4 KEYS TO A CUTTING PHASE THAT GIVES YOU RESULTS

TRANSCRIPT

What’s up, everybody? Nikkiey here with Warrior Babe and today we’re gonna talk about what is a cutting phase. Or otherwise known what you guys may have hear within the fitness industry as losing fat, losing some pounds, decreasing body fat. All that is the same verbiage as cutting. All right, what we’re gonna dive into today is who the cutting phase is for, who the cutting phase is not for, what the ultimate goal of the cutting phase is, the changes that you can expect within your body when you’re in the cutting phase and what is the length of time recommended to be in a cutting phase. So by the end of this video you’re gonna have an understanding if this is for you, what kind of goal you’re looking to accomplish, what kind of changes you should be looking out for when it comes to the overall results of your body composition. And the ideal time that you’ll want to be spending in a cutting phase, ’cause that matters the most. All right, so let’s get to it. Who this is for. It’s for those who want to lose or have to lose 15, 20 pounds plus. If you’re somebody who’s overweight and you’re looking to lose that weight, to decrease that body fat, this is the phase for you. This is not for somebody who has already like a smaller frame. Let’s say you’ve already gone through that process of losing all of this access weight that you wanted to and now you’re more of like a skinny frame and you’re somebody who needs to put on and build some lean muscle. This really isn’t the phase for you. And this is not the phase for somebody who is already in like a restrictive diet or just not eating enough. Now the ultimate goal of a cutting phase is to drop body fat at the same time as preserving or building lean muscle mass. And as much as possible that you wanna preserve and you wanna build. For example, I like to call this the illusion that happens to your body. As you’re decreasing body fat, you’re putting your body in a state to be able to expose more muscle that has already previously been built or that you’ve been building in this process of being in a cut. It’s like if you can preserve that lean muscle mass that you have on your body from either previously building it or building it as you’re in this cut. And you’re decreasing the body fat around it, then your muscles look like they’re bigger, you look more toned, right. And I call this the illusion. Because what’s happening is, you’re decreasing the body fat around it. You may not be losing so much weight on the scale, which is, you know, another video for another time as to why the scale isn’t the best indicator of your progress. But you’re decreasing body fat and you’re looking more toned, the way that you want, the result that you want to see with your body and it’s more of that figure that you’ve always wanted. But then along with this phase, you’re gonna be increasing your endurance capacity. So the way that you work out is a little bit different than the way you would be working out in a maintenance and a build. And that’s to follow in later videos. The changes, let’s dive into the changes that you could expect from your body when you were in this cutting phase. So you would have the ability to see more muscle development as I just spoke to, with the illusion of you decreasing body fat and more muscle tone is starting to show from that. And more definition, more splits, more striation. It’s gonna also evolve from you being able to see more muscle development. You’re gonna have less body fat, so a key indicator for your success here is the percentage of body fat that you lose, not the overall weight that you lose. We’re talking something different, completely different here when I talk about losing weight versus losing fat. And I can share that in another video. But the ultimate goal that you want to see and the changes that you expect to see in your body is the decrease in body fat. And the best way to be able to record that is either going into getting an Inbody Scan done within a gym, going into one of those Dexa Scans, those are probably best. Those two are the best ways you’re gonna be able to figure out what your ultimate body fat is and your true body fat is. Another easy way that you can do it too is like a handheld caliper. They’re not as accurate. But if you use that tool and you use that tool indefinitely then you’re gonna have a number that you can stick with as you progress with seeing results. Or the Amazon Halo. I’ve used this before. I’ve seen great success with it. It’s pretty accurate in the way that it gives you the results of what your body fat is. So that’s always another best way to measure your body fat. But that’s something that you definitely wanna make sure you are measuring when you are in this phase. Let me just set the tone here, you are going to be hungry and you will experience slight hunger. That is normal. That is natural. There are so many women that, you know, go into decreasing their calories or they go into a diet where their calories are a little bit lower. And they’re like, “I can’t finish this because I’m starving.” Now there’s levels of starvation. If you’re starving, feeling you’re gonna knoll your hand off, then you need to reevaluate the diet or the calories that you’re following. But if you just have slight hunger when you’re in a cutting phase, that is completely normal to experience. That means your metabolism is working the way that