This YouTube video explains the concept of "mini cuts": short (typically 4–6 weeks), aggressive dieting phases aimed at losing fat quickly (targeting ~0.5–1% bodyweight per week, often 1–1.25% in practice). The speaker summarizes a Built With Science study where resistance-trained subjects cut calories ~40% and lost ~4 pounds in two weeks with little muscle loss, then shares personal implementation: reducing weight-training volume (cutting sets/volume and switching to a four-day split), increasing low-intensity activity (raising steps from ~10,000 to ~15,000/day and replacing HIIT with 30-minute light cycling 3–4×/week), and dieting strategies (dropping maintenance ~2600 kcal by 25%, prioritizing protein/carbs over fat, keeping fat near ~0.2 g/lb, timed carbs, and low-calorie food swaps). Finally, he warns about post-diet rebound, notes metabolism and activity changes (maintenance calories may fall ~100–200 kcal or more — the video states a sample change of 1,200 calories for some users), and describes monitoring weight and activity to maintain results.
Questions this video answers
About 4–6 weeks.
About 0.5% to a maximum of 1% of bodyweight per week (many aim 1–1.25%).
Calories reduced by almost 40%; subjects lost almost 4 pounds in two weeks with virtually no muscle loss.
Around 0.2 grams per pound of body weight.
Maintenance ~2,600 kcal; he reduced intake by 25% during the mini cut.
In six weeks, I was able to go from this to this to this. This was possible with something called a mini cut. In this video, I'll explain the science behind why they are so effective, yet difficult for people to stick to. How I modified my own diet and training to make it easier and what I did afterwards to maintain my results. By the end of this video, you'll know exactly how you can implement them to lose fat quickly and keep it off. Alright, so let's start by breaking down what a mini cut is and how effectively it works. So the typical approach to dieting is to take it slow, to lose fat at a sustainable pace. Many cuts are quite the opposite of this, and there's two things in particular that make it different. The first thing is speed, which refers to the short period of time you'll be dieting for. Typically no more than about four to six weeks. The second thing is aggression. Yes, you might be a little bit more grumpy than usual through it, but aggression in this case relates to how big of a calorie deficit you'll be on and how much weight you'll aim to lose every week. Typically, you'd want to aim for a rate of fat loss of about 0.5 to a maximum of 1% of your bodyweight per week. With many cuts, you aim to lose around 1 to even 1.25% of your bodyweight per week. So for most people, this is somewhere between 1.5 to 3 pounds per week. The idea with this fast yet aggressive diet is that you're able to quickly lose fat without the muscle loss and fatigue that would occur if you had extended it any longer. They're most effectively used during a bulk to quickly reduce your body fat percentage before returning back to a bulk, or as a way to quickly lean down before an event like a wedding or vacation. But how effectively does it work? Well, a recent study run by one of our researchers here at Built with Science, Alex provides some insight. They took a group of resistance trained males and females and attempted to see the maximum amount of fat they could lose in just two weeks. To do so, the test group reduced their calorie intake by almost 40% while continuing to train and eating a high protein diet. After the two weeks, they lost a total of almost four pounds. Some of this weight loss was water weight, but the rest of it was pure fat with virtually no muscle loss. So at this point you're probably thinking, this sounds great and you're eager to give this a shot, but the problem with mini cuts is that they're very hard to stick to and even if you do manage to stick through it because of the changes your body experiences during the mini cut and it makes it very easy to regain all the fat that you lost. As soon as you're done, I'm going to show you the exact diet and workout tweaks that I made to make the mini cut easier to stick to and what I did afterwards to ensure the fat that I lost stayed off so that you can do the same. Let's start with workouts. I've broken this down into my weight training workouts and cardio since there were important tweaks that I made with both. So for weights prior to the mini cut I was lifting five times a week using the five day workout split from a Built with Science Intermediate program. However, an aggressive calorie deficit now means that I have much less fuel to energize my workouts and support my recovery. This can quickly lead to excessive fatigue and strength loss. To avoid this, I made a few tweaks based on the findings of a 2011 study. The researchers took 70 trained males and had them lift weights three times per week for four months while tracking their gains. After the four months, the researchers then tested to see the minimum amount of workout volume needed for them to maintain their new gains. What they found is that just one workout per week, so a third of the volume they were doing previously was all that was needed. Now don't get me wrong, I love lifting weights, but implementing these findings into my routine was game changing for managing fatigue throughout my mini cup. To do so, I switched to a four day workout split and removed one set from every single exercise in the routine. This essentially cut the total workout volume I was doing in half, which was more than enough for me to maintain my gains. Now as for cardio, prior to the mini cut, I was on average taking 10,000 steps a day and doing two 20 minute HIIT sessions per week. My approach during the mini cut was to further increase my overall activity so that I could burn more calories every day rather than have to rely solely on eating less calories to achieve my goal deficit. Those of you who are more sedentary will benefit a lot from doing this. However, I had to make sure to add in the right type of cardio