Copyright Notice
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© Copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this document can be reproduced or shared in any
way without the written permission of the author. If you do so we can take legal action against
you and make your life much less pleasant.
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Disclaimer
The information provided in this document is for educational purpose only. I, Radu
Antoniu am not a doctor and ShredSmart is not meant to be taken as medical advice.
The information provided in this book is based upon my experience as well as my
interpretation of the current research. I have no formal training in sports or nutrition and
I am not a certified personal trainer. The advice and tips given in this document are
meant for healthy adults only. You should always consult a qualified physician before
starting a diet or a training routine. This document is for informational purpose only and
the author does not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities or damages, real or
perceived, resulting from the use of this information.
Contents​.
(click the titles to navigate to the desired chapter)
Why Fitness?
6
The Physique You’re Going To Built With ShredSmart
Level 1: Intermediate Strength Standards
Level 2: Proficient Strength Standards
Level 3: Advanced Strength Standards
The Importance Of Low Body Fat For Aesthetics
8
9
10
11
12
Our Plan Of Action
Two Ways To Reach Your Fat Loss Goal
The 3 Pillars Of Successful Fat Loss
14
16
17
Part 1 - Nutrition​.
How To Set Your Macronutrients
23
What Foods To Eat
Protein Sources
Carb Sources
Fat Sources
What Foods You Bring Home Matters
26
26
27
27
30
How To Count Calories & Macros
33
How To Structure Your Meals For Maximum Satiety
The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting For Fat Loss
How To Do Intermittent Fasting For Fat Loss
40
When To Work Out While Doing Intermittent Fasting
37
37
How To Use Refeed Days To Improve Your Training Performance
Physiological Benefits Of Refeeding
Psychological Benefits Of Refeeding
How To Refeed
45
45
46
46
The Practical Guide To Nutrition
Three Meals Per Day + Intermittent Fasting
Two Meals Per Day + Intermittent Fasting
The One Week Diet Break
48
49
53
57
41
How To Track Weight Change & Adjust Your Calorie Intake To Avoid Plateaus
How To Know If Your Macros Need Adjustment
Why Your Weight Fluctuates Between Days
Why Your Calorie Intake Needs To Decrease Over Time
How to Adjust your Calorie Intake
Practical Points
61
61
62
64
65
66
Other Things You Need To Know
The Debate About Protein Intake
Alcohol Intake And Drinking Your Calories
How Much Water Should You Drink?
69
69
72
73
Part 2 - Training​.
Relative Strength: The Yardstick For Progress
75
The Novice Training Routine
79
The ShredSmart Training Program
How To Progress on Compound Movements Marked With P (for periodization)
The 3 Day Per Week Workout Routine
87
90
98
Explaining The Volume, Intensity, And Frequency Of The Program
Training Volume
Training Intensity
Training Frequency
101
103
103
106
Explaining The Periodization Model
109
Why Do We Need Deloads?
111
How To Track Training Progress
114
How To Warm Up Before Lifting
118
What To Do If You Plateau
120
What To Do If You Lose Strength While Cutting
124
How To Use Cardio For Fat Loss
127
Training Abs And Other Small Muscle Groups
133
Part 3 - Motivation​.
Knowing Does Not Equal Doing
136
How Your Self Image Controls Your Behavior And Thinking
138
How To Change Your Self Image And Succeed On Autopilot
My Experience With Autosuggestion
The ShredSmart Autosuggestion Plan
Make a goal card
Put reminders throughout the house
Visualize reaching your fitness goals for ~5 minutes every day
Work out with a friend if possible
Follow fitness people on social media or YouTube
Consume fitness content
But Is All This Really Necessary?
The Sublime Moment Technique
145
147
151
151
153
154
154
155
155
155
157
Final Word
159
Why Fitness?
Since the beginning of history, humans have been trying to find answer to an
ageless question: ​How should we live?
What’s our purpose on this earth? What should we do with our time? What goals
should we pursue?
The answer to this question still eludes us. Perhaps because there is no answer.
Each person has the freedom to pursue whatever they want in life.
Although we may not be able to identify an universal purpose of human
existence, I personally think we all fundamentally pursue the same thing: ​we
want to be satisfied with our lives and minimize suffering ​(our own suffering and
that of other conscious creatures).
Now modern research tells us that not all patterns of living are equal in
producing life satisfaction and minimizing suffering. Some habits and life choices
are almost always correlated with happiness, health, enthusiasm, and
motivation while other habits and life choices are correlated with disease, regret,
anger, and desperation.
For example lying, sedentarism, obesity, laziness, alcoholism, pornography use,
and ignorance are correlated with disease and suffering while integrity, physical
activity, low body fat, self discipline, eating nutritious food, intimate relationships,
and education are correlated with health, happiness, and fulfillment.
That means, at least to some extent, there is ​a correct way to live​. Science can
give us hints about how we should live.
That’s what I’m interested in.
I want to live life the right way. I want to know what goals we should pursue, how
we should use our time, what moral code we should have, and how we should
structure our society and economy to minimize suffering.
This motivation now stands behind all my work. Through my videos, articles, and
programs I want to present guidelines for how we should live to be happier and
be better people in general.
Which brings me to fitness and the goal of the ShredSmart program.
Maintaining a low body fat, eating nutritious food, working out regularly, and
pursuing strength gains in the gym are all habits and life choices which are
conducive to health, vitality, enthusiasm, motivation, and happiness. Therefore
fitness is part of t​ he right way to live​.
The reasons for that are obvious. Maintaining a low body fat reduces the risk of
disease, makes you more attractive (which can boost self confidence and
relationship satisfaction), and strengthens self control. Eating nutritious food
promotes general health and vitality while working out regularly boosts
happiness levels and teaches self discipline. Pursuing strength gains gives your
life more purpose and teaches persistence and grit, some of the most valuable
character traits a person can have. If you imagine your ideal life, I’m sure having
a healthy, lean, and muscular body would be part of that picture.
Now with that said, I understand that fitness is not the only worthwhile goal in life.
In fact, I believe fitness should take only a small part of our time and attention so
we can focus on other things.
That’s the goal of the ShredSmart program - to teach you the fundamentals of
getting lean, muscular, and strong so you can easily automate your fitness
habits.
So let’s get started!
The Physique You’re Going To
Built With ShredSmart
I believe one of the main reasons people fail to stay motivated on their fitness
journey is because they lack a clear vision of what they’re working towards.
Blurry goals have little pull power.
From my experience, most men don’t want to get huge. Their fitness goal is to
have a slim waist, clearly defined abs, round shoulders, thick upper back, wide
chest with a line down the middle, well developed arms and athletic legs. The
look Hollywood actors have in movies:
This is a much clearer vision than most gym regulars have but it still doesn’t tell us
what we need to do to get to that level. We need numbers. And this is where
strength standards are very useful. ​In natural lifters strength and muscle
development go hand in hand. Actually, the relationship between strength and
muscle size is precise enough to predict how a person will look at certain strength
standards.
So if you want to look a certain way, all you need to do is reach the strength
standards associated with that look. The great thing is that if you have low body
fat you can look great at different levels of muscle development. This means you
can aim to be bigger or slimmer, depending on personal preference.
Let’s take a look at three levels of muscle development so you can identify
exactly what type of physique you want to build:
Level 1: Intermediate Strength Standards​.
Examples: Henry Cavill in Immortals; Cam Gigandet in Never Back Down; Brad Pitt in Fight
Club
Bench Press: 1.1 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Incline Bench Press: bodyweight for 5 reps
Standing Shoulder Press: 0.7 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Weighted Chin-ups: 0.2 of bodyweight attached for 5 reps
Back Squat: 1.3 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Deadlift: 1.5 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Body fat: 6-8%
Waist measurement around navel: ~42% of your height
Click here to calculate your intermediate strength standards
This is a level of muscle development you can achieve pretty easily in 1 or 2 years
of consistent training. Most gym regulars fall into this category. But the reason
they don’t look anywhere near as good as the actors in the picture above is
because they don’t have low body fat (which is more important for aesthetics
than overall muscle size).
Level 2: Proficient Strength Standards​.
Examples: Daniel Craig in Casino Royale; Dustin Clare in Spartacus; Stephen Amell in Arrow.
Bench Press: 1.3 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Incline Bench Press: 1.1 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Standing Shoulder Press: 0.8 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Weighted Chin-ups: 0.3 of bodyweight attached for 5 reps
Back Squat: 1.6 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Deadlift: 1.9 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Body Fat: ~10%
Waist measurement around navel: 43-44% of height
Click here to calculate your proficient strength standards
Reaching this level of muscle development requires training consistently for at
least 2-3 years. Persistence and grit are also required because progress
becomes slow and unpredictable. At this level you are stronger than most gym
regulars. Self confidence is also amplified because you know you can achieve
difficult, long-term goals.
Level 3: Advanced Strength Standards​.
Examples: Chris Evans in Captain America; Chris Hemsworth in Thor; Henry Cavill
in Man of Steel.
Bench Press: 1.5 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Incline Bench Press: 1.2 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Standing Shoulder Press: bodyweight for 5 reps
Weighted Chin-ups: 0.4 of bodyweight attached for 5 reps
Back Squat: 1.9 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Deadlift: 2.2 x bodyweight for 5 reps
Body fat: ~10%
Waist measurement around navel: 43-44% of height
Click here to calculate your advanced strength standards
Reaching this level of muscle development requires at least 3 to 5 years of
consistent training with a clear progression model and an emphasis on good
nutrition. At this level you are among the strongest in an average commercial
gym. The discipline and persistence developed carry over in all other areas of
your life.
The Importance Of Low Body Fat For Aesthetics​.
If your goal is to have 6 pack abs and very good muscle definition then in addition
to reaching certain strength standards you also need to have low body fat. In fact
for aesthetics maintaining a low body fat is m
​ ore important than overall muscle
size. If most gym regulars dropped their body fat percentage from the average
15-18% down to 7-10% they would look similar to Henry Cavill, Cam Gigandet,
and Brad Pitt in the pictures shown for the Intermediate Strength Standards.
That would be a way more impressive transformation than if they gained two or
three kilograms of muscle.
For most men, body fat percentage correlates with waist measurement around
the navel. When you gain fat your waist goes up and when you lose fat your waist
goes down. This is why waist measurement is also listed as a standard below the
pictures. If you want to drop to a certain body fat percentage you can aim for the
corresponding waist to height ratio.
Waist compared to height
Body Fat %
Waist is 42% of your height
6-8%
Waist is 43% of your height
8-10%
Waist is 44% of your height
10-12%
Waist is 45% of your height
12-14%
You can use the ​ShredSmart Body Fat Calculator ​to estimate your body fat
percentage with this method.
Of course, this is just a guideline because some people naturally have wider or
slimmer waists than the average. For example when I’m around 10% body fat my
waist measurement (75 cm / 29.5 in) is about 41% of my height (183 cm / 6 feet).
Based on this table I should be 6-8% which I know is too low.
But generally this is a very useful guideline for estimating body fat percentage.
When your waist is below 44% of your height you can be sure you’re pretty lean.
How You Will Get There​.
The first step to reaching your goal physique depends on your current
condition. Obviously a skinny guy will not follow the same nutrition plan as
someone weighing 230 lbs (104kg). Even though their long-term goal may be the
same, in the short-term one must start by gaining weight and the other one by
losing weight.
If you’ve enrolled in ShredSmart I assume your primary goal is to lose fat and get
shredded​.
Getting lean is always going to be the first step to looking great. The nutrition
part of ShredSmart will show you how to set your calorie intake and structure
your meals to lose fat quickly while minimizing hunger and cravings. If you want
to estimate how much weight you need to lose to reach your goal body fat
percentage, ​input your current bodyweight and estimated body fat percentage
into this calculator​.
If your goal is to gain weight and build muscle because you’re already lean, see
the bonus guide named ​How To Transition From Cutting To Lean Bulking​.
The training part of ShredSmart will show you how to build muscle and strength.
The training programs can be used regardless of whether you’re cutting or
bulking.
S
​ ummary​.
● In natural lifters strength and muscle development go hand in hand.
Because of that we can predict fairly accurately how muscular a person
will be at certain strength standards.
● Having a low body fat percentage is essential for an aesthetic physique.
● Muscle definition contributes more to aesthetics than the amount of
muscle mass you have.
● As long as you’re lean you will look great even with little muscle
development. It’s up to you to decide how big you want to get.
Our Plan Of Action
Fat loss is caused by only one thing: a calorie deficit.
Calories are a measurement unit for energy. A kilocalorie (what we call simply
calorie even though it’s technically wrong) is the amount of energy required to
heat up one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.
The amount of energy our bodies burn and the amount we can extract from
different foods are measured in calories. All the foods we eat contain calories.
Any movement we make (including breathing, digestion, fidgeting, etc.) burns
calories. Depending on how much we eat and how much we move, 3 things can
happen:
1. We eat about as many calories as we burn. In this case our weight stays
the same. Most people maintain this equilibrium unconsciously over long
periods of time. This is called maintenance.
2. We eat more calories than we burn. We steadily start gaining weight. This
calorie surplus can be transformed into fat and/or muscle (if we train
correctly).
3. We burn more calories than we eat. We steadily start to lose weight. That
calorie deficit forces the body to tap into its own fat reserves for energy.
Depending on the size of the deficit, the way we train, and the macronutrients
we eat, the body will obtain the extra energy from burning fat and/or muscle.
Several Methods, Same Cause​.
For most readers this concept shouldn’t be new. However, many people may not
be familiar with the role energy balance plays in weight loss.
Diet books rarely address this subject. Most diet authors realized people don’t
want to consciously eat less. That sucks. So they came up with diet rules that
make people eat less in an indirect way. Some popular methods for weight loss
include: low carbohydrate or fat diets, clean eating (or eliminating certain foods
based on arbitrary reasons), eating only at specific hours, cardio, juice fasts, and
many more.
All these methods work. But it’s not the method that matters. The cause of
weight loss or weight gain is always the same: the total calorie intake.
Basically in order to lose fat we must eat less. I know...shocking.
Why Most People Fail To Get Lean​.
In order to get lean quickly you must eat 20-25% fewer calories than your
maintenance every day for as long as it takes to get the fat off.
Simple enough. The problem though lies in the “as long as it takes” part. Based
on the ​CDC anthropometric data​, guys age 30 to 39 have an average body mass
index (BMI) of 29. That’s just one shy of the medical definition of obese. If you
transform this BMI to body fat percentage, it comes out about 25%.
So for the average young guy to get a six pack, he needs to lose about 15% body
fat. That means around 11 kilograms or 25 pounds! A healthy and sustainable
fat loss rate is 0.5-0.8 kg per week or 1-1.5 lbs per week. Losing 7-11 kg (15-25
lbs) therefore takes 12-16 weeks of dieting.
12-16 weeks of dieting...
For about three months a guy needs to be conscious of how much he eats, resist
cravings, and manage social events where he has to eat out. T
​ hat’s the problem!
The patience. The waiting game. Habit change.
It’s not that people don’t know what to do to lose fat. They just don’t want or can’t
stick to a fat loss plan for that long.
Most people can endure an extreme plan for a few days. Feeling miserable for a
week or two to get to their goal seems a good deal. But we all know those plans
don’t work. Fat loss takes time. You can’t lose 10-15 pounds (5-7 kg) of fat in
week, not even if you fast the whole week! Losing 10-15 pounds of fat with no
muscle loss takes 6-10 weeks at the minimum.
So what do we do? How can we possibly stick to a diet for that long? ​Well, it’s
quite easy when you know how to do it.
Two Ways To Reach Your Fat Loss Goal​.
There are two ways to stay in a calorie deficit for long periods of time:
1. Pure Willpower
This is the scenario where you know you have to eat less so you just do it. It
doesn’t matter how you feel, how hungry you are, or what social events you have
to turn down. You do whatever it takes to be in a deficit.
That’s admirable and it works absolutely great. However, what are you doing with
your life? By doing this you can no longer do the things you wanted your physique
for in the first place. Things like going out, hanging out with friends, or going on
dates. You just defeated the whole purpose of being fit.
Pure willpower is not the way. So consider the next point.
2. Fitting Your Fitness Plan Into Your Lifestyle
This is where you learn to maintain a calorie deficit without making a fuss about it.
You don’t talk about your diet, you don’t think about it – because it’s normal.
This is key.
All lean people who are also sane know and use this secret. They engineer their
food environment and eating habits so that they don’t need to use willpower all
the time.
I’m not going to lie, this is a skill and as all skills it needs to be learned. But if you’ll
take the time to understand this subject you will be amazed by how easy it is to
reach your fat loss goals.
Fitting your fitness plan into your lifestyle comes down to mastering 3 pillars of
successful fat loss.
The 3 Pillars Of Successful Fat Loss​.
1. Managing Hunger
This is the big one. Feeling satiated on fewer calories than you’re used to takes a
special approach. You have to trick your mind and body into thinking you’re
eating more food than you actually are.
In this program we’re going to use two ways to do this:
*​Eating lower calorie foods so you can eat the same volume of food as before
*​Eating bigger meals less frequently so you get stuffed once a day even in a
deficit
Both will work but it’s best if you use them together.
Is it really possible to eat more food while dieting than you were eating before?
Surprisingly, yes. You’ll learn how to do it in the chapter on Food Choices.
2. Eliminating Cravings
Would you be willing to give up all your favorite foods so you can be as shredded
as possible? That’s exactly what some fitness models and bodybuilders do.
But our lives don’t revolve around our physique like in their cases. We want to be
lean and strong so we can enjoy our life more, not subtract from it. And delicious
food is a pleasurable experience I think no one would like to give up on.
Here’s the good news: You can still eat any food you want while staying in a
calorie deficit and losing fat. You’ll learn how to do that in the chapter on
Intermittent Fasting.
3. Managing Social Events
Would you refuse to go to a restaurant with your wife on your anniversary so you
can stick to your diet? One bodybuilder I know did just that so he can be as
shredded as possible for an upcoming show. I admire his dedication a lot.
But would you be willing to eat almost all your meals at home so you can be as
shredded as possible? Hell no! You want to be able to eat out spontaneously and
not have to worry about your diet. You want to lose fat while enjoying life! You can
do that.
In the chapter on Intermittent Fasting you’ll learn how to plan your meals so you
can eat out at night if you want. All while not compromising your fat loss results.
How To Lose Only Body Fat, NOT Muscle​.
If your goal is to get shredded, your main focus during a cut should not be just
weight loss, it should be fat loss with muscle maintenance or growth.
Losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean your body composition (the fat to muscle
ratio in your body) is improving. That is because some of the lost weight may
actually be muscle mass. Crash dieters often experience this disappointment.
They lose weight fast in an effort to lose fat fast but discover than they look just
as soft and flabby as before even though they are 3-5 kg (5-10lbs) lighter. Here’s
what I mean:
I’m sure this is not your goal physique.
To lose only body fat and keep all your muscle (or even gain muscle) you need to
follow this fat loss hierarchy of importance:
The energy deficit takes care of weight loss but it is weight training and macros
that determine what is being lost: fat or muscle.
You’ll learn how to set your macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbs) and training
routine so you don’t have to worry about muscle loss. Actually, I expect you to
gain muscle while cutting following the ShredSmart training program (unless
you’re very advanced).
How To Actually Do This Program​.
Finally, we’ll address psychology. I did not add this part just to fill a few more
pages!
Part 3 is probably the most important part of the program! Most people ​already
know how to lose fat​. I mean how complicated is it? You just have to eat less.
But knowing does NOT equal doing. You can read every page of ShredSmart and
even memorize it and still be just as fat and weak as before!
In the final part of the program you’ll learn how to make yourself APPLY what you
learned. You’ll love that part. You’ll finally understand how to control yourself and
do what you want to do.
Summary​.
● Fat loss has a single cause: a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit means eating
less energy than your body burns in a day.
● All fat loss method (all diets, cardio, and other tricks) work because they
create a deficit.
● The most efficient way to create a deficit is to eat less.
● The maximum rate of fat loss with no muscle loss is 1-2 lbs per week (0.5-1
kg)
● To get a six pack, the average guy needs to cut for 10-15 weeks. The
reason most fail is because they use a restrictive diet plan which cannot be
sustained for that long.
● Even if you can get lean using a restrictive diet plan, the quality of your life
would decrease, defeating the whole purpose of having a great physique.
● The key to successful fat loss is to make your plan easy to follow and
enjoyable. This means engineering your food environment and eating
habits in your favor so you don’t have to rely on your willpower all the time.
● Weight loss does not equal fat loss. To lose fat and not muscle you need to
do three things: have a moderate calorie deficit, eat enough protein, lift
weights.
● Knowing does not equal doing. You probably already know what to do to
lose fat. To actually apply the information in this program you will need to
change the way you see yourself.
Part 1 - Nutrition​.
How To Set
Your Cutting Plan
How To Set Your
Macronutrients
There are 3 macronutrients that form the basis of all foods: protein, fats and
carbohydrates. A fourth macronutrient would be alcohol but as we all know that
is not found in most foods.
Each macronutrient has a certain energy value:
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1 gram of fats = 9 calories
1 gram of alcohol = 7 calories
In most parts of the world, the energy value of a food is measured for 100g of
product. That means the energy value of a food is determined by the
macronutrients it contains in 100 grams.
For example: 100g of whole wheat bread contains the following macronutrients:
~9g protein, ~3g fats, and ~50g carbs.
The energy contained in 100g of bread would therefore be: 9g protein x 4 kcal +
3g fats x 9 kcal + 50g carbs x 4 kcal = 263 kcal.
I’m sure most of you know these things but it’s always good to repeat the basics.
Now let’s find out how much you need to eat to lose fat.
Here is the calculator​ you need to use.
