Transmale
Bodybuilding
and
Transformation
The Complete Guide to Masculine Body Recomposition
Michael Monet Spinola
Copyright 2011
Copyright
© 2011, Michael M. Spinola. All rights reserved.
Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, reproduction or utilization of
this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage
and retrieval system, is forbidden without written permission of Michael M. Spinola.
For more information about Transmale Bodybuilding and Transformation, please friend Michael
on Facebook at Michael Monet Spinola or email him at his personal address
spinola.michael@gmail.com.
Health Disclaimer
The ideas in this book are for educational purposes only. This book is downloaded with the
understanding that the author is not rendering medical advice of any kind, nor is this book
intended to replace medical advice, nor to diagnose, prescribe or treat any disease, condition,
illness or injury.
Before beginning any diet or exercise program, you should consult with your physician to make
sure it is appropriate for your individual circumstances. Keep in mind that nutritional needs vary
from person to person, depending on age, sex, health status and total diet.
The information in this book is based on my own personal experiences and my own
interpretation of available research. It is not medical advice and I am not a medical doctor.
The information within this book is meant for healthy adult individuals.
If you have any health issues or concerns please consult with your physician.
Contents
Introduction
Setting Goals
Part I: Losing Fat
Dieting Myths That Are Keeping You Fat
Counting Calories
Calculating Your RMR and TDEE
Using Your RMR and TDEE to Lose Fat
Eating for Fat Loss While Maintaining Sanity
Special Circumstances
If You Are Vegetarian or Vegan
Supplements
PART II : Gaining Muscle : Tailoring the V-Taper
Strength Training
What Not to Do for Muscle Gains
Conditioning
Strength Training Programs : A note about the methods you will employ
Bodyweight Training Program: Basic notes about bodyweight training
Strength Training Program 1: Bodyweight
Weighted Training Programs : Basic notes
Strength Training Program 2: Maximum Muscle Hypertrophy
Strength Training Program 3: Advanced Strength
Stretching: You have to do it
The Programs Simplified : Why it works : How to make your own programs
Part III : Advanced Methods : Final Phase Fat Cutting
Intermittent Fasting
Carbohydrate Cycling
Calorie Cycling
Part IV: Starting Your Weight Loss Journey
On The Cheap
Facing Your Fears
Summary : How to Begin Using This Manual
Recommended Reading
Thank You
Introduction
What makes a body masculine?
I remember idolizing male athletes, celebrities and fitness models while inside of my feminine
body. When I was in 6th grade, I covered the door to my bedroom in pictures of Adonis-like
men. Even then, I knew the way I studied their bodies was something different than attraction. I
had no way to name my feelings or desires. I would fall asleep each night imagining my
consciousness inside of a body that looked closer to the ones on my bedroom door.
These men had wide shoulders, broad chests, slim waists and legs that tapered down until the tips
of their feet. The V-shape they embodied was the opposite of my small shoulders, swooping
breasts, soft tummy and curvy waist, hips and thighs. I grew tired of obsessing over these men
while making the constant effort to avoid my own reflection. Each time I was forced to catch a
glimpse of myself -- a public restroom full-length mirror, a tall storefront window -- I would
physically cringe. The rest of my day would be ruined because I had seen myself. I couldn’t go
through my life feeling this way.
For the first time in my life, I enjoy looking at my own body. I enjoy the feel of other people
looking at me with my shirt off, touching my chest and stomach as we consent to the amazing
feeling of skin on skin. I enjoy getting dressed and stepping outside to start my day - simple
things that every person should be able to enjoy. I’ve reached this monumental point in my life
after one year and five months on testosterone, and multiple years of researching and fine-tuning
my bodybuilding and nutritional practices. The information in this manual is a collection of facts
from available research and real life experience, driven by my passion to live in a body that I
love.
Whether you identify as male, female, transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, or claim another
identity to represent your sex, gender or gender expression, you deserve to inhabit the body that
feels correct to you. No one can tell you why or how this body feels correct. This manual is for
anyone who desires a more traditional masculine figure. While results will vary per person, you
will see results with or without hormones, at any age or stage of transition.
I will lay out the scientific, proven rules to body recomposition as they stand today in the year
2011 (these rules will inevitably expand and improve with research). With this information, you
will be able to design your own diet and exercise program and tailor it to any goal you may have
now or in the future, even if those goals change. I will lay out the different types of exercise, how
to use them, what to use them for, and why you can’t use one type of exercise to reach every type
of goal. I will tell you how to eat to lose fat, how to eat to gain muscle, how to do both
simultaneously and how to maintain your weight once you get to a weight where you feel
comfortable and confident. In the meantime, I will dispel the widespread myths about diet and
exercise that are keeping more than half of Americans either overweight or obese, dependent on
trainers, diet books, the new piece of workout equipment and even psychologists because they
think that being fat or out of shape is an issue of willpower.
I will give you everything I’ve learned after six years of personal research in one manual. While
you may feel, at times, that the information is dense, I promise that working through it will
provide functional knowledge that can be used for a lifetime to attain the body you desire.
As you go through this manual, keep in mind that body recomposition starts with realism and
goals. You have to be realistic about your starting point. Genetics set boundaries to your
potential, and confronting this can be both difficult and enlightening. The key to the boundaries
set by genetics is that hardly any of us have even begun to approach the limits of those
boundaries. I know that you can achieve much greater things than you realize.
Setting Goals
Achieving a traditional masculine body can be simplified into two checkpoints:
1) Broadening the upper body (chest, back and shoulders).
2) Tapering the lower body (hips, waist, ass, thighs).
This can also be reworded as:
1) Gaining muscle.
2) Losing fat.
The issue arises when we confront scientific research, and training and bodybuilding experience
since the dawn of this sport. The goal to lose fat and build muscle at the same time is, and always
has been, every bodybuilders “holy grail.” It has been known for a long time that you can’t do
both optimally at the same time. Traditionally, a bodybuilder would go through a “bulking”
period where she would eat in excess. This excess energy was supposed to provide the material
to build muscle. Closer to competition, she would “diet down,” or cut calories drastically to lose
the fat and reveal the new muscle underneath. In reality, bulking causes the bodybuilder to get
fatter, layering fat over his muscles. Dieting down then cuts the fat off and some, if not all, of the
new muscle goes with it. You suffer through bulking, then you’re back to square one.
Instead, trainers and sport scientists have realized that it’s much more efficient to choose which
goal you both need and desire over the other. This is determined by your personal wants as well
as your physical starting point.
First, we know that choosing to accomplish one task first (either lose fat or gain muscle) is much
more efficient than attempting to do both at the same time. Next, we know that choosing to
become lean before building muscle has also been proven to be more efficient than gaining
weight through bulking, then dieting down through severe calorie restriction. A few key points,
outlined by bodybuilder and body recomposition expert Tom Venuto in his book “Holy Grail
Body Transformation” tell us why:
1) Fat people are much more likely to gain weight while eating in a calorie surplus.
2) Fat people are much less likely to lose muscle while in a calorie deficit.
3) Lean people are much more likely to gain muscle (without gaining fat) while in a calorie
surplus.
4) Lean people are much more likely to lose muscle while in a calorie deficit.
These four keys tell us that it is most efficient to become lean first, then build muscle. For
masculine body recomposition, specifically coming from a female body with higher body fat and
less lean mass, this is the ideal approach.
The majority of people who must lose weight to reach their goal weight will follow these
guidelines for most efficient body recomposition:
1) 25 or more pounds to lose
Set a primary goal of fat loss until you’re within 10 pounds of your goal weight. Have a
secondary goal of muscle gain, focusing on maintaining the muscle you have while losing fat.
Cutting calories to lose fat makes it impossible to work out as hard as you must to make
significant muscle gains.
2) 25 or less pounds to lose
Set a primary goal of fat loss in most cases. If you’re more concerned with gaining muscle, you
can set this as your primary goal. If muscle gain is set as your primary goal and you have
between 15-25 pounds to lose, you must realize you’ll lose your fat weight very slowly. You
can’t drop calories low enough to lose fat at maximum speed while gaining muscle.
3) Less than 10 pounds to lose
Set a primary goal of muscle gain. Keep your calories at or just below maintenance while weight
training and conditioning. You will build muscle while dropping fat very slowly. Your body will
still be in a process of recomposition although the scale changes slowly - even if you maintain
your weight, you will see a shift in how that weight appears on your body.
