I’ve been cutting for about 18-20 weeks now.
Here’s the inconvenient truth (without the filters):
- You Feel Smaller – Because You Are
When you lose weight, you get smaller – everywhere /from your ankles to your ears/ – and you can literally feel it.
I am not talking just about clothes getting baggier.
You feel smaller and more “exposed”.
You feel vulnerable…because you are. That extra layer of protection is gone.
This is especially pronounced when you wake up, and you lоок even leaner and tinier due to dehydration.
- Low Energy Levels
When you are on a cut, you pass through the following energy stages:
- The first few days are lethargic (especially if you are also cutting carbs). Hunger could be high.
- Then you enjoy improved focus and more energy – the body synthesizes adrenaline to keep you going. Hunger is getting duller.
- You stay at a medium energy level. You are neither euphoric nor super tired.
- After a few weeks (sometimes more), fatigue hits hard. Small errands feel exhausting. You go for a walk, and sometimes you subconsciously cut it short to save energy.
Sometimes you drop on the couch and need like an hour to recuperate after fairly basic tasks.
- You Learn That “Low Calorie Filling Foods” Are Bullshido
You can lie to your body only for so long. You can eat some vegetables and fill your stomach with grass, but at the end of the day, when there are no calories, your mood/hormones remain depressed.
Your body isn’t happy. You are effectively paying an employee a low salary while giving them free coffee and a gym membership discount. It’s fine…for a short period.
- People will think you are sick.
Natties love to take flattering selfies showing their abs, but in the real world, people just think you’ve gotten sick.
Your body is shrinking = what the hell happened, bro?
In some cases, loved ones may get worried about your health, especially if your face looks coffin-ready.
- Your measurements are depressing.
I never measure my arms or anything really on a cut because the number could give me emotional cancer.
- You brainwash yourself into thinking that you have lost a lot of “muscle.”
When you see the smaller version of yourself in the mirror, you may conclude that you overdid it. Usually, it’s simply the reality of how much muscle you are carrying.
It’s physically impossible for a lean natty to look big in clothes unless he has the frame of a pterodactyl. Most leanish natties appear like suicidal joggers in clothes.
- You realize how mega impossible it is to gain muscle on a cut.
Only people who’ve never done a real cut think they can gain muscle while putting their body into “melt mode”.
You can literally feel with your senses that your body is deprived and burning itself if you listen carefully.
And you realize on a somewhat core level, how ridiculous it would be to expect from your organism to add lean tissue to a system that cannot sustain itself as it is.
Notice how I keep using the word feel. Because it’s really a feeling, a real one.
There Is Always a “MOTOR”
Cutting proves one thing extremely well, namely, that there is always one thing that makes the whole magic possible, and if that condition is not met, no amount of “dancing” can compensate.
In this case, the motor is a caloric deficit. I am more of a keto guy (still eat some carbs), but all diets work in general. You can certainly get lean on a high-carb diet if you are in a caloric deficit.
Imagine two people.
Person A:
- smokes
- drinks Coke Zero non-stop
- drinks energy drinks without sugar
- drink coffee like he hates water
- sleeps like a vampire
- averages 500kcal deficit a day
Person B:
- eats organic Argentinian beef
- drinks ram milk from
- drinks 5L of Alpine water
- squats
- eats at 500 surplus
If person A continues long enough, he will get lean (if the protein is low and there is no training, the look will be fragile, but still lean).
If person B continues long enough, he will get fatter and fatter and fatter.
The point is obvious.
Every goal has an essential variable that must have the proper value for the desired outcome to occur.
And if that value is not respected, you can’t compensate for it through other pathways.
The same principle is observed in many other aspects of life.
Lifting?
A natty martyr lifts for 10 years, reads barbell books, and makes less gains than a steroid addict does in 6 months.
Money?
A “hard-working” martyr could buy the idea that people are poor because they are lazy and don’t work 24/7.
Meanwhile, a Chad whose dad had inherited a factory after WW2 works practically 2 hours a week and earns more per second than the martyr does in a month. Why? Leverage.
Dating?
The average dude is gaslit into thinking that he has to move the world to date a woman with a fish face and cellulite on her knees.
In reality, the modern dating market comes down to looks and money. You have them, you have options. You don’t have them, you waste time on stuff like texting game, creativity, “dark psychology”….retarded YT videos…etc.
Quick simple to the point .
I like it
When i used to permacut i changed my diet to carbs, if you know the krebs cycle to burn fats ur body need carbs, getting fats and proteins will give you a very bad keto look, carbs will make you veiny af. It works. Nice work as always.
