Build Your Dream Body: Breaking the Lies and Myths of the Fitness Industry So You Can Build Lean, Hard Muscle and Shred Fat Using Simple and Proven Techniques That Get Results (3 page)

While many diet systems will give you specific times of the day to eat or not eat, such as “stop eating at least four hours before bedtime”, there is no need to worry about those scheduling headaches.

Here is what you need to remember:

1. Eat three square meals a day.

2. It is actually better to eat a little bit later in the evening. This is beneficial for many reasons.

3. Schedule your meals so you are eating at least one of them directly after a workout. That is the most crucial time to make sure to eat.

Beyond those three rules, set up your meals however they work best for you. This includes whether or not you eat breakfast first thing in the morning. If you are not going to follow the P + V + F/C + S equation, do not bother with breakfast – we’ll discuss this soon. It will pay off more in the long run if you wait until later in the day and then eat your meals more on a brunch, late lunch, and late dinner schedule.

Stick to three meals a day that consist of our “food equation”, six days a week. Then give yourself one day when you just eat what you want and when you want.

When you include a cheat day in your diet, it is going to help you sustain eating healthy foods much longer than if you feel deprived all the time. Now, a cheat day does not mean to totally pig out. It means go ahead and order that pizza, have that generous piece of chocolate cake (but not the whole cake), or have a couple liters of beer and enjoy yourself. 

A cheat day is not going to ruin all of you efforts and can actually be beneficial if you refrain from going completely overboard.

When you schedule your cheat day to fall on the day you are not working out, you will get a great break all around and can start fresh with a new week the next day.

You were told to throw away your scales because when it comes to how much to eat, it is in your own hands; literally.

Look at the palm of your hand. That is one serving of protein.

Now, make a fist and look at it. That is one serving of carbs. Make a fist with your other hand. That is one serving of vegetables.

Ideally, one serving of meat will be one palm of protein, and one fist is one unit of carbs. For post workouts, you can eat up to two units of carbs. Add two fists of vegetables and you are good to go. For fats, one or two tablespoons is great, and make sure you sprinkle spices lavishly.

In regard to protein foods, it is not just the serving size that matters, although it is important to keep in mind. You also want to take into account how many grams of protein you are getting in each serving.

The ideal amount of protein when you are consistently working out is between 0.9 and 1.25 grams per pound of your body weight. For a 175 pound guy, that is a maximum of 218.75 grams of protein per day. To put that in perspective, one egg has 6 grams of protein, a cup of walnuts has 12 grams, and a porterhouse steak has 21 grams. Keeping within these limits will keep you from storing fat from protein that cannot be processed right away.

When you want to cut to the chase and get real results, FAST, you are definitely going to want to give Intermittent Fasting a go. This will help you shred fat, build muscle, and increase your energy in ways that nothing else will do.

Intermittent Fasting is one of the biggest secrets out there in regard to getting the kind of results you need for that dream body.

Plus, it is simple, just like everything else you have learned so far.

Let’s be clear: this is not a diet. In fact, when you stop to think about it, you are already fasting for a portion of every day. That is why we call it “breakfast”: you are breaking your fast. In order to get the best benefits, Intermittent Fasting increases the amount of fasting time and decreases the amount of available eating time.

The list of benefits of Intermittent Fasting include rapid weight loss, increase in HGH production and testosterone levels, lean muscle gain, increased energy levels, heightened hunger control, higher sex drive, better skin and hair, longer life, better sleep, and improved cognitive abilities. It saves you time and money, and it is very easy to follow.

The easiest Intermittent Fasting method is the 16/8 split. This is where you fast for 16 hours and have 8 hours available for eating. Other popular splits include 18/6 and 20/4. Then there is 24 hour fasting, which is done twice per week, and 36 hour fasting, which is done once every 8 to 10 days. That style of fasting is typically reserved for those who are more advanced at fasting.

If you want to try Intermittent Fasting, it is best to choose the date ahead of time. The day after a cheat day is perfect, since you can fill up during the cheat day. Then, choose which hours you are going to fast. The 16/8 hour split works out great when you include your sleeping hours.

A note of caution about Intermittent Fasting and working out: you want to make sure that you always eat within the two-hour time window after a workout. This means you either need to plan to end your fast after a workout or not start a fast until after this meal.

In regard to the meals you choose to eat when you are using Intermittent Fasting, stick to the P + V + F/C + S equation and opt for whole fresh foods. Also, make sure to stay well hydrated by keeping your water consumption up.

I cover the topic of Intermittent Fasting in great detail, including the exact protocols to follow, in my book “Intermittent Fasting 101”.

At this point, you should know just about everything you need to know about how to eat in a way that will help your body lose fat and build rock hard muscles.

Remember, it is as simple as planning three square meals that include the P + V + F/C + S equation, making a plan for using Intermittent Fasting (if you choose to), and avoiding unhealthy fats, junk food, and empty calories (except for on cheat day).

With these plans in place, you will be in a prime position to burn the fat and build the muscle you want.

At this point, it is time to look at muscle building techniques that work. This is just as simple as the diet principles we have been discussing.

Before drilling down into the details of exercise and physical activity, there are some critical considerations that are going to help you out in ways nothing else will.

Sleeping

Believe it or not, the quality of sleep you get will determine how quickly and effectively you will be able to get fit. You need four to five cycles of deep sleep every night, and that typically takes between seven and nine hours. These cycles of deep sleep release growth hormones. Aging and dead cells get replaced and tissues and muscles get repaired. You have probably heard all that before.

