As a slow and steady diet approach type of guy, this is interesting food for thought that genuinely made me think different of aggressive cuts. Still don’t think it would be my thing, but have less negative view on it.
I'm the opposite opinion now. I spent close to a year and a half losing 40lbs. Towards the end, it was just rough. Progress was super slow, energy low, and the physical and mental wear was just getting to me. I was probably pushing myself too hard in the gym. I think for my next cut to get ~10% body fat I'm going to need to lose 16-20lbs more most likely. I've decided I'm going to just blitz it. I can knock that out in 10 weeks and get it over with. Then like Eugene said, there's a couple months before summer where I can recoup that lost muscle and even go on another mini cut if I'm not quite happy. I also think different diet styles appeal to different people. I think I've learned that im definitely the type that wants to go all out because it helps me to focus and take it more seriously.
I used to eat 2800+ calories a day. Now I only been eating 1k-1400 calories at most. Im zigzagging my calorie deficit so my metabolism won’t slow down. I am a black female, 191lb, 5’4. I have pcos, I work out 4 days a week and work 3 days a week. My job Im on my feet 24/7 and I am trying to balance it all out. So far I’ve lost 10 lb in 1.5 months.wish me luck, we got this!
People always cry about ED, bro just have ur protein at 1gram per lean body mass and fill the rest with healthy veggies and fruit and exercise and I swear u will shed the weight and keep a nice physical shape
So long as your hitting at least 80 grams of protein in your 1k calories this is 100% optimal cut - people who lose muscle and strength are the ones who eat donuts and cream pies and deprive themselves of protein - if your stimulating the muscle & hitting protein the mind sends signals to the body on a deficit to not burn muscle - not to mention proteins vital role on keeping your metabolism firing on all cylinders - I do this before every natural show to cut and maintain hitting prs, strength gains, and I look like a Greek God naked - don’t believe the “RUclips influencers “ that say you need to go on a 3k calories diet to optimally cut - it’s a absurd notion . And IF by some miracle your metabolism does slow down - add a refeed day 1x per week , take a fat burner that bumps that metabolism back up , or simply add a few more calories … Great video mate
Wow Eugene, the amount of knowledge you just shared was next level, much appreciated. I’ve never been at a low body fat sub 10% and think it could be motivating to see my body at that level. Then ill move to maintainence :)
Eating 1100 calories a day for 8 weeks when I was in Korea 3 years ago got me the leanest I’ve ever been. I would OMAD MY 1100 calories and I would work out 2 times a week Powerlifting style to maintain my mass and strength. Lost about 20 pounds of solid fat with absolutely no Cardio. I moved to Taiwan and became a total pothead (they have good weed)…..that and the fact their cuisine is amongst the best in Asia I had no chance. I regained the weight hard plus more….it wasn’t necessarily the diet that made me regain the weight but other underlying issues I had to resolve. Aggressive cutting is always my favorite way to approach cutting! No cardio and fast results keep you focused, you just have to be meticulous about it. Cheers Mate!
I think weed wakes up your “food is scarce” mentality and because many people nowadays have carb and sugar addictions it hits harder than what it’s intended I think
Also I'm glad you mentioned "ruining your metabolism" is not a thing, it's something I hear way too often on a diet or a fast. Your metabolism is based on your muscle, your fat, and other physical properties of your body. It's not whatever your body "decides it to be" because you didn't give it food for 6 hours.
Lmao it is a thing, crash dieting ruins your metabolism and adjusts where your maintenance calories are at. I cut down from 3000cals to 2000 then 1600 and eventually 1400 in the span of a month and a half. Went from 25ish % bf to about high teens, could see top 4 abs. Then, for 2 months I didn't lose any fat on that 1400cals because my metabolism adjusted, it also ruins your sex drive and my cawk just didn't work during this. I then reverse dieted to fix it and everything is starting to work again and I'm losing fat on 2200 calories after fixing the metabolism. If you instantly go from 1400cals back to 3000 you will gain an insane amount of fat even though you were previously at maintenance of 3000calories. This is because your body thinks your maintenance is now lower (probably 1600-2000) due to you being on such low calories.
@@Riybha still not fully recovered and It's been 2 months, reverse diet slowly (up cals by 100 every week or two) to reset it. Some people say it takes up to 6 months, depends how long you were in that massive deficit for, the longer you were in it the longer it takes to reset.
@@steviejrr Thanks ...your response helped me calm down and I'm on like 1100 cal diet I'll start reverse once I hit a plateau till then I'll aim to lose 3 kgs then ill reverse diet slowly to fix my metabolism :)
@@Riybha Just start recovering it now and it'll make it easier to lose the weight again. Once your maintenance recovers you'll be shredding fat faster while eating 2200 cals than you would on those 1100 cals. I'm currently eating 2500 calories and starting to lose fat again even though I'm eating almost double of what I previously was eating when I stopped losing fat.
After the first time I did a fast for 60 hours, I realized how possible it is to deal with these large deficits for short periods. It's definitely my preferred method. I lost 8kg over 2 months by fasting on the weekends. I probably lost a bit of muscle and strength, but I think the effect is drastically overstated. To me it seemed like I was still at like 90% of my strength, and I wasn't even working out during that time frequently.
I think it really comes down to individual differences. What works for you won’t work for everyone, and people make the mistake of taking scientific research and making blanket statements that it applies to everyone.
Throwing in a 48 or 72 hour fast every now and then I find helpful when I get stuck in a weight loss plateau. And don't really lose any strength for those shorter fasts. In the past, I've done a few 500 hour fasts and with those you will lose significant amounts of muscle.
agreed. I'm not 100% certain but I believe a lot of the hunger goes away for most people on these stages because you start producing a lot more ketone bodies much faster than a typical diet
I think one of the risks I have run into when cutting that many calories at once is bingeing after the cut period is over because certain cravings couldn't be satisfied during that time. For me, it has ended up negating the progress made during the cut. I think fat loss is all about what works for each individual.
this model is absolutely unsustainable...you not only binge out because your body is craving food...you end up gaining the weight back plus more when you give your body sufficient calories back...he doesn’t know the long term effects from it because he’s still stuck in the disordered eating mindset
This happened to me. Started 1000 calories per day June 2022, went from 197lb to 173lb in around 6 weeks, went on vacation and the diet and fitness stopped when I returned. June 2023 I'm now at 203.6lbs even heavier than last year, back to square one, starting the diet and fitness from today.
Can I just say thankyou. Ive been dieting, intermitent fasting and have cut cards and reduced my calories to 1000. Im currently 95kg and vert much over weight but this video really put my mind at rest as to whether i was dieting too low. so thanks for the information in this video. i found it super helpful
Instantly subscribed. It's crazy how much you and I think alike. I recently finished a "blasting" phase as I like to call it, whereby I drastically decreased calories to burn fat (post lockdown fat gain, I was very zealous to reverse my 6 week binge!). People called me crazy, but I've been a health and fitness enthusiast since I was 16 (32 now) and I can handle it. Sure, it's not something I recommend to everyone, but well and truly 'each to their own'. Now I'm enjoying the fruits of my intense labour by pursuing a lean bulk atm. Cheers Eugene!
Seeing Christian T, and you referencing T-nation and Anaconda brings back fond memories of my college days. I've always done the slow and steady approach, but I think this go around, I'm going to do this more aggressive style to see if I like it better.
Always thought aggressive cutting was unnecessary and somewhat dumb but after watching your video, totally changed my perspective on it and im literally thinking about trying it out for a change from the slow steady method. Your videos are always top notch bro. Mahalos from Hawaii
This is essentially a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF). I DO really agree about being a bit aggressive for that bump of motivation. Been following Layne Norton's approach where he will be more aggressive for 2 weeks, week of maintenance, then repeat. Feel it's definitely easier to maintain a sprint approach with visible changes, than a marathon where it might take double or triple the time to see results.
This is exactly how I think about losing weight. You just gotta experiment with your body, and see what best works for you, that’s what I did for a couple years when I was tryna lift weights and get stronger while also trying to wrestle and lose weight. When I start to lose the weight, I don’t really feel any different, I feel just as strong, at first I still get hungry and then my body adjusts to the amount of calories I consume and I get fuller a lot easier, I only feel kinda sick or weak from the lack of calories or when I’m fasting at the end of a workout whether it’s playing soccer, basketball, or when I wrestle cuz I push myself way to hard, but it’s nothing too bad.