At the top you just have to insert your bodyweight and how active you are on
average. If you’re sedentary most of the time, work out 3-4 times a week, and get
about one hour of walking/physical activity per day go with lightly active. That fits
most people.
As soon as you insert your bodyweight, your macros will be calculated
automatically. That’s it! You now know how much you need to eat for fat loss!
Well, at least for now…you’ll learn how to adjust those numbers as you lose
weight in the chapter called How to Track Weight Change and Adjust your
Calorie Intake.
Note: If your body weight is higher than 85 kg (190 lbs) the protein intake shown
in the calculators is unnecessarily high. That’s because it assumes most of your
body weight is lean body mass. The maximum amount of protein you would
benefit from is about 170g per day. If the calculators say you need to eat more
than that, I recommend you reduce it to 130-150g per day.
Summary​.
● The ideal calorie deficit for cutting is around 25%. That means you should
eat 25% fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current
bodyweight.
● Food is made out of 3 macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbs. Protein and
carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram.
● For the best results, your intake of macronutrients needs to be balanced:
get 25-30% of your calories from protein
get 30-35% of your calories from fat
get 35-40% of your calories from carbs
● A big calorie deficit combined with an unnecessarily high protein intake can
lead to low testosterone levels and poor workout performance.
What Foods To Eat
You now know the number of calories and the macros you need to eat every
day. But what foods should you eat?
On the topic of food choices, you should think like this:
● Food quantity matters for weight change
● Food quality matters for health, performance, and adherence
In other words, as long as you stick to your calories and macros, what you eat
doesn’t matter for fat loss. But it matters for health, performance, and
adherence. So it’s best to consider both the quantity and the quality of the food
you eat. Here are the foods I recommend making up 80-90% of your diet:
Protein Sources​.
Animal products: lean meats (chicken, pork, beef, etc), lean fish (tuna, trout,
halibut, etc), eggs, low fat dairy products (cottage cheese, greek yogurt, low fat
cheddar, etc), whey or casein protein powders.
Plants: plant protein powders (pea, rice, hemp), legumes (beans, peas, lentils,
chickpeas, soy), cereals (wheat, corn, oats), nuts (peanuts, walnuts, cashews,
pistachios), seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, hemp), mushrooms, tofu, tempeh, seitan,
veggie burgers.
Animal products are superior protein sources than plants. They have better
amino acid profile for building muscle, better digestibility ratio and absorption,
and they’re made up almost entirely out of protein (they contain only small
amounts of fat and carbs) which makes tracking macros very simple.
However, animal products are produced with a tremendously high
environmental cost and the suffering of billions of farm animals. A few years ago
I would have suggested eating lean meat and low fat cheese in virtually every
meal while cutting. Of course. Animal products are the best protein sources and
over the course of my first three years of lifting I think I ate an entire farm of
chickens. But now I’ve finally awakened to the fact that in order to reduce
climate change, reduce animal suffering, and slow down the mass extinction of
wildlife we should eat animal products only sparingly.
Now you’re free to eat whatever you want. But having a plant-based diet is part
of t​ he right way to live at this point in human history. To learn why I invite you to
read the bonus guide called ​Vegan Diet: Is It Worth It?
Carb Sources​.
Vegetables (tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, eggplants etc), leafy greens
(spinach, lettuce, cabbage etc), legumes (peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas),
cereals (wheat, corn, oats, rice), tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes), fruits (apples,
bananas, berries, etc).
When cutting you should get most of your carbs from veggies and potatoes
because those are the most satiating sources. You can also eat one or two
pieces of fruit per day and small amounts of cereals such as bread, tortillas, rice,
or pasta. What you should avoid are foods high in sugar: breakfast cereals,
biscuits, cookies, chocolate bars, cakes, sodas, juices, etc. You should still have
those foods in small amounts on a regular basis to keep cravings in check but
they shouldn’t provide more than 10-20% of your daily calories. That’s because
those foods are not filling or satiating.
Fat Sources​.
Animal products: fattier meats and meat products, fattier fish (salmon, catfish,
carp, etc), eggs, fattier dairy products, butter.
Plants: oil (olive, coconut, sunflower, canola, etc), nuts (peanuts, walnuts,
cashews, pistachios), seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, hemp).
You don’t really need to worry about your fat intake. You’ll inevitably eat fats
along with your protein sources and by using oil for cooking. In fact it’s going to
be harder to minimize your fat intake than to make sure you’re getting enough.
So those are the foods I recommend you eat on a daily basis. Of course, you can
eat other things based on personal preference. But when making food choices
you should have in mind the following criteria: satiety, cravings, micronutrients &
fiber.
Satiety​.
Satiety is triggered by two things: how much your stomach expands after a meal
and how many calories you consumed.
Because calories are fixed when cutting, your best strategy to maximize satiety
is to eat mostly filling foods.
Foods differ a lot in their caloric content. This a big reason why many people
have the impression they’re eating very little but can’t lose weight. They’re
scared of eating big meals but are ok with having a few high calorie snacks
because they’re small. That’s completely backwards. They think in terms of food
quantity and not calorie content.
For instance, instead of eating a Snickers bar from the vending machine at the
office and a small bag of peanuts (both of which can have about 250 kcal) they’d
be much better off eating a 500 kcal salad, a large portion of baked potatoes, or
even two slices of pizza. They would find it much easier to maintain the deficit in
this way.
Cravings​.
When I first learned about macros in the summer of 2013, I thought the best
strategy was to eat as much quantity as I could for the macros I had. My thinking
was: the more I eat, the less hungry I’ll be.
So I was eating a lot of veggies, a lot of potatoes, and almost half a kilogram of
chicken every day. It worked very well. I was never hungry, I had big meals but
something was missing. I still felt deprived. I remember waiting for birthdays,
holidays, and other social events to have an excuse eat tasty foods. I frequently
binged on fruits because they were the only sweet foods I allowed myself to
have.
Only much later I realized that satiety is not all that matters. To truly enjoy your
diet, you also need to address cravings. So that's what I did.
I've specifically made high calorie, j​ unk foods part of my daily fat loss plan. I no
longer waited for cravings to come, I eliminated them by eating tasty foods every
day.
Don’t be one of those people who have the all-or-nothing mentality and believe
they must suffer to get results. This will just cause stress and in the end you’ll
either quit or binge out of frustration.
Micronutrients And Fiber​.
Vitamins and minerals are essential for health and sometimes play a big role in
performance, well-being, and energy levels. For these reasons it’s important to
regularly eat fresh foods which are rich in micronutrients. You’ll see that satiating
foods are also the ones which contain the highest amounts of micronutrients.
When I say it’s ok to include foods like chocolate, ice cream or other “dirty”
snacks in a fat loss plan some people object by saying: O
​ h my god you can't eat
that every day! It's so unhealthy!
But in reality we have no clear definition for healthy foods. No, really, what is
healthy food anyway?
The best definition I've ever heard comes from Eric Helms PhD. I’m going to
paraphrase him:
The truth is there is nothing inherently unhealthy about what people call dirty
foods. There are very few foods if any, that are actively unhealthy, meaning that
if you eat them once, they hurt your body. The only plausible negative
connotation associated with say a Twinkie, a Pop Tart, and other foods
commonly labeled as “bad” is that they are relatively devoid of micronutrients,
fiber, and protein.
The reason they are labeled “unhealthy” is because they are empty calories so if
they dominate your diet, you develop micronutrient deficiencies as a result. The
deficiencies are what hurt your body. ​Your diet should be inclusive rather than
exclusive. Meaning, instead of excluding dirty foods from your diet, you should
make sure to include nutritious foods in your diet.
If nutritious foods dominate your diet, you get all the vitamins, minerals and fiber
you need for health. And if you still have calories left for dirty foods, then
including them in small amounts won't hurt your health.
Focus on eating protein and fat from natural sources and get a big portion of
your carbs from a large variety of non-starchy vegetables and 1-2 fruits a day.
These foods alone will ensure you’re getting a full spectrum of vitamins and
minerals. Vegetables and fruits also contain fiber. Men should get about 25g of
fiber everyday and women about 20g.
What Foods You Bring Home Matters​.
Remember this rule: It’s easier to design your food environment to work for you
than it is to use willpower.
If you have cookies, ice cream, salty snacks or tasty ready-to-eat food in your
house it will be hard for you to resist them. They almost start calling your name
when you’re hungry. Have you noticed that? You’re working on your computer,
or reading a book, or watching a movie and the image of those tasty snacks
pops-up in your mind. After a while they start calling your name. You get up and
go eat them.
Ok, maybe they don’t call your name but the point is it’s extremely hard to fight
temptation when it’s easy to give in. ​For this reason I encourage you to make it
hard for yourself to cheat and overeat.​ Here’s what I recommend:
● Don’t store high calorie snacks in the house. Buy only the amount you
intend to eat.
● If you buy more than you intend to eat in a day, choose multiple small
packages instead of a single big one. Research shows people eat way less
if they have to open multiple packages than they do when they open a
single large package.
For example if you buy ice cream, buy multiple small cups instead of a very
large one. If you buy potato chips buy multiple small bags instead of a
large one.
● Keep all food out of sight. Every time you see food, your brain is wired to
desire that food, especially when you’re cutting. Store food in hard to reach
places and you’ll need less willpower to resist. For example store desserts
and snacks in the back of the cupboard or fridge. Just having a few
objects in front of those foods (essentially acting as obstacles for your
hand) will drastically reduce your desire and willingness to eat them.
● For more information on how to engineer your food environment check out
the books Mindless Eating and Slim by Design by Brian Wansink. They are
super fun to read and incredibly insightful.
Summary​.
● Food quantity matters for weight change, food quality matters for health.
● To enjoy your diet you need to satisfy two needs: hunger and cravings.
Eating just clean foods won’t satisfy your cravings. Eating just tasty foods
won’t satisfy your hunger. You need to find a balance.
● “Dirty foods” don’t harm your body directly. They negatively affect your
health only if they dominate your diet. That’s because they do not contain
the micronutrients you need and you develop deficiencies as a result.
● Nutritious foods should dominate your diet - 80-90% of calories. 10-20%
can come from foods with low nutritious value.
● You cannot rely on your willpower to resist eating too much. Design your
food environment to work in your favor by making tasty foods and snacks
hard to reach.
● Liquid calories should be avoided because they have only a very small
effect on satiety.
● You should drink enough water to have at least 5 urinations a day. Drinking
enough water makes maintaining the deficit easier because thirst can
often be confused with hunger.
How To Count Calories & Macros
You’ll say: G
​ reat! I know my macros now and I know what foods to eat, but how
do I make the connection between the two?
That was my first question as well. When I first learned about macros I didn’t even
know what a calorie was, let alone protein, fats and carbs.
But in a few months I became like
Neo inside The Matrix. You
remember how at the end of the
first movie Neo started seeing
everything made out of numbers?
Well that’s how every person who
tracks calories for a while end up
seeing their food. Instead of
seeing an egg you see 5g of
protein and 5g of fat. Instead of
seeing a potato you see 40g of
carbs. Instead of seeing a tablespoon of mayonnaise, you see 10g of fat.
You need to get to the Neo level too. It’s an invaluable skill to have. It will allow you
to control your body fat for as long as you live.
How Do You Become Neo?​.
Two steps:
1. Get an electronic food scale
2. Download the apps: MyFitnessPal or MyNetDiary or FitGenie on your phone
In the app you input your goal macros - the grams of protein, fats and carbs you
need to hit (don’t use their recommendation, use the ShredSmart calculator).
Then, you weigh everything you eat at home with your scale and add that
quantity in the app.
When you eat out or on the go, you search for that food in the database and
input the quantity you eat. You can even scan barcodes.
Their food database is huge and you’ll find pretty much everything in there. As
soon as you input the quantity, the app will automatically calculate how much
protein, fats and carbs you got from that food.
If you need help with tracking macros contact me in the ShredSmart facebook
group or via email and I’ll help you out.
Mastering Macros​.
In about a week you’ll see that the Neo in you starts to awaken. You’ll start to be
able to estimate the macros of some foods without weighing or using the app.
In a few months you’ll be able to estimate the macros of your favorite meals just
by looking at the quantity on the plate. After that point, you can probably stop
using the scale.
Now you may think: ​Oh man, tracking everything I eat for a few weeks? I was so
excited for this plan…but I don’t think I’ll be disciplined enough to do that...
Did you know that is the ONLY reason you may fail using ShredSmart?
Not doing what you know you should to do is the only way you can fail to get your
goal physique. But don’t worry, there’s a solution for that. You’ll learn how to
make yourself do these little daily disciplines in the final part of ShredSmart.
How Closely Do You Need To Track Macros?​.
Not very closely.
When first learning about nutrition and training, everything appears to be of
equal importance at all times. A great deal of effort can be spent on minutiae that
doesn’t improve results at all.
This is the case with tracking macros. Hitting protein, fats and carbs to the gram
is completely unnecessary but initially it seems of vital importance.
Precision in both nutrition and training needs to be matched with your needs.
When a person is very lean and in a deficit, they have less leeway in their nutrition
before it has the potential to negatively impact them. The risk of burning muscle
tissue for energy and losing strength is greater for a bodybuilder at 6% body fat
that needs to step on stage in 4 weeks compared to a normal guy at 13% that
has all the time in the world to get lean. This should be obvious.
For these reasons different levels of precision are appropriate at different times:
BEST - Hit all your Macros within 5-15g of your Goal
This is appropriate for:
Bodybuilders less than 8 weeks out from their show.
Any athlete than needs to make weight while maintaining elite performance in
their training )powerlifters, olympic weightlifters, fighters, etc).
VERY GOOD - Hit your Calorie and Protein Goals
This is appropriate for:
Anyone trying to reach low levels of body fat while staying strong and muscular
or gaining muscle in the process. That means you, me and pretty much everyone
reading this program.
GOOD - Hit only your Calorie Goal and not worry about Macros
This is appropriate for:
Anyone that wants to lose fat but is not concerned about optimizing muscle
growth or muscle retention.
I recommend you use the VERY GOOD precision level. Track only calories and
protein and allow your fats and carbs to fluctuate between days. This approach
allows for social events, going out to eat, holidays, drinking alcohol, etc. Also,
some days your body may crave more fats or more carbs and I think it’s best to
listen to your body.
Don’t stress your carbohydrate and fat intake. If you consumed 20% of your
calories from fat one day and 40% on another day, it doesn’t matter at all
because the weekly average would still be the same. There’s nothing magical
about the 24 hour period of a day. Our metabolism doesn’t “reset” at midnight - it
takes several days for our body to sense a change in fat or carb intake so as
long as the weekly average is good, daily intake can vary.
Summary​.
● Being able to estimate the calorie and macronutrient content of foods is
an invaluable skill to learn. It will allow you to control your body fat levels for
the rest of your life.
● Counting calories and macros is done in two steps: weighing your food
with an electronic scale and inputting that quantity into an app such as
MyFitnessPal, MyNetDiary or FitGenie.
● After 3-4 weeks you can probably stop weighing food and eyeball your
portions.
● You do not need to track your macros very precisely. I recommend
tracking only your calories and protein and letting fats and carbs fluctuate
between days.
How To Structure Your Meals
For Maximum Satiety
Since the early ‘80s until the late 2000s nutritionists and trainers believed that
meal frequency and meal timing affected fat loss or fat gain.
We now know this is not true.
As long you control the total calories and macronutrients you’re eating, food
distribution is irrelevant. ​Small meals do not ramp up the metabolism ​neither are
they better for appetite control​. E​ating in the evening doesn’t make you fat and
you don’t need to eat protein every three hours to maintain muscle mass​.
You most likely know this already. So let’s see the diet structure I recommend
you follow: Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting means just that: alternating periods of fasting with periods
of feeding. The model that I recommend you use is simply skipping breakfast.
The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting For Fat Loss​.
For me, skipping breakfast and eating big meals in the evening was the key to
easy fat loss. The same was for other hundreds of people I interacted with online.
I first learned about Intermittent Fasting in the summer of 2013 when I came
across ​Kinobody​. Greg O’Gallagher was promoting it all the time and I decided
to give it a shot. After trying it for one week, I loved it.
In this chapter we’ll address a few things:
● Why IF makes cutting easier
● How to use IF for fat loss
● How to structure your meals around training
● How IF affects muscle growth, muscle retention, and metabolic rate
But first let’s get one thing straight.
The calorie deficit is what produces fat loss, n
​ ot​ intermittent fasting.
I often get questions like these: “I’m no longer losing weight on IF! I don’t eat until
3 PM, why am I not losing fat!?”
Fat loss is all about your calorie intake. Fasting for a few hours every day doesn’t
burn body fat if a calorie deficit is not present. See the cutting hierarchy of
importance again for a visual answer:
As you can see results come from the calorie deficit, macros, and strength
training. Nutrient timing, where Intermittent Fasting fits into, is close to the top of
the pyramid – it has a minimal effect on fat loss in and of itself.
HOWEVER…
The great benefit of IF is that it helps you better manage your hunger and
cravings. By skipping breakfast we take advantage of the fact that we can easily
go without food for a few hours in the morning. Ironically, short-term fasting in
the morning actually blunts appetite instead of increasing it. For this reason you
can easily go a few hours without food until lunch. By doing this we can save
more calories for the second part of the day.
Eating most of our food in the second part of the day helps with comfort and
satiety. Most people are socially inclined to eat more in the evening. You never
hear of someone saying they binged on junk food in the morning or afternoon.
No. Binge eating happens at night.
Some researchers speculate that this is the way our species evolved – we would
hunt or gather food during the morning hours and only get to eat in the second
part of the day. I personally don’t buy this explanation because we have no way
of knowing what our ancestors did. Hunter gatherers living in temperate and
warm climates obtained most of their calories from plants (mushrooms, berries,
tubers, roots, nuts, etc) and I imagine they ate those foods as soon as they found
them rather than collect them and wait until the evening to eat them.
But regardless of what our ancestors did, this way of eating fits our lifestyle
today. In the morning and noon we go to work, or school and are generally busy.
Only in the second part of the day we have time to cook and eat a good meal.
Moreover, almost every social event we attend (weddings, parties, dinner with
the family or friends, going to movies, etc) happens in the evening. That is why it
makes sense to save a good portion of our calorie budget for the evening meal.
In short, the benefits you get out of doing IF are these:
1. Better hunger control because of the fasting period
2. You’ll find it harder to overeat because your eating window is only a few
hours long
3. You have more calories to work with for each meal which means more
satisfying meals
4. Less time spent preparing and eating food = more productivity
5. You can save enough calories for the evening meal to allow eating out
6. Eliminates the need for cheat-meals. You can make your meals so large
they feel like cheat meals
How To Do Intermittent Fasting For Fat Loss​.
You’ve learned the benefits of IF, now let’s see how to actually do it:
1. Don’t eat for 4-6 hours after waking up.
Simply wake up and go about your day.
2. Drink a few glasses of water and a cup of coffee during the fast.
Remember that thirst is often confused with hunger. Many people living in
developed countries are actually chronically dehydrated but they don’t realize it.
We end up consuming food when in fact we need water. By getting into the habit
of drinking water as soon as you wake up, you can eliminate that false sensation
of hunger we have in the morning.
Then about one or two hours after waking up have a cup of black coffee. Coffee
without sugar or milk is a powerful appetite suppressant. Water and black coffee
make fasting 4-6 hours very easy (you may even find it enjoyable!).
3. Have 2-3 meals in the second part of the day.
You don’t need to break your fast at the same time every day, you just need to
push your first meal back a few hours. I recommend using any one of the 4
templates below to get started. I personally used template 1 the most.
Template 1​:
11AM-1 PM – First meal of the day (30% of daily calories)
4-6 PM – Second meal (30% of calories)
8-9 PM – Final meal (40% of calories)
Template 2​:
11AM-1 PM – First meal of the day (15% of daily calories)
4-6 PM – Second meal (60% of calories)
8-9 PM – Final meal (25% of calories)
Template 3​:
12-2 PM – First meal of the day (40% of daily calories)
6-9 PM – Final meal (60% of calories)
Template 4​:
3-4 PM – First meal of the day (60% of daily calories)
8-9 PM – Final meal (40% of calories)
4. Experiment and see how you like to split your macros for each
meal.
Enjoying your fat loss diet almost guarantees that you’ll get as lean as you want.
I spent a few years experimenting to see what meal pattern satisfies me the
most in a deficit.
What I like the most right now is this:
In my first meal I have mostly protein and fruit – like a large protein shake and a
banana
In my second meal I prefer veggies and legumes – like a large salad and a bean
quesadilla
And in my last meal I prefer most of my carbs – a big portion of baked potatoes
with some tofu or veggie burgers.
You can do this too, but also experiment and see what you like most.
When To Work Out While Doing IF​.
Bodybuilders and fitness models are very careful about timing their meals with
their workouts. And for good reason.
Eating a small meal about one hour before training has been shown to have a
slight positive effect on training performance and muscle growth. Also, eating
protein in less than two hours after lifting weights has also been shown to slightly
increase muscle growth.
By paying attention to these small details they can improve their results by a
small margin (I assume 5-10% or less) and increase their chances of winning a
competition.
But I believe you and me don’t need to worry about meal timing too much.
Recent evidence shows that ​nutrient timing and ​protein timing is way less
important for muscle growth than how much you eat in total in one day.
So here are the guidelines:
If you train early in the morning or before your first meal, have a protein shake or
protein bar before lifting weights. That protein will ensure your muscles have
nutrients to recover and grow until you eat your first meal at lunch. You wouldn’t
be fasting anymore but you’d still save most of your calories for the evening meal
– reaping the adherence benefits.