The Exception
It is possible to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously. The caveat is that you can’t do both
optimally at the same time. You can choose to mostly lose fat while gaining a small amount of
muscle or maintaining the muscle you have, or, you can choose to mostly gain muscle while
losing a small amount of fat or maintaining your current body fat level. The methods for doing so
will be outlined in the chapter Advanced Techniques. If you’re a beginner or have 10 or more
pounds to lose to your goal weight, please read through the manual as written.
PART I
Losing Fat
Accumulating fat is easy. It happens without any conscious or concentrated effort. One day you
realize that you’re much fatter than you’d like to be, and you have no idea how you got that way.
Why isn’t losing fat as easy?
I’d like to make an argument that it is just as easy. The process of losing fat might not feel as
good as gaining it, but the scientific and physiological reasons are just as simple and
straightforward.
When you understand why you gain weight, you can stop buying the services of personal
trainers, diet books, diet products and diet foods. You can choose the way you want to eat, the
way you want to break up macronutrients, and your meal frequency. You can eat in a way that
makes you happy and be lean at the same time.
Most popular diets give you strict rules to follow. You eliminate food groups, count calories,
weigh-in at a medical clinic every week, buy special diet food bars and skip social events
because you’re scared to break your diet. Some of these diets are based upon actual science, and
some are based partly upon science and mostly upon scare tactics. There are only two reasons
why a diet works or doesn’t work:
1) It has you consume less calories than you expend.
2) It has you eat foods that turn to fuel for your muscles rather than fat stores.
While I’m not a believer in strict diet programs, I can conclude from performance-related,
anthropological and medical research that there’s a particular way to eat that gives you the
nutrients, vitamins and minerals your body requires, will achieve a lean physique in the least
time possible and will ultimately set you up to live on a flexible, enjoyable diet that you set for
yourself.
To understand how to eat for fat loss, we can first look at how to eat for fat gain. After all,
Americans are good at this. Over half of us are overweight or obese. When we eat without
particular attention to a fat loss, muscle gain or other health goal, what do we eat? What is most
available? What is recommended in commercials, billboards -- even by the USDA food
pyramid?
The answer is grains. Breads, pastas, cereals, rice and flour products. Pizza. Hamburgers and
french fries. Grape nuts and oatmeal. White and brown rice. Potatoes. Cakes. Cookies. Chips.
These things are cheap, highly available and delicious. They are not only easy to eat but almost
impossible to quit. The ingredients in these foods make them highly addictive.
Science writer Gary Taubes tells us that:
“...when you eat sugar, according to research by Bartley Hoeble of Princeton University,
it triggers a response in the same part of the brain -- known as the “reward center” -- that
is targeted by cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, and other addictive substances. All food does
this to some extent, because that’s what the reward system apparently evolved to do:
reinforce behaviors (eating and sex) that benefit the species.” (Taubes, 142)
We’re genetically programmed to crave the taste of salt, sweet and fat. When food and calories
(energy) were scarce, the drive for these tastes was beneficial to our survival because foods with
these tastes contained the most calories (or life-sustaining energy). Most of these highly available
and addictive foods have not one, but all of these tastes combined within a single food. The
reward center in the brain is activated dramatically with a single bite. Our bodies can’t gauge
when to stop eating these foods. Compare the way you feel when you begin to eat a box of
doughnuts or a bag of chips versus a grilled chicken breast. You will likely stop eating the
chicken breast before the doughnuts or the chips. Your body knows when to stop eating foods
that are healthy, meaning they contain the necessary macronutrients, vitamins and minerals to
both survive and thrive.
Grains (and sugar) are a double-edged sword. Not only are they addictive and cause you to eat in
excess, they also set off a cascade of physiological processes that cause you to store fat. Taubes
outlines this process in detail in his two books “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and “Why We Get
Fat: And What to Do About It.” Taubes set out to write his books with no agenda in mind -- he
was not trying to sell a new diet, program or product of any kind. He simply wanted to know
why, once and for all, so many people were getting fat, dying of fat-related diseases and unable
to lose fat no matter how many programs or products they employed.
Taubes used anthropological research about hunter-gatherer populations both on their original
diet and after transitioning to a typical Western diet. Original hunter-gatherer diets consisted of
animal fat and protein and, sometimes, wild vegetables and fruits. Some populations were so
isolated that they only had access to animal fat and animal meat. With virtually zero
carbohydrates in their diet, these isolated populations not only survived, but thrived. They had no
incidence of Western disease and almost no overweight or obesity.
Science suggests that the healthiest way to eat is within the diet that shaped the human genome.
The grain foods introduced by the Agricultural Revolution wreak havoc on our bodies because
we’re not evolved to tolerate them. As a result, when you eat grains and sugar you put yourself at
risk for weight gain and obesity, metabolic disease, cancer, numerous dementias, and numerous
heart diseases, and often times these diseases go hand-in-hand.
With that said, I’m still not a proponent of adopting a strict dietary regimen for the remainder of
your life. I don’t think that eating in the Paleo or Atkin’s tradition is the end-all, be-all of fat loss
and health. Scientists and nutritionists also know that calorie restriction has proven health
benefits in almost every animal. This tells us that the quantity of the foods you eat may be
more important than the type of foods you eat.
But here are the caveats:
1) Processed grain, sugar and flour-based foods are much easier to overeat than meat, vegetables
and fruit. Not only are these foods fat-promoting, but they almost always cause us to eat in
excess.
2) Prolonged dietary restriction (forcing yourself to follow the Paleo, Atkins, or any other diet)
may be psychologically taxing. It may isolate you in social situations or put other restrictions
on your life and the enjoyment of your life. Finally, it may lead you to crash diet and binge.
With these scientific truths and these caveats in mind, we can start to see that it’s possible to
follow a program while allowing room for freedom outside of the program. If we put our bodies
into fat burning mode most of the time, lean out, and then allow ourselves to eat the foods we
love in moderation, we can achieve the best of both worlds.
Dieting Myths That Are Keeping You Fat
There are a host of dieting myths that are keeping chronic and crash dieters fat. You can consider
yourself a chronic or crash dieter if you’ve employed one or more diets in your lifetime that
asked you to eat in a dramatically different way than you normally would. You might have lost
weight, even a significant amount, but because the diet was unsustainable, you gained all your
weight back and perhaps more than you had before the diet. The following myths must be
dispelled in order to understand why diets work or don’t work, and how to lose fat permanently.
1) In order to lose fat, the only thing you must do is create a calorie deficit. You can do this by
eating less and exercising more.
This myth is pushed by nutritionists, trainers, bodybuilders, athletes and doctors as the First Law
of Thermodynamics or the Law of Energy Balance. This law states that energy is neither created
nor destroyed, so if you have excess fat stored in your body, it’s because at some point you
consumed more calories (energy) than you needed, and you allocated the excess to fat stores. To
get rid of it, you have to stop eating and let your body use the excess, stored energy for fuel.
Let me be clear: I know this to be true. Recently, the validity of this statement was tested with
the entertaining Twinkie Diet. Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State
University, proved that he could lose weight while eating Twinkies and other high-carbohydrate,
high-sugar, processed food multiple times per day. After 2 months he lost 27 pounds, proving
this theory correct.
The amount of calories you eat always has, and always will, matter for fat loss. Figuring out
how many calories you need to eat to lose weight is an excellent way to begin a weight loss plan.
Rather than being an all-out myth, this statement is oversimplified and sets largely overweight
people up to fail . In his book “Why We Get Fat,” Taubes talks about looking at the obesity
epidemic from a new perspective. To Taubes, it simply doesn’t make sense that the majority of
Americans are “choosing” to eat too much and move too little purely because they’re lazy and
lack willpower:
“...rather than define obesity as a disorder of energy balance or eating too much, as the
experts have for the past half-century...the natural question to ask is, what regulates fat
accumulation? Because whatever hormones or enzymes work to increase our fat
accumulation naturally - just as growth hormone makes children grow - are going to be
the very likely suspects on which to focus to determine why some of us get fat and others
don’t.” (Taubes, 9)
In simpler terms, Taubes is saying that some bodies more easily store fat than others, and the
question we need to be asking is: Why do some bodies more easily store fat than others? Taubes
believes that the way Americans have been told to eat for health has retarded the body’s selfregulating mechanisms that either use food energy as fuel or store it as fat tissue.
