When it comes to leaning down/cutting I usually aim for 1% BF per week (I typically average around .75% per week though). Also I typically increase my protein intake 25% more than on my bulking diet while cutting my carbs and fats by 50% This puts me around the lines of 350-400G protein and 200-250G carb and 10-50G fat per day. I limit my cardio to my off gym days, I do a 3 day split working each muscle 2x per week so it will be a bit like this:
Monday *lift*
Tuesday *cardio*
Wednesday *lift*
Thursday *cardio*
Friday *lift*
Saturday *cardio*
Sunday REST!
My cardio I prefer to do 2x per day on the cardio days, however each time I do it is only for 15 minutes going at my 100% intensity (30 second sprint, 1 minute walk, for 15 minutes)
The weight lifting is similar to a 5x5 strength program where I will only do 1 exercise per body part and I will lift for 5 rep maxes however I drop the number of sets to 3 and depending on the exercise I will increase the reps to 8 rep maxes. I try not to burn any MORE than 1000 calories per day on lifting days and no LESS than 1500 on cardio days. Remember it is when you get greedy and demand fast results that you will lose your hard earned muscle....
Obviously cut out cheating on your diet as much as possible however like posted somewhere above make sure you do allow yourself 1 real cheat MEAL (not day) per week. Due to your kicked up T3 levels and your rushing metabolism you can pretty much completely splurge on that meal (I love Chinese buffets 2 large plates of Generals Tso's Chicken
) You will notice you gained weight the next day but you will only carry it for like 2 days max as it is all just the sodium making you hold water like a sponge.
As to magic pills quit looking for a bandaid and address the problem at the source. Keep to a good diet (not necessarily a fad diet like people throw around on here) but instead a diet that you can adhere to and not get tired of, then make sure you burn more calories than intake and it will all come naturally.
I don't have enough posts to be allowed to post links or pictures yet but if you check my bodyspace profile bmcjames you can see that I do know a thing or 2 about leaning out
-James