Ep. 57 How To Do A Successful Cut (Fat Loss Phase)

Fat loss phases can be extremely overwhelming and, if not done with intention, can leave us spinning our wheels. In this episode, we take a look into what strategies you can use to set yourself up for success in a cut or fat loss phase.

For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.

For more free wellness resources, hiking/travel guides, and other blog posts, check out my website HERE. 

| Colorado Hiking + Fitness| Ponytail on a Trail | United States Welcome to Ponytail on a Trail: Your guide to all things hiking and fitness! Get hiking tips, adventure ideas and learn about the top trails in Colorado! My goal is to help give you the tools and the confidence to explore the world around you! www.ponytailonatrail.com

What is Fit for Hiking?

Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!

Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the fit for hiking podcast. Okay, so today we are going to be digging into the topic of how to do a successful cut, aka a successful fat loss phase. So you'll kind of hear those words used interchangeably in the fitness world. And I want to talk about how to do this the best way, the most strategic and successful way. Um, because what we don't want to do is just kind of like haphazardly try to lose weight by taking these extreme approaches or kind of sort of being in a dieting mindset for like months or years, but not really ever seeing progress because we're not actually being intentional with how we're going about it or really doing the necessary means to achieve the result. Um, and so many times I will talk to women who are like, yeah, I've literally been dieting for like years, and yet they still feel stuff. They still feel like they're not taking forward steps. And that is so sucky to be in a dieting mindset for years on end and have nothing to show for it. So let's go over how to do this the right way and the smart way so we can get the results without it feeling like drags on for a lifetime. And I also want to say before we get into this. That fat loss can be a triggering topic. So if this is sensitive for you, I encourage you to skip this one and also recognize that not everyone has fat loss goals while pursuing health and fitness. This is simply for the person that is looking to achieve healthy fat loss and is feeling stuck. And I think sometimes fat loss can become taboo because, um, you know, it's it's triggering for a lot of people, but there are a lot of women who might be listening to this podcast who do have healthy fat loss goals, and that's okay too. So I want to speak to that person today. And if this isn't the episode for you, that is totally cool and you can catch us in the next one. Um, okay. It's also important to state that it's hard to give, like blanket advice when speaking generally on a podcast. And so if you are listening to this and you are actually doing all of the things that I cover today consistently, then you might need some additional support, either hormonally or metabolically, which we can help with in most cases within metabolic coaching. So we really try to go kind of a step above and beyond to troubleshoot what's hindering your progress. And we do have an awesome team of professionals, including a functional practitioner who specializes in gut and hormone health, physical therapists and multiple health coaches and personal trainers. So if you are listening to this and you're one like, okay, I'm doing all these things and I'm still not seeing the results, we'd love to chat with you. And number two, if you're like, I just cannot do these things consistently because I don't have the support that I need to really make this happen on my own. That is totally valid. And honestly, that's most people. A lot of us really do need external support from a coach in order to get this done ourselves and do it the right way, and actually be consistent enough to see the changes, because we have that added accountability. So if you are in either of those camps, you can always check the link in the show notes to apply. We are always taking new applications, even if we aren't, um, actively adding any new clients to our roster. Um, I'm always reading through the applications and when we have space available, I will reach out and book a call with you. All right, without further ado, let's jump into it. How to do a successful and smart cut. So step number one is going to be to keep track of your maintenance calories without making any adjustments for 1 to 2 weeks. The longer the better. Honestly. So this is your kind of foundation of where you start. Because if we're just looking at these like generic calculators that put in like, oh, your weight, your height, your age, your activity level, they're just guessing. And the issue with that is that if you're someone who has been dieting for years or unknowingly under eating for a really long time, then this calculator could spit out that you should be eating, you know, 2000 calories in order to achieve a £1 weight loss per week. However, if you've been eating on average 13 to 1400 calories, then that number is going to be so off for you. And that would actually be a surplus amount for you. So it really is not the best way to go about it, to just plug these numbers into a calculator and hope for the best, because it's not going to be customized to you at all in terms of what your current baselines actually are, based on what you've been doing recently, because the body's adaptive, right? So if you have been doing something for any significant amount of time, your body's going to adapt to that. Okay. So that's why