When you’re building up your muscles, you may end up wondering why they aren’t visible. Don’t worry. It just means you need to go on a cutting diet to get rid of the layer of fat covering your muscles.
Of course the diet is just a part of the cutting process together with a workout regime and supplementation to accelerate results. We will focus on a diet part in this article.
A lot of people new to bodybuilding and exercising often wonder where their awesome abs are after a few months of exercise.
They feel the burn of the exercise and they know they are stronger, but they can’t seem to see the results. The answer is the muscles are there – they’re only buried under layers of fat.
When you’re building muscles, your body needs proteins, fats, and carbohydrates to keep it fueled.
Your body uses them to build muscles and keep your energy up. But it also builds up a layer of fat over your muscle. This is where a cutting diet comes in.
A cutting or as it is sometimes known, a shred diet is aimed at cutting the fat from your body. This will allow your muscles to be on display.
Experienced bodybuilders often go through a cycle of bulking, in which they build up muscles while also gaining fat, and cutting, which reveals their developed muscles.
If you want to start a cutting diet, here are some important bits of information and tips that you need to know.
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The Basics Behind Cutting
At the start of the cutting diet plan, you’ll need to do some crunches. This is because if you want to start burning fat, you’ll want to reduce your caloric intake.
A lot of people’s appetites balloon when they start a workout regimen. This is pretty natural since this is your body seeking fuel for all the exercises you’re doing, for your recovery, and to build muscles.
The problem is when you stop exercising and still keep the appetite. This means you are taking in more calories than you are burning and this slowly becomes fat.
For a shred diet plan, you’ll want to reduce the caloric intake so that your body turns to other sources of energy.
When your body needs calories and you have none currently in your system, it turns to your fat deposits for energy.
To create this effect, you will want to keep up workouts, while also reducing the calories you take in.
This sounds simple, but there are several factors you will want to be aware of.
First, there’s the fact that you will still need to keep working out. Just dieting will not get rid of the fat that you have fast enough.
However, you’ll need to be smart about your exercises. You’re not trying to build muscles but are trying to get rid of fat. This will require different exercises.
Your main focus should be on cardio exercises. These workouts don’t focus on specific muscle groups to develop them and are mainly about burning as much fat as possible for a long time.
Additionally, a good cardio regimen will keep your metabolic rate high for the rest of the day so that you will keep on burning fat long after that you have finished your exercise.
Bodybuilding Cutting Diet
You also, will need to modify your diet to meet the right amount of nutrients. If you’ve already gone through a bulking diet, then you should be familiar with it.
However, if you’ve just jumped intro cutting, you will have to learn more about the trinity of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
When you’re building your cutting diet plan, you will need to know how much of each type you will be consuming.
Proteins are the most important part of your cutting diet. This is because when you are cutting, you will want to ensure that the muscles you are planning to show off are still there.
The protein that you eat will be used up in your workouts to ensure that the muscle proteins will be untouched.
Constant protein intake is necessary so that your muscles won’t deteriorate. This is why you’ll want to have at least some protein every two hours or so.
Surprisingly, fat intake should be increased. The main reason for this is that the right types of fat are great energy sources for your body.
Plus, if your body is used to burning fat as fuel, then it will easily turn to your stored fats as energy alternatives.
Higher fat content also helps with taking the edge off your appetite, stopping you from eating more calories.
Fats also help create cholesterol. This is needed to make steroid hormones such as testosterone and Vitamin D which are useful in reducing protein consumption.
However, don’t think that all fats are good. Bad fats can cause a build up of bad cholesterol in your body.
This is why you’ll want to eat unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats to increase the good cholesterol. This will help with your general health and fat loss.
Carbs are the last component of your diet. You will still want to eat carbohydrates – but you will want to cut down on them.
High carbohydrate diets are a great help when you’re bulking because they can help you keep exercising. The problem is that if you overdose with carbs and your body does not burn them, they can easily become fat deposits.
It doesn’t help that carbs also increase your insulin levels. This will have you craving for sugar, which are even more simple carbs.
Another reason for lower carb intake is that it will decrease your cortisol levels. Its an enzyme that stops glycogen from being used as fuel, forcing protein and fat to be burned.
That may sound nice but you need glycogen to be burned first. It is a delicate balance to get the right carb levels in your cutting plan.
