Maintaining Muscle While Cutting

[HailMary]

Besides eating a good diet and lifting a couple times a week, are there any good ways to maintain muscle mass while cutting? I'm on my first cut and, after about two weeks, I've found that my lifts are starting to drop dramatically. My bench is already down about 10% as is my squat.

Any thoughts on ways to maintain muscle mass?

Thanks -HM

[gobbla]

assuming you're not at a huge calorie deficite\not doing tons of cardio you're probibly not going to lose enough muscle mass to worry about. it just doesn't really happen.

[HailMary]

That's a great response, gobbla. Just what I want to hear, in fact!

[BFG]

not sure why your lifts are dropping isnt something Ive ever experienced

[ichbinba]

if you're lifts are dropping that dramatically you may want to take another look at your nutritional intake. you may be cutting way few calories if your strength is severely suffering. I've personally never gotten stronger while cutting a lot of fat, but I've never gotten weaker either. At the very least pay very close attention to pre/post workout nutrition to optimize your workout and recovery.

[Tony Gentilcore]

If your performance is dropping in the gym, you may need to increase calories a bit.

I have seen (and experienced it myself) setting PR's while dieting. It's a matter of not getting into the mentality that you have to "feel the burn in order to burn fat." Stick with heavier loads, keep the diet clean, and maybe toss in a few days per week of brisk walking.

But again, my first hunch is that you dropped total kcal intake too low.

[RedLefty]

HailMary,

I HIGHLY recommend you read this whole thread, but at least read posts #13 and #23 from one of the best in the business. It should ease your worries.

[Waittz]

Ive never really heard of anyone losing drastic amnounts of muscle when cutting. Jsut make sure you're eating enough to fuel your workouts and lift heavy. Like tony said, when i cut I usually can get stronger if push hard enough. That beeing said the harder you work in the gym your body will try hard to keep the muscle since it knows it still needs it.

[Keith S.]

Not to hijack but Tony, do you have any body fat?

[DKing]

Originally Posted by HailMary

Besides eating a good diet and lifting a couple times a week, are there any good ways to maintain muscle mass while cutting? I'm on my first cut and, after about two weeks, I've found that my lifts are starting to drop dramatically. My bench is already down about 10% as is my squat.

Any thoughts on ways to maintain muscle mass?

Thanks -HM

No one has touched on what you are doing program wise. You might need some changes there. If volume is too high and your body just can't recover from what you are doing in the gym then strength is going to drop. When dieting its not a bad idea to drop volume slightly.

The drop in strength isn't necessarily a loss in muscle it could easily just be a loss in recovery. (which left unchecked is going to lead to a drop in muscle)

Danny