by EM2WL | Jan 24, 2012 | Fat Loss / Cutting, Fitness Cycles (Periodization)
Q: How do you keep muscle through the cutting phase? Since you are doing less heavy lifting do you find your muscles soften up? As much as I love the “get ready for summer” routines, I always find this happening to me.
A: The same thing happens to me if I do the “summer ready” (aka circuit heavy) rotations for too long. There’s really a fine line between having th
at muscle and then “losing” it. I say “losing” because technically the muscles are still there, but due to the type of workouts you’re doing, you don’t see them. It’s similar to what competitors and fitness models experience when dialing it in for a show/photo shoot. Everything factors in, and the timing is crucial on eats, training methods, etc.. If you stay in cut mode for just a week past your “peak,” you could fall completely flat (your muscles that is, and you seem to be back to square one). But at the same measure, if you move through this phase too quickly (losing weight more rapidly than necessary), then you really could be losing quite a bit of muscle. This is especially true when you are eating at an extreme caloric deficit. Some studies have shown that 25% of your weight loss on a very low cal diet, comes from muscle. Sucks, huh? This is why it’s recommended to build as MUCH muscle as possible, because it’s so much easier to lose it than it is to gain it.
Also, just because you’re cutting doesn’t mean you need to drop the heavy weights. Let the eating/cardio do their work, but keep your weights as heavy as they can be for that particular rep range (you can honestly cut at any rep range on the right diet). That way you can preserve as much muscle as possible and hopefully lose fat and gain muscle.
Q: I always struggle with my carb/sugar intake over the summer months because I’m a fruit-a-holic when it comes to summer fruit. And because it’s around for such a short period, I like to take advantage. So, I wondered how you deal with summer fruits? Are you still in your cutting phase at that point? How long does your cutting phase typically last for?
A: I typically cut for 12-15 weeks, but plan for twelve. I garden, and also love taking advantage of fresh fruit, from farmers markets, etc.. I do a lot of green smoothies, which use a ton of fruit, but because of the greens, keep the blood sugar regulated. I also eat the fruit plain, or in fruit salads.
Different people respond to fructose differently. I’ve heard of a lot of people say that it’s detrimental to their cut, but I haven’t really found that to be the case for me, or my clients, unless they are diabetic or otherwise carbohydrate sensitive. I just try to make sure that I choose fruits higher in fiber, so that it doesn’t cause a huge insulin 
(sugar) spike, and also eat it with enough protein. If I just eat fruit alone, I notice that I’m starving in like 30 minutes. So my philosophy with all sugars (regardless of type) is to eat them with fiber to help regulate digestion. So whether it a coffeecake, muffins, brownies, or fresh fruit, I figure out a way to incorporate that extra fiber (i.e. eating raspberries vs bananas, or using bananas only in green smoothies or after workout shakes, using whole wheat flour vs white, etc.).
I say eat the fruit, if you notice that its holding you back, then adjust. I pay more attention to my fiber intake in my macros than my sugar intake…I won’t really look at cutting out fruits until maybe the last couple weeks or so of my cut, and that’s ONLY if I’m not happy with where I am and want that extra edge. Which is usually never.
Q: So, basically when you go into cut mode, you’re just decreasing the amount of calories you eat and still working out the same?
A: Yes and no. I actually may do more than 2 days of cardio (yes, shocking!). I eat the same…but…better, lol. The cal reduction typically comes from carbs/fat, while trying to keep the protein steady. I’m a little too carb/fat happy during my bulk, just because I can be. The thing that suffers because of that is the belly. And since it’s the first thing to go, and the last thing to come back (next to my arms) that’s what the cleanup really helps. I could actually keep my cals exactly the same, but lower fat/carbs & get decent results. But since I enjoy my them, and my meals are insanely boring without them, I just eat smaller portions/better choices (sweet potato vs white, berries instead of bananas, etc.) of them, with my protein in order to compromise with myself. That’s why I could probably never compete, I love food too much, and tend to settle at getting cut “enough.”
by EM2WL | Jan 24, 2012 | Building Muscle, Cardio, Fat Loss / Cutting
Q*: I am still looking to lose around 25 lbs, but don’t want to lose muscle, how much cardio do you think I should do, or would it be better to do total body workouts for awhile and skip the cardio? Not sure I could do that though, lol.