I don’t really understand why people would take this bodybuilding stuff so far anyways.
Get lean-ish and build some muscle, of course, but that does not require more than having a sensible diet, enough activity and some resistance training. And with “some” I really mean a couple of sets a day at home with not much equipment.
Going for extreme leanness / muscularity has vastly diminishing returns if not negative consequences (the “death face” is not appealing) in terms of social benefits. If somebody feels drawn to do such thing, something else is usually off.
From where drinks ram milk?
Congratulations, Truth Seeker!
I hope you come back with your YouTube channel… By the way, there’s a Spanish-language channel that uses your posts to create content.
It’s called La verdad sobre el fitness.
Si tienes una contextura pequeña y encima haces una dieta demasiado restrictiva no atraerás más, todo lo contrario. El porcentaje de grasa también es en, cierta medida genético. Si quieres bajar la panza, haz lo que puedas, pero sin irte a los extremos y relájate. Cuanto más obsesión menos resultados
Short and direct, and with the precision of a scalpel.
“A natty martyr lifts for 10 years, reads barbell books, and makes less gains than a steroid addict does in 6 months.”
Do you mean in that sentence a natty who cuts or a natty who bulks?
I have personally experienced all the inconveniences described by Truth in this article. For me the hardest part was the loss of mass in my legs. This is were I felt the greatest weakness. Nothing worse than putting on jeans that used to be snug on the thighs and have then feel loose all over.
The best way I found to avoid these issues as much as possible is to cut very slowly. My last cut (and probably my last at 45 yrs old), I undertook over a period of 1,5 years. My goal was to reach 10% body fat from about 14%. I needed to lose about 9 kilos (from 87 to 78). So I started losing about 0.5 kilo a month. I cut my calories by reducing the proportions of everything I ate. (e.g the days I ate pizza, I would have 1/2 slice less).The workouts also continued to be the same (leg day was the most important – squats and deadlifts every week). The goal was to create a very small calorie deficit of about 50 to 75 calories per day (about 3000 to 3500 calories deficit per month). I would weigh myself everyday (on the same scale and same time and keep a running average) to make sure I was not losing too fast. If I found myself losing too fast, I would slightly increase my calories.
With this approach, I did not lose too much strength and although I was small all over, most people that I saw on a regular basis did not even notice. After I got to 78 kilos, Covid hit and without being able to workout properly I started eating normal again. Within a few months, my body found its new weight at 82 to 83 kilos. This is where I have stayed since and will probably stay for now.
Amazing congratulation for that cut, My Master what is your situation now that You have cut: 1 You are now happy with your body. 2 this shit will never end and you even remember when you were confort with your body.
I personally 10 years training i have making more curl of bicep 3 times a week the enoght to acumulate 20 tons, recently i measure my arms 37 cm my bruh i laugh for no cry.i found a old paper of my meassure with the date 3 jul 2024 arm 37cm it the same since the last two years it was a real punsh. I personally prefer the 2 i would prefer never have star training i even remember the last time that i feel confort with my body i would prefer just go to run or have a good rute in a nice sky in my bike the weekend this 10 years. Yes is a cry but sorry for that
For me it ends, i just will train for maintinance the lite i get for now, the problem is not the training it’s even fun and relax the problem is the seek of muscle
I wish the best in this sad walk of seek of muscle my Master,
TRAINING IS A SCAM!
FOLLOWING A “TRAINING REGIME” IS A SCAM.
Please TruthSeeker, make one post about foods & diets, i don’t know why but you’ve never touch deeply on the topic of “food”
There is a purpose for training, not only muscle building. However, his old posts cover your diet topic. Do not complicate it.
Ι agree!!
Natural cutting is very hard. Below is a link to a study on young, fit Army recruits undergoing hard military training, all were on an extreme caloric deficit (-55%), half received only 200mg/week testosterone only, half received placebo. Both groups underwent the same 28-day regimen with no dedicated strength or weight training. Both groups lost the same amount of fat but the test group also gained 2-3 kgs muscle mass while placebo lost muscle mass over the 28 days. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8264529/
This study proves (a) extreme effectiveness of even a mild cycle (some even consider 200mg/week a high TRT dose and not a cycle at all) over a short period of time (only 28 days); (b) even highly fit and dedicated people will lose muscle mass on a cut without steroids, so much for the “natural body recomposition” “scientific” trainers; and (c) steroids build muscle even without weight training.
