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How to Cut Without Losing Muscle
Losing fat is simple on paper: eat less than you burn. Losing fat while keeping the muscle you worked for takes a bit more planning. These are the things that make the difference, biggest first.
1. Set a sensible pace
Aim to lose about 0.5 to 1 percent of your body weight per week. For an 85 kg lifter that is roughly 0.4 to 0.8 kg a week. The leaner you already are, the closer to the slow end you should be. For most people that means starting around 400 to 600 calories below maintenance and adjusting from there.
Not sure what your maintenance is? Log your food and weigh yourself every morning for two weeks while eating as you normally do. If your average weight holds steady, your average daily calories are your maintenance.
2. Keep protein high
Aim for around 2 to 2.4 g of protein per kg of body weight. It protects muscle, and it is the most filling thing you can eat. Our protein guide shows how to get there with normal food.
3. Keep lifting heavy
The weight on the bar is the signal that tells your body to keep its muscle. Stick with the same main lifts and rep ranges you used while building, and try to hold on to your working weights. Do not switch to light weights and high reps "for definition". That only takes the signal away. Late in a cut you can drop a set or two per exercise if recovery suffers, but keep the weights heavy.
4. Steps before cardio
Walking is the easiest way to burn more without hurting recovery. Aim for 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. If you need more on top of that, add two or three sessions of easy cardio like cycling or incline walking. Keep hard intervals to a minimum, and do not put them right before a leg session.
5. Watch the right numbers
- Weigh yourself every morning and look at the weekly average, not single days. Swings of 1 kg or more from one day to the next are normal.
- Measure your waist once a week, at the same spot.
- Take photos every two to four weeks, in the same light.
- Log your lifts. Strength holding steady is the best sign you are keeping your muscle.
6. Sleep
This one is underrated. In a small but well known study, the same group of people dieted twice on the same calorie deficit, once with 8.5 hours in bed each night and once with 5.5 hours. They lost about the same weight both times, but on short sleep much less of it was fat and more of it was lean mass. Seven hours or more makes a real difference. Our sleep and recovery guide covers the basics.
7. Make the diet easy to stick to
- Build meals around a protein source and a big portion of vegetables.
- Choose foods with a lot of volume for few calories: potatoes, berries, soups, lean meat, skyr.
- Keep high calorie snacks out of the house if they are your weak spot.
- Plan the week. Most diets break on the days you have no plan.
8. Take breaks when you need them
After 8 to 12 weeks of dieting, many people do better with one or two weeks at maintenance before they carry on. It does not undo your progress, and it makes the rest of the cut easier to stick to. When you reach your goal, bring calories up to maintenance over a week or two. Expect the scale to go up 1 to 2 kg from food and water. That is not fat coming back.
Signs you are pushing too hard
Stop the deficit and eat at maintenance for a while if you notice:
- Your lifts dropping across the board for two weeks or more
- Dizziness, or feeling cold all the time
- Sleep falling apart even though you are tired
- Thinking about food all day, or swinging between strict dieting and bingeing
- For women: periods becoming irregular or stopping
Want feedback on your cut? Reply here with your weight, calories, training and how it is going.