A: Since you plan on being in fat burning mode for a little while longer, it’s fine if you want to keep some cardio in, until you get to where you want to be. Try not to make cardio your main focus, though, if you can help it.
Do activities that you enjoy for the sake of having fun. Not just to force-feed cardio into your routine because you think you “need” it. Remember “cardio for fun, weights to transform.”
Cardio or Strength Training? Cardio obviously has great health benefits, and we’d never recommend that someone who loves it, completely omit it (just look at Lucia with her beloved Zumba). Instead, we simply make this recommendation from a fat loss goal-based emphasis. It will come in real handy to have that “trump card”– as I like to call it — when you’re close to the finish line, and hit that infamous plateau that comes along. If you are only doing cardio to lose weight, then every time you hit a plateau, you will need to increase your cardio just to get the same results. Before you know it, you’re doing cardio for hours on end, with little to no payoff.
If you are strength training, on the other hand, and hit a plateau, you only need to adjust weight or repetitions to break it. You do NOT have to spend more time doing it, though. Another trick is to try to get a cardio burn from your weights as well, with total body/circuits/and leg work. Those will all help invoke a cardio factor without hours of cardio. They will also help you to preserve the muscle you’ve built so far. You can continue in that manner until you get to a point where you are ready to actually build more muscle (and are no longer eating in deficit), then you can switch it up to suit you.
My only advice is to switch things up every 4-6 weeks, so that your body doesn’t get to used to any one tactic. So if you’re going crazy on cardio and doing full body workouts, switch to a split for maybe 2-4 weeks to provide the shock to your body, so you don’t just fall into a routine. Then you can go back to it if you like. The reason? The last thing that you want for your body is to become “efficient” in fat burning. Though it sounds like a good thing, it’s not. It means that your metabolism slows down and NEEDS the things that you’re doing in order to burn the same amount of calories. Which, net effect will lower your maintenance calories, causing you to have to eat less and less in order to break plateaus, and at the same time have to work harder and harder.
Since our metabolism already declines as we age, there’s NO reason for us to speed up this process. My ultimate goal when losing my weight, was to lose it doing the LEAST amount of cardio possible and eating the MOST amount of food possible, lol (but then again, I was never really fond of cardio). That way, as I came to plateaus or as I aged and those numbers had to increase & decrease (respectively), it will still be manageable…if that makes any sense. Let’s be honest, if being fit/healthy is a lifelong goal, at some point (80-90yrs old?) it MAY be required that we eat next to nothing, and do 3 hours of cardio each day (and possibly another hour at night?), but if we start doing that now then we may be stuck eating nothing and working out 7 hours/day by the time we get to that age (if such an age exists).
*Q & A posts are excerpts from actual submitted emails from clients and fam. Have a question that you’d like to see addressed in Q & A or explained in a future article? Drop us a line below!
by EM2WL | Jan 23, 2012 | Building Muscle, Fat Loss / Cutting, Fitness Cycles (Periodization), Increasing calories
Q: I’ve heard you talk a lot about you being in different “phases.” Can you describe how you, personally incorporate the 5 Phases of EM2WL? Especially your bulk/cut cycles?
A: While I’m mostly in maintenance/chill now, it took a while to get here. I spent several years focused on getting my eats up, rebuilding my muscle mass, and increasing my metabolism with bulk cycles. Throughout the course of a year, I rotated mainly through 3-4 of the phases. This is because my “bulk” phases negated the need to “reset.” Here’s an example of how I (personally) cycled through the phases in my early years:
Phase 1: Bulk – This is when I’d eat slightly above maintenance level, and lift as heavy as possible.