We need to observe the basics of fat storage and fat loss to understand why we get fat. Fat exists
in different forms in our body. The first form, fatty acids, is the type of fat we burn easily for
fuel. It doesn’t get stored in our bodies, creating overweight and obesity. Triglycerides, however,
are composed of three fatty acids and a glycerol. Because of their size, triglycerides get “stuck”
in our fat cells. They’re too big to flow in and out of fat cell membranes with the ease of single
fatty acids.
What we have to figure out is: What promotes the flow of fatty acids into fat cells where they
can accumulate? Secondly, once we figure out what it is, we have to figure out how to stop it.
What Taubes discovered is that:
“...anything that makes us secrete more insulin than nature intended, or keeps insulin
levels elevated for longer than nature intended, will extend the periods during which we
store fat and shorten periods when we burn it.” (Taubes, 125)
This is because insulin is the primary hormone that regulates the flow of fatty acids. This
regulation is retarded by the consumption of processed carbohydrates and sugar:
“...you secrete insulin primarily in response to the carbohydrates in your diet, and you do
so primarily to keep blood sugar under control. But the insulin also works simultaneously
to orchestrate the storage and use of fat...” (Taubes, 118)
Finally, if you let this process get too out of control, insulin can actually work to create more fat
cells in your body -- more room to store fat means more potential to get fatter:
“To assure we have room to store all that fat, insulin also works to create new fat cells in
case the ones we already have are getting full. And insulin signals liver cells not to burn
fatty acids but to repackage them into triglycerides and ship them back to the fat tissue.”
(Taubes, 121)
Fat cells can be created, but they can never be destroyed. This is why childhood obesity is so
dangerous and sets people up to be overweight for the rest of their lives.
For those who are largely overweight or obese, diabetic, insulin insensitive or have a host of
other metabolic diseases creating stubborn fat on their bodies, the answer is then:
“The one thing we absolutely have to do if we want to get leaner -- if we want to get fat
out of our fat tissue and burn it -- is to lower our insulin levels and to secrete less insulin
to begin with...If we can get our insulin levels to drop sufficiently low...we can burn our
fat. If we can’t, we won’t.” (Taubes, 125)
If our insulin remains high from eating carbohydrates and sugar, day in and day out, our fat is not
available to use for fuel. Triglycerides are stuck in our fat cells and the protein we could use for
energy is stuck in our muscles. As a result, we are starved and fat at the same time. The
energy we should be using is locked away. We are driven to eat more even though we don’t need
more. We get fatter, and fatter and fatter. We feel more and more tired. We blame ourselves for
being lazy and lacking willpower around food. In reality, the internal starvation makes our
hunger so intense that skinny people cannot come close to understanding the feeling.
If you see the First Law of Thermodynamics as plainly as it’s written, you’ll inevitably blame
yourself for your lack of willpower as you fail diets again and again. You’ll think it’s your fault
alone that you eat too much and move too little. You’ll blame yourself for being fat and lazy.
None of this helps you comply to a diet or exercise program. Instead, it keeps you stuck in an
endless cycle of guilt and denial.
Taubes and a host of other scientists, nutritionists and dietitians believe that a diet of animal fat,
animal protein, fruits and vegetables, can be effectively followed without methodically counting
calories to produce weight loss. He believes that the dieter employing this type of diet will
understand how to eat when hungry and stop when full, because the body will regulate itself
when not consuming grains, sugar and other processed carbohydrates. However, having a
general understanding of your calorie expenditure, calorie requirements and calorie deficit
numbers is a useful tool for weight loss. To be clear, calorie deficits are not the end-all, be-all
of fat loss. A calorie deficit alone may not cause you to lose weight and, most likely will not help
you keep that weight off.
2) You must follow a low-fat diet and eat whole grains for heart health and permanent fat loss.
The “low-fat diet for heart health” myth is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. It turned
Americans away from healthy animal fat and meat, terrified that we would die of a heart attack if
a T-bone steak touched our lips. It may frustrate you to know that the hypothesis that low-fat,
whole grains are essential health foods is not sufficiently proven by a single study.
And yet, this idea has become dogma. Envision yourself in a grocery store with heart health
symbols on every box of oatmeal, granola bars and corn flake cereals. We have accepted this
myth without asking for evidence.
Carbohydrates cause insulin to spike in a way that protein and fat don’t in the human body. We
know now that insulin causes the creation of triglycerides, which cause us to store fat and
simultaneously make us hungrier and hungrier. What makes us fat is automatically bad for our
heart health.
In his book, Taubes includes examples from the “A to Z Weight Loss Study,” a study that was
conducted at Stanford University in 2007 to put this question to rest: Which diet is best for fat
loss and overall health? Is it low-fat, low-carbohydrate or a diet with almost equal macronutrient
partitioning?
In this study, four diets were compared: The Atkin’s Diet, a traditional American diet, the Ornish
Diet and the Zone Diet. The Atkin’s diet places emphasis on animal fat, the Ornish diet on whole
grains, and the Zone diet on an almost equal partitioning of both. Those following the Atkin’s
Diet (High fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrates) “lost more weight, their triglycerides
dropped further (a good thing), their HDL went up further (a good thing), and their blood
pressure down further (a good thing) than those on any of the other diets.” (Taubes, 191-192)
The low-fat for heart health myth is misleading because it oversimplifies the question of
cholesterol. We now know that there’s good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL).
Within your body, HDL is large and buoyant and does not block your arteries - it actually works
to remove plaque from your arteries. LDL, on the other hand, is small and dense and will block
your arteries, causing heart disease. As we can see in the “A to Z Weight Loss Study,” a high fat,
high protein diet makes HDL go up and LDL go down.
A high-carbohydrate diet does the opposite, even if your carbohydrates are coming from “whole
grains.” Many foods labeled “whole grain” act exactly as processed grains do once digested,
causing an insulin spike and subsequent fat storage.
3) You must exercise to lose fat.
This point seems pretty straightforward, and you may be wondering how I could possibly label it
as a myth. It goes hand-in-hand with myth number 1: You must create a calorie deficit to lose fat.
The fat on your body is not a direct result of sedentary behavior. It’s the result of consuming
excess calories and/or empty calories in the form of processed carbohydrates and sugar.
Exercise, and movement in general, does burn calories. Your ability to move for a specific
duration and at a specific intensity has to do with the amount of energy you have available. You
receive your energy through carbohydrates, fat and protein in the form of food.
The problem is that the amount of calories expended during exercise is grossly exaggerated. If, at
about 133 pounds, I jog for 20 straight minutes, I will only burn about 150 to 200 calories. How
much an individual burns during a specific activity depends on her age, sex, weight and athletic
ability. Two-hundred calories measure up to about 2 slices of bacon, or one half of a muffin.
Can you recall exercising to your maximum intensity at some point in your life? Perhaps you run
on a regular basis, or play a sport. Within ten minutes of finishing the activity, what did you feel?
Most of us would say excruciating hunger.
Cardiovascular exercise is defined as aerobic exercise, or activity that requires oxygen to sustain.
Oxygen is required because you engage in aerobic activity for bouts longer than 30 seconds (like
a sprint, which is anaerobic and does not require oxygen). Activities under the aerobic umbrella
are usually promoted for fat loss. The truth is, if you would skip the activity and skip the meal
you’re likely to eat directly after that activity, you would be much more likely to end up in a
calorie deficit for the day, and lose fat.
Cardiovascular exercise should be used to improve cardiovascular health and endurance, not to
lose fat. Weight and resistance training should be used to build muscle and recomposition your
already-lean body. Cleaning up your diet and eating less is the only thing that will burn
sufficient, visible amounts of fat permanently. If your only goal was to lose fat, you could do this
with no exercise at all, and you would do it faster than someone who was attempting to exercise
the fat away.
4) You must maintain a high meal frequency (between 5 and 6 meals a day) to lose fat.
This is the most frustrating and last myth I will address. It frustrates me because 1) it’s not
backed by science and 2) professional, “credible” scientists, doctors, trainers and companies in
the diet, supplement and fitness industry have been pushing it as absolute truth for years. This
myth had me enslaved as a 16-year-old, packing bird-size meals into tupperware to take with me
wherever I went, never engaging in social activities and social eating, and paralyzed by fear if I
ever missed a meal or ate something that was outside of my meal plan.
