PNBA Figure athlete Emma Currivan explains how to train in a caloric deficit without losing muscle.
Building muscle in a caloric deficit is tough. That’s why bodybuilders have periods for bulking and cutting. So when they’re in a caloric deficit, they try to maintain the muscle they’ve built from bulking. However, if you don’t follow the correct approach, you’ll lose muscle when you cut calories. Fortunately, Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association (PNBA) athlete Emma Currivan has a critical tip that you can follow to preserve muscle while in a caloric deficit.
According to Emma Currivan’s recent social media post, she turned pro after winning the European Open Figure division. Currivan explained the mistake she used to make when entering a cutting phase. She said:
“This is a massive mistake I used to make when I was training during fat loss phases
I used to do MORE during my sessions – adding on sets, doing intensifiers, drop sets, high reps, you name it – in an effort to burn more calories
And while I may have burnt a smudge more calories, it had a huge detriment on my muscle retention
I would end up getting so weak because of how much fluff volume I was doing, that my muscle simply left the chat
I’d come to the end of dieting phases with a pancake bum and looking like a weed
And when you work so hard to build muscle in the first place, you don’t want to just lose it all in your dieting phases because of the way you train
Don’t view your resistance training sessions as aiding towards your fat loss goal
Focus on everything you do OUTSIDE the gym for that – your nutrition, your steps, cardio, sleep etc
And when you’re in the gym training, focus on simply doing everything you can to maintain that muscle tissue that you’ve likely worked so hard to build
Aim to keep intensity or strength as high as possible
And sometimes, this may mean reducing your overall total number of sets, as recovery starts to dip slightly
Prioritise intensity over volume in order to maximise muscle retention in a dieting phase and you will look so much better by the end”
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Training When Cutting
Emma Currivan says not to increase your training volume by performing more reps and sets when you’re in a caloric deficit. From experience, Currivan speaks that doing too much volume during a cut resulted in losing the muscle she worked hard for. Instead, Currivan recommends lowering your training volume and focusing on your training intensity by focusing on strength.
She noted that when you do resistance training, your goal shouldn’t be to burn calories; it should be to build muscle. She pointed to research showing that the amount of calories you burn from training is relatively low compared to how many total calories you burn throughout the day. So Currivan says to focus on your nutrition, steps, cardio, and sleep to aid your progress in a caloric deficit.
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