When was the last time you saw your abs? You know, those topographical ridges delineating a shredded sixer, completely clear of unwanted layers of bodyfat that result from your so-called "offseason mass gain" strategy?
Maybe you've never really seen them come out in full relief. Or maybe you have, but it's been a while, despite your best efforts. If that's the case, you're in need of better directions and, luckily, you've come to the right place, FLEX magazine. Follow this plan and you'll be able to drop two or more pounds of fat per week for six to eight weeks.
Getting cut fast requires drastic cuts in carbs, dietary fat and, of course, calories. Steer clear of oils, butter or fried foods, and keep carbs under 50 grams (g) a day. Yes, 50--this is a rapid fat-loss plan.
Protein intake must rise when carbs, fat and calories fall--keep your protein intake high. With this approach, you'll drop a lot of bodyfat rather quickly. The downside is that your energy levels can crash, leaving you unable to train if you're not used to a lower-carb diet. The solution: break the week into "threes"--three distinct diet phases during each of the six to eight weeks of the program.
PHASE ONE
Days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Carbohydrate intake: less than 50 g per day
Protein intake: 2 g per pound of bodyweight per day
Cardio requirement: 20-30 minutes, low-level intensity each day
* For these three days, carbs are kept at an extremely low level. All of those carbs should be eaten after training. Limiting carbs not only keeps overall calories really low, but also reins in the production of the hormone insulin, which tends to rise with carbohydrate consumption. Although controlling calories is the primary factor in influencing fat loss, keeping insulin levels lower also helps because insulin is a known fat catalyst; it helps the body manufacture and store bodyfat. Low calories and carbs will maximize fat burning.
It's best, as mentioned, to eat all 50 g of your allotted carbs after training, as that will help minimize protein breakdown that comes with training. For protein, if you weigh 200 pounds, you'll need 400 g per day split over six meals. Protein helps save and protect muscle tissue when carbs are really low.
On these days, you'll benefit from low-intensity cardio. The diet will stoke fat burning; cardio is added, not to bump up the metabolism, but simply to coax the body into giving up stored fat for fuel. The ideal time for cardio is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach; on a low-carb program, though, you would still reap benefits by doing it anytime during the day.
PHASE TWO
Days: Thursday and Friday
Carbohydrate intake: 100-150 g per day
Protein intake: 1.5 to 1.75 g per pound of bodyweight per day
Cardio requirement: 40 minutes of interval training each day
* On paper, it would seem that the extreme approach taken in phase one would do the trick to continuously melt fat off the body. In reality, it doesn't work that way. Strict dieting will only crush muscle recovery, leading to flat muscles. When muscles become flat and are deprived of stored carbs (muscle glycogen), the body can appear fatter. That's where this phase comes in.
Here, additional carbs assist in recovery and prevent a major drain on glycogen reserves. If glycogen reserves fall too low, you can look "fat" and your muscles may not fully recover from hard training. You can sidestep a potential metabolism slowdown by providing muscles with the fewest carbs required, without experiencing a major loss in muscle glycogen. On these days, split your carbs accordingly--30-40 g in the morning, 20-35 g preworkout and 50-75 g postworkout.
With more carbs, you'll be able to hit the cardio harder. I suggest alternating between going hard for two to three minutes and using a much lower intensity for two to three minutes, continuing the pattern for a 40-minute period. The interval training will kick up your metabolism; in phase one, the goal was simply to coax bodyfat mobilization. In this phase, it's an overall boost in metabolism you're after, to get the body to burn more calories. Again, the ideal time for cardio is in the morning on an empty stomach.
PHASE THREE
Days: Saturday and Sunday
Carbohydrate intake: 2 g per pound of bodyweight per day
Protein intake: 1 g per pound of bodyweight per day
Cardio requirement: none
* These are easier days--carb consumption goes up and protein consumption comes down. Carbs rise to 2 g per pound of bodyweight and protein falls to 1 g per pound of bodyweight. For a 200-pound trainer, that's 400 g of carbs a day and 200 g of protein. Better news: you really don't need cardio in this phase. Why the sudden change to an increase in carbs, if extreme or fast fat loss is the name of the game? Two reasons: metabolism and perception.
When you increase carbs, you signal the body to build mass, and part of any successful fat-loss plan requires muscle retention. After all, muscle drives the metabolism and helps you get lean. Nonstop cutting plans comprising very low calories backfire because they sacrifice muscle retention, which, in turn, causes metabolic slowdown. This plan does the opposite, protecting muscles by strategically increasing carbs and calories. With a boost in carbs and calories, you don't burn additional fat, but you exert a very favorable effect on your metabolism.
Carbs and calories help to elevate leptin, an important hormone that regulates metabolism and appetite. When you stay on a low-carb low-calorie diet for too long, you blunt leptin levels; that slows metabolism and increases appetite.
The second reason, perception, works this way. When you return to phase one, your body perceives going back to 50 g of carbs as a big change from 400 g. The result is that the body rapidly switches back into its fat-burning mode. Think of it like this: if the outside temperature was consistently 80 degrees, you'd get used to that temperature. However, if the temperature suddenly dropped one day to 60, your perception of 60 degrees would likely be far colder than the actual temperature. The same is true when you cycle carbs. When you go from 400 g of carbs to 50, the impact is very different on the body than eating 50 g every day. The perception is that the body feels like it's starving and temporarily digs deep into fat
Therein lies the total nutritional road map for getting ripped in six to eight weeks: pushing the diet extremely hard in the first phase; continuing with a rather strict--albeit a little easier--diet in the second phase; and taking a breather in the third phase, which makes the first two all the more effective. Now aren't you glad you stopped for directions
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