The final factor when considering your cutting diet is the timing of your meals. You want a constant stream of small meals to keep your metabolism running hot.
Big meals and starvation force your body to horde fat. With constant meals, you body won’t go into starvation mode. Space these meals two to three hours apart to ensure that you’re always full.
Start eating the moment you wake up and then continue until an hour before you go to sleep.
Foods to Include in Your Cutting Diet
When you’re formulating your cutting meal plan, there are several foods that you’ll want to include. They are primarily the best sources of protein and fats out there. Here’s a brief list.
- Protein is a big concern when you’re cutting. Salmon meat is a great source of clean protein, better than chicken or red meat. The real benefit though is the fact that salmon is low in saturated fats while also packing a lot of Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 stabilizes your insulin levels so that you won’t start storing excess fat easily.
- Fruits and vegetables are a dependable source of calories during cutting since they don’t usually have carbs or fat in them. Tomatoes are great though because they are low in calories and are packed with serotonin. Serotonin helps curb your appetite which is essential if you plan to reduce your food intake.
- Flaxseed Oil. I’ve already discussed how Omega-3 fatty acids help you in your weight loss. Flaxseed oil is the most concentrated source of Omega-3 on the market right now. A teaspoon or two can kickstart your metabolism into overdrive.
- Sesame Seed Oil. Another oil that you will want to add to your diet is sesame seed oil. This is because of the substance Sesamin. It helps a lot in oxidizing fat and decreases the amount of fat you can store.
- Turkey Breasts. A dependable source of lean protein, turkey breasts are packe dwith protein while also with little fat. This is ideal for your cutting purposes.
These are just a few of the foods that you should seriously consider adding to your cutting diet plan. Look out for more and be creative so that you won’t get bored with your diet.
Mistakes To Avoid
There are several mistakes a person can make when going on a cutting diet. The biggest mistake that people make in their bodybuilding cutting diet plan is to immediately go into a low calorie diet.
That may seem like a smart idea but going into low calorie mode ruins a lot of things for your cutting. Your body will start to burn out potential energy sources to fuel itself.
Though fat deposits are part of this, muscles are also a target. You may end up losing the muscles that you want to show off.
Another frequent mistake that people make when cutting is that they try to create a diet plan that they don’t find appetizing.
Remember that this is your diet. If you want to keep to it, you’ll pick foods that you will want to eat. Picking meals based on calories alone can end up discouraging you.
Finally, forgetting about “cheat” meals. Rigidly following a plan 24/7 is a recipe for discouragement. You’ll want to occasionally reward yourself.
Have a “cheat” meal or two to put a smile on your face. Just remember to work it off afterwards.
Conclusion
With the right cutting diet, you can burn off the fat covering your muscles. With the information above, you should have a good idea on how to start. Begin planning now so that you can be proud of your body before summer comes along.
This is a good piece on how to start and achieve cutting diet and cutting phase. With the listed foods good for the cutting purposes, it appears that one has to take virtually all of them. The big question is this; what if I’m allergic to some foods (or don’t like taking them)?
Hi. This is just a list of food you can use but you can always remove items that you particularly don’t like or definitely if you are allergic to them.
Now I understand how this works….
With low intake of caloric foods, the body will have to focus on burning fat deposits. Nice food listing for efficient cutting diet.
Oh, now I see why I ended up losing the muscles that I wanted to show off. Low-calorie diet is indeed not the best idea. But now I’ve got an idea what to do and expect. Thanks for this.
Hmmmmm. This is good. So, if there’s no calorie in the system, the fat gets picked on? Sounds great. Well, I guess I’ll take note of that and continue my workout with a better diet.
Hey Devine. Definitely, diet is very important. You must have a proper diet according to your fitness/bodybuilding goals.
Oh really. I have a 247 diet and though it’s my favorite meals, they are becoming boring. Well, now I understand I have to spice things up and reward myself once in a while. Seems this fat burning process is not as stressful as I imagine.
Uhmmm. Is there a diet plan or something you can recommend for a less calorie diet? I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to start something and later find out it’s hindering something.
Definitely. You can find many such diet plans online. This is one of them
A lot of people are really not getting this diet aspect. They focus on working out hard but neglect their diet. To get the best results you need to take care of both.
Absolutely agree with you Newton.