A cutting diet lowers a person’s calorie consumption to remove body fat while retaining muscle mass. Lean meats, yogurt, and whole grains are included in this diet.

After a bulking process, bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts often use a cutting diet to achieve a leaner physique.

What is cutting diet?

A cutting diet, often referred to as shredding, is meant to help someone lose weight and maintain muscle.

The cutting diet is usually used by bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts as a short-term program prior to an event, competition, or as part of their training schedule.

In connection with lifting weights, people use a cutting diet. Weightlifting allows them to retain their muscle mass when cutting calories.

How to do a cutting diet

Usually competitive bodybuilders follow a cutting diet for 2–4 months.

The length of a cutting diet can be determined by a person according to his or her individual needs, but it is not a long-term diet.

Prior to a cutting diet, bodybuilders normally go through a bulking process.

Competitive bodybuilders typically follow a cutting diet for 2-4 months.

A person can decide the duration of a cutting diet according to their individual needs, but it is not a long-term diet.

Bodybuilders usually go through a bulking phase before a cutting diet.

Bulking helps a high-calorie, protein-rich diet to "bulk up a person and increase muscle mass with intense weightlifting.

It is important to consume more calories during this process than the body requires to maintain its weight, to use these extra calories to produce new muscle.

Professionals of nutrition and exercise call this having a "caloric surplus."

Bulking up usually results in a person gaining some weight from both fat and muscle.

The cutting process attempts to extract the fat accumulated during the bulking phase while preserving as much muscle mass as possible.

Loss of weight & macronutrients

A individual needs to use more energy than they eat to achieve weight loss. Experts on diet and exercise call this producing a "caloric deficit."

In order to lose weight, a person should first work out how many calories they need according to their gender, age and size, then determine their calories per day.

The body mass of an individual decreases during the cutting phase, and their metabolism adapts. To account for this, they need to adjust the number of calories they consume.

A summary of dietary recommendations that individuals can use in a cutting diet is given below. The suggestions are primarily from a 2014 review analyzing bodybuilding contest preparations.

It is essential to note that dietary needs may vary from individual to individual.

Weekly loss of weight: 0.5 to 1 percent of your body weight.

Protein: 2.3-3.1 grams of body weight per kilogram (kg), or 25-30 percent .

Fat: 15-30 percent of the calories in total.

Carbohydrates: 55-60 percent of total calories after someone has calculated their protein and fat, or the remaining amount of calories.

Timing and Frequency of Meals

An individual should uniformly space protein intake at 3-4 hour intervals throughout the day and within 2 hours after exercise, according to the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN).

Eating protein with carbohydrates is also recommended by the ISSN before exercise, after exercise, or both.

After a workout, the amount of protein that someone needs can depend on the size and timing of any meals they eat beforehand.

Especially for bodybuilding, evidence suggests that with 3-6 meals a day, each with at least 20 grams of protein, meal frequency should be moderate.

Cheat meals and refill days for cheating

Many individuals choose to have cheat days or refill days on a cutting diet.

Cheat days allow an individual to have occasional indulgences, which for example, when eating out, could be helpful.

In order to increase energy and performance, feeding days involve eating more carbohydrates.

A 2017 survey suggests that with refeed days, individuals can achieve better fat loss and muscle retention.

In order to continue eating a healthy diet and working towards their goals individuals should carefully plan any cheat or refeed days into their diet.

What to Eat

A nutritional, complete, balanced diet is recommended by sports nutrition guidelines.

To ensure they receive essential vitamins and minerals from food, a person should eat a varied diet. Essential nutrients are critical for energy and recovery, as well as supporting general health and well-being.

As part of a cutting diet, foods to be included include:

• Lean poultry and meat, oily fish and eggs

• Yogurt, milk, and low fat cheese

• Powders of protein, such as whey, hemp, rice, and peas

• Pulses and Beans

• Seeds and Nuts

• Olive oil, avocados, and olives

• Brown rice and pasta, oats, whole grain bread, barley, and quinoa, for example,

• Different colored vegetables and fruits

• Greens with leaves

People should also ensure that they are sufficiently hydrated.

Useful Diet Cutting Tips

• A individual who wishes to take part in a cutting diet may help with the following tips:

• Using a monitoring app for calories and macronutrients such as MyFitnessPal to monitor meals

• Re-evaluating the amount of calories they regularly require

• Regularly measuring themselves during the week

• Cooking loads of meals and freezing them

• Consultation with a nutritionist or personal trainer

• Continuous body structure analysis

Summary

A cutting diet will help someone lose fat while retaining muscle.

Based on their calorie needs, a person may schedule a cutting diet and use a fitness app to monitor their meals and macronutrients.

To reduce muscle loss during the cutting process, a person should also integrate strength training and weightlifting into their routine.

It is important to eat a varied health diet and never adopt a short-term cutting diet.

Long-term restrictions on foods may lead to disordered eating.