STOP BULKING,
BUILD MUSCLE
By EDDIE ABBEW
HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND
BE HEALTHY THE RIGHT WAY
@EDDIEABBEW
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
ABOUT ME
4
INTRODUCTION
6 UNNECESSARY MUSCLE BUILDING PRACTICES
7
SECTION ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE MUSCLE BUILDING PROCESS
9
MICRONUTRIENTS
9
PROTEIN
10
CARBOHYDRATES
12
VEGETABLES/FIBRE/TRACE MINERALS
13
FATS
13
WHY BUILD MUSCLE?
13
SARCOPENIA
13
SECTION TWO: IMMUNE SYSTEM
14
SUGAR/DAIRY/WHEAT
14
WHY IS THE LIVER IMPORTANT?
15
BLOATING
15
TIREDNESS, HUNGER, AND CRAVINGS
15
SLEEP
16
REST DAYS
16
CARDIO
16
STRESS
16
INFLAMMATION
16
SECTION THREE: JUNK FOOD
17
CEREAL VS SWEET POTATO
17
ALCOHOL AND DESERTS
18
19
SECTION FOUR: THE DIET
WHY
IS ITCOUNTING
IMPORTANT FOR ME TO REST?
CALORIE
21
19
WHAT
SALT ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS?
21
19
WATER
19
THE CARBOHYDRATE AND PROTEIN METHOD
20
WHAT ABOUT
SAMPLE
MEALSUPPLEMENTS?
PLAN
21
20
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1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE FAT AND PROTEIN METHOD
21
WHAT IS METABOLIC FLEXIBILITY?
21
WHAT SHOULD WE EAT TO BECOME FAT ADAPTED?
21
FEEDBACK
22
PROTEIN
23
FATS
23
CHOLESTEROL
23
CARBOHYDRATES
24
SAMPLE MEAL PLAN
24
SECTION FIVE: STEROIDS AND TESTOSTERONE BOOSTERS
26
ANABOLIC STEROIDS
26
TESTOSTERONE BOOSTERS
28
SUPPLEMENTS
28
CHEAT/FAMILY MEAL
29
THE WORKOUTS
30
WHAT TO DO/EXPECT
30
FINAL WORDS
31
ONLINE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM
32
@EDDIEABBEW
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2
ABOUT ME
My name is Eddie Abbew. I am 60 years old.
I first started lifting weights at age 15, when I accidentally stumbled upon some free
weights in the garden of one of my former teachers. This was the boarding school I was
educated in, in Nairobi, Kenya.
I have therefore been lifting weights for forty-five years. I think it is safe to say, I am a
work-out addict, what can I say?
The same year I started lifting, I saw a “fitness” magazine with a picture of a former Mr
Olympia, Sergio Oliva. I was fascinated. My goal from then on, was to do two things:
1. To build that amount of muscle
2. To one day stand on the Mr Olympia stage, as a competitor
I am proud to say that I managed to achieve both dreams. I was the British Heavyweight
and overall champion in 1997 and, competed at the Mr Olympia stage against Ronnie
Coleman, Jay Cutler, and the likes, in 2007. I was also the British number one bodybuilder
for several years.
Upon my retirement from competing in 2010, I bought my own gym and proceeded to
train and prep bodybuilders for competitions. Something I still do occasionally, although
my passion now is mainly geared towards good health and positive lifestyle changes.
My bodybuilding athletes went under the banner #Teamsavage, (Savage is my mother’s
maiden name). I created hundreds of champions of both genders. You can get more
information on Team Savage on various social media platforms, especially Facebook. We
were very successful. https://www.facebook.com/TeamSavageAthletes/photos
My intention for this eBook is to help the young generation understand that there is a
safer, healthier, simpler, and more effective way of muscle building, contrary to most of
the nonsense being practiced in the bodybuilding industry currently.
Prior to bodybuilding, I was a trained staff nurse, specialising in psychiatry, in charge of
wards, working for the NHS. This was where my passion for nutrition and lifestyle
changes truly began. In fact, the first personal training course I did was funded by the
NHS in 1986.
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3
My knowledge comes from scientific, client, and personal experiences over the forty-five
years of bodybuilding.
If you believe something different, and/or what you are currently doing is working for
you, bravo! Please let others try this method.
Introduction
My reasoning behind this ‘muscle building’ book is that my videos on social media lead to
many young men and women following my ideas and feeling better, building muscle
quicker and feeling healthier.
The requests for this eBook have been overwhelming. This is the only way I can educate
as many people as possible with my forty-five years of experience in muscle building.
I was a nurse. I have ex-colleagues informing me of the rise in colon, rectal and digestive
disorders. I believe these illnesses are due to the type of foods being advised by many of
the current ‘fitness influencers’.
I aim to help prevent future diseases among the younger generation. Junk food
consumed on a daily basis, will cause damage to your long-term health.
I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW YOU CAN BUILD MUSCLE AND LOSE FAT
SIMULTANEOUSLY.
I am going to help you teach your body how to build muscle with both fats and
carbohydrates as the energy source. Right now, most of you rely on just carbohydrates.
But fat has more than twice the energy than carbohydrates.
My purpose is to help you build muscle faster and safer, using foods we are meant to eat
as human beings.
I will show you how you can say goodbye to the elbow and knee pain that plagues your
workouts and thwarts your muscle building.
Notice I used the term ‘muscle building’ instead of ’bodybuilding’ because not all trying to
build muscle want to be bodybuilders.
This is how I built all my muscle and made my way to the Mr Olympia stage without a
coach. I’m sure you can benefit from it too.
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I’m grateful that I’ve managed to get to 60 years old, without any major health issues. I
know many who are twenty years younger than me but are struggling with their health
because of bodybuilding.
Bodybuilding doesn’t need to be as unhealthy as it is now.
As a qualified nurse, former British number one bodybuilder, an IFBB pro, a former prep
coach, gym owner and a Mr Olympia competitor, I feel it is my responsibility to impart as
much of my knowledge as possible.
We don’t want a whole generation of sick and dying ex-bodybuilders because health took
a back seat and us veterans kept our mouths shut.
I am continually seeing young men and women with ailments, tiredness, skin conditions,
lethargy, anxiety, mental health issues, and joint pain.
I know all these conditions are a direct result of their food choices. I know this because as
soon as I change their diets, they see changes in their symptoms. They also build muscle
faster.
Bodybuilding is simpler than it’s portrayed to be.
The current confusion and complications were created by the food and supplement
industry to stop you from eating real food and buy the processed products that they
make.
I used to count calories. That meant that before I was educated, I would eat foods from
bad sources. I ate doughnuts, cheesecakes, pizzas etc, just to meet my calories.
All that happened was I got digestive problems and gained body fat. I was constantly
tired, sometimes bloated and always had diarrhoea.
Of course, you need to eat the required number of calories to meet your goals, whatever
they are or however much muscle you want to build. All that was before I realised that
bodybuilding is about nutrition and not just calories.
Nutrition, meaning micronutrients and macronutrients. We learned that we needed
strong immune systems to build muscle. In a nutshell, it was imperative to be healthy to
enable your body to build muscle.
Those junk foods lowered my immune system. I will explain how further on in the book. It
was only when I stopped eating them and only ate real food that I noticed the biggest
changes. I learned that it was important not to compromise muscle gain for taste buds
and sugar.