the calculators are not my favorite. Um, to gauge our maintenance calories and maintenance calories just means the amount of calories that you're eating in order to simply maintain your weight. That's what we want to figure out. By tracking for these 1 to 2 weeks, we want to gauge what your maintenance calories are without you doing a thing to adjust. And obviously, once you start tracking, it might be a little eye opening. You might be tempted to be like, oh crap, I really need to cut back on this or that, but I really urge you to just eat as normally as possible for those 1 to 2 weeks and then go from there. So when you're tracking, you're going to want to use a tracking app. Um, our clients who do tracking, um, if it's not triggering for them, then they track through my Fitness Pal. That's a really easy one. Um, it's pretty standard, and it really does not take as much time as you would think, especially as you get the hang of it. Um, and you want to be as accurate as you possibly can. So really trying to be exact with the amounts that you're having and tracking all of your outings, your social events, snacks, sips, licks, all of it. The issue when we don't do things accurately is that we vastly underestimate how much we're eating. The average person underestimates by 50% how much our intake is, and that is a massive amount. And that's why so many people think, well, I'm eating really healthy. I don't get it. Why am I not seeing weight loss? It's because we're typically underestimating our intake and overestimating our calorie burn through exercise. So those two things right there are a recipe for just kind of spinning our wheels. And feeling frustrated. So track as accurately as you can for 1 to 2 weeks. That will kind of determine once you take the average based on the amount of days that you're tracking, that will determine your maintenance calories. Okay, so once you know your maintenance calories, you're going to want to subtract about 250 calories per day. If you're looking for about a half a pound average weight loss per week or 500 calories per day. If you're looking for about a £1 weight loss per week. And of course, this is never going to work perfectly like an equation, you know it's not going to be static. Things are going to fluctuate based on the, you know, the salt intake that you have, the carb intake that you have, where you're at in your cycle will make a massive difference. Water retention. So, you know, it might not be a perfect equation of like, okay, I'm losing exactly half a pound a week, but you want to see that trending downward. Um, and I will say, if you are already kind of a small individual to start, you're probably going to want to err on the side of like 250 calorie deficit daily versus the 500, simply because if your maintenance calories are already kind of low, then dropping 500 extra calories a day is a lot. Um, so it'll be a little bit slower, it'll be a little bit more slow and steady approach, but it's going to feel a lot less miserable than just jumping the gun and going for 500 calories. Also, we really want to take a minimal effective dose approach, meaning that if we don't need to drop a crazy amount, don't because you don't want your body to adapt to calories that aren't even necessary to elicit a fat loss response. So if you can elicit a fat loss response with a very minimal deficit, then that's the route that you want to take, even if it's a little bit slower. Okay. So. Picking the amount that you're going to subtract based on the rate of fat loss that you're looking for, and also how long you're wanting to do this. Um, it's also worth saying that if your maintenance calories are incredibly low, like I'm talking you're maintaining at like, you know, 13 to 1500 calories, then I would definitely recommend working with a coach to get your metabolic baselines to a better place before you embark on a fat loss phase. Um, simply because you're going to have to go lower than that. And that's already quite low. Um, so I would make sure that that's accurate, you know, make sure that you're being very exact, because a lot of times we do underestimate our calorie intake. And then it kind of kind of makes the whole process a bit harder. So make sure you're being exact with that. But if that really is the case, then we're going to want to work on a little bit of metabolic restore before going into a successful fat loss phase. All right. Next is to take a get in and get out approach. So this means don't be wishy washy. If you're going to do a fat loss phase, stick with the deficit well for 4 to 6 weeks and then move back to maintenance for at least the same amount of time. What I often see is, like I said, people who kind of do this dragged out version of a fat loss phase where they're just kind of kind of in a deficit, or they'll like be in a deficit for like four days a week, and then they overeat on the weekends, and then they're spinning their wheels and not really seeing progress. And this is like a very frustrating way to go about it, because you always sort of feel mentally restricted and you're still not seeing the results. So instead, I really recommend you take it seriously. Don't be wishy washy. Get in, get out, do it for 4 to 6 weeks and then go back to the end. Um, this is such a better approach. If you want to see the results in a timely manner and not drag it out forever, um, it really can kind of end up in a never ending restrict slash binge cycle if you take on the constant dieting approach. So this is why I say just focus on being as diligent as you can during your cut, and then move forward with it. Like I've mentioned before, you're