the inconvenient truth is that the best diet plan includes steroids. In this study, additional protein taken alone had zero effect on muscle mass in older men and actually increased fat. but addition of only 100mg/week testosterone (a standard TRT dose) decreased fat and increased muscle mass regardless of amount of protein. Both groups had no weight training and no change in physical activity. Bottom line: dietary protein made no difference, extra protein might even hurt. Only steroids made a difference, even a tiny dosage any serious steroid user would consider laughable.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2673735
and here is more sad news for naturals:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5054608/
Two groups of men placed on same caloric restriction, one group received 100mg testosterone injection per week, the other placebo. Both lost weight, but for test group it was “almost exclusively fat loss” while placebo lost fat and muscle mass. And the test injections in the study were odd, subjects received a single 1000 mg injection every 10 weeks. So much for the “micro-injection” bros who pin cushion themselves with 10mg test per day via an insulin needle to “spread out” the dose. Again, steroids alone, even in low doses, and however administered, make the difference.
May have to recalibrate how you detect a fake natty: a cut physique without muscle loss may be proof of steroid use. Sorry but naturals cannot win, coming or going, cutting or bulking.
Stop complaining and take a little testosterone. The studies prove there are substantial muscle building/fat loss benefits from small doses and short cycles, even 100mg/week testosterone which is a standard TRT dose over a few weeks, so, in the end, what is the justification for not using steroids to help with cutting and some muscle development? Not talking about competition or becoming a physique influencer, just reduce fat/increase muscle moderately but effectively. health risks? trivial from a low dose of test only. “your natural testosterone production will shut down”? very very unlikely with a small dose over a few weeks, and virtually always resumes after stopping TRT. legal issues? easy to find a TRT clinic that will prescribe it regardless of your test level. fear of contaminated or fake bootleg steroids? TRT clinic = pharmaceutical grade testosterone in a sealed vial, clean and sterile injections. Not talking about trenbolone or anavar here just test. cost? not zero, and TRT is rarely covered by insurance, but probably less than you pay for protein powder and more effective. some sense of pride in being natural? sure, but if that’s real why complain all the time about how hard it is to be natural.
This nattyornot dude seems to be in the bottom 10% genetic wise. I have 100% natural “ectomorphic” friends who gained 20kg bodyweight after working out for 3-5 years. are these guys huge in terms of bodybuilder huge? no. But it’s still enough to impress people
Sure you do.
Everyone knows one natural bodybuilder who doubled his muscle in 2 years, even though all the rest are on steroids. if you add them all up it will be more than the total number of bodybuilders in the whole country.
I think Truth has been very open about the fact that he doesn’t have the best genetics in the world. Then again, he is one of the few here who have actually shown how his back looks like. I’m pretty sure most of us do not have a back like that, I sure don’t althoug I have been traning for decades. People also concider that I have good genetics, so goes to show. About your friends, how do you know they build 20 kg of actual muscle?
Still you are here speaking about your friend what about You dude, delusional maybe, genetic no change nothing if you are natural you never get 40 cm arms even 38cm for some persons for sure, if you think that genetic is the answer you are a naive, and more, maybe a noob is ok if he think that bullshit of genetic masters, but someone that has something like 5 years training and he still think that genetic is the answer (the mith), he is dont’ juts naive he also is a stupid, 5 years training looking for himsef and experiment at first hand the result on his own body and he has nothing of personal and real esperence and wisdom, just media shit he just jump as a monkey, at this point your at list must to know how to traing for yourself and how much is the real volumen nesesary for your and the moves that most estimulante your muscle and you also must to know your genetic limit , your muscle just stop growth at some point so if still you continue seeking for the “mith” after 5 years or more of consistent training, You are a naive and stupid for sure, i hope You are a noob and don’t a losser that admirate at his Friend’s result even you get more than 5 years training
I gained 20kg’s within a year.
When i did low volume “less is more” garbage, I blamed my genetics.
When I switched to high volume training, now I have great genetics or I took steroids. Pfft.
Do the work.
Video games made cutting an easier experience. However, I felt smaller when I was at work and in public. I had people ask me if I stopped lifting. I feel the %12-%15 would be ideal goal for healthy individuals who won’t compete.
I can relate to this article so well. A few years back I dropped about 10 kilos or so. Wasn’t really super fat to begin with, but wanted to get leaner. I’m still normal weight according to the BMI. But people really went crazy. During these years I got badly sick one time, and it had nothing to do with the weight. But people who never text me started texting me privately, asking about if I was training too much or eating too little or “too healthy”. I haven’t been training this little for years, and the only thing wrong with my eating is that it’s far from what these people consider “healthy”.
Get your mental illness treated truthseeker!