Essential supplements for the cutting phase

In this new post, I’m going to talk about the essential supplements that amateur or beginner athletes should know about for a cutting phase. During a cutting phase, just as during a bulking phase, supplementation becomes very important. I’m going to talk about supplementation, not products derived from food, such as whey protein, nor isolate or casein. In my opinion, these products are not supplements in themselves, but rather nutritional products or foods.

What is most important during a cutting phase?

It is very important to maintain a hypocaloric state. Obviously, because of the greater muscular expenditure, energy-metabolism systems derived from AMPK rather than mTOR will be promoted for longer. This will lead to greater fat breakdown, greater carbohydrate breakdown, and greater proteolysis. For this reason, anticatabolic supplementation is very important. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), especially during intra-workout training, are essential. When supplementing with free-form amino acids, I always suggest, whenever possible, mixing them with essential amino acids so that they contain all nine essential amino acids. However, it should be clear that during a cutting phase, a greater amount of BCAA amino acids should predominate.

What are the essential supplements for a cutting phase?

The basic rule is one part BCAA for every two parts essential amino acids. For example, if we take 10 grams of essential amino acids, we add 5 extra grams of BCAA. But what happens if we are in a cutting phase, especially an advanced hypocaloric-diet phase? I recommend equal parts: 10 grams of essential amino acids with 10 grams of BCAA. I generally recommend this, especially if the workout is very long and includes post-workout cardio. Depending on the athlete’s body weight, they should consume at least around 5 grams of BCAA every 20 to 30 minutes. Some women or very heavy bodybuilders may need to increase or divide this amount depending on their situation, but it is more or less a good average for people weighing 80 to 90 kilos.

Creatine or no creatine during a cutting phase?

During a cutting phase, when I was a competitive bodybuilder, I stopped taking Creatine. I stopped because during a cutting phase I did not reach major insulin spikes during the day. In other words, I did not consume large amounts of carbohydrates, so I would not get 100% of the performance from Creatine. This does not mean that taking Creatine near an insulin spike is not absorbed. It is simply absorbed to a much lesser extent. Therefore, I prefer to give the body a break during a cutting phase, especially as competition approaches, even two or three weeks beforehand. One month earlier, when beginning the reverse diet and carbohydrate-loading phase, when we start increasing carbohydrates, I would begin taking Creatine. At that point, we start consuming a small amount of carbohydrates post-workout and can add around 5 grams of Creatine, depending on the athlete’s weight. In summary, I would initially remove Creatine at the beginning of a cutting phase and reintroduce it immediately after the most restrictive phase, when loading begins. In the case of carbohydrate-cycling diets, I would include it exclusively on high-carbohydrate-intake days.

Is it recommended to use a multivitamin?

I would recommend including a multivitamin supplement if deficiencies are present. However, it depends, since some people eat too many vegetables and other plant foods—approximately five servings of both fruit and vegetables. The thing is that during a cutting phase, fruit is eliminated because of its glucose and fructose content, and the preference is to maintain that balance with starchy carbohydrates, while still maintaining the five servings. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends five servings of fruit and/or vegetables because, in this case, we are talking about approximately 200 grams raw, which becomes 150 grams once cooked, steamed, or grilled. If you do the math, those five servings are almost enough for a person weighing around 70 kg, although perhaps not for someone weighing 80–90 kg. But they do provide the ideal amount of potassium needed, which is usually around 3,500 to 4,500 mg per day. In other words, that amount of potassium must be reached. Therefore, for someone who consumes these five servings of fruit and/or vegetables, it will not be as necessary to take a multivitamin, especially a mineral one. However, a multivitamin will be very necessary during a cutting phase with high stress levels, with at least a little more vitamin C and vitamin B. By a little more, I mean 25–50 mg of each B vitamin, only during the cutting phase and for no more than 12 weeks. Just because a vitamin is water-soluble does not mean we should take it throughout our lives, and just because we are high-performance, amateur, or professional athletes does not mean we should take 1 gram of vitamin C for life, because everything interacts.

Magnesium-based supplements

Another essential supplement for a cutting phase is Magnesium. Likewise, a magnesium-based supplement can be consumed; for example, the one most commonly used in high-performance sports and hypertrophy is ZMA. ZMA contains Zinc, which is highly beneficial and alkalizing in hypertrophy sports. It normally contains two types of Magnesium: citrate and oxide, although there are many types of Magnesium. In the end, this gives you around 450 mg of Magnesium, which is the same amount you would get from having five meals, five servings of vegetables, and all your protein sources, which obviously also contain Magnesium. Therefore, if you take a 450 mg Magnesium supplement, you will have excess Magnesium, especially during a cutting phase, when you are more prone to acidification, particularly in saliva and urine.

Summary and key points

What I want to make clear with this information is that supplementation is not always necessary. An athlete should always supplement, especially during a cutting phase, because supposedly we are trying to lose fat. We train more, do more cardio, and eat more protein because supposedly we have greater breakdown due to gluconeogenesis, and we need to increase our protein intake slightly. Increasing protein intake increases the amount of sulfur-containing amino acids, as well as the amount of phosphorus, and therefore increases acidification. Consequently, supplements that help regulate us become more important, because supplements help regulate the body. Although they are not always necessary, we need to adapt things somewhat to the system or the point we are at.

In summary, and to avoid making this topic about essential supplements for a cutting phase too complicated: during this phase, when the body is under greater stress, more protein and fewer carbohydrates are consumed, which is when more regenerative supplementation is needed.

I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. If you want more information about essential supplements for a cutting phase, you can watch this video from the MASmusculo YouTube channel.