going to want to go back to maintenance for at least the same amount of time that you were in a deficit. This is to help minimize the effects of metabolic adaptation and just give you mentally a little bit of a break before you go back into it. So let's talk about what this looks like during the cut. You're going to want to focus on muscle maintenance in your workouts. This means you're not just adding endless amounts of cardio. You're not just focused on burning as many calories as possible with your workouts. Why? Because like I said, we tend to way overestimate our calorie burn from our workouts. Especially the smaller you are, the less you're going to burn, and it makes it so much easier to just eat those calories back. If you're doing these super sweaty, intense workouts that are going to jack up your hunger hormones drastically. So instead of trying to, you know, burn a thousand calories in your workout so that you can add back those calories to your diet, don't even worry about calorie burn from your workouts. Just focus on building strength, keeping as much muscle on your frame as possible while you're in the deficit. This will ensure that you're not just losing equal parts muscle and fat. We want most of our weight loss to come from fat so that our muscle can stay high. This is what kind of gives that toned appearance. And it's also going to help keep your basal metabolic rate as high as possible at the end of all of this, because the more muscle you have, easier it's going to be to stay leaner because your basal metabolic rate is higher. So focus on muscle maintenance in your workouts. If you're already lifting, you know 3 to 5 times a week, you don't need to really change anything about your workouts during the cut. You're really just manipulating the nutrition and your intake. Then you're also going to want to look at your needs, which means your non exercise activity thermogenesis and maybe increase that slightly. So if you are typically walking 6 to 7000 steps a day, then you're trying to increase that to 8 to 9000 steps a day. So you're just wanting to bring it up slightly in a way that's not going to feel drastic, but it will increase your output. And it's also not going to make you crazy hungry. That's why increasing the meat is better, in my opinion, than just going straight for like tons and tons of cardio. While it feels like you're doing less, you're also increasing your output without increasing your hunger, which is huge because if we're doing all this cardio, but then we're so ravenous at the end of it that we go and completely undo the deficit, then the whole thing is kind of undone, right? So we want to make sure that we're not just doing endless amounts of exercise and then negating it by making ourselves crazy hungry. Or not fueling properly too. Because if you are exercising like crazy and you're not eating enough, you're going to feel like crap. And that is something we want to avoid too, is just having a 4 to 6 week period where you feel absolutely terrible. We want this to be as painless as possible, and I have had so many clients who have had successful cuts, and they didn't even feel like they were restricting. They didn't feel miserable. And that is the goal. If you're feeling miserable, then we probably need to make some adjustments. Okay, so outside of, um, lifting about 3 to 5 times a week, increasing your knees slightly, you're also going to want to keep protein as high as possible while still maintaining your deficit by keeping the protein high. That's also going to help aid in muscle recovery, muscle maintenance, and satiety. Satiety is huge while we're in a deficit because, again, we don't want to be miserable. So you might have heard people say like, oh, you can eat the same amount of calories, um, you know, from only McDonald's or only fast food and still lose weight, as if you're eating, you know, all whole foods, super healthy, nothing processed. And that is actually true. Calories are calories. However, the difference is food quality and the volume that you're getting for that same amount of calories. So you're probably going to feel a lot hungrier if you're eating, you know, a bunch of cookies, and then that's 800 calories gone. And not a ton of protein and not a ton of fiber. You're not getting a ton of nutritional value. You're probably going to be hungry again in an hour because your insulin is going to spike and then crash. So it's really important to look at how you're fueling who quality wise and volume wise for your satiety and just overall health, how you're feeling, how you're feeling your workouts, um, while you're in that deficit. Because yes, you can absolutely lose weight eating, you know, 1600 calories of McDonald's or cookies or candy. However, how you're feeling satiety wise and health wise and energy wise is going to look very different than if you're having rounded out meals where you're including protein, healthy carbs, fat, and micronutrients with fiber. Okay, so food quality does matter in terms of how you're feeling and your success within a deficit because you're going to not feel nearly as hungry if you're loading up on high protein, high volume foods that are going to keep you fuller longer and minimize the massive swings in insulin by. So that's. Something that you're just going to want to take into consideration. That being said, I would still encourage you to allow yourself all food groups just in moderation. This is going to help you feel less mentally restricted and therefore stick with it longer. So whenever I am in a fat loss phase, I still have things like chocolate, um, candy ice cream sometimes, but