Two kettlebell sessions a week. Daily walking. Protein you can count on one hand. Built for skin and muscle retention across an 18-week cut.
Roughly 500 below maintenance. No training/rest split at this stage — keep it simple.
Non-negotiable. Hit it every day. 4 meals × 50g is the easiest path.
The single most underrated lever for adherence. Makes the deficit livable.
Skin elasticity is dehydration-sensitive. Don't shortcut this.
8,000–10,000 steps every day. This is your fat-loss engine, not your workout. Walking is low-impact (your joints will thank you at 235) and integrates into life — phone calls, podcasts, post-meal strolls.
If the scale stalls for two weeks, add steps before cutting calories. Push to 12k. It's the easiest variable to manipulate without compressing recovery.
Add reps until you hit the top of the range across all sets, then jump weight and drop to the bottom.
Example: 3×10 goblet squat @ 35lb → 3×12 → 3×15 → 3×10 @ 53lb. That's the entire model. Don't overthink it.
Track in a notes app or notebook. Two columns: weight, reps. That's all you need.
The bell reaches chest height because your hips snap, not because your arms raise it. Watch Pavel Tsatsouline or Mark Wildman teach the swing before you load it. An hour of YouTube saves your back.
Under 7 hours and you're working against yourself. Most collagen turnover and muscle recovery happen during deep sleep. The cut gets harder in every way when sleep slips.
Daily weight is noise. Weekly average is signal. Only adjust the plan if your 2-week trend is flat. Don't react to a Tuesday spike.
One week at maintenance (~2,500 kcal) around late June and again mid-August. Slows total loss slightly. Pays back in skin recovery, training output, and sustainability.
The temptation will come around week 6 when motivation peaks. Resist. Two days is the dose. More is recovery debt you'll pay later in the cut.