What does "cutting" mean

I've been lurking here for a while. A lot of questions I had get answered so I've never really posted.

I see a lot of discussion about cutting and I'm seeing the results that come out of it.

What is cutting? Do you basically work out a lot to build muscle, then just stop/eat very little? How long would someone cut for? Also, I thought if you stop/eat little you'll lose the muscle that you've been working on to build. How do you know how many calories to consume? Etc....

During cutting, do I still workout? Cardio or lifting or both?

Any responses would be great or even a link to explain.

Thanks

"Cutting" refers to the process of dropping body fat, while attempting to preserve as much muscle mass as possible.

Very generally speaking, you will reduce your calories to below maintenance level (in combination with increased cardio, typically) while continuing to lift heavy. If you are very interested in the process, do a search on "contest prep" nutrition.

[QUOTE=VoxExMachina;735107533]"Cutting" refers to the process of dropping body fat, while attempting to preserve as much muscle mass as possible.

Very generally speaking, you will reduce your calories to below maintenance level (in combination with increased cardio, typically) while continuing to lift heavy. If you are very interested in the process, do a search on "contest prep" nutrition.[/QUOTE]

Checking it out, thanks for the reply.

L

I was going to say a slow descent into hell but Vox pretty much nailed it.

Vox hit the nail on the head. For more info see this; [url]http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/layne36.htm[/url] Although geared towards competitive bb'ers this has a lot of solid info anyone wanting to "cut" can use.

Cutting as previously stated is an attempt to reduce body fat.

From your post, maybe unless you are extremely overweight, cutting should be of little concern. I say this because asking if you still workout during a cutting phases and do you basically work out to build a lot to build muscle and, then just stop and eat very little indicates you have very limited knowledge about weight training in general.

If you are overweight and desire to lost some body fat, I suggest you research information on losing body fat while weight training.
Cutting may too extreme for you and may result in undesired results due not enough muscle mass at the start of the cutting diet.

so in general a ways to go is something like this. FAT-LOSE WEIGHT-GET TO DESIRED WEIGHT-BULK-THEN CUT
is this right?

sorry, not necessarily that simple....depends on what you call "fat"....we get a lot of people on here, who call themselves "fat" and are dieting when they should be adding muscle....

but getting back to the original question, it is something that I harp upon all the time to posters on here: CUTTING is a very specific combination of diet plus training, and is geared for stage presentation....

as opposed to DIETING which is simply shedding weight....

people can diet and still look muscular, but CUTTING is more demanding, in that, as mentioned already, preservation of muscle tissue is paramount, PLUS: in a "cut" your goal is a very very low bodyfat percentage.

an average moderate exercising American male can weigh 220 pounds and lose 30 pounds through DIETING and to all around him, look very good....

CUTTING is not that simple and overt weight losses are NOT as important, as are, again, muscle retention, and overall LOOK.