Planning wife's 1st cut but I'm no expert

[Body_weight02]

Long post warning! Her Stats: 5'3", 131lb, 33yr, 25% bf, 4 years training. Currently weight trains 5 days a week/Cardio 2 days a week. For the last year she has been reverse dieting and has her maintenance cal. at 2,100 right now. She is planning to attempt a cut this spring but I am unsure about how quick to drop
Her calories. I personally have a low bf naturally so I've never tried a true cut myself. I know to increase cardio and lower weight/increase reps but when it comes to cal. is it best to drop 300-400 cal for a couple weeks then repeat to say around 1,200 or drop by a small % every week for around 10-12 weeks to around 1,200? She has no plans to run gear, be natty with the exception of a possible otc fat burner or maybe a sarms cycle.

 

[Body_weight02]

Her current macro's are 136 pro, 285 carb, 52 fat. She is still increasing carbs weekly 8% until she finds her true maintenance or until mid march

 

[LateStart]

The math on those macros comes out to exactly 2100 cals just like you said.....GREAT job. Sounds like you guys have it dialed in. You need 3j to chime in here and give some input on the safest way to lose weight without sacrificing too much muscle. A little more challenging without the gear but it can definitely be done if ya take it slow.
Is this for competition? Just curious.
I'm sure some guys will be able to give much better advice than I can. Best of luck to you both

One more little thing.....11 or 12 pounds will get her to around 16%, which looks amazing on a woman. So assuming that's what you're shooting for I'd plan on taking 2.5 months. A pound a week is slow loss but saves as much muscle as possible in my opinion. So 400 to 500 less calories per day....OR more cardio equal to 400 cals burned. Either way a few hundred under maintenance is a great starting point.

Sorry for the long reply. I'm sure you guys already know all this bit it's all I got
Again......good luck

 

[Mycelium]

My wife was enrolled in a medically supervised weighloss program and 800-1000 calories was their bare minimum. Running that level of calories doctors watched their labs. It's a very restricted diet. My wife works in an ICU and was losing several pounds a week. She managed to walk on days off ome week and had lost almost a pound a day. I remember the shakes all had like 15g protien from soy and whey isolate. I was suprised. They watched for muscle wasting/protien and something else in the labs. That's without exercise. She is still losing but dropped the protien shake diet. That's basically what they were.

She had some lesson and intense weight lifting and working in the anaerobic state causes an increase in metabolism for a good amount after the workout. It was based off intensity and not reps or weight. Basically lifting to the point of causing an oxygen deficit in the body and muscles. Serious lifting. Not aerobics style ya know. High reps or wherever. Just intense. Something like 30 minutes post exercise the body finishes recovering.

I'm not experienced in mass but continuing to train the way you got what you wanted is good. If she likes her muscles I recommend continuing to lift like she has. I am aiming for 225lbs bench and squat. I'm not really concerned with mass but I know I need tobget bigger. Once I got them I'll add in martial arts training and real conditioning. I wont change my lifting. It's what will build my body to do 225lbs x 25 reps. . . . .someday . . . and my conditioning training will train my heart and lungs.


3J BMR, TDEE and diet threads are all good. Knowing what we are eating and burning is good. His clients have some before and after that are pretty amazing. 3J is the resident dietician if that's the right terminology.

 

[Body_weight02]

The math on those macros comes out to exactly 2100 cals just like you said.....GREAT job. Sounds like you guys have it dialed in. You need 3j to chime in here and give some input on the safest way to lose weight without sacrificing too much muscle. A little more challenging without the gear but it can definitely be done if ya take it slow.
Is this for competition? Just curious.
I'm sure some guys will be able to give much better advice than I can. Best of luck to you both

One more little thing.....11 or 12 pounds will get her to around 16%, which looks amazing on a woman. So assuming that's what you're shooting for I'd plan on taking 2.5 months. A pound a week is slow loss but saves as much muscle as possible in my opinion. So 400 to 500 less calories per day....OR more cardio equal to 400 cals burned. Either way a few hundred under maintenance is a great starting point.

Sorry for the long reply. I'm sure you guys already know all this bit it's all I got
Again......good luck

No competition, she is trying to lean out...(beach body). Little over a year ago she was down to 118lb but her bf% was still high. She had dropped her cal. to around 900 and totally crashed her metabolism, basically had her body in starvation mode. That's when she finally asked me to help her train and diet. Not that I'm an expert, but I felt I had enough knowledge to point her I the right direction. Anyways, thanks for the reply

 

[3J]

once you find her true TDEE do a 20% calorie reduction.. keep her carbs at 150g a day and her protein over 120g. these are just rough minimums. no cardio, just lifting

follow through with fasted weight and measurements same day of every week and see how much weight/if any shes losing..

she should start to lost about .75-1.5lbs a week.

squeeze as much as you can out of that 20% cal reduction then add light cardio. im talking 20 min post workout heart rate of 135 5 days a week..

that should get her down a few lbs..

if youre interested in professional coaching for her feel free to email me at 3jdiet@gmail.com

website link: 3J's Nutrition

 

[Body_weight02]

once you find her true TDEE do a 20% calorie reduction.. keep her carbs at 150g a day and her protein over 120g. these are just rough minimums. no cardio, just lifting

follow through with fasted weight and measurements same day of every week and see how much weight/if any shes losing..

she should start to lost about .75-1.5lbs a week.

squeeze as much as you can out of that 20% cal reduction then add light cardio. im talking 20 min post workout heart rate of 135 5 days a week..

that should get her down a few lbs..

if youre interested in professional coaching for her feel free to email me at 3jdiet@gmail.com

website link: 3J's Nutrition

Thanks 3j. From what I've read and seen on here your the man to ask. I feel like I did a decent job getting her calories back up while adjusting her macros, but like I said I'm no expert just used some research and some common sense. And I even wrote out her macros for a 12 week cut but it was a slow drop in cals. (Like 50 per week) while increasing cardio. My fear was that her body might adjust to the small cal drop like it did with the small cal increases during the reverse dieting. Thanks for the info...I may hit you up for myself. Been debating on doing a physique comp next year after I turn 35 and that needed dieting is totally out of my league

 

[3J]

Thanks 3j. From what I've read and seen on here your the man to ask. I feel like I did a decent job getting her calories back up while adjusting her macros, but like I said I'm no expert just used some research and some common sense. And I even wrote out her macros for a 12 week cut but it was a slow drop in cals. (Like 50 per week) while increasing cardio. My fear was that her body might adjust to the small cal drop like it did with the small cal increases during the reverse dieting. Thanks for the info...I may hit you up for myself. Been debating on doing a physique comp next year after I turn 35 and that needed dieting is totally out of my league

sounds good.. lets work it out, just email me if you haven't already