This is going to be a longer post, but it is my full detailed and in-depth guide on how you can get ripped out of your mind as a boldNATURAL.bold This is also advice and my experience. I have tried many ways and this was what worked for me. It might not work for you but this is experience and worth a try.

Quick background: I'm 19, been lifting since I was 14 and was started out by dad, but didn't have a great structure or nutrition down (who actually does at that age?) and always wanted to be as cut as humanly possible but big. I started my cut at about 180 and went to 167, which I have not weighed since the end of sophomore year of high school (now entering sophomore year of college) but my strength is boldWAYbold higher. Image: https://imgur.com/a/1zEypOb

boldDISCLAIMER:bold this is for anyone and will work wonders, but mainly is directed for intermediates/advanced lifters, as my noobie gains are long gone (cannot build muscle and burn fat at same time). Anything typed here is my knowledge from years of my own research and experience (mix of science and bro-science).

We will cover one subject at a time: item 1 Hormones item 2 Calories/Nutrition (ties into hormones) item 3 Fasting item 4 Exercise

When trying to build muscle/burn fat, you want certain hormones to be up (T, GH) and others to be down most of the time (Cortisol, Insulin). T and GH are the building blocks of muscle building, as you see men build muscle easier than women because we naturally produce more T. Increase your T by: item 1 Compound movements item 2 Proper Nutrition/Protein intake item 3 Enough fat intake item 4 Consistent/Proper sleep When you get inconsistent sleep (one night sleep 8 hours, another night get 6, the third night get 5), your T levels can drop dramatically. Inconsistent sleep also hinders recovery and the fat burning process, as most of these take place during sleep, not the gym. Hormone production is mainly based off of fat intake, at your hormones are produced by fats. Your brain is 70% fat bro, your body boldNEEDSbold fats to function properly. I hate when bros and idiots talk about low-fat diets; you will feel like total ass. GH (growth hormone) has been coined as the "anti-aging" and "fat burning" hormone. Ways to increase GH are: item 1 Compound movements item 2 Proper sleep item 3 Fasting item 4 Intense exercise (HIIT) Growth hormone is secreted mainly at night when you are sleeping, that is why sleep is boldextremelybold important, especially getting 7-9 hours a night. GH is secreted during long periods of fasting as well, which is why IF is important during this process. Intense exercise such as the compound movements or HIIT also secretes GH, as HIIT and the compounds force your body into its most anabolic states. Bro, just lift big weights and run sprints. Cortisol and Insulin are two hormones not talked about much, but play a huge role in fat burning. The more Cortisol (stress hormone) in your body, the harder it is to burn fat. The higher your Insulin levels/spikes, the harder it is to burn fat. Take a look at people that have type II diabetes; nuff sed. Decrease your cortisol by: item 1 Proper recovery item 2 Proper sleep item 3 Do not overtrain Decreasing insulin will tie more into diet/nutrition more than any other hormone. Insulin spikes happen whenever you eat food, but some foods cause more spikes than others. High insulin spike foods include: shitty carbs, fried foods, alcohol, and sugar. One thing the doctors don't tell their diabetes patients is to boldfast.bold Not only will your body secrete GH while fasting, your insulin will be lower because you are not eating food all the time. Look back into our primal cave days; people weren't eating 3-6 meals a day, they had to go through famines just to have 1 meal after days. You don't have to do this, but you get my point. Fast with what works best for you: item 1 16 hour fast 8 hour eating window item 2 20 hour fast 4 hour eating window item 3 sit down and have one giant meal for the day I mixed it up and sometimes I had an 8 hour eating window, other times I ate all my 1800 calories in one sitting (not as hard as you think). It depends on what is going on through the day with work and life.

