First time doing a cut

Taylor559

So i have decided i bulked long enough and trying to do a cut. So i found out my maintenance calories. I have a question do i still lift heavy and do i add cardio days into my work out. Or is it not necessary.

tomcustombuilder

Keep lifting heavy this is the most important factor to not lose muscle along with plenty of protein. Cardio gets to more necessary in relation to your lifestyle. The more sedentary you are outside of the gym the more realistic it is to add in some cardio.

You have to be careful with too big of a calorie deficit as it can backfire and cause less daily activity which will, in turn cause fewer overall calories to be burned.

If you add cardio on weight days do it at the end and do more steady state\moderate type rather than HIIT.

Retroguy2000

I would say it's more important to lift frequently than lift heavy. If you're cutting, you probably aren't going to be making new PR's. And yes, increase your cardio especially zone 2 like walking. Ideally, do your cardio session separate from the lifting, or if you can't, then do it after not before. If you haven't been doing much cardio so far then getting to at least 10K steps daily, and/or another 30+ mins a few times a week on the bike or similar, will help a lot.

Your diet is the most important factor though. Keep the protein high.

tomcustombuilder

If your weight training program has added muscle it will help to maintain muscle during a cut so don't change it. Possibly a bit less weekly volume but other than that just keep what you're doing. The weight on the bar may come down a little so just keep the intensity high.

Taylor559

Thanks everyone highly appreciate your feed back