Losing fat, maintaining muscle tips

The other day I gave my tips on how to lean bulk.  Well hopefully those tips help you put on some muscle mass with minimal fat gain. 
Now come summer most of us will cut, but this time trying to drop fat without losing all that hard earned muscle. 

Here some tips how:

1.  Eat less calories than you expend:
Pretty simple right? Well not always, but finding out how many calories your burn for maintenance (http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/) then simply lowering 300-500 calories below that to be in caloric deficient.  The goal is to keep as many calories as possible while seeing results. 

2.  Figure out macros:
Once calories are figured, I would keep protein high around 1-1.2g  per lb of body weight. Protein will help keep muscle,  higher Thermic effect of food (TEF) and satiety. (http://raystolive.weebly.com/1/post/2015/06/get-your-brotein.html)
  Keep Fats at least 25% to promote healthy hormones(which can be effected as you get low bf).  You could do 25-60% depending on preference and fill the rest with carbs.  Carbs will be important as they are protein sparing and will provide energy for heavy lifts. 
(ex: 185lb lifter)
Muscular cut daily caloric goal 2100 kcals.
1.2 g protein = 4 kcals
1g carbs = 4 kcals
1g fat = 9 kcals

Protein 1g per 1lb = 185g. 185g x 4 = 740 kcals
Fat 30% x 2100 = 630 kcals ÷ 9 = 70g fat
740 kcals + 630 kcals =1370
2100 - 1370 = 730
730 ÷ 4 = 182.5g Carbs
macros:
Protein- 185g
Fats - 70g
Carbs - 183g 

3. Lift heavy compound movements:
A lot of time when people start to cut they go to lower weight/higher rep protocol. This can be detrimental to strength and lean body mass.  I would keep the big 3 (bench, deadlift and squat) at beginning of each workout focusing all on heavy 5-12 rep. Also heavy secondary like military press, skull crushers,  lunges,  barbell curls.  Double progression protocol works well for these lifts.
http://raystolive.weebly.com/2/post/2015/06/double-progression-protocol.html

4. Have a re-feed day:
Even if there is loose science on Re-feed days, there has been data to suggest having a higher calorie/carb day at least once a week will improve maintaining muscle mass.  I would suggest this day be around your maintenance calories keeping protein and fat macros close to deficit days and filling extra calories with carbs.  This will be difficult to keep protein and fat macros lower and then increase carbs. I find fruit works well for this. (Like adding grapes or blueberries to oatmeal, etc..)

5. Do HIIT  cardio:
I'm not totally against steady state, but studies have shown HIIT to be more muscle sparing. I always have my clients do the least amount of cardio as possible and still see results.  I would use it to help break plateaus.  For example: for a client that hit a plateau I may drop calories by 50-100 and add a day of HIIT.
You should only need a minimum of 2-3 days of 15-20 min of cardio a week. Obviously depending on person and goal. 
(If like steady state then do it)

6. Make small adjustments:
When hit plateaus and more than likely you will, make small calorie adjustments.  Dropping intake by 50 - 100 calories then looking at trends in weight loss to see next adjustments.  This way you keep calories as high possible, allowing less metabolic adaptation and the more calories, the easier to adhere to.  

7. It takes time:
Slow and steady wins the race.  Give yourself plenty of time for cut.  The higher calories you can maintain and slower fat loss the more muscle you will maintain. Losing 1% per lb of body weight a week is great!  Ex: 300lbs 3lbs per week or 200lbs 2lbs per week.  We get it? 
Honestly I would love to see my clients lose .5-1lb per week.   I know everyone wants to be ripped tomorrow, but I promise you will enjoy cut more and have more muscle to show for it.

8. Look at weight loss trends:
I would weigh everyday and look to and see how your trends are moving.  You will have ups and downs. Weight loss is non linear, so by looking at your weight trends you can make adjustments as stated above. 

9. Use body fat percentage as tool for measurements. 
Body fat measuring devices like bio-metric hand held or calipers are not real accurate, but will give you an estimate,  but the real benefits is identifying lean body mass vs fat mass and seeing changes.  You can then see if you are possibly losing fat or muscle. 
For ex:
I weigh 180 with 10% body fat

180lbs x 10% = 18lbs fat mass 
18lbs - 180lbs = 162 lbm

Now next assessment 
I weigh 174lbs with 9% body fat

174 x 9% = 17.4lbs fat mass
17.4lbs - 174lbs = 156.4lbs

You can see here I only lost 0.6lbs of fat but almost 6lbs of muscle.  This would show me I may need to increase protein, heavy weight training or/and decrease cardio. 
With any cut there a high possibility to lose some muscle mass, but the objective is to keep that as minimum as possible. Knowing what your total weight is made of could help make better adjustments.
Progress photo updates can also serve important to see how your conditioning and cut is going.

Happy cutting!