One thing that hit me was how you didn't mention about the willpower it takes to do this- as in, the ability to resist going over your prescribed calorie intake. But I think that makes sense, since when you get to the stage you're at, 'strength of will' probably doesn't factor a lot anymore!! I imagine you've been training long enough that the willpower is just there, not a question. I hope to get to that point in my life that I can just say to myself 'for the next 6 weeks I will eat 1000 calories' without any kind of wavering from my willpower. Like, it's not a difficult choice. We are doing this and that's just what we're doing.
While will power is definitely a factor, please don’t think that this is the single factor. It will vary wildly for people. I’m medicated for ADHD and my meds mean I essentially have 0 craving for food. I can eat, but I feel no real hunger cues. For me, eating 1000calories is purely about managing side effects (headaches, electrolytes, muscle loss). I would hate to think that someone were to look at my ability to diet and think ‘Oh man, I don’t have as much willpower as her.’ Genetics, psychology, environment all play a huge role in your ability to manage a cut like this.
Interesting take on it all, and def going to think about it different. Currently on a massive weightloss journey (500 down to 360 so far) and eating 1200~ cals has always seemed impossible to me 😅
Congratulations on your weight loss! 140lbs is no small feat! One thing to consider is that 1200 calories would be extremely insane for someone at your current body weight since your basal metabolic rate (BMR) would be higher than Eugene’s. For example, I’m 5’11 200lb - and my BMR is about 2000 calories and my daily expenditure is about 2500-3000 calories. I currently do 1200-1500 calories a day and am losing about 2lb a week. However, if I were to weigh 360 that would put my BMR and TDEE at 2650 and 4000 calories respectively. So to maintain a 1200cal diet is much easier when your energy expenditure is 3000 vs 4000. Cutting will be hard now, but as you lose more weight it will get easier to lower your intake. Also consider that he’s already in shape and only aiming to lose a few pounds, so an intense short term diet is a viable option. For someone such as yourself who may instead be looking to drop large amounts of weight, an intense cut below 1500 calories would likely result in binge eating or cheating because you’d be starving and eventually succumb to the hunger since even at a 3 or 4 lb loss per week you’d still be looking at about a 10-12 month timeframe to get down to 200lb. Overall, this diet would very likely unsustainable for you. It would be extremely difficult to manage 1200 calories a day for a year straight - even moreso when your metabolism is burning 33% more calories a day compared to a 200lb person. You can 100% apply the lessons though. Eugene is basically just subtracting about 1000-1300 calories a day off his daily energy expenditure. You could use that same calculation by calculating your TDEE and shaving 1000-1300 off that number instead (in my prior example that’d put me at about 4000-1300=2700 if I were 360lb) and you’d see great results that would be sustainable. Keep in mind, as you continue to lose weight you’d have to recalculate your BMR/TDEE to subtract the 1000-1300 from because your BMR will go down as you get lighter.
You might have already covered this and this makes sense what you're saying, but The one roadblock I have found out is sufficient protein intake when trying to go extreme calorie deficit.. It's hard enough to get enough protein while being on even a minus .5% loss per bodyweight much less 1% of body weight and above. You would not only lose muscle at that time but also not be able to gain muscle obviously. So, for all of that 6 weeks you would be in the negative as far as gains. So you would lose whatever muscle you would lose during that phase and then you would lose whatever gains you would have had during that phase. So it's much more significant than just the muscle that you would actually lose.
For aggressive periods of fat loss I've preferred implementing 24hr fasts once a week to brings up my deficit from a moderate pace to aggressive, I have much more energy on workout days when doing this as opposed to slashing my calories aggressively and feeling lethargic for long periods of time.
@@johnpena2228 I'll fast on non training days so I have more calories left for my training days. As long as your average weekly cals - average weekly activity = Your desired deficit you should meet your weight loss goals however you approach it, so if you prefer fasting or having consistently lower calories that's up to you and your preference.
i do the same , but 48 hours fast on the weekend , no deficit at all on training days ... my BMR is around 2500 kcal so it's like i have 350 deficit every single day , just in one swoop , and it works great for me
Excellent video. I do the same when I cut. I bulk all year, then do an aggressive cut like this.. any strength loss is gained back within a month, and it has been working great for me. I will never do a slow, steady diet again. There is so much fear-mongering in the fitness industry. We can have a large deficit, which is not dangerous.
And let's not forget that thanks to autophagy your body will take protein not only from muscles but from other various unnecessary protein made tissues
I think this approach is the correct way to go when you very large as well. My bother lost 135lbs eating 1200cals a day over 8 months. H went from a size 52 to a size 32 pants. It works well and it really doesn't damage your metabolism as much as people think
Eugene what’s your take on coaches wanting to “build” your metabolism by increasing calories ( when people need to lose fat )? Building for a long time before cutting calories, is so demotivating for so many people. Thumbs up for your content and for coach Thib commenting too! 🤘
He pretty much went over this in the video. That concept is a myth. Like Eugene said in the video, your metabolism will just increase because you gain more weight i.e bigger person, and because you have more energy from the increased calories so your body does more things like fidgeting and what not. Both of these things are often overestimated with how much of a change in calories burned they have though, and as soon as you take those calories away and start cutting, the body will just adapt back to a lowered state of metabolism. So it would be really dumb to increase the calorie intake for someone trying to lose fat, because they would only get more fat and once you "built" their metabolism and put them back into a deficit to actually lose the fat, their body would just adapt back. Basically if you try to build your metabolism it's not gonna do anything other than increase the amount of weight you have to cut. If this concept were actually true, then you could "build" to lets say a 4000 calorie maintenance by eating more and just maintain at that once you were done "building". But would this actually work? Of course not, unless you somehow find a way to bypass the laws of thermodynamics or you are like 700 lbs after "building" your metabolism.
i fast every week for 24-36h and do 2-3x training per week, i eat literally all i want to eat and still loose around 1kg fat per week even when i train 1x per week, once i am at a certain range , e.g 80kg and i don't want to go below, i fast every second week for 24-36h. May this principle help some of you :)
@@johnpena2228 every monday of every week i usually fast. Mo and Tuesday´s i dont workout. On wednesday your powerlevels will be through the roofs, there you can actually plan your first workout. For me personally, i love working out on saturday and sundays. Revory is lightning fast because fasting adds speed. Why every other week? for you it might be diffrent, but for me, i usually add around 1kg fat per 2 weeks of normal eating. When i want to maintain a certain weight i fast only every second monday. :)
Interesting concept. I'd like to hear more opinions on this from gurus in the industry. Right now the general consensus is longer and slower fat loss is better for muscle retention and to obtain a better end result. No one really knows sht though. Thank you for contributing to the ongoing conversation.
I’ve done something similar before, during a period of personal heartbreak. I was hanging around 1200cal for 5 months, nothing but chicken, rice, broccoli and F45 every morning. Lost 20kg during that time. While I was focused back then, looking back at it, it was quite stressful. But I think key to doing fast cuts like this, is understanding what you’ll be going through, the good and bad, and mentally being at peace with it.
@@davidsennholtz515 Well I had not much to begin with at that point, I was just overweight. I'm confident most it was fat, but there should be a bit of muscle loss.
It has been 11 months and im 70lbs down (273-203) by eating 1500 a day. I just started getting into running to speed things up a little more but it is interesting to hear that this may only hurt me.
Everyone is different and trial and error is your best friend. I lost muscle on 1900 and looked skinny, bulked back up and when I cut on 2250-2300 kept most of my muscle and looked defined and shredded. I'd hate to think what I would look like eating 1000-1200 calories a day.
I think as long as you have stored energy in form of fat your body has no reason to break down muscle tissue to utilize its kcal. However your body needs protein for basic body functions like producing cells for example so if you don't get any or very low protein, your body will have no choice but to break down muscle tissue in order to obtain the amino acids it needs and can't get from the fat stores.
iam at 100kgs with 25% body fat at 6'1 ......iam going to the gym about a year .....iam thinking of cutting down to 15% bodyfat by eating at 1500calories and then lean bulk........with 25% body iam unable to exactly track my progress .....my maintainance is 2400 calories ........can you please help me with this question wether i should do this cut or not??