The junk food made me gain body fat. When you carry unnecessary amounts of body fat,
whatever your goals, your insulin cannot relate efficiently to your cells. This will slow
down your muscle building capabilities.
I am a meat eater. I don’t believe in vegetarianism or veganism. That is not to say that I
condemn them. I just don’t understand it so unless you are a vegetarian who eats eggs,
sorry, this eBook is not for you.
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What does ‘being healthy' mean?
Being healthy is when all your organs are functioning optimally. This basically means that
they are all doing the jobs they are supposed to do. A few things were frowned upon back
then with regards to nutrition.
Junk food was one of them. Too much fruit was another one. It was explained to me that
too many fruits clogged up your liver because fructose is only broken down by your liver.
Ultra processed foods were prohibited because they contain toxins that interfere with
your gut bacteria and your liver.
Of course, all foods must be processed to get to us. It is the level of processing that we
are concerned with. The rule back then was single ingredient foods only. We learned to
cook. We learned to combine single ingredient foods to make dishes that were not just
calorie dense, but nutritious.
Bodybuilding was synonymous with cooking.
Bodybuilding was also synonymous with discipline. With discipline I mean the discipline
to be able to change your diet when required.
Since the function of your liver is extremely vital in the muscle building process, it was
important to make sure it did its job to a high standard. These foods place unnecessary
stress on your liver.
In this book, you’ll learn the importance of strong immune systems, a healthy gut and
generally being healthy. When you eat junk food, you are not consuming good
micronutrients.
In the absence of good micronutrients, it is like building a house with sand as your
foundation. You can build the house, but it could easily crumble. Cases in point,
extremely fit looking bodybuilders dying without any warning or explanation. Whenever
you see research or a study, always ask who’s paying for it. Most of that research were
commissioned by people trying to sell you products.
Bodybuilding is not a textbook sport. It’s an investigation to find out what works for you.
It is also good to realise that genetics play a vital role in bodybuilding.
Just because, for example, I stopped training my biceps for 3 years and they still grew.
There isn’t much on calf training that I do not know and yet I’ve got the worst calves in the
world. I am genetically not blessed with calves, and it was important to accept that.
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6 UNNECESSARY MUSCLE BUILDING PRACTICES
1. Eating junk food
The negative effects of junk food are not stressed in this industry, even though it is
probably the one thing that is hurting people the most. The first thing to remember when
it comes to nutrition is this, it does not matter how much you eat.
What matters is whether your body can digest and use the food efficiently, contrary to
modern practices. The purpose of food is the provision of energy and nutrients. Energy
helps us function and the nutrients are for our immune systems.
In bodybuilding, the current practice is to eat ultra processed foods like protein bars,
protein powders, protein yoghurts, Coco Pops, Squares bars, Pop Tarts, muffins, and the
likes. Those foods hinder your muscle building abilities.
Please do not underestimate how dreadful these foods are. Even the NHS, which is
usually slow on the mark, is telling us not to eat those foods daily.
2. “For every pound of muscle that you build, a certain amount of fat may come
along for the ride”
This is a lie.
The reason why you’re storing fat, is you’re eating foods that are making you
unnecessarily store adipose tissue (fat). I will show you a way of building muscle and
losing fat simultaneously, or without gaining too much body fat.
3. Counting calories
It has never been just about calories. It’s about whether you can absorb and use the food.
This will all become clear. Please keep reading.
4. Having pre-workout meals or drinks
The reason why you need to have a pre-workout is because you’re eating foods that
unnecessarily elevate your insulin levels, making you tired. When your insulin level is
high, your body goes into storage mode. Energy expenditure is minimised.
Insulin doesn’t just store glycogen and amino acids in the muscle, it also stores fat. That is
why you feel the need for a pre-workout meal or drink. In this book you will learn to eat
correctly so that you won’t need any pre-workouts. Please realise that those pre-workouts
are probably one of the worst things for your gut and your heart.
They are so unhealthy. They should be banned in my opinion. They are also highly
addictive; I don’t think people realise that. We never used any pre-workouts, and we built
decent physiques. They are just products made for monetary gain.
You really do not need them.
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5. Post workout
Please realise this. The energy you’re using today came from the food you ate two days
ago. The protein that is repairing your micro tears from your workout tonight, comes
from your body’s amino acid pool.
Most post work out drinks are just sugar with very little bio available protein. We never
had post workout ‘drinks’, most of our post workout foods were real food. I nutrient
timed a meal to have straight after training. The meal was usually a jacket potato and
tuna or chicken and some rice. There were no shakes.
I only supplemented with some leucine. With regards to carbohydrates, do not believe
the lies about junk food i.e. coco pops and Rice Krispies after training. A jacket potato,
sweet potato, or even white rice, as soon as it enters your mouth, the enzyme amylase in
your saliva breaks it down to its simplest form, glucose, to be absorbed into the blood
stream almost immediately.
Basically, there is very little difference between those junk, sugary foods, and the sweet
potato in terms of their carbohydrate absorption. The only major difference is that the
natural foods come with their own micronutrients whereas the junk food prompt your
body to ‘steal’ micronutrients from within itself, thus depriving that particular area. This
will weaken your immune system.
6. “Your body can only absorb 25g of protein per meal“
The amount of protein your body can absorb is limitless. I ate between 50-70g of protein,
six meals per day for 35 years.
The truth is, the people who say that you can only absorb 25g of protein are unaware of
how much amino acid demands you are placing on your body.
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8
SECTION ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE MUSCLE BUILDING PROCESS
Your body doesn’t naturally want to build the amount of muscle most bodybuilders want
to build. The current knowledge of muscle building is that we form microtears across the
muscles through our workouts.
We then provide the right environment for the muscle to repair the tears and improve on
it. For this process to occur, we need both micro and macro nutrients.
I want you to understand that we are all different. With regards to bodybuilding, I learned
two methods. We all know that protein is what builds muscle/tissue. But you can either
use, fats, or carbohydrates as your energy source.
I first built muscle using predominantly carbohydrates and protein. I then realised that
fats have more than twice the energy as in carbohydrates.
I therefore switched from carbohydrates to fats, and I found I was able to build more
muscle with less ‘issues.’
Micronutrients
These are the vitamins and minerals that should come naturally with food. In my youth, I
chewed desiccated beef liver tablets to give me the natural micronutrients to strengthen
my immune system for muscle building. I also took multivitamins, extra vitamin c, zinc,
fish oils vitamin b complex and magnesium.
Later, when I was older and wiser, I incorporated beef liver into my dietary regimen. 100g
of beef liver, three times a week was enough I believe to give me the micronutrients I
needed.
The best thing is that all the micronutrients in the beef liver are bio available, that means
you body can absorb and use them, unlike some of the vitamin and mineral tablets that
we buy from the health food shop.
It is important to stress that your immune system and your gut play a major role in
muscle building.
There are micronutrients in foods such as eggs and vegetables. Mainly the cruciferous,
both starchy and non-starchy. I mention beef liver before. Apart from oysters, beef or
calves’ liver is the most potent super food on this planet.
Remember, we need micronutrients to absorb macronutrients. All you hear in the fitness
industry is macros, macros, macros.
That is assuming, if we don’t have the right micronutrients, our body must steal them
from within itself from a time that you ate real food, thus weakening your immune
system and slowing down your muscle building abilities.
