 First question is from Evan Brandenburg. What do you recommend for maintaining performance while cutting? Maintaining performance while cutting. Oh, that's a good question because we always talk about maintaining muscle and It depends on your you know, what you're doing what your performance Measures are like it is it for endurance? Is it for strength? Ultimately you know when you're cutting if you cut too hard regardless of What type of performance you're looking for you're probably gonna notice some performance losses in other words if your calories are Too far below what you're burning you're gonna find yourself hitting the wall while you're trying to train So number one, I would say keep your cut Mild you know, I mean don't do a crash cut I would I would say try not to eat less than or have more than excuse me Maybe a 300 400 calorie deficit at the most is where I would kind of yeah Well, this is why we kind of would always talk about mini bolt or mini cuts Is a better strategy for that too because I'm always worried about that like, you know dropping them and reducing Performance quite a bit because if I'm in a big cut. Oh man, like going back into a heavy lifting day You just it's a factor just not gonna be as strong and you're not gonna your output isn't gonna be the same So you just kind of have to factor that in well if performance is it depends on like what's your what's more of a focus? Is the cut more of a focus or is the performance more of a focus? Yeah, because if the performance was more of a focus and I actually wouldn't even cut calories at all I would I would increase performance by increasing the volume or increasing the just burning more Yeah, the duration that you're doing it So if I like for example, you know would run faster jump higher I don't know what we're talking about but whatever the performance markers that you're looking at And you want to get cut I would increase the amount of whatever it is that I'm doing but I wouldn't reduce my calories So I think that's one of the surefire ways to help keep performance up without losing a bunch of muscle mass or losing Just turn that volume up right without this is what this is actually similar to the conversation that I was having with my Brother-in-law is like, you know if you if you have a day that and it's computing that you've burned You know five six thousand calories, you know, you don't want to only eat Three thousand or twenty I mean try and get up I mean, obviously you're not gonna probably eat six thousand but have a pretty healthy day of eating You know don't don't constrict that much because if you do more than likely you will end up eventually Yeah, and I would also just monitor your performance. So if you're cutting and your performance is Starting to suffer a lot stop the cut go to maintenance increase your calories a little bit once performance comes back up Then get back into the cut a little bit and see what happens Undulated a bit for sure undulated a bit if the performance is you know super important to keep protein intake high Typically, especially if strength is important for whatever performance you're looking for high protein intake has been shown to Maintain muscle mass and strength Better than lower protein diets when a cut is being employed I would also look at supplements like creatine creatine is a non-calorie Strength improving supplement it will reliably increase strength and Pretty much anybody that takes it was very very small percentage of people that won't notice Strength gains from creatine and creatine is not a it doesn't have calories. So you could still stay low calorie In fact, if you're if your calories drop and you decrease your meat consumption You may be can you know decreasing your natural creatine consumption. That's where it's found. That's a great point This is one of those times where we don't recommend supplements that often, right? We're always going the L natural as possible But here's a great example of where I think creatine has a ton of value Cut when you're cutting and you're looking for performance nutrient timing also can make not a huge difference But it can make a small no, that's another incredible. Yeah, I mean simply that's another thing Yeah, this gives especially someone like that like before you go and do whatever it is it is whether it be You know like my brother-in-law Downhill mountain biking if you're playing basketball a sport before you go into your athletic endeavor You know make sure you have a sufficient amount of calories going in and then then you refuel like right afterwards That's one of the best ways that you can make sure you can yeah I would say you want to have a decent amount of calories carbohydrates proteins A couple at least a couple hours before your big, you know competitive Whatever you're doing for for your workout and then like Adam said have your calories afterwards So if let's say you're working out today a good chunk of your calories should be the you know One to two hours before your your your workout and after and right after nutrient timing here makes More sense not gonna make a huge difference, but it makes enough of a difference to for you to do this