I have access to a pc and can work from home. So I can walk all day while working. My maintenance is 2700-3000 calories. When I want to cut and lose weight rapidly, I just walk 30-40k steps per day and eat at maintenance. 40k steps per day at my weight and height (194-200 LBS. 6’4’’) burns me about 2000 calories per day. Thus my maintenance djet is equivalent of eating 700-1000 cal per day. Walking is low intensity and fatigue for me and doesn’t get in the way of weight lifting for me either. And because it’s low intensity it doesn’t make me very hungry as with high intensity cardio on a diet. It sure is a lot of walking, but I don’t have to cut calories very low because I just love food too much. I would so much rather create a calorie deficit via exercise. It works very well for me.
Fasting does not reduce fat if you don't eat less calories. And if you do so, you're basically just skipping a meal a day, which results in a big deficit, which is the exact as he's doing
i started my journey of fat loss a month and a half ago and im eating around 1000 calories a day plus 6 days of ppl and ive already lost over 20lbs i started at 200.4 and im already at 177.8lbs going aggressive is really nice and im currently only seeing benefits other than bad moods and sleeping longer
great video! people should be talking more about these things! i am a 165 cm male, and during my last 15 week diet, i dropped from 67 kgs to about 59 kgs. i did go as low as 700-800 cals to push the fat loss for about 10 days or so.
Im prettyy sure metabolism or at least caloric requirements are largely determined by body composition/activity levels, the saying about it decreasing with age is mostly true however when lifestyle conditions were accounted for the difference was not significant. Edit: nvm I'mma shut up
thank you so much for sharing this. i didn't even know this was an option. im able to keep training and live a normal life while dropping fat. so grateful for this.
Did you feel strength level dropping fast? Did you lower sets and reps? If so How fast did your strength come up when starting your maintenance calories? Thank you!
I actually went for a 1000 calorie diet as well when I decided I wanted to start working out and losing weight. However, this was at a weight of like 360 pounds so the actual calorie deficit was completely mental. I was dropping like 6-8 pounds a week at the start while still having some offset from building muscle.I needed new pants twice within just three months. I think I kept this up for 4 or 5 months before upping my calorie intake to 1300 and then later 1700 when my body wasn't positively drowning in energy from burning fat stores any longer. Currently sitting at around 180 pounds, so I'm basically in regular "cut required" territory now and losing about 0.5 to 1 pound per week. After months of 1000 calories a day the amount of food I get to eat on my current slow&steady fat loss diet seems absolutely gargantuan.
im so confused now.. everything ive concluded about weight loss told me to keep calories as high as possible until your weight plateaus, and increase cardio overtime too,,, would eating 1800-2000 calories a day but then burning off around 1000 cals with moderate intensity exercise not give the same results but also allow you to eat more??
I think with this approach you avoid having to do any extra cardio at all, and all the weight loss comes from specifically reducing calories. Also, when you end your cut you don’t have to worry about gaining a bunch of weight back if you quit manually burning calories through extra cardio.
Im 6.8/203 cm) ft and was 129 kg after i didnt care about eating clean just going all out in the gym. Then i started cutting and did it for a while. About 6 months and i did really agressive cuts like going down to 1000 calories and sometimes even less for many weeks straight. I lost weight very fast but didnt feel slow, bad or lost strength. I sometimes had those days when i felt like shit, but still i lost the weight and kept the muscle. I think its total myth that you lose bunch of muscle etc when you cut to much. I think the only thing that matters if you have mental strength to push trough this insane diet. Mentally its insanely hard, but if you keep it and manage it. You will lose fat at insane rates. Overall i did lose 37 kg in six months which was my goal and it worked. One thing i mostly felt hard was basically motivating myself to push hard in the gym as you feel exhausted to push on. But i guarantee if you pull trough, you will have strength
great insight! as a big eater the lowest i went was 1800kcal and let me say it was MISERABLE to live like that , i did for a bit more than a month, and i was dreaming about food and thats not a good sign 😂 Trainning was another nightmare,my leg workouts consisted of leg presses seated ham flex and calf raises, gone were the heavy squats and stiff DL 😂 Its truly not for everyone
Probably the first time ever I've watched a 38 minute RUclips info video, your content is sick! Instant subscription! Just a question, I've been doing this for about 3 odd months and have lost around 10kgs, about to get into maintenance mode, question is I'm big on sugar, any recco on taking up my calories to maintenance while also feasting on sugar few times a week and not gaining back the lost weight?
I once lost 15kg in a month doing 600cal a day diet. I was alsoon ECA stack. I only lost 1kg of muscle, all confirmed via bodpod. It was insanely hard. I was watching food porn every day, Man v Food etc.. Food was all I thought about.
Mental health and risk of disordered eating wise I much prefer to use this style of aggressive dieting and getting back to normal eating and consistent training as soon as possible. 👍
I just did this. Dropped 20 lbs in about 10 weeks. Average intake was about 1100 kcal/day, on top of weightlifing and 15k steps. Everything was fine until it wasn't. Rather suddenly on the 10th week, I hit a brick wall. In the span of a few days, my legs could no longer recover from the walking, and I could barely lift a 45-lb plate to put on the bar. The problem was, I ran out of fat. After 10 weeks, the belly and the lovehandles were gone. There was no energy to support exercise. But I still had more fat to lose, so I raised my intake to about 90% of expenditure, just below maintenance. That got me back on track, and now I'm losing weight again, but much more slowly as I approach that 10% mark. So yeah, this strategy is very effective for getting down to the low teens, but once you get near 12-13% body fat, you need to start ramping up the calories -- staying in a deficit, but just barely. And you need exact numbers, because at this stage, the difference between a surplus and a deficit could be the cream in your coffee.
I really think that the whole "losing muscle on a cut" thing is blown out of proportion, i people tend to think they instantly lose muscle on a cut because all their glycogen is sucked out and they have shitty diets on their bulk.
By all means do a short aggressive cut BUT check your personal macros to find the right calorie intake. To preserve muscle and hormones you need to maintain about 1g of protein per LB body weight and about 1g fat per 1/3 of body weight in LBs. For Eugene his calories must be too low - there is no way he can be getting enough protein and fat on 1000 cals per day. For clarity is likely the required amount would be about 1250 cals so still very low and going to give a big deficit for the cut, however that difference will give the necessary macro nutrition and help preserve muscle and hormonal functioning including the ever vital testosterone.
Would I get a gallstone if I eat 800 calories a day? I always eat protein foods like hard boiled egg small rice and veggies, I always do 1 hr exercise, is this safe or dangerous?
Thanks a lot for the video. One question though: let's say you trained in anaerobic state, so your body and muscles needed carbs for the exercise because they couldn't rely anymore on fat oxydation for energy, what would happen to your muscles? Wouldn't there be a bit of degradation of the muscles in order to get glucose in the blood stream?
Hey Eugene, sorry, but could you possibly make a video on your hair maintenance? We have very similar hair, but I wanna know how you get your volume, make it smooth, etc. Please bro, please.
i just ate every second day and on that day i made kind of "OMAD", i ate 2000-2500 calories in between ~2h at night. I took multivitamin tablet every day. Had done this for 2 1/2 Month and lost ~17kg (82 to 65) in that time.. how much fat and muscles i lost i have no idea^^
Did this recently for three months (we have the same TDEE of 2500 calories/day), even though I was eating around 200g of protein, I started becoming super obsessed/fixated on food and then a week ago, bam, entered into bingeing that I'm struggling to get out of :/ I think if I had've stopped at 2 months, I would've been totally fine./ But honestly I don't recommend this personally.
I'm also doing a more aggressive cut, i use caffeine exactly like you said, twice a week, on my harder workouts :) thanks for confirming my conclusions, you gave me a lot of confidence going forward 😁
I’m confused does this guy claim natty? He does Bjj and is not eating enough fat to sustain natural test production (less than 50-60 grams a day). Both huge giant waving red flags that he must be supplementing test.
I was nervous about muscle loss when I first started Keto (in a deficit) and intermittent fasting, but not only did I not lose muscle, I was GAINING. Like, hitting new PRs. Everyone knows it's not healthy as a long term diet, but I'll be working that routine in every few months from now on.
At the moment I am on a 4 week minicut, my maintenance is 3200 and now my diet is 2200kcal. Experimenting with IF style, 2 large meals in the evening and workout between those. What you guys think of this, does this burn more muscle than the more normal 4 meals per day ? Feels good tho Edit: Nice content :)
I have been doing 1000-1200 a day since June. I am down from 307 to 206. I am never really hungry and progressive overload is still working so not losing strength.
Some muscles like your legs, abs, chest, and back can grow better with more reps or sets. But these are the basic starter stats, increase weight, reps, or sets as needed. But muscles grow on approximately a sets per week schedule. I think some people decrease the weight a bit and increase the sets to prevent injuries in a low fed state.