Example:
● 7AM protein shake or protein bar + workout
● 12 PM first meal
● 5 PM second meal
● 9 PM last meal
If you train after your first meal or in the evening, don’t worry about meal timing
at all. Train whenever is convenient for you. You can even train after your last
meal. A 600-700 kcal balanced meal takes about 5 hours to digest (a high
protein meal can take 8-10 hours to digest and absorb). By the time you finish
your workout you still have a lot of amino-acids in your bloodstream and protein
synthesis can start.
Example:
● 11 AM first meal
● 5:30 PM second meal
● 6:30 PM workout
● 9 PM last meal
Keep in mind that the template of IF you choose to follow doesn’t really matter.
Meal frequency and food distribution do not affect fat loss and body
composition. 2-6 meals per day will yield pretty much the same results for fat
loss and muscle retention.
Problems start to appear when you go the extremes. Eating only one meal a day
will cause you to develop unhealthy relationships with food where you condition
yourself to consume enormous amount of calories at each sitting. On the other
hand, eating more than 6 meals a day creates the opposite problem. You think
about food all the time because you’re having small meals every hour or two that
don’t satisfy you.
Either end of the spectrum makes adherence to the calorie deficit more difficult.
A few years ago researchers Alan Aragon, Brad Schoenfeld and James Krieger
did a ​meta-analysis that looked at the effects of meal frequency on body
composition​. They found no difference between high and low meal frequencies.
Their conclusion was this: “​Given that adherence is of primary concern with
respect to nutritional prescription, the number of daily meals consumed should
come down to personal choice if one’s goal is to improve body composition”.
Summary​.
● Meal frequency, food distribution throughout the day, and protein timing
have a minimal effect on fat loss and muscle growth. As long as you’re
eating the right number of calories and protein every day, you get close to
ideal results.
● Intermittent Fasting is a way to eat that makes adhering to the calorie
deficit much easier. The benefits you get from simply skipping breakfast
are these:
* Better hunger control because of the fasting period
* You’ll find it harder to overeat because your eating window is only a few
hours long
* You have more calories to work with for each meal which means more
satisfying meals
* Less time spent preparing and eating food = more productivity
* You can save enough calories for the evening meal to allow eating out
* Eliminates the need for cheat-meals. You can make your meals so large
they feel like cheat meals
● The way to do IF is this:
* ​Don’t eat for 4-6 hours after waking up
* Drink a few glasses of water and a cup of coffee during the fast
* Have 2-3 meals in the second part of the day
* Have a protein shake before training if you work out before your first meal
How To Use Refeed Days To
Improve Your Training
Performance
A refeed day means purposefully eating more food once a week. For example if
you maintain a calorie deficit from Monday to Saturday, Sunday could be your
refeed day where you eat 30% more calories than usual. Those extra calories
should come mostly from carbs.
Refeeding helps you both physiologically and psychologically.
Physiological Benefits Of Refeeding​.
● Muscle glycogen stores are replenished
Glycogen is a substance created from carbohydrates and water that is stored
inside muscle tissue. It serves as an energy source for muscle cells because it
can be rapidly turned into glucose.
Most of the energy your muscles use in the gym comes from glycogen. It is the
primary fuel source for high intensity exercise.
While cutting, the amount of carbohydrates you eat is not enough to completely
replenish the glycogen used in training. Therefore, after a few days of lifting, your
muscle glycogen stores will be partially depleted and the consequence of this is
lowered training performance. Strength loss while cutting is often caused by low
muscle glycogen levels.
On a refeed day you purposefully eat 30% more calories than usual - most of
those calories coming from carbs. This helps replenish muscle glycogen stores,
supporting your training performance in the next few days.
● Water retention is reduced
Dieting, training, and mental stress increase cortisol levels which can cause
water retention. This does not affect fat loss but it is frustrating because it can
mask weight loss and muscle definition.
Refeeding can help flush out subcutaneous water. Eating more carbohydrates
causes an increase in insulin levels which in turn causes cortisol to go down. The
next day, your weight can drop by 0.5-1 kg (1-2 lbs) and you can look significantly
leaner. Keep in mind this only happens if you were retaining water before doing
the refeed. If you weren’t your bodyweight can go up a bit because of eating
more food and replenishing muscle glycogen stores.
Psychological Benefits Of Refeeding​.
● The stress of cutting is reduced
A refeed day is a day of not dieting. You get to eat more food for a short period of
time which can help reduce mental stress.
● Motivation is increased
Knowing you can get a break from dieting every once in awhile can help you
stay motivated.
How To Refeed​.
In the fitness world, the usual model for refeeding is having a specific day a week
where you eat more. For example, Thursday could be your refeed day. You know
that every Thursday you increase your calories above maintenance.
That works fine but I think there’s a more lifestyle friendly way to refeed: pair
refeed days with social events.
Over a time period of 5-16 weeks of cutting you will inevitably attend some social
events that tempt you to eat more than you planned. You may be invited to a
wedding, to a party, or to a dinner with the family.
Why not take the opportunity and make those days your refeed days? This way
you get to enjoy the event, you get the physiological benefits of the refeed day,
and you completely eliminate the guilt of cheating your diet. Win-Win-Win.
So here’s how to refeed:
1. Maintain a calorie deficit every day.
2. Once a week, when you go out or do something special, eat 30% more
calories.
Summary​.
● Refeeding means purposefully eating 30% more calories than usual once
a week.
● The physiological benefits of refeed days are:
*they support training performance by helping refill muscle glycogen
stores
*they can reduce water retention by spiking insulin levels
● The psychological benefits of refeed days are:
*they reduce the stress of dieting by giving you the freedom to eat more
when you want to
*they increase motivation by allowing you to enjoy social events
● The most lifestyle friendly way to refeed is to do so on a day you attend an
event or go out at night. This way you get to enjoy the event, you get the
physiological benefits of the refeed day, and you completely eliminate the
guilt of cheating your diet. Win-Win-Win.
The Practical Guide To Nutrition
Alright, after all this theory let’s see a practical plan you can use to get lean.
I’ve asked the members of
the ShredSmart facebook
group to tell me what is the
most enjoyable diet structure
for them when cutting. The
vast majority said they like
having two or three meals
per day after a long morning
fast.
That makes sense. Like we
discussed in the previous
chapters, this diet structure
helps blunt your appetite in
the morning, allows you to
have big meals that leave
you satisfied, and it requires little time for cooking and cleaning.
So I will give you practical guides for cutting with 2 or 3 meals per day. I
recommend trying both of them for a week to see which one you like better.
Depending on your job and schedule you will notice one will fit your lifestyle
better than the other.
I find that two meals per day work especially well for people who wake up later in
the day (9-11 am) and have the freedom to make their own work schedule - like
students, freelancers, or small business owners. On the other hand having three
meals per day works better for people who wake up early (5-8 am) and have a
strict work schedule until the late afternoon or evening - most parents,
employees, and professionals.
So here are the plans:
Three Meals Per Day + Intermittent Fasting​.
● Find your calories and macros based on your bodyweight using ​this
calculator​. That is how much you need to eat every day. Focus on hitting
just calories and protein while allowing carbs and fats to fluctuate.
● Every morning fast for 4-6 hours after waking up.
● During the fast drink 3-5 glasses of water to stay hydrated and prevent
confusing thirst with hunger.
● Drink a cup of coffee one hour after waking up. You may drink another
cup after 3-4 hours of fasting if you need it.
● 4-6 hours after waking up have your first meal: 20-30% of your daily
calories. Aim to eat mostly protein and fiber in this meal.
Examples for this meal:
Chicken with veggies or greens
• 400g of fresh veggies/greens
• 250g chicken breast weighed raw cut into small pieces and fried on a pan
with one tablespoon of oil
• two tablespoons of low fat sauce such as ketchup or mustard
Cottage cheese and fruits
• 200g medium fat cottage cheese
• 200g berries
• a banana
Plant based options:
Fried tofu with veggies or greens
• 300g of fresh veggies/greens
• 300g of tofu fried on a pan with one tablespoon of oil
• two tablespoons of low fat sauce such as ketchup or soy sauce
Protein shake
• 60g plant protein powder
• a banana
• 30g nuts or seeds
The goal is the make your first meal filling as possible with a small number of
calories so you can have a feast in the evening. Because protein and fiber are
the most filling macros, eating high protein foods and veggies fills you up very
well while keeping fats and carbs low. In addition to that, veggies are slow
digesting so this meal will keep you full for several hours even if the calorie
content is low. Having liquid calories (such as protein shakes) while cutting is
generally a bad idea because they’re not as filling as solid food. But I found
that plant protein powders digest much slower than whey or casein protein
powder and they keep you satiated for several hours.
● 3-4 hours after the first meal have a high fat snack, 20-30% of your
calories
Examples for this snack:
Quesadillas
• Two cheese quesadillas
• 80g of medium fat cheddar/mozzarella cheese
• two small tortillas (25-30g each)
• one tablespoon of oil
Dessert
• Half a bar of chocolate
• a piece of fruit
Plant based options:
Protein shake
• 50g plant protein powder mixed with water in a shaker
• a banana
• 30g nuts or seeds (peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, etc)
Mushroom and seed mix
• 500g of various mushrooms and a tablespoon of sunflower and pumpkin
seeds sauteed in a pan with two tablespoons of oil
In this small meal we want to include a good amount of fat because fats are
the macronutrient that empties from the stomach at the slowest rate.
Immediately after the meal you feel like you’d want to eat more but fats trigger
satiety only a few hours later. For this reason it prevents hunger in the
long-term better than carbs or protein. The main purpose of this snack is to
bridge the gap between the first meal and the feast at night.
● In the evening have the biggest meal of the day: 50% of your calories
Examples for this meal:
Chicken and Baked Potato Wedges
• 400g of chicken breast cut into small pieces and fried on
a pan (1-2 tablespoons of oil)
• 2-3 potatoes cut into wedges and baked in the oven for 30-35 minutes
• greens or veggies
Omelet with mushrooms and toast
• 3 eggs
• 400g mushrooms sauteed in a pan
• 2-3 slices of bread
• ketchup or other low fat sauce
Plant based options:
Veggie burgers and Baked Potato Wedges
• two veggie burgers (made of mushrooms or legumes) fried on
a pan
• 2-3 potatoes cut into wedges and baked in the oven for 30-35 minutes
• greens or veggies
Beans and potatoes
• a can of beans with barbeque sauce
• 2-3 potatoes cut into wedges and baked in the oven for 30-35 minutes
Broccoli with rice and garlic
• 300g broccoli
• 200g rice weighed after boiling (~70g weighed raw)
• a tablespoon of olive oil
• garlic for taste
(mix everything in a pot)
We want to save the biggest meal for last because it’s easier to be disciplined
during the day when you know this big meal waits for you in the evening. This
big meal also helps with the fast the next day by preventing hunger in the
morning.
● Workouts should be done before one of the three meals. Depending on
your schedule you can train fasted around 10-11 am before your first
meal, at 2-4 pm before your second meal, or at 5-7 pm before your last
meal. For most people, training in the evening (after work and before the
last meal) is the best choice. If you can only train at night, you can train
after your last meal.
● Don’t consume any calories until the first meal the next day. Drink only
water.
● One day a week have a day at maintenance (refeed). I recommend
refeeding on a day you attend an event or go out at night. This way you
get to enjoy the event, you get the physiological benefits of the refeed
day, and you completely eliminate the guilt of cheating your diet.
Two Meals Per Day + Intermittent Fasting​.
● Find your calories and macros based on your bodyweight using ​this
calculator​. That is how much you need to eat every day. Focus on hitting
just calories and protein while allowing carbs and fats to fluctuate.
● Every morning fast for 5-6 hours after waking up.
● During the fast drink 3-5 glasses of water to stay hydrated and prevent
confusing thirst with hunger.
● Drink a cup of coffee one hour after waking up. You may drink another
cup after 3-4 hours of fasting if you need it.
● Have 40-50% of your calories in the first meal. ​Aim to eat mostly protein
and fiber in this meal.
Examples:
Chicken and beans salad
• 150g lean meat or fish
• 100g beans weighed after boiling
• lettuce/spinach
• tomatoes
• cucumbers, bell peppers or other veggies you like
• onions
• two tablespoons of olive oil or other dressing
Omelet with veggie mix
• 4 eggs
• 100g low fat cheddar
• 400g frozen veggie mix (peas, beans, carrots, corn) cooked in a pan with a
tablespoon of oil
• a slice of bread or 100g of rice
• low fat sauce (ketchup, barbeque, or other)
Plant based option:
Tofu/tempeh/veggie burger/seitan with rice and veggies
• 200g fried tofu/tempeh/veggie burger/seitan
• 200g rice
• lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, or other veggies you like
mixed in a large salad with one tablespoon of oil
• a protein shake made with ~50g of plant protein powder
● Eat 50-60% of your calories in the last meal. Aim to eat potatoes in this
meal as they are very filling.
Examples for this meal:
Lean meat or fish with baked potatoes
• 200g lean meat or fish
• 500g baked potatoes
• greens and veggies on the side
• ketchup, mustard, or other low calorie sauce
Plant based option:
Legumes and baked potatoes
• 200g beans or lentils cooked in barbecue sauce
• 500g baked potatoes
• ketchup or other low calorie sauce
Broccoli, hummus, and baked potatoes
• 200g broccoli
• 100g hummus
• 500g baked potatoes
• ketchup or other low calorie sauce
● Workouts should be done around one of the two meals. Depending on
your schedule you can train fasted in the afternoon before your first
meal, in the evening before your second meal, or at night after your last
meal. For most people, training in the evening (after work and before the
last meal) is the best choice.
● Don’t consume any calories until the first meal the next day. Drink only
water.
● One day a week have a day at maintenance (refeed). I recommend
refeeding on a day you attend an event or go out at night. This way you
get to enjoy the event, you get the physiological benefits of the refeed
day, and you completely eliminate the guilt of cheating your diet.
What Results can you Expect?​.
You can expect to lose 0.5-1 kg (1-2 lbs) of fat per week with these plans. You
may even lose up 1-2 kg (3-4 lbs) in the first week. This is primarily the result of
eating less food and losing water weight.
Every month you should be down 2-3 kg (6-8 lbs) of fat and your waist should be
down 2-4 cm (1-1.5 inches). Although, most people will lose 3-4 kg (7-9 lbs) the
very first month.
If you’re not losing weight, adjust your calories as explained in the chapter called
How To Track Weight Change And Adjust Your Calorie Intake To Avoid Plateaus.
The One Week Diet Break
This chapter is very important for those that are going to cut for more than 6
weeks.
A diet break means purposefully not dieting for a week. Calories are raised to
maintenance and carbohydrate intake is increased.
You get multiple benefits from doing this:
● You prevent your metabolic rate from going down too much
● Your workout performance is improved
● Retained water is flushed out
For each two months of cutting, you should take one week at maintenance. For
example if you do a 24 week cut, weeks 7, 14, and 21 should be spent at
maintenance.
Why Diet Breaks Make Fat Loss Easier​.
As we lose weight, our bodies begin to adapt to the shortage of food:
● Metabolic rate drops
● Hunger increases
● Energy levels drop
● Testosterone, leptin, and other hormones drop as well
These adaptations are normal and are there to increase our chances of survival.
Our body doesn’t know we’re intentionally losing weight. It thinks it’s slowly dying
of hunger so it wants to preserve energy as much as possible.
The longer we stay in a deficit and the leaner we get, the more pronounced
these adaptations become.
After a few months of cutting, our metabolic rate can be up to 15% lower than
before. How much it goes down is determined mostly by our genes. From what
I’ve observed, for most people it goes down by 5-10%. It may seem insignificant
but even that can make further fat loss much more difficult.
One study found that people who lost 10% of their bodyweight to reach a certain
bodyweight had a total daily energy expenditure of 18% less on average than
those who hadn’t dieted.
For example, if you take a man that maintains 180 lbs (80kg) naturally, he would
burn around 2600 kcal per day. But if you have a man diet from 200 lbs (90 kg) to
reach 180 lbs (80 kg), he would burn fewer calories that other guy. He may burn
only 2400 kcal per day. That’s because his metabolism slowed down a little while
dieting.
A 5-10% decrease in metabolic rate means about 200 kcal in this example! You
can imagine that the second man would have a much harder time getting leaner
from 180 lbs because he would have to eat 200 kcal less to create the same
deficit.
Enter Diet Breaks​.
Diet breaks help reduce how much our metabolism goes down while dieting
because they increase leptin levels for a few days.
Leptin is a hormone which regulates hunger, metabolic rate, libido, and other
functions in the body. It is mainly produced by fat cells, which is why it goes down
when you get lean.
Researchers found that leptin injections speed up metabolic rate. They found
that if you can maintain high leptin levels while dieting, metabolic slowdown is
largely prevented.
Injections aside, the best way to increase leptin levels on a diet is to take a diet
break. Eating more calories (especially carbs) for a few days keeps leptin
elevated and that lets your body know it’s not dying of hunger. As a result, the
adaptations to the shortage of food are less pronounced.
It’s been thought that refeed days also achieve the same effect. Many people
did them to prevent metabolic slowdown. But it seems a single day of
overfeeding is not enough. To prevent your metabolic rate from going down, you
need multiple higher calorie days in a row - a diet break.
What You Can Expect During A Diet Break​.
You could potentially gain, maintain, or continue to lose weight on a diet break.
● If you put on a little bit of weight, don’t worry that’s not fat. It is most likely
returned lost muscle tissue and glycogen. You can’t gain fat eating at
maintenance.
● If your weight stays the same or continues to go down during the diet
break that’s normal.
On top of these physiological benefits you may find you get increased
motivation.
If you have to lose 50-100lbs (22-45kg) of fat, you realize you have to stay in a
calorie deficit for 25-60 weeks. That’s 6-15 months of dieting. It’s very
discouraging when you look at it like that.
But what if you know every 7th week you can take one or two weeks at
maintenance? Then the task will seem much easier to do.
6 weeks of cutting
1 week of maintenance
6 weeks of cutting
1 week of maintenance
And so on...
That’s much more motivating than 6-15 months of cutting without a break!
Summary​.
● A diet break means purposefully not dieting for a week. After 6 weeks of
cutting, you should take a diet break and eat at maintenance for a week.
● The main benefit of diet breaks is preventing your metabolism from
slowing down too much while cutting for long periods of time. At the end of
a long diet without breaks, a person’s metabolism can be up to 15% slower
than before.
● The main reason eating at maintenance for a week reduces metabolic
slowdown is because leptin levels stay elevated during that time. Leptin
plays a major role in controlling metabolic rate.
● Diet breaks make long cutting phases much easier to do.
How To Track Weight Change
And Adjust Your Calorie Intake
To Avoid Plateaus
As your weight increases or decreases your body’s energy needs change.
A heavier body burns more energy at rest and during activity. This means that as
you progress towards your goal you will have to make adjustments to your total
caloric intake.
How To Know If Your Macros Need Adjustment​.
The very first week, eat the number of calories the calculators show you. After
you follow those numbers for a week you look at how your weight and waist have
changed to determine if you need to adjust them.
You look at two things:
1. How your weight is changing
The ideal rate of fat loss is between 0.7 and 1% of your body weight per week. For
most people this means 0.5-0.8 kg (1-2 pounds) weight loss per week.
You can lose fat faster than this. But the risk of muscle loss, strength loss, and low
testosterone is increased. This is why it’s best to lose maximum 1% of your
bodyweight per week.
So if in the first week you’ve lost between 1-3 pounds don’t change your calorie
intake. Keep eating the same number of calories every day.
2. How your waist around the navel changes
Your waist circumference around the navel is a very good indicator of fat mass
change.
It may be possible for your weight to stay the same and your waist to go down.
That’s reason for celebrating! Because it means you’re probably gaining muscle
mass so fast that it equals the rate of fat loss. Your bodyweight stays the same,
but you’re losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.
If both your weight and waist are not changing, that’s when you reduce your
intake. You need to eat less. The deficit is no longer present.
You’ll say wait a minute Radu… how do you accurately track weight change?
Good question!
You need to use a weekly average. I’m sure you’ve noticed that your weight can
fluctuate a lot between days.
Why Your Weight Fluctuates Between Days​.
1. Water retention
Dieting, training, and mental stress tend to increase cortisol levels which can
cause water retention. You are still losing fat but it doesn’t show on the scale or in
the mirror because of increased subcutaneous water. After a few days
(especially after a refeed day) the water should be flushed out and we’ll see the
reduction in weight and fat. Weight loss is NEVER linear. There are always weeks
when you stall and weeks when you lose large amounts of weight. Water
retention is one of the reasons that happens.
2. Food quantity in your gastrointestinal tract
You can hit your macros eating small or large amounts of food depending on
your food choices. Obviously your weight is going to be affected by the quantity
you eat. You can get the same 70g of carbs from 100g of crackers or from 350g
of potatoes.
3. Hydration status
Did you know that you lose around 1% of your bodyweight every night through
the moisture you exhale while sleeping? If you go to bed late and sleep 3-4 hours
more than usual, you will be more dehydrated when you wake up and you’ll
weigh less than usual.
If that small change makes such a difference, you can imagine how much your
daily water intake affects your weight. Maybe yesterday you had 2 glasses of
water more than usual and your weight was higher today as a result.
To solve all these tracking problems you need to do a weekly average. You weigh
yourself every morning, in your underwear, after you used the bathroom.
For example, this is how your weight may change over the course of one week:
Monday - 83.2 kg / 183.6 lbs
Tuesday - 83.1 kg / 183.5 lbs
Wednesday - 82.9 kg / 183 lbs
Thursday - 83.0 kg / 183.2 lbs
Friday - 82.9 kg / 183 lbs
Saturday - 82.8 kg / 182.8 lbs
Sunday - 82.6 kg / 182.5 lbs
-------------------------------------------------Average = 82.9 kg​ / ​183 lbs
Every 7 days, you do an average. That is your real weight. You compare each
week’s average with the previous week’s average. If that is going down by
around 1%, your macros are set correctly. If it’s going down by less than 0.5 kg / 1
lb per week, decrease your calorie intake by 100-200 kcal.
