How to Mini Cut

Strategy, Planning, Mini Cut, Dieting

When it comes to dieting you can approach it several different ways. Typically people would try to diet for a specific date such as a wedding event, party, etc. One of the problems with approaching your goals this way is you may get into the habit of seeing your goals as a one stop shop. The word diet means a way of life. Your diet should be a way of life rather than a means to accomplish a goal only to revert back to your old ways.

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I’ve seen a lot of people work towards a fitness goal and accomplish what they wanted only to then throw it all away. Why would you do that to yourself?

The key to a mini cut is to establish your goal – lose 5 lbs over the next 2 months, for example. Work towards the goal, and establish a baseline to maintain it without overindulging. Maybe you need to establish a baseline in your training:

-       Do cardio that encourages fatigue management: when you go for a run, or do the elliptical or something, you want to divide it in 2 ways. One way is to burn calories. Second way is to manage fatigue. Yes that Is possible. The key to doing cardio to manage fatigue is to control duration and effort. You don’t want to be doing HIIT style of training because that will only encourage fatigue. You want to be getting enough blood flow to the muscles and stretching afterwards – try this and notice how much more recovered you may feel from training

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If your diet is low – meaning calories – then you might want to consider leveraging cardio. If you are doing a ton of cardio already then you can consider leveraging your calorie intake. Keep in mind that mini cuts – and cuts in general – are highly dependent on how stressed you are, too. Especially if you are attempting to lose weight by a certain date, it can hinder your ability to actually lose the weight if you are easily stressed. When people are stressed their cortisol levels may rise to levels that begin to diminish results.

The mini cut requires a reinstitution of habits, which means it may require you to establish and/or hone into skills to be able to, with discipline, reach your mini cut goal. Mini cut goals are great for the following:

-       Meeting weight for a event such as in MMA, Powerlifting, wrestling

-       Meeting a weight loss goal for a wedding to fit well in a dress

-       Weekend get away, trying to look good in a bikini

-       Transitioning out of a bulk phase after pushing calories for 8+ weeks, and need a break from the food

-       Moving into a 2 month stage in the season where work will take over more of your time and thus you won’t have as much time to dedicate to training hard and eating a lot

-       Psychological break from too much food, and fatigue

I would give the mini cut a go for 6 weeks, and establish mini goals for yourself. Once you see yourself accomplish the mini goals it’ll make things much easier in terms of progress. Consider subscribing to the page to support what’s going on here, and book a consult for a productive call on questions related to your fitness and nutrition goals!

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Be well,

Yelena