Bodybuilding is a sport judged on physical appearance rather than strength, pushing competitors to develop a balanced, lean, and muscular physique. Many bodybuilders follow bulking and cutting phases, with the cutting phase focusing on fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. This article provides a detailed 12-week cutting diet plan for women.
Understanding the Cutting Phase
The cutting phase typically lasts 12-26 weeks and involves specific changes in diet and exercise. The goal is to lose fat while preserving muscle mass developed during the bulking phase.
Calorie Intake: Finding Your Maintenance Level
To determine your calorie needs, weigh yourself at least three times a week and track your food intake using a calorie tracking app. If your weight remains stable, you've found your "maintenance" level. During the cutting phase, decrease your maintenance calories by about 15%. For example, if your maintenance level is 3,000 calories, consume 2,550 calories daily during the cut. Revisit your calorie goals monthly to adjust for weight changes, decreasing calories as you lose weight for continued progression. Aim to lose 0.5-1% of your body weight per week to avoid excessive muscle loss.
Calculating Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
To figure out calories, especially when working to add muscle mass, the careful addition of calories in the right way will make or break a bodybuilding program’s results. First, you’ll start by calculating your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR is the number of calories your body needs to function and does not consider any calories burned during activity. You should not consume less than your BMR calories as it will quickly slow the metabolism.
To calculate BMR, you can use an online calculator or, knowing your current body fat percentage, you can do the math yourself. To calculate yourself, first, use calipers or a bioelectrical impedance tool to measure body fat. An InBody scale, BodPod, or water weighing will give the most accurate body composition results.
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(total weight in lbs./100) x (100 - body fat %) = lean body mass in lbs.total weight - lean body mass = fat mass
Assume that half of the lean body mass is muscle tissue and half is essential organs, bone, and tissue.
lean body mass/2 = muscle mass in lbs.
Muscle burns 30-50 calories per pound per day. 30 calories would be a relatively inactive individual while 50 calories would be for a highly active person. Multiply muscle mass in lbs. by 30 = low range of calories needed or BMRMultiply muscle mass in lbs. by 50 = high range of calories needed.
Now, you have a range of calories to work with. Typically, an average of these two numbers will give a good starting point for daily calories. Every individual is different, so small adjustments may be necessary to find the correct balance. Allow one to two weeks to track changes before adjusting the diet. Remember, as your body composition changes, adjust this number as well.
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With the required calories for the day, you’ll add 200-500 calories to the daily total for muscle building and, when the timing is right, remove 200-500 calories from the daily need for fat loss.
Macronutrient Ratio: Balancing Protein, Carbs, and Fats
The ratio between protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake is crucial. Protein and carbs contain 4 calories per gram, while fat contains 9. A typical cutting diet includes:
- 30-35% calories from protein
- 55-60% calories from carbs
- 15-20% calories from fat
Consult a registered dietician to determine your individual needs and ensure your diet is nutritionally adequate.
Macronutrient Calculations Example
Using the calorie example of 2,550 calories, your macronutrient breakdown could be:
- Protein: 30% x 2,550 calories = 765 calories / 4 calories per gram = 191 grams of protein
- Carbs: 55% x 2,550 calories = 1,402.5 calories / 4 calories per gram = 351 grams of carbs
- Fat: 15% x 2,550 calories = 382.5 calories / 9 calories per gram = 42.5 grams of fat
Adjusting Macronutrients
For a bodybuilder looking to gain muscle mass with a heavier workout routine and, in many cases, the addition of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), the ratio needs to accommodate the greater intensity. The protein ideally bumps towards 45-50% of the daily calorie intake (not to exceed 1g of protein per pound of body weight for long-term kidney health) with the calorie intake from carbohydrates around 30% of the daily calories and fats with the remaining 20-25% of daily calories.
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An important side note on fats-engaging in low-fat dieting can disrupt women’s hormones. Fats aid in the production of female hormones and other important body functions. Too little fat in the diet will disrupt hormones and can lead to many other issues in the body. Some athletes find higher-fat diets to work well for them. Trial and error with results and progress tracking will help determine if you need minor adjustments to calorie numbers or the ideal macronutrient split.