If this is the only thing you learn from this book, I will consider my book a success:
Your meal frequency has nothing to do with the amount of fat you store or burn.
When I think about it now, as a mature, adult person, it makes perfect sense. How could our
bodies, genetically identical to those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, be so frail and dependent
on a constant supply of energy? Throughout human history, members of the human species have
gone for long stretches of time without eating. We hunted, gathered, sprinted, jumped, climbed
and walked for long distances in search of food (on empty stomachs, or stomachs only full from
the night before). Once the day was done, all of these physical activities had been undergone,
and if we were lucky, we would feast on animal fat and protein, and perhaps wild plants and
vegetables.
Our bodies are programmed to endure a constant pattern of feast and famine.
Brad Pilon, author of “Eat Stop Eat,” has shown that there’s no change in the rate of our
metabolism when we go up to 36 hours without eating. Other research suggests that this might be
true for much longer durations. How does the diet and fitness industry have us believing that we
must eat every two or three hours then, lest our metabolisms crash, our muscles fall off, and and
our fat stores cling to our bodies forever?
Scientists and those funding diet studies have their own agendas. They set out to prove what they
think they already know, rather than seek to provide the truth, even if their preconceived notions
are totally wrong. The fact that meal frequency makes no difference as to whether or not we store
fat doesn’t help diet companies sell meal replacement bars or protein powders. What doesn’t
help diet companies certainly doesn’t help the scientists who are funded by those companies.
Worrying about eating 5 to 6 meals a day, with replacement meal bars and protein shakes, is the
one and only thing keeping many people fat.
The truth is, you can eat your daily allowance of calories in 12 meals, 6 meals, 3 meals or one,
huge meal. It will have no significant effect on fat burning or fat storage. Meal frequency may,
however, have an effect on satiety, an important aspect of complying to a diet longterm. Most
people are more satiated best in 2-3 larger meals, rather than 5-6 small, snack-size meals.
The point is, you choose for yourself.
Counting Calories
The First Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Energy Balance, when applied for fat loss,
says that to lose fat you must consume less calories than you expend. To gain fat (or muscle,
potentially), you must consume an excess of calories.
Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) act as the basis
for figuring out your maintenance, surplus and deficit calories. Your RMR is the amount of
calories you burn just by being alive. You would burn this amount of calories even if you laid in
bed all day. Your TDEE is the amount of calories you burn through movement - everything from
walking your dog to intense resistance training.
When eating at maintenance calories, you will maintain your weight (and probably
fluctuate up and down an insignificant amount).
When eating in a surplus, you will gain weight (fat or muscle, depending on your body
composition, diet and activity level).
When eating in a deficit, you will lose weight (fat or muscle, depending on your body
composition, diet and activity level).
Without graduated scientific equipment, you will never know exactly how many calories you
burn on a daily basis. This number also changes dramatically depending on what you do on
different days. Some days you wake up early and move a lot. Other days you sleep in and watch
television. You can burn 1,000 or more calories less on one day that you do on another. There is
no set amount.
The following equation can be used to estimate your RMR and TDEE. While not exact, these act
as more than sufficient guidelines for figuring your maintenance, surplus and deficit calories.
With these numbers as a guide, you can maintain, gain or lose weight.
The Harris-Benedict Equation for figuring out your RMR is:
Females: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) ( 4.7 x age in years )
Males BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - (
6.8 x age in years )
Furthermore, you need to factor in your activity level. Unless you want to be recording every
step you take, item you pick up and minute of athletic activity you engage in, you can use a
relative number to calculate how much you burn in addition to your RMR.
The Harris-Benedict formula gives us these numbers for activity level:
1) sedentary (little or no exercise) : RMR x 1.2
2) lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : RMR x 1.375
3) moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : RMR x 1.55
4) very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : RMR x 1.725
5) extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : RMR x 1.9
Calculating RMR and TDEE
Transpeople must begin by using the formula for the sex they were born into. Your sex is
determined by hormones, and your sex hormones determine the way fat is regulated and
distributed in your body. Even if you’re taking hormones for transition, you’ll be overshooting
your calorie requirements by using the male equation for calculating RMR if you were born
female.
My equation looks like this:
655 + (4.35 x 133) + (4.7 x 65) - (4.7 x 22) = 1,435.65
My RMR (resting metabolic rate) is about 1,435 calories. If I was doing nothing but sitting
around all day, I could eat 1,435 calories and not gain or lose weight.
But I don’t sit around all day. I walk or bike everywhere because I don’t own a car. I lift weights
three and sometimes four times per week. I sprint once or twice a week. I might engage in
extracurricular athletic activity. On a weekly basis, I am moderate to highly active.
In a moderately active week, I would use the activity number 1.55 in the Harris-Benedict
formula to figure out my calories for that week. I would multiply my RMR by that number to
get: 1,435 x 1.55 = 2,225.
In a highly active week, I would use the activity number 1.725 to get: 1,435 x 1.725 = 2,475.375.
The key is to undershoot each calculation. You have to remember that these formulas are an
approximation. Be conservative with your numbers if you want to effectively lose weight. I
always round my calories down. For example, my moderately activity calorie count is 2,225. I
would round this number down to a solid 2,000 to be conservative and ensure adequate fat loss.
Using your RMR and TDEE to lose weight
One pound of fat weight is said to be about 3,500 calories. Over a week long period (7 days), you
would have to eat 500 less calories on average/day to create a 3,500 calorie deficit at the end of
the week for one pound of weight loss. Cutting 1,000 calories per day would equal 2 pounds of
weight loss at the end of the week. However, sustaining a deficit of 1,000 calories or more per
day can be difficult, complicated and dangerous.
If I am moderately active and burning about 2,000 calories/day, I would need to eat 1,500
calories per day on average to burn one pound of fat loss per week. With water weight,
inflammation and other factors, I would probably end up burning about 1.5 to 2 pounds per
week. If you are largely overweight or obese, cutting out approximately 500 calories per day will
cause you to lose more than one pound per week for awhile.
For my program, I ask that you figure your average RMR and TDEE using the above equations
and keep these numbers on hand. You will be using them in the first two weeks of the diet in an
experimental phase. If you achieve sufficient fat loss in the first two weeks, you will no longer
need to count calories. Mastering this process is, however, a fundamental tool for weight loss.
Shortcut
If these numbers are too much for you to be bothered with, you can take a shortcut. This shortcut
ensures that you’re being conservative with your calorie allowance and guarantees fat loss.
1) Decide on a goal weight, or the weight you will be at when you are both lean and muscular.
This weight is probably much less than you think. To be ripped, you have to weigh less than
you’re used to weighing.
2) Multiple your goal weight by 10.
For example, with some fat still layered over my muscles, I weigh about 133. I can predict that at
125, I will be visibly shredded. My goal weight of 125 multiplied by 10 is 1250. This is a safe
daily calorie count that will ensure fat loss. When I’m highly active or working out to gain
muscle, I will need to eat about 200-400 more calories.
Summary
All of these equations and numbers about calorie requirements are approximate. The best you
can do is use them as a guide, then tweak them as you go along and see what types of results
these numbers are producing.
***
Eating for Fat Loss While Maintaining Sanity
Most diets ask you to give up everything you love in exchange for fat loss. I don’t know about
you, but I would rather be fat, happy and able to eat a burrito on a regular basis.
With my dieting methods, I’m setting you up to eat for fat loss while maintaining sanity and
regularity in your life. You’ll still be able to eat socially, eat your favorite foods, and eat until
you’re satiated while losing fat.