Real food comes with their own micronutrients and fibre. Ultra processed foods have no
fibre and zero macronutrients. Even the micronutrients that they claim to ‘fortify’ these
chemical foods with are not usually bio available. That means your body is unable to
digest and use the food.
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9
Macronutrients:
Protein
You will read many conflicting information about how much protein we need. The truth is
no-one knows. Just like no one can guess how many calories you need in a day.
There are many factors that can influence your protein absorption. Genetics, age, sex,
workouts, lifestyle, stress and even ethnicity. The best thing is to experiment through trial
and error.
If you are eating 1.5g of protein per pound of body fat and you are building muscle – stay
there. The general advice when I started bodybuilding was to consume 1g of protein for
every 1lb of body weight. This did not account for whether the body weight is mainly
muscle or fat. For that reason, I discounted that theory.
With regards to protein, we have protein that is absorbed and protein that is used in the
body. The two are not the same because not all the protein you consume can be used.
When you consume a protein meal, the protein is broken down into amino acids and
these amino acids are utilised by your body to build muscle for you. Not all proteins are
equal. This is an important fact to remember.
There are twenty amino acids, but we concern ourselves with nine of them. These are the
essential amino acids (EAA). You may sometimes read that there are only eight, but that is
because histidine can be made by the other eight.
The muscle building process works like this.
Let’s imagine you are trying to write a nine-letter word. Each letter represents an essential
amino acid.
We will use the word
F.A.V.O.U.R.I.T.E
The objective is to form as many of this whole word (FAVOURITE), as possible using the
available letters (the protein).
To write this word twenty times we need twenty of each of the letters. The word signifies
the amount of muscle you build. So, the more times you can write the word, the more
muscle you’re building.
If you have only one F, it doesn’t matter how many other letters you have you can only
write the word once (please stay with me). This is exactly how it is with the types of
protein. The proteins that don’t have the right essential amino acids are not as effective
as the ones that do. This is what is called the biological value of a protein.
These are examples of some of the proteins that are currently being used to build
muscle. Note that the percentage signifies the effectiveness of the protein.
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Whole egg – 48%
Dairy whey – 16%
Egg white – 17%
Soy – 17%
Red meat – 32%
Chicken – 32%
Fish – 32%
In effect, 2 eggs will give you between 8-12g of protein. 48% of 12g will give you 5.7g of
protein. In comparison, 17% of 20g of whey protein will only give you 3.4g of protein. This
is a no brainer – eating real food gives you better results.
Obviously, this contradicts the mainstream information about ‘artificial’ protein. But one
thing you always must remember is this, most current research and studies on whey
protein utilisation is funded by companies with vested interest in the studies. It is also
vital to remember that for every research you see, there will be another research that
contradicts its outcome. My point is, don’t believe everything you read.
You will read about intra workouts, BCAA’s, and EAA’s and how important they are whilst
training but also remember that these amino acids and whey protein drinks might initiate
muscle protein synthesis, but they will create an insulin spike. Insulin doesn’t just store
amino acids, it can also store the glucose as fat because only 17% of your ‘synthetic’
protein and 1% of your BCAA’s are utilized, that means the rest is converted into energy
and either used or stored.
The only amino acid that is worth including in your muscle building regimen is leucine.
Leucine is supposed to improve muscle protein synthesis by enhancing its sensitivity to
insulin. I personally believe with varied sources including eggs and mainly animal protein,
you would not need to supplement with leucine. I didn’t.
My belief is that whey protein should be just a supplement. You should get most of your
protein from the better sources mentioned above. I also believe that many skin
conditions such as psoriasis, acne, eczema, and rosacea are because of excessive dairy,
wheat, and sugar consumption. Just as a side note, breast milk has the highest biological
value of any protein on the planet.
Bearing all the above in mind, if your goal is to build muscle, the most effective way is to
use the best proteins. Using a less effective protein will thwart the process. Whey protein
is a laboratory manufactured product with artificial ingredients that our bodies are often
unable to digest. Most of the fortified vitamins and minerals are also synthetic. How often
do you feel bloated straight after a shake or a bar?
With regards to protein and muscle building, it is also important to discuss nitrogen
retention and positive nitrogen balance.
What is nitrogen retention?
When you exercise, your muscles metabolise proteins in response to the training. When
the protein absorption or synthesis is higher than the protein breakdown there is a
positive nitrogen balance which promotes muscle growth.
The general rule is to ensure that your protein is coming from good sources i.e., chicken,
red meat, fish, eggs. Remember, tissue builds tissue.
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11
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are going to be one of the energy sources we are going to utilise for this
muscle building process. It is therefore imperative to understand more about
carbohydrates. The other being fats.
One thing to remember with regards to carbohydrates is this. All carbohydrates are
glucose molecules put together differently. You will hear talk about complex and simple
carbohydrates. The truth is that there is not much difference between the two in terms of
their breakdown.
When you eat a carbohydrate meal, your body takes the calories from the food and
converts them into energy. For this conversion, micronutrients are required. You will
need some of the B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.
If you eat nutrient stripped food items like bagels, Pop Tarts, Coco Pops, Rice Crispy
Squares, muffins and cream of rice, your body has to ‘steal’ the micronutrients from
within itself to complete the conversion. This leaves you deficient in other areas, thus,
weakening your immune system and slowing down your muscle building process.
Wheat is also something that we avoided back in the day. It contains gluten which is a
protein. A protein is a long chain of amino acids. It is your stomachs job to break them
down individually to be used. These amino acids are essential nutrients but the chemical
bond in gluten is very difficult for most people’s stomach acid to break down.
This makes it difficult for your small intestines (where absorption of nutrients occur), to
absorb these proteins. The reason why you have bloat and such stomach discomfort
when you eat wheat and sometimes rice and oats. If you have any bloat, however mild,
you are not absorbing these foods properly. Eliminate them from your diet.
When you eat a sweet potato, wild rice, black rice, white potatoes, and oats, these
carbohydrates come with nature’s own micronutrients and fibre. Your body can break
them down and convert them into energy without having to steal micronutrient elements
from within itself.
Carbohydrates are predominantly stored in your liver and your muscles as glycogen. In
fact, the muscle stores about 80% of it. It is important to remember that glycogen stores
will be depleted very quickly, and excess could be turned to body fat.
This system of muscle building is the only time you can build muscle and lose fat contrary
to popular beliefs. I intend to prove it to you.
Vegetables/fibre and trace minerals
As I’ve mentioned before, please do not forget your vegetables.
Your gut bacteria needs fibre. Plus, vegetables contain calcium which is needed for
muscle contractions by allowing muscle fibres to slide together and move over each other
as a muscle shortens and contracts.
We also need some of the other trace minerals for muscle contractions. These are
magnesium, sodium, potassium. You can get all of these from real food rather than
buying synthetic supplement from nutraceutical companies.
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Fats
Did you know that a gram of fat contains 9 calories? A gram of protein and carbohydrates
contains 4 calories each. This simply means that fat has more energy which begs the
question, why don’t we use fat as our predominant energy source when building muscle?
Please let me prove it to you. Remember when we discussed the body’s energy sources?
They are fats and protein. If calories from fats have more energy than carbohydrates,
wouldn’t it make more sense to use fats as your energy source. With fats, I mean natural
whole food fat choices, nothing ultra processed.
