4 simple steps to getting lean

If you’re looking to lose fat and get lean, these strategies are for you.

At Fight Cut, we pride ourselves on not overcomplicating the fat loss process.

Add these 3 simple steps for your success!

Get in your body weight in grams of protein.

Ex: if you’re 150 LBS, try for 150 grams of protein every day. This is OPTIMAL for building muscle, and having muscle helps with fat loss!

On the low end, aim for .8 grams of protein per LB of body weight.

For a 200 LB male. this looks like 160 grams of protein, at minimum.

If you focus on filling your plate with protein, you will feel full for longer, you’ll be aiding in the muscle building process, and you’ll be helping your body with recovery!

All of which are essential for successful fat loss.

Sleep. A LOT.

Sleep is one of the most overlooked things for fat loss!

First of all, when you sleep more, that’s less time you have awake to consume calories 😂

Second, sleep is where your body recovers and rebuilds.

In order to effectively lose fat and get lean, you simply HAVE to prioritize recovery.

Sleep also helps to regulate hormones, which, we need to be fully functioning and in normal range in order to lost fat!

Don’t diet too hard.

So, yes, dieting really hard (low calories), really fast (in a short duration), CAN get you lean.

But will it help you stay lean?

Most likely not.

We’ve all known that friend (or been that person), that goes on a strict ass diet, loses 10 lbs in the first 2 weeks, maintains it for another 2 weeks, and then completely burns out and eats everything in sight after a month.

Listen, don’t be that guy (or girl).

Nobody wants to be that guy.

Why bother losing fat if you can’t maintain it?

Instead, try a sustainable caloric deficit, over a longer period of time.

It may not be as instant of gratification as the first option, but this approach will leave you with results that actually last.

If you need help with this, Fight Cut has you covered with our simple diet templates.

Lift weights.

Cardio just AIN’T IT for fat loss.

If you want to get lean, prioritize strength training.

Strength training + proper protein intake = muscle building, which aids greatly in fat loss.

Sure, some cardio may be helpful to burn some extra calories.

But the more muscle you have, the more calories your body actually burns at rest.

And in order to get lean, we want to be burning as many calories at rest as we can, folks!

Anything else?

Yes, there are other things in your fitness and nutrition that can aid in getting you lean.

But these are the ones you should really put most of your focus in to.

Happy cutting!

And remember, don’t be a dummy with your fat loss.

The stress of losing weight as a female

As a female, it can feel uniquely challenging to lose weight, especially if /when we compare ourselves to a male counterpart.

IDK about you, but when my husband even thinks about going on a diet, he loses 5 lbs overnight.

What gives?

You’re busting your ass to try and drop 5 lbs, and for him, it’s effortless!

I hear you. I understand you. & I’m here to explain. (& also provide you with some solutions)

We are literally meant to have more fat. (like, biologically)

You know that whole thing where women are meant to reproduce and carry children? Yeah, that’s the reason why we are MEANT to have higher body fat than males. Even if you aren’t a mom, or don’t plan on becoming a mom, biology had different plans for the female species.

We as women, are designed to hold more fat than men, just in anticipation that we might carry a child.

This is simply a fact, so don’t hate your husband for being easily able to drop to 12% body fat.

We have periods.

Again, I’d like to thank biology and Mother Nature.

Similar to my points above, we were created to reproduce. With that, comes the menstrual cycle. And with the menstrual cycle, comes weight fluctuations (for many of us).

Additionally, biology doesn’t WANT your body fat to get too low! Because if this happened, you would likely lose your period, thus making it impossible to get pregnant, thus going against what biology wants for you.

We have hormones.

Yes, males have hormones too.

But our hormones are different.

We have higher estrogen, influencing our bodies to hold on to more fat.

We have lower testosterone, making it harder for us to build muscle than men (which aids in fat loss).

Although our hormones are different, luckily the female hormones don’t make it impossible to lose fat!

We have emotions.

Trying to lose fat can be an emotional process.

One, we as women tend to have a lot more emotions tied to our bodies than men.

How often do our husbands/boyfriends have “bad body image” days?

Probably far less than us.

They just aren’t as emotional of creatures, which makes it easier to tie less emotion to food, which makes it easier to stick to the diet and lose fat.