For ease of use, I’m outlining my dieting method as a list of guidelines:
1) Eat a high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate diet most of the time
Eating this type of diet can be simplified into a few key points:
a) Prioritize natural foods in the following order of importance
Green, leafy vegetables
Fibrous vegetables
Animal meats
Whole eggs
Fatty meats
Olive oil
Whole fat dairy
Cream
Cheese
Butter
Nuts and seeds
Fruit (low to high sugar and carbohydrate content)
b) Allow yourself these “indulgence foods” in moderation
Dark chocolate
Red wine
Liquor (straight or with diet mixers)
c) Minimize or eliminate the following foods (most of the time)
Grains
Starches
Cereals
Flours (all kinds)
Legumes (peas and beans)
Sugar (all forms, all colors)
Low-fat, non-fat or otherwise altered foods
Beer
2) Count calories for at least 2 weeks
This checkpoint can be accomplished in the following steps:
a) Figure your RMR and TDEE for training, cardiovascular and rest days
b) Round your calories down to be conservative
c) Check the labels on the food you eat. Use online calorie calculators
d) Add 10% more calories to each food item to be conservative (DO NOT skip
step!)
e) Record calories in a food journal for two weeks
f) Attempt to meet calorie requirements and restrictions for weight training,
cardiovascular training and rest days
this
You have to make the effort to count calories for a minimum of two weeks. Consider this
research for your fat loss adventure. When you become sufficiently lean and get to know your
body, you’ll be able to gauge how much you can eat without gaining fat. Keeping a food journal
is highly recommended for the first two weeks.
3) Have regular cheat days
Your “cheat” days can be thought of as reloading days. Reloading days, when sustaining a
caloric deficit and weight training simultaneously, have a number of health and psychological
benefits. They boost your metabolism, restore glycogen, provide relief, encourage long term
compliance and let your body know that you aren’t starving (this is only an issue when you are
maintaining an extreme deficit for long periods of time).
While dieting to lose fat, you can either cycle calorie amounts throughout the week or maintain a
longer deficit and have a reload day once a week. In the latter scenario, you would maintain a
caloric deficit for 6 days out of the week, then reload on the 7th day, a day of your choosing
(probably a weekend day so that you can enjoy social eating).
Your cheat days don’t have to be a free-for-all, either. They can simply be higher calorie days.
You can choose to eat healthy but just eat more on your reload day.
The rules of thumb to ensure continued weight loss while allowing yourself cheat days are:
a) If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, you should keep your reload days to one day per
week. You can eat at 10-15% above your TDEE using healthy foods or foods that you
normally restrict throughout the week.
b) If you’re already lean and reloading only once a week, you should feel free to eat whatever
you want on your reload day. If you’re reloading once every three days, keep within a calorie
limit of 10-15% above TDEE.
4) Factor treats and alcohol into calorie allowance if necessary
Let’s be honest -- there are days when all of us slip on a diet or exercise program. It’s not a
scheduled reload day, we aren’t supposed to be eating sugar, carbohydrates, or alcohol, but a
good friend is visiting from out of town and suggests your favorite brunch place. It would be just
plain stupid to refuse that in order to stick to a diet.
The problem arises when one slip becomes a fall. The average person says “F*** it, I messed up
so I might as well blow the entire thing” and continues eating and drinking whatever he wants
until every pound of his weight loss comes back.
I’m a firm believer that knowing HOW to factor in treats and alcohol is an empowering thing.
Some diet and fitness experts would like to keep this very simple information from you because
they think that if you give someone a little bit of freedom, they will take it the extra mile and
sabotage themselves. You might do that, but then again, you’re an adult and you can decide for
yourself.
To cheat on a non-cheat day, these are the rules of thumb:
a) If you want to eat a sugar or carbohydrate food on a day that’s not a reload day, you HAVE to
factor it into your daily calorie allowance. Eat protein and vegetables the rest of the day.
b) If you want to drink alcohol (and not count calories) eat only protein and trace carbohydrates
from vegetables before and after drinking. You should attempt to keep your alcoholic choices
to dry red wines and liquor, preferably with diet mixers. Avoid beer. If you get drunk and
slam a burrito, however, you will gain weight. If you only eat meat and vegetables while
drinking, you probably won’t.
5) Fast for 14-24 hours as often as possible
Fasting is a lifestyle method (I chose the word lifestyle over diet purposefully) that has freed me
from binge eating and crash dieting. When you hear the word “fasting,” you probably associate it
with a religious or spiritual practice. Fasting has been used for religious, spiritual and health
purposes for thousands of years now in cultures all over the world. While I don’t have enough
time to go into detail about the evolution of fasting in the health, diet and bodybuilding world, I
do recommend the following resources which are specifically on fasting for health:
a) The book “Eat Stop Eat” by Brad Pilon
b) The book “The Warrior Diet” by Ori Hofmekler
c) The blogsite Leangains.com by Martin Berkhan
For now, please settle for a little common sense reasoning. Fasting makes sense when putting it
into the perspective of human evolution. Anthropological evidence suggests that as huntergatherers, we fasted for 24 or more hours almost every day while sustaining intense physical
activity. Our metabolisms didn’t crash, we didn’t have dramatic drops in blood sugar, we didn’t
faint and we didn’t have panic attacks if we had to go a long while without eating. Our bodies
can sustain, and thrive, while fasting. Research suggests that testosterone and growth hormone
peak towards the end of a 18-36 hour fast. At this point in the fast, we are also burning as much
fat as we possibly can for fuel at any one time. Intermittent fasting is a budding area of research
that is proving to cure the “stubborn fat” syndrome and get people leaner, faster than ever.
Martin Berkhan, intermittent fasting guru and author of the Lean Gains blogsite, mentions a
study titled “Intermittent versus daily calorie restriction: which diet regimen is more effective for
weight loss?” by Varady KA et al. This study compares regular calorie restriction (counting
calories but eating throughout the day) to intermittent fasting (calorie restriction through short
periods of fasting between 18-36 hours). In this study, subjects who counted calories but ate
steadily throughout the day lost significant weight, but 25% of that weight came from muscle
and only 75% from fat. In the fasted group, 10% of their weight loss came from muscle and 90%
from fat. If the fasted group had been following a weight training program, chances are they
would have lost little or no weight from muscle, while still losing the same amount of fat.
I employ 18-24 hour periods of fasting on a regular basis. At the moment, I fast every day until
dinner. This means that if I start eating at 5 or 6 pm and finish my last bite of food and caloric
drink at 9 pm, I will start eating again between 5-6 pm the next night and restart the process.
Until I hit that 6-8 pm feeding window, I drink water and other non-caloric beverages. If I’m
experiencing a particularly difficult fast, I’ll have raw vegetables or a small serving of lean
protein if absolutely necessary. At night I get to eat large, satiating meals while losing fat and
retaining muscle.
I suggest attempting to fast, beginning with 14 hours and working your way up to longer fasts.
Begin counting your fasting hours from the moment you stop eating your last meal (the night
hours count while you’re sleeping). Fasting becomes a truly effortless way to stay lean once you
lose the social and emotional fear of needing to eat every few hours. I will outline how to begin
exploring intermittent fasting in another section.
Special Circumstances
Certain people may not be able to get away with the flexibility in the above methods just yet.
Once these people are sufficiently lean and metabolically stable, they can follow the guidelines
above and maintain their weight with ease. If you have or are one or more of the following, you
must follow a more strict diet until you are within 25 pounds of your goal weight:
1) Insulin resistant/diabetic
2) Addicted to carbohydrates and sugar
3) Crash dieter/binger
4) More than 30 pounds overweight
If one or more of these things apply to you, you should employ the following methods until you
are within 30 pounds of your goal weight:
1) Eat strictly Paleo/Atkin’s
a) Eat only animal meat, fish, foul, poultry and green and fibrous vegetables. Do not count
calories or measure portion sizes for these foods. Eliminate fruit for now.
b) Allow yourself full fat dairy (cheese, butter, cream, etc) in servings of 4 ounces/day.
c) Avoid starch, grain, sugar, low-fat and sugar-free foods.
d) Allow yourself one cheat meal per week maximum.
Doing this will accomplish the following goals:
* diminish carbohydrate and sugar addiction
* regulate fat storage and fat metabolism hormones
* jump start fat loss and put body in fat-burning mode
* reduce inflammation
* rid the body of excess water (bloat)
2) Wait to engage in exercise program - modify to walking only
a) avoid weight lifting and sprinting
b) employ brisk walks only (as long as you can sustain) 3-7 days/week
3) Wait to try intermittent fasting
Evidence suggests that if you have a significant amount of weight to lose and you are insulin
resistant, fasting can be more excruciating for you than the average person and aggravate, rather
than correct, your weight problem.
When you are within 20 pounds of your goal weight, employ the methods outlined above in
“Eating for Fat Loss While Maintaining Sanity.”
If You Are Vegetarian or Vegan
I’m not a proponent of any one diet or way of life for all people. There is no one-size-fits-all
approach for anything. There’s always a gray area.