When you use fats as our energy source when building muscle, we suffer less
inflammation especially in our joints, we have more energy, you sleep better, and your
body and all your organs function optimally. You will also build muscle faster.
Some people do well on carbohydrates and protein. Others do well on fats. For instance,
the first meal I suggest for most of my clients is oats and eggs. If after eating the oats you
start feeling sluggish, tired, bloated, and hungry then I suggest you switch to using
predominately fats as your energy source, because it is possible that your body prefers
the fats. We will explain all of this later when we discuss the diet.
Humour me, all I’m asking is to try a different, safer, faster, and more efficient way of
building muscle using real food.
Why build muscle?
Aside from the fact that some current studies suggest that muscle mass is vital for
longevity, it is also easier to burn fat in the medium of muscle.
Then there is body building, peer pressure, media, and pure vanity. At least that’s why I
built muscle. I wanted to look good naked. Later, I realised that I wanted to be a
competitive bodybuilder. But, most of all I became obsessed with the muscle building
process because I found it fascinating.
Why do you want to build muscle? What’s your motivation?
Sarcopenia
This is an age-related gradual loss of muscle strength and mass. The main cause of this is
lack of physical activity or poor nutrition. We are all susceptible to this, but it is
preventable with resistance training and the correct nutrition. I intensified my training as I
got to my fifties.
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13
SECTION TWO: IMMUNE SYSTEM AND GUT HEALTH
There are essential nutrients required for a healthy immune system. It is unnecessary to
break them down individually in this book. They are a combination or vitamins, minerals,
fatty acids, and amino acids.
Whenever you get abdominal discomfort from a certain food (bloat), e.g., protein
powders, protein bars, something is upsetting your gut bacterium balance. That means
you are not digesting the food properly and therefore weakening the immune system.
You need a strong immune system for muscle building. 70-80% of your immune cells are
in your gut. Your gut is like a city with trillions of bacteria. They rely on us, and we rely on
them (symbiosis). You need at least 85% of your gut bacteria to be good.
When there is an imbalance where you have more bad gut bacteria than good, you’re
slowing down your muscle building capabilities, one of the reasons why you end up
taking crazy quantities of drugs.
The good bacteria prefer fibre from whole foods. The bad bacteria prefer glucose (sugar,
especially from junk food). These are foods like Coco Pops, Pop Tarts, Haribo’s etc. Those
foods have been stripped of fibre and therefore not good for your gut.
Vegetables, especially the green cruciferous, starchy, and non-starchy vegetables are
higher in fibre, and good for your gut bacteria. To build muscle effectively and safely, it is
important to make sure you have a strong immune system. As I mentioned before, back
in my bodybuilding days, I chewed desiccated liver tablets daily for my gut health and my
immune system.
The advantage I had back then was that no one was shoving protein bars, yoghurts and
powders made in laboratories down our throats.
When you have a weak immune system and your gut health is not right, you will have
conditions like constant fatigue, brain fog, acne, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, panic
attacks. Please make no mistake, poor gut health is responsible for most of these
problems.
Remember 90% of diseases are metabolically related, that means 9/10 of what is wrong
with us is because of what passes through our lips daily.
The saying has always been ‘feed the gut, protect the liver’. I cannot stress enough how
vital the function of the liver is when trying to build muscle because the liver is involved in
all metabolic actions.
Sugar, dairy and wheat
We discussed the importance of gut health above. It is important to note that these foods
are usually responsible for most of our poor gut health. One of the first things I learnt as
a bodybuilder was limit my sugar, dairy and wheat consumption.
I know this contradicts almost everything you read about muscle building in the fitness
industry but it’s important to know those three food groups are responsible for most
metabolic conditions that is rife in modern day. Obviously, ultra processed foods are also
bad for our gut health.
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14
Why is the liver important?
The liver is one of the vital organs. It sits about the right side of the body and weighs
about 3.5lbs. It has over 500 different functions. Some of the functions include regulating
your hormones, making glucose and proteins. When you eat, the food is digested and is
sent to your liver. Some call the liver the depot, (like a bus depot). This is because it is
involved in all the metabolic and chemical actions.
For you bodybuilders who take steroids, (we will discuss steroids later on), the livers
ability to break down toxins in to less harmful products to either be absorbed or passed
as waste is vital.
Junk foods like Coco Pops, Muffins, Pop Tarts, Squares Bars contain toxins that can affect
your function. It is also good to remember that sugar is one of the harmful substances to
your liver when consumed in copious amounts. Basically, natural whole foods all the way!
The liver is involved in muscle building. If you don’t look after your liver, you are slowing
down you muscle building capabilities.
Bloating
If you ever feel constantly bloated – that means your food is not being broken down
properly. There is something that your gut doesn’t like. Bloating is usually caused by
something that you’ve eaten.
Too many sugary foods like the examples I mention above will interfere with your gut
bacteria and cause you bloat. The usual culprits that cause bloating are wheat and dairy.
Tiredness, hunger, and cravings
These could all be a result of an insulin spike. The usual culprit is sugar and please don’t
make the mistake of thinking that we are referring to just table sugar. Remember all
carbohydrates are glucose molecules put together differently. A protein yoghurt might
affect your blood sugar and insulin level just the same as a piece of cake could. If you feel
these symptoms all day, it could be that you need to go the ‘fats method’.
When there is too much insulin in your system, you might feel tired and lethargic all the
time. That tiredness is caused by hyperinsulinemia (too much insulin), which results in
diminished energy expenditure because insulin is a storage hormone. It will not store and
spend energy at the same time.
If you eat correctly, you will avoid these symptoms.
Insulin doesn’t just store fats, its is also involved in the uptake of amino acids and
glycogen. The only time that a bodybuilder will need elevated insulin is around training
times to initiate the storage of glycogen and amino acids.
Insulin is the most anabolic hormone in your body but having too much of it all day, can
have unwanted effects and can slow down your muscle building. Other times during the
day, high insulin can result in tiredness, cravings, hunger and general malaise and
lethargy.
It is also important to note here that although exercise improves insulin sensitivity,
carrying excessive body fat from ‘bulking’ will decrease your insulin sensitivity.
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Sleep
Please do not underestimate the importance of sleep. When you are sleeping, that is
when your muscles repair after your training. Remember, muscle is not built in the gym.
It is torn. When you give your body the right nutrients and sleep, it repairs the tears that
form across the muscle.
Rest Days
I trained five days a week and always took two rest days. Contrary to the current
practices, I truly believe that if you train a body part hard enough using ‘bro split’, you will
need at least four days to recover. At least that what my DOMS dictate to me.
Cardio
We are not preparing for a competition or trying to get lean for the summer. Our main
goal is to build muscle. Cardio is therefore not something we will be implementing at this
stage. If you choose to build your muscles using predominantly fats, you will find that it is
the only time you can build muscle and use lose fat simultaneously.
Stress
With regards to stress, it is important to realise how powerful it can be in relation to
muscle building. When you’re stressed, your body releases cortisol. Your hypothalamus
senses there is danger and therefore releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to
prepare you to either run or defend yourself. In fact, when you are training, you are
putting your muscles under stress but that is a deliberate act of breaking down muscle
tissue to repair and improve.
Unwanted stress is stress that occurs outside your training, for instance, being late, toxic
relationships, children… you know what I mean. In fact, there are many situations in the
modern world that can cause a stress. The important thing is to minimise it as much as
possible. Easy for me to say. My advice is to try some meditation. I used to close myself
up in a dark room and chill. This helped me relax.
