"cutting cycle"?

[Razor]

I'm putting this in the fat loss forum since I've heard it used to reduce body fat...

I'm not asking because I want to do this, but mainly because I'm curious. How does bulking up and then cutting it down remove body fat? Could someone explain how a cutting cycle is supposed to work? I tried checking on google, but couldn't find much about it.

[Jim]

As far as I know:
When you bulk, you gain both fat and muscle because of the amount of calories you are required to eat. When you finish bulking you should have a lot of Lean mass, and a bit of fat, when you go on a cutting cycle, you are trying to lower your bf% and keep as much lean mass as possible, which then gives you a ripped look.

[zamboni]

It is almost impossible to gain lean muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time. Well, not impossible, just very slow. The reason behind that is that to build muscle mass, you need calories because they fuel growth, and you need protein and other macro nutrients as the building blocks to creat new muscle mass. To this end, you MUST overload your body with a protein and calorie surplus,so that at the end of the day, your body has a little extra to make itself bigger. Without extra fuel and materials to rebuild, you can work out all you want, and you won't make any progress. You'll be make more likely to hurt yourself if anything. Eating is far more important to building muscle then lifting. However, you can't have one without the other if you expect results.

Cutting is when you get rid of all the extra body fat that you put on while you were bulking up, using cardio and diet, to get ripped to show those abbs so to speak. The reason why you need this, is because your body puts on body fat as well as muscle when you're bulking up. A really good body builder, while bulking up, can probably put on about 7 lbs of muscle for every 10 lbs he gains. The other 3 lbs is body fat. So if he were to gain 30 lbs, roughly 9 lbs of that would be fat. So to get rid of this, he goes on a cutting phase for a month or so to get rid of that 9 lbs, leaving him with a net gain of 21 lbs of lean muscle mass.

To put it simply, cutting is losing body weight without losing muscle mass. That's the goal at least. The difference between that and regular dieting is that most people, when they lose a lot of body weight, tend to lose a lot of muscle mass too.

I hope that was pretty clear

[Razor]

Originally Posted by zamboni

I hope that was pretty clear

Yeah, it was. Thanks.

[CuttinKing2183]

I just jumped to the cutting cycle without bulking....because I would rather slim down then bulk up and slim down...

'ya know?

[Razor]

So you can do a cutting cycle without bulking first? How does that work?

[CuttinKing2183]

I figure I have muscle underneath all of this SH*T. I need to cut it so people can see it. I am doing what Stoney did...cutting like he did...ya know?

[zamboni]

Tradionally, losing weight is done but cutting calories, making sure you don't eat greasy foods, etc etc. If you're a tad more hardcore (relatively) you'd pick up some cardio as well.

When you're cutting, preserving muscle mass is as important as losing bodyfat, if not more so. To that end, you make sure you're eating a lot more protein, taking glutamine etc etc. In terms of training, it means you're each workout is just as intense as it was before your cutting phase, and doing intense cardio. Doing this makes sure your muscle mass stays strong and for lack of a better word, stays there.

The two are so closely related its difficult to separate the two on this medium. Generally speaking, tradional weight loss is measured in terms of absolute weight loss, while, when cutting, its measure in % body fat lost

I hope i didn't confuse you more

[Razor]

Originally Posted by zamboni

When you're cutting, preserving muscle mass is as important as losing bodyfat, if not more so. To that end, you make sure you're eating a lot more protein, taking glutamine etc etc. In terms of training, it means you're each workout is just as intense as it was before your cutting phase, and doing intense cardio. Doing this makes sure your muscle mass stays strong and for lack of a better word, stays there.

How is it different than normal weight training, then?

[Jono]

"It is almost impossible to gain lean muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time"

thats rather unfortunate for you

with the proper diet and training you can pour on the lean mass and burn fat.

my progress is living proof

[GymGuy]

Originally Posted by Jono

"It is almost impossible to gain lean muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time"

thats rather unfortunate for you

with the proper diet and training you can pour on the lean mass and burn fat.

my progress is living proof

With all your knowledge and perfectly honed training techniques, you must look pretty amazing. Pics?

[Jono]

i got no pics, but im sure i'll get some up in time!

perfect? nah

i've just been fortunate enough to educate myself on weight training, what works, what doesnt. what foods are best and why. why this, why that. what gets the most results, etc.

most people dont go to the lengths that i have to create a program and stick to it!

i have been lifting weights for two years.. the last 3 weeks i have seen the most results in strength gains and body devlopment. and i am eating probably 40% less than what i use to eat one year ago.

its understanding how the body works, what the body wants, and what excells growth!

[zamboni]

Just very slow, relatively speaking and all. There is a specific ratio of protein to carbs to fats that should in theory keep your body in a permanant anabolic state. I'm speaking from the viewpoint as hard gainer, quite the opposite from a lot of people reading this thread.

I'm rather curious as to your daily calorie intake Jono?

[zamboni]

and while your at it, what your ratio of macro nutrients are on a given day? It's never too late to learn