I'm having very small amounts, just enough to kind of scratch that itch and be like, okay, great, I'm happy you got to have that glass of wine, a cookie, whatever it looks like for you. Um, I'm not going to drastically restrict because I know that I'm not going to be able to stick with that for more than, like, five days. And then I'm going to feel restricted and feel like crap and kind of go back into a restrict binge cycle. And that's not the route that I want to go. I don't want to live like that. I don't want to feel mentally restricted even for 4 to 6 weeks. So while I am sacrificing the amounts that I'm having and I am being mindful, um, that I'm going to be able to have less of that because I have less calories overall to work with while in a cut. I'm still not telling myself, oh, I can't have a glass of wine, I can't have chocolate. I can't have a cookie while I'm in a cut. This works really well for me. Um, and for most of the clients that I work with, this is the approach that works the best because you're able to stick with it longer and really adhere to the deficit in a better way. Okay. Next tip is you can add in tasteful amounts of cardio. So think like 1 or 2 sessions a week. But be mindful that this doesn't send you into a crazy hungry state like we talked about earlier. So cardio is not going to be the answer to a successful deficit if it's going to bring you out of your deficit because you are so hungry at the end of all your cardio. So just a few sessions, um, outside of that, I really encourage you to just focus on walking, getting more steps there, activity that is not going to make you feel like, oh, I need to go eat a ton because I worked up such a massive appetite from this. So just something to be mindful. And you can also start out with no formal cardio, just walking and your weighted workouts. And then maybe a few weeks in you add one session and then a few weeks later you add another session just to continue moving the needle. All right. So in summary you're going to want to really focus on nailing your calorie deficit, being so so diligent with that. After you figure out what your maintenance calories, figure out your deficit calories from there and nail it for 4 to 6 weeks, then move into a maintenance phase to give yourself a break mentally, physiologically, metabolically. And then you can always go into another cut. So if you have a lot of weight to lose, you can kind of do it basically like that. Focus on your steps, your sleep quality, your food quality and stress reduction while doing smart training. All of these things are going to be very important. And the thing we didn't really go super thick into is stress reduction. Um, this is something that you're probably going to want to look at realistically before you do a cut, because if you are crazy stressed out and then you do a really intense cut, that's kind of adding fuel to the fire in a way. And obviously most of us can say that we're a little bit stressed out most of the time, if not just time to time. So typical day to day stress is pretty normal. But if you are in a severe series, uh, season of a lot of stress, like a ton of intense anxiety, feeling like you're always in fight or flight mode, um, you've come off like a very negative relationship or a very toxic job or something like that. Um, I would definitely look closely at if this is the right thing for you right now, because what we don't want to do is just add more stress to your stress bucket. Okay? So stress is something that you're definitely going to want to be honest with yourself about and look closely if it's the right thing for you right now. So here are the most common mistakes that are going to hinder your cut or your weight loss. One is not tracking intake or just not consistently tracking intake, or not accurately tracking intake. All these things will make a big difference. Some people really don't want to go the route of tracking. Um, and what I would say to that is that it's almost impossible to gauge where you're at unless you've tracked, at least for a season of your life, and it doesn't mean you're doing it forever. Personally, what I will do now is I will track every now and then. If I feel myself getting to a place I'm not very happy with, I will just go back to tracking for like a month and then I'm able to gauge like, okay, this is what I've been eating. Wow. Okay. Yes, I've been eating quite a bit for my maintenance, and I'm going to buckle down a little bit for about a month, and then I'm going to have a much better idea of where I'm at with my intake. Um, so being willing to do that for a little bit is going to really just speed up the process of fat loss. Yes, you can do it without tracking, but you're really going to have to be very, very mindful of portions and have a general idea of how much you're getting. The next is not focusing on meat. So just kind of sitting around living a very sedentary lifestyle that's going to make it a little bit harder. You really want to try to be moving as much as you can. Obviously living, um, you know, working like a desk job, it makes it harder look for little opportunities to pace around in your office while you're on the phone, take the stairs, go for extra little walks even if they're five minutes. Um, walk around a store. Park a little further in the parking lot. Play with your kids. Get up off the couch. Just do things where you're not just sitting. Okay? We so often are just trying to conserve energy without even thinking about it. So challenge that. Put yourself in positions every day where you're actively not conserving energy, and you're expending as much energy