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12 Week Guide to becoming Lean - The Diet

Researched and Composed by Jacob Wilson, BSc. (Hons), MSc. CSCS

Introduction

Bodybuilders are a strange breed.  Most of the time we work on packing on as much mass and weight as possible.  However ,every once in a while, we get the strange urge to shed the water and fat we put on while bulking and get a clean look at the muscle that lies beneath it.  Whether your goal is to prepare for a contest, or even for the beach, my 12 week dieting guide is sure to do the trick!

Diet

You must first understand that you will not lose weight--and probably not an appreciable amount of fat--innless you burn more calories than you consume.  However, too many people get hasty and end up reducing their calories way too much, which will completely backfire and ultimately make you fatter!

You see, extremely low calorie diets end up burning almost as much muscle as they do fat.  When your muscle mass drops, your metabolic rate slows with it!  Secondly your thyroid gland--which is responsible for how quickly our bodies process food--will basically shut down on you, which will completely cancel out the effects of your low calorie diet.  Therefore, you stop burning fat.  Then when you raise your calories back up to even your old maintenance, you start gaining a ton of fat.  This explains why the traditional diet does not work.  I've seen people who starve themselves end up gaining weight on anything over 1,000 calories a day because their metabolic rates had slowed so drastically!  What a nightmare!  Don't go down this path! 

The ideal way to shed fat without causing your metabolism to completely nose dive is to make very slight reductions in your daily caloric intake.  What we will do, is cut back on your calories by 250 percent.  So if you maintain your current weight at 3,000 calories a day, we will reduce your calories to 2,750 calories.  This will help your  body to select body fat as fuel without taping into our muscle mass.  Remember, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate you will be.

Protein Intake

Protein is a bodybuilders number one ally when bulking and the same holds true when dieting!  You see, if we do not get enough protein, then our bodies will steal it from our muscles.  A reduction of lean mass means a drop in our metabolic rate.  In order to prevent this, we need to consume at least a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight during this program.  So a 200 pound man would need 200 grams of protein a day and a 130 pound woman would need 130 grams of protein a day.  Just to be on the safe side I sometimes consume 1.5 to 2 grams a day of this macronutrient when dieting.  But we will stick with the happy medium of 1 gram per pound of bodyweight for this particular 12 week program.  If you feel you need more, than lower your carbs and up your protein intake ( I will give a sample meal plan on this below )

Meal Frequency

I don't know where 3 square meals a day came from but I believe that this is one of the main reasons most people end up storing fat in the first place! The typical modern day diet consists of a donut for breakfast, a medium sized lunch and a monster dinner with dessert afterwards.  Basically we end out starving ourselves all day when our bodies desperately need nutrients and then chow down at night right before we pass out.  The key to true fat loss is to constantly feed your body throughout the day.  Not 3, or even four meals a day will do--you need to spread your calories out over 6 balanced meals.  I know what a lot of you are thinking at this point, " I don't have time to eat 5 to 6 meals a day"  The plain fact of the matter is this: if you want a spectacular looking body, you are going to have to be willing to go the extra mile.  It's that plain and simple. There are several reasons why I advocate 6 meals a day.  These are just a few of them:

1.  Our bodies temperature rises in response to the digestion of food.  When our temperature rises we end out burning calories at a higher rate.  Otherwise our metabolic rate increases.  The term for this is thermogenesis.  Think about it, your temperature rises every time you eat, this alone is worth eating 6 meals a day.

2.  Larger meals are more likely to be stored as fat.  If you eat 6six 400 calorie meals instead of 3 800 calorie meals your body will use the food as energy instead of storing what is left over as fat.

3. Time and time again, diabetic research has proven the benefits of a more stable blood-sugar level, optimal absorption of food, and an increased metabolic rate, all a result of ingesting more balanced meals as opposed to stuffing more into each meal. 

4.  If we eat more often, we will trick our bodies into believing that we are not starving it; therefore, our thyroid levels will not drastically drop in response to our reduction of calories.

5.  Finally, consider the exponential benefits eating more meals would have on your ability to recuperate from intense workouts. 

How to figure out your daily calorie needs:

The first thing you must do is figure out exactly how many calories a day that you normally eat.  To find this out count your calories out over three days and get an average.  So lets say that a 190 pound man eats 2,800 calories on Monday, 2,700 on Tuesday and 2,900 on Wednesday.  His average caloric intake per day would be 2,800 calories.  

How to count your calories:  At first counting calories may seem weird or out of place, but after a short while, it will become second hand nature to you.  Each of the food items that you eat should show the calorie count on the container.  For instance a cup of skim milk is 90 calories and it says so right on the back of the carton.  A serving of whey protein is 120 calories.

Each meal must,  and I repeat must , contain a balance of protein and complex carbohydrates or fats in order for you to really get the most out of your weight training and fat loss program. Then, you need to divide your calories up into six meals.  So if you were to consume 2,400 calories a day, each of your meals would be approximately 400 calories each.  A great meal would be a turkey sandwich, or a lean piece of steak with oven baked sweat potatoes.  The carbohydrate should be a complex one such as oatmeal or whole wheat bread; your protein should be from a low fat source.  In other words, cut out the bacon and ribs from your diet and adopt, lean turkey, lean steak, and lean chicken.

Beverages:  You have to eliminate useless calories such as sugary sodas, coolade, and even orange juice.  You can replace them with mmm water.  You see there are allot of toxins released in your body when fat is burned.  Water clears these toxins out.  Plus, eliminating sodas eliminates useless calories from your diet.

Supplements:

Chromium:  Chromium is a mineral that helps our bodies deal with carb consumption.

Multivitamin:  If you are not taking one of these, then you need to be.  There is no way that you can get enough vitamins from your diet alone, no matter what anyone says!  Popping one or two multivitamins a day takes the guess work out of it!

Vitamin C:  This in my opinion is my all time favorite supplement.  It's cheap and it is the ultimate antioxidant.  You see when we have calorie deficiencies our bodies will become susceptible to colds.  Vitamin C will boost your immune system tremendously!  Take at least 3 grams a day of this vitamin and more if you are feeling run down.

Whey Protein:  If you can't prepare meat or don't have time to, whey protein can be a great ally to you!  It takes just 1:00 to mix a serving of 40 grams of protein, which is equivalent to several ounces of steak or turkey.  Plus it takes only a second to drink!  This is a great supplement to take with you to work.  Oh, did I mention that it is extremely low fat and easily digested!

Below are some sample meal plans; if you need less calories, make each of your meals less calories.  This is just a sample diet--its meant to guide you.  I'm not telling you to eat these foods for each of your meals, I am saying that nutritionally they should resemble what I have placed below.

These are the foods that I personally recommend for this diet:

So to sum things up here is another sample meal plan that is a lot easier to prepare, each of these meals is approximately 400 calories.  Also, this is a higher protein menu than the last sample diet.  It is approximately 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight for a 190 pound man:

Meal 3 (1 PM)
Follow the guidelines given within this article, The Window of Opportunity

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