Hey Eugene good to hear you're having success with your diet! However, won't severe caloric restriction increase your body's set point and have negative effects long term? From my understanding of the literature, repeated severe caloric restriction tends to increase the body's set point over time which is why overweight and obese individuals largely fail to keep weight off and actually gain more weight over the long term since, as I'm sure you already know, the body will try to restore this set point through decreased energy expenditure and increased appetite, and that as adults we can't actually shift our set point lower to reverse this (although you can in children). Does the fact that you weight train and have increased muscle mass (so not obese lol) change this or is my understanding incorrect?
Im a female that ate about 1800, but my weight loss stalled. Now eating 1100 but focusing on extreme nutrition, not feeling hungry, not craving anything, not waking up hungry. Here is my foundation: Breakfast Lemon hot water. Celery, apple, and cucumber juice Ginger, orange and carrot Immunity shot Spinach, cucumber, and apple smoothie with protein powder or berry smoothie Snack: Greek yogurt, berries, and drizzle of honey or boiled egg or banana slices on rice cake Lunch: Protein of choice with side salad or baby brocolli Or Chickpea curry made with tomato, onion, tomato paste, and spices Late afternoon snack or dinner: Home-made vegetable soup (onion, carrots, spinach, garlic, bell pepper, and leek) with shredded chicken or pulled lamb meat Late snack: Nori sheets with avo, cucumber, tomato, and shredded chicken Or baby carrots, cucumber strips with tzatsiki, and humus Bone broth!!!!!!! I'm enjoying it very much. Doing a 10 day detox, and then I will reverse diet to 1300 and maintain it on 1400 to 1500. I might do the 1100 for longer.
How do you structure your food? Do you keep it even throughout your meals or do you just graze? Also, what about diet/no-calorie drinks. Do you consume those?
i was skinny fat, i gained a decent amount of muscle while cutting the fat and now i am lean and not too skinny but stuck at 15% bodyfat and i cant seem to go lower than that, i was eating around 1800-1900 calories a day and barely losing any fat. should i go for an aggressive diet to eliminate the fat and go about 12% and then rebuild muscle later or something else
Hey Eugene, great video! I’ve got a question: you said 10-20 sets per body part is plenty to build muscle. Do you mean in example 15 sets for chest per week or a single workout? Because I’m doing a Push pull legs with 2 days chest & triceps, 2 days back & biceps and 1 day for legs. I’m an advanced build guy and always wonder if I’m doing too much for example chest since I did 30 sets per week in those 2 days and just didn’t gain any strength in 3 months, even lost a bit of strength in the benchpress. For your Information protein intake is not a problem I’m doing my 2g per kg and sleep 8 hours a night.
@@jadmoghnieh7140 Translation: Should muscle retention be one of your primary goals, proceeding to go on a diet which severely restricts your calorie intake (ie a hard cut) is not the optimal method of losing weight. Or something like that.
First of all, how the hell did you only weigh 75Kgs before the diet, you looked a lot bigger then 75Kgs. And secondly you only eat about 2000 calories for maintenance, damn that's low. I weigh 77.6 Kgs and my daily maintenance calorie in take is about 3500/3600 give or take. And I am only 174cm(5.7ft) tall (or as I would like to say, short.) The pic before you dieting looks very similar to what I look in terms of body fat %.
@@sleepzou where I'm from, I'm almost always the shortest guy. So here, 1.74m is short. Also, not that active, my metabolism has always been crazy. I am 38 and at the moment I can basically eat whatever I want and not put on weight. However when I was in my 20s it was way worse. When I was at Varsity I used to eat for a family of four, 5 times a day and drink lots a beer and still didn't pick up weight and back then I only worked out 5 times a week, LOL! I am actually trying to gain weight at the moment. Been eating more and lifting weights 6 days a week, but it's taking a while. Getting very strong, but not getting as big as I would like. Could also be because I do like 15 to 30 minutes cardio after every weight lifting session, so that would mean cardio 6 times a week as well. But at my age I do need to start think about my heart 🤷🏽♂️
Couldn't believe on both the sample day of eating days you showed you ate 258kcals of 50g of potato chips when on a 1200kcal diet lol. How on earth do you stay full when you're having 20% of your calories from something that isn't satieting at all o.O
I love the idea of short extreme calorie cuts. Even Chris Bumstead cuts Calories down to 1600, which is deep for his size. I’m 5’7 195lbs with a 33” waist. I’m dropping my calories to 1300 for the next 5 to 8 weeks, keep my current workout regimen (not more), amd then back to maintenance of 2350
Chris bum stead is a multiple mr Olympia winner. You are not bumstead please don’t try to do what he does. Set realistic goals that work for you. If that’s 1300kcals then good for you.
@@sleepzou you’re thick as a brick of you think I’m comparing myself to CB. My point is a man as large as he extreme diets, as many bodybuilders I know. Please stay off RUclips
As a slow and steady diet approach type of guy, this is interesting food for thought that genuinely made me think different of aggressive cuts. Still don’t think it would be my thing, but have less negative view on it.
Thank you! 🙏 glad to hear it
I'm the opposite opinion now. I spent close to a year and a half losing 40lbs. Towards the end, it was just rough. Progress was super slow, energy low, and the physical and mental wear was just getting to me. I was probably pushing myself too hard in the gym. I think for my next cut to get ~10% body fat I'm going to need to lose 16-20lbs more most likely. I've decided I'm going to just blitz it. I can knock that out in 10 weeks and get it over with. Then like Eugene said, there's a couple months before summer where I can recoup that lost muscle and even go on another mini cut if I'm not quite happy. I also think different diet styles appeal to different people. I think I've learned that im definitely the type that wants to go all out because it helps me to focus and take it more seriously.
I am also a slow dieter, when I go agressive I bounce back real fast
@@Kvh47 same here! My body hates aggressive cuts. Every time i cut calories too low i start craving sweets and ill binge at the end of my cut
I used to eat 2800+ calories a day. Now I only been eating 1k-1400 calories at most. Im zigzagging my calorie deficit so my metabolism won’t slow down. I am a black female, 191lb, 5’4. I have pcos, I work out 4 days a week and work 3 days a week. My job Im on my feet 24/7 and I am trying to balance it all out. So far I’ve lost 10 lb in 1.5 months.wish me luck, we got this!
How is your diet going now 8 months later?
And now ? 10 months later
@@injxcted_ she's dead
@@amirahmad2099 lmao
Great job but how does skin color effect your diet?! 🤔
Aggressive dieting has always been demonized in the fitness industry. This was enlightening
Thank you! 🙏
@@coacheugeneteo justifiably, its just not for beginners which most people watching this are
People always cry about ED, bro just have ur protein at 1gram per lean body mass and fill the rest with healthy veggies and fruit and exercise and I swear u will shed the weight and keep a nice physical shape
So long as your hitting at least 80 grams of protein in your 1k calories this is 100% optimal cut - people who lose muscle and strength are the ones who eat donuts and cream pies and deprive themselves of protein - if your stimulating the muscle & hitting protein the mind sends signals to the body on a deficit to not burn muscle - not to mention proteins vital role on keeping your metabolism firing on all cylinders - I do this before every natural show to cut and maintain hitting prs, strength gains, and I look like a Greek God naked - don’t believe the “RUclips influencers “ that say you need to go on a 3k calories diet to optimally cut - it’s a absurd notion . And IF by some miracle your metabolism does slow down - add a refeed day 1x per week , take a fat burner that bumps that metabolism back up , or simply add a few more calories … Great video mate
Wow Eugene, the amount of knowledge you just shared was next level, much appreciated. I’ve never been at a low body fat sub 10% and think it could be motivating to see my body at that level. Then ill move to maintainence :)
Good luck!
Eating 1100 calories a day for 8 weeks when I was in Korea 3 years ago got me the leanest I’ve ever been. I would OMAD MY 1100 calories and I would work out 2 times a week Powerlifting style to maintain my mass and strength. Lost about 20 pounds of solid fat with absolutely no Cardio.
I moved to Taiwan and became a total pothead (they have good weed)…..that and the fact their cuisine is amongst the best in Asia I had no chance. I regained the weight hard plus more….it wasn’t necessarily the diet that made me regain the weight but other underlying issues I had to resolve.
Aggressive cutting is always my favorite way to approach cutting! No cardio and fast results keep you focused, you just have to be meticulous about it.
Cheers Mate!