Anyone can get lean on any type of diet, unless extreme circumstances apply, such as intense
food allergies, thyroid problems, insulin insensitivity or other metabolic diseases. The main thing
your diet has to do is work for you. It has to encourage you to eat less in a way that is not
excruciating for you. It has to be enjoyable so that you stick to it most of the time.
You can eat a vegetarian or vegan diet if the foods you choose allow you to feel full and happy
while staying within your calorie limits. You can still employ calorie cycling, carb cycling and
intermittent fasting methods on a vegetarian or vegan diet. They will have the same effect.
The truth is (and many vegan and vegetarian bodybuilders agree) the human body evolved to eat
meat. It thrives on meat. It feels satiated eating meat. We digest animal protein more slowly than
any other macronutrient. For these reasons, it’s an exceptional dietary tool when leaning down. If
you don’t want to incorporate meat or animal products into your fat loss plan, you don’t have to.
You simply have to make your diet work for you while learning to enjoy eating less.
Supplements
Supplementation is an optional part of fat loss and muscle gaining efforts. Regularly taking
vitamins keeps you healthy, flexible, and energetic while dieting down and simultaneously
engaging in intense exercise. They make it effortless to receive all the vitamins and nutrients you
might not have the time, awareness, or money to make sure you receive through food.
I won’t go into detail about any one supplement, because I’m not a doctor or nutritionist. You
should do your own research and consult your physician before taking any supplements,
especially alongside hormones or other drugs.
These are the supplements I take on a daily basis, directly after my workouts.
Fish oil
Fish oil is one of the most important supplements you can take. It provides you with essential
fatty acids that you can get either from eating large amounts of wild fish (which is expensive) or
just taking the supplement on a daily basis. Fish oil keeps your heart, brain, skin, eyes,
cardiovascular, immune and nervous system healthy, among other things. It also regulates blood
pressure. All of these things are important parts of dieting and exercise. The more research you
do on fish oil, the more you will understand how important it is.
Multi-vitamin
Multi-vitamins are precautionary when engaging in regular, intense exercise such as heavy
weight lifting. Take one immediately after your workout with a post-workout meal.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is important for your bones. Chances are, you aren’t getting enough sun exposure and
could benefit from using a vitamin D supplement. Your bones provide the framework for your
muscles and therefore are the basis of all movement. This is an especially important supplement
to take when engaging in physical activity. It may also prove important for transmen taking
hormones (along with calcium).
BCAAs
BCAAs are branched chain amino acids -- think of it like having a protein shake pre workout
without as many calories. It enables you to allot more calories to real food. Drink three to four
scoops before and during your workout for energy, especially when training fasted.
Whey/Casein
These are two different types of protein. Whey is fast releasing and casein is slow releasing.
Whey can be taken pre-workout if you feel that you need to break your fast before training.
Casein will keep you fuller, longer and is typically taken post-workout or at the end of the night.
PART II
Gaining Muscle
Tailoring the Masculine V-Taper
There’s a specific, straightforward way to train for a masculine v-taper. Your results will depend
upon your genetic potential, but even in the worst of genetic cases, you will see muscle growth in
the upper body and tapering in the lower body. In this section I will lay out a step-by-step
program for three different types of guys: those who don’t have access to equipment or a gym,
those who are beginners or intermediate lifters, and those who are advanced and ready for a
graduated challenge.
In addition to providing these three regimens, I’ll tell you the reasoning behind my programs and
teach you how to design your own program. You should never have to buy another product or
pay another person to be healthy, lean and muscular.
Please keep in mind that none of these training programs will produce the desired result without
following the diet advice in Part I. Your look is 99% diet. Some people like to say 80%, but diet
truly determines the majority of your physical appearance.
Strength Training
Strength training is an essential part of masculine body recomposition. For the most dramatic
results, you have to train with resistance, meaning barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells or any other
weighted equipment. If you’re on a budget, anything that weighs something can work for the
essential movements in your strength training plan. Buy a sandbag and fill it with rocks. You
have to lift weight.
Bodyweight exercises can work for beginners and people with a significant amount of weight to
lose, at least for a time. The truth is, you will not make the lean gains you could with added
resistance using your body weight alone.
The most important information I will lay out in the strength training section of this book is what
not to do. There are so many programs out there, the biggest reason people work out without
success is confusion. If you’re interested in bodybuilding and begin the search for a program,
you’re likely to run into a host of contradictory programs on websites, blogs and books. Each
author is trying to contradict the next in order to sell a product. My program is meant to get you
to your goals in the least amount of time possible and nothing else. I’m not competing with
anyone - that’s why this book is free.
What Not To Do for Muscle Gains
1) Circuit Training
Think CrossFit and P90X. As a disclaimer, I’m not knocking these programs in general, but
saying that you don’t need to employ something this torturous for muscle gains and, in fact,
could sacrifice your muscle gains by using these programs. Circuit training involves using
approximately 7 to 15 strength movements with a weight that ranges between 25 to 60 percent of
your one rep maximum (the maximum weight you can lift for one repetition). Performing these
exercises in a circuit fashion means you’re going from one exercise to the next with minimal rest
periods. You’re using high repetitions, usually in the 15-20 range. Your heart is pounding and
you’re short of breath the entire time.
This type of training is great for conditioning and endurance. It will not, however, cause
maximum muscle hypertrophy. If you employ this type of program thinking that it will lean you
out and make you more masculine appearing as a result, realize that it will lean you out equally
from head to toe. Your hips may lean out, yes, but your shoulders will too. You will achieve not
a masculine figure but a thinner feminine figure.
2) Isolation movements
Think barbell curls. Any meathead reading this book knows it’s a blast to load a bunch of plates
onto a barbell and stare at himself doing barbell curls in the gym mirrors. That’s all fine and
dandy, but isolation moves don’t create size; they mostly just create douche-bags. Get rid of
isolation work entirely (at least until you’re an advanced lifter) and work on the full body,
compound lifts. Isolation movements help you squeeze out the last inches of size you can
possibly gain based on genetic potential. Using them prematurely is a waste of time.
You don’t need to (and won’t, on this program) do any isolation work for the biceps, triceps, legs
or abs (unless you want to in addition to my workouts). All movements in this program that hit
the arms, legs and abs also hit the rest of the body simultaneously and make you stronger and
leaner than you’ve ever been before.
3) Long duration, steady-state cardio
Think running on the treadmill at a slow to moderate pace for 30-45 minutes. Have you ever
done anything less enjoyable in your life? Or do you deal with it by zoning out to “Everybody
Loves Raymond” on the cardio machine television while you go through this pointless torture?
Number one, you will not be watching any television during my workouts because you’re
actually going to be working. Your workouts, both cardiovascular and strength oriented, will be
short and intense. You get in and out of the gym and you get twice the benefit.
This type of cardiovascular exercise can compromise muscle gains. It’s too taxing on your
system, and it burns fat inefficiently.
Conditioning
Notes on how to perform walks and sprints
As stated in the strength training section, you will not be using long duration, steady state
cardiovascular exercise. Instead, you’ll employ very low intensity and very high intensity
conditioning activities.
Brisk Walking
A long walk, between 45-60 minutes in length, is a tactic employed by bodybuilders in the final
stages of training before competition. This is because walking burns almost as many calories as
light jogging with none of the high-impact risk to your muscles. You maintain all of your muscle
gains, get a cardio workout, actively recover from weight training and get to clear your head in
the great outdoors.
Perform brisk walking at least 3 days per week and preferably every day. Time yourself and keep
it to between 30 and 60 minutes. It doesn’t matter where you walk, just walk. I like to start my
morning with a long walk every day.
Sprints
Your sprints will be performed one to two times per week maximum. A sprint workout must fall
on a day when you’re not weight training. Don’t do them on the same day even if you’re
planning to split them up into 2 different workouts. It’s simply too much stress for one day and
will cause burnout.
To perform a sprint workout, find a jump rope, track, a sand beach, a cardio machine or a hill.
1) Sprinting on a Track
Find a school or gym track. Jog around it once or twice times until your legs feel sufficiently
warm. After the warmup, sprint down the straight leg of the track as fast as possible. You should
hit about 85 percent of your maximum speed, but never attempt to hit 100 percent on flat ground.