Why Your Calorie Intake Needs To Decrease Over Time​.
After several weeks of cutting, a lot of people report hitting a plateau when they
no longer lose fat eating the same way as before. This is normal.
The main reason is simply because they’re lighter than before. ​A lighter body will
always burn less energy than a heavier body.
A lot of people think that lean body mass is the main predictor of calorie burn ​but
this is not true​. Contrary to what is commonly believed, skeletal muscle actually
has a fairly low resting energy expenditure, roughly 13 calories per kg (6 calories
per pound). In addition to that, fat mass which is commonly believed to be
inactive tissue actually takes 5 calories per kg (2 calories per pound) to maintain.
To put that into mathematical perspective, gaining 1 kilogram of muscle would
be expected to increase resting energy expenditure just as much as gaining 3
kilograms of fat. That is why ​total bodyweight and ​not lean bodyweight is the
main predictor of your maintenance calories.
● Let’s say you started cutting at 90 kg (200 lbs) with a maintenance of 2800
kcal.
● If you eat 2200 kcal per day, you have a daily deficit of 600 kcal. Over the
course of a week that 600 kcal daily deficit will lead to about 0.5 kg of fat
loss (1 lb).
● You eat 2200 kcal per day until you reach 84kg (185 lbs) and you notice you
no longer lose 0.5 kg per week. Instead you only lose 0.3kg (~0.5 lb). That’s
because your maintenance is no longer 2800 kcal. It’s now 2600 kcal which
means your daily deficit is 400 instead of 600 kcal.
● To lose 0.5 kg (1 lb) per week again, you need to reduce your intake to 2000
kcal per day.
The Difference NEAT Makes​.
NEAT stands for Non-Exercise-Activity-Thermogenesis. This term describes all of
our movements that are not related to physical exercise such as fidgeting,
walking to the bus station, pouring a cup of coffee, running your hand through
your hair, and so on.
One of the ways our body tries to conserve energy during a cut is by reducing
these spontaneous, unconscious movements.
Over the course of a day, these small movements can burn a few hundred
calories. So if we unconsciously reduce these movements our maintenance can
suddenly be a few hundred calories lower than it was before starting the cut.
This adaptation is more pronounced in some people than others. Some report
feeling lazy or sluggish during a caloric deficit while others say they don’t notice a
difference.
The magnitude of reduction in NEAT partly explains why some people have a
much harder time losing fat than others. Their bodies simply start burning less
energy without them realizing.
How to Adjust your Calorie Intake​.
If your weight has stalled for 2 consecutive weeks you’re going to have to reduce
your calorie intake again or increase energy expenditure.
I recommend reducing your calorie intake by 8-10% or increasing expenditure by
8-10% or doing both at the same time (decrease intake by 4-5% and increase
activity by 4-5%).
Some people talk about “the starvation mode” and how it’s a mistake to eat even
less after we hit a plateau. They say that our body will stop losing weight if we eat
too little. That violates the first law of thermodynamics. It’s impossible to eat less
energy than we burn and not lose weight.
No study has ever shown that a person’s metabolism can slow down so much
that it will make it impossible to lose fat. Even in ​the Minnesota Starvation
Experiment when the subjects ate only 50% of their maintenance calories they
lost fat all the way down to the essential levels of 4-5% body fat.
So when someone says they are not losing fat because they’re eating too little,
they are actually making tracking mistakes (or are in denial).
● Maybe their calorie counting app has the wrong values for some foods.
This way a few hundred calories go unnoticed.
● Maybe they forget to account for the two tablespoons of olive oil they put
on their salad. It's very easy to forget about oil or sauces.
● Maybe they eat out a lot and underestimate the calorie content of their
meal. What looks like 300g may actually be 400g. What looks like a lean
piece of meat may actually contain 25g of fat. A bowl of pasta from a
restaurant contains a lot more fat compared to what you eat at home.
● Maybe they stick to their diet perfectly during the week but go in a surplus
on the weekend. 3 beers and a fast-food meal on top of your daily intake
easily negates 2 days of dieting.
The issue must be one of these. Because a calorie deficit ​always leads to weight
loss. If that wasn't the case for you, government agents will come take you away
to study your genes. You'd be the secret to world hunger and space exploration the genes that violate the laws of physics.
Practical Points​.
In conclusion, this is how you track fat loss and adjust your calorie intake:
1. You set the initial deficit using the calculator provided
2. You check if your weight goes down by 0.7-1% per week
* if you don’t lose weight, check your waist. If your waist is going down, keep doing
what you’re doing.
* if your waist stays the same as well, reduce your calorie intake by 10% or
increase your energy expenditure by 10%. I recommend doing both. Decrease
your calorie intake by 5% and walk 2 hours extra every week.
Summary​.
● As your bodyweight goes down you’re going to have to eat less and less to
maintain the same rate of fat loss. That is because your maintenance
decreases along with your total bodyweight.
● The ideal rate of fat loss is between 0.7 and 1% of your body weight per
week. If you lose more than 1% of your bodyweight per week, increase your
calorie intake by 200 kcal. If you lose less than 0.7% of your bodyweight per
week, decrease your calorie intake by 200 kcal.
● The best way to track bodyweight change is to weigh yourself every day
and make a weekly average. This way you prevent weighing errors caused
by water retention, food quantity in your GI tract, and hydration status.
● Your waist circumference around the navel is a great indicator of fat mass
change - better than scale weight. If your bodyweight stays the same two
weeks in a row but your waist measurement is going down, you should not
decrease your calorie intake. That is because you may be losing fat and
gaining muscle at the same time which is the ideal scenario.
● How often you need to adjust your calorie intake also depends on NEAT Non-Exercise-Activity-Thermogenesis. NEAT describes all the small
unconscious movements you make over the course of a day such as
fidgeting, scratching your head, taking the stairs instead of the escalator,
and so on. Our body reduces these unconscious movements in an effort to
conserve energy while in a calorie deficit.
● A calorie deficit always produces weight loss. It’s a fundamental law of
physics. If a person claims they are not losing weight yet they are in a
calorie deficit, they are either overestimating their maintenance or
underestimating their calorie intake.
● When you no longer lose fat at the ideal rate of 1-2 lbs per week (0.5 to 1 kg
per week), you need to increase your calorie deficit. You can do that by
eating less or by moving more. I recommend doing both at the same time if
possible. Eat about 100 kcal less every day and walk 2 hours extra every
week.
Other Things You
Need To Know
The Debate About Protein Intake​.
There’s an ongoing debate in the fitness world about how much protein we
should eat to maximize muscle growth and support fat loss. So we’ll talk a bit
about that here.
Research shows that the ideal protein range for resistance trained, lean athletes
in a deficit (that means you) is 1.8-2.9 grams per kilogram or 0.8-1.3 grams per
pound of bodyweight.
The amount of protein you need is scaled upwards with the severity of caloric
restriction and leanness. The higher the body fat percentage, the lower the
protein intake can be compared to total bodyweight.
Now, some people promote a higher protein intake than that on the basis that it
improves satiety. That's true. Protein is the most filling macronutrient. When you
eat 4 or 5 meals a day, you are almost forced to eat a lot of protein because you
have to spread it out between those meals. About 30-40g of protein are needed
for a small meal to be filling, adding up to a total of 150-200g per day.
Protein also requires more energy to digest and absorb compared to fat and
carbs. This means a diet high in protein will actually provide a larger calorie
deficit than a diet low in protein, even if the daily calorie intake is the same.
However, when you're using intermittent fasting satiety is not an issue. You can
eat 2 or 3 big meals a day which means you can achieve the same level of
fullness per meal with less total protein. And if you can eat less protein and
achieve the same results, I think you should do it. You get two major benefits:
better hormonal balance and more satisfying meals. Let’s quickly talk about
each of them.
Hormonal Balance And Protein Intake​.
One of the biggest problems of getting very lean is that testosterone levels go
down. This issue is rarely talked about in the fitness industry. If people learned
that many fitness models and bodybuilders suffer from low sex drive and erectile
dysfunction, they may be turned off from wanting to achieve their physique. It's
embarrassing and bad for business.
Here's the truth: a calorie deficit combined with a very low body fat percentage
will ​always reduce testosterone levels to some extent (and affect the level of
other hormones in your body as well). For example on show day, some natural
bodybuilders have their testosterone so low it’s similar to castrate levels.
I didn't know that in the beginning. When I got below 10% body fat for the first
time, my diet was low calorie, high protein, high fiber, and low fat for about 6
months. I got ripped of course but during that period I had n
​ o sex drive at all​. I
had trouble getting erections and I didn’t even get erections in the morning
anymore.
It took me 4-5 months to reverse the damage and get my hormones back to
normal.
What does this have to do with protein?
Something most people don’t know is that the macronutrient profile of the food
you consume plays a major role in determining your hormonal balance. Each of
the macronutrients (protein, fat and carbs) are involved in supporting the
endocrine system. If one of them is emphasized over the others, testosterone
production takes a hit.
If your calorie intake is fixed and you eat a lot of protein, it means you eat less
carbs and fats as a result. And the current research shows this:
Low carbohydrate diets are detrimental for testosterone optimization.
In one study that measured the effects of carbohydrate consumption on free
testosterone:cortisol ratio over repeated days of training, researchers found that
free testosterone decreased by 36% in the low carb group and cortisol
increased by 15%. Adequate carb intake is necessary to support training, and in
supporting training it is also supporting a healthy hormonal profile by preventing
the chronic rise in cortisol, glucagon and epinephrine.
Low fat diets are detrimental for testosterone optimization.
In groups of test subjects, those on a 20% fat diet had significantly lower
testosterone levels than those on a 40% fat diet. Studies in vegetarians who are
known to consume less saturated fat (and fat in general) also show similar
results. Of course, individual response to low fat dieting varies a lot but there is
definitely a correlation between low fat intake and a decrease in testosterone
level
High protein diets are detrimental for testosterone optimization.
Protein intake doesn’t reduce testosterone levels in and of itself. It too plays a
role in testosterone production. But an increase in protein consumption will
always accompany a decrease in both fat and carbohydrate intake (arguably
the two more important macronutrients for endocrine support). So it sabotages
hormonal balance indirectly. It’s entirely possible that the main reason many fit
men who otherwise appear healthy, still suffer from symptoms of low
testosterone because they neglect fats and carbs in favor of protein.
In order to avoid the same problems I had, I want you to use a balanced diet. The
macro split that will best support the endocrine system is:
25-30% protein
30-35% fat
35-40% carbs.
Compared to most fitness recommendations, protein is about 10% lower. This
does not negatively affect your results. Protein should be consumed at the
minimum level required for muscle support in training and the remainder of the
diet should consist of carbs and fat if testosterone optimization is also one of
your goals.
Alcohol Intake And Drinking Your Calories​.
Sodas, juices, beer, milk, protein shakes and other liquids that contain calories
should be consumed sparingly. Liquid calories digest faster and don’t trigger
satiety the same way solid food does. If you want a beverage, go with water, tea,
or coffee.
What about drinking alcohol?
On occasions such as birthdays, parties, dates, vacations, and so on, you may
want to enjoy a drink or two. You can. Alcohol will not stop fat loss nor will it
interfere with muscle growth if you drink in moderation.
Alcohol doesn't stop fat loss if you stay in a calorie deficit. If you eat less carbs
and fats that day, you can make room for a few hundred calories of alcohol.
Your fat loss results will be the same.
The first thing you need to pay attention to is the calorie content of each type of
drink. As a rule of thumb, the sweeter the beverage, the more calories it has:
If you want to get a little drunk, it's best to go with low calorie drinks such as
spirits. If you drink for the taste, go with cocktails, beer or wine. You'll be able to fit
2 or 3 drinks into your deficit.
You may find people online saying that alcohol calories don’t count. They do. ​Our
body can’t turn alcohol into body fat directly but ​alcohol is burned first for energy
when we ingest it​. This means it stops fat and carbohydrate oxidation and leads
to fat gain indirectly. If alcohol is burned for fuel, any surplus dietary fat will be
stored.
When we talk about Intermittent Fasting you’ll learn how to save calories for a
big meal at night. That’s where you can include 2 or 3 drinks.
How Much Water Should You Drink?​.
Although we all know we should be drinking plenty of water every day, most
people are always slightly dehydrated. Thirst is actually a signal of dehydration,
not a warning.
Adequate water intake is particularly important while cutting because many
thirst sensations are confused with hunger. Dehydration can thus give you a
false feeling of hunger and drive you to overeat.
Moreover, hydration also plays a role in physical performance. Even a 2%
dehydration negatively affects maximal strength output.
How much water should you drink?
Enough to have about 5 urinations a day​. This is a better way to track water
intake compared with glasses or fl. oz. per day because it takes into account
that each person lives in a different environment (humidity and temperature) and
losses different amounts of water through sweat.
A person working outside on a sunny day will need more water than someone
who sits at a desk in an office with air conditioning. This is why we look at
urinations instead of following a recommended water intake.
If you have at least 5 urinations a day, you’re drinking enough water.
Part 2 - Training​.
How To Lift Weights To
Maintain Or Gain Muscle
While Cutting
Relative Strength:
The Yardstick For Progress
Muscle growth has two main drivers:
● Progressive Tension Overload
That is lifting heavier and heavier weights over time.
● Metabolic Fatigue
That is pushing muscles to their metabolic limit (when you feel the burn).
Muscle damage (micro-tears produced by lifting weights) is also considered a
driver of muscle growth but ​researchers are beginning to question its
contribution​.
By far the most important driver of muscle growth is progressive overload. In
order to get bigger, every few weeks you must lift more weight for the same
number of repetitions or perform more repetitions with the same weight.
That’s common sense.
You intuitively know that if a person goes to the gym and performs the same
workout over and over again without some sort of progression his body won’t
change much.
In order to get bigger, we have to get stronger.
Of course, metabolic fatigue contributes to growth as well. But many people
overestimate how much it actually helps. In every gym you will see guys perform
supersets, drop sets, circuit training, or lifting low weights for high reps with short
rest periods. They believe that “feeling the muscle work” or “feeling the burn” or
getting a big pump is what will make them bigger. While the metabolic fatigue
produced through those training methods does in fact stimulate muscle growth,
progressive overload is much more powerful.
KEY POINT: If a person does not get stronger over time, no matter how much
volume he does or how much he feels the muscle burn, he will NOT get much
bigger.
Actually, the relationship between strength and muscle size is precise enough to
predict how a person will look at certain strength standards. I showed you these
pictures in the first chapter of the program:
The muscle development of these men is determined by their strength. Their
body fat percentage correlates with their waist measurement around the navel.
If you want a physique like them, what you need to do is match their relative
strength level and have a slim waist.
The best indicator of the quality of your physique is relative strength. Relative
strength means your absolute strength compared to your body weight.
If aesthetics is your goal then you should aim to improve your relative strength
because the stronger you are compared to your body weight the better you will
look.
Let me give you an example:
Who do you think will look better, a 77 kg (170 lbs) guy benching 105 kg (235 lbs)
for 5 reps or a 95 kg (210 lbs) guy benching 115 kg (250 lbs) for 5 reps?
The first one will undoubtedly look much better even if he has less muscle mass
overall than the second guy. The reason for that is because the first guy has a
much better muscle to fat ratio. So in essence, the better your relative strength
is, the better you’re going to look. Anytime you improve your relative strength,
you will look better.
If you don’t really care about aesthetics and you lift weights mainly for the health
benefits and to develop your character, maximizing relative strength should still
be your goal because it’s the best indicator of progress.
There are two ways to improve relative strength:
● Get stronger on your lifts faster than you gain body weight
● Lose body weight without losing strength
If you’re gaining body weight, make sure that your lifts are going up at a faster
rate. Each kilogram you gain should results in a 3-4 kg increase on your bench
press and weighted chin ups, 1-1.5 kg on standing shoulder press and 5-6 kg on
Deadlifts/Squats. This will ensure that the weight you gained was predominantly
lean mass.
And if you’re losing weight past the intermediate stage, you want to maintain
your lifts. With each kilogram you lose, you’re improving your relative strength maintaining muscle mass while stripping away the fat.
There is one caveat though.
Strength and muscle size correlate closely only when strength is gained in a
medium rep range (4-12). Powerlifters and olympic weightlifters can lift high
amounts of weight for a single repetition while having less muscle mass than
bodybuilders. They train their nervous system to produce high amounts of force
for low reps and use the form that gives them the best mechanical advantage.
To a large degree, strength is a skill.
So when doing only 1-3 reps per set, strength and size are not tightly related. For
strength to translate to muscle size, you must lift weights in a medium rep range
(such as 4-12 reps per set).
Now let’s see how you should train.
Summary​.
● Muscle growth has two main drivers: progressive tension overload and
metabolic fatigue. Muscle damage (micro-tears produced by lifting
weights) may be another driver of growth but the evidence is inconclusive.
● Progressive tension overload is by far the most important. Lifting heavier
and heavier weights over time is the most powerful stimulus for
hypertrophy.
● Strength level can predict muscle development in most people. To achieve
a certain muscle size, you must achieve the strength level that
corresponds to that size.
● Strength and muscle development correlate only in medium rep ranges.
Powerlifters and weightlifters can lift very high amounts of weights for 1-2
reps without being very muscular.
● Relative strength is what determines the quality of your physique. The
stronger you are for your bodyweight, the better you will look.
The Novice Training Routine
Use this tool to see what your strength standards are. If on most of the exercises
you fall into the Untrained or Novice category, this is the ShredSmart routine you
should use.
When you reach the intermediate strength standards you can move up to the
main ShredSmart Training Program.
The fastest way to make strength and muscle gains as a novice is to train the
main exercises often. The vast majority of the strength gains you will make in the
beginning will be neurological in nature. When you first start lifting weights, you
are weak not only because your muscles are small, but mainly because your
nervous system is not trained to recruit muscle fibers properly. You’re also not
skilled at lifting weights. Training the main exercise a few times a week gives you
a lot of opportunities to practice the movement. That helps you make the
neurological adaptations quickly and get to the point where muscle fibers have
to increase in size to contribute to strength.
Also, because initially you don’t lift heavy weights, you don’t create much muscle
damage and therefore you don’t need much recovery after training. Two days of
rest are usually enough to allow you to recover and be able to replicate or
surpass your previous performance. You’ve probably noticed this yourself. In the
first weeks of lifting, you set a personal record every time you go the gym. So it
makes sense to train an exercise more often and progress as quickly as
possible. In my opinion, training the main exercises twice per week is a good
balance between what is optimal and what fits most people’s lifestyle.
The Novice Training Routine​.
Monday - Upper Body
●
●
●
●
●
●
Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Weighted Chins - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 7-8 reps
Machine Chest Press - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Standing DB Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Cable Triceps Pushdowns - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Wednesday - Lower Body
●
●
●
●
●
Barbell Squats - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Romanian Deadlift - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Leg Press - 3 sets of 7-8 reps
Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Friday - Upper Body
●
●
●
●
●
●
Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Weighted Chins - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 7-8 reps
Cable Rows - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Standing DB Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Cable Triceps Pushdowns - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
RPE Guidelines:
Set 1 - RPE 7-7.5
Set 2 - RPE 8-8.5
Set 3 - RPE 8.5-9.5
You should follow this routine until you reach the intermediate strength
standards. During that time it will have to be modified slightly. After 6-8 weeks
you may find you no longer enjoy doing some of the exercises. What you need to
do in that situation is to replace them with a similar variation to bring excitement
back into your training. Here is the routine again, this time with different
exercises. ​Important: ​Replace only the exercises you no longer enjoy doing. Keep
those that you make great progress on.
Monday - Upper Body
●
●
●
●
●
●
Flat Bench Press - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Weighted Pull-ups - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Standing Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Machine Chest Flyes - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Standing Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Skullcrushers - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Wednesday - Lower Body
●
●
●
●
●
Front Squats - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Deadlift - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Bulgarian Split Squats - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Friday - Upper Body
●
●
●
●
●
●
Flat Bench Press - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Weighted Pull-ups - 3 sets of 5-6 reps
Standing Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Barbell Rows - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Standing Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Skullcrushers - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Notes For The Routine:​.
● Legs usually grow faster than the upper body and one workout per week is
usually enough to develop them. However, if you want to develop your
lower body more, you can do the lower body workout twice per week. In
that case you can do Monday - Upper Body, Tuesday - Lower Body,
Wednesday - rest, Thursday - Upper Body, Friday - Lower Body.
● Rest 2-3 minutes between sets for the compound exercises and 1-2
minutes for the isolation exercises.
How To Progress With This Routine:​.
For this routine we’re going to use a ​double progression model​. You can see that
all exercises have a rep range, for example 5-6 or 8-10. When you hit the top of
the rep range in all sets, increase the weight by 2.5 kg (5lbs) on all sets the
following workout and go back to the bottom of the rep range. Over the following
workouts aim to add one rep to each set until you reach the top of the rep range.
At that point you increase the weight again by 2.5 kg or 5 lbs and restart the
process.
For example, let’s say this Monday you did 3 sets of 6 on bench press with 65 kg
or 145 lbs.
Set 1 - 6 reps with 65 kg / 145 lbs
Set 2 - 6 reps with 65 kg / 145 lbs
Set 3 - 6 reps with 65 kg / 145 lbs
On Friday you add 2.5 kg (5 lbs) to all sets and do sets of 5 instead:
Set 1 - 5 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 2 - 5 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 3 - 5 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Next time you do bench press you will focus on adding reps to each set until you
hit 6 again.