I think weed wakes up your “food is scarce” mentality and because many people nowadays have carb and sugar addictions it hits harder than what it’s intended I think
Also I'm glad you mentioned "ruining your metabolism" is not a thing, it's something I hear way too often on a diet or a fast. Your metabolism is based on your muscle, your fat, and other physical properties of your body. It's not whatever your body "decides it to be" because you didn't give it food for 6 hours.
Lmao it is a thing, crash dieting ruins your metabolism and adjusts where your maintenance calories are at. I cut down from 3000cals to 2000 then 1600 and eventually 1400 in the span of a month and a half. Went from 25ish % bf to about high teens, could see top 4 abs. Then, for 2 months I didn't lose any fat on that 1400cals because my metabolism adjusted, it also ruins your sex drive and my cawk just didn't work during this. I then reverse dieted to fix it and everything is starting to work again and I'm losing fat on 2200 calories after fixing the metabolism. If you instantly go from 1400cals back to 3000 you will gain an insane amount of fat even though you were previously at maintenance of 3000calories. This is because your body thinks your maintenance is now lower (probably 1600-2000) due to you being on such low calories.
@@steviejrrhey ! Ive got the same problem and im on a plateau now …could you share how long did it take for you to fix your metabolism?
@@Riybha still not fully recovered and It's been 2 months, reverse diet slowly (up cals by 100 every week or two) to reset it. Some people say it takes up to 6 months, depends how long you were in that massive deficit for, the longer you were in it the longer it takes to reset.
@@steviejrr Thanks ...your response helped me calm down and I'm on like 1100 cal diet I'll start reverse once I hit a plateau till then I'll aim to lose 3 kgs then ill reverse diet slowly to fix my metabolism :)
@@Riybha Just start recovering it now and it'll make it easier to lose the weight again. Once your maintenance recovers you'll be shredding fat faster while eating 2200 cals than you would on those 1100 cals. I'm currently eating 2500 calories and starting to lose fat again even though I'm eating almost double of what I previously was eating when I stopped losing fat.
After the first time I did a fast for 60 hours, I realized how possible it is to deal with these large deficits for short periods. It's definitely my preferred method. I lost 8kg over 2 months by fasting on the weekends. I probably lost a bit of muscle and strength, but I think the effect is drastically overstated. To me it seemed like I was still at like 90% of my strength, and I wasn't even working out during that time frequently.
Shouldnt be to bad. The body doesnt start "eating" your muscles until 72 hours of fasting :)
I think it really comes down to individual differences. What works for you won’t work for everyone, and people make the mistake of taking scientific research and making blanket statements that it applies to everyone.
Throwing in a 48 or 72 hour fast every now and then I find helpful when I get stuck in a weight loss plateau. And don't really lose any strength for those shorter fasts. In the past, I've done a few 500 hour fasts and with those you will lose significant amounts of muscle.
How many calories were you consuming during the week before fasting on the weekend?
agreed. I'm not 100% certain but I believe a lot of the hunger goes away for most people on these stages because you start producing a lot more ketone bodies much faster than a typical diet
I think one of the risks I have run into when cutting that many calories at once is bingeing after the cut period is over because certain cravings couldn't be satisfied during that time. For me, it has ended up negating the progress made during the cut. I think fat loss is all about what works for each individual.
Programming in refeeds is a powerful psychological tool to help you adhere to such a steep deficit
this model is absolutely unsustainable...you not only binge out because your body is craving food...you end up gaining the weight back plus more when you give your body sufficient calories back...he doesn’t know the long term effects from it because he’s still stuck in the disordered eating mindset
Depends on how much deficit. If you have a 40% deficit in two weeks you will gain more then what you lost.
This happened to me. Started 1000 calories per day June 2022, went from 197lb to 173lb in around 6 weeks, went on vacation and the diet and fitness stopped when I returned. June 2023 I'm now at 203.6lbs even heavier than last year, back to square one, starting the diet and fitness from today.
I just binge and purge afterwards it's a cheat code
Can I just say thankyou. Ive been dieting, intermitent fasting and have cut cards and reduced my calories to 1000. Im currently 95kg and vert much over weight but this video really put my mind at rest as to whether i was dieting too low. so thanks for the information in this video. i found it super helpful
dude, you're a goat, no bs information, quality content, instantly subscribed, you'll be at 1 mil subscriber in no time
Thank you! 🙏
Instantly subscribed. It's crazy how much you and I think alike. I recently finished a "blasting" phase as I like to call it, whereby I drastically decreased calories to burn fat (post lockdown fat gain, I was very zealous to reverse my 6 week binge!). People called me crazy, but I've been a health and fitness enthusiast since I was 16 (32 now) and I can handle it. Sure, it's not something I recommend to everyone, but well and truly 'each to their own'. Now I'm enjoying the fruits of my intense labour by pursuing a lean bulk atm.
Cheers Eugene!
Thank you! 🙏
I’ve tried and failed slow and steady for years. But I always get sustained loss when I go aggressive.
Love your channel man, this was a great video to think about so I've started eating at about 1200-1400 and will see the effects after 2-3 weeks!
How did it go bro
@@ahmedshaikh2221 he's dead
Jk i also doing it rn(straing week 3) and it's pretty good
@@tcrvo01 so how did it go?
Great educational content as always ! Thank you so much for offering this privilege of free learning ! You Rock💪🏻
Wow what a really value worth info condensed video, awesome Eugene!!!
Thank you! 🙏
Seeing Christian T, and you referencing T-nation and Anaconda brings back fond memories of my college days.
I've always done the slow and steady approach, but I think this go around, I'm going to do this more aggressive style to see if I like it better.
Always thought aggressive cutting was unnecessary and somewhat dumb but after watching your video, totally changed my perspective on it and im literally thinking about trying it out for a change from the slow steady method. Your videos are always top notch bro. Mahalos from Hawaii
Thank you! 🙏
This is essentially a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF).
I DO really agree about being a bit aggressive for that bump of motivation.
Been following Layne Norton's approach where he will be more aggressive for 2 weeks, week of maintenance, then repeat. Feel it's definitely easier to maintain a sprint approach with visible changes, than a marathon where it might take double or triple the time to see results.
This is exactly how I think about losing weight. You just gotta experiment with your body, and see what best works for you, that’s what I did for a couple years when I was tryna lift weights and get stronger while also trying to wrestle and lose weight. When I start to lose the weight, I don’t really feel any different, I feel just as strong, at first I still get hungry and then my body adjusts to the amount of calories I consume and I get fuller a lot easier, I only feel kinda sick or weak from the lack of calories or when I’m fasting at the end of a workout whether it’s playing soccer, basketball, or when I wrestle cuz I push myself way to hard, but it’s nothing too bad.
One thing that hit me was how you didn't mention about the willpower it takes to do this- as in, the ability to resist going over your prescribed calorie intake. But I think that makes sense, since when you get to the stage you're at, 'strength of will' probably doesn't factor a lot anymore!! I imagine you've been training long enough that the willpower is just there, not a question.
I hope to get to that point in my life that I can just say to myself 'for the next 6 weeks I will eat 1000 calories' without any kind of wavering from my willpower. Like, it's not a difficult choice. We are doing this and that's just what we're doing.
While will power is definitely a factor, please don’t think that this is the single factor. It will vary wildly for people. I’m medicated for ADHD and my meds mean I essentially have 0 craving for food. I can eat, but I feel no real hunger cues.
For me, eating 1000calories is purely about managing side effects (headaches, electrolytes, muscle loss). I would hate to think that someone were to look at my ability to diet and think ‘Oh man, I don’t have as much willpower as her.’
Genetics, psychology, environment all play a huge role in your ability to manage a cut like this.
Interesting take on it all, and def going to think about it different. Currently on a massive weightloss journey (500 down to 360 so far) and eating 1200~ cals has always seemed impossible to me 😅
As you BW is pretty high your maintance is probs also way higher then 2500 which means his 1200 is 'more easy' then your 1200kcal wouldve been
@@moheydari305 makes sense!
I just ate a shit ton of protein and youll feel full. Like, all protein diet, Multivitamin, maybe some probiotics.
Only eat salad with turkey and low calorie sauce. It is definitely possible, but It's definitely not enjoyable.
Congratulations on your weight loss! 140lbs is no small feat!