Inflammation
When you’re working out, most of your joint pain, elbows, wrists are caused by
inflammation. If you cut yourself, the area swells up and gets hot. It is the same as when
you form microtears across your muscles when you work out.
The microtears must repair. Imagine them being inflamed chronically because you’re
eating junk food. Inflammation is your body’s initial response to its repair and healing
process.
When you have inflammation, it means some of your cells are stuck at this early stage of
repair. These include all your cells, even your blood vessels and your brain cells.
What causes inflammation?
Foods like wheat, sugar, dairy and omega 6 oils. These are all items that you find in ultra
processed foods. Obviously, we are all different, but those three are usually the main
culprits for inflammation. If you follow the guideline in this book, you could stop your
joint pain in weeks, sometimes even days.
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SECTION THREE: JUNK FOOD
One of the first things I learned about bodybuilding was this. Sugar was a no-no. Bread
and wheat products were a no-no. Ultra processed foods were a no-no. Cereal was a nono. Alcohol was a no-no.
My research through magazines and the scientific data at the time, taught me that
consuming those things slowed down your muscle building capabilities.
For instance, the phrase “alcohol competes for the same nutrients as muscle building” is
something that was almost in every magazine or literature I read with regards to muscle
building.
My first ever coach saw me eating popcorn once. He had a fit.
When you eat junk food, and by junk, I mean all the foods I mention above including
wheat, they put unnecessary stress on your liver.
They also interfere with your gut health by creating bad bacteria. Remember, you want
85% of your gut bacteria to be good. You can build muscle faster with good gut health and
a strong immune system.
My biggest disappointment with modern bodybuilding is that junk food has become so
normalised.
I don’t think many bodybuilders realise that if they ditched junk food they would need less
drugs, build muscle more efficiently and feel better.
Junk food does not belong in bodybuilding. It slows down your progress and I truly believe
the current deaths in bodybuilding are a result of the junk food introduction into the
industry.
If you’ve purchased this book, it means you are conscious about your health whilst
building muscle. Please do not ignore your overall health in your quest to build muscle
because there are consequences.
Cereal vs sweet potato
A sweet potato and even a normal white potato comes with micronutrients for us to
convert the calories from it into energy.
These micronutrients are potassium, magnesium, sodium, vitamin c, iron, calcium, and
some of the b vitamins. That’s how nature planned it.
Let’s take a cereal like Coco Pops. This, like other cereals are non-foods. That means they
contain no micronutrients, empty calories.
Please do not believe the lies told about their fortification with vitamins and minerals.
Those synthetic vitamins and minerals are often not bio available. Your body can not use
them.
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When you eat the Coco Pops or any other cereal, because they have no micronutrients,
your body has to ‘steal’ the micronutrients from within itself, from a time when you ate
real food.
That leaves you deficient in that area. This also weakens your immune system and slows
down your muscle building ability.
Contrary to popular fitness belief, if your diet is on point, and you are receiving the right
nutrition, you will not have a need for a pre workout, a post workout, an intra workout or
junk food like this.
If you feel you need energy before training, you need to re-evaluate your diet
immediately. Remember it is not the food that you ate prior to your training that is
fuelling your workout. It is the food you ate hours before.
Alcohol and desserts
Like I said before, alcohol competes with muscle building. Alcohol is fermented fructose
which has a very toxic affect on your liver. Alcohol also slows the immune system, making
bacteria fighting white blood cells sluggish and less efficient.
Alcohol gets into your blood stream and is carried to every single cell in your body
including your muscle cells. This means that if you are serious about muscle building,
alcohol should be kept at bay.
I am well aware that we live in a culture of deserts. “Let’s eat some sugar because we’ve
had a nice meal.” How does that even make sense?
If your goal is to try and build muscle the only time that high insulin might be necessary is
straight after training, like we discussed before.
Even then the science is debatable. When you eat deserts with every meal, you are
needlessly increasing your level of insulin, hyperinsulinemia.
In that state, your body’s fat storing ability is switched on. Energy expenditure diminishes.
This is one reason why most bodybuilders off-season carry a lot of fat around their
midsections often bloated and sometimes always tired.
You’ll always find that they look miserable, have bags under their eyes and generally look
unhealthy. Sometimes you will see acne and other skin conditions.
It is often said that bodybuilders with bloated and distended midsections are abusing
growth hormone (GH belly). Whilst that might be the case with some, most of the
abdominal distention you see is bloat from eating too much sugar, wheat and sometimes
starches.
Remember we are all different and bodybuilding is not a textbook sport. You need to find
out what works for you by investigating. If you are a serious bodybuilder, dessert is
something you should also keep at arm’s length.
Some would say it is important to have balance. When you decided to build muscle, you
gave up that right to have balance. If you want flexibility with your diet by eating sugar
and junk food, body building is not for you, take up darts.
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SECTION FOUR: THE DIET
Calorie counting
I have always been amused by bodybuilders counting calories. When you count calories,
you are assuming that your body is digesting and using all the food that you’re eating.
You are also assuming that your body is going to use the food to build muscle. When
you’re eating all that junk food like protein yoghurts, protein bars and protein powders,
your body converts most of that into body fat because it does not recognise them as
food.
Remember, what is not converted into energy or tissue, could be stored as body fat. Don’t
count calories.
Make sure you provide your body with the right nutrients, both micro and macro. It will
convert them into muscle.
There are many factors that influence muscle building, genetics being the main one. Your
influence plays very little part.
Salt
Whatever you do, do not underestimate the importance of salt. Humans are salt beings.
We sweat salt, we cry salt, we urinate salt.
In fact, there are some scientists who believe we are meant to drink sea water. Sodium is
also very important for muscle contractions. We need sodium to create an electrolyte
balance.
The best salt I would suggest is Celtic salt, Himalayan rock salt and sea salt.
Water
When we eat carbohydrates, the energy is stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen
molecules. Each gram of glycogen comes with over 3g of water attached.
This simply means that with this carbohydrate and protein route, you need to drink
adequate water. I used to drink between 4-6 litres every day.
Please understand that we are only tracking protein and carbohydrates not necessarily
calories.
It is imperative to eat your food in a certain order on your plate.
Eat your fats, protein, and vegetables first and then your carbohydrates last. This ensures
that your insulin spike from the carbohydrates will not be as pronounced.
This was my sample diet when I built the most muscle, bearing in mind, I weighed around
100 kilos.
You can adjust this to suit you (increase/decrease quantities). My female clients ate
roughly half the amount depending on their goals.
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The carbohydrate and protein method
This is how I built most of my muscle back in the day and it is also the method that I used to
build most of my thousands of championships winning athletes. We went under the banner
#Teamsavage. You can access information about Team Savage on either Facebook or
Twitter.
There are a few things to remember when you’re using carbohydrates as your energy
source. If you feel tired after a meal or throughout the day. If you feel like your energy level
is very low. If you are constantly lethargic. If you are constantly hungry or craving something
sweet.
All those are often due to hyperinsulinemia (something is causing your high insulin levels).
My advice would be to switch to the fats and protein route and nutrient time your
carbohydrates around your training. This will be explained. Also, if you experience joint
pain, bloating, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, these could be a sign that you
need to try the fats and protein method.
