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This last week I began a 3-4 week “cutting” phase in my nutritional programming. 

The purpose of a “cut” is to lose a few pounds of fat in order to re-enter a training or a maintenance phase with a leaner body composition.

After a few years of experimenting with different strategies for cutting weight, I’ve zeroed in on four specific skills and actions that really seem to help me successfully lose fat each time.

I wanted to share these four principles with you so that you can experiment with them next time you’re looking to lose a few pounds.

Track How Much I Eat

In order to lose fat, you must frequently be eating less food (calories) than your body uses each day (we nutrition peeps call this a “calorie deficit”). 

Your body is then forced to use stored fat for daily activities to make up for this energy “deficit.”

In order to make sure that I’m staying in a calorie deficit, I track how much food I eat each day. There are many methods for tracking what you eat, but my favorite is using a “Hand Portion” method to visually eyeball portion sizes of my food.

Here’s how this works:

• 1 “palm” sized serving of protein is approximately 145 calories for men (130 for women)
• 1 “cupped hand” sized serving of carbohydrates is approximately 120 calories for men (110 for women)
• 1 “thumb” sized serving of fats is approximately 100 calories for men (90 for women)

Using this approach, I can quickly and easily hit my daily calorie target simply by eyeballing the serving sizes of these foods as I eat them.

Eat More Protein

When I’m trying to lose fat, I’ll eat a bit more protein than usual.

When you’re in a calorie deficit, your body won’t just use stored fat for energy… it also uses proteins from your muscles. 

Eating more protein helps counteract your body breaking down your muscles for energy. This way, the weight you lose is more likely to come from fat (yay) rather than muscle (boo).

During a calorie deficit, I will try to eat at least 1g of protein per pound of my goal body weight, per day. For example, if I want to weigh 180 lbs by the end of my cutting phase, I’m going to try to eat at least 180g of protein each day.

I find it really easy to track how much protein I’m eating using the hand portion method I discussed in the paragraph above.

Additionally, here are some common serving sizes of protein foods that will help you quickly figure out how much protein you’re getting from the food you eat.

• 1 “palm” sized serving of meat, seafood, or tofu is about 20-30g of protein
• 1 Cup of greek yogurt, cottage cheese or egg whites is about 20-30g of protein
• 1 whole eggs is 6g of protein

Eat More Filling Foods

Probably the most challenging part of weight loss is dealing with the increased hunger, appetite and cravings. While feeling hungry is just part of the game when in a calorie deficit, there are a few strategies I use to help dial down the hunger pains and cravings. 

I focus on trying to add in a lot more naturally “filling” foods into my meals and snacks. These foods are whole fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lean protein sources. These types of foods are what we call “low energy dense foods,” meaning that they have fewer calories per the volume of a serving size.

(This large apple and these 5 Starbursts have the SAME amount of calories)

Not only do foods with larger volumes literally help fill your stomach up (which is one way your body turns on “fullness” signals), but many of these foods are also loaded with fiber (another nutrient that helps turn on “fullness” signals).

With plenty of voluminous foods and fiber, I can stay feeling full between meals for hours. This helps me be less likely to blow my calorie deficit due to fighting off ravenous hunger pains and food cravings.

Prioritize Resistance Exercise

Anything from a walk, run, lifting sesh or full-blown CrossFit style workout: I always get some form of movement / exercise into my day.

However, when I’m in a calorie deficit, I'm going to focus more on lifting weights and less on cardiovascular exercise. This is because resistance training triggers a special signal in your body to build and maintain your muscle mass. Just like how eating more protein helps prevent your body from breaking down your muscles for energy, the signal that happens when you lift weights also guides your body to break down fat for energy, rather than muscle.

Now, when you’re in a calorie deficit, less is more. You don’t need to go crazy with exercise during this phase.

The goal is to simply maintain your current muscle mass while your body eats away at your fat stores.

TL;DR

In order to more successfully lose fat and lean out during a calorie deficit, I’ve found these 4 actions to be highly helpful:

1. Track what you eat
2. Eat more protein
3. Eat filling foods
4. Prioritize resistance training

Fat loss can be tricky, so I hope this helps!

See you next week.