One thing to consider is that 1200 calories would be extremely insane for someone at your current body weight since your basal metabolic rate (BMR) would be higher than Eugene’s. For example, I’m 5’11 200lb - and my BMR is about 2000 calories and my daily expenditure is about 2500-3000 calories. I currently do 1200-1500 calories a day and am losing about 2lb a week. However, if I were to weigh 360 that would put my BMR and TDEE at 2650 and 4000 calories respectively. So to maintain a 1200cal diet is much easier when your energy expenditure is 3000 vs 4000.
Cutting will be hard now, but as you lose more weight it will get easier to lower your intake. Also consider that he’s already in shape and only aiming to lose a few pounds, so an intense short term diet is a viable option. For someone such as yourself who may instead be looking to drop large amounts of weight, an intense cut below 1500 calories would likely result in binge eating or cheating because you’d be starving and eventually succumb to the hunger since even at a 3 or 4 lb loss per week you’d still be looking at about a 10-12 month timeframe to get down to 200lb.
Overall, this diet would very likely unsustainable for you. It would be extremely difficult to manage 1200 calories a day for a year straight - even moreso when your metabolism is burning 33% more calories a day compared to a 200lb person. You can 100% apply the lessons though. Eugene is basically just subtracting about 1000-1300 calories a day off his daily energy expenditure. You could use that same calculation by calculating your TDEE and shaving 1000-1300 off that number instead (in my prior example that’d put me at about 4000-1300=2700 if I were 360lb) and you’d see great results that would be sustainable. Keep in mind, as you continue to lose weight you’d have to recalculate your BMR/TDEE to subtract the 1000-1300 from because your BMR will go down as you get lighter.
You might have already covered this and this makes sense what you're saying, but The one roadblock I have found out is sufficient protein intake when trying to go extreme calorie deficit..
It's hard enough to get enough protein while being on even a minus .5% loss per bodyweight much less 1% of body weight and above.
You would not only lose muscle at that time but also not be able to gain muscle obviously.
So, for all of that 6 weeks you would be in the negative as far as gains.
So you would lose whatever muscle you would lose during that phase and then you would lose whatever gains you would have had during that phase. So it's much more significant than just the muscle that you would actually lose.
He is gorgeous ! Just Asian Beauty at maximum capacity .,.
For aggressive periods of fat loss I've preferred implementing 24hr fasts once a week to brings up my deficit from a moderate pace to aggressive, I have much more energy on workout days when doing this as opposed to slashing my calories aggressively and feeling lethargic for long periods of time.
Do you always fast on training days or do you sometimes choose rest days?
@@johnpena2228 I'll fast on non training days so I have more calories left for my training days. As long as your average weekly cals - average weekly activity = Your desired deficit you should meet your weight loss goals however you approach it, so if you prefer fasting or having consistently lower calories that's up to you and your preference.
i do the same , but 48 hours fast on the weekend , no deficit at all on training days ... my BMR is around 2500 kcal so it's like i have 350 deficit every single day , just in one swoop , and it works great for me
Definitely trying this!
This is GOLD my mindset is with eugene i rather do it fast then be more time at maintenance surplus
Excellent video. I do the same when I cut. I bulk all year, then do an aggressive cut like this.. any strength loss is gained back within a month, and it has been working great for me. I will never do a slow, steady diet again. There is so much fear-mongering in the fitness industry. We can have a large deficit, which is not dangerous.
Most of the supposed “muscle loss” is really from glycogen and water weight (which are both included in the Lean Body Mass or LBM of DEXA scans).
Your body will always consume excess fat before muscle, period, end of discussion.
Cool story bruh!
@@mrprimetime2628 100% 👍
And let's not forget that thanks to autophagy your body will take protein not only from muscles but from other various unnecessary protein made tissues
I think this approach is the correct way to go when you very large as well. My bother lost 135lbs eating 1200cals a day over 8 months. H went from a size 52 to a size 32 pants. It works well and it really doesn't damage your metabolism as much as people think
as euge said, if you've got lots of fat to spare, it's not difficult for your body to draw that fat out for energy
You have such a humble and insightful approach to the way you communicate. Mad respect for you and your content, dude! Great stuff! :)
Eugene what’s your take on coaches wanting to “build” your metabolism by increasing calories ( when people need to lose fat )?
Building for a long time before cutting calories, is so demotivating for so many people.
Thumbs up for your content and for coach Thib commenting too! 🤘
He pretty much went over this in the video. That concept is a myth. Like Eugene said in the video, your metabolism will just increase because you gain more weight i.e bigger person, and because you have more energy from the increased calories so your body does more things like fidgeting and what not. Both of these things are often overestimated with how much of a change in calories burned they have though, and as soon as you take those calories away and start cutting, the body will just adapt back to a lowered state of metabolism. So it would be really dumb to increase the calorie intake for someone trying to lose fat, because they would only get more fat and once you "built" their metabolism and put them back into a deficit to actually lose the fat, their body would just adapt back. Basically if you try to build your metabolism it's not gonna do anything other than increase the amount of weight you have to cut. If this concept were actually true, then you could "build" to lets say a 4000 calorie maintenance by eating more and just maintain at that once you were done "building". But would this actually work? Of course not, unless you somehow find a way to bypass the laws of thermodynamics or you are like 700 lbs after "building" your metabolism.
@@ape8404 Thanks mate, have a great one!
i fast every week for 24-36h and do 2-3x training per week, i eat literally all i want to eat and still loose around 1kg fat per week even when i train 1x per week, once i am at a certain range , e.g 80kg and i don't want to go below, i fast every second week for 24-36h. May this principle help some of you :)
Do you usually fast on rest days or training days? Also why every other week?
@@johnpena2228 every monday of every week i usually fast. Mo and Tuesday´s i dont workout. On wednesday your powerlevels will be through the roofs, there you can actually plan your first workout. For me personally, i love working out on saturday and sundays. Revory is lightning fast because fasting adds speed. Why every other week? for you it might be diffrent, but for me, i usually add around 1kg fat per 2 weeks of normal eating. When i want to maintain a certain weight i fast only every second monday. :)
@Levon P. Interesting, thanks for the reply
@@johnpena2228 your welcome John
fast means cannibalism .So eat raw meat or organs because you already eat human raw
Serious serious gift in delivery my friend, exceptional job.
Great video, I agree with your method, it is not for everyone but it definitely works when you're disciplined.
Interesting concept. I'd like to hear more opinions on this from gurus in the industry. Right now the general consensus is longer and slower fat loss is better for muscle retention and to obtain a better end result. No one really knows sht though. Thank you for contributing to the ongoing conversation.
Thank you! 🙏
I’ve done something similar before, during a period of personal heartbreak. I was hanging around 1200cal for 5 months, nothing but chicken, rice, broccoli and F45 every morning. Lost 20kg during that time. While I was focused back then, looking back at it, it was quite stressful. But I think key to doing fast cuts like this, is understanding what you’ll be going through, the good and bad, and mentally being at peace with it.
Did you lose muscle though?
@@davidsennholtz515 Well I had not much to begin with at that point, I was just overweight. I'm confident most it was fat, but there should be a bit of muscle loss.
@@raymondlau4114 5 months is way too long at such a low kcal target prob 4-6 week max then you need to eat more
It has been 11 months and im 70lbs down (273-203) by eating 1500 a day. I just started getting into running to speed things up a little more but it is interesting to hear that this may only hurt me.
Everyone is different and trial and error is your best friend. I lost muscle on 1900 and looked skinny, bulked back up and when I cut on 2250-2300 kept most of my muscle and looked defined and shredded.
I'd hate to think what I would look like eating 1000-1200 calories a day.
This is excellent information !!! Thank you so much for your expertise and confirming exactly what I think :)
I think as long as you have stored energy in form of fat your body has no reason to break down muscle tissue to utilize its kcal. However your body needs protein for basic body functions like producing cells for example so if you don't get any or very low protein, your body will have no choice but to break down muscle tissue in order to obtain the amino acids it needs and can't get from the fat stores.
iam at 100kgs with 25% body fat at 6'1 ......iam going to the gym about a year .....iam thinking of cutting down to 15% bodyfat by eating at 1500calories and then lean bulk........with 25% body iam unable to exactly track my progress .....my maintainance is 2400 calories ........can you please help me with this question wether i should do this cut or not??