Sample meal plan
Meal 1:
8 whole eggs
100g oats
If you tolerate dairy well, you can make the oats with full fat milk, but I usually advise my
athletes to leave it out.
50g blueberries
Meal 2:
250g chicken breast – cooked weight (roughly 70g protein)
This must be lean protein (tuna, cod, turkey breast, turkey mince, prawns). The reason this
must be lean, is that we’re trying to avoid combining carbohydrates with fats in a meal.
100g uncooked rice (80g of carbs)
You can use potato, sweet potato or even oats again. Adjust the carbohydrates according to
your source.
Green vegetables (unspecified amount)
Meal 3:
Similar to 2
Meal 4:
Similar to 2 & 3
Here we’re trying to keep insulin levels low before bed, so we’ll switch to fats and protein for
your last two meals.
Meal 5:
250g salmon/steak/high fat mince/mackerel/sardines/lamb
1 whole avocado/30 olives/nuts (sometimes cheese)
Green vegetables
Meal 6:
Full fat Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese.
We want to get between 50-70g of protein with about 50g of nuts. Side note: the best nuts
are pecans, walnuts, macadamia, and almonds.
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The fat and protein method
If you’ve purchased this e-book that means you want to try something different. It is
imperative to have an open mind. In this section, I am going to explain how you can use fat
as your predominant energy source for building muscle. If you bear in mind that a gram of
fat contains 9 calories, a gram of carbs contains 4 calories. That is more than twice the
amount in comparison. Wouldn’t it make more sense to learn to use fats as your primary
energy source?
We are essentially teaching your body to switch from using mainly carbohydrates to using
fatty acids, not necessarily ketones. We are not trying to get into ketosis because of the
frequency of the meals and the high amount of protein. The idea is to train your body to
become fat adapted. Fat adaptation means metabolic flexibility.
What is metabolic flexibility?
We all know that your body’s preferred energy source is carbohydrates – right? Wrong!
The body’s preferred energy source is fat. That is why it converts carbohydrates, glucose
and even some proteins into fat. When you have metabolic flexibility, you have trained your
body to obtain its energy from all the three macronutrients at equal times. Metabolic
flexibility takes between 4-12 weeks to achieve for the average person but my experience
with muscle builders is that sometimes it happens a lot faster.
What should we eat to become fat adapted?
The idea is to teach your body how to use fats more efficiently because there is more
energy in fats.
What to expect when you switch from using carbohydrates as your main energy source to
fats:
1. More energy
Your insulin level will come down because you are not eating foods that spike your insulin.
Again, the only time a muscle builder could benefit from elevated insulin levels is around
training time.
This is why we incorporate carbohydrates before and after training. Bear in mind that you
have trained your body to access all the macronutrients efficiently at this time so you will
burn the glycogen straight away, giving you insane energy and pump.
2. Less joint pain and stiffness
This is because when you eat a lot of carbohydrates especially the ultra-processed, there is
inflammation in your cells. Inflammation will also be in the microtears that form across the
muscle when you train.
We have discussed inflammation previously. You will find you are able to stretch more, and
you will not feel as stiff.
3. Faster recovery
Without glucose, you will find that your recovery will vastly improve.
4. Better sleep
Your REM sleep will be much better hence releasing more growth hormone.
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5. Stronger
You will feel stronger. All the niggling aches and pains will all disappear.
6. No tiredness
Tiredness is usually a result of the presence of too much insulin from a high carbohydrate
meal. These include both the starches and the sugars. Remember – all carbohydrates are
glucose molecules put together differently.
7. No hunger
You will fill less hungry. The hunger and cravings that you get are caused by elevated insulin
levels.
8. Better skin
Conditions like acne, eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea are often caused by the consumption
of dairy products using pasteurized milk. Pasteurization means heating the milk past 150
degrees. This process destroys not just the bacteria, it also prevents the proteins from
being digested properly hence their affects on your gut bacteria from lactose issues.
9. No bloating
You will experience no bloating. We have discussed bloating previously. Your gut is
unhappy about something you’ve eaten.
10. Healthier looking muscles
The absence of excessive insulin is good for the skin.
11. Mental clarity/focus
Believe it or not, inflammation also affects your brain cells. Switching your carbohydrates to
fats will ensure there’s no brain fog.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The downside is that, until we incorporate the carbohydrates, you may not get the usual
‘pump’ that you normally would get at the gym when you’re training. But rest assured as
soon as you add them to your regimen, you will experience an insane pump. Please don’t
take my word for it. I want you to experience it.
In terms of general health and effectiveness, this is the best way of muscle building, in my
opinion. You will find this process so easy that you would wish you had discovered it a while
back.
With this method, we will be using natural, single ingredient foods. This is because junk
food contains things that affect your gut microbe. These are additives, preservatives,
emulsifiers, thickeners, flavour enhancers which can cause inflammation.
You will hear ‘talk’ about their safety, but safety does not necessarily mean healthy. You
may not suffer the adverse effects immediately, but it is only a matter of time.
Feedback
The general feedback from clients who use the fat and protein method, is that they feel
amazing. In fact, I am including a few of the common phrases that I hear on a weekly basis:
“Eddie, this is so easy”
“I feel amazing”
“I didn’t realise muscle building was that simple”
“My joint pains have all disappeared”
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“I feel a lot stronger”
“I have mental clarity”
“My skin is better”
“My mood is better”
“I’m sleeping better”
“I’m growing and losing fat at the same time”
“This is like magic”
“My partner doesn’t irritate me anymore”
Protein
The general idea is to eat proteins high in fats. We are talking:
Eggs (the best protein available in terms of how much your body can use)
Chicken thighs with the skin on
12% or higher beef mince
Lamb with the fat on
Pork with the fat on
Salmon
Sardines
Steak
Mackerel
Basically, any animal protein but with higher fat content. In this instance, we are focusing
more on the fat content. Notice there is no whey or any other processed protein source. We
are using real food only.
Fats
With regards to fats, we will be using:
Avocados
Olives
Nuts
Butter
Ghee
Olive oil
Cheese
Coconut oil
Avocado oil
Beef dripping
Duck fat
Nut butters (check the ingredients. It should just say nuts)
Bacon
Hummus
Falafel
You can get all of these from the shop if you know where to look. Cheese, bacon, falafel and
humus should be used sparingly because my experience is that they are too highly
processed and sometimes can affect your gut microbiome balance. Some poor quality of
those products with sugar added can also cause an insulin spike.
Cholesterol
This is a very precious substance to your body. Your liver makes up to three times the
cholesterol you can consume. The less you eat, the more it makes and the more you eat,
the less it makes. Your brain is 70% fat and 25% of that is cholesterol.
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Cholesterol is involved in tissue repair. Your body doesn’t make cholesterol from dietary
cholesterol. Most of your unhealthy cholesterol is as a result from eating sugar and ultra
processed foods. In fact, the cholesterol in eggs can help lower your bad cholesterol. Please
do not be afraid of the cholesterol in the fats you are eating, including saturated fats. The
important thing is to make sure none of your foods are processed, especially the meats. Eat
real meat – that means animal protein that has not been processed.
Carbohydrates
Apart from the starchy and non-starchy cruciferous vegetables that we’ll be using with most
of the meals, when you are fat adapted, we can nutrient time carbohydrates around your
training.
