STARTERS GUIDE TO CUTTING

Now the first thing we need to establish is that cutting Is tough, it requires large amounts of dedication not only in the gym but also in the kitchen, as we need to both monitor our calorie intake and dispersion. So here I'm going to outline my top 5 tips that you need to follow in order to make your cutting process as simple and effective as possible, getting you shredded for the up and coming summer.

1. WORK OUT YOUR BMR

Your basal metabolic rate basically refers to how many calories your body will burn just by carrying out its basic bodily functions. So this includes things like digestion, making your heart beat and breathing. Its important to work this out as we need to have a starting point when working out our overall calorie use during a day. There are plenty of calculators out there on the internet that will help you work this out in a matter of minutes, so there's really no excuse. Once this has been worked out, you can add this to your daily active calories, so those that you burn from walking exercising and other voluntary activities. This will give you a good insight as to how many calories you can can add to your diet, in order to make the cut effective, remembering that we have to be in that calorie deficit in order to make the whole thing work.

2. RAMP UP THE CARDIO

Now I know allot of people reading this will be people who like to jump in the gym, lift the heaviest weight they see, grunt a bit, and walk out. Unfortunately this isn't going to work very well with your cut. We need to be doing more than just weight lifting in order to ramp up the amount of calories that we are burning a day, increasing that all important calorie deficit, and resulting in more fat loss. However, this cardio needs to be a little more specific than you will have thought. In order to burn fat we need to be working in an aerobic training zone, meaning we are training at Lower intensities with the presence of oxygen. So doing things like HIIT, are not going to be very effective, as here we would be using other nutrients to power these muscles In different training zones. So the key is to work for low intensities for long periods of time, for example hour long jogs.

3. KNOW YOUR MACROS

Macronutrients refers to three things that are in all foods that we eat, these are fats, carbohydrates and proteins. In the cutting process it's important that we have a good balance in regards to how much of our calorie intake should be made up by each of these macros. First of all the largest percentage should be proteins, they should be taking up around 50% of your daily calorie intake. This is in order to maintain as much of that muscle mass possible when doing all this cardio and sitting in this calorie deficit, which of course will lead to limitations in regards to muscle growth. So the portion is simply there to help maintain as much as possible. In regards to fats, when cutting this should take up around 35% of your diet, and carbs will take up only 15%. The reason for this is that a low carb high fat diet involves someone reducing the amount of carbs and replacing them with healthy fats. This is because when we reduce the amount of carbs in their diet, it forces the body to use fats as a source of fuel, resulting in an increased rate in fat loss.

4.EAT SMART

So we are going to be eating less, that's made pretty clear, so if we carry on eating on our normal schedule we are going to feel pretty hungry pretty quickly. So the key to this is in the timings. We need to be eating to a regimented and pre determined schedule which reduces the chances of hunger throughout the day. My top tip for this is making your breakfast both later, and one of the richest meals you will eat calorie wise. A mistake most people make is that they will eat as soon as they get up, therefore there is going to be a lone period of time between this meal and lunch. So what this means is you would become more likely to snack on things laying about the house, crisp etc, which are gonna do you no favours at all. So eat that breakfast later, say 10:30, and make it rich in volume, allowing you to see yourself through to the following meal. A few examples include the following......

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/18-low-carb-breakfast-recipes#section16

5. REMEMBER YOUR CHEAT MEALS

The key to maintaining a healthy cut is ensuring you don't go overboard. It's not going to be the end of the world if every now and then you do decide to get a McDonalds in, but just keep it as being a necessity, and keep the cheat meals moderated and regimented. Try and stick to one a week if you can, and a tip I would suggest is keeping it for the end of the week, when is the weekend and you just fancy stuffing ya face in. Cheat meals are so important because they support you in sticking to a diet, as you know that come the end of the weeks you are gonna be able to treat yourself, so make sure you're putting them in your plans and sticking to it most importantly.