Anyone who’s ever partaken in the art of lean muscle building will know too well that bodybuilding is a pretty tough activity. Being a bodybuilder requires a huge amount of will and a great deal of physical effort to achieve the kind of body and look that you want.
While it’s difficult, it’s not impossible, but a large part of those results actually relies on your nutrition and exercise plan, of course. Genetics vary to a small degree, but most of it is effort.
Many may find bulking or just putting on weight easier than cutting; you don’t have to reduce your calories as much as you have to target macronutrients and make sure that you get enough protein. Cutting is a different game altogether, however.
Cutting is what gives bodybuilders tight definition and a lean frame. It’s what makes it easier to see muscles, and it makes it easier to notice physical improvements in someone’s build. When you cut in bodybuilding, you’re reducing your overall body fat percentage to give yourself a tighter, leaner definition.
Let’s look at all the aspects of cutting, including when to start and how long you should cut for, as well as supplements, strategies, and techniques for lean muscle enhancement that can help you cut more effectively.
When to Start Cutting
We’ll start off by answering the most basic question: when should you start cutting? This isn’t as clear-cut of an answer as we’d always like it to be, however. Not only is each person’s body different, the kind of results you’re looking for may vary depending on what you’re trying to do. If you’re a bodybuilder, or want to try being a bodybuilder, you have a better idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.
If you’re trying to compete in a legitimate bodybuilding competition, then cutting should start so that you’re finished right on time for whenever the competition is set to actually begin. If you’re not bound by any kind of normal time constraint, however, then it’s a bit different.
Cutting should only be done when you’re satisfied with how much you’ve bulked. First you bulk, then you cut – don’t ever forget the order of that. Once you have enough muscle on your frame and you know that you need to slim down, cutting can help increase your muscle definition significantly and improve your appearance. For a bodybuilder, this is paramount.
For specific time frames, cutting is based on how much weight and fat percentage you actually need to lose. It’s about two to two and a half months for every ten pounds you’re cutting. This is designed to give you as much time as possible to remove the fat from your body completely, leaving only lean muscle and an extremely low body fat percentage.
How Much Do I Need to Cut?
Not certain how much weight you need to lose? While figuring out when to start cutting may be more or less simple, figuring out how much weight you need to lose is a little less obvious. This is once again dependent on your individual circumstances: the reason you want to cut, how big you are, how tall you are, how much weight you have, what your current body fat percentage is, and so on and so forth.
For most people, they probably won’t need to lose more than fifteen or twenty pounds. With the kind of timing that requires, you’ll find yourself beginning your cut around four months, or a bit further out, from whatever time frame, event, or competition that you’re trying to make. Even if you’re a bodybuilder that doesn’t compete seriously, you’ll want to fully understand the timeline it takes to get in peak condition.
If you’re not sure whether or not you need to cut a certain amount of fat, there’s different calculators and other online tools that can help you figure out that number. As an example, these kinds of calculators that can help you get a rough estimate of how much you need to cut. Use these types of calculators to figure out the amount, and then that way you can time everything more efficiently and accurately.
How Long Do I Need to Cut For?
As stated above, the actual length of your cutting diet all depends on how much fat you need to lose. If you are significantly smaller or larger than someone else is, you’ll find that the length of the cut changes by a huge amount. If you’re a professional bodybuilder or a more casual bodybuilder, you’ll find your requirements are different as well.
Most people will find around three to four months of cutting will be more than enough to lose ten or fifteen pounds of body fat. A cutting diet can be harsh, so you’ll find that you slip nearly a pound a week while maintaining your muscle mass.
During a diet like this, you’ll consume a lot of protein and exercise frequently to keep your muscles up. Your fat will slip away, however, and with every pound of fat you burn, your definition will be better and better. You’ll see real success as a bodybuilder if you time your cuts right.
If you have about ten pounds to lose, two or three months should be sufficient. Fifteen is closer to four than it is to three, and if you need to burn a full twenty pounds of fat off of your body, you’ll find almost five months is necessary for such a number.
