Hi all, quick question.

I've got to a stage where I'm by no means big, but got a decent amount of muscle definition coming on. I'm looking now to cut around another 7 or 8 pounds to get those abs coming through. I've dieted before (used to be pretty big), but never really dieted whilst still wanting to maintain a bit of muscle definition. The dieting techniques themselves aren't too hard, I'm guessing just the usual lower your carbs, cut out the crap and eat good healthy stuff with a calorie deficit to burn it off?

The issue I have is maintaining what muscle I have got. Am I likely to lose a great deal of muscle whilst I'm cutting those extra 7 or 8 lbs? I'm looking at probably trying to cut it in about 2 months, not too extreme, but still a reasonable amount of work going off. If I am likely to lose quite a bit of what muscle I have got, is there a way to slow that up? Is protein going to be useful? I eat a lot of chicken and fish, but is it worth getting a protein shake in there to help out as well? Or is that unnecessary (again I'm not exactly hench now, just a nice bit of muscle definition - I don't want to end up looking like a stick insect with good abs, I'd rather keep a bit of the upper body shape alongside the abs if possible!)

I don't know how much of a difference it'll make, but at the moment I'm doing cardio 6 days a week (combination of "long runs" and high intensity intervals), and doing whole body work outs in the gym 3 times a week. I don't know if the weight/reps balance will make any difference to maintaining muscle whilst trying to cut?

You should be able to cut without losing muscle, or at least very little.

Make sure your getting lots of protein 1:1 Gram: Body Weight.

I don't like cardio if you do intense running you destroy you leg muscles, look at a marathon runners legs. I would do circuit training when weight lifting to burn fat and keep muscle. Also walking 10 mins before and after workout.

I find cutting to make me feel terrible, not hungry but just lack of energy. But taking a caffeine and B6 + B12 supplement it will give you energy to be active and cut, not everyone reacts to caffeine the same way but it helps me.

you should be eating more protein on a cutting diet than on a bulking diet. As far as cardio dont push it too hard, do HIIT cardio doing intervals of all out effort in between intervals of a power walk pace (100-120bpm). The ratio between the intervals can vary greatly, but stick with something around 4 mins low intensity with 30 seconds of all out, with five intervals all in total, twice a week.

Losing muscle is apart of dieting. The best way to hold onto muscle while losing weight is diet for a long period of time, and do it conservatively. The faster you try to lose I gurantee the more muscle you will lose as well. And dont forget to have a couple high carb days a week to prevent metabolic crash

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Don't "diet" but adjust your food intake so you have a healthy diet. Keep training and make sure you eat plenty of protein to maintain your muscle mass (or keep growing it) regardless of what other steps you take.

Also good hydration and sleep will help you A LOT

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