I have access to a pc and can work from home. So I can walk all day while working. My maintenance is 2700-3000 calories. When I want to cut and lose weight rapidly, I just walk 30-40k steps per day and eat at maintenance. 40k steps per day at my weight and height (194-200 LBS. 6’4’’) burns me about 2000 calories per day. Thus my maintenance djet is equivalent of eating 700-1000 cal per day. Walking is low intensity and fatigue for me and doesn’t get in the way of weight lifting for me either. And because it’s low intensity it doesn’t make me very hungry as with high intensity cardio on a diet. It sure is a lot of walking, but I don’t have to cut calories very low because I just love food too much. I would so much rather create a calorie deficit via exercise. It works very well for me.
My understanding is that metabolic slowdown is not permanent. I think intermittent fasting is better than other techniques for this
Fasting does not reduce fat if you don't eat less calories. And if you do so, you're basically just skipping a meal a day, which results in a big deficit, which is the exact as he's doing
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently? Really great breakdown, good content Eugene!
i started my journey of fat loss a month and a half ago and im eating around 1000 calories a day plus 6 days of ppl and ive already lost over 20lbs i started at 200.4 and im already at 177.8lbs going aggressive is really nice and im currently only seeing benefits other than bad moods and sleeping longer
Where are you now?
@@RB621337 it’s been slow had a lot of stuff happen during December but I got down to 165lb and now that I’m settled in at school the grind continues
great video! people should be talking more about these things! i am a 165 cm male, and during my last 15 week diet, i dropped from 67 kgs to about 59 kgs. i did go as low as 700-800 cals to push the fat loss for about 10 days or so.
were you able to retain?
really helpful thanks. The point about readjusting the maintenance after the diet was very insightful. keep up the good work
Im prettyy sure metabolism or at least caloric requirements are largely determined by body composition/activity levels, the saying about it decreasing with age is mostly true however when lifestyle conditions were accounted for the difference was not significant.
Edit: nvm I'mma shut up
thank you so much for sharing this. i didn't even know this was an option. im able to keep training and live a normal life while dropping fat. so grateful for this.
Did you feel strength level dropping fast? Did you lower sets and reps? If so How fast did your strength come up when starting your maintenance calories? Thank you!
While I agree with this kind of dieting strategy, as a student I can't afford to effect my cognitive ability
So many youtubers are going to make response videos to this.
🤣🤣 perhaps
I actually went for a 1000 calorie diet as well when I decided I wanted to start working out and losing weight. However, this was at a weight of like 360 pounds so the actual calorie deficit was completely mental. I was dropping like 6-8 pounds a week at the start while still having some offset from building muscle.I needed new pants twice within just three months.
I think I kept this up for 4 or 5 months before upping my calorie intake to 1300 and then later 1700 when my body wasn't positively drowning in energy from burning fat stores any longer.
Currently sitting at around 180 pounds, so I'm basically in regular "cut required" territory now and losing about 0.5 to 1 pound per week. After months of 1000 calories a day the amount of food I get to eat on my current slow&steady fat loss diet seems absolutely gargantuan.
this long ass video sounds like a hunger cope, to distract yourself from being hungry ;D
🤣🤣🤣
My job is too active for this but this is a cool thing to try on the weekends
Awesome video, so helpful
im so confused now.. everything ive concluded about weight loss told me to keep calories as high as possible until your weight plateaus, and increase cardio overtime too,,, would eating 1800-2000 calories a day but then burning off around 1000 cals with moderate intensity exercise not give the same results but also allow you to eat more??
I think with this approach you avoid having to do any extra cardio at all, and all the weight loss comes from specifically reducing calories. Also, when you end your cut you don’t have to worry about gaining a bunch of weight back if you quit manually burning calories through extra cardio.
Im 6.8/203 cm) ft and was 129 kg after i didnt care about eating clean just going all out in the gym. Then i started cutting and did it for a while. About 6 months and i did really agressive cuts like going down to 1000 calories and sometimes even less for many weeks straight. I lost weight very fast but didnt feel slow, bad or lost strength. I sometimes had those days when i felt like shit, but still i lost the weight and kept the muscle. I think its total myth that you lose bunch of muscle etc when you cut to much. I think the only thing that matters if you have mental strength to push trough this insane diet. Mentally its insanely hard, but if you keep it and manage it. You will lose fat at insane rates. Overall i did lose 37 kg in six months which was my goal and it worked. One thing i mostly felt hard was basically motivating myself to push hard in the gym as you feel exhausted to push on. But i guarantee if you pull trough, you will have strength
How I feel aswell
Second this 🤌👑
Just started doing it, thx for sharing mate!
great insight! as a big eater the lowest i went was 1800kcal and let me say it was MISERABLE to live like that , i did for a bit more than a month, and i was dreaming about food and thats not a good sign 😂
Trainning was another nightmare,my leg workouts consisted of leg presses seated ham flex and calf raises, gone were the heavy squats and stiff DL 😂
Its truly not for everyone
Probably the first time ever I've watched a 38 minute RUclips info video, your content is sick! Instant subscription!
Just a question, I've been doing this for about 3 odd months and have lost around 10kgs, about to get into maintenance mode, question is I'm big on sugar, any recco on taking up my calories to maintenance while also feasting on sugar few times a week and not gaining back the lost weight?
Thank you for another great video:)
Thank you! 🙏
Wow I love this strategy, short and quick like ripping the bandage. Im hoping this will be a mini vlog series of your journey?
Im starting tomorrow 🙏🙏
Good luck! And perhaps
I once lost 15kg in a month doing 600cal a day diet. I was alsoon ECA stack. I only lost 1kg of muscle, all confirmed via bodpod. It was insanely hard. I was watching food porn every day, Man v Food etc.. Food was all I thought about.
Did you gain the weight back afterwards?
Mental health and risk of disordered eating wise I much prefer to use this style of aggressive dieting and getting back to normal eating and consistent training as soon as possible. 👍
I just did this. Dropped 20 lbs in about 10 weeks. Average intake was about 1100 kcal/day, on top of weightlifing and 15k steps. Everything was fine until it wasn't. Rather suddenly on the 10th week, I hit a brick wall. In the span of a few days, my legs could no longer recover from the walking, and I could barely lift a 45-lb plate to put on the bar. The problem was, I ran out of fat. After 10 weeks, the belly and the lovehandles were gone. There was no energy to support exercise. But I still had more fat to lose, so I raised my intake to about 90% of expenditure, just below maintenance. That got me back on track, and now I'm losing weight again, but much more slowly as I approach that 10% mark. So yeah, this strategy is very effective for getting down to the low teens, but once you get near 12-13% body fat, you need to start ramping up the calories -- staying in a deficit, but just barely. And you need exact numbers, because at this stage, the difference between a surplus and a deficit could be the cream in your coffee.
I really think that the whole "losing muscle on a cut" thing is blown out of proportion, i people tend to think they instantly lose muscle on a cut because all their glycogen is sucked out and they have shitty diets on their bulk.
I agree
@@coacheugeneteo thanks bro 😁
By all means do a short aggressive cut BUT check your personal macros to find the right calorie intake. To preserve muscle and hormones you need to maintain about 1g of protein per LB body weight and about 1g fat per 1/3 of body weight in LBs. For Eugene his calories must be too low - there is no way he can be getting enough protein and fat on 1000 cals per day. For clarity is likely the required amount would be about 1250 cals so still very low and going to give a big deficit for the cut, however that difference will give the necessary macro nutrition and help preserve muscle and hormonal functioning including the ever vital testosterone.
Would I get a gallstone if I eat 800 calories a day? I always eat protein foods like hard boiled egg small rice and veggies, I always do 1 hr exercise, is this safe or dangerous?
Amazing video ! Finally someone who explains everything in details👏👏
Thank you! 🙏
Awesome!! Thankyou.
🙏
Greg Doucette just entered the chat
Thinking that throughout the entire video 💀
Can you do a full day of eating on this aggressive cut?
I put sample days some in this video but sure can do that too
Thanks a lot for the video. One question though: let's say you trained in anaerobic state, so your body and muscles needed carbs for the exercise because they couldn't rely anymore on fat oxydation for energy, what would happen to your muscles? Wouldn't there be a bit of degradation of the muscles in order to get glucose in the blood stream?
Seems like this would be risky for a skinny fat person who didn't have a lot of muscle to begin with.
Hey Eugene, sorry, but could you possibly make a video on your hair maintenance? We have very similar hair, but I wanna know how you get your volume, make it smooth, etc. Please bro, please.