After sprinting down the leg, walk slowly around the bend to recover. Repeat the process when
you hit the next leg.
Start with eight sprint/rest cycles and increase by one cycle at each workout.
2) Sprinting on a Beach
Sprinting on sand is highly recommended because it’s low-impact and protects your knees and
shins. You’re much less likely to injure yourself when running on sand at higher speeds.
Perform sand sprints the same way you would on a track. Have a timer for these sprints or make
two marks in the sand to indicate your starting and stopping point for each sprint. Start with a
moderate distance and increase it over time. You want to be able to get from the starting point to
the finish point in about 15 seconds.
Sprint as fast as possible until you feel yourself slowing down. Walk for thirty seconds and
repeat.
Start with eight cycles and increase by one cycle at each consecutive workout.
3) Sprinting on a Cardio Machine
You may choose a stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical or rowing machine. Warm up for about
five minutes. After the five minute warmup, sprint for 30 seconds by raising the speed on the
machine to 85 percent of your maximum speed (on a rower, simply row harder and faster for 30
seconds). After that 30 seconds, slow to a walking pace. Repeat the cycle.
Start with eight cycles and increase by one cycle at each consecutive workout.
4) Sprinting on a Hill
Hill sprints are the safest and most effective way to perform a sprint workout. If you have a
grass, dirt or even concrete hill near you, use it.
Warm up with a 3-5 minute light jog. Sprint up the hill as fast as possible. Don’t worry about
speed limitations, as it is nearly impossible to hurt or injure yourself on a hill. Just get your tail
up to the top as fast as you possibly can.
Walk back down the hill to recover. Repeat the cycle.
Start with six to eight cycles and increase by one cycle at each consecutive workout.
5) Sprinting with a Jump Rope
Sprint with a jump rope as you would with cardio equipment. Warm up with light jump roping
for about a minute -- this warm up process is faster because jumping rope is more difficult than
most other cardiovascular exercise. Sprint for 30 seconds by jumping rope as fast as you can.
Rest with a slow jump for one minute. Repeat the cycle as many times as possible (you may not
be able to get out ten your first time; gauge this for yourself). Increase your number of cycles at
each workout.
** Employ a mixture of these tactics to keep sprint workouts interesting.
Strength Training Programs
A note about the methods you will employ
You will be employing the following warm ups, stretches and exercises in your strength training
program. I didn’t have the budget to take pictures for each of these movements. YouTube them
and memorize form before you perform any of these stretching and strength training movements.
The specific layout of each program will be made clear below.
1) Jump rope
You will start with 3 minutes of rope jumping at the first workout. Add 30 seconds to your total
jump rope time at each consecutive workout.
2) Dynamic stretching
You will perform each dynamic stretch once, back-to-back, to warm up your body before the
workout:
squat thrusts
high-knee skip
high-knee run
butt kicks
straight leg kicks
forward walking lunge
side lunge with stretch
3) Static stretching
After each strength workout, you will hold each static stretch on either side of the body for 30
seconds:
ankle grab quad stretch
doorway chest stretch
straight, closed leg toe-touch
half-moon spine stretch to either side
sitting toe-touch
sitting spine twist
Bodyweight Training Program
Basic notes about bodyweight training
Use the bodyweight program only if you can’t afford a gym membership or weights for your
home. I want to be clear that you won’t see the same gains with the bodyweight program.
There’s no way around this.
Bodyweight training simultaneously builds endurance. To get muscle gains out of bodyweight
exercises, you have to consistently do more sets or repetitions than you did at the last workout.
For this program, when two exercises are written out in the fashion of 1a and 1b, you are supersetting those exercises. That means you’ll perform one set of 1a, then one set of 1b with little to
no rest period. Rest for 45 seconds, then perform your second set of 1a followed immediately by
your second set of 1b, etc.
When two exercises have 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 written out next to them, you will perform 10
repetitions of the first exercises, then 10 repetitions of the next exercise. Next, you perform 9
repetitions of the first exercise and 9 repetitions of the exercise after it. This is a reverse pyramid
super-set. Continue this pattern until you’re doing one repetition of each exercise at the end of
the super-set.
When you see the acronym AMAP, it means “as many as possible.” Don’t lie to yourself. Get
out as many possible repetitions as you can on that exercise.
The bodyweight program combines jumping rope, strength movements using bodyweight,
sprinting workouts and brisk walking.
Strength Training Program 1
Bodyweight Only
This program is for the following people:
1) Those who have no other choice due to limited funds
2) Those who need to save money to buy equipment/gym memberships
3) Absolute beginners
Day 1
Jump rope 3-5 minutes
Dynamic stretch warm-up
1a. Chin ups X AMAP (weighted chins/pull ups when advanced)
1b. Mountain climber 3 X 15
2a. Wideout jumps 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1
2b. Pushups 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1
3a. Plank 3 X 30 seconds
3b. Dips 3 X AMAP
Static stretch cool down
Day 2
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 3
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 4
Jump rope 3-5 minutes
Dynamic stretch warm up
1a. Jumping lunges 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1
1b. Diamond pushups 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1
2a. Jack knife 3 X 15
2b. Prisoner squat 3 X 21
3a. Wall handstand 3 X 30 seconds
3b. Hanging leg raises 3 X 10
3c. Side plank 3 X 30 seconds
Static stretch cool down
Day 5
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 6
3-minute jump rope warmup
Dynamic stretches
Sprint workout of your choice
Day 7
Off (60-minute walk optional -- slower recovery pace)
Perform this as written for a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of eight weeks before
moving onto Strength Training Program 2, Maximum Muscle Hypertrophy. If you’re doing the
bodyweight program because of a lack of funds, use these eight weeks to save money for
equipment or a gym membership.
Weighted Training Programs for Intermediate and Advanced
Basic notes about resistance training
***IMPORTANT***
You will be doing specific set/rep schemes for upper and lower body. You must follow these
set/rep schemes exactly. These schemes are the major reason why this program works
specifically for masculine body recomposition.
This is how each exercise will be written out:
Squats: 3 X 5
or
Bench press: 5 X 5-12
The first example is translated as three repetitions of five squats. The second example is
translated as five sets of between five to twelve bench presses.
When you perform these exercises, you should be struggling to get back up by the last repetition.
Do not train to failure, however. In example one, at the fifth squat, you should have about two
left in you. If someone had a gun to your head, you would be able to get the last two out. For our
purposes, you’re going to stop before performing these last two reps to failure.
Perform all exercises as straight sets in the Maximum Muscle Hypertrophy phase, unless they are
written as 1a, 1b or 2a, 2b. Straight sets means you will do one set of an exercise, rest for 2
minutes, then perform the next set. When you have completed all sets for that exercise, move
onto the next exercise. When two exercises are written back-to-back with a and b, that means
you will superset those exercises. To superset, perform one set of the exercise labeled “a”, rest
90 seconds, then perform one set of the exercise labeled “b.” Do this until you’ve completed all
sets for both exercises, then move onto the next pair of exercises.
When the rep range says 5-12, that means start at a weight you can lift 5 times. At the next
workout, attempt to lift that same weight more times. When you can lift it 12 times, put more
weight on the bar until you can only do 5 again. Repeat the process.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is one of the most important things you will ever learn about body
recomposition. The basic idea can be applied to anything in life that you want to get good at. In
bodybuilding, it simply means that you must do more work in this workout than you did in
the last workout. Work can be defined as sets, repetitions or number of exercises. For example,
if you did three sets of 10 chin ups at the last workout, you need to do four sets of 10, or three
sets of 11 in this workout. You should always be doing as much as you can, but never the same
or less than you did last time. To force your body to change and grow, you always have to do
more. No excuses.
Strength Training Program 2
Maximum Muscle Hypertrophy
This program is for the following people:
1) Intermediate lifters
2) Generally athletic people, even if they’ve never lifted before
3) The average joe
Day 1
Jump rope 5-10 minutes
Dynamic stretch warmup
1) Squat 3 X 5
2) Bench press 5 X 5-12
Static stretch cool down
Day 2
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 3
Jump rope 5-10 minutes
Dynamic stretch warmup
1a) Overhead press 5 X 5-12
1b) Barbell row 5 X 5-12
2) Plank 3 X ALAP (as long as possible)
Static stretch cool down
Day 4
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 5
Jump rope 5-10 minutes
Dynamic stretch warmup
1) Deadlift 5 X 5-12
2) Chin up 3 X AMAP (as many as possible)
Static stretch cool down
Day 6
3-minute jump rope warmup
Dynamic stretch
Sprint
Static stretch cool down
Day 7
Off (60-minute slow-paced recovery walk optional)
Perform this as written for a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of eight weeks before
moving onto Strength Training Program 3, Advanced Strength.
