Fast or Slow Cut.

nutrition_110

Member
When cutting, is it scientifically better to do a slow, gradual cut over time? Or to drop calories significantly lower and cut for a shorter amount of time?
 
Neither, there are a lot of silly ideas about how to lean out so this or that doesn't happen, but the reality is you try to lose the weight at whatever speed you are the most comfortable losing it at. If you hate being overweight and want to lose quickly, then diet more aggressively to get there faster. Just have a plan to find your new maintenanace calorie level when done and a plan for how to maintain your new weight.

You might hear that going slower reduces loose skin, this is nonsense. Your skin is going to retract or shrink up as much as it is going to regardless of how fast you diet. If already too stretched out and there is extra or loose skin then that is just bad luck, having less elastic skin. However whether you drop 100lbs over a year, or over 3 you will end up with the same amount of loose skin, because you stretched the skin out that much regardless. It will only shrink up so much based on your genetics, so you can go slow and maybe not see it as fast because you are losing slower and it has a chance to try to keep up, or you can do it fast and will end up with as much loose skin earlier as you would have at the end but be smaller and healtheir. Either way within a year or two of maintaining the new weight your skin will retract or shrink the same amount over time so it doesn't really matter for that.

That being said if you go super aggressive, and do not have a plan for maintaining the new lower weight you re more likely to rebound from a more aggressive cut just because you will also likely be aggressive about going back to eating likeyou aren't on a diet any longer.
 
IMO Slowwww unless you got a showww.
AIM FOR :
Losing 1-2lbs a week,
minimal impact on gym performance 4-5days a week,
minimal carb cutting but put most around training,
sustainable diet/cravings,
low fat unless natural then medium healthy fats ~ 70g,
prioritize protein,
track /prep meals,
100-500 cal deficit increased only when scale doesn't move for a week,
increase low impact cardio and steps in small increments (preferably fasted or after every meal) to avoid hunger spike from overdoing,
eat dinner before you're hungry and early then brush teeth,
optimize sleep,
use zero/low cal options for drinks and sweets to kill cravings (my current favorite is a Nurri protein milk and 0 cal stevia "dirty soda")
and implement sups slowly to help keep it all going.
 
AwakeningAlpha said:
IMO Slowwww unless you got a showww.
AIM FOR :
Losing 1-2lbs a week,
minimal impact on gym performance 4-5days a week,
minimal carb cutting but put most around training,
sustainable diet/cravings,
low fat unless natural then medium healthy fats ~ 70g,
prioritize protein,
track /prep meals,
100-500 cal deficit increased only when scale doesn't move for a week,
increase low impact cardio and steps in small increments (preferably fasted or after every meal) to avoid hunger spike from overdoing,
eat dinner before you're hungry and early then brush teeth,
optimize sleep,
use zero/low cal options for drinks and sweets to kill cravings (my current favorite is a Nurri protein milk and 0 cal stevia "dirty soda")
and implement sups slowly to help keep it all going.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion, but 1-2lbs a week is not a slow rate of weight loss, 2 lbs is pretty much the most aggressive you hear recommended unless physician guided and it requires a steep 1000calorie deficit a day. I would call anything less than 1lbs of weight loss a week slow. Of course it's all semantics, and opinions.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Good suggestion, but 1-2lbs a week is not a slow rate of weight loss, 2 lbs is pretty much the most aggressive you hear recommended unless physician guided and it requires a steep 1000calorie deficit a day. I would call anything less than 1lbs of weight loss a week slow. Of course it's all semantics, and opinions.
Click to expand...
I agree. OP sorry if that was unclear. I was thinking a range 1lb "ideal", anything over i.e. 2 is getting into "too fast" territory. Also probably losing muscle at that point. of course it Depends on how obese or if just cutting below 14% bf then it's obviously slower. My sweet spot is 1 lb a week but I use low dose reta and high carb and protein with minimal impact on training besides pump.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Neither, there are a lot of silly ideas about how to lean out so this or that doesn't happen, but the reality is you try to lose the weight at whatever speed you are the most comfortable losing it at. If you hate being overweight and want to lose quickly, then diet more aggressively to get there faster. Just have a plan to find your new maintenanace calorie level when done and a plan for how to maintain your new weight.

You might hear that going slower reduces loose skin, this is nonsense. Your skin is going to retract or shrink up as much as it is going to regardless of how fast you diet. If already too stretched out and there is extra or loose skin then that is just bad luck, having less elastic skin. However whether you drop 100lbs over a year, or over 3 you will end up with the same amount of loose skin, because you stretched the skin out that much regardless. It will only shrink up so much based on your genetics, so you can go slow and maybe not see it as fast because you are losing slower and it has a chance to try to keep up, or you can do it fast and will end up with as much loose skin earlier as you would have at the end but be smaller and healtheir. Either way within a year or two of maintaining the new weight your skin will retract or shrink the same amount over time so it doesn't really matter for that.

That being said if you go super aggressive, and do not have a plan for maintaining the new lower weight you re more likely to rebound from a more aggressive cut just because you will also likely be aggressive about going back to eating likeyou aren't on a diet any longer.
Click to expand...
I don't have a ton of weight to lose, so I'm not concerned about loose skin. I'm mainly concerned about losing muscle.
 
AwakeningAlpha said:
IMO Slowwww unless you got a showww.
AIM FOR :
Losing 1-2lbs a week,
minimal impact on gym performance 4-5days a week,
minimal carb cutting but put most around training,
sustainable diet/cravings,
low fat unless natural then medium healthy fats ~ 70g,
prioritize protein,
track /prep meals,
100-500 cal deficit increased only when scale doesn't move for a week,
increase low impact cardio and steps in small increments (preferably fasted or after every meal) to avoid hunger spike from overdoing,
eat dinner before you're hungry and early then brush teeth,
optimize sleep,
use zero/low cal options for drinks and sweets to kill cravings (my current favorite is a Nurri protein milk and 0 cal stevia "dirty soda")
and implement sups slowly to help keep it all going.
Click to expand...
What's your suggested deficit start? I want to lose weight but also don't want to significantly drop the calories when I start the cut.
 
nutrition_110 said:
What's your suggested deficit start? I want to lose weight but also don't want to significantly drop the calories when I start the cut.
Click to expand...
If you are currently staying the same weight. Track your current eating pattern for a week and your weight. Take a 200-500 cal deficit from that. Then drop in 200cal increments when weekly weight loss stalls. Hit 1g Protein per lb body weight and train consistently and as hard as possible. Carbs mostly around workouts. Cardio (incline walking) should be fasted with caffeine / stims and L-Carnitine or fat mobilizers, stay under 45 mins. Glycine and HMB at night if you aren't running anabolics or GH to spare muscle.
 
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I think Layne used to talk about utilizing mini cuts to help avoid metabolic adaptation? I might be putting words in his mouth but I thought he was running 4-6 week cuts followed by similiar periods of time at maintenance to rebuild metabolism. IMO it requires the discipline of a monk to go back and forth like that, its a bit easier IMO to maintain laser focus in one direction once you commit...
 
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