Now let me show you how
to improve the second area of your life.
You
need to be on the best program available, if you really want to get
your body in shape!
Below
is an article by one of the top experts on diet and nutrition.
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The
Low Body Fat Secret
Of Bodybuilders And Fitness Models
By
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT,
CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
The secret
to getting super lean – I’m talking
about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat”
– is all about mastering the
art of "peaking." Most people do not have a clue about what it takes
to reach the type of low body fat levels that reveal ripped six-pack
abs,
muscle striations, vascularity and extreme muscular definition, so they
go
about it completely the wrong way.
Here’s
a case
in point: One of my newsletter subscribers
recently sent me this question:
Tom,
on your
www.BurnTheFat.com
, you wrote:
‘Who
better to
model than bodybuilders and fitness
competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as
bodybuilders
and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks
prior to
competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come
close in
terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes
and
marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their
muscle. Some
of them are nothing but skin and bone.’
"There
seems to be a
contradiction unless I'm missing
something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go
through a 12
week 'transformation' prior to every event instead of staying 'lean and
mean'
all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they
should be
staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat
prior to
every competitive event, correct?"
There
is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and
other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors),
don’t remain completely
ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able
to get so ripped
on the day of a contest…
You
can’t hold
a peak forever or it’s not a
"peak", right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point
surrounded by
two lower points isn’t it?
Therefore,
any shape you
can stay in all year round is NOT
your “peak” condition.
The
intelligent approach
to nutrition and training (which
almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to
train and
diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then
ease off to
a maintenance or growth phase.
I
am NOT talking about
bulking up and getting fat and out of
shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What
I’m talking about is
going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to
good
shape.... but never getting "out of shape." Makes a lot of sense,
doesn’t it?
Here’s
an
example: I have no intentions whatsoever of
walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the
photo on my
website. Off-season, when I'm not competing, my body fat is usually
between 8 –
10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body
fat.
I
don't stray too far
from competition shape, but I don't
maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to
gradually
drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to "peak" for competition with
NO loss of lean body mass...using the same techniques I reveal in my
e-book.
It
would be almost
impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and
even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to
competition
I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn”
in the face, that complete strangers
walk up and offer to feed me.
Okay,
so I’m
just kidding about that, but let’s just say
being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a
desirable condition to maintain because
it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s
probably not even healthy
to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless
you’re a natural
“ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type),
your body will fight you. Not
only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system
is
affected as well. It’s just not “normal”
to walk around all the time with
literally no subcutaneous body fat.
Instead
of attempting to
hold the peak, I cycle back into a
less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body
fat. Some
years I’ve stayed leaner - like 6-7%, (which takes effort),
especially when I
knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go
over 10%.
This
practice
isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders.
Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to
their best
shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition
in
March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up
fat and
out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need
fine
tuning, but none are in peak form... that’s why they have
training camp!!!
There’s
another
reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a
“ripped to shreds” physique all year round
– you’d have to be dieting (calorie
restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of
people
can’t lose weight and keep it off --they are CHRONIC
dieters... always on some
type of diet. Know anyone like that?
You
can’t stay
on restricted low calories indefinitely.
Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body
adapts
to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss
and push
incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a
little more
(healthy food, not "pigging out"), your metabolic rate is
re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat
loss phase
and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the
point
that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a
level that is healthy and
realistic – as well as visually appealing.
Bodybuilders
have
discovered a methodology for losing fat
that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of
their body
composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and
will never have to
worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall
off the wagon like all
humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back
into shape fast.
Bodybuilders
have the
tools and knowledge to hold a low body
fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and
then at a
whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low
body fat for the purpose of
competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and
control to
slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up
and yo-yo
like most conventional dieters!
What
if you had the power
to stay lean all year round, and
then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your
vacation
to the Caribbean,
or when your wedding date
was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your
body like that? Isn’t
that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors
do, only
on a more practical, real-world level?
So
even if you have no
competitive aspirations whatsoever,
don’t you agree that there’s something of value
everyone could learn from
physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd
of losers who gobble
diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets
like
automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from
the
leanest athletes on Earth - natural bodybuilders and fitness
competitors…
These
physique athletes
get as ripped as they want to be,
exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a
cyclical
fashion between pre-contest "cutting" programs and off season
"maintenance" or "muscle growth" programs. Even if you have
no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal
“peaking” approach yourself and
you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for
elite bodybuilders.
If
you’re
interested in learning even more secrets of
bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at:
www.BurnTheFat.com
About
the Author:
Tom
Venuto is a lifetime natural
bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT) and a certified
strength
& conditioning specialist (CSCS). Tom is the author of the #1
best-selling
e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you
how to get lean
without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the world's best
bodybuilders
and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn body fat and
increase your
metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com
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