Fat Loss - Advice from Successful Lifters

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Posting advice from successful lifters, bodybuilders, powerlifters and even (gasp) fitness models on how to cut fat properly while maintaining strength and muscle.

Feel free to add your own quotes.

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Maik Weidenbach, top Musclemania competitor:

Bodybuilding Contest Prep - The 3 Biggest Mistakes | Muscle & Strength

At first you cut your calories by 500 a day. Your diet is responsible for 80+% of what you will look like, so it pays off to be meticulous in that department.

After two to three weeks of reduced calories, I start adding cardio for about 2x30 minutes per week. If you keep getting leaner while keeping your strength, stick with that approach. If not, I suggest cutting the calories further by 200/daily and adding a third cardio session. If your strength drops more than 15%, bump your calories (especially carbohydrates) by 40% for two to three days in order to upregulate the metabolism.

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Cliff Wilson, How A Slowing Metabolism Happens:

He was maintaining his body weight with about 3000 calories per day in the offseason, so he begins by cutting to 1600 calories and starts by doing an hour of cardio a day. This really gets things moving as he loses several pounds in the first few weeks. Eventually things begin to slow down though.

After a few more weeks fat loss has pretty much stalled, so our competitor, who is already eating very little, decides to cut out all carbs and lower his fat intake down to 20-30 grams per day. This gets things moving again but not nearly as fast as in the beginning. After another few weeks fat loss stops again. Since he really can't eat much less than he is currently eating, our competitor has no choice but to add another hour of cardio per day.

Fat loss barely crawls along for the next few weeks before it inevitably stops altogether. Our competitor is exhausted, has no energy to train, is eating no carbs, very little fat, and doing 2-3 hours of cardio per day, but the scale does not budge. There is still more fat he needs to lose, but our competitor is out of luck. His metabolism has stalled and it is not going to give up any more fat.

This is exactly the type of situation that leads to a huge metabolic slowdown and makes it nearly impossible to lose any fat

Fat loss should not be rushed. You need to allow plenty of time to diet. You should aim to lose no more than 2 lbs. of fat per week and preferably keep a rate of 1-1.5 lbs. lost per week. This will ensure that muscle loss is minimized.

If fat intake is too low there will not be enough fatty acids available for optimal testosterone production. This will lead to lower testosterone levels. Low testosterone leads to greater muscle loss during prep, meaning a lower metabolic rate.

[kitarpyar]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Maik Weidenbach, top Musclemania competitor:

Bodybuilding Contest Prep - The 3 Biggest Mistakes | Muscle & Strength

Well ... would you know it, I instinctively picked on a fairly similar approach. When I start feeling weak, I back off a bit, increase calories somewhat, gain some strength and slowly taper down the calories again.

Similarly with the cardio - started off with deficit diet and 2-3 weeks later added in cardio to bump up the weight loss.

Even the fat intake part rings true. One of my favorite meals on a cut is protein powder mixed with heavy whipping cream / large whole egg omelets (6 eggs and more), etc - i.e. plenty of fat sources.

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Shaka Smith on carb cycling:

Men's Physique Six Pack Freak Shaka Smith Talks To M&S | Muscle & Strength

It has been really important for me. I competed in 11 shows in 11 months and mid-way through, I found carb cycling was the best way for me to stay super lean in between shows. I prefer a 4/1 carb cycle and keep my low days under 40g-60g of carbs and my high days between 160-180g.

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Rosie Chee

Muscle Revolution! Rosie Chee Talks To M&S | Muscle & Strength

Don't “diet”! Find the nutritional protocol that works for you, constantly adapting and adjusting it (as you should your training), so that you keep making progress and getting results in the direction of your goals.

Lack of correct nutrition - for all but a rare few, nutrition is the determining factor in whether or not they are successful in achieving their muscle accretion and/or fat loss goals.

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Joseph NG, undefeated Men's Physique champion:


Undefeated Men's Physique Champion Joseph Ng Talks To M&S | Muscle & Strength

The most common mistake while cutting/dieting would be trying to cut too fast. The number one goal while dieting should be to retain as muscle as possible, and a drastic crash diet is a sure fire way to lose muscle. When dieting keep the fat loss slow and steady.

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Alex Turner:

Trainer And Force Factor Athlete Alex Turner Talks To M&S | Muscle & Strength

My best tip right off the bat would be low carb dieting. I definitely carb cycle, yet when am ON my carb days, never go higher than 250g. During my lower carb days or zero carb days, My abs truly come out. If you are hitting your lifts hard, hitting your cardio diligently and sticking to your HIIT…try dropping your carbohydrate intake.

It works wonders and will over time teach your body to hold and release water easier, for show prep, or anything else you may be training for. I have also found that carb cycling has allowed me to reach past plateaus in weight gain, while maintaining a low body fat percentage.

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Jeremy Scott

Fitness Junkie And Prolab Athlete Jeremy Scott Talks To M&S | Muscle & Strength

I was no different. I would try something for 8 weeks, see no results, convince myself the program didn’t work and try something else. This was very counterproductive. I also didn’t know how to eat correctly, not that I would smash pizza and fries all day, but my macros where out of whack.

I love carb cycling personally; I do it all year long and have been doing so for a few years now. I have found great success not only aesthetically staying lean all year but also with energy levels and making gains in the process. We teach it to our clients here and I believe it’s the healthiest most effective way to stay lean and healthy 24-7-365.

In its simplest form I practice a NO-LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH carb rotation for most of the year. Now if I have an event, let’s say a competition or a photo shoot coming up, I will make adjustments with my macros and follow a different pattern based on my body composition.

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Amer Kamra

M&S Talks To The Amazing Amer "The Hammer" Kamra | Muscle & Strength

Eat clean and lift heavy. Many people tend to have a bad habit of bumping up the cardio super high, decreasing the weights and food intake when trying to get ripped. That is a recipe for disaster.