INTRODUCTION
Every year, the same story plays out.
Come May, gyms fill up with people doing fasted cardio at 6am, cutting carbs entirely, and panic-buying every fat burner with a flame on the label. By July, they're burnt out, lighter on the scales but softer than they started, wondering what went wrong.
Here's what went wrong: they followed the noise.
At RED SUPPS, we don't do noise. This is your straight-line guide to cutting season — what actually works, why it works, and how to execute it without sacrificing everything you've built.
1. UNDERSTAND WHAT A CUT ACTUALLY IS
Before you change anything, get this straight in your head.
A cut is a deliberate, controlled phase of fat loss designed to reduce body fat while preserving as much lean muscle mass as possible. That last part is everything. Anyone can lose weight. Losing fat while keeping muscle is a skill.
The leaner and more muscular you are, the harder your body fights to hold onto fat and shed muscle. Evolution built you that way. Your job is to work around it — not against it.
This means the crash diet approach doesn't just fail aesthetically. It sets you back. Muscle is metabolically expensive. Your body will sacrifice it the moment it senses a prolonged, severe energy deficit. Months of hard training gone in weeks.
Slow, controlled, intentional. That's the cut.
2. CALORIES: THE DEFICIT THAT DOESN'T COST YOU MUSCLE
There is one non-negotiable rule in fat loss: you must be in a calorie deficit. You must burn more energy than you consume. No supplement, no training protocol, and no diet trend changes that.
But the size of that deficit matters enormously.
The sweet spot: 300 to 500 calories below your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). This creates consistent, measurable fat loss of roughly 0.5kg per week without triggering the aggressive muscle-preservation response that kicks in during severe restriction.
Go deeper than 500 calories and you're accelerating muscle loss, tanking your energy, impairing recovery, and making the cut unsustainable. The scale might move faster, but the mirror won't agree.
Calculate your TDEE honestly. Account for your actual activity level — not the one you wish you had. Then cut 300 to 500 calories from that number and hold the line.
Patience is the protocol.
3. PROTEIN: YOUR MOST IMPORTANT MACRO ON A CUT
If there is one macro to prioritise above all others during a cut, it is protein. Full stop.
Protein serves two critical functions here. First, it is the primary building block of muscle tissue. Without adequate protein intake, your body cannot maintain the muscle it already has, let alone build more. Second, protein is the most satiating macronutrient — it keeps you fuller for longer on fewer calories, making adherence dramatically easier.
The target: a minimum of 2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day. For an 80kg individual, that's 160g of protein daily. For serious athletes or those with high training volumes, 2.2 to 2.5g per kg is well-supported by the research.
Hit your protein target every single day. Not most days. Every day. This is the one area where consistency is non-negotiable.
Carbohydrates and fats can flex. Protein cannot.
4. TRAINING: DO NOT ABANDON THE IRON
This is where most people make their most costly mistake.
The moment a cut begins, they switch to high-rep circuits, machine-based "toning" work, and endless supersets with weights that wouldn't challenge a beginner. The logic is flawed: "I'm in a deficit, I can't maintain my strength, so I'll just focus on burning calories in the gym."
Wrong.
Your training is the signal. It tells your body what to keep. Heavy compound lifts — squats, deadlifts, presses, rows — signal that strength and muscle are still required. Remove that signal, and your body has no reason to maintain the muscle mass that's expensive to keep.
Keep lifting heavy. Keep the big movements in your programme. You may need to reduce total volume slightly to account for the reduced recovery capacity that comes with a calorie deficit, but intensity stays high.
Aim to maintain, not to destroy.
5. CARDIO: A TOOL, NOT A PUNISHMENT
Cardio has earned an unfair reputation in lifting culture. It isn't the enemy. It also isn't the answer. It is a tool — one that, used correctly, accelerates fat loss without compromising recovery.
During a cut, low intensity steady state (LISS) cardio is your primary modality. Walking, cycling, incline treadmill work. These activities burn meaningful calories, keep cortisol manageable, and recover from quickly. Three to four sessions per week, 30 to 45 minutes each.
High intensity interval training (HIIT) has its place, but not here. HIIT generates a significant recovery demand. During a cut, when your body is already operating on reduced fuel, stacking aggressive cardio on top of heavy training is a fast track to overreaching and burnout.
Use cardio to increase the deficit. Not to punish yourself for eating.
6. SLEEP AND STRESS: THE VARIABLES PEOPLE IGNORE
You can execute a perfect diet. You can train intelligently. And you can still stall your cut if you are chronically sleep-deprived or stressed.
Cortisol — your primary stress hormone — is catabolic. It breaks down muscle tissue, promotes fat storage (particularly visceral fat around the abdomen), and interferes with the hormonal environment needed for effective fat loss. Chronic stress or poor sleep keeps cortisol elevated, working directly against everything you're doing in the gym and kitchen.
Seven to nine hours of sleep per night is not a lifestyle preference. It is a performance variable. If you are serious about your results, treat it as seriously as your training.
Stress management matters too. Overworking, overtraining, poor sleep hygiene — these all drive cortisol. Build recovery into your week deliberately. It is not laziness. It is strategy.
7. SUPPLEMENTATION: WHAT ACTUALLY MOVES THE NEEDLE
The supplement industry makes its money in cutting season. Every brand suddenly has a "shred stack," a "thermogenic complex," or a fat burner with a dramatic name and a label designed to look like a warning sign.
Most of it is marketing over molecules. Here's what is actually worth your money during a cut:
Protein Supplements — If you're struggling to hit 2g per kg of bodyweight through whole foods alone, a quality protein supplement fills the gap efficiently. No magic — just protein.
Creatine Monohydrate — The most researched performance supplement in existence. Creatine does not make you fat. What it does is maintain muscular strength and output during a calorie deficit, helping you preserve the training stimulus that protects your muscle. Take it daily. Don't stop during a cut.
Caffeine — An evidence-backed ergogenic that improves focus, endurance, and training performance. Useful during a cut when energy levels dip. Use it strategically.
Multivitamin / Micronutrient Support — Eating less means fewer micronutrients coming in. A quality multivitamin ensures the foundations are covered. Not glamorous. Genuinely useful.
Everything else? Apply the RED SUPPS standard. If there isn't solid evidence behind it, it doesn't deserve your money.
8. THE MINDSET OF A SUCCESSFUL CUT
The physical variables are straightforward. The mental ones are harder.
A cut is a long game. Results appear slowly. There will be weeks where the scale doesn't move despite perfect adherence. There will be days where you're flat, tired, and low on motivation. This is normal. It is part of the process.
What separates people who finish a cut successfully from those who abandon it is not genetics or superior willpower. It is the ability to stay consistent without requiring constant visible progress.
Track your adherence, not just your weight. Take weekly photos. Measure weekly averages. Zoom out. The trend matters more than the daily number.
Discipline is not the absence of desire to quit. It is doing the work anyway.
CONCLUSION
Summer bodies aren't built in June. They are built in the months before — through the unglamorous, consistent execution of the basics. Deficit. Protein. Heavy training. Smart cardio. Recovery. Patience.
You don't need the latest shred stack. You need the discipline to execute the fundamentals with precision, and the products that actually support the process.
That's what we're here for.
No noise. No fillers. No false promises.
Just what works.
— RED SUPPS