You may do:
Set 1 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 2 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 3 - 5 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Next time you may do:
Set 1 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 2 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
Set 3 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs
At this point you increase the weight by 2.5kg (5 lbs) and decrease the reps to 5
to restart the process.
Don’t worry if you can’t add reps one workout. You can’t be stronger every single
time you hit the gym. Focus on making good progress each month instead of
getting frustrated you did not perform well one workout.
How To Use RPE​.
In order to make predictable progress, you should stay away from failure. ​Failure
is the point where you fail to complete a repetition with good form or you have to
ask someone to help you lift the weight back up. That shouldn’t happen. At the
end of each set you should be able to perform at least one more repetition with
good form. This will ensure easy, predictable progress every week.
In the gym where I train I still see some people training past failure and doing
forced reps​. They do reps until they can no longer lift the weight by themselves
and then have someone help them ek out 2 or 3 more reps (usually on bench
press). That is counterproductive. Not only is progress slower when using forced
reps, it’s also really hard to track since you never know how strong you really are.
Ideally, you should never fail to complete a repetition. In order to ensure that
doesn’t happen, we’re going to also track RPE.
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. The goal of RPE is to allow you to
measure how close you get to failure at the end of a set. RPE is based on
repetitions in reserve – basically how many reps you think you could have done
with a given weight.
RPE Scale Based on Repetitions in Reserve
10+
Failed the last rep / did forced reps with help
10
Could not do more reps or load
9.5
Could not do more reps, could do slightly more load
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
Could do one more repetition
Could definitely do one more repetition, chance at 2
Could do two more reps
Could definitely do 2 more reps, chance at 3
Could definitely do 3 more reps
5-6
Could do 4-6 more reps
1-4
Very light to light effort
* table taken from The Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid
I feel it would have been way easier to understand RPE if the scale was reversed
and 9 RPE become 1 or 8 RPE became 2 to signify the reps remaining. But most
people in the fitness world use this RPE scale so I use it too in order to use the
same model.
The ShredSmart workouts are all based on doing straight sets – all sets are
done with the same weight. RPE allows you to predict whether you’ll be able to
complete all the reps with the weight you’re using before actually performing all
sets.
In order to be able to complete 3 sets of equal reps with the same weight, the
first set needs to be around 7 RPE, meaning you could have done around 3 more
reps when you stopped that set. Then your second set is going to be around 8
RPE because you’re more fatigued and finally your last set is going to be around
9 RPE.
If your first set has a 9 RPE it’s clear you won’t be able to lift the same weight for
the same number of reps for two more sets. That tells you need to lower the
weight in order to complete the required reps.
For optimal progress you should follow these RPE guidelines:
Set 1 - 7 to 7.5 RPE
Set 2 - 8 to 8.5 RPE
Set 3 - 8.5 to 9.5 RPE
On big leg exercises (such as squats, deadlifts, leg press, hip thrusts) the RPE is
reduced to 5-6 RPE in set one, 6-7 RPE in set 2, and 7-8 RPE in set three. Training
close to failure on these exercises is dangerous because there's a high risk of
injury.
Sticking to these RPE guidelines is ​more important for strength progression than
pushing to complete the required reps. For example if your third set asks for 6
reps and a 9 RPE, the RPE takes priority. If on the fourth rep you already hit 9.5
RPE (meaning you know you probably couldn’t do one more rep) it’s best to end
the set there instead of trying to push for 6 reps and inevitably fail. So the
exercise that workout might look like this:
Set 1 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 8
Set 2 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 8.5
Set 3 - 4 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 9.5
Your goal for the next workout is to add reps in the last set while making sure you
stay below 9.5 RPE. Your next workout could turn out like this:
Set 1 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 7
Set 2 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 8
Set 3 - 5 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 9
Or it could turn out like this:
Set 1 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 7
Set 2 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 8
Set 3 - 6 reps with 67.5 kg / 150 lbs RPE 9.5
Besides ensuring good progress, using RPE also promotes good form and helps
prevents injuries. Most people get injured (joint pain, muscle tears, tendinitis,
muscle pain, etc) when they compromise exercise form in order to do more reps
than they can actually handle. If you teach yourself to stop each set 1 to 3 reps
before failure you will be much safer in the gym and will avoid injuries that would
have otherwise stopped you from training for a few weeks or months.
The ShredSmart
Training Program
The ShredSmart Training Program is designed primarily to optimize strength and
muscle retention for ​intermediate and proficient lifters in a caloric deficit. Our
recovery capacity is diminished when dieting so it’s prudent to set training
volume on the lower end of the optimal spectrum (which is 10-20 sets per muscle
group per week).
With that said, you should be able to gain strength and muscle even while dieting
following this program, especially if your previous training program was
suboptimal or lacked a clear progression model and if your starting body fat
percentage is higher than 15%.
After you finish cutting, the ShredSmart training program can be easily adapted
for lean bulking (when strength and muscle gains are made much easier). Check
out the bonus ​Bulking Guide​ to see the version adapted for lean bulking.
The ShredSmart Training Program​.
Monday - Chest and Triceps
● Flat Bench Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
p
● Machine Hammer Chest Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
● Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
● Seated DB Triceps Extensions - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Machine Chest Flyes - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Tuesday - Back and Biceps
● Weighted Chin-ups - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● T-bar Rows - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
● Cable Rows - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● Barbell Biceps Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
● Face Pulls - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Thursday - Lower Body
● Barbell Back Squats - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Romanian Deadlifts - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
● Leg Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
● Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Leg Curls - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets to failure
Friday - Upper Body
● Standing Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Cable Triceps Pushdowns - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
● Cable Biceps Curls - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Basic Notes:
● Rest 2-3 minutes between sets on compound exercises (bench press,
pull-ups, squats, shoulder press, etc) and rest 1-2 minutes between sets on
isolation exercises (lateral raises, curls, triceps extensions, etc.
● Your first set should be around 7 RPE to ensure you’re able to complete all
3 sets with the same weight.
After a few weeks you may find you no longer enjoy doing some of the exercises
(or you can no longer progress on them). In that situation, replace them with a
similar variation. Here is the routine again, this time with different exercises.
Important: Replace only the exercises you no longer enjoy doing. Keep those
that you make great progress on.
The ShredSmart Training Program​.
-alternative exercisesMonday - Chest and Triceps
● Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● DB Flat Bench Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
● Machine Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● Cable Triceps Extensions - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
● DB Chest Flyes - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Tuesday - Back and Biceps
● Weighted Pull-ups - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Barbell Rows - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
● Machine Rows - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● DB Biceps Curls - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
● Bent-over Flyes - 3 sets of 15-18 reps
p
p
p
Thursday - Lower Body
● Front Squats - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Deadlifts - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
● Bulgarian Split Squats - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● Glute Ham Raises - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
● Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets to failure
p
p
Friday - Upper Body
● Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
● Bodyweight Pull-ups - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
● DB Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
● Hanging Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Seated DB Triceps Extensions - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
● EZ Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
How to Progress​ ​on Compound Movements​.M
​ arked​.
.​with P (for periodization)​.
We’ll be using a basic periodization model to progress on the compound
movements. Each week we increase the load by 2.5 kg (5 lbs) and decrease the
number of reps per set by one. Every 4th week is a deload week after which the
cycle restarts.
For example, here’s how you progress on Flat Bench Press doing 3 sets of 4-6
reps:
● Week 1 - 3 sets of 6
You choose a weight that allows you to complete 3 sets of 6, without
needing a spot and without hitting technical failure on the last set.
● Week 2 - 3 sets of 5
You increase the load by 2.5 kg / 5 lbs and reduce the number of reps to 5.
● Week 3 - 3 sets of 4
You increase the load by 2.5 kg / 5 lbs and reduce the number of reps to 4.
● Week 4 is a deload week
You intentionally reduce the load to that used in week 1 and do only 2 sets
of 4 reps.
● Week 5 - 3 sets of 6
In the 5th workout, you go back to 3 x 6 and use a load that’s 2.5 kg / 5 lbs
heavier than that used in week 1 the previous month.
Here’s how that would look in a table:
Week Number
Weight on the bar
Reps
1
80 kg /175 lbs
6, 6, 6
2
82.5 kg / 180 lbs
5, 5, 5
3
85 kg / 190 lbs
4, 4, 4
4
80 kg / 175 lbs (deload)
4, 4
5
82.5 kg / 180 lbs
6, 6, 6
6
85 kg / 190 lbs
5, 5, 5
7
87.5 kg / 195 lbs
4, 4, 4
8
82.5 kg / 180 lbs (deload)
4, 4
9
85 kg / 190 lbs
6, 6, 6
How To Use RPE​.
In order to make predictable progress, you should stay away from failure. ​Failure
is the point where you fail to complete a repetition with good form or you have to
ask someone to help you lift the weight back up. That shouldn’t happen. At the
end of each set you should be able to perform at least one more repetition with
good form. This will ensure predictable progress every week.
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion and is based on repetitions in reserve
– basically how many reps you think you could have done with a given weight.
The ShredSmart workouts are all based on doing straight sets – all sets are
done with the same weight. RPE allows you to predict whether you’ll be able to
complete all the reps with the weight you’re using before actually performing all
sets. It also prevents you from pushing too hard and mess up the progression
model.
RPE Scale Based on Repetitions in Reserve
10+
Failed the last rep / did forced reps with help
10
Could not do more reps or load without compromising form
9.5
Could not do more reps, could do slightly more load
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
Could do one more repetition
Could definitely do one more rep, chance at 2
Could do two more reps
Could definitely do 2 more reps, chance at 3
Could definitely do 3 more reps
5-6
Could do 4-6 more reps
1-4
Very light to light effort
* table taken from The Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid
I feel it would have been way easier to understand RPE if the scale was reversed
and 9 RPE become 1 or 8 RPE became 2 to signify the reps remaining. But most
people in the fitness community use 10 RPE to signify technical failure so I use
this scale too in order to avoid confusion.
In order to be able to complete 3 sets of equal reps with the same weight, the
first set needs to be around 7 RPE, meaning you could have done around 3 more
reps when you stopped that set. Then your second set is going to be around 8
RPE because you’re more fatigued and finally your last set is going to be around
9 RPE.
If your first set has a 9 RPE it’s clear you won’t be able to lift the same weight for
the same number of reps for two more sets. That tells you need to lower the
weight in order to complete the required reps.
For optimal progress you should follow these RPE guidelines:
Set 1 - 7 to 7.5 RPE
Set 2 - 8 to 8.5 RPE
Set 3 - 8.5 to 9.5 RPE
On big leg exercises (such as squats, deadlifts, leg press, hip thrusts) the RPE is
reduced to 5-6 RPE in set one, 6-7 RPE in set 2, and 7-8 RPE in set three. Training
close to failure on these exercises is dangerous because there's a high risk of
injury.
Sticking to these RPE guidelines is ​more important for strength progression than
pushing to complete the required reps. For example if your third set asks for 6
reps and a 9 RPE, the RPE takes priority. If on the fifth rep you already hit 9.5 RPE
(meaning you know you probably couldn’t do one more rep) it’s best to end the
set there instead of trying to push for 6 reps and inevitably fail.
What If You Fail To Complete The Required Reps?​.
If you fail to complete the required reps in one of your workouts, simply use that
same weight the following workout which requires fewer reps.
For example, let's say you failed to complete 3 sets of 6 in the first workout of a
new cycle:
● Set 1 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 6 RPE 8
● Set 2 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 5 RPE 9
● Set 3 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 5 RPE 9.5
What happens now? It's simple, you keep the same weight for the next workout
which requires sets of 5:
● Set 1 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 5 RPE 7
● Set 2 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 5 RPE 8
● Set 3 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 5 RPE 9
Then you continue the cycle normally. On the third workout you increase the
weight by 2.5 kg (5 lbs) and reduce the reps to 4.
● Set 1 - 82.5 kg (180 lbs) x 4 RPE 7
● Set 2 - 82.5 kg (180 lbs) x 4 RPE 8
● Set 3 - 82.5 kg (180 lbs) x 4 RPE 9
Then you take the deload week normally and on the first workout of your next
cycle you use the same weight you failed to get 3 sets of 6 reps with last time:
● Set 1 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 6 RPE 7
● Set 2 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 6 RPE 8
● Set 3 - 80 kg (175 lbs) x 6 RPE 9
If you fail to complete the reps on your third workout (for example you get 4, 3, 3)
deload normally the next week and start the new cycle with the same weight you
did 3 sets of 6 with last time.
Important:
After you surpass the Proficient Strength Standards and you approach the
Advanced Strength Standards, you may no longer be able to progress by 2.5 kg
or 5 lbs per month. Not being able to complete all the reps when you increase the
weight will therefore become common and it may take you 2 or 3 cycles to be
able to add weight to the bar. That’s normal.
Alternatively, you can start microloading. Usually gyms don’t have plates smaller
than 1.25 kg or 2.5 lbs. But you can order such plates online. You can find
microplates that weigh 0.25 kg, 0.5 kg, and 1 kg. Using such plates you will
continue to be able to add weight to the bar each month without losing reps.
How To Progress On Dumbbell Exercises And​.A
​ ll Other​.
.​Exercises Not Marked With P​.
Dumbbell exercises, isolation exercises, and some compound exercises are not
well suited for the periodization model described above. Dumbbells usually go
up by 2.5 kg / 5 lbs increments so when you move up in weight you increase the
load by a total of 5 kg or 10 lbs (2.5 kg or 5 lbs per hand). That’s too much for a
single month and you wouldn’t be able to maintain the same number of reps.
Isolation exercises on the other hand are impossible to improve even at a rate of
2.5 kg / 5 lbs a month. For example improving your DB Biceps Curls by 2.5 kg / 5
lbs per month would have you curling at least 40 kg / 90 lbs dumbbells by the
end of a single year. That’s not possible. For intermediate and proficient lifters, a
realistic rate of progress on isolation exercises is 5-10 kg per year, maybe even
less.
So for the exercises not marked with p we’re going to use a double progression
model. Double progression means you first increase the reps done with a given
weight and when you reach the top of a rep range, you increase the weight.
In the workout routine, you can see that all exercises not marked with p have a
rep range as well, for example 6-10, 10-12 or 12-15. You start with a weight that
you can lift for 3 sets in that rep range. When you hit the top of the rep range in
all sets, you increase the weight by 2.5 kg (5lbs) on all sets the following workout
and go back to the bottom of the rep range. Over the following workouts you
strive to add at least one rep to each set until you reach the top of the rep range.
At that point you increase the weight again by 2.5 kg or 5 lbs and restart the
process.
For example, let’s say you did 3 sets of 10 on Seated DB Shoulder Press with 22.5
kg (50 lbs) dumbbells.
Set 1 - 10 reps with 22.5 kg / 50 lbs
Set 2 - 10 reps with 22.5 kg / 50 lbs
Set 3 - 10 reps with 22.5 kg / 50 lbs
You’ve hit the top of the rep range. Next workout you take 2.5 kg (5 lbs) heavier
dumbbells and go back to the bottom of the rep range (6-10):
Set 1 - 6 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 2 - 6 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 3 - 6 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Remember that you increase the load by a total of 5 kg or 10 lbs thus you need
to reduce the number of reps per set by around 4. You can use ​this calculator to
estimate how much you need to drop or increase the reps when you change the
weight. 10 reps with 50 kg is equivalent to 6 reps with 55 kg. So you drop the reps
to 6 and over the next several workouts you will focus on adding reps to each set
until you hit 10 again.
You may do:
Set 1 - 7 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 2 - 7 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 3 - 6 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Next time you may do:
Set 1 - 7 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 2 - 7 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
Set 3 - 7 reps with 25 kg / 55 lbs
and so on…
Here’s how that would look in a table:
Week Number
Weight of Dumbbell
Reps
1
22.5 kg / 55 lbs
10, 10, 10
2
25 kg / 55 lbs
6, 6, 6
3
25 kg / 55 lbs
7, 6, 6
4
25 kg / 55 lbs (deload)
6, 6
5
25 kg / 55 lbs
7, 7, 6
6
25 kg / 55 lbs
7, 7, 6
7
25 kg / 55 lbs
7, 7, 7
8
25 kg / 55 lbs (deload)
6, 6
9
25 kg / 55 lbs
8, 7, 6
When you reach 3 sets of 10 again you take a heavier set of dumbbells and go
back to the bottom of the rep range. You should use the same progression
model for isolation exercises (biceps curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises, etc)
and machine exercises (leg extensions, leg curls, cable rows, lat pulldowns,
cable triceps pushdowns, cable curls, etc).
Don’t worry if you can’t add reps one workout. You can’t be stronger every single
time you hit the gym. Focus on making good progress each month instead of
getting frustrated you did not perform well one workout.
During the deload week, drop the number of sets to two and go back to the
bottom of the rep range.
The RPE guidelines apply to these exercises as well. Your first set should be
around 7 RPE, second set around 8 RPE, and final set around 9 RPE (except for
the big leg exercises which should be done at 5-8 RPE).
Remember RPE takes priority over rep progression. If on the first set you hit RPE
7 or 8 at the same number of reps you did last week but you want to do one or
two more reps in order to make progress, what you’ll find is that you will be
weaker in the subsequent sets. If you hit RPE 8.5 or 9 in the first set you can be
certain you’ll lose reps in the second or third sets.
So aim to add reps as frequently as possible but push yourself near failure only
on the last set.
The 3 Day Per Week Workout Routine​.
If you do not have time to train 4 days a week or prefer to train less, you can
follow a 3 day per week workout routine.
If you can follow the 4 day per week program, do it. That extra day of training
allows for a higher total volume per muscle group while keeping the volume per
session low. Distributing the weekly volume over more days of training improves
recovery and allows for faster strength progress. But this 3 day split is effective
too. I have personally trained with a split similar to this for about 2 years and
made great progress with it at the intermediate level.
Monday - Upper Body Push
●
●
●
●
●
●
Flat Bench Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Standing Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Incline DB Bench Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
Machine Hammer Chest Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Seated DB Triceps Extensions - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
p
p
Wednesday - Lower Body
●
●
●
●
●
Barbell Back Squats - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Romanian Deadlifts - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Leg Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Leg Curls - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
p
p
p
● Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
● Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets to failure
Friday - Upper Body Pull
●
●
●
●
●
●
Weighted Chin-ups - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Barbell Rows - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Cable Rows - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Face Pulls - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
p
After a few weeks you may find you no longer enjoy doing some of the exercises.
What you need to do in that situation is to replace them with a similar variation to
bring excitement back into your training.
Here is the routine again, this time with different exercises. Replace the
exercises you no longer enjoy doing but keep those that you currently make
progress on.
Monday - Upper Body Push
●
●
●
●
●
●
Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
Flat DB Bench Press - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
Machine Chest Press - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Hanging Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Skullcrushers - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
p
Wednesday - Lower Body
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Barbell Front Squats - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
Deadlifts - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Bulgarian Split Squats - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Leg Curls - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets to failure
p
p
Friday - Upper Body Pull
●
●
●
●
●
●
Weighted Pull-ups - 3 sets of 4-6 reps
T-bar Rows - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Lat Pulldowns with different handle - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Cable Rows with different handle - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
DB Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Rear-delt Flyes - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
p
p
Basic Notes:
Rest 2-3 minutes between sets on compound exercises and 1-2 minutes
between sets on isolation exercises
The progression models are the same as for the 4 day ShredSmart Training
Program.
RPE Guideline: set 1 RPE around 7, set 2 RPE around 8, set 3 RPE around 9.
Explaining The Volume,
Intensity, And Frequency
Of The Program
This chapter has the role of explaining why the ShredSmart training routines are
set the way they are. Understanding these basics will help you defend yourself
against misinformation and not fall prey to program hopping - the condition in
which people change their training programs very often in the hope of making
better progress.
Once you understand that every effective training program is based on the
same basic principles, you’ll realize there’s no need to hop from one program to
the next. They’re all fundamentally the same. All training programs are built on
three pillars:
Volume - the total number of sets you do each week
Intensity - how heavy the weights you use are
Frequency - how often you train a muscle group
Making progress in the gym for long periods of time requires that all three of
these variables are set correctly. Volume, Intensity and Frequency are equally
important, and ​together​ create the stimulus that leads to progress.
Take a look at the picture below:
Taken from the awesome book ​The Muscle & Strength Training Pyramid
The first thing you need to understand is that there is a hierarchy of importance
when it comes to setting a training program. At the bottom of the pyramid are
the most important variables and as you get closer to the top each level
becomes less important for your overall results.
As you can see, exercise selection, rest periods, and tempo are less important
than the bottom three levels. But these are what beginners tend to ask about the
most:
“What exercises are best for growing my chest?”​ - Exercise Selection
“How long should I rest between sets?”​ - Rest Periods
“Should I pause my reps at the bottom?”​ - Tempo
These are not the right questions. If you truly want to make progress in the gym,
the three main questions you should ask are these:
“How many sets should I do in total per muscle group per week?”​ - Volume
“How many reps per set should I do?”​ - Intensity
“How often should I train a muscle group considering the number of sets I’m
doing per week?”​ - Frequency
Volume, intensity, and frequency are what truly matter. If those are set correctly,
progress is almost guaranteed, even if all the other layers of the pyramid are set
suboptimally.
Training Volume​.
While progressive overload (strength) is the main driver of muscle growth,
volume is the main driver of strength. You need to do a certain number of heavy
sets for each body part every week in order to stimulate progress.
If you do too little volume your strength progression stalls because the stimulus is
insufficient. If you do too much volume you overshoot your recovery capacity
and that slows down your progress as well.
Studies and practical experience shows that the optimal amount of volume for
intermediate and proficient lifters is 10 to 20 sets per muscle group per week.
When you’re in a caloric deficit, your recovery capacity and energy levels are
diminished which is why the volume of the ShredSmart routines is on the lower
side.