as you can. Number three is eating back calories burned, burned during workouts, or thinking that your workouts negate bad eating habits. This is such a big one because, like I said, we tend to overestimate our calories, burn watches, or like the calorie counts on cardio machines are so inaccurate, you guys. So please, please, please don't add back the calories that you're burning in your workouts because that's going to keep you spinning your wheels. It will just make this whole process take so much longer and feel so much more frustrating. Number four being perfect Monday through Thursday and then going crazy on the weekends. Um, you know, you can be in a really amazingly consistent deficit for, you know, Monday through Thursday, Monday through Friday. But if on the weekends you are eating in a crazy surplus, you can really negate that deficit big time. And again, this just leaves you in a frustrating cycle. This was a big, big struggle for me for years in my early 20s. Um, I would completely follow that cycle of eating very, very healthy, nailing the deficit during the week, and then thinking that that meant I could just fly off the handle on the weekends. And that's why I recommend not restricting during the week and actually giving yourself a little bit of treats that things that make you feel like you're not restricting so you don't feel like you need to go binge on the weekends. And yes, calories might be slightly higher on the weekends. If you are eating out a little bit more or doing more social things, that is totally to be expected. But you want to make sure that your weekly average at the end of the week, you're still in an overall deficit if you really want to prioritize fat loss. That will require a little bit of sacrifice, especially on the weekends. Number five is exercising, but then not prioritizing other facets of health. So like we were talking about with stress reduction, also sleep quality, your meat, your food quality, all of these different things are definitely going to affect the total state of your body and how your gut feels, how your hormones are functioning. Um, just overall inflammation with stress. All of these things can definitely affect how your body feels and rate of fat loss. Number six is no accountability or just not being honest with yourself. And oftentimes having accountability externally is what it takes for us to really see things for what they are and be honest with ourselves. We are typically not that great at holding ourselves accountable because we'll start to bargain with ourselves. We'll start to justify, we'll rely on motivation. We'll be really motivated for, you know, a week or two, and then life happens and motivation falls off, and then so do we. And so if you don't have someone checking in with you and just being like, hey, if this is important to you, we gotta make some sacrifices here. Um, it's important to have that external accountability. If you are continuously in a cycle of like starting out strong, feeling really motivated and then falling off the wagon a few weeks later, that is the ultimate sign that it's time to hire a coach and do things the right way. Have some accountability. Number seven is metabolic adaptation. This is less common. So I just want to say like oftentimes we assume like something's broken or wrong with our metabolisms. And this is very much not the case for most people. However, if you actually have been in extreme underfed state and overstressed state, like you're someone who has been doing intense amounts of exercise, I'm talking like every day a week, every day of the week, maybe two days, tons of cardio. And then on top of that, you're underfed consistently. Um, then you are potentially experiencing some metabolic adaptation, and maybe that might be why you are stuck or your weight loss efforts have been hindered. So that is something to look at because like we were talking about before, your body does adapt. So if your body's norm is burning 600 plus calories a day through intense exercise and then only eating 1200 calories a day, now your body is compensating for that. Your metabolism is compensating to try to keep you alive. And now your maintenance calories are very, very low compared to someone who's consistently being fed and not expecting their body to burn that many calories every single day. So metabolic adaptation is a very real thing. Um, I would say it's not as common as maybe what you are shown in, you know, magazines, social media, the world of fitness. Everybody's talking about how your metabolism is broken. That is not the case. But amount of metabolic adaptation can be very real. If that is something that you have struggled with in the past. And then I would definitely recommend working with someone who specializes in that to get you into a better place. Um, okay, so there we go. We have covered how to do a successful cut fat loss phase and the most common mistakes that can hinder that process. I hope you guys have found this helpful. Again, if you're like, whoa, this just still feels kind of overwhelming. I don't really know if I could do this on my own, or I just know that I need the support because I'm probably not going to stick with it when life gets crazy or, you know, things pop up, then definitely DM us at the fit underscore for hiking Instagram page Fat Loss and we will get you started with the application process. Or you can simply check the application link in the show notes and we will go from there. Um, thank you so much for tuning in today, you guys. I hope this has been very helpful for you and I will catch you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.