Food Choices: Nutrient-Dense Options
You can generally eat the same foods while bulking or cutting, adjusting the quantity. Focus on nutrient-rich foods from various food groups:
- Meats, poultry, and fish: Sirloin steak, ground beef, pork tenderloin, venison, chicken breast, salmon, tilapia, and cod
- Dairy: Yogurt, cottage cheese, low fat milk, and cheese
- Grains: Bread, cereal, crackers, oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn, and rice
- Fruits: Oranges, apples, bananas, grapes, pears, peaches, watermelon, and berries
- Starchy vegetables: Sweet potatoes, corn, green peas, green lima beans, and cassava
- Vegetables: Broccoli, leafy greens, tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, and mushrooms
- Seeds and nuts: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds
- Beans and legumes: Chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, black beans, and pinto beans
- Oils: Olive oil, flaxseed oil, and avocado oil
Foods to Limit or Avoid
Limit or avoid these foods during bulking and cutting:
- Alcohol: Negatively affects muscle building and fat loss.
- Added sugars: Offer calories but few nutrients; found in candy, cookies, soda, and sugary drinks.
- Deep-fried foods: May promote inflammation and disease; examples include fried fish and french fries.
Before workouts, avoid foods that slow digestion or cause stomach upset:
- High-fat foods: Fatty meats, buttery foods, and heavy sauces
- High-fiber foods: Beans and cruciferous vegetables
- Carbonated beverages: Sparkling water or diet soda
Sample Meal Plan
A typical week of meals might look like the following:
Monday
- Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, oatmeal, and a pear
- Snack: Low-fat cottage cheese with blueberries
- Lunch: Venison burger, white rice, and broccoli
- Snack: Protein shake and a banana
- Dinner: Salmon, quinoa, and asparagus
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Protein pancakes with light syrup, peanut butter, and raspberries
- Snack: Hard-boiled eggs and an apple
- Lunch: Sirloin steak, sweet potato, and spinach salad with vinaigrette
- Snack: Protein shake and a peach
- Dinner: Ground turkey and marinara sauce over pasta, with a side of cauliflower
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Chicken sausage with egg, roasted potatoes, and an apple
- Snack: Greek yogurt, strawberries, and almonds
- Lunch: Turkey breast, basmati rice, and mushrooms
- Snack: Protein shake and grapes
- Dinner: Mackerel, brown rice, asparagus, and salad leaves with vinaigrette
Thursday
- Breakfast: Ground turkey, egg, cheese, and salsa in a whole-grain tortilla
- Snack: Yogurt with granola and a pear
- Lunch: Chicken breast, baked potato, sour cream, and broccoli
- Snack: Protein shake and mixed berries
- Dinner: Stir-fry with shrimp, egg, brown rice, bell peppers, peas, and carrots
Friday
- Breakfast: Blueberries, strawberries, and Greek yogurt on overnight oats
- Snack: Jerky and mixed nuts with an orange
- Lunch: Tilapia fillets with lime juice, black and pinto beans, and seasonal veggies
- Snack: Protein shake and watermelon
- Dinner: Ground beef with corn, brown rice, green peas, and beans
Saturday
- Breakfast: Ground turkey and egg with corn, bell peppers, cheese, and salsa
- Snack: Can of tuna with crackers and an apple
- Lunch: Tilapia fillet and potato wedges with steamed broccoli and cauliflower
- Snack: Protein shake and pear
- Dinner: Diced beef with rice, black beans, bell peppers, onions, cheese, and pico de gallo
Sunday
- Breakfast: Eggs sunny-side up and avocado toast with fresh fruit
- Snack: Protein balls with almond butter and an orange
- Lunch: Pork tenderloin slices with roasted garlic potatoes, green beans, and carrots
- Snack: Protein shake and strawberries
- Dinner: Turkey meatballs, marinara sauce, and parmesan cheese over pasta, with a side of sautéed kale
Example of a 1,600-Calorie Meal Plan
In this sample plan, protein intake is high with a solid protein source anchoring every meal. Consume carbs earlier in the day to supply energy when you’re often the most active. Evening meals focus on protein and light carbs from veggies to promote repair and help the body reach natural ketosis during sleep. Water is essential to life and digestion, so it is monitored and added to every meal. A bodybuilding athlete should aim for 1.5 to 2 gallons of water daily. As you progress into the cutting phase, the reduction of carb serving sizes will be the first way to begin to reduce calorie intake. Next, slightly adjust fats. Protein intake should remain high to support muscle tissue.
