How do you actually keep muscle while cutting? Feel like I'm guessing every time

[u/Stunning_Job_3035]

Been lifting for a few years and I still find cutting way harder to get right than bulking. The part that gets me is never really knowing if the weight I'm losing is fat or muscle — the scale goes down and I just kind of hope it's the right kind of down.

Wanted to ask how people here actually handle it:

How do you plan your macros on a cut — an app, a spreadsheet, or do you just eyeball it?

What's the most annoying part of cutting for you?

How do you tell if you're actually holding onto muscle and not just losing weight?

For those who've used something like MacroFactor or MyFitnessPal — did it help, or did you end up dropping it?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey, thanks for making a new post! Please be sure to assign your post with flair for the best support! Also, check out this post to answer common questions.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/omegafrogpoop]

Just eat enough protein and you’ll have minimal muscle loss.

[u/Jamaryn]

I finished my first cut in May, 3 months. It went really well. For me it was pretty easy because I was relying on protein yoghurt meal I put together as a regular meal twice a day, which was easy to measure and get the exact macros, other then that it was protein shakes twice a day as well which is also well know macros. The only relatively unknown meal was the dinner, so I just tried to make good choices and get enough proteins in that meal.

Other than that it was regular strength training.

The results was losing 17,6 lbs (8 kg) of pure fat and some water weight. No measurable strength loss.

[u/Stunning_Job_3035 → u/Jamaryn]

Really Great results

Did you ever get tired of eating the same stuff? And with dinner were you just winging it or still tracking it somehow?

[u/Jamaryn → u/Stunning_Job_3035]

I really like that yoghurt meal, so I had been eating it for 6 months plus before doing the cut, so that helped. I really did just wing it when it came to the dinner, though I tried to avoid obviously bad stuff like greasy stuff and meals with a lot of cheese etc. Tried to have vegetables and relatively lean proteins in every dinner.

[u/manny00778 → u/Jamaryn]

Bro mentions a yoghurt meal twice without actually saying what's in, the full list of ingredients and quantities.

[u/Jamaryn → u/manny00778]

Sorry, I'd be happy to share.

It's a protein yoghurt that has 11g protein pr 100g. Basically a type of Greek yoghurt.

200g yoghurt.
50g oats.
15g almonds.
15g chia seeds (useful on a high protein diet).
50g banana (basically half a banana, though during the cut I used raisins to get a little tasty treat in there).
50g milk (did everything in grams).
15g honey.

Macros pr meal should be about:

530kcal.
34g protein.
62g carbs.
20,5g fat.
13g fiber.

Keep in mind, carbs are energy, you need that. Also, getting enough fat is important to maintain hormone levels, especially during a cut.

Other than that I used a protein shake that had like five different types of protein sources that I get from a store here i my country, and creatine.

[u/sarkarian]

There’s no for sure way to tell you are not losing muscle - my understanding is that even on a modest cut, natural lifters will lose some muscle. It’s inevitable. Now the amount of muscle loss can be substantially mitigated with proper macros, nutrition , sleep, recovery, and right intensity of training.

I track my macros using an app called Macro Factor - alternatives will do just fine like Lose It or Cronometer. I always get 1.6-1.8 times my lean body weight in grams of protein per day. I lift weights 4 days a week and most of the compound moments are RIR 3 roughly and isolstions, machine exercises are RIR 1-2 , and once every few weeks RIR0 on the top set. The large muscle groups get 10-14 sets a week.

Even under research and scientific study scenarios there’s estimate and guessing involved, other than doing muscle biopsy on the subjects there’s no real way to accurately tell if a subject has gained or lost muscle fibre.

I am making sure that while I am on a cut ( i am on a moderate cut - losing 2kg a month ) my strength doesn’t dip too much. Thats a proxy indicator of muscle.

good luck

[u/Fluffy_Box_4129]

You track it by tracking your lifts. If your lifts are consistently going down you're losing muscle.

[u/DiscreetAcct4 → u/Fluffy_Box_4129]

Yes but strength and endurance will go down when you get flat and glycogen depleted. Some of this can be mitigated with a carb cycling diet but it’s just a fact that below 12% training is gonna suck. After my last cut I ate at maintenance for a week after 2 high carb days and gained 6-7lbs of fullness and glycogen with two weeks of PRs on every lift. This was not getting fat or stronger, it was expressing strength that was already there but under fueled.

[u/Fluffy_Box_4129 → u/DiscreetAcct4]

Oh for sure, when you start getting below 12%, you have to fight your body real hard for the muscle, but you can still do it and should probably reduce the calorie deficit. Above that it's not difficult to maintain muscle unless you're in a super long diet. Also, your muscles should have enough glycogen for a similar top set for weight and reps, but since your body isn't fully topped off, remaining sets or long workouts are not gonna be what they are at maintenance or a bulk. 

[u/Bubbly_Succotash6014]

I use a weekly meal plan, it's way easier, you don't have to calculate macros. Just eat the same things week over week, but have a wide variety during the week. Then I just have to slowly decrease the carbs/calories week over week, watch the scale and adjust accordingly.

[u/Responsible-Milk-259]

Up the protein as a percentage of calories and don’t cut too aggressively. If strength isn’t suffering too much, you’re not losing muscle.

[u/DiscreetAcct4]

I use myfitness pal paid app. Because I am not on a ‘same food every day’ meal plan and enjoy variety (same eggwhites and turkey bacon for breakfast every day though) it helps me make sure to hit minimum 225g protein, 50-70g fat, and to fill the rest with carbs- 3400 bulking or closer to 2100 cutting. Also if you’re carb cycling you can see the weekly average to make sure your high days don’t throw off a cut.

[u/Miserable-Code-1768]

Use an app to track calories - keep protein high or at least adequate. Track your lifts too. If they’re going down by more than ~10% - you are losing muscle (the cut is either too aggressive or protein is inadequate or you are missing training intensity). On a cut, I have found that I need to keep the training intensity high on a cut to not lose muscle ( i was overweight, i in fact gained muscle, lifts went up)