Above all, make sure you look into the exact numbers that work well for your body. It’s never going to be exact compared to someone else: your situation will always be at least a little bit unique. Whether you’re even a bodybuilder or not, make sure to tailor your plan to specifics that suit you.
Diet to Follow When Cutting
The cutting diet gained so much popularity because of the ability to cut and burn a large percentage of your body fat while on the diet. A large reason for this is the diet you follow while you’re cutting: you’ll find that specific foods and macronutrients are targeted for the maximum possible performance and results, in nearly every respect.
First of all, you’ll find that you’re going to have to cut the amount of food you eat in general. Most people require a relatively standard amount of calories to function every day. This is like an even point or starting point to work with. An average man, for the sake of example, needs around 2,500 calories a day to maintain weight. Any significant amount less, and weight loss occurs.
Most diets and methods you’ll find concentrate on maintaining a regular amount of weight loss over time: such as around four or five hundred calories a day — so you can lose around a pound of fat per week. For a bodybuilder, this may or may not be adequate for their time frame, although preparing further ahead of time helps a lot with that.
Once again, these numbers may vary from person to person, so you’re encouraged to check the maths before you commit to a plan.
Certain macronutrients will be needed to be present in the process for good results. That’s why so many people eat chicken and rice while bulking or cutting: it enables them to maintain their muscle definition and preserve lean muscle mass, while having very few fats to add into the body while consuming.
You should make sure to hit all of your macronutrients. Protein is the most important, of course, but you don’t want to miss any important aspect of what’s healthy for your body while cutting, or you’re going to end up hurting yourself instead of helping yourself in the long run.
Foods to Avoid When Cutting
When you start cutting and you change your diet, just as you begin to prioritize certain foods over others, you’ll also unfortunately have to cut certain foods out. This isn’t something that you’re going to be able to stop, so it’s a good idea to try and maintain a good sense of self-control from the beginning. You’ll need to be pretty strict with your diet from the start. This is unfortunately necessary to be a successful bodybuilder.
Anything that’s high in fat is probably right out. Sweets, things like ice cream or chocolate, and similar empty calories such as alcohol or other types of drinks or foods aren’t necessary. Your diet should consist of lean meats and vegetables and fruits, with grains and some carbohydrates to give you energy.
While you’re constructing your diet, you might want to take some time to look up some online recommendations for what to follow. A large part of what people have a problem with while dieting is the lack of variety in their food. People get bored a week or two into eating the same thing every day, and that’s when the cheating-on-the-diet starts. It even happens to people who are trying be a bodybuilder seriously: self control can be difficult.
Try to construct a diet plan that evolves with your needs, and has flexibility built in so that you’re much less likely to get bored or frustrated with what you’re doing. It’s inevitable that you’re probably going to have a cheat day once or twice, but try not to make it a habit, especially when you’re specifically doing a diet revolving around cutting.
You’re not just trying to lose weight, but specifically burn away a large percentage of your body fat. When you eat foods high in fat — the most common of those being sweets of some kind, usually – you make it much harder to burn fat because both how high in fats those foods are, as well as how much excess calories you’re adding on when doing that.
How Long to Cut Before Bulking?
You’ll want to make sure you’re around 12% body fat in total before the bulking process begins. The previous sections in this article made that more or less clear — most people, once they’re in shape, usually don’t have a massive amount of body fat to lose. If for some reason you did, you would need to burn off fat, lose weight, and cut even more before the bulking process begins.
But once you have cut that much, and you’re past that part, that’s when the bulking can start. The reason why 12% body fat is such a good spot to try and hit is because most people are pretty lean and look great at that number. Women tend to sit at around 18-20% for the same function, whereas men can go down to around 12%.
When you bulk, it’s inevitable that you’re going to gain back a bit of body fat, but by cutting well before you bulk, you make sure that even after bulking you should be able to retain a pretty great figure with a ton of muscle on top of that. You’ll look stacked and strong, with your muscles clearly defined. A healthy body, with tons of endurance and strength. For most people, that’s generally the kind of goal they’re shooting for.
