The first in a three part series about cutting calories. This first part is about earning a cut. Many people come to us want to start out "dieting" which is to say they want to lose weight, which is to say they want to lose fat. But starting a diet without first learning the skills of eating properly and tracking properly, these efforts can cause long term problems even if they work in the short term. We discuss what it takes and when the best time to enter into a cut is.