And let’s face it, food is emotional.

How we view our bodies is emotional.

So be gentler with yourself.

This can be an emotional process, and those emotions are valid!

So now what?

First step is realizing and accepting that it simply might not be AS easy for you to lose weight at your male counterpart. Don’t be too mad at him, he was born that way.

Secondly, give yourself enough time with your weight loss. Don’t place a crazy time crunch on yourself. DO NOT crash diet. Give yourself 3-6 months in a cut at a sustainable rate of change.

Keep your hormones and emotions in mind.

Maybe this means you need slightly higher calories on your period week.

Maybe this means training intensity decreases slightly in your luteal phase.

Maybe this means it’s OKAY to give yourself an extra 100 calories to spend on a piece of chocolate when you’re feeling emotionally spent.

So be patient, take into account your unique circumstances as a woman, and work with these differences, not against them.

Making Weight: Basic Strategy

So you’ve decided to sign up for your first tournament. Or maybe you’ve already done one, and realized how difficult it can be to manage your weight. In either case, we want to provide a starting point - a place where you can learn the basics about what should occur and when. As we grow, we’ll provide more detailed sources on each composite part. But in the meantime, let’s dive in!

Where do I begin?

Let’s start by assuming that we’re trying to settle to our target weight by dropping down to the upper-end of a weight class that’s lower than our current bodyweight. For example, if you’re a male who walks around at 187 lbs., you may want to move down to Middleweight at 181.5 lbs. for a size/strength advantage. We want to do so in the most optimal way possible, so that our place in the new weight class is truly an advantage over our competition, and takes as little away from our training and development as possible.

This process is broken down into two distinct parts:

1. Fat Loss

2. Weight Cut

It’s important that these two parts remain separate, and are done in the order we mentioned above. So let’s jump into what each part is made up of.

Fat Loss

Fat loss is a long-term process, taking place for at least 4 weeks, ideally over a span of 8-12 weeks. This process is achieved through reaching and maintaining a calorie deficit - meaning you expend more calories than you take in. While some people attempt this process solely by increasing calorie expenditure, a more efficient method is by deliberately and consistently restricting caloric intake (resource here).

In an ideal world, weight loss will be slow to ensure that the majority of weight lost is fat and not muscle. If we want a competitive advantage at this new weight class, that’s seldom achieved by losing considerable muscle and strength. To ensure that this is the case, we want to lose no more than 2 lbs/week - and ideally closer to .5lb/week. We should keep a close eye on rate of change, and plan out our fat loss weeks/months in advance.

Weight Cut

The process of “cutting weight,” is much more short term, and only encompasses the techniques that make up the last 5-10 days before weighing in. These methods have potentially deadly outcomes when performed irresponsibly, so proper planning is a must. Weight cuts should never have to “make up” for failed fat loss! Procrastinating on your fat loss and hoping you can rely on these extreme measures is a dangerous, slippery slope.

Relative to fat loss, the weight loss in a weight cut is rapid - over the course of hours. This is because the weight lost is from body water and gut content. It’s important to note that since dehydration is so detrimental to performance, day-before weight-ins tend to allow athletes to get away with more aggressive cuts than day-of weigh-ins.

Same day weigh-ins would ideally have an individual on weight, or up to 2% above their target weight when they’re 5 days out from weigh-ins. Anything 3% or higher 5 days out would be detrimental to performance.

Day-before weigh-ins would ideally have an individual 6-8% over their target weight when they’re 5 days out from weigh-ins. Anything exceeding 10% in the last 5 days is extremely dangerous.

Gut content elimination is done through limiting fiber intake in the days before weigh-ins, where water elimination is done by a combined process of water loading, sodium restriction, and even manipulation of carbs. What may be even more important is the method of re-hydrating - since a dehydrated fighter is extremely compromised. The specific nature of each of these techniques deserves greater detail in future blog posts.

The takeaway here is that the incredibly stressful component of cutting weight should be minimized by planned, careful fat loss. The less fat you’re carrying 5 days out from a weigh-in, the less you’d have to rely on the more stressful and dangerous process of dehydration. So let us at Fight Cut take the guesswork out of losing fat, so you can always perform at your best.