Get a Lean Body Now: Nutrition and Supplementation

This is the second part of a two part article. To read the first part, click here!

Nutrition/Supplementation

Losing fat is a matter of creating a slight (notice the word SLIGHT) caloric deficit in order to start losing weight in the form of fat. This caloric deficit can be created through an increase in activity, a decrease in caloric intake, or both.

My strategy to save muscle as I go down in body fat is to do the minimum amount of cardiovascular activity that I can get away with at the time while keeping the calories as high as possible. Every so often, I either reduce calories slightly again or increase the Cardio a bit in order to keep results coming.

Keep in mind that I do not know exactly what your schedule looks like, so please feel free to adjust the times to match your schedule. As long as there are at least two, but no more than three, hours in between meals, you can move the times accordingly. Also, I assumed that training will happen at 6pm so if you train at any other time, simply move the pre-workout supplements and post workout meals accordingly.

Sample Day Breakdown For Men

Meal 1 (7 AM)
1 cup of dry oats mixed with water
1 cup of egg beaters
5 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 2 (9 AM)
Lean Body Meal Replacement packet mixed with 20 grams of carbs from cream of rice, grits, or oatmeal
-or-
45 grams of Pro V60 protein powder mixed with 50 grams of carbs from cream of rice, grits, or oatmeal.
-or-
Lean Body RTD with 50 grams of carbs from rice cakes

Meal 3 (12 Noon)
1 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6-8 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
5 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 4 (3 PM)
Same as Meal 2

Meal 5 (6 PM)
1 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6-8 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
5 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 6 (9 PM)
Same as Meal 2

High Calorie Days: Choose two days of the week, preferably leg days, to slightly increase your calories in order to prevent the body from adapting to the diet. Do this by slightly increasing your carbohydrates by adding a half a cup of oatmeal in the morning, and half a cup of rice to meals 3 and 5. Also, do 1/3 cup of cream of rice after the workout. On non-workout days, trade the post workout meal for a solid meal consisting of salmon and green beans or any other green vegetable.

Sample Day Breakdown For Women

Meal 1 (7 AM)
1/2 cup of dry oats mixed with water
1/2 cup of egg beaters
3 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 2 (9 AM)
Lean Body for Her packet mixed with 20 grams of carbs from cream of rice, grits, or oatmeal
-or-
30 grams of Pro V60 protein powder mixed with 30 grams of carbs from cream of rice, grits, or oatmeal.
-or-
Lean Body RTD with 30 grams of carbs from rice cakes

Meal 3 (12 Noon)
1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
3 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 4 (3 PM)
Same as Meal 2

Meal 5 (6 PM)
1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
3 caps of EFAs (I like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold)

Meal 6 (8 PM)
Same as Meal 2

NOTE: Choose two days of the week, preferably leg days, to slightly increase your calories in order to prevent the body from adapting to the diet. Do this by slightly increasing your carbohydrates by adding 1/4 cup of oatmeal in the morning, and 1/4 a cup of rice to meals 3 and 5. Also, do 1/4 cup of cream of rice after the workout. On non-workout days, trade the post workout meal for a solid meal consisting of wild Atlantic salmon and green beans or any other green vegetable.

Recommended Basic Bodybuilding Supplements For Both Men and Women

Essential To Take
Definitely make sure that you cover at least the basics of supplementation which are a Multiple Vitamin and Mineral formula, 3 grams of Vitamin C split in 3 equal servings throughout the day, 200mcg of Chromium Picolinate, and essential fatty acids coming from either fish oils, flaxseed oil or balanced blend like Labrada’s EFA Lean Gold which has several good fats that have been proven to enhance health and performance.

For Convenience Purposes
Also, for convenience purposes a good meal replacement, protein powder, or Ready-To-Drink is a great way to add valuable calories and nutrients to your diet. When I decide to use a protein powder I use the Pro V60 as it is a nice blend of 5 different proteins (fast and slow released) that easily mixes with any cereal I want to add it to. For Meal Replacements, I love the new Lean Body Powder and if I am really on the go, then I choose the Lean Body RTD.

Recommended Performance Enhancement Bodybuilding Supplements For Both Men and Women

If you are looking to use creatine, glutamine, nitric oxide products, and testosterone boosters, there is a product that contains all of these as well as a nice combination of pre-workout energy boosters, focus enhancers, and fatigue suppressors. The name of this product is Super Charge Xtreme! and in my opinion this is the best pre-workout and performance enhancing bodybuilding supplement in the market right now.