Supplementation: Enhancing Your Fitness
Many bodybuilders use dietary supplements to support their fitness. Consult a healthcare professional before adding anything new to your routine. Consider discussing these supplements with a clinician or physician:
- Whey protein: A convenient way to increase protein intake.
- Creatine: Can provide muscles with extra energy; creatine monohydrate is considered the most effective.
- Caffeine: Can help reduce fatigue; found in pre-workout supplements, coffee, and tea.
Other Nutritional Supplements
Nutritional supplements important in a bodybuilding diet include branch chain amino acids, glutamine, protein, and multivitamins. Consult with your health professionals to determine what will work best for you.
- Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs): BCAAs are a mix of essential amino acids (not found naturally in our bodies and must be supplemented), the building blocks of protein and muscle tissue. Taking BCAAs before, during, and/or after a workout aids in muscle repair and supplies a fuel source for the body. They become especially important during the cutting phase when calories are lower, fasted cardio may be introduced, and energy levels can begin to suffer.
- Glutamine: This is a non-essential amino acid (found in many whole foods naturally) that is often not in powdered BCAAs as the taste can be bitter to some consumers. Glutamine is a supplement that specifically affects the synthesis of protein. The high intensity of a bodybuilding training routine will increase the body’s need for glutamine. Therefore, it should be supplemented daily.
- Protein Powder: The use of powdered protein is an effective way to increase protein intake daily with a minimal calorie impact. Dairy-based whey protein is a common option while plant-based proteins are available as well. Plant-based proteins often have higher carbohydrate content which should be considered for the counting of macronutrients.
- Multivitamin: Never underestimate the power of a good multi! Everyone should be taking a multivitamin to bridge any micronutrient gaps in their diet. With a strict diet such as the one needed for bodybuilding prep, the shortlist of food choices does leave holes. Nutrients like calcium, zinc, iodine, iron, vitamin A, manganese, and even copper are needed for various processes in the body. A good multivitamin taken upon waking and then again about 12 hours later will supply these necessary micronutrients.
Exercise: Resistance and Aerobic Training
Bodybuilders engage in resistance and aerobic training to maintain and build muscle and reduce body fat. Resistance training increases muscle strength and size, linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases. Aerobic exercise improves heart health and lowers the risk of heart disease.
Training
A lot of people make the mistake of changing their training too much when going on a cut. Traditionally, most muscle is gained in the 8 to 12 rep range. What you don’t want to do when starting a cut is to suddenly drop the weights and only use a high rep routine. This is a recipe to lose hard-earned muscle gained during a bulk. What you want to do is train with the heaviest weight you can within the 8-12 rep range and stick to what helped you put on muscle in the first place. Your weightlifting workouts should be used to help keep your muscle mass as high as possible, not to lose body fat. Your diet and cardio should be enough to help you lose the weight and get into the shape you want.
Potential Health Considerations
While bodybuilding offers health benefits, be aware of potential risks:
- Low Body Fat Levels: Can negatively affect sleep, mood, and immune function.
- Anabolic Steroids: Avoid due to health risks, side effects, and legal implications.
Pre-Contest Dieting: Timing and Macronutrients
The diet that one follows for their contest will be the single most important determining factor of how well they will place in the competition. A person can have all the mass in the world but if they do not come in razor sharp on contest day, then the mass will mean little. Judges almost always go for conditioning over size. When the body is in a starved (calorie deficit) state, muscle loss can occur although a calorie deficit is required to lose fat. This calorie deficit will also cause one to feel less energetic.
Key Macronutrients
Protein is probably the single most important macronutrient for the purposes of maintaining muscle on a diet. Dietary protein is hydrolyzed (broken down) into it’s constitutive amino acids during digestion. These amino acids are released into the bloodstream where they may then be taken up by cells (usually muscle cells). Dietary protein is also very important as amino acid availability is the single most important variable for protein synthesis to occur. This means that protein synthesis increases in a linear fashion (directly proportional to plasma amino acid concentrations) until the plasma amino concentrations are approximately twice that of normal plasma concentrations. To generalize for the less scientifically inclined, ingesting enough dietary protein is very important for someone who is looking to gain muscle, or maintain it while dieting. Dietary protein spares muscle by helping increase protein synthesis (and thus induce net muscle gain) and by acting as a muscle sparing substrate as it can be used for glucogensis (synthesis of glucose). Dietary protein however, is not as muscle sparing as are carbohydrates when used as a substrate for glucose synthesis. The body would much rather store amino acids than oxidize them as protein oxidation yields less net ATP produced per amino acid when compared to fat or carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates have probably gotten the worst reputation of the macronutrients due to the ketogenic dieting rave. Ketogenic dieting refers to reducing carbohydrate intake to practically nothing, while simultaneously raising fat and protein intake. With little glucose for the brain to utilize for energy, the body will begin producing ketones. Ketones are by-products of fat oxidation and the brain can use ketones for energy. This does indeed have a potent fat burning effect, as insulin levels will be severely reduced due to lack of carbohydrate intake. Low insulin levels correlate with high rates of fat oxidation. Indeed, the ketogenic diet may be the single best way to lose the maximum amount of body fat in the shortest amount of time. However, maintaining muscle is number one on our list, with fat loss second.
