Q: hi mike, great site. I'm have last 2 kgs to lose in the final stages of my cut, before I go onto a bulk, and I just wanted to ask you if there were any tips for that last push? My body seems to have adapted quite well to having less than 2000KCal a day and I've heard it's unsafe for a man (I was 82kg i'm now 75kg) to eat less than 1500KCal a day. Should I do more cardio? or more weights sessions a day? thanks

A: Thanks, glad you like the site! It's a little difficult for me to give advice without having seen your recent progress and routine, but here are some thoughts... First off, if you have really had hard time losing fat and weight lately (and at 2000 calories that may well be the case) you may want to ask yourself whether those last 2 kilos are really worth it? If you have a competition coming up, then it's certainly a must or perhaps you have a beach vacation coming up. But if this is just a regular cut sandwiched in between two bulks it may simply be time to stop the cut and slowly switch over to bulk.

But if you are determined to lose those 2 extra kilos no matter what, then it's probably time for some drastic approaches. I would not recommend eating less, but instead doing more. If you still feel strong in the gym and have plenty of energy this would be a good time to go on a very high volume heavy to-failure program with generous helping of supersets, dropsets, rest-pause reps, spotter-assited reps, etc. Basically really push yourself with weight training. Do not do this for more than a month at most since it will take a heavy toll on you and make sure to take a week or even longer break from the gym after this program. In addition you can certainly do more cardio and/or HIIT. So overall, I would increase training before decreasing calories below 2000 if you really want to lose more. But, as I said at the top, really consider how much you need to lose those extra two kilos in the first place if you will be going right back on a bulk next.