Now, those 10-20 sets must be h
​ eavy enough otherwise they don’t count.
Intensity must also be set properly.
Training Intensity​.
Obviously no matter how many bench press sets and reps you do with 2.5 kg
dumbbells you’ll never get a huge chest. In order for a set to count, you need to
take it close to failure (within at least 4 reps to failure / an RPE of at least 6).
This can be done with both low and high loads. You can use light weights and do
sets of 15 at RPE 8 or you can use heavy weights and do sets of 6 at RPE 8. Both
would count equally towards your weekly volume and would stimulate muscle
growth and strength (although the heavier sets would be superior for stimulating
strength gains).
With that said, most of your sets should be done in the 5-12 rep range because
that is the most efficient way to accumulate your weekly volume.
Check out this table:
Light Weight
Medium Weight
Heavy Weight
Rep 1 - Am I even lifting?
Rep 1 - Easy
Rep 1 - High effort
Rep 2 - I don’t feel anything
Rep 2 - Easy
Rep 2 - High effort
Rep 3 - I could do this all day
Rep 3 - Decent effort
Rep 3 - Very high effort
Rep 4 - Piece of cake
Rep 4 - Decent effort
Rep 4 - Very high effort
Rep 5 - Easy
Rep 5 - Decent effort
Rep 5 - Failure
Rep 6 - Easy
Rep 6 - Medium effort
Rep 7 - Decent effort
Rep 7 - High effort
Rep 8 - Decent effort
Rep 8 - Very high effort
Rep 9 - Medium effort
Rep 9 - Failure
Rep 10 - High effort
Rep 11 - Muscles start burning
Rep 12 - Muscles hurt
Rep 13 - Struggling for breath
Rep 14 - Dizziness sets in
Rep 15 - Nausea sets in
Rep 16 - Failure
This table shows three sets to failure done with light, medium, or heavy weight.
All of them would count equally towards your weekly volume as long as they are
taken within at least 4 reps to failure. But as you can see, both light and very
heavy weights pose problems for accumulating the ideal weekly volume.
Lights weights are inefficient because you have to do a lot of reps in order to get
close to failure. And those reps tire you so much that close to the end of the set
you feel like dying. You get lightheaded, you’re struggling to breathe, you may
even feel like throwing up. After each set you feel the need to sit down and just
breathe. Now I’m not talking about lateral raises or cable curls here. Isolation
exercises are actually better done in a high rep range because it allows you to
target the muscles better and avoid putting high amounts of pressure on your
joints. I’m talking about squats, leg press, bench press, barbell rows, deadlifts or
shoulder press. Doing these big exercises in a high rep range is extremely tiring
and requires high amounts of willpower and good muscle endurance. It just
makes the task of accumulating those 10-20 hard sets per week unnecessarily
difficult.
Heavy weights on the other hand are inefficient because they take a toll on your
body over time. Lifting heavy all the time can lead to joint pain and severely
increases the risk of injury. Your form needs to slip just once for you to get a
nagging muscle pain or in the worst case scenario a major shoulder or back
injury. Also, lifting heavy requires lots of willpower and attention and can make
workouts feel like a chore.
Using medium weights is the best choice. By training mostly in the 5-12 rep
range you can easily accumulate the required weekly volume. In addition to that,
you can maintain good technique, not cheat the range of motion, get pretty
close to failure safely, not burn out your willpower after just a couple of sets, and
not be left with creaky joints. With that said, using heavy and light weights for a
few sets per week is beneficial. Heavy weights help you build strength faster and
light weights help you improve muscular endurance and work capacity. This is
why some sets in the ShredSmart programs are done outside of the 5-12 rep
range. But a good rule of thumb is to do the big compound movements in the
5-10 rep range and isolation exercises in the 8-15 rep range.
Training Frequency​.
You can think of frequency as the way you organize your weekly volume instead
of it being a distinct training variable. If the number of heavy reps per week is
equal, different training frequencies will produce similar results at the novice,
intermediate, and proficient levels.
However, training a muscle group twice or three times per week is slightly better
than once per week for most people because performance and recovery are
improved.
Imagine you had to do 5 exercises for a muscle group to achieve your weekly
volume target: 3 sets of weighted chin-ups, 3 sets of cable rows, 3 sets of lat
pulldowns, 3 sets of T-bar rows, 3 sets of bodyweight chin-ups.
Doing them one after the other is effective but your performance on the second,
third, fourth, and fifth exercises is decreased because of fatigue. Here’s an
example:
3 sets of chin-ups with 27.5 kg / 60 lbs
3 sets of cable rows with 62.5 kg / 140 lbs
3 sets of lat pulldowns with 62.5 kg / 140 lbs
3 sets of T-bar rows with 60 kg / 135 lbs
3 sets of BW pull-ups 6 reps per set
It would be better to split that volume over two sessions because you’ll be doing
some of the exercises in a less fatigued state:
Workout 1
3 sets of chin-ups with 27.5 kg / 60 lbs
3 sets of cable rows with 62.5 kg / 140 lbs
3 sets of lat pulldowns with 62.5 kg / 140 lbs
Workout 2
3 sets of T-bar rows with 70 kg / 155 lbs
3 sets of BW pull-ups 8 reps per set
So although you’re doing the same number of sets, the total weight you lift per
week is higher. In time, this translates to more strength and muscle gains.
A frequency of once per week is fine when the total weekly volume is 10 to 15
sets. But when the weekly volume is between 15 and 20 sets per week, a higher
frequency produces better results.
The muscle groups that are trained only once per week on the ShredSmart
program are those from the lower body. This isn’t done because it’s optimal but
because it’s...well...less awful. Most people don’t ​want to train legs twice per
week even if it would produce better results because leg workouts are hard. You
could argue that they’re just wimps and they should suck it up. But the reality is
most gym goers won’t do it anyway because they don’t care that much about
leg development. Also, legs tend to grow faster than the upper body so doing
less volume for legs may help you develop all your major muscle groups at about
the same rate.
And the final thing you should know about training frequency is that it generally
goes up with the weekly volume performed, which in turn goes up with with a
person’s strength level and muscle development. Novices generally don’t need
more than 10 sets per week to make good progress. Intermediates do well with
10-15 sets per week, proficient lifters do well with 15-20 sets per week, but
advanced and exceptional lifters can go up to 25-30 sets per week or even more.
At that volume a higher training frequency becomes necessary because you
can’t possibly do that many sets effectively in just one or two training sessions.
Summary​.
● This pyramid shows the
hierarchy of importance of
training variables.
At the bottom of the pyramid
are the most important
factors, and as you get closer
to the top each level
becomes less important for
your overall results.
● The basis of any effective training program is the way volume, intensity,
and frequency are set. If they are set correctly, progress is almost
guaranteed. If they are set incorrectly, progress will be slow or nonexistent.
● Research and practical experience suggests the ideal volume range for
hypertrophy is 10-20 sets per muscle group per week. Volume is scaled
upwards with training experience.
● For most intermediate and proficient lifters a training frequency of two
times per week is ideal for hypertrophy. This allows you to hit more
exercises fresh than if you were to do them all in a single training session.
● The weekly volume can be done with both light and heavy weights as long
as the sets are taken close to failure.
● Most of your sets should be done in the 5-12 rep range. Lifting in this rep
range is the most efficient way to accumulate the required weekly volume.
Explaining The
Periodization Model
When you saw the progression model you may have thought “Is this really
necessary? Can’t I lift the same weight every time and try to add reps?”
Well, it’s not necessary. But it’s more effective.
In a study by Rhea et al. two groups of people trained their bench press and leg
press for 12 weeks - one group using a non-periodized progression model and
the other ​an undulating periodized program. The periodized group made ​twice
the gains​ even if​ training volume and average intensity was the same!
Here are the details:
The non-periodized group trained each movement with the same number of sets
and reps three times per week. They did 3x8 three times per week for 4 weeks,
then 3×6 three times per week for 4 weeks, and then 3×4 three times per week
for 4 weeks.
Their Bench Press increased by 14% and their Leg Press by 25% on average.
The ​undulating periodization ​group changed the weight and rep range every
time they trained. They did 3×8 for each movement one day, 3×6 the next
training day, and 3×4 the last training day of each week. They continued with
that pattern for the 12 weeks of the study.
Their Bench Press increased by 28% and their Leg press by 55% on average.
Now, the physiological explanation for why this happened is ​that periodizing
your training reduced the repeated bout effect. Basically, by changing the rep
range often your muscles respond more strongly to the training stimulus
because it’s new every time.
But this simple explanation cannot fully account for such a big difference in the
progress made by the two groups. ​The advantage of periodization is most likely
psychological.
Doing the same workout over and over again becomes boring and stressful.
Imagine that for the next 6 months you had to train the same way every workout
- 3 sets of 6. No matter how you felt, you would go in the gym and push as hard
as you can to add weight to those 3 sets of 6. At some point you’d feel mentally
exhausted. For example, after a personal record that took a lot of effort you
would doubt that you can surpass your previous performance.
Periodizing your training allows you to get excited for each one of your workouts.
You are never doing the same thing and you can always progress in some way.
By decreasing the number of reps you do you can lift more weight and that
makes you excited. By going back to a higher number of reps, you get excited to
see if you can lift more than last month.
Enjoyment and novelty can impact training performance. If your workout routine
seems fresh and challenging, it will seem easier and you’re going to put more
effort into it. In research, progression models that include periodization almost
always outperform non-periodized programs. Also, all elite natural powerlifters
and bodybuilders use some form of periodization in their training.
Why Do We Need Deloads?​.
The deload week is a planned ​decrease in training volume and intensity with the
purpose of improving recovery. It allows the fatigue you accumulate over a few
weeks of training to dissipate so you can start a fresh training cycle.
Each workout you do does two things:
1. It stimulates your muscles to grow
2. It creates fatigue
Because you train often, the fatigue created by a workout is not allowed to
dissipate completely before you do another one. So over the course of a few
weeks of training, you slowly accumulate fatigue. And if you let it get too high, it
will hurt your performance. It’s like working a demanding job from Monday to
Friday.
Let’s say you go to work on Monday morning with your mental fatigue at 0%. You
work all day and when you get home at night your mental fatigue is 60%.
Luckily if you have a nice dinner, watch a good movie and get a good night’s
sleep that mental fatigue goes back down. But not back to 0%. It’s not enough.
You did not have enough rest.
Tuesday morning you still have some residual mental fatigue left from Monday.
You start your day at 10% fatigue instead of 0%.
After each day of work you accumulate more and more mental fatigue. Tuesday
you come home at 70%. Wednesday at 80%. Thursday at 90%. And Friday you
come home exhausted at 100% mental fatigue and swear you could not work
another hour!
But what if you were stubborn and on Saturday morning you wanted to work
some more? Would you have good performance? Most likely not. You’d be tired
and you’d have a very difficult time concentrating. What you need is leisure time.
The weekend is there to allow that mental fatigue to go back down to 0%.
Leisure time helps you get ready for another week of productive work.
That’s exactly how deloads work as well.
They allow the fatigue you accumulate over a few weeks of training to dissipate
so you can start another string of productive workouts. In research the role of
deloads is explained using the fitness-fatigue model. If you want to learn the
technical details and the scientific explanation, check out ​this post of mine​.
Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way:
If you don’t take planned deloads you will be forced to deload anyway in the
form of a string of awful workouts. At some point the fatigue accumulated over a
few weeks of training catches up with you and your strength inexplicably goes
down.
Don’t view deloads as wasted time. They are “preparation weeks” that
guarantee a productive training cycle. Actually, after a deload your strength is
usually higher because fatigue no longer masks your true potential.
Summary​.
● Periodized models are better than non-periodized models for both
hypertrophy and strength.
● The main benefit of changing the rep range within the week is
psychological. Excitement and novelty make you enjoy your training more
which makes you put more effort into it.
Physiologically, changing the rep range within the week helps reduce the
repeated bout effect making your muscles more sensitive to a training
stimulus.
● Deloads ​allow the fatigue you accumulate over a few weeks of training to
dissipate so you can start a fresh training cycle.
● If you don’t take planned deloads you will be forced to deload anyway in
the form of a string of awful workouts.
How To Track Training Progress
To be able to use the progression model given, you’re going to have to write down
each set and rep you do at the gym.
You can do this multiple ways:
1. Using a pocketbook and a pen
2. Using a note app in your phone
3. Using a weightlifting app
No matter what method you use you need to be able to tell how many sets, reps
and what weights you used last time.
I recommend using ​our own workout app ThinkEatLift​. It’s free for both Android
and iPhone.
The ThinkEatLift app allows you to track the weight, reps, and RPE of each set
you do. It also allows you to write short notes under each exercise to remind
yourself of something next workout.
Here’s how I use it:
When you open an exercise you can
see what you did last time under
Previous. The light gray text shows
the weight you used last time and
the default reps and RPE you set for
that exercise when you made the
routine. Under Exercise Notes you
can see what you wrote last time.
After completing each set I input the weight,
reps, and RPE into the app and click done.
That starts the rest timer at the bottom of the
screen. To make calculating the weight
easier you have the option to click plates to
add them to the bar and the weight is
calculated automatically.
After finishing the exercise I write something
in the notes section. If everything went well I
just write “Next do X weight for sets of X” or
“Next add an extra rep to set 1” or something
like that.
Sometimes I write a warning like: “Do the
same with better form” or “Decrease the
weight to X and do sets of X”.
I personally don’t track deloads. I open the
workout to see what weights I’m supposed to
use for the deload week on each exercise but I don’t save the workout. This way
the deload doesn’t mess up my Previous numbers.
Please keep in mind that unfortunately the ThinkEatLift app still has some bugs. It
works smoothly on my Samsung S7 but some people have told me that on their
phones the app sometimes loses their history or shows random numbers under
Previous instead of their last performance. If that happens to you I apologize and
sadly I have to recommend using a different workout app or just using the notes
app in your phone (or a notebook and pen) to keep track of progress. If you start
using the ThinkEatLift app and you find any bugs, please let me know what
causes them.
Now, in addition to the ThinkEatLift app I recommend using the app called
Symmetric Strength​. It’s made by the same people who made the site where you
can calculate your strength standards. Last time I checked it was free on Android
and $4 on iPhone. I recommend getting it anyway because it’s well worth the
price (I’m not affiliated with them in any way).
Symmetric Strength is not an app to track your progress workout to workout but
to track your progress long term. It has three very useful features:
The first feature is ​Strength Analysis​. After each personal record you should go
into the app and input the weight you lifted, the number of reps, and you body
weight that day. The app will then show you in what category of strength
standards you fit into, your estimated 1 rep max, your long term progress, how
you compare to the average lifter at your strength level, and your strongest
muscle groups. It’s very cool!
The second feature is ​Strength Standards​. This tool allows you to calculate what
weight you need to lift on each exercise in order to reach a certain strength
standard. Checking this data often is very motivating because it gives you clear
goals to pursue in the gym.
And the third feature is the ​One Rep Max Calculator which is very useful for
changing rep ranges, particularly for dumbbell exercises. When you start using a
heavier set of dumbbells this tool can help you estimate how much you need to
reduce your reps per set. For example if you’ve been doing sets of 10 with 20 kg
(45 lbs) DBs the app will show you would only be able to do sets of 6 with 22.5 kg
(50 lbs) DBs. Or if you’ve been doing Barbell Rows with 50 kg for sets of 6 and
want to start doing sets of 8 instead, the app will show you need to reduce the
weight to 47 kg.
This tool is also very useful for female lifters because it shows them how many
reps they’ll lose when they add weight to the bar. If a female lifter is able to bench
press the empty bar for sets of 5, adding 2.5 kg (5 lbs) to the bar is a bad idea
because it will likely result in failure on the first rep! In order for a female lifter to
progress at 2.5 kg or 5 lbs increments, they need to work in a very wide rep range
such as 5-10. Doing sets of 10 with the empty bar is equivalent to doing sets of 5
with 2.5 kg (5 lbs) on the bar! It’s really useful to be able to do these calculations.
You’ll know how much you need to increase your reps before you can increase
the weight.
How To Warm Up Before Lifting
Increasing your body temperature before lifting serves two purposes:
● Reduce the risk of injury by identifying tight spots before lifting
● Improve performance by increasing muscle blood flow and oxygen
availability and by improving the sensitivity of your neuromuscular system
Here’s what I recommend:
1. If it’s a leg workout, warm up on the elliptical for 5-10 minutes before doing the
dynamic warm up​.
Using the elliptical for 5-10 minutes helps bring up your heart rate and body
temperature and warms up your leg muscles and joints for lifting weights. When
you’re training the upper body, warming up on the elliptical is not necessary.
2. Do a 3-5 minute dynamic warm up before touching the weights​.
10 neck circles
20 arm circles forward
20 arm circles backwards
10 trunk rotations
15 leg swings front to back
15 leg swings side to side
10 supermans
If your gym has elastic bands use them to warm up your shoulder and rotator
cuff muscles. This can reduce the risk of injury long term and can eliminate
shoulder pain from bench pressing. Here’s ​a good video that demonstrates how
to warm up before lifting​.
3. Before doing your main sets for the compound movements do four easier​.
.​sets to warm up​.
First warm up set - 12 reps with the empty bar, empty machine, or very light
dumbbells
Rest 1 minute
Second warm up set - 5 reps with 50% of the weight you’ll use
Rest 1 minute
Third warm up set - 3 reps with 70% of the weight you’ll use
Rest 1 minute
Fourth warm up set - 2 reps with 90% of the weight you’ll use
Rest 1 minute
Begin main sets
For bodyweight chin-ups there is no need to do warm up sets, just do the
dynamic warm up. For weighted chin-ups do one or two sets of 3-5 reps with
your bodyweight.
You only need to do warm up sets for free weight compound exercises such as
bench press, incline bench press, DB presses, squats, deadlifts, and rows. There
is no need to warm up for machine exercises such as cable rows, lat pulldowns,
leg extensions, leg curls, machine chest presses, etc (unless they are the first
exercise you do for that body part that workout) or for isolation exercises such as
biceps curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises, calf raises, etc.
There’s also no need to do any static stretches before lifting as that can
decrease performance. Lengthening and relaxing muscle fibers before lifting
can reduce the force of muscle contractions. Stick with short dynamic
movements and avoid static stretching before lifting.
What To Do If You Plateau
Beyond the intermediate level not making strength gains in a deficit is normal.
Your recovery capacity is lower and you have less fuel available for your
workouts.
Maintaining strength while losing a lot of bodyweight can actually be considered
a form of progress. Every time your relative strength improves (strength
compared to your bodyweight) you can say you’re making progress.
However novices and intermediates should be able to gain strength while cutting
using the routines given in this program. Plateauing at that level is not normal and
it indicates you’re making a mistake in your training.
Let’s see what those mistakes are so you can prevent them.
1. Stop Grinding Reps (or training to failure)​.
With the ShredSmart training routines, failure should not be sought out, it should
only occasionally occur on your final sets because you assumed you could hit the
required reps. Every time you know there is the possibility to fail the last rep of a
set, rack the weights.
You may think you’re not getting the full benefits of training if you don’t push to
the absolute limit but that’s not the case. Stopping 1-3 reps before failure
produces almost the same training stimulus but allows you to minimize fatigue.
Let’s take for example two people at the same strength level, one pushing his
sets to failure, the other leaving 1-3 reps in the tank:
Training to Failure
Stopping 1-3 reps before failure
100 kg x 8
100 kg x 5
100 kg x 4
100 kg x 5
100 kg x 3
100 kg x 5
Total reps: 15
Total reps: 15
Total weight lifted: 1500 kg
Total weight lifted: 1500 kg
If you hit failure in a set, your performance will drastically decrease the following
sets ​or the entire workout​. The guy pacing himself feels much less fatigued at the
end of the exercise and his performance on subsequent exercises will be better.
The main problem with consistently training to failure is that you ​develop a
condition similar to overtraining​. Your central nervous system gets exhausted
with time and can no longer recruit muscle fibers properly.
So if you’re guilty of pushing too hard in your first sets, to the point where you lose
reps in subsequent sets, stop doing that. Remember the RPE guidelines: 7 in the
first set, 8 in the second, 9 in the third.
2. Change The Exercise​.
If you cannot make progress on a particular exercise but other lifts are
progressing just fine, change the exercise. Researcher Brad Schoenfeld wrote
that doing the same exercise over and over again for several months can lead to
monotonous overtraining​. Perhaps that is why trying to progress on a lift that has
been stalled for weeks is generally a recipe for failure.
So change that exercise with a similar variation. For example instead of doing
incline barbell bench press do DB incline bench press. Instead of chin-ups do
pull-ups or neutral grip chin-ups. Instead of back squats do front squats or leg
press. Instead of barbell rows do cable rows or another back movement.
This is why I gave you that list of alternative exercises for each routine, so you
know what exercises you can do instead when you plateau. You can either do the
new exercise until you plateau on it as well or you can do it for about 8 weeks and
then return to the old exercise.
3. Increase Training Volume​.
If the first two methods
don’t work and you still
stall frequently even in
a calorie surplus then
you should increase
training volume. Here
is a flowchart to use all
the time:
How do you know
you're recovered?
Recovered means:
- you feel energized at the beginning of your workouts and you look forward to
lifting
- you sleep well
- your sex drive is up
- you have good appetite
- your immunity is normal
If you’re recovered and you are plateaued, add an extra sets to two of the
exercises you do for that muscle group. For example, if your bench is not
progressing, add an extra set to it and an extra set to another exercise you do
for chest.
But remember that the reason you may not be able to progress is because
you’re cutting. If you were eating a surplus of calories, the same training volume
may have produced very good strength and muscle gains.
Don’t increase volume when you’re making good progress. Do enough to
progress, not as much as you can handle. Increase when plateaued if you are
recovering well.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking more is always better. Progress inevitably slows
down with training age and no matter you what you do, you won’t be able to
change that.