The carbohydrates we will employ are:
Wild rice
Sweet Potatoes
Potatoes
Black rice
Oats (jumbo or steel cut – because they’ve been processed less)
Yams
Plain rice (in moderation)
Sample meal plan
Here is a sample diet that we used back in the day. Bear in mind that I weighed 105 kilos so
adjust the quantities accordingly. My female clients used between 100-150g of cooked
weight chicken, mince, steak, or whatever meat they chose. They also used half the amount
of fat that I would use. We are talking about a 50-60-kilo woman.
Meal 1:
8 whole eggs
1 avocado
Leave 3-4 hours in between meals
Meal 2:
250g chicken thighs (cooked weight)
100g nuts plus 30 olives
Green vegetables
(I sometimes blended this out of convenience because I couldn’t eat at work)
Meal 3:
250g mince beef – 20% fat (cooked weight)
80g cheese and 1 avocado
Green vegetables
Meal 4:
Same as meal 2
Meal 5:
Same as meal 3
Meal 6:
5 whole eggs
50g cheese
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I built the most amount of muscle whilst losing fat on this plan.
I had no joint pain.
My sleep apnoea more or less disappeared.
My midsection tightened up.
My energy was through the roof because the energy from the food is saved as
Adenosine tri-phosphate for you to use when you need it rather than when I ate high
carbs and felt constantly tired and bloated.
It is also imperative that you make sure there is no sugar in any of the foods being
employed.
Example, I bought some olives from the counter at the supermarket. The third ingredient
was sugar. I was obviously not aware.
That little amount of sugar made me feel tired after the meal. It is also vital to avoid fizzy
drinks and too many condiments.
On my TikTok here you can find some of my cooking videos which show you how to make
your own food
Remember, we are combining single ingredient foods to make real food because real food,
especially from animal protein builds muscle faster.
As often as you can, please make your own food.
Muscle building is synonymous with cooking.
There are a few symptoms when you embark on this way of eating. If you have any of these
symptoms, you need to investigate to find out what food item is the cause. We mentioned
these symptoms earlier in the book. They are:
Bloating
Constipation
Acid reflux
Diarrhoea
Tiredness
Hunger/craving
Your body doesn’t do anything without a reason. That thought should always be in your
mind.
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SECTION FIVE: STEROIDS AND TESTOSTERONE BOOSTERS
Just so we are clear, I do not condone steroid use. It is a fool’s game. Many of my former
bodybuilding colleagues and I, are paying the price for using these drugs. But it would be
hypocritical not to mention steroids because, again, bodybuilding is synonymous with
steroid use/abuse/misuse. The fans want to see “freaks” and that is what we give them.
I have been to ‘natural’ bodybuilding competitions where the enthusiasm of the crowd
can only be described as lacklustre. A client once asked me, “why would I want to go and
see people who have less muscle than I have?”
Anabolic steroids
These are refined androgens. Their use is usually to help patients gain weight after severe
illnesses or injury. Basically, they are used to aid tissue building especially muscle,
medically.
Androgenic steroids are just hormones that are responsible for male sexual
characteristics. These are the “testosterones”. A doctor might prescribe androgens for
your lack of libido etc.
Back in the day steroid information was covert. I had to pay and research in the medical
literature for my knowledge. It was easier because I was part of the medical profession
and therefore the literature was accessible.
Still, I had no idea that bodybuilding was synonymous with steroid taking because none
of the magazines discussed them and there was no internet. I found out about them
when I walked into my first “bodybuilding gym” in 1990.
Nowadays, we have so many online forums and websites and social media posts that give
dangerous and misinformed advice about steroids. My belief is that prolonged and
excessive steroid abuse and misuse has not been studied extensively. Bodybuilding is a
cult sport with not much financial investment.
That means if you need to learn more about steroids, it will be safer to take advice from a
veteran who has used them. Please avoid taking advice from your peers because they are
only repeating what they have heard, read, or seen.
There’s no expertise there. I am 60 years old and right now, I suffer with prostate
enlargement, panic attacks, peripheral neuropathy, cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) and
testicular atrophy. All of those are a direct result of prolonged steroid use and abuse.
Anabolic steroids work by imitating the properties of natural occurring hormones. They
are synthetic composition similar to testosterone. They can activate the body’s
testosterone receptors.
They are supposed to help you speed up the repair of the microtears that occur when
training which means you are able to build more muscle, train harder for longer periods
and recover quicker.
My belief is that when you focus on nutrition i.e., micronutrients and macronutrients, the
need for steroids is not as great or you will not need to take crazy doses of steroids if you
chose to take them.
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I am a gym owner and a former bodybuilding prep coach. The number of steroids I see
being used now is more than three times the amount I would have used back in the day. I
truly believe that this is because of the junk food being used daily. Whether you take
steroids or not, try eradicating junk food from your diet and see how much improvement
you make.
The argument will always be, so and so looks good even though they are eating junk food
and taking steroids. I will counter that by saying, look at his mood, look underneath his
eyes. How often do you see bodybuilders in their twenties who look twenty years older?
Looking good doesn’t mean you’re healthy. Having muscle and being lean doesn’t mean
you’re healthy. In fact, competition prep, is probably the least healthy time in a
bodybuilder’s life.
Your blood tests might say that certain things are within ‘normal’ ranges but I’m sure all
the bodybuilders who have died recently all had blood work that said they were ‘ok’.
I do not condone steroid use. It is what I needed to do to get to the Mr Olympia stage. I
currently suffer with some of the consequences from the prolonged misuse and abuse. It
is only responsible that I warn as a veteran.
When I first walked into ‘the’ bodybuilding gym in 1990, the owner of the gym was taken
aback by how much muscle I had. When he realised I was natural after I told him what my
long-term goals were, he said, “if you look like this natural, god help the competitors who
stand next to you on stage”.
He got me my first course which was, 750mg Sustanon (Testosterone) weekly, 500mg
Deca Durabolin weekly, 50mg Dianabol daily.
I was warned that if I could not build an award-winning physique being on this particular
‘cycle’ twelve weeks on and twelve weeks off, I didn’t have the right genetics to be a
bodybuilder. Low and behold, I gained 20 kilos in a period of three months.
This muscle gain was also partly because I had been training at home and in recreational
centres where the equipment was inadequate. I had hardly managed to train my legs
properly. Joining a bodybuilding gym meant that I was able to train properly and grow.
My experience with steroid use leads me to believe that it is important to give your
steroid receptors a complete break for a period of time after you’ve been taking them.
There are modern practices like “micro dosing” where users do high doses and then
reduce the amount for certain periods.
With this practice, they are never actually off the steroids. Their receptors don’t get a
break. I think this is one of the most dangerous things that I see in the bodybuilding
industry.
The advice I was given in my twenties still applies – if you can not build a decent physique
from taking steroids for twelve weeks and coming off for twelve weeks, if you are fuelling
your body with the right and adequate nutrition, you should take up another sport
because maybe you don’t have the right genetics to achieve your goal.
Please don’t go killing yourself for the sake of vanity. I have friends who lost their lives
through steroid abuse.
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Testosterone boosters
There were a few natural testosterone boosters that we used:
Tribulus Terrestris
Tribulus was good for not just muscle building, it acts like testosterone in your body. It is
a plant from Ayurveda where the roots and fruits are used for male virility and general
vitality.
Back in the day, this was one of the supplements that helped me build muscle naturally
without steroids.