it should be. Your metabolism is firing, it’s utilizing the food that you’re giving your body and breaking it down and putting it to work where it needs to be, or putting it into the recovery mode of the workouts that you’ve been doing while you’re in this specific phase. Let’s say you’re following a macro-based plan, or you have set meals that you eat throughout the day. If you are hungry within like two hours of eating your last meal, that is great. That’s awesome. That’s normal to experience. But if you’re somebody who is hungry after 10 minutes or 15 minutes, or 30 minutes of eating your meal and you wanna just like again chew your hand off, or you’re craving, you’re going down the hallway at your work and you’re just like, “Oh my God, I wanna stick my hand in the candy jar.” Then those are things that you wanna reevaluate with where you’re at with your calories. Let me also touch base on this point too as well, what you can expect from your body when you’re at the cutting base. You will have a decrease in energy. It is normal, it is natural to have this happen to you. And this is another thing where people think, I’m so tired. And there’s again, a level of being extremely exhausted or just having a decrease in energy, especially inside of your workouts, which I will explain in a second, which is completely normal when you were in this type of phase and when you are looking in cutting some weight and decreasing your body fat. So there’s one extreme where you’re just extremely exhausted all the time. It’s really hard to get off of the couch. It feels like the gravity is against you. That’s where things should be reassessed. Maybe you’re caloric intake is just way too low and your body is not able to keep up with the demand of energy that you’re putting out. Now the other side of the spectrum where it’s normal to feel decreased energy is because your caloric intake is in a deficit and it should be in the right deficit for you, that varies for everybody. But since you are in a deficit, you’re not eating as much as you were before, it’s natural to feel a decrease in energy. Most importantly when you’re inside the gym and you’re working out, it is completely normal to not be able to push as much weight as you were previously when you were eating more food. So for example, let’s say you go in and you’re chest pressing a 130 pounds on a bar, but then all of a sudden in a couple of weeks, you pull back on your calories and you put yourself in a cutting phase, you won’t push that much weight on the bench press. You will decrease in the amount of weight that you can push. And I say this because I want you to be aware of it, I don’t want you to beat yourself up over it because it’s completely normal to feel this type of way when you are in a cutting phase and a caloric deficit, losing some weight, whatever verbiage you follow or understand. So, those are the things that you can expect from your body. You can expect to be able to see more muscle development, be able to see definition, splits and striations of you decreasing that body fat yet preserving the lean muscle. You will experience the body fat dropping. And you may experience that your weight really doesn’t fluctuate that much, but more physical changes are happening in your composition. You will have slight hunger, but again, vary yourself on that spectrum, where are you at? Are you starving or are you just experiencing hunger, which is completely normal. You will have decreased energy, okay. But again, on that spectrum, are you exhausting, gravity is against you, or are you just experiencing slight decrease in energy when you’re lifting and when you’re working out? Which is normal. The last thing that I wanna talk about is the ideal time that is recommended to stay in this cutting phase. So a moderate cut can last between three to five months. But let me just throw in there right now, your ability to stay consistent with this phase depends on the length of this phase. If you’re inconsistent, results are going to take longer to accomplish. If you are consistent majority of the time, you could have a pretty solid cut with great results in three to five months. A slow cut like I was just mentioning, if you’re not pretty consistent, then it can take anywhere up to six to seven months to get the results. Now not only does it lean on the consistency, but it also leans on where are you at in your journey, do you have tons of weight to lose, which is gonna take you a longer period of time than somebody who just has about like 30 pounds to lose, which is on the lower spectrum of a cut. So just keep that in mind that the ideal time, those are some hard timestamps that I can reference. But it solely depends on where you are and where you’re at in your journey. So, if this video helped you, please subscribe to this channel. There’s gonna be more videos around this type of stuff, whether I’m talking about what a maintenance phase is, what a building phase is, where I’m sharing more tips around macros and nutrition and workouts. So make sure to hit the subscribe button and if you’re looking for a more sustainable approach around your nutrition, whether it be understanding what macros and workouts are specifically proper for you and your individual body type and this lifestyle that you live, then be sure to check out wp.warriorbabe.com. We have tons of free resources on the website. Definitely stick around for the next video. I’ll see you there.