Remember: eating above maintenance, is needed in order to add on muscle.
This is typically when I’d do a 3-6 month muscle-based periodized program*, that relied heavily on my 1 rep max being figured in. I did minimal cardio, only as needed for health purposes (0-2xs/week, sessions around 30 min), but I did not focus on losing weight at all during this time.
I’d still weigh in on occasion, as the goal was a controlled, and purposeful gain – not simply a free-for-all with the word “bulk” slapped on it (in the old-school bodybuilding sense, LOL). I’d still keep the eats similar to how they’d be in a cut – just ate more of it. Protein didn’t change, but I’d add in a bit more carbs than during my cut and try to keep the protein as high as possible.
During the bulking phase, I kept a close eye on my body fat levels, more-so than the actual weight on the scale. If the weight was going up, but body fat was staying steady, I’d keep going – if it was vice versa, I tighten up the eats, or move on to the cut phase.
I gain fat almost as easily as I gain muscle, so the bulking phase was always an extremely delicate balance for me. I’d usually plan for it to last for 3-5 months OR until my clothes began to get uncomfortable (the clothes often won, LOL). I naturally picked Fall/Winter for this phase, as dressing in looser fitting layers most of the time, and being sensitive (mentally) to scale fluctuations made it easer to stick it out for as long as possible.
Phase 2: Cut – I’d typically start this phase early spring (March/April) in order to deflate a bit (bulking water retention is REAL!) and prepare mentally for the lighter fabrics (and less layers) of the up-coming season.
Depending on how “clean” my bulk phase was, this typically ran pretty smoothly. I’d begin by slowly (and by slow, I mean s.l.o.w) lowering my cals on a week by week basis…IF needed. If I was seeing results, I stayed until I didn’t anymore. If I hit my max cal lowering point, and results had come to a halt. I’d go back up to maintenance for a week or two, and then lower them again.
If I was still at a standstill, I’d adjust the workouts using the same strategy. I’d slowly increase the volume, load, or density of my workouts (ex: lifting 5-6 days instead of 3-4, adding sets or reps, reducing rest periods, replacing split workouts with a few full body/circuit workouts in order to invoke the “cardio factor” into every workout, increasing NEAT, etc).
The reason that I emphasize how slowly I moved is because depending on how long my cut phase would last, I needed to be able to continue to adjust with each plateau. This is why my results rarely stagnated for long. Also, I like to be able to lose fat, while still eating as much as possible, and to still have another “trick” up my sleeve, so to speak. So I never got super restrictive with my cals (i.e. going below 1800) or excessive with my cardio (ie. more than 3xs/week) until I was almost at the finish line, so that I didn’t subject my body to it for more than 2-4 weeks MAX.
I never wanted my body to just adjust to high cardio and low cals, and think that it was the new norm, because there was no way that I could keep it up. Engaging in something so unsustainable at the beginning of a long cut, would be setting myself up for failure. So basically, stubborn fat loss tricks stayed up my sleeve unless 100% necessary…
Phase 3: Maintain/Chill – If all went well up until this point (typically around June/July), this period would be smooth sailing. I pretty much kick back and enjoy the fruits of my labor during this point, knowing that I’m ready for an impromptu trip to the beach or other random event where skin may be involved, lol. (And if things hadn’t gone well…well, I went shopping and figured out how to enjoy it anyway!)
This is when I’d enjoy doing any and all workouts, not necessarily focusing fat loss, muscle building or on any one particular thing.
This is when I’d allow myself to be more random (seeking more mental vs physique results from my workouts). For example: I’d do body-part splits and full body workouts in the same week (like two splits, one full), and begin to tone down the cardio just a bit – unless it involved some fun in the sun. For me, Summer was the perfect time to enjoy some of my workout DVD’s that may have been neglected during specific phases. They’d give me any variety or autonomy that I may have been missing, and allow me to stay in shape.