Boron
This is a micronutrient that plays an important role in metabolism. Boron has been found
to increase testosterone in men significantly in only a few days.
Zinc
We mention zinc in supplements, but long-term zinc usage is supposed to increase your
testosterone levels.
Saw Palmetto
Even though this is a supplement often used by bodybuilders back in the day to prevent
prostate enlargement, Saw Palmetto is also a natural testosterone booster.
Vitamin D
Studies have shown that vitamin D can increase your testosterone levels.
Supplements
One of the first things I learned about bodybuilding was that there were a few vitamins
and minerals that muscle building required.
Vitamin C
This helps protect your cells and helps with wound healing (microtears).
Zinc
This supports the immune system, wound healing, and thyroid function. Zinc and Vitamin
C are both depleted alarmingly when we exercise intensively.
It is therefore imperative to include them in your dietary regimen.
Fish oils
Mainly for the DHA and EPA which are vital for your cells and helps dampen or prevent
inflammation.
Selenium
Apart from its positive effects on boosting your immune system, it also helps lower your
serum prostate specific antigen (PSA). This was important for a black male like me taking
anabolic steroids.
Lycopene
Found in tomatoes. This is also a supplement supposed to help prevent benign prostatic
hyperplasia (BPH). If you are taking steroids, please do not forget the importance of some
of these prostate health supplements.
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Multivitamin and multimineral supplement
These ensure we were meeting all our micro nutritional needs.
Vitamin B complex
The b vitamins are needed in digestion, they boost your energy levels, they keep your
muscle cells healthy. They’re also important for their muscle tone. In fact, the B vitamins
are often included in testosterone boosting supplements.
Creatine
Creatine replenishes your ATP levels through the creatine phosphate system. I never took
any creatine until much later in my body building career.
Adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) is your energy currency. Seconds into exercise, ATP loses
one of its phosphates and becomes Adenosine di-phosphate (ADP). Creatine lends one
phosphate to ADP to convert it back to ATP.
If you choose the fats and protein route as opposed to the carbohydrate and lean protein
route, you will find that the energy from the fatty acids will be stored as ATP for you. You
will not need to take creatine.
If you choose the lean protein and carbohydrate route, then I would suggest five grams of
creatine monohydrate before and five grams after training.
Chromium Picolinate
Helps with the regulation of blood glucose and lowers cholesterol
Vanadyl sulfate
This product also regulates blood glucose. It helps promote muscle growth by forcing the
uptake of glucose and amino acids. It improves insulin sensitivity.
L-tryptophan
This is an amino acid that is supposed to help make certain proteins. Your body changes
l-tryptophan into serotonin which helps with your mood and sleep. I used to take Ltryptophan before bed.
Glutamine
This is the most abundant amino acid in the body. Apart from its gastrointestinal health
benefits, it’s also supposed to promote muscle growth and slows down muscle wasting. I
took glutamine first thing in the morning and straight after every work out.
Co Enzyme Q10
CoQ10 is present in every single cell in the body. It is a potent antioxidant that fights free
radicals that damage the cell membrane. I took a serving of CoQ10 as part of my morning
supplement regimen.
Cheat/Family meal
The practice of a cheat meal is frowned upon by a few so-called coaches in the fitness
industry. I had weekly cheat/family meals. I call them ‘family meals’ because it was a time
to spend with my wife and children.
We often went out for a meal. There are no scientific reasons for the cheat meal, just
purely social. In the pre contest phase, I used a cheat meal to manipulate my leptin levels.
Something we will discuss in my ‘Getting Lean’ eBook coming out soon.
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The workouts
This book is predominantly about nutrition for muscle building. Regarding training, the
internet is saturated with different ideas, routines, and styles. However, we have included
links to some basic training that I employed at the beginning of my career.
Chest
Cable crossovers
Flat press
Incline press/flys
Back
Lat Pulldown
Incline dumbbell rows
Rope pulls to chest
Bent over rows
Hyperextensions
Shoulders
Upright rows
Lateral raises
Front raises
Rear delt flys
Shoulder press
Arms
Triceps
Cable D bar flicks
Cable rope pushdown
Skull-crushers
Biceps
Cable curls
Concentration curls
Hammer curls
Legs
Squats
Leg extensions
Leg press
Lunges
Hamstring curls
Romanian deadlifts
Calf raises
What to do/expect
Start the meals from the day you choose to. Monitor your symptoms. These are the
symptoms we mentioned earlier. The body doesn’t do anything without a reason.
For instance, if you are hungry or craving sugar, it isn’t because there’s lack of energy, it is
because you are eating something that has elevated your insulin level prompting your
body to crave sugar or carbohydrates.
It could be something as trivial as sugar, hidden in something you’ve eaten. Remember,
the average person still carries around thirty pounds of body fat. That equals over one
hundred thousand calories. There is no reason why you should be hungry.
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Bloating also means there’s an imbalance in your gut bacteria due to the consumption of
ingredients that do not agree with your gut.
Remember, it is all about the gut as this is where everything is broken down to build the
muscle for you.
Tiredness, especially after a meal also signifies an insulin elevation.
Acid reflux – there is a back flow of stomach acid that needs to be investigated. It will be
due to something in your diet.
This is an investigation to find out what works for you. Believe it or not, genetically, we are
all different. So, we should all expect some variables in our responses.
Final words
I have sat and watched an industry that I love, be gradually turn into something very
unhealthy and unrecognisable.
The misconception that ‘for every pound of muscle gained, a certain amount of fat will
come along for the ride’, has been spread throughout this industry. Ultra processed foods
don’t belong in any industry, especially in fitness. We are supposed to be promoting
health.
The bodybuilding I learned, we used all the macro nutrients i.e., fat, carbohydrates and
protein and all the vitamins and minerals to strengthen our immune systems and build
muscle healthily. There is more energy in fats, that’s a fact. Use that energy to build
muscle.
As stated in the book, apart from muscle building there are many other health benefits
for teaching your body to use fats as its main energy source.
There is no need for professional athletes to walk around carrying so much body fat
unless they are Sumo Wrestlers. With that amount of fat, your insulin sensitivity is
decreased.
This book is my attempt to educate as many people as possible, that muscle building
doesn’t have to be unhealthy. Plus, if you build muscle this way, you will find that you will
progress faster with less health concerns.
Please do not let convenience, laziness, and impatience ruin your health in your quest to
build muscle. There is life after bodybuilding. Make sure you are healthy. Make sure you
are alive. We are confident that you will benefit immensely from the knowledge we’ve
shared in this book.
All we ask is that you tag or mention us in your transformations using the hashtag
#abbewtransformation
Thank you and good luck with your journey.
- Eddie Abbew
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ONLINE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM
I have received tons of comments, messages, calls, emails, whatever, from people saying I
changed their lives.
These people listen to what I advise, follow the steps, and see the results for themselves.
I am planning on doing an online fat loss transformation program where I coach you for
12 weeks.
There, I will ensure you lose fat and get healthy the right way. Guaranteed.
Personalised meals plans, complete video course, regular private Q&As, messaging
support, accountability and more!
I have prepped and trained thousands of clients before in the past and they all have had
life changing results. I don't see why you couldn't be the next.
I will only work with a select number of people per month so if you are interested, please
sign up to the waiting list advertised around my social media once available.
Make sure you sign up to my free newsletter & follow me on my social medias below:
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