Well, we’re nearing the end of this cut and there’s a lot of things to reflect on.

But to start, let’s recap what we’ve accomplished to date…

• Starting weight: 192.6 pounds
• Current weight: 175.4 pounds
• Strength: maintained
• Fat loss: maximized

We’ve ticked off just about every goal that was set at the beginning of this journey. Safe to say, it’s been a success.

A lot of positives, quite a few struggles, but in the end consistency and determination won out. That’s always the case with dieting. Play the long game and you’ll find success. Don’t get caught up in the day-to-day results.

Rather, keep working regardless of what the scale says. Believe in the plan and make small adjustments along the way. It’s gonna pay off in the end!

Training

The training aspect of this plan has been the biggest improvement since the last time I went through a similar cut.

Judging by my performance with the squat, bench press, and deadlift, I haven’t lost any strength. From start to finish, I’ve hit 80%, 85%, and 90% of my one-rep maxes each training block.

The main goal was to lose weight while maintaining strength. Mission accomplished.

For my other weight training, I saw quite a few movements actually progress upward in weight, which was a pleasant surprise. There were some movements that also saw a drop, but that’s to be expected.

Again, all-in-all we’re looking at positives from a performance aspect.

And finally, cardio… If you’ve followed me for any period of time you probably know I’m not a huge fan of cardio. With that said, we put in the work and got the job done. Spin sessions progressed from 20 minutes to upwards of 45 minutes. In terms of intensity, they increased from moderate intensity to extremely high intensity near the end of the cut.

Cardio progressed slowly in duration and intensity throughout the cut, and the results were what we hoped for: weight loss.

Nutrition

Managing my meal plan was surprisingly easy throughout this process.

Things started at 2,400 calories per day and decreased to around 1,800 and the lowest point. These totals are all down from around 2,800-3,000 calories per day prior to starting the cut.

I credit much of the ease of dieting to time restricted feeding (also called “intermittent fasting”). Eliminating breakfast to start my days about halfway through the cut made it easy to continue to drop calories and not go crazy.

I found simply drinking coffee in the morning was enough to tide me over until I became truly hungry and ready for my first solid meal.

The other driving factor to success with the meal plan was eating easily scalable foods. My diet consisted mostly of white rice and various meats, cheeses, and seasonings. All of these were easy to measure out and hit my macros. At the same time, it was easy to slowly cut down on rice and reduce carbohydrates over time.

My lowest macros were approximately 195 carbohydrate, 40 fat, 185 protein.

Conclusion

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Weight loss was actually the only goal I did not hit. Oddly enough, I’m not bothered by it.

At the start of this cut, I set out to lose 20 pounds. I ended up losing between 17-18 pounds.

The reason I set out to lose 20 pounds was because I lost a little more than 20 pounds in my 2017 cut. I figured I should lose the same amount of weight but look even better than two years ago.

As it turns out, I do look better than two years ago. I just didn’t need to lose 20 pounds to do it.

I credit that to smart training over the last two years. I’ve learned a ton over that time span and really taken my training to the next level. I’ve also fine-tuned my diet to be comprised mostly of whole, nutritious foods. That, combined with consistency, gave me a much better body composition to start.

Therefore, I had much less body fat to lose this time around. That’s a good problem to have, but you never know what you’re working with until you actually try to cut down.

I’m really pleased with how everything came together, but in a surprising little twist I’m not done. I plan to take a two-month diet break and then revisit cutting again later in the summer. I believe there’s another level of leanness I can get to, and I’d like to try and see what that looks like.

But for now, the cut ends! And I’m happy with my progress and proud of the effort I put in.

If you followed along throughout this cut, thanks for reading! And if you’re interested in coaching for a body transformation of your own, I’m always here as a coach. Feel free to contact me if you’d like help in achieving your goals.

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CGF