Will doing less sets affect cut?

[YungSacca]

Hi, I am a 23 yo female currently cutting from 140 lbs
5 ft 5 inches
1300 calories consumed daily
130g protein daily
16-8 Intermittent fasting

Currently Workout 5 days a week; 2 strength days and 3 hypertrophy days. (Have been working out for about 4 months now and have gained some nice lean mass). Moving forward I won't have as much time to dedicate to the gym and have found a 4 day program with two days for strength and two for hypertrophy that focuses on compound movements which are already in my current program. I would be omitting most isolation exercises with this one.

I currently do for eg 5x6 for squats on strength days and 5x10-12 on hypertrophy days but this new program shows that I'd be doing 4 sets instead of 5. My question is if reducing sets would affect my progress or cause me to lose muscle mass. I have been able to maintain all my lifts and still progressing on some.

What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance

[SuffolkPunch]

When cutting, muscle growth often slows or stops. So reducing total workload will make that more likely to happen.

Having said that, not many people experience much muscle growth when dieting - and simply maintaining muscle is much easier to do. So chances are that you'll be fine if you really need to reduce volume.

[sunsean]

I routinely drop lifting volume when cutting - but keep the weight on the bar the same as long as possible. The goal during this phase is to maintain muscle, which requires less total volume than building muscle...if you can keep moving the same weight on the bar, and your diet is in check with adequate protein, you should be fine.

[Nicksosure1]

I routinely drop lifting volume when cutting - but keep the weight on the bar the same as long as possible. The goal during this phase is to maintain muscle, which requires less total volume than building muscle...if you can keep moving the same weight on the bar, and your diet is in check with adequate protein, you should be fine.

I agree here as well. While you may not need the same volume, you definitely still want your body to send the biggest muscle building signals possible in a cut for retention purposes. Best way to do this is lift as heavy as possible for as long as possible.

[Tommy W.]

Lower volume but don’t lower intensity and definitely don’t go high rep. Don’t reduce weight just reduce volume to a level to where you can recover properly

[Nicksosure1]

Lower volume but don’t lower intensity and definitely don’t go high rep. Don’t reduce weight just reduce volume to a level to where you can recover properly

Made this mistake when I reached a low BF% and decided to take it lower. I was a muscle-losing machine.

[Tommy W.]

Made this mistake when I reached a low BF% and decided to take it lower. I was a muscle-losing machine.

yep you’re telling your body it doesn’t need to be strong anymore so it’s ok to eat the muscle as it would rather keep the fat.

[Ghawk21]

yep you’re telling your body it doesn’t need to be strong anymore so it’s ok to eat the muscle as it would rather keep the fat.

Its unfortunate that some people still believe, and some fitness "stars" still perpetuate the BS that low weight+high reps are for cutting and "toning"

[Tommy W.]

Its unfortunate that some people still believe, and some fitness "stars" still perpetuate the BS that low weight+high reps are for cutting and "toning"

Haha whenever I hear the word TONE from a trainer it’s instant loss of cred
And when someone wants to TONE instead of getting bulky it’s a big eye roller

[Nicksosure1]

yep you’re telling your body it doesn’t need to be strong anymore so it’s ok to eat the muscle as it would rather keep the fat.

Compound that with not knowing anything about nutrition or workout programming, not knowing how many calories I WASNT eating, not knowing about macros, barely eating any carbs and fats to support the training, and being fully convinced you are doing things right. Boom, you had me. Ended up being a 6'1 129lb skeleton lmao

[Tommy W.]

Compound that with not knowing anything about nutrition or workout programming, not knowing how many calories I WASNT eating, not knowing about macros, barely eating any carbs and fats to support the training, and being fully convinced you are doing things right. Boom, you had me. Ended up being a 6'1 129 lb skeleton lmao

JFC 6-1 and 129 didn't you start seeing a problem?