The new year is a time where many of us want to lose weight. Many of us make crazy new years goals of completely transforming our bodies for the sake of bettering ourselves – which is totally awesome and inspiring as a trainer.
The biggest problem is that many people simply do not know the correct process and steps to take in order to get into shape and achieve their goals.
In other words, most people are unaware that cutting is a combination of diet and workout programs.
In order for you to successfully lose weight, you will need a complete cutting program, which includes specific workouts for cutting and a diet plan that emphasizes an increase in metabolic performance.
In this article, you will begin to understand all the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to accomplish your weight loss goals and build a healthier you.
What is Cutting?
Let’s begin with a rather simple question – what is cutting?
Most people think that cutting is simply losing weight, but cutting is actually a combination of weight loss and restricting muscle loss.
In order for you to successfully cut weight, you must lose pounds off the scale and also maintain pure muscle mass – this is where a pre-set program factors in.
Step 1: Weight Loss
The first aspect of any cutting program will always begin with weight loss. Some of us want to lose 5 pounds, while others are shooting for 30. Either way, the goal here is to decrease the total body weight of an individual.
Weight loss is generally accomplished through your diet and training.
Eating a clean diet that favours plant-food with low fats will help to reduce total calories. A workout program that emphasizes strength and cardio will also be very effective (we will discuss this more below).
Step 2: Retain Muscle Mass
The most commonly forgotten aspect of cutting is your ability to retain the muscle mass you have now. Even if you are not a proficient bodybuilder you still have muscle mass – we all do.
The biggest issue arises when people go through a starvation cutting phase for weight loss.
Not only is this a bad habit to instill in your weight loss goals, but it can also make your muscles become catabolic and actually force them to lose total muscle mass.
The question then arises; how do you successfully lose weight and maintain muscle mass while you are cutting? Well, here’s how.
How to Cut Weight Fast and Effectively
Cutting is a perfect harmony of many factors. It’s not as simple as eating a superfood and going for a run in the morning (wouldn’t that be nice). Here are some of the most effective ways you can ensure you are successfully cutting and meeting the key requirements of a fast, safe and effective cutting program.
1. Compound Lifting as a Foundation
Any good cutting workout plan will include compound lifting. This means you are performing movements like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and other big lifts.
Big lifts like these work more muscles in less time – pushing your metabolism further than specific bodybuilding workouts where you train 1-2 specific muscles each workout.
If you are looking for a complete cutting workout plan to help you achieve your goal, make sure that the program is clear on its efforts with compound lifts.
2. Low-Impact Cardio 1-2x Per Week
Everyone gets very excited over HIIT workouts. Yes, to a certain extent, these workouts can have very positive impacts on your weight and performance in the gym. The biggest difficulty with these workouts is actually maintaining consistency.
Since many HIIT workouts are constantly changing you will never be truly certain that the workouts you are doing are actually helping you to grow stronger or if the strength workouts you are already doing are the main variable here.
Low impact cardio is the easiest and most effective way any beginner can track their performance from day one.
They put far less stress on the joints (great for beginners) and they are easy to monitor without having to hire a trainer (saving you money).
I recommend low-impact cardio to almost all of my clients. Cycling, incline walking, stair climbing – all great exercises for building strength in the body while improving your metabolic function without putting excessive stress on the joints.
3. Maintain a Low-Fat diet
There is a trend towards eating high-fat foods in today’s health world but it really doesn’t make very much sense in terms of weight and fat loss.
In terms of pure caloric value, whenever you are trying to lose weight, the foods that contain the least amount of calories and the most amount of fiber will always help you to feel satisfied without excessive weight gain.
This means you are eating foods like fruit and vegetables. At least half your plate (at every meal) should consist of fruit and vegetables. They are high in fiber, low in calories and full of micronutrients that help to maintain normal body function and promote metabolic enhancing effects.
4. Eliminate Processed Foods
This is the hardest part for most people. Understandably, pre-packaged foods are super convenient, but if you can eliminate all processed foods from your diet you will see drastic changes.
Cutting requires you to have the most natural and clean diet possible. This means no processed meats (bacon, ham, burgers, chicken fingers), no processed grains (cookies, cereals, donuts) and, one aspect many people miss, no processed drinks.
Keep it simple. Drink plenty of water and eat food that is unprocessed and natural.
Maintain half your plate as fruit and vegetables and the rest should fall onto clean protein sources like legumes, fish, and lean meats.
Things to Consider Before Starting
The reality of losing weight or cutting is that it will be difficult. Most people will need to make significant changes in their lifestyle. Changing the food you eat, setting up times for training and following a basic cutting workout plan will take time.
If you consider the long-term outcome of feeling stronger, healthier and more vibrant you will succeed. Check out these two things you can do to ensure you are going to become successful in your weight and fat loss quest.
Grab a Workout Program
Having a cutting workout plan that is built specifically for your goals will be a gamechanger.
Ensuring that you have a strength program that favors compound lifts and a cardio day every week with low-impact training will take your weight and fat loss goals to the next level.
Here at AnabolicBodies, we have created a unique cutting workout plan that is built to help anyone achieve massive weight loss and strength in the most effective way possible. All it takes is 6-weeks of hard work. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Get Your Diet in Check
The last aspect to consider before you start training your butt off is to get your diet in check. I can confidently say that there are very few people who can truly out-train their bad diet.
If you want to be successful with your FREE AnabolicBodies Cutting Program be sure to get your diet in check.
By downloading our cutting workout plan above we will automatically put you on our Email list for the release of our EXCLUSIVE nutrition plan. So stay tuned!
CSEP – CPT, Expert in Exercise Physiology
Gabriello is a writer and strength expert best known for his science-based and practical approach to Exercise Physiology, Nutrition and Strength. After serving in a directors position for The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Gabriello moved towards writing to help more people understand the importance of living a healthy life. Gabriello’s writings have been published in several languages on some of the largest health and fitness websites helping people learn, grow and understand the complex components of optimizing human performance in a simplistic way.
Gabriello also takes on specialized, high-performance athletes who are in need of strength, mobility and conditioning programming to optimize their fitness through his Earned Fitness program.
Website: https://earnyourstrength.com