Summary​.
● At the intermediate-advanced level, not making strength gains in a deficit is
normal because a calorie deficit is also a recovery deficit.
● Maintaining strength on a cut is actually a form of progress because you’re
lifting the same weights at a lower bodyweight. Your relative strength is
better.
● If you plateau the first thing you should stop doing is training to failure. End
your sets when you still have 1-3 reps in the tank.
● If you are plateaued but recovered, increase training volume. Add one extra
set for two for the muscle group you’re stalled on.
What To Do If You Lose
Strength While Cutting
When cutting, strength maintenance is the best indicator for muscle
maintenance. That is because if the contractile tissue (your muscle fibers)
remain the same size, they will be able to produce just as much force. So if you’re
maintaining strength while cutting, know that you’re doing things right, you’re
maintaining all your muscle. In fact you may be gaining a little because you’re
lifting the same weights at a lower body weight.
However, it is possible to lose strength without losing muscle. The reason for that
is because strength is not only dependent on muscle size, it’s also dependent on
fuel availability and leverage.
When you’re eating less, you’re also reducing your fuel for your workouts.
Carbs fuel workout performance so if after a few weeks of dieting, one day you
are glycogen depleted you’ll probably lose some strength in that workout. As you
get closer and closer to the essential body fat levels, fueling your body while
staying in a deficit becomes more and more difficult so in this scenario you may
see strength loss without muscle loss.
Also, when you’re losing body weight your ability to control the weight on some
movements decreases because your body is lighter. For example on shoulder
press if the weight you’re using moves you around instead of you moving it,
obviously the exercise will be that much harder to perform. That’s probably the
main reason pushing strength is the first one to decrease on a cut (bench press,
shoulder press). Also, when you’re leaner the range of motion on bench press is
likely increased because you have less fat on your back and chest and the bar
may need to travel a few extra centimeters each rep. That can affect your
strength level.
With that said, strength loss can be caused by muscle loss. To make sure this is
not the case for you too, look at the list below and confirm you’re not making
these mistakes:
1. Eating less than 75% of maintenance calories.
If your deficit is higher than 25% eat more. That’s probably the reason you’re
losing muscle and strength.
2. Doing more than 3-4 hours of cardio per week.
Do just the amount of cardio you need to reach your goals (anywhere from no
cardio at all to 3-4 hours per week).
3. Eating less than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight / less than 1.8g
per kg
Protein is essential for muscle maintenance. Eat more of it - around 1 gram per
pound or 2.2 grams per kg.
4. Not sleeping enough
Sleep is extremely important for muscle maintenance on a cut. In ​a study from
2011​, 10 subjects were put in a 700 calorie deficit and split between two groups.
One group slept an average of 5 and a half hours per night and the other group
8 and a half hours per night for 14 days. As you’d expect, both groups lost the
same amount of weight because the calorie deficit was the same.
But there was a HUGE difference in terms of body composition. The high sleep
group lost about 80% fat and 20% lean mass. And the low sleep group lost 40%
fat and 60% lean mass. The low sleep group lost MORE lean mass than fat.
Now, a limitation of this study is that the subjects did not lift weights. If they
trained they would have definitely maintained muscle better. But the low sleep
group would have lost more lean mass anyway. Lack of sleep creates a
catabolic environment because it decreases testosterone and IGF-1. So sleep
more.
Summary​.
● Strength loss on a cut is not necessarily caused by muscle loss. At a lower
bodyweight it’s more difficult to handle heavy weights.
● It is possible to lose muscle on a cut if you’re making these mistakes:
1. Eating less than 75% of maintenance calories.
2. Doing more than 3-4 hours of cardio per week.
3. Eating less than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight / less
than 1.8g per kg
4. Not sleeping enough
● To prevent strength loss on a cut, do the opposite:
1. Have a daily deficit of no more than 20-25%.
2. Do low amounts of cardio (maximum 3-4 hours a week) or do no cardio
at all expect for walking.
3. Eat 0.8-1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight (1.8-2.6g per kg).
4. Get 7-9 hours of good quality sleep per night.
How To Use Cardio For Fat Loss
Doing cardio is not necessary for getting lean. You can reach 6-7% body fat
through dieting alone if you want. However, even if you don’t n
​ eed cardio that
doesn’t mean it can’t help you, as you’ll see in a minute.
I think over the years cardio became synonymous with fat loss because people
thought that sweat was an indicator of fat loss. I used to believe that too. I
remember I felt so proud when my shirt was super wet after a cardio workout.
The fact is, it’s very easy to convince someone they’re losing fat when they’re out
of breath and drenched in sweat. That’s how intense aerobic workouts
became…“fat burning workouts”.
But as I’m sure you know, this is not true. ​Cardio in and of itself doesn’t burn fat​.
Fat loss all comes down to being in a calorie deficit. This is basic physiology.
If you can create an energy deficit through exercise that’s great, you’ll lose fat.
But if you eat enough calories to compensate the energy you burn, all those
extreme cardio workouts won’t help you lose fat. In fact if you eat a surplus of
calories you can gain fat while exercising hard everyday.
So cardio is certainly not necessary for getting lean. You can create the deficit
you need through your diet alone. ​But the best strategy is to combine calorie
restriction with a bit of cardio.​ Let me explain why.
The Benefit Of Doing Some Cardio​.
The main benefit of doing some cardio in addition to lifting weights is that you
burn more calories and therefore can eat more food without compromising the
calorie deficit.
To create a 700 calorie deficit for example you can cut your food intake by 700
calories or you can cut your food intake only by 500 calories and burn 200
through cardio. The second option is more enjoyable because it allows you to
eat an extra 200g of potatoes a day, a small dessert, or add a bit more fat to
your meals. Those extra bits of food make a massive difference for satiety and
adherence.
How Much Cardio Should You Do For Fat Loss?​.
Here’s my best recommendation for cardio: When cutting, create 80% of the
deficit through your diet and only 20% through cardio.
For example if your daily calorie deficit needs to be 700 calories, then you could
eat 500 calories less and add in 3 sessions of cardio a week that burn 400
calories. That would lead to a daily average calorie deficit of about 700.
What you shouldn’t do is combine a low calorie diet with a lot of cardio. By doing
that you create too large of a deficit which can lead to muscle loss, decreased
testosterone levels, increased hunger, and chronic fatigue. The calories
expended through exercise should be part of the 20-25% daily deficit, not an
addition. Don’t cut your food intake to 75-80% of maintenance calories and then
do cardio on top of that.
Cardio as any type of exercise, causes muscle damage which requires recovery.
When you’re in a calorie deficit, your recovery capacity is lower so it makes
sense to save most of it for recovering after working out, not cardio.
What Type Of Cardio Is Best For Getting Fat Loss?​.
There’s a huge debate going on online about whether high intensity interval
training or low Intensity cardio burns more fat. In my opinion this is a useless
argument.
Even if one type of exercise burns more fat than another while you’re doing it, the
amount of fat you lose is still entirely dependent on the calorie deficit. Our body is
very smart. ​If you burn more fat during exercise, you’ll burn more glucose at rest
and vice versa.
I think the real argument actually is which type of cardio burns more calories per
minute. In that case, yes, higher intensity always wins.
Anything that is high intensity, of course burns more calories than it’s lower
intensity version. But that doesn’t make it superior for fat loss. What you burn in
half an hour of intense cardio, you can burn in one hour of brisk walking. Think
about it. 30 minutes of super intense aerobic exercise may burn 300-400
calories. One hour of walking burns 300-400 calories as well.
If you burn the same amount of calories, walking is just as effective for fat loss as
any other type of cardio, it just takes longer to perform.
Calorie Targets​.
I recommend aiming to burn about 4-5 calories per kilogram (2-3 calories per
pound of bodyweight) on each cardio session. So if you’re 81 kg / 180 lbs, you
should aim to burn 300-450 calories per session. Here’s what you can do:
1. Walking
Walking is the only type of cardio I do. When cutting I make an effort to walk
around 30-60 minutes per day. For each kilometer you walk you burn as many
calories as your bodyweight in kilograms (approximately). I weigh around 80 kg
so to burn 400 kcal I need to walk around 5 kilometers.
2. Running
Running burns about as many calories as walking per distance but you do it in
less time. If you’re interested in maximizing strength just know that running is a
type of cardio that produces pretty high muscle damage because your legs
repeatedly hit the ground. This interferes with recovery so it’s harder to fit
between leg training sessions.
3. Swimming
Swimming is awesome. It involves your whole body and it’s a type of cardio that
trains the upper body more than the lower body. Half an hour of swimming burns
about 300 calories.
4. High Intensity Interval Training using a cardio machine
High Intensity Interval Training on a stationary bike is probably the the best type
of cardio you can do indoors. You could use any cardio machine for HIIT
(treadmill, bike, elliptical, rowing machine, etc). Alternatively you could jump rope
or do circuits such as Tabata, Insanity, or P90X.
One session of HIIT done a recumbent bike would look like this:
○ 5 minutes warm-up
○ 30 seconds of pedaling as hard as you can
○ 60-90 seconds of pedaling on the lowest intensity
○ 30 seconds of pedaling as hard as you can
○ 60-90 seconds of pedaling on the lowest intensity
○ repeat this for 20-25 minutes
○ 2-3 minutes cooldown
5. Others
There are hundreds other options. You can mountain bike, jump rope, play
sports, hike, shadow box, dance, whatever you want. Remember you’re doing it
just as a means to burn energy.
How I Recommend You Do Cardio​.
In my opinion the best way to do cardio is to do both high intensity and low
intensity exercise. I know you are probably busy and have other interests outside
of the gym so here’s what I recommend you do:
During the warm months of the year do what I call “informal cardio” – meaning
any type of physical activity that burns calories but doesn’t require special
equipment or you going to the gym. This could be anything like walking, hiking,
sports, going to the pool, volley on the beach, paintball, whatever. If it gets your
body moving that’s perfect.
What I do on a day to day basis is walking. I really like it because I can make it a
part of my day instead of setting aside a special time for cardio. If I have to go
somewhere I walk instead of taking the bus or going by car. If I don’t have to go
anywhere I just take a long walk through the neighbourhood. I really like walking
because I can listen to audiobooks or podcasts so I’m also studying at the same
time. During the course of a day, I probably get 30-45 minutes of walking and
that adds up over the course of a week.
Do this: when the weather is nice, walk more.
Now, during winter time, walking is not that enjoyable. So instead of doing that,
you can do some cardio sessions at the gym. You could do HIIT 2-3 times a week
on rest days or after your workouts or you could do 30-40 minutes of moderate
intensity exercise.
Is Fasted Cardio Superior For Fat Loss?​.
You’ve probably heard people say that fasted training leads to better fat loss
than fed training. This is not true.
Research shows that fat loss is similar whether or not an individual is fasted prior
to training​. It’s true that fasted cardio burns more fat while you’re doing it. But
that doesn’t matter.
In a calorie deficit our body is very careful about how it uses resources. If you
burn more fat during a cardio session, our body will try to compensate by
burning more carbohydrates at rest. So in the end, only the calorie deficit truly
matters.
Actually, fasted training may interfere with your workout performance especially
if you do a high volume workout. So it seems you have nothing to gain and
potentially something to lose if you train fasted for better fat loss.
Summary​.
● Cardio is not necessary for achieving a low body fat because the calorie
deficit can be created through dieting.
● Doing cardio on a cut is helpful because it allows you to eat more food,
making the cut more enjoyable.
● Cardio in and of itself does not burn fat. The calories expended through
cardio are what produce fat loss (if they create a calorie deficit).
● All types of cardio are equally effective for burning fat but some are more
time efficient. For example 30 minutes of intense cardio burns about the
same amount of calories as 60 minutes of walking. Because the calories
burned are the same, they will produce the same amount of fat loss.
● High amounts of cardio can interfere with your strength progression. You
should do maximum 3-4 hours of cardio per week.
● The form of cardio I recommend is walking. Do this: During the warm
months of the year make an effort to walk about 30-40 minutes per day.
During the cold months of the year, do 2-3 sessions of HIIT per week.
Training Abs And Other Small
Muscle Groups
After launching the first version of ShredSmart I think the most frequent question I
got from readers was: W
​ hat about ab training? The training program doesn’t
include any ab exercises.
The reason I didn’t include ab exercises in the main training routines is because I
believe ab training is not necessary. Your core muscles naturally get bigger and
stronger when you progress on the main compound exercises, particularly
squats, deadlifts, and rows. If you’re at the intermediate or proficient strength
standards and you’re lean you’re basically 100% guaranteed to have abs. So if
your reason for wanting to train your abs is purely aesthetic then you can not
bother. You’ll have abs either way if you get strong.
With that said, direct ab training can be beneficial because getting your ab
muscles stronger can help prevent injury in some exercises. So if you want to
train your abs I recommend doing 2-4 ab exercises per week. The best ones in my
opinion are Hanging Leg Raises, Captain’s Chair Leg Raises, Cable Crunches,
and Swinging Side-to-Side Knee ups. You can do one or two of these exercises at
the end of two of your weekly workouts (3 sets of 10-20 reps).
What about developing the Neck and Forearms?​.
The truth is if you want to develop the most aesthetic physique possible (or have
as much muscle mass as possible) directly training your abs, forearms, neck,
traps, rear delts, and calves is important.
But the problem is it’s not convenient to train all of them properly at the end of
your normal workouts because you’ll be in the gym for an extra 30 minutes or
more. For this reason I personally believe it’s not worth it for the vast majority of
people.
But if you’ve got the time and motivation you can have an extra day of training
dedicated entirely to training these muscle groups.
It could look like this:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Neck Curls​ (front, back, sides) - 9 sets of 10-15 reps
DB Wrist Curls - 3 sets of 10-20 reps
Standing DB Wrist Extensions - 3 sets of 10-20 reps
Facepulls or Bent Over Flyes - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Machine Rear Delt Flyes - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Seated Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Standing Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Swinging Side-to-side Knee ups - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Captain’s Chair Leg Raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Air Bicycle - 3 sets of 15-30 reps
Part 3 - MOTIVATION​.
How To Develop The
Discipline To Do The Program
Knowing Does
Not Equal Doing
Let me share something shocking.
The platform I use for the ShredSmart program allows me to see how much of it
people read. As a random example, a member named Jake enrolled in the
program 6 days ago and has read 76% of it so far:
Guess what percentage of customers never even open it?
About 20%.
I find this fascinating. 20% of the people who found a good fitness program and
spent money on it, don’t even start it. Is it really surprising that most people never
achieve their fitness goals?
I think no matter how good a fitness program people get, this happens:
● 20% don’t even read the program because they give up on their goal
before opening the documents or videos.
● 40-60% apply the information for 1-6 weeks then they go back to their old
habits.
● 20-30% stick with the program long-term but fail to be consistent with their
diet and training. These people get pretty good results in the long-term but
almost never achieve their fitness goals.
● Finally, around 10% achieve the strength level and physique they set out to
build. These are the guys that appear in the transformation pictures on the
site.
The reality is many people lack the discipline and motivation to stick with a fitness
program long-term and no matter how much they learn about nutrition and
training they won’t apply the information. Therefore what they really need to get
results is a way to stay motivated and disciplined - a way to make themselves do
what they want to do. This is what the third part of ShredSmart is all about. You’ll
learn about the concept of self-image and how that influences your behavior and
you will learn how to use autosuggestion to change the way you see yourself and
increase your desire to achieve your fitness goals.
This part of the program is particularly important for you if:
● You usually struggle to change your habits
● You’ve failed to follow fitness programs in the past
● You don’t like going to the gym
● You don’t like cooking or tracking your food intake
● You lose motivation easily
● You find it hard to stay disciplined for long periods of time
● You don’t like physical effort
If this sounds like you, pay close attention to the following chapters. The
motivation and autosuggestion methods we’ll discuss next have the power to
transform the way you think about yourself and finally stick to a fitness plan long
term.
How Your Self Image Controls
Your Behavior And Thinking
I bet that at this very moment, you know how to make your life better. You know
how to be more productive, you know how to be healthier, you know how to earn
more money, you know how to be more loving with your family, you know how to
be a better spouse, you know how to be more organized, etc.
And yet you don’t do it.
Isn’t that interesting? How come we KNOW how to do better but we don’t DO it?
For a long time the reason was believed to be lack of willpower. We lack willpower
and therefore we fail to be disciplined. But that’s only part of the answer.
Willpower controls our behavior only when we actively focus on what we’re doing.
That happens only a few times a day when we do things we’re not used to doing.
The rest of the time we function on autopilot - by habit.
The real reason we do what we do is because that’s how we see ourselves in our
mind. ​Our habitual behavior is controlled by our self image. The self image
dictates our habits and our habits determine our long term results.
Have you noticed that your life is exactly the way you picture it in your mind?
Your relationship status is the way you see it in your mind. You have as much
money as you see yourself having. You have the type of clothes you see yourself
wearing. Your home looks the way you picture it in your mind. And you have the
type of physique you see yourself having.
It’s not a coincidence.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a famous psychologist in the 1960s wrote a book called
Psycho-Cybernetics. He spent a good part of his life studying the way a person’s
image of themselves shapes their results in life. And he came to the conclusion
that the self image controls our results just like a cybernetic mechanism - for
example a thermostat.
During the winter you set your thermostat to maintain a certain temperature let’s say 21°Celsius or 70°Fahrenheit.
If the temperature gets a few degrees below 70, the thermostat detects the
deviation from the set goal and turns on the heating system:
When the temperature reaches 70, the fire is turned off.
Your self image controls your behavior the same way. The picture you have in
your mind is the goal your behavior is programmed to maintain.
Let me share a story that proves this point beautifully. A friend of mine named Ali,
who is a YouTuber from Germany, has been struggling to get down to 10% body
fat and 6 pack abs for about a year. ​He knew exactly what he had to do. Hell, he
talked about how to get lean all the time in his videos. But knowing was not
enough. He was stuck at 15-16% body fat.
When he shared this problem with me, I asked him one question: W
​ hen you
picture yourself at the beach next summer, do you see yourself with your goal
physique or your current physique?
He said: ​Oh man, I see myself looking the same.
That’s when he had an “aha moment”. His self image was his current physique.
Everytime he got a little leaner, his behavior changed to correct the deviation
from the picture in his mind.
How Your Self Image Controls Your Actions​.
The way your self image influences your actions is by taking the form of the voice
of reason. ​Who else do you trust more than your intimate thoughts?
When Ali looked in the mirror and saw himself leaner, he told me he felt like that
was not really him. He immediately got thoughts like:
*​I’m looking so small, I should probably stop this cut and gain a bit more size.
*​I’m feeling so weak and depleted, I should probably do a refeed day to bring my
energy back up.
*​I’ve been sticking to the deficit perfectly these last few days, I think I earned the
right to a cheat day to bring my mood back up.
You see how insidious these suggestions are?
They sound like the right thing to do but notice how all of them conveniently take
you out of the calorie deficit. Your self image controls your thinking and that’s
how it brings you back to the results you are programmed to maintain.
Ali always listened to those thoughts and ended up binging on fast food or
snacks. Sometimes a lot, negating an entire week of cutting. This went on and on
and on for months.
But then he finally realized you cannot outperform your self image. As soon as he
started envisioning himself lean and strong his cravings for fast food diminished,
he no longer felt small, he had more energy and most importantly he WANTED to
maintain the deficit. It no longer felt like a punishment. And the reason for that
was because his self image was aligned with his actions. ​Only when your goal is
not aligned with your self image the daily tasks feel like a punishment. You can
watch Ali sharing his story in ​this video​.
The importance of changing your self image to succeed in losing fat has recently
been proved scientifically. Researchers from the University of Plymouth in the
United Kingdom, conducted ​a study to find out which types of motivational
intervention would be the most effective in aiding weight loss efforts (​I
recommend reading this post to understand the methodology and results of the
study).
The researchers recruited 141 overweight participants and split them into two
groups. The first group was motivated to lose weight through a form of therapy
known as ​motivational interviewing in which a counselor asked the participants
in private to voice what motivates them to lose fat. The counselor asked the
participants a series of questions, expressed empathy, and encouraged
optimism and progress. The other group was taught to fully visualize, in as
realistic a way as possible, achieving their goal of weight loss and what that
would allow them to do or experience that they are unable to do or experience at
present.
The participants received one face-to-face consultation at the begging of the
study then follow-up calls every couple of weeks for a period of 3 months, and
then once per month for another 3 months.
The results were vastly different. The group that received motivational
interviewing therapy lost on average 0.7 kg (1.6 lbs) over 6 months while the
groups that did the visualization exercise lost an average of 4.1 kg (9.1 lbs).
That’s five times more than the other group.
You might argue that losing 4.1 kg over a period of 6 months is not very
impressive but the participants ​did not receive any diet or exercise advice or
education​! In other words, they were just asked to imagine themselves leaner
and all the behavior and lifestyle changes they made were done intuitively.
This shows how much the way we see ourselves influences our behavior. The
participants already knew that in order to lose weight they had to eat less.
Everybody knows that. But only after seeing themselves differently they got the
motivation to actually do it.
And the change was long-term too. The participants continued to lose weight
even after the study was over. At the 12-month mark, participants in the
visualization group had lost an average of 6.4 kilograms while those in the
motivational interviewing group had lost only 0.7 kilograms.
How The Self Image Prevents You From Getting​.
Worse Results​.
The good thing about your self image is that it works both ways. If the image in
your mind is good then it won’t allow you to get worse results than you see
yourself having.