What you probably have not heard is that making sure you have eaten enough before bedtime is critical, and not just to help you get higher quality deep sleep. It will also keep muscles from breaking down when protein synthesis of the gastrointestinal tract occurs, which happens when you are sleeping. If you have not eaten enough, your muscles will break down in order for your stomach to the get amino acids it needs for protein synthesis.

Therefore, eating your last meal closer to bedtime takes on a new level of importance; it helps you keep the muscle bulk that you have been working so hard to maintain.

Again, this is linked to Intermittent Fasting. When you adopt Intermittent Fasting, due to the fact that you’re postponing your first meal until later in the day, your eating window then closes later. This means, without even trying, you will be scheduling your meals in such a way that you’re giving your body the fuel it needs to recover overnight.

Stop Sweating the Small Stuff

Along with sleep, getting control of stress is another crucial way to improve the level of fitness success you are going to be able to achieve. Stress makes you gain weight due to its stimulation of elevated levels of cortisol. Cortisol, which is a glucocorticoid hormone, increases blood sugar levels and promotes those ugly layers of hard-to-burn belly fat.

Lose the stress, lose the fat. If you cannot lose the stress, learn to cope with it in ways that will not have a fat building effect on your body. Working out will help break through a great deal of those stress chemicals. Mindfulness meditation, massages, and other stress relief tools can also help, and will pay off big time in helping you achieve a highly attractive physique.

Reveal the Muscles You Already Have

Losing fat is going to reveal muscles you already have without you even having to hit the gym or running track. While most fitness specialists will not tell you this, you already have a six pack of abs. It is just hidden beneath a layer or two of fat.

Think about it.

If you did not have at least some muscle already, you would not be able to sit up.

While those muscles may not be strong enough to comfortably do 100 crunches, they are still there or you would not be able to move at all.

Making it a point to burn through the fat without ever exercising at all will reveal muscles that you do not even realize you have. Exercise will further define them and build them up. This is great because, as you now have your diet under control and are getting ready to start an exercise regime, the fat will melt right off of you.

I’m going to break this section down very simply - something most experts would never do because they are trying to turn a profit. So, let’s get to it…

Strength comes first.

Increasing your strength is what your main focus should be.

Why? Because we can easily track and measure incremental increases in strength on a week-to-week basis. And when something gets measured, it gets managed. This is VERY difficult to do accurately with your weight, muscle size, body fat percentage, etc. Often, in the first few weeks of trying to measure these things, people will think they are no making any progress and give up.

When we measure strength, we will see increase in every single workout. This fuels the fire of your motivation.

If you’re wondering how this will increase your muscle size…

When you increase your strength, your muscles will naturally fall into line and you will bulk up.

We want to focus on lifting heavy weights and with every workout aim to increase either the amount of weight lifted or the number of repetitions completed.

This is called progressive overload and will drastically increase your strength, which we now know increases muscle size.

Time Under Tension (TUT) is, in my opinion, the best way to gain muscle fast.

TUT refers to the amount of time your muscle is under tension during the lifting and lowering process. This means that each repetition is performed for a set duration of time in a controlled fashion. If you’re having a tough time picturing this, imaging doing a simple bicep dumbbell curl, but instead of it moving quickly through the range of motion, it moves at a slow, controlled pace, almost in slow motion. 

I favor this model of lifting for the following reasons:

- It is tough, seriously tough.

- It is easy to track, and easy to incrementally increase every workout (even by a few seconds).

- It prevents cheating on your repetitions; since you’re controlling the weight at a slow pace, it becomes almost impossible to not make each rep absolutely perfect.

- It breaks down your muscle tissue (allowing for repair and growth) much more effectively than anything I’ve ever seen.

How Many Reps or How Much Time?

About 2 seconds to lift and 4 seconds to lower is going to be your sweet spot. With no pause at the top or the bottom of the movement, we’re looking for constant tension.

As for the number of reps, it’s going to take a little testing to see how your body responds, but aim for 60 seconds, then work up to 90 before increasing the weight.

Whenever you can hit 90 seconds (using the 2 by 4 TUT cadence) increase the weight you are using. 

Focus on keeping a steady tempo while maintaining excellent form, and if you find yourself struggling to reach 60 seconds, lower the weight incrementally instead of losing your form.

Then TRACK every workout you do and make sure you make incremental changes (progressive overload) every workout.

Again, let’s cut through the fitness industry myths and lies…

If you open any fitness magazine you will see complicated, Twister-esque exercises that just look ridiculous. We don’t need those. Like everything else, adding muscle, losing fat and looking awesome through exercise comes down to one thing: in this case, compound movements

Huh? That’s right, compound movements. These are exercises that use multiple muscles at a time and, without going deep into the science, they are the key to growth.

Focus on the following exercises for each of the main muscle groups:

Chest
– Bench Press and Incline Dumbbell Press

Legs
– Squats (or Leg Press) and Lunges

Back
– Bent Over Row (or Seated Row) and Deadlifts (NOTE: Do not perform Time Under Tension Deadlifts)

Shoulders
– Standing Military Press and Dips 

If you’ve just read that and shouted, “What about my arms and abs?”, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.

You do not need to specifically focus on abdominals and arms, as they are worked in all the exercises above. Any pulling exercise works your biceps and any pushing exercise hits your triceps. And your abdominals should always be kept tight when exercising.

If you would like a few isolating exercises specifically for abs and arms, here’s what I suggest…

Biceps – Standing Barbell Curl and Dumbbell Hammer Curls

Triceps – Close Grip Bench Press and Tricep Cable Extensions

Abdominals – Plank and Decline Sit Ups

If you’ve read this section and don’t know what any of the exercises are, quickly jump over to Youtube,; there are hundreds of excellent tutorial videos for each.