Setting Up a Mini-Cut
by Zach Trowbridge on March 26, 2025Mini-cuts are a very popular tool for dieting – searching Instagram for the hashtag #minicut gave me several hundred thousand results. But there are, in general, two ways that most people are using it, and one of them is much more effective than the other.
Method #1: A Very Fast Cutting Phase
This method is essentially doing a very condensed diet with the intent to get visibly lean, but in a fraction of the time that someone would usually spend doing so. This is more or less the “30 day transformation” approach – bottom out calories and carbs while simultaneously pushing high-intensity forms of cardio.
For example, for a 200lb bodybuilder, it’s not unheard of to see them go from a 4,000 calorie per day offseason diet down to 1,500-1,600 calories per day, with macros set at something like:
- 250g protein
- 55g fat
- 0g carbs (or trace carbs from veggies and fat sources)
In addition, it’s usually coupled with high-volume training with sessions that include 20-30 sets, higher reps, shorter rest periods, and sprint work on a Prowler or Assault bike for their cardio.
The problem with using a mini-cut like this is that more often than not, people are starting from too high of a bodyfat level, and expecting that by creating a drastic calorie deficit, they can drop 3-4lbs of bodyfat per week (or more). What actually happens is that the scale moves rapidly in the first 7-10 days from a loss of glycogen and water, and then the low calories and excessive training volume begin to catabolize muscle tissue, resulting in an appearance at the end of the mini-cut that can best be described as “skinny-fat” – a very depleted physique with no fullness, but also still holding onto too much bodyfat so that there isn’t enough muscle visible to offset the depletion.
This then also often leads to a very poorly structured return to an “offseason program,” which seems to be a rapid spike in calorie intake coupled with conditioning being dropped out completely, and training going from high-volume to heavy, low rep training. This rapid pendulum swing then just results in a return of water and glycogen, but also comes with additional fat gain from the dramatic shift in calorie intake vs. output.
Method #2: As a Slingshot into More Muscle Gain
The second, and more effective approach, is to use it intentionally as part of an offseason program when one or more of the following starts to occur:
- Appetite begins to drop dramatically, making it difficult to get enough food in
- As weight is gained, more of it is coming from bodyfat than muscle
- The scale completely begins to plateau for a significant length of time (at least 4 weeks with no notable shift)
In this context, a mini-cut is introduced for a short period (usually as short as two weeks or as long as six weeks) to address the above issues, but is NOT intended to be used explicitly as a traditional cutting phase with the intention of displaying an ultra-lean physique at the end.
This style of mini-cut is still intended to be aggressive, but is also short enough to not create issues with muscle loss. For example, for a 200lb bodybuilder who has been consuming around 4,000 calories per day in the offseason, it might look something like:
Training days:
- 2,800 calories
- 250g protein
- 300g carbs
- 67g fat
Rest days:
- 2,300 calories
- 250g protein
- 150g carbs
- 78g fat
Slight tweaks can be made throughout the mini-cut, but because this isn’t being used to produce substantial fat loss by the end, it doesn’t make sense to adjust based on scale weight changes on a weekly basis. After all, it’s not uncommon to see a big drop of 6-10lbs in the first week, followed by more moderate losses (0.5-2lbs per week) during the remainder of the mini-cut.
More often than not, you can take a “set it and forget it” approach to calories, macros and training/cardio volume.
Other things that should be considered with this type of mini-cut:
- Carbohydrates should NOT be completely eliminated. Reducing them to help restore insulin sensitivity and as an easy way to reduce calorie intake makes sense, but should still be present to help with maintaining training and promoting recovery.
- Training volume should not be dramatically altered. Moderate tweaks, such as reducing the number of working sets while keeping intensity high, or shortening rest periods slightly to bring up work capacity, are reasonable, but it should not be a radical departure from typical training.
- In my experience, sticking with more low-intensity forms of cardio also tend to work best as they don’t compromise recovery as much. Traditional LISS, or longer, more aerobic intervals work well here, keeping sessions at 30 minutes or less.
How Long to Run a Mini-Cut
How long your mini-cut lasts should be based on how lean you are when it starts – if you’ve let yourself get a little bit too fast and loose with your offseason diet, you may need to run something closer to 6 weeks to buy back enough room to get muscle growth happening again when you add calories back in. But if you’ve been staying fairly neat and tidy, and are just running a mini-cut because appetite has been decreasing or because you’ve started to stall in weight gain, it may only take 3-4 weeks to get back to the remainder of your offseason.
This can be a very useful tool for breaking up an extended offseason – for example, if you’ve decided to take a year off from competition to add more size, you may end up incorporating some variation of mini-cut every 4-6 months so that when it comes time to start a contest prep, it requires a shorter prep period and makes the entire process easier without having to resort to extremes that might compromise the muscle that was added in the offseason.
Zach is the co-owner and head strength coach of All Strength Training, a personal training center specializing in busy professionals located in Chicago, IL. He is also a competitive physique athlete, having earned his pro card in the WBFF in 2016, and currently competes in the NPC classic physique division.
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