cardio that was easy to recover from and something I could actually stick to throughout the six weeks despite my lower energy levels. I decided to do two things. First, by taking more walks throughout the day and making frequent use of this under desk treadmill at my office I quite easily increased my daily step count to 15,000 steps a day on average. Second, I replaced my two 20 minute hit sessions with something much easier to recover from. Light cycling for 30 minutes three to four times a week. And I did this either indoor or outdoor on a road bike, depending on how the weather was. Now, my body responded really well to this routine. I recovered quickly, my energy levels during my workouts remained high and it was something I could fairly easily stick to every day. However, these workout changes would not have been nearly as effective without the specific changes I made with my diet. The tweaks I made there are what enabled me to maintain my muscle and strength, keep my energy levels high during my workouts, and keep my hunger and cravings at bay. Alright, so now let's shift focus and talk about those dietary tweaks. So at the time my body needed about 2600 calories to maintain its weight. During the mini cut I dropped this by 25%. This drastic drop in calories created two problems that I had to solve. First, I had to find a way to save most of my energy from my weight workouts so that I didn't end up losing a ton of strength and muscle. Second, I had to find a way to manage my hunger levels and cravings. To solve problem one, I was strategic in what specific foods I'd be eating less of. The minimal amount of fat that you should eat per day for your health is around 0.2 grams per pound of your body weight. So to cut calories from my diet while ensuring I still had enough carbs for energy and enough protein to maintain my muscle, I reduced my fat intake close to that minimum amount rather than considerably dropping my carb and protein intake. In addition to this, I strategically timed the ingestion of my carbs to best fuel my performance of recovery. This was done by saving most of my daily carb intake from my pre workout meal to give me energy for my workout and my post workout meal to help with recovery the rest of my meal meals were relatively lower in carbs. Now to solve problem two, hunger and cravings, I made simple food swaps that kept me full and enabled me to pretty much eat the same meals I was before the mini cut, but now with far less calories. For example, before the mini cut, heres what a typical breakfast would look like in comparison. Here's what a typical breakfast would look like during my mini cut by swapping out some of the whole eggs for egg whites, swapping the bagel with avocado for lower calorie bread instead and adding more greens, I was able to save several hundreds of calor decreasing the actual volume of food. Same with lunch, I kept the ingredients pretty much the same, but instead of using a 300 calorie tortilla, I used a low calorie wrap. And again with dinner, I was able to drop the calorie count of this meal by over 300 calories just by swapping some of the white rice for cauliflower rice and reducing the fat content by not including eggs in the rice. And by the way guys, I post many of these meals on my Instagram stories and grids so give me a follow there for a ton of meal ideas and to follow what I eat now. In addition to these food swaps to help me resist temptations during the day and curb my cravings at night, I always, always made sure that I had some kind of tasty yet low calorie dessert. Banana and ice cream, apple fritters, frozen yogurt, just something sweet at night that I can look forward to during the day to help me keep on track. Many of these meals we include into our Bit With Science programs because we know how frequently cravings can totally derail progress. However, although these dietary changes were key to helping me quickly and sustainably lose fat throughout the six weeks, its what I did afterwards that helped me keep that fat off and is where most people mess up. So after a mini cut or any dieting phase, there's two factors that cause rapid fat regain. The first has to do with your metabolism. As a result of weighing less and the effects of dieting, my metabolism is slightly lower now than it was previously. In addition to this, drastically reducing my activity or cutting it out altogether after the mini cut would not only mean that I'm burning even less calories every day, but there is also data to suggest, and I can definitely attest to this, that lower levels of activity make regulating hunger more difficult. This is what causes people to unknowingly overeat after their diet is over. To avoid this, members of my vital Signs programs use our nutrition software to pinpoint exactly how their metabolism changes. But for those who aren't on my programs, expect that your new maintenance calories may be slightly lower by 1,200 calories. Remain active by doing things you enjoy and can sustain and just keep a close eye on your body weight. Your weight will initially increase by a pound or two, mostly from water due to the increase in food that you're eating, but it should stabilize shortly after and is an indication that you found the right balance. Now guys, just keep in mind that mini cuts are exactly what their name implies. Many they are not a long term sustainable solution. It's short and aggressive for a reason, as they quickly become unsustainable if continued for too long, but when used properly, they are effective. And for those who need more guidance on exactly how to train, how to eat, and how to execute a sustainable plan to transform your body, just head over to built with science.com take our free 30 second quiz and it'll determine which of my sciences programs are best for you and your goals. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this one. You can click somewhere here to learn how to lose from fat and and click here for an awesome meal plan to lose fat. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.
