People should plan any cheat or refeed days into their diet carefully to continue eating a healthful diet and working towards their goals. Refeed days involve eating more carbohydrates to increase energy and performance.Ī 2017 survey suggests that people can achieve better fat loss and muscle retention with refeed days. Some people choose to have cheat days or refeed days on a cutting diet.Ĭheat days allow a person to have occasional indulgences, which could be helpful, for instance, when eating out. Specifically for bodybuilding, evidence suggests that meal frequency should be moderate with 3–6 meals a day, each with at least 20 grams of protein. The amount of protein that someone requires after a workout can depend on the size and timing of any meals they eat beforehand. The ISSN also recommend eating protein with carbohydrates before exercise, after exercise, or both. Carbohydrates: 55–60% of total calories, or the remaining amount of calories after someone has calculated their protein and fat.Īccording to the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), a person should space protein intake evenly at 3–4 hour intervals throughout the day and within 2 hours following exercise.Protein: 2.3–3.1 grams per kilogram (kg) of body weight, or 25–30%.Weekly weight loss: 0.5 to 1% of body weight.It is important to note that dietary needs may vary from person to person. The suggestions are primarily from a 2014 review analyzing preparations for bodybuilding contests.

They need to adjust the number of calories they consume to account for this.īelow is a summary of dietary recommendations that people can use in a cutting diet.

Nutrition and fitness experts call this creating a “caloric deficit.”Ī person should first work out how many calories they need according to their sex, age, and size, then determine their calories per day to lose weight.ĭuring the cutting period, a person’s body mass decreases, and their metabolism adapts. To achieve weight loss, a person needs to use more energy than they consume. The cutting phase aims to eliminate the fat gained during the bulking phase while retaining as much muscle mass as possible.

Nutrition and fitness professionals call this creating a “caloric surplus.”īulking up usually results in a person gaining some weight from fat as well as muscle. Competitive bodybuilders typically follow a cutting diet for 2–4 months.Ī person can decide the duration of a cutting diet according to their individual needs, but it is not a long-term diet.īodybuilders usually go through a bulking phase before a cutting diet.īulking allows a high-calorie, protein-rich diet with intense weightlifting to “bulk up” a person and increase muscle mass.ĭuring this phase, it is crucial to consume more calories than the body needs to maintain its weight, to use these excess calories to build new muscle.

Extreme bulking and cutting