Calories are our basic energy source. We know without them, we will not survive. The easiest way to find your maintenance calories is to either use a calculator online, or multiply your body weight by 15. This will give you good estimate. Most diets say that when you cut your calories, subtract 500 from maintenance, I did not do this. This is a good deficit, but I took my body weight and multiplied by 10, this gives me a large deficit. For example, I started by taking my BW (180) and multiplied by 10, this means I can only get 1800 calories in a day. This is why fasting makes this easier as well, as I am getting my hormone benefits but also restricting myself on eating times, making it easier to fit my window. So: item 1 Find maintenance calories and subtract 500 item 2 Multiply body weight by 10 For this diet, I did mainly higher fat/protein with lower carb. This is my diet naturally anyway, as I try to stay away from shitty foods like bread/pasta. Each food I ate had specific purposes, as I ate for macros, but also micros, in specific, potassium, as many people are unknowingly deficient in it. Potassium is essential for building muscle and maintaining it, as without potassium, your muscles will not contract or recover properly. I'll list my foods: Proteins (tie in with fats): eggs with every meal (usually 4), bacon, ground beef, chicken, protein shakes. I love eggs and cannot get enough of them, usually eating them every day. Fats: bacon, ground beef, avocados (super fat with great potassium), cheese, nuts. Carbs: oatmeal (low sugar), beans (rarely), occasional sweet potato, occasional fruit, and veggies, specifically spinach (potassium goldmine). Do not drink calories unless it is a protein shake or unsweetened almond milk, as it is only 30 calories a cup and has great calcium content (important micro). You will enter a moderate state of ketosis on this diet and if that's your thing cool, I just loved these foods and eating them daily I never grew tired of them. Make sure to get plenty of potassium, calcium, and don't worry about sodium intake; you will be fine with higher sodium. Micros are more important than you think. For cooking, my usual meal at about 4 would be 3 pieces of bacon then cook 4 eggs in the grease and put this in a bowl and slice an avocado in it. Cook pack of oatmeal and a bag of steamed veggies. Sometimes, I'd add ketchup to my eggs (believe me it's good). This meal was about 700-900 calories and I felt FULL at the end. These foods do not spike insulin as much as most carbs do, that's why my carb intake was usually 50-75 each day. At the end of the day, just make sure your fats and proteins are higher than carbs.

For exercise, I ran a push/pull/leg split but you can do full body 3 times a week, it's all about preference. When cutting, always lift boldHEAVY.bold A lot of bros talk about going lighter and doing more reps to rip the muscles up but lifting heavy is smarter as you will retain as much strength and muscle as possible. On my compounds I did 4 sets of 5. Get a weight you know you can do for this many reps and you will retain muscle. If running a split like I did, surround your program around the compounds, don't bullshit like 90% of the people my age and start with some fucking bicep curls. Fuck that. Save your curls for the end of your pull day and only if necessary bro. HIIT cardio is only necessary boldtwicebold a week, as it is strenuous and takes long for the body to recover. Run sprints for HIIT and never do the moderate jog or bullshit on the treadmill, this WILL hinder your muscle retention on a cut (trust me from past experience). Otherwise, get on a treadmill and put the incline high (10-15) and walk at a pace of 3.0-3.6. Cardio is not necessary in general, but will speed the process up so I tried to do cardio 4-6 days a week on top of my 6 days a week of weights. I also trained abs 4 times a week.

Doing this, you will notice your carbs are lower, therefore you will not have as much glycogen in your muscle stores. This will mean you might feel slightly more fatigued in the gym sometimes, but you will mainly notice some of your vascularity disappear, as well as your muscles feeling flat. boldDO NOT WORRYbold this is all part of the cut. Just stick to your plan and your calories, making sure you are getting good proteins and fats, good sleep, and making it to the gym every day. Take cold showers for your extra benefits (recovery) and extra calorie expenditure and make sure you mainly hit your compounds hard and this WILL work for you.

boldExtrabold Supplements are often talked about for being magical; no, they are not. They are meant to help, but not be the main cause of something. Supplements I recommend: item 1 Creatine Monohydrate item 2 Whey protein powder item 3 Athlete-based multivitamin item 4 Fish oil For the first time ever, I decided to take creatine monohydrate during this cut. Yes, take creatine. I believe that when taking creatine during a cut it will help you retain your muscle that you have worked hard for. There are tons of studies on creatine mono, it's good stuff. Whey protein just makes it a little easier to get your protein and can help curve a sugar craving if you mix it with almond milk. I just go to target and buy it cheap there, you don't need anything special. For the vitamins, I decided to take these because I know while cutting, it is difficult to get all of your essential micros because you are restricting your calories. I went to GNC and got this bottle of pill athlete vitamins. Fish oil is just good for your brain and I've been taking it for years. You don't have to take fish oil, but I recommend it for a health standpoint.

bold TL;DR cutting calories, lifting heavy, higher fat/protein diet, HIIT cardio, good sleep, and attention to your micro nutrients will help you get cut as fuck.bold

If anyone needs any help 1-on-1 just PM me, I'd be happy to help, as health sciences is my pursuit in school etc. Best of luck.