If you are someone who regularly tries to bulk up and build as much muscle as possible, before trying to burn off any excess fat that you might have accumulated along the way, you will know that it is extremely difficult to switch from a bulking cycle to a cutting cycle just like that.
There are several reasons why. For a start, you obviously need to make changes to your regular eating habits when you start to think about cutting fat and getting lean, and this is not always that easy to do.
You will find that you can no longer consume 3000 or 4000 calories per day if you are looking to burn off some excess fat. You now need to cut your daily calorie intake quite considerably if you want to get your overall body fat percentage down (generally less than 2500 calories for men and 2000 calories for women).
Similarly, you need to make some changes to your regular training program, and start to focus more on cardio training rather than strength training.
So instead of working your chest, shoulders, back, arms and legs on separate days, you need to start incorporating cardio exercises into your training routine and devote entire days to treadmill, elliptical or exercise bike workouts, for instance, which many people don’t enjoy anywhere near as much.
Indeed a lot of gym users like to lift weights and feel the pump in their arms and chest, but don’t feel the same buzz when they are running on a treadmill or cycling on an upright bike for 30 minutes, which makes this kind of training program hard to stick to.
Another potential problem, in addition to the change of diet and the change of training program, is that many people don’t really know what kind of supplements they should be taking to promote fat burning.
There are endless supplements that can help increase strength and promote muscle growth, such as protein shakes and supplements, for example, but it is a lot harder to find out which weight loss supplements actually work because many of them are not really that effective.
One final problem, and it is related to the previous point, is that many people don’t really know how to lose weight without losing any of their newly acquired muscle gains. Therefore they may not do as much cardio as they should because they are afraid of losing muscle mass, and will subsequently not reduce their body fat as much as they hoped they would.
However the solution to this is to simply continue doing a little bit of strength training just to retain muscle mass, and possibly consider taking a cutting supplement (or a combination of supplements) that have the ability to increase strength, build muscle and promote fat burning in the body.
The point is that if you have spent the winter months bulking up and now need to burn fat in order to achieve a lean and ripped physique in time for the summer, it is definitely not easy to switch from a bulking cycle to a cutting cycle, but it is still possible to be successful if you follow a few simple rules:
- Reduce your daily calorie intake
- Start doing a lot more cardio training
- Continue doing a little strength training to retain muscle
- Take a cutting supplement that burns fat and increases muscle growth
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