paired together with reduced calories is just a cocktail for muscle loss and poor fat loss progress.
Recovery and stress.
Recovery does not just include sleep. It’s making sure you have some downtime to unwind and de-stress. Spend time with loved ones. Do a relaxing pastime or activity such as watching your favorite tv series, go for some walks, enjoy taking note of some of those travel destinations you have been wanting to visit in your travel book. All of these activities are low-intensity and don’t require a lot of concentration or effort to do. That’s a good thing. In the gym, you should be doing the opposite. It’s high intensity, it’s taking each set and repetition with purpose and concentration. Pushing it hard. Dialed in. Once we are not in the gym we should be thinking about recovering as much as possible.
Limiting stress falls under recovery too. If you know a situation makes you feel more stressed and bothered, try to limit your time spent in it. If you can’t avoid it, try to find ways to make it more tolerable. That stress is not good when you let it build up over the weeks and months. Your stress across the mesocycle will only increase as the weights and volume increase. So it pays to pay attention to your recovery. You will thank yourself when you see the results in the mirror and on the scale.
Discipline.
This is what ties everything together. Without discipline, you will not be able to stay in a calorie deficit. To keep turning up to the gym when energy and motivation is low. You won’t eat enough protein to conserve your muscle mass. Your sleep may be all over the place at different times, practicing poor sleep hygiene before sleep. This sounds like no progress to me.
You need to make a choice to be disciplined. You need to understand the why behind your goal. You need to remember it because it will come in handy when you feel tired or life is throwing something at you. The why will get you through the tough moments and to the other side which is a net positive result. Lots of net positive’s results mean more progress. Many people can’t stay disciplined and this is one of the cornerstones of improving your physique yet alone achieving great results on a mini-cut.
The take-home points:
- Make sure to aim for a weekly weight loss of 1% while mini cutting. If you are not sure what types of food to eat, click on this link https://www.theavgguysnutritionandexerciseguide.org/nutrition/best-diet-meals/where I go over effective cutting meals.
- Keep training hard and with sufficient volume so you conserve your muscle mass while losing fat.
- Stay disciplined and consistent and watch your body change.
Alright, guys if you have gotten this far, then by now you have some key information to work from to achieve success on your next mini-cut. If you enjoyed the article please bookmark this blog and follow me on my social’s to keep up to date with my latest articles. If you need some personalized help, feel free to reach out to me by using the contact form. Hope to talk to you soon!