If it’s not, just keep in mind what your end goal is, and use that when trying to determine how much you’re cutting and bulking.
Supplements to Assist with Bodybuilding
SARMs (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators) are great options when looking for supplements for almost any kind of physical improvements. SARMs have a wide variety of benefits when consumed: such as increased lean muscle mass, increased strength, increased endurance, stronger bones, the ability to burn fat more quickly, and a ton of other great benefits.
Many bodybuilders and athletes take SARMs to increase their performance, and many more casual gym-goers and health-enthusiasts take SARMs for the included health benefits.
If looking to bulk or cut, SARMs are simply a great option. But which SARMs should you take? It’s a hard question to answer. There are many SARMs that have different effects and different SARMs are good at different things. You’ll find that one combination or stack of SARMs (which you can learn more about here) provides a completely different experience and result compared to another.
Which SARMs Help with Cutting?
When looking to cut, however, a few different SARMs stand out. You want SARMs that provide lean muscle building while also specifically burning fat much better than other SARMs and supplements do. Being a bodybuilder usually necessitates a low BF percentage, so experienced people reading this article won’t be shocked at the fixation on trying to burn as much fat as possible.
We recommend SARMs like Ostarine and Cardarine for burning fat and cutting. Combinations like this fat burner beginner stack and this intermediate fat burner stack should give you great results when it comes to trying to cut and lose a significant amount of body fat percentage.
Another great combination to take from our store would be this lean athletic combination. This contains both Stenabolic as well as Ligandrol. All of these SARMs contain elements that assist in both the building of muscle as well as the burning of fat, so there’s XXX
SARMs to Assist with Bulking
While cutting is fairly straightforward, bulking can sometimes be a different ball-game. You’ll want to try and cut out as much body fat while you build a large amount of muscle, of course, though some gains in fat are inevitable. Still, try to prevent it as much as possible to build as much lean muscle as you can.
The previously mentioned athletic stack is a great option when bulking. If you’re looking for what else is out there, another great option would be this enhanced lean muscle stack combination, which provides both the ability to bulk as well as SARMs that help cut out body fat and maintain the muscle you’ve already got.
Maybe your eyes are set more on pure bulking — gaining weight straight, without any other goals at the immediate moment. If you’re looking to put on as much weight as possible, we have a few other options that should take your attention. Combinations like the hardcore mass stack bulk are great options when looking to gain as much as possible.
Other variants of these include this beginner mass stack bulk, which is a bit cheaper if you’re not certain you want to commit to the hardcore yet, or this enhanced bulk muscle stack, which is a bit of a middle of the road option.
No matter which option you choose, just keep in mind that these types of stacks and combinations are the best way to burn fat and build muscle. SARMs are some of the most effective supplements out there, and here at UK SARMs, we have the best SARMs available at fair prices for you to peruse.
Conclusions & Final Thoughts on Cutting for Body Builders
Cutting and bulking can be difficult, but it can also be done. If you’re looking to cut and bulk to build the body of your dreams, you should carefully control your exercise routine, your diet, the length of your cut and your bulk, and every aspect as closely as possible to get the greatest results.
In the past, it may have been more difficult, but with the science behind bodybuilding that we know now, getting the ripped body of your dreams will be a cinch if you put the effort in. Being a bodybuilder, or at least getting started as a bodybuilder, is far easier than it was.
If you have more questions about SARMs and supplements (or even bodybuilding in general), we’ll be more than happy to help. To get in direct contact with us, all of our contact information is available here on our contact page.
If you want to get a better look at all of the products that we have available, our main stacks and combos page here should give you any information you require.
Want to take a look at a big list of all of our major products? This major SARMs product list here should be able to help you with that.
Finally, UK SARMs is the best place to obtain supplements for your bodybuilding needs. SARMs are effective, affordable, and give great results when used correctly.
UK SARMs is the best place in the entirety of the UK to receive these kinds of supplements if you want assistance in building the body of your dreams. With our purity certificates and the tons of different options available, it’ll be both safe and easy.
Happy bulking and cutting!