I like Super Charge Xtreme! for various reasons, but just to name a few:

• You get to feel its effects just 15 minutes after consuming it on an empty stomach. What will you feel? You will feel an aggressive mental focus combined with an amazing amount of energy, strength, and muscle pumps! I guarantee that you will feel like flying through your workout. Another effect that you will feel after the workout is increased recovery and higher testosterone levels.
• As I specified above, it contains ALL of the performance enhancing supplements that work on their most bioavailable forms to maximize absorption.
• Easy to mix as you simply add it to water and stir with a spoon or shaker cup. Optionally, you can mix it on a blender and add ice to it for a super nice tasting drink.
• The flavors are awesome.

I cannot say enough about this supplement. Basically, this is the only performance enhancing supplement that I take these days as it is much easier to just take two scoops (women should just take 1) right before my workout (or first thing in the morning on off days) than to take a whole bunch of different pills and powders throughout the day. In addition, the results show.

Notes:

• On off days, I just take 1 scoop in the morning. Women can take ½ scoop.
• For even faster body composition results and enhanced recovery, you can also stack it with Re-Charge. Re-Charge contains more creatine, more nitric oxide boosters, and the testosterone boosting Humanafort which helps also to increase recovery. I take 6 capsules of Re-Charge prior to my post workout meal and suggest women take 3.
• Both the Super Charge and the Re-Charge prevent the body from losing muscle as one is dieting down the fat.

Measuring Progress

The maximum amount of fat one should lose per week is 1-2lbs. Use calipers to see if the numbers are going down. Don't worry about calculating the body fat percentage. Instead, concentrate on the readings.

If your caliper readings are going down, then you know that body fat is being lost. If weight goes down but caliper readings remain unchanged, then you may be losing muscle.

Conversely, you will only adjust your cardio upwards by a factor of five minutes per session or you will decrease your caloric intake slightly if no fat loss is experienced after two Weeks.

Too fast, too soon only leads to muscle loss and loss of strength. So what you want to do is lose no more than 2 lbs per week. The first week will be the exception as typically anywhere between 5-10lbs can be lost depending on how much extra glycogen and water your body needs to get rid off. After the first week however, only 2 lbs should be the max amount.

Week To Week Diet and Cardiovascular Training Adjustments

Active Recovery Week & Week 1
Start out with the prescribed diet above and 3 sessions of 30 minutes of cardio either first thing in the morning before meal 1 or right after the workout:

Cardio days: Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday

Weeks 2-3 Adjustments

Cardio
Increase your cardio to four 30 minute sessions so now you will do one on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Remember to work hard and try to bring your heart rate from 75% to 85% of your maximum: (220-age) x .85 = beats per minute at 85% of max. Try to get better at the activity and burn more calories every time you do it.

When you hit a plateau then you can increase the intensity of the machine.

If you approach the cardio with the same enthusiasm and work ethic as your weight training, you will get the most out of it. If you can read something as you perform your cardio then you are certainly not working hard enough.

Diet
If you lost 1-2 lbs last week, then keep the diet the same for this week and do not change a thing. If you are not losing at least one pound bodyweight per week it's time for a calorie adjustment in the neighborhood of a 200 - 300 reduction. These calories will come from the starchy carbohydrate department so we are looking to reduce between 50-75 grams of carbs per day taken out evenly from the 6 meals with carbohydrates. This reduction will happen even over your high calorie days.

Weeks 4-5

Cardio
Perform a couple of extra cardio sessions per week. Add them to any of the three remaining days, thus bringing your sessions to six 30-minute sessions.

Again, remember to work hard and try to bring your heart rate to 85% of your maximum.

Diet
If you lost 1-2 lbs last week, then keep the diet the same for this week and do not change a thing. If you are not losing at least one pound bodyweight per week it's time for another calorie adjustment in the neighborhood of a 100 - 200 reduction. These calories will come from the starchy carbohydrate department so we are looking to reduce between 25-50 grams of carbs per day taken out evenly from the 6 meals with carbohydrates. This reduction will happen even over your high calorie days.

Conclusion

Though I have presented a simple program here that will yield the results you are looking for, you will need to provide the determination needed to implement it and make it work. I promise that if you do, 5 weeks later you may be looking at a different looking person in the mirror.