Cut strategy: down drastic calories VS down calories slowly

[bb333]

You are in a hypercalorie diet, you want to go to a cutting period, what do you prefer to do?
Lower your calories slowly, or quickly down?

 

[DonutsNDeads]

Slowly, there’s less loss of lean body mass than with drastic cutting of calories.

 

[bb333]

Slowly, there’s less loss of lean body mass than with drastic cutting of calories.

I always did.

I'm looking for other people who follow a drastic drop in calories ...

 

[santangalo]

Slowly, there’s less loss of lean body mass than with drastic cutting of calories.

How much decrease in calories in what period of time? Weekly,monthly?

 

[DonutsNDeads]

How much decrease in calories in what period of time? Weekly,monthly?

I was just saying in general. But my rule of thumb is to take my maintenance and drop it by 500 and move from there.

 

[DonutGains89]

You are in a hypercalorie diet, you want to go to a cutting period, what do you prefer to do?
Lower your calories slowly, or quickly down?

I always lower calories slowly. Ill even start with only 300 cals the first couple of weeks cuz I can drop weight fast initially then it pauses, plus I'm always hungry lol so I wanna keep cals up. What do you mean quickly down? Or how fast of a drastic drop in calories?

 

[bb333]

For "drastic", I mean lowering calories by 30% less.
Yes 2600kcal (hypercalorie), and 1800kcal (low calorie).

There are some guides that you should go down quickly, and then strategically add some glucose charges.

Others (as I always did) lower 300kcal every 1 month.
So slowly.

 

[AntM1564]

I think it depends on how long you're going to cut for. If you are going for a mini cut or something no more than 8 weeks to lose a little bit of extra fat, I think one could get away with a larger surplus. But I would also keep my protein very high and maybe supplement with a fat burner to expedite the process. However, if one chooses this route, they need to be realistic that they may loose a little more lean mass, but I would be more concerned about performance and strength.

I think a slow and steady route is the best approach as it is easier to hold onto lean mass, strength and performance will not be negatively affected, but most importantly, I think the psychological benefits would be better. When one is on low calories that person can become irritable and cranky.

if you wanted o meet this in the middle, I think eating at maintenance, but doing extra cardio to get into a deficit would be great. I know for me personally, if I eat a smaller amount of calories, I am very hungry throughout the day. However, if I create a deficit with cardio, but keep my calories higher, I am not nearly as hungry.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Like others said you have to slowly decrease caloric intake until you're at the point where you need to be. If you go too quickly it's too much of a change on your body and makes it ten times harder.

 

[john.patterson]

I agree with the info from others - slow and steady wins the race when it comes to cutting. Dropping your calories significantly to start can give quick results, but you will still plateau at some point. If you start with a super low calorie intake, you'll struggle to cut more calories out when you stall.

I always opt to take the slow approach and begin at 300-400 calories below maintenance. Adding in cardio can also be very helpful to further increase your deficit

 

[Outofbody]

I'm a fan of dropping cals significantly on off days (or even on some training days), but not on a daily basis when cutting. If I do this, I always have a refeed once or twice a week and I still keep protein levels high on these days. This allows me to satiate my hunger by eating more on intense training days while also keeping intensity up in the gym. I'm not a fan of losing strength or performance during a cut. Most of the time I'm able to continue building strength this way. Come to think of it though, this method is more of a recomp.

 

[Outofbody]

There are some guides that you should go down quickly, and then strategically add some glucose charges.
.

This is what I do. Basically add peri-workout carbs with EAAs/BCAAs when cals are very low and it keeps performance and progress up.