You’ve bulked, or you still are bulking, but you eyes are firmly on the prize: you want to get lean and cut for summer, and finally expose those hard won muscles for all to see. But, how do you go about it?
Firstly, don’t be tempted to starve, or near starve yourself: this won’t work. All that will happen is you will cause your body to go into what is known as starvation mode, during which it will begin burning muscle for energy rather than fat, which is precisely the opposite of what you want.
Depending on the amount of time you have left before summer, you’re just going to have to take whatever comes. You can’t have unrealistic expectations and force yourself to lose a stone and a half in a month, say. Depending on how much fat you have, it may take anywhere between 6 to 2 months to lose it.
Naturally, the first thing you need to do is to reduce calories. How far? Well, until you start to lose fat. Try going for around 500 calories less than maintenance level per day: basically the opposite of the figure you used to bulk.
Don’t concern yourself too much with the scales. The real acid test is what the callipers say, so take regular body fat measurements, and you’ll soon know if you are heading in the right direction or not.
During the cutting phase, you’ll need to make sure you eat more protein than normal, so I would recommend eating no less than 1.5g per lb of bodyweight. You should also absolutely avoid simple carbs, as they are sure to counter your fat loss efforts.