But I did not depend on them to do anything specific for my body other than that.
My eats slowly increased back to maintenance level (I’d re-test it each year by slowly increasing to see what my new maintenance was) which was typically slightly higher than it was the year before, thanks to the added muscle! And after a period of logging at my new maintenance level, I’d take a break from logging altogether and just enjoy the season (Chill!)
*You can get access to the exact workouts that I create for trainers, gyms, and my own clients via The EM2WL Method Workout App.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: Will I not succeed/not build muscle/not lose weight/plateau/fall off the face of the earth, if I don’t do your “fitness cycles” or “bulk cut cycles”?
A: Maybe it’s time for my disclaimer… So, here it goes:
I’m not saying that everyone wanting to build muscle must do it in the same phases that I do, or even use the traditional “bodybuilding” cut/bulk cycles. After years of trial & error, that is the method that I (Kiki) found works best for me, helps me to put on a good amount of muscle, and (most importantly) is convenient. For my lifestyle, it is just more practical to build muscle, deal with any unexpected “puffiness,” and eat more calorie dense foods starting right around Thanksgiving (convenient/brilliant, huh?). It is also more practical for me to eat less, do more cardio etc. when the weather is warmer, we are having active family outings, my garden is in full swing- so I have lots of fresh fruit/vegetables, and my hens (yes, I really have hens) are popping those suckers (eggs) out by the dozen. In addition to that, there are more clothing layers in cool months, so I can maneuver the clothing enough to look as if nothing has changed – a lot harder to do in warm months where more skin is exposed. I’ve learned the hard way that FOR ME, attempting to lose weight during the holidays, is equally as futile as trying to bulk during bathing suit season (been there, done that…DISASTER). My body is way too sensitive to the fluctuations/water retention, and it always backfires.
So THAT’S how I chose, and it’s made my (and my family’s) life much more pleasant. But, if that’s not YOUR convenient schedule then you may need your cycles to be shorter/at different times of the year. Maybe you don’t want to give yourself that much leeway on the scale, or you have events going on all year round where more “body” is exposed, or you live in a warm/cold climate year round. You can set your goals accordingly. You can stay in certain phases longer/shorter. You could do a gradual body recomposition throughout the year inserting 4-6 weeks dedicated solely to building muscle throughout the year, as often as it can fit, or do one month build, one month cut, etc.. There are many paths, but you SHOULD try to chose one, just walking aimlessly through your fitness journey should no longer be an option.
For more info/ideas on doing a body recomp, check out sites like Lyle McDonald’s website, Body Recompostion. He’s big on finding your happy medium, and the “bulk a little, cut a little” concept.
at muscle and then “losing” it. I say “losing” because technically the muscles are still there, but due to the type of workouts you’re doing, you don’t see them. It’s similar to what competitors and fitness models experience when dialing it in for a show/photo shoot. Everything factors in, and the timing is crucial on eats, training methods, etc.. If you stay in cut mode for just a week past your “peak,” you could fall completely flat (your muscles that is, and you seem to be back to square one). But at the same measure, if you move through this phase too quickly (losing weight more rapidly than necessary), then you really could be losing quite a bit of muscle. This is especially true when you are eating at an extreme caloric deficit. Some studies have shown that 25% of your weight loss on a very low cal diet, comes from muscle. Sucks, huh? This is why it’s recommended to build as MUCH muscle as possible, because it’s so much easier to lose it than it is to gain it.
(sugar) spike, and also eat it with enough protein. If I just eat fruit alone, I notice that I’m starving in like 30 minutes. So my philosophy with all sugars (regardless of type) is to eat them with fiber to help regulate digestion. So whether it a coffeecake, muffins, brownies, or fresh fruit, I figure out a way to incorporate that extra fiber (i.e. eating raspberries vs bananas, or using bananas only in green smoothies or after workout shakes, using whole wheat flour vs white, etc.).
Recent Comments