For example a friend of mine sees himself being 9% body fat. Everytime he bulks
and gains some fat he gets the exact opposite thoughts to Ali:
*​Damn, I’m starting to lose my lower abs I should do a quick cut
*​I’d rather be shredded than big and fluffy
*​I overdid it with those high calorie meals the last few days, I need to get more
strict with my nutrition
And guess what happens? In a few weeks he’s back to his self image: 9% body
fat. No effort at all. He ​wanted​ to be in a deficit.
Other Examples Of How The Self Image Regulates Your​.
.​Behavior​.
So far I’ve only given you examples of how your self image controls your behavior
when it comes to fat loss. But the same thing happens in other areas of our lives.
Productivity
Let’s say your self image is that you do 4-5 hours of focused work per day and
you spend 3-4 hours procrastinating (social media, YouTube, games, etc). If you
suddenly start putting in 7-8 hours of focused work per day and spend almost no
time procrastinating, after a few days you may start getting thoughts like these:
● I worked so hard the past few days, I deserve to take it a bit easier (the guilt
associated with procrastination is diminished)
● I’m tired from all that work the other day...I can’t concentrate well anymore
and can’t do quality work now.
If on the other hand you procrastinate more than usual for a few days and get
barely any work done, you may start getting thoughts like these:
● I wasted a lot of time the past few days, I need to get it together. That’s it!
No more social media this week!
● I can’t believe how much time I’ve wasted. What am I a loser? I can do
better than this.
Your voice of reason encourages you to correct deviations from the way you see
yourself. If you work harder than usual, it tells you it’s fine to take it a bit easier. If
you work less than usual, it reminds you you’re not a loser and you need to work
harder.
Strength Training
Let’s say you see yourself at intermediate strength standards. Three months in a
row you don’t miss a single workout as a result you get stronger and more
muscular than ever. Then you leave town for a few days to visit your spouse’s
parents and it’s not convenient to go the gym. Here comes the voice of reason:
● It’s alright to take a break from working out once in a while. I’m sure I’m not
going to lose any strength.
● I’m more advanced that I ever was. It’s fine if I miss a few workouts, I can
always build my strength back up.
If on the other hand you haven’t gone to the gym for a week because of illness,
work, or some other reason, you may think like this:
● I’d like to go to the gym this afternoon. I’ll ask my spouse if she wants to
come with me.
● I can’t believe we left town exactly when I should have gone back to lifting.
Maybe I can go the gym early in the morning before everyone makes plans
for the day.
Again, you get thoughts that correct the deviation from what you consider your
normal behavior. If you’ve made good strength progress the last few months you
feel it’s alright to slack off a bit. If you’ve fallen below your normal strength, you
can’t wait to get back in the gym.
Relationships
Let’s say you see yourself being single. You meet a person you like and go on a
few dates together. But as soon as the relationship gets deeper, you start getting
thoughts like these:
● I want to have a nice relationship eventually, but not right now. Soon she’s
going to want to meet my family and friends and the relationship will
develop roots and it’s going to be so much harder to break up later on. I
should start distancing myself from her to let her know I’m not interested in
a serious relationship.
● I like her and we get along well but I don’t like the way my life is changing. I
can no longer do stuff whenever I want and I don’t like having to call her
every night. I should stop seeing her.
If you like being in a relationship but you see yourself as single, your behavior may
change to sabotage the relationship in order to correct the deviation from your
self image.
How To Change Your Self Image
And Succeed On Autopilot
I’m going to ask you the same question I asked Ali: When you picture yourself at
the beach next summer, do you see yourself ripped and muscular or as you look
now? When you picture yourself at the gym 2 years from now, do you see yourself
lifting high amounts of weight or the same you are lifting now?
If you see yourself as you are now, we need to replace that image with your goal.
If you don’t, no matter how much you know about nutrition and training you won’t
apply the information and you won’t get good results. Or you will be consistent
with your nutrition and training only in short bursts of a few weeks or months
while taking long breaks in between that negate all your efforts. In the end you’ll
always end up at your self image.
There Are Two Known Ways To Change The Self Image​.
1. A powerful emotional event
We all heard of people that completely changed their life after a powerful
experience: a car accident, the loss of a loved one, public humiliation, an
unexpected victory, having a baby, losing their home - any of these incidents can
be life-changing.
When it comes to losing fat and getting in shape, two emotional events often
make people change their behavior: getting diagnosed with a disease or public
humiliation. For example some middle aged people may start losing weight after
being diagnosed with diabetes while teenagers may start getting in shape after
being made fun of by peers or after embarrassing themselves in a sports event.
These emotional events are usually very painful. And while their effect may be
very positive, we cannot control them. We cannot choose to have a powerful
emotional event tomorrow to motivate us to change our lives. So we’re going to
use the other way.
2. Autosuggestion: constant spaced repetition of your goal
Autosuggestion means repeating an idea or image long enough that it becomes
part of your habitual way of thinking. Besides emotional shock, repetition is the
only known method of changing the way we see ourselves.
There are many forms of autosuggestion:
●
●
●
●
Visualization
Carrying a goal card in your pocket and reading it often
Having motivational quotes or pictures on the walls
Describing the way you want to be (either in writing or by speaking to
yourself outloud)
● Interacting with people you want to be like (in real life, by watching videos
of them, by following them on social media, or by listening to them on
podcasts)
● Going to live events related to who you want to become (fitness events or
seminars for example)
● Joining a group of people that have the same goal as you (such as joining
a fitness class, joining a calisthenics group, or going to the gym with some
friends who are more experienced than you)
I recommend using as many forms of autosuggestion as you can. The goal is to
expose yourself as much as possible to the ideas that you want to become part
of your habitual way of thinking.
Before laying out the autosuggestion plan I recommend for ShredSmart, allow
me share my experience with autosuggestion. At this point in time I feel this story
gives a wrong impression of me and my values but it’s a good story to illustrate
the power of autosuggestion and I think you’ll find it insightful.
My Experience With Autosuggestion​.
In 2013, at 18 years old I joined a network marketing company which sold health
and personal care products. In order to become a better distributor I spent a lot
of time watching personal development gurus on YouTube and one of them was
Bob Proctor. Bob was the first person I heard promoting autosuggestion as a
means to plant ideas into the subconscious mind and influence behavior. He
talked about visualization, repetition of ideas, vision boards, and goal cards. I
remember that at the end of one of his videos he made a promise that sounded
something like this: I​ guarantee that if you write your goal on a card, carry it in
your pocket and read it at least twice a day that goal will eventually become
reality.
This idea probably sounded absurd to most viewers. But at that time I believed in
magical forces of the Universe, the law of attraction, manifestation and that sort
of things so I thought: H
​ ey why not give it a shot? I’m going to write a big goal on
a card and carry it with me every day for five years. If it doesn’t work I don’t lose
anything, time will pass anyway. But if it does work, I’m going to win BIG.
At that time the only measure of success I knew of was money so I wrote down a
financial goal. I wanted a goal to push me to grow. I said I wanted to earn $1000
every day in passive income by the time I’m 25 years old. That was a big goal for
me considering I was still in highschool, I had no skills, and I was living in
Romania. I didn’t see how it could possibly happen but Bob said I didn't need to
know. I just had to read the card every day.
In addition to the goal card I put pictures on the walls of stuff I wanted such as a
car, a penthouse, money, and vacations. I made a recording of the description of
the kind of person I wanted to become (character traits and skills) and I listened
to it on repeat when I was walking back from school and as I was falling asleep. I
installed an app on my phone that changed my wallpaper with pictures of
quotes and principles I wanted to live my life by. And...I’m kind of embarrassed
about this...I even buried some pictures of stuff I wanted because some of these
New Age authors said ideas are like seeds which need to be planted in order to
grow.
My brother and several of my friends were also applying some of these
autosuggestion methods so even the people around me were reinforcing these
ideas in my head.
The results were not what I expected. 2013 ended up being the most depressing
year of my life. While I was visualizing these goals in my mind, in reality I was
barely making any progress. My plan for earning money was to form a team of
distributors in that network marketing company and sell lots of products, to the
point I become a manager. But I hated the actual work. I feared calling my
friends and family to sell them health products and I hated viewing every person
as a potential client and constantly feeling the stress of needing to bring up the
products into the conversation somehow. I was in a bind. Through
autosuggestion I was telling myself I’m successful and rich but in reality I didn’t
want to work and I was constantly procrastinating. I felt like a failure and felt
deeply guilty that I wasn’t working. Reluctantly at the beginning of 2014 I
decided to stop working in the network marketing company and try to do
something else.
I didn’t stop reading my goal card though and I didn’t stop using the other forms
of autosuggestion. I just wanted a different method to achieve my financial goal.
And I found that new method sooner than I expected. Since the summer of 2013
I was following Greg O’Gallagher of kinobody.com for fitness advice and in the
spring of 2014 I watched one of his videos where he revealed how much money
he was earning from his site. I was blown away to discover you could earn more
than $10.000 a month from a fitness blog!
So I decided to follow in his footsteps and create a similar fitness blog for
Romania. And like that my life changed. I finally started doing something I liked
and all that autosuggestion finally paid off. I worked like crazy. I spent many
nights editing videos and countless hours writing blog posts and answering
emails. It never felt hard. It felt normal because that’s what I was supposed to do
to reach my goal. I was so obsessed from all that autosuggestion that I didn’t
even allow myself to watch movies, play video games, or go out with friends,
except on special occasions. Every night I read my goal card and every night I
wrote in my journal the successful things I did that day. The furniture in my room
was covered with post it notes with video ideas and projects I wanted to work on.
My YouTube channel was growing constantly and my skills were improving
every month. Finally in June 2016 I reached the goal. ThinkEatLift’s revenues that
month surpassed $30.000 with the launch of ShredSmart. Now that only
happened once. The revenues dropped down to around $10.000 a month for the
rest of 2016. But in my mind the goal was reached. What felt like an impossible
feat three years before became reality.
How I Think Autosuggestion Works​.
Now the logical question to ask is: how does autosuggestion work? How does
reading a goal card or visualizing your goals help you achieve them?
New Age authors say it works through the law of attraction and other mystical,
magical forces of the Universe… They say ridiculous things like when you
visualize something your brain cells vibrate on a certain frequency which
matches the frequency of the things you need and therefore creates an
attraction force between the two. Or they say that there exists an original
substance that permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe
and that by impressing thoughts upon this substance you cause the thing which
you think about to be created - calling this process manifestation.
That’s so absurd and unscientific I’m ashamed I used to believe in this stuff. I’m
also ashamed to even talk about autosuggestion because it could give
credibility to these New Age authors.
I believe autosuggestion works for very simple reasons that have nothing to do
with magical forces of the Universe, infinite intelligence, or invisible primordial
substances. In fact, it’s common sense:
● Through autosuggestion you constantly remind yourself of your long term
goal which helps you resist instant gratification.
It’s very easy for us to forget our long term goals when we get caught up in
daily trivia like social media, celebrity news, TV shows, or house chores.
And in those moments we don’t remember our long term goals it’s very
easy for us to prefer instant gratification over discipline.
For example if you forget why it’s important for you to get lean, eating a
cookie now feels much more desirable than not eating it. Or if you forget
why you want to get fit, watching Netflix now feels much more desirable
than going to the gym. So by reminding yourself of your goals often
through autosuggestion you are better able to distinguish desirable
choices from undesirable ones. When instant gratification stares you in the
face you are able to ask: ​Is this worth failing my goals for? F
​ ramed that
way you will realize the short term pleasure is LESS desirable than the long
term reward so you will have increased motivation to stick to your daily
disciplines.
● Autosuggestion increases your desire and motivation to achieve your goal
because it makes you think about it often.
Have you noticed that if you think about something often you begin to
want to do it? For example if you think about a movie several times during
the course of a week you’re going to want to see it again. Or when you’re
working if you think about a video game you get the desire to play. So if you
make yourself think about your goal often you will have increased desire
and motivation to work towards achieving it.
● Autosuggestion increases the chances that you’ll want the right things in
the future and you will make the right choices.
We humans cannot choose the thoughts and intentions we are going to
have in the future. We cannot want what we want. For example maybe you
want your future self to want to go to the gym tomorrow at 5 PM. But
unfortunately you can’t decide that. When 5 PM comes around it’s possible
that all your future self will want to do is watch Netflix and order pizza.
Autosuggestion helps increase the chances that you will want the right
things in the future and you will make the right choices. By reminding
yourself of your goals over and over again you increase the chances that
you will want to put in the effort necessary for achieving them.
● Autosuggestion changes your self image and makes you want to avoid
doing things that push you away from your goals.
Autosuggestion essentially works like propaganda. You repeat something
long enough that it becomes part of your natural way of thinking. But
instead of the government being in control of the propaganda, you are.
You can choose the ideas that you want to make part of your self image.
So with that said, here is the autosuggestion plan I suggest for the ShredSmart
program to motivate you to lose fat and build strength:
1. Make a goal card​.
The goal card is probably the most powerful autosuggestion tool.
It involves writing your major goal on a card that you carry loose in your pocket
and read as many times as possible during the day. ​It should be read at least
two times a day, before you go to sleep and right after you wake up.
The reason you carry it loose in your pocket (and not in your wallet) is so you
have to touch it several times a day and remember your goal every time. Having
the goal written on a wall or on your phone is good too but doesn’t achieve quite
the same effect because your brain gets used to that piece of writing over time
and you don’t notice it every time you see it. ​The goal card on the other hand is
always on you. You should never forget it at home just like you never forget your
keys or your phone. The psychological effect of doing this is very powerful. It
proves you never forget about your goal. It’s always on you, always a part of you.
So here’s how to write a fitness goal card:
1. At the top of the card write your goal and a date by which you intend to
achieve that goal.
Be specific. It's not sufficient to say “I want to be strong” or “I want to look
great”. Your goal must be definite so the picture you get in your mind is
clear.
2. Underneath that, write what you intend to give in return for that goal.
You obviously must work hard for your goal so here you state what you will
do on a daily basis to ensure your success. For example “I track my
macros every day and I am consistent with my workouts”.
3. Optional: describe the conditions in which you want to achieve that goal.
If for example your goal is to lose fat you may describe that want to get to
that level while still being able to eat dinner with your family or while still
being able to have your favorite treats.
4. Optional: You may place pictures of people that inspire you at the bottom
of the card.
You could put a picture of the type of physique you want to build, a picture
of someone you admire for their discipline, and a picture of someone you
admire for their strength.
In the end, your goal card could look like this:
I'm so happy and grateful that by December 2019 I have 10%
body fat and intermediate strength standards.
In exchange for achieving this goal I make proper nutrition a
priority and I allocate time for my workouts every week. I have
a flexible eating plan, understanding that maintaining the
deficit consistently is what matters most. I track all my key lifts
and I strive for strength gains every workout. I gain strength
easily and I have one of the most impressive physiques in the
gym. I am persistent and I know I can reach any goal I
seriously pursue.
How to use the card:
- Read it first thing in the morning (preferably outloud)
- Read it right before going to sleep at night (preferably outloud)
- Have it in your pocket all the time when you leave home
- Read it when you feel tempted to overeat or miss a workout
2. Put reminders throughout the house​.
To keep your motivation high put pictures, items and other things that remind
you of your fitness goals throughout the house. Here are some ideas:
- Photoshop your face on a muscular and lean physique and put it on the
fridge.
- Put a picture of the interior of your gym on your desk (or buy a small
dumbbell and put it on your desk) to remind you to work out.
- Print the strength standards that you want to reach and stick them on your
wardrobe door or in the bathroom next to the mirror.
- Have a picture of the interior of your gym (or your goal physique) as your
computer or phone wallpaper.
3. Visualize reaching your fitness goals for ~5 minutes
every day​.
Take 5 minutes every day and visualize, in as realistic a way as possible,
achieving your fitness goals and what that would allow you to do or experience
that you are unable to do or experience at present.
I recommend focusing on the motivation behind your desire to get fit. Why do
you want to get lean and strong? Is it to have more self confidence? Is it to be
more attractive to your spouse or the opposite sex? Is it to develop your self
discipline and character? Is to be healthier? Is it to sleep better? Is it to be more
successful at your job (if you’re an actor or model)? Is it to reduce your
depression or to have at least one area of your life under control?
Why do you want to get fit and healthy?
Take a few minutes every day and remind yourself what it is you’re working so
hard for. Close your eyes and visualize yourself in different day-to-day situations
at your desired fitness level. Imagine the way your body feels when you walk
down the street. Imagine your new energy levels. Imagine how your clothes fit.
Imagine the comments you get from your friends and family. Imagine the way
your abs feel when you touch them. Imagine the way you look at the gym in the
locker when you take your shirt off. Imagine all these things and you will notice
you will be far more willing to track your macros and go to the gym than before.
4. Work out with a friend if possible​.
If you often miss workouts because you don’t feel like going to the gym, commit
to working out with a friend. If they rely on you to show up on time for your
workout together you will feel bad to disappoint them. So you’ll have some extra
motivation to be consistent with your training.
5. Follow fitness people on social media or YouTube​.
If you use Instagram or YouTube on a daily basis, follow a few fitness people on
the platform. Seeing them work out regularly and being disciplined with their
nutrition can increase your motivation to follow your own fitness plan.
6. Consume fitness content​.
Watching fitness videos, listening to fitness podcasts, and reading fitness
articles and books will help improve your nutrition and training knowledge which
will translate into increased motivation and dedication.
But is all this really necessary?​.
After reading this autosuggestion plan you may be asking: is this really
necessary? Do I really have to make a goal card, visualize my goal physique, or
put pictures around the house?
After all no fitness person you follow does these things and look how muscular
and lean they are. Well, there are two kinds of people in this world that achieve
outstanding success in any field:
● the unconscious competents
● those that become competent by choice and study
Your favorite fitness YouTuber is almost certainly an unconscious competent. If
you asked him why he's disciplined and committed he probably couldn't tell you.
He loves fitness so much that it doesn't make sense to him why other people
wouldn't want to work out and get in shape. They don’t have to drag themselves
to the gym like the rest of us, they WANT to be there. So for these people that are
already very motivated to work out and track their nutrition autosuggestion is
certainly not necessary.
But you’re most likely not an unconscious competent. If you were you wouldn't
be reading ShredSmart. Some autosuggestion is necessary to get you to view
yourself as a fitness person.
I personally had to use autosuggestion to get fit. Fitness was not always a
passion of mine, I created myself into “Radu the fitness guy”. Unlike some of my
friends who were into fitness since they were kids, I never liked sports or physical
activity. To this day, I’d much rather stay home to work, read or watch
documentaries than go to the gym to lift weights. But now I view myself as a
serious lifter and I feel the responsibility of being an example to those that follow
my programs. So I follow my nutrition and training plants diligently.
In conclusion, if you were never into sports, you don’t normally like physical
activity, and you’ve always had difficulties with losing fat, autosuggestion may
be the only way to make yourself stick a fitness plan long enough to achieve
advanced results.
The Only Way You Can Still Fail​.
For some reason, even after they understand how it works, most people will still
not use autosuggestion. They won't visualize their goals, they won’t put pictures
around the house, and they won’t create a goal card (or if they do they will not
carry and read it for more than a few days).
Why?
I honestly don’t know. I cannot understand how we can be so indifferent towards
ourselves. We know we should do a thing and we just don't do it.
I believe the only way you can still fail to get fit with ShredSmart is if you DON'T
APPLY the autosuggestion methods I’ve explained above. So now the question
is how do you get yourself to apply the autosuggestion methods. For that I
recommend you use the Sublime Moment Technique.
The Sublime Moment Technique​.
My brother Andrei creates content in the area of personal development,
particularly discipline and habit change. He came up with a technique he calls
the sublime moment to help his clients stick to their small daily disciplines like
reading the goal card or visualizing their goals. I'm going to share it with you:
The sublime moment is the moment right before a decision - the gap between
thought and action. It’s the brief moment of awareness when you’re not acting
on autopilot.
Let me give you an example. You’ve just gotten into bed at night, you turned off
the lights and you get the thought: “Oh I forgot to read my goal card.” Right then
you are in the sublime moment. You are aware of your actions. You're about to
make a decision: stay in bed and fall asleep or get up to read the card now.
That moment is critical.
Most people don't move right away because they think: ​“I'll go in a minute and
read it.” But the problem is if we focus our attention on other thoughts for a
minute, we may NOT remember the card again that night.
Awareness (the sublime moment) is the rarest and most valuable mental state
we can have. If you ignore it, you may not get it again that day. And you may
forget to read the card. And that is how a small, life-changing discipline ends up
ignored.
The sublime moment technique flips the script: ​Every time you remember you
should read the card, you STOP whatever it is you're doing and you go read it.
Because if you don't, you may not do it that day at all.
Every time you remember you should take 5 minutes to visualize your goal, you
do it immediately because if you don’t you may not get the intention again that
day.
Acting in the sublime moment is necessary until you build the habit of making the
right choice. After a month or so you may no longer have to read the card or
visualize immediately after you remember to do it because it’s now part of your
habits and you will do it at the time you do it every day.
Also, if you plan on putting pictures of your gym, your goal physique, or strength
standards throughout your house I recommend you do that today. Don’t say I’ll
do it tomorrow or next week. Chances are you won’t do it.
If you don’t have access to a printer today at least write a post it note with the
message “print pictures and strength standards” and stick it on your fridge. That
will ensure you won’t forget to do it in the next few days.
Final Word​.
First of all I want to congratulate you for reading the entire program!
This shows you are committed and ready to take action. I guarantee that you
now possess all the knowledge you need to achieve your fitness goals.
Remember, success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines repeated
every day. Make sure you hit your small daily goals of tracking macros and
making strength gains and your big goal will happen automatically.
I can’t wait to see your transformation photos!
To your success,
Radu Antoniu
PS - Don’t forget to join us in ​the ShredSmart Facebook Group​!
Email: customersupport@thinkeatlift.com
Instagram: @raduantoniu