Minicuts – 3 Great Benefits

Overview

The goals of the minicut are not to drastically overhaul body composition like a regular longer cutting phase would, but serve as a kind of ‘reset’ to achieve the following.

Minicuts will;

1. Keep bodyfat within a reasonable range allowing you to continue bulking without exceeding >16% bodyfat
2. Restore insulin sensitivity so you can add muscle at a more favorable ratio to fat.
3. Get you to a point where you actually start enjoying food again.

They are not a typical 12-20 week cut where you would look at going from 16% bodyfat to 6-8%.

Rather, you’ll be looking at a 15% to 12% cut over the course of 4-6 weeks.

Let’s look at the key benefits in a little more detail.

1. Keeps bodyfat in a reasonable range

Keeping bodyfat in a good range brings multiple advantages.

For one, it gives you a longer runway to extend your bulk. Equating to more mass gained over time.

Another advantage is that it can make a cutting phase seem much less daunting.

If you had bulked up to 20% bodyfat, the thought of a 16+ week cut can be quite off-putting.

Had you kept bodyfat in a more reasonable range, flipping the switch into a serious cutting phase seems much more feasible.

Check out my full fat loss guide here

2. Restores insulin sensitivity

Insulin is the most anabolic hormone in our bodies, even more than testosterone!

It is secreted by the pancreas when we eat and is the hormone responsible for shuttling nutrients into our muscles so they can repair and grow.

The problem is, if you are in a bulking phase then insulin is being secreted at a higher rate than usual.

This causes your body to become more insulin resistant, meaning instead of your muscles absorbing nutrients they’ll be stored as adipose tissue (bodyfat) instead.

By engaging in a minicut, you’re allowing your body to become highly sensitive to insulin again.

So that when you resume the bulk, more of those surplus nutrients will go towards building muscle as opposed to being stored as fat.

Fasting

24-hour fasts towards the beginning of the minicut can do wonders by quickly getting insulin back under control.

As well as creating a large caloric deficit, fasting also comes with many other amazing health benefits, such kicking into gear a process called autophagy.

Autophagy is a hidden process whereby your body breaks down and clears out dead cells, scar tissues and pre-cancerous cells.

For you science geeks here’s more information on autophagy – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9329718/

Think of it as a cellular detox, most westerners have never gone more than 24 hours without food in their lives.

Could this be a reason for chronic disease and illness being so prevalent in our modern society?

Growth hormone also spikes during a fast, allowing more rapid healing of nagging injuries.

There’s been many anecdotes of people’s nagging injuries that have spanned months and years healing during fasts.

This is due to a reduction in inflammation and the body finally being able to dedicate all it’s resources into repair instead of digestion.

Growth hormone also has many anti-aging and fat burning attributes.

People often report feeling more mentally sharp during a fast.

Blood pressure and cholesterol also lower during this time, which can be particularly beneficial for enhanced athletes.

Check out this video for more information on the benefits of 24-hour fasts.

3. Reduces dieting fatigue

When people think of the term ‘dieting fatigue’ they immidately think of it in the context of a cutting phase, where they are constantly hungry and lack energy due to continued and escalating calorie restriction.

What’s not talked about is dieting fatigue during a bulking phase.

I sometimes get to the point where I can’t stand the sight of food.

The thought alone of sitting down and eating yet another meal when I’m not at all hungry can be enough to make me nauseous.

Although some people don’t mind it, I fucking hate it…

It’s a necessary part of bodybuilding that I’ve accepted however and I’m much better now at adhering to a prolonged calorie surplus than I used to be.

By taking a break and doing a minicut, it will improve your relationship with food again so that when you get back to bulking, you no longer despise eating and you’ll actually look forward to it because you’ve been hungry – Something that you might not have felt for weeks or months prior.

Do you need to minicut?

So the question is… When is the right time to pull back calories and run a short minicut?

Only you can really decide, but I’ll give you my opinion.

I run a minicut whenever I suspect that I’ve gone beyond 16% bodyfat, my abs have blurred, my shoulder and arm seperation has almost vanished and I’ve been bulking for more than 12 weeks.

It’s as simple as that.

So you have an idea here’s what 16% bodyfat looks like on men of varying muscle mass.

As you can see, they’re still what gen pop would consider ‘fit’, but by no means are they lean and far from ‘shredded’ by fitness industry standards.

As to whether or not you should do a minicut, well you’ll have to make that call yourself but consider the benefits discussed above.

Transitioning out of a minicut back into a bulking phase

I recommend a brief maintenance phase of 1-2 weeks after the minicut to help prevent a rebound.

Simply bring your calories back up to maintenance before going back into a surplus.