Fats are very important molecules and are considered essential to ones survival. Indeed, fats are involved in many of the body’s processes which are required for survival. Several key functions of fats in the human body are for energy storage and hormone synthesis. They are the body’s preferred source of stored energy and the most efficient molecule for the body to burn. (in terms of energy yield per gram, 9kcals/gram).
Macro-Nutrient Intake
In order to come up with macronutrient totals for a diet, it is necessary to assess how many lbs per week one will need to lose to be in contest shape. This is not an exact science, however we can still get a reasonable experience-based estimate. Here are some example calculations so that you may have an understanding of how to go about doing this. For example, we have a subject who is a mesomorph weighing 200 lbs and has 13% bodyfat. Since 3-4% is considered “stage condition”, that means the subject will need to drop roughly 10% body fat which equates to about 20 lbs. To recapitulate, I do not recommend dropping weight any faster than 1-1.5 lbs per week.
To lose 1.2 lbs (80%) per week from diet, there must be a 600 kcal per day deficit from diet. To lose the other .3 lbs (20%) per week from cardio, one should perform 3 cardio sessions per week, which burn 350 kcals per session. So for our subject; 200 X 15 = 3000 kcals per day. This is the subject’s caloric baseline (roughly). The “golden standard” protein intake for a bodybuilder is around 1 g/lb of bodyweight. This will need to be increased while dieting. For our subject, this equates to a protein intake of around 240-260 g protein per day.
Whatever calories that have not been allotted to protein and fat intake will make up total daily carbohydrate intake. For our subject in question, this leaves 2400 (1000 + 495) = 905 kcals per day for carbohydrate intake. One should also incorporate re-feeds into their diet plan. Re-feeds help boost a hormone called leptin, which is the mother of all fat burning hormones.
Meal Times
Mealtimes don’t play a big part in a bodybuilding cut but they could be useful to keep hunger at bay. Since the usual protein goal is high (at least 2g per kg), it might be easier to spread protein over a few meals in the day, to get the most anabolic effect possible. The main aim of the diet is to get you lean, and the best way to do this is to combat hunger and eat your foods when you are the hungriest. Meal frequency and -timings don’t matter a huge deal, so choose a frequency and timing split that keeps you full and the hunger at bay. Protein might be the exception and there should be a minimum of 2 protein meals and a possible maximum of 6 per day.
When to Start Cutting
If you’re thinking of getting on stage, it’s better to give yourself more time than less. Most people don’t realize how much body fat they carry and to get on stage takes getting cut to a whole new level. Seek a coach or an experienced bodybuilder to give you an honest opinion of where you currently stand and rather err on the side of giving yourself more time to diet. The result will be worth it.
The 12-Week Cutting Diet Plan Structure
The bodybuilding 12-week cutting diet plan consists of 3 types of eating days; high carb days, moderate carb days and low carb days. The high carb day is usually one day a week, the moderate carb days are usually 3 days a week and the low carb days are usually the remaining 3 days of the week. With this diet, you are reducing your calorie intake every week till the last week. Here are some things to note while making your meal plan, following this structure. The number of calories given are not appropriate for everyone, so it’s better for you to get an individualized calorie intake from a dietitian then use this structure to create your diet plan. You should take a minimum of 180 grams of proteins per day. You should have at least 100 grams of proteins everyday while 20% - 30% of your daily calorie intake should come from fats.
Precision in Measurements
The precision of the weights and measures of foods on a bodybuilding diet is key. Use a food scale and measuring cups, dry and liquid when applicable. If you do not measure the food, you are simply guessing. Guessing or “eyeballing” amounts and servings is not effective!