I get your points brah, but be careful not to glorify borderline starving to people who are uneducated. Regardless, cool vid man.
i just ate every second day and on that day i made kind of "OMAD", i ate 2000-2500 calories in between ~2h at night. I took multivitamin tablet every day. Had done this for 2 1/2 Month and lost ~17kg (82 to 65) in that time.. how much fat and muscles i lost i have no idea^^
I understand you. For myself, I fckd up my metabolism and now I’m at roughly 1500-1200 maintenance so when I cut I eat around 1000-800 calories.
Did this recently for three months (we have the same TDEE of 2500 calories/day), even though I was eating around 200g of protein, I started becoming super obsessed/fixated on food and then a week ago, bam, entered into bingeing that I'm struggling to get out of :/ I think if I had've stopped at 2 months, I would've been totally fine./ But honestly I don't recommend this personally.
I'm also doing a more aggressive cut, i use caffeine exactly like you said, twice a week, on my harder workouts :) thanks for confirming my conclusions, you gave me a lot of confidence going forward 😁
🙏🙏
I’m confused does this guy claim natty? He does Bjj and is not eating enough fat to sustain natural test production (less than 50-60 grams a day). Both huge giant waving red flags that he must be supplementing test.
BJJ makes you not natty? I don't eat like this year round obviously 🤣
Brilliant!!!!!
I was nervous about muscle loss when I first started Keto (in a deficit) and intermittent fasting, but not only did I not lose muscle, I was GAINING. Like, hitting new PRs. Everyone knows it's not healthy as a long term diet, but I'll be working that routine in every few months from now on.
Nice!
At the moment I am on a 4 week minicut, my maintenance is 3200 and now my diet is 2200kcal. Experimenting with IF style, 2 large meals in the evening and workout between those. What you guys think of this, does this burn more muscle than the more normal 4 meals per day ? Feels good tho
Edit: Nice content :)
Are you losing 2lbs of fat a week?
I have been doing 1000-1200 a day since June. I am down from 307 to 206. I am never really hungry and progressive overload is still working so not losing strength.
heck yes man
@@trevloid 188 now
@@threefeetoffun what about now
@@user-wt4ql4kr1w 177 but I eat about 2000-2200 now.
@@threefeetoffun cool I'll copy you
I'm sorry I'm new to this what??? 15 sets for each body part???? My coach told me to do only 3 sets of 10 reps what am I getting wrong??
When you start, you can get away with less. But my understanding is 10-12 sets per week and 8 reps with 1 or 2 in reserve.
Some muscles like your legs, abs, chest, and back can grow better with more reps or sets. But these are the basic starter stats, increase weight, reps, or sets as needed. But muscles grow on approximately a sets per week schedule. I think some people decrease the weight a bit and increase the sets to prevent injuries in a low fed state.
resisting the masculine urge to eat 200 calories a day to be done with my cut in a week
Hey Eugene good to hear you're having success with your diet! However, won't severe caloric restriction increase your body's set point and have negative effects long term? From my understanding of the literature, repeated severe caloric restriction tends to increase the body's set point over time which is why overweight and obese individuals largely fail to keep weight off and actually gain more weight over the long term since, as I'm sure you already know, the body will try to restore this set point through decreased energy expenditure and increased appetite, and that as adults we can't actually shift our set point lower to reverse this (although you can in children). Does the fact that you weight train and have increased muscle mass (so not obese lol) change this or is my understanding incorrect?
Im a female that ate about 1800, but my weight loss stalled.
Now eating 1100 but focusing on extreme nutrition, not feeling hungry, not craving anything, not waking up hungry.
Here is my foundation:
Breakfast
Lemon hot water.
Celery, apple, and cucumber juice
Ginger, orange and carrot Immunity shot
Spinach, cucumber, and apple smoothie with protein powder or berry smoothie
Snack:
Greek yogurt, berries, and drizzle of honey or boiled egg or banana slices on rice cake
Lunch: Protein of choice with side salad or baby brocolli
Or
Chickpea curry made with tomato, onion, tomato paste, and spices
Late afternoon snack or dinner: Home-made vegetable soup (onion, carrots, spinach, garlic, bell pepper, and leek) with shredded chicken or pulled lamb meat
Late snack: Nori sheets with avo, cucumber, tomato, and shredded chicken
Or baby carrots, cucumber strips with tzatsiki, and humus
Bone broth!!!!!!!
I'm enjoying it very much. Doing a 10 day detox, and then I will reverse diet to 1300 and maintain it on 1400 to 1500. I might do the 1100 for longer.
How do you structure your food? Do you keep it even throughout your meals or do you just graze? Also, what about diet/no-calorie drinks. Do you consume those?
I keep it to 3-4 meals. And no non calorie drinks
i was skinny fat, i gained a decent amount of muscle while cutting the fat and now i am lean and not too skinny but stuck at 15% bodyfat and i cant seem to go lower than that, i was eating around 1800-1900 calories a day and barely losing any fat. should i go for an aggressive diet to eliminate the fat and go about 12% and then rebuild muscle later or something else
thanks this video helped alot
Hey Eugene, great video! I’ve got a question: you said 10-20 sets per body part is plenty to build muscle. Do you mean in example 15 sets for chest per week or a single workout? Because I’m doing a Push pull legs with 2 days chest & triceps, 2 days back & biceps and 1 day for legs. I’m an advanced build guy and always wonder if I’m doing too much for example chest since I did 30 sets per week in those 2 days and just didn’t gain any strength in 3 months, even lost a bit of strength in the benchpress. For your Information protein intake is not a problem I’m doing my 2g per kg and sleep 8 hours a night.
per week brother, per workout is toooo much
He didn’t reply 😂😂
"If I was to get completely dick skin lean..." Now there's one Ive never heard but definitely a great way to describe being sub 10% bf :)
🤣
Definitely not the way to diet by doing on a very hard cut if ur goal is not losing muscle.
Looking forward to hearing your insights on this! 🙌
this shit confusing fam, whatre u saying
@@jadmoghnieh7140 Translation: Should muscle retention be one of your primary goals, proceeding to go on a diet which severely restricts your calorie intake (ie a hard cut) is not the optimal method of losing weight.
Or something like that.
Would love to hear what you have to say if you decide to make a video
one of the best and most information videos I've seen on a deficit this extreme , thank you eugene!
First of all, how the hell did you only weigh 75Kgs before the diet, you looked a lot bigger then 75Kgs. And secondly you only eat about 2000 calories for maintenance, damn that's low. I weigh 77.6 Kgs and my daily maintenance calorie in take is about 3500/3600 give or take. And I am only 174cm(5.7ft) tall (or as I would like to say, short.) The pic before you dieting looks very similar to what I look in terms of body fat %.
Yep I'm only 164cm
@@coacheugeneteo now it makes sense. You look great bro. Keep up the good work. Love watching your vids, love the advice 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
First of all 174cm is not short! I’m 175. You must be really active if your maintenance is 3600kcal.
@@sleepzou where I'm from, I'm almost always the shortest guy. So here, 1.74m is short. Also, not that active, my metabolism has always been crazy. I am 38 and at the moment I can basically eat whatever I want and not put on weight. However when I was in my 20s it was way worse. When I was at Varsity I used to eat for a family of four, 5 times a day and drink lots a beer and still didn't pick up weight and back then I only worked out 5 times a week, LOL! I am actually trying to gain weight at the moment. Been eating more and lifting weights 6 days a week, but it's taking a while. Getting very strong, but not getting as big as I would like. Could also be because I do like 15 to 30 minutes cardio after every weight lifting session, so that would mean cardio 6 times a week as well. But at my age I do need to start think about my heart 🤷🏽♂️
Couldn't believe on both the sample day of eating days you showed you ate 258kcals of 50g of potato chips when on a 1200kcal diet lol. How on earth do you stay full when you're having 20% of your calories from something that isn't satieting at all o.O
I just go keto and intermediate fasting. Fastest results while being much more satiating.
I love the idea of short extreme calorie cuts. Even Chris Bumstead cuts Calories down to 1600, which is deep for his size. I’m 5’7 195lbs with a 33” waist. I’m dropping my calories to 1300 for the next 5 to 8 weeks, keep my current workout regimen (not more), amd then back to maintenance of 2350
Hey, how will u Go Back to maintenance? Straight forward or increasing slowly? :)
Chris bum stead is a multiple mr Olympia winner. You are not bumstead please don’t try to do what he does. Set realistic goals that work for you. If that’s 1300kcals then good for you.
@@sleepzou you’re thick as a brick of you think I’m comparing myself to CB. My point is a man as large as he extreme diets, as many bodybuilders I know. Please stay off RUclips