Strength Training Program 3
Advanced Strength
This program is for the following people:
1) Those who have completed the Maximum Muscle Hypertrophy phase
2) Those with advanced lifting experience (a year or more)
Day 1
Jump rope 5 minutes
Dynamic stretch warm up
1) Squat 3 X 20-25
2) Seated military press 5 X 5-12
3a) Step ups 3 X 13 (each leg)
3b) Elevated push up 3 X AMAP
Static stretch cool down
Day 2
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 3
Jump rope 5 minutes
Dynamic stretch warm up
1) Chin ups (pull ups if capable) 3 X AMAP
2) Push press 5 X 5-12
3) Dumbbell lateral raise 5 X 8-12
4) Dumbbell shrugs 3 X 8-12
Static stretch cool down
Day 4
3-minute jump rope warm up
Dynamic stretch
Sprint
Static stretch cool down
Day 5
Jump rope 5 minutes
Dynamic stretch warm up
1) Deadlift 3 X 5-8
2a) Alternating dumbbell bench press 5 X 8-12
2b) 1-arm dumbbell row 5 X 8-12
3) Front barbell raise 3 X 8-12
Static stretch cool down
Day 6
60-minute brisk walk
Self-stretch
Day 7
3-minute jump rope warm up
Dynamic stretch
Sprint
Static stretch cool down
Stretching
You have to do it
Stretching is something I ignored for the majority of my bodybuilding career, both pretestosterone therapy and while taking hormones. I thought it was a waste of time and I was eager
to run the track and/or get down in the weight room. It’s satisfying to me to sprint and push
heavy weight. Stretching, on the other hand, felt time consuming, boring, and delivered no
perceived, immediate benefit.
Well, perceived and immediate benefit are not the only types of benefit in the world. I know this
now on a number of levels. I believe stretching is especially important for transmen and others
with body dysphoria. Many of us slouch, walk with hunches in our backs, turned in shoulders
and collapsed chests.
Bad posture, particularly when accompanied with feelings of shame that only aggravate the
physical problem, can constrict your lungs and cause faulty breathing patterns. On top of
receiving inadequate oxygen all day long, you’re causing bone, muscle, joint, tendon and
ligament compensations as you place more stress on certain muscles in your back, neck, chest
and shoulders.
You need to open up. Even if you only feel comfortable performing these stretches in the privacy
of your home, it’s an important part of this program and any training I give to a client in-person.
Preferably you will do them without wearing binding so that you can get the full benefit of the
stretch. I understand this may need to occur at home for you, and that’s fine. Just make the time.
Certain types of stretching are better for pre-workout, and other types for post-workout. Preworkout, you need to get your blood pumping and your muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments
flexible and ready to push weight without risk of injury. Dynamic stretching is used pre-workout
to stretch and break a light sweat. Post-workout you need to use static stretching, which requires
you to hold a static pose for 20-45 seconds. Holding a static stretch gives your muscles time to
open up and elongate after an intense workout.
I realize some of you may dislike the idea of stretching and never even try. I want you to know
that out of concern for the health of your body, I strongly recommend it. Besides health, it has
aesthetic benefit too -- it will give you a longer, leaner look. Let’s be honest -- most transdudes
can use all the elongation they can get.
The Programs Simplified
Why it works
How to make your own programs
I’ve researched and used almost every type of program available. Thousands of my hard-earned
dollars have been poured into books, movies, gym memberships and training sessions. It’s all
worth it, however. The programs I’ve outlined above use the fastest and most straight forward
methods I’ve ever employed to expand my upper body, trim my lower body and lean out.
I want you to know why it works so that you don’t spend half the time I did searching for the
“perfect” program. The best programs are simple. They use the fundamentals of bodybuilding
and fat loss, they resist the urge to overtrain and under-train, and they leave behind the fancy,
useless gimmicks that so many people try to sell you.
In this section, I’m going to outline what you need to reach three specific goals. If I haven’t
included it, you don’t need it. Plain and simple.
1) Upper body muscle growth
To expand your upper body and pack on muscle, use basic compound lifts. These mandatory lifts
include pushing and pulling moves, such as:
Chest press
barbell/dumbbell
incline/decline
push ups (all advanced variations)
press machines
Overhead press
barbell/dumbbell
military press
push press
cuban press
olympic presses
etc
Rows
barbell/dumbbell
full back or alternating hands
row machines (seated and standing)
Chin up/Pull up
low repetitions
advance to weighted (weight vest, weight belt)
Deadlift
barbell/dumbbells
heavy weight, low repetitions
regular/romanian/straight leg etc
If you only performed these moves for the rest of your life, you would grow to your maximum
potential (provided you used the theory of progressive overload and always did more than you
did at the last workout). You must cycle them appropriately, however, to avoid burn out through
the overtaxing of your central nervous system (CNS).
Perform exercises in the 5-12 rep range for maximum muscle hypertrophy. Anything under this
will not have a high enough volume to cause you to grow. Anything above this makes your
workout an endurance workout. You might get faster, but you won’t pack on muscle. Stick to the
5-12 rep range, keeping it more closely tied to the 8-10 rep range for maximum growth.
The ideal workout frequency for muscle growth has to leave time to recover. Beginners should
workout 2-3 times per week. Intermediate and advanced lifters can get away with 4 days per
week if they really want to, but it won’t hurt them to stick to 3 days. Anything beyond this is a
waste and will cause burnout. Burning yourself out lowers testosterone and increases the one
hormone you never want more of -- cortisol. Cortisol is fat promoting and muscle compromising.
Keep your workouts to 2-4x/week.
2) Lower body trimming
Squats are called “the king of all exercises.” What a female-to-male transgender or transsexual
person needs to realize, however, is that biological men with chicken legs are the ones naming
squats king. Squats have a totally different effect on female legs. As my favorite trainer Jason
Ferruggia says in his book “Muscle Gaining Secrets,” squats build tree trunk legs.
Your goal (I’m assuming) is to taper your lower body so that your shoulders and chest become
wider to create that masculine V-shape. For this reason, you must use squats sparingly if at all. I
put them in my program at a very minimal frequency because squats are a great exercise, no
matter what their effect on appearance. They work almost every other muscle in the body as they
work the quads and can give you great abs, great traps and a great back.
Use squats sparingly. Cycle them into your training program for eight week durations, then take
them out for eight weeks. Replace them with leg presses, lunges, or other leg exercises.
You want to cycle your rep scheme for leg exercises in the very low and very high ranges. Very
low ranges prevent growth but keep your legs toned. Very high ranges will help slim your legs.
The middle rep range (9-14) will cause maximum muscle growth in your legs and make them
bulkier.
For low rep ranges, keep leg exercises in the 5-8 rep range. For high rep ranges, keep leg
exercises in the 15-20 rep range. Cycle between these two rep ranges in 4-week increments.
Conditioning workouts can also help you taper your lower body. Long, brisk walks, uphill
walking, 20-30 minute jogs and sprints once or twice a week can help you keep excess fat off of
your legs while toning them.
Last but not least, stretch. Stretching your legs will help to elongate the muscles and prevent
bulk.
3) Diet
You have to manipulate your diet to get shredded. You may not have to do much to your diet to
look average or better than average. But if you want to be sick lean, you have to get control of
your eating.
You have excess fat because you either eat too much, eat the wrong foods, or both. Intermittent
fasting, processed carb elimination, natural carb cycling (fruits/vegetables), calorie cycling and
eating whole, natural foods such as meat, fish, foul, poultry, vegetables and fruit (in descending
order of importance) are the fastest ways to cut fat. I will outline all of these methods in the next
chapter.Advanced Methods
Final phase fat cutting
The following methods are for the advanced person, typically someone who is burning off his
last few pounds of “stubborn fat.” You know you’re at this point if your body is better than
average and well-toned, but you have a last layer of fat covering your muscles and preventing
them from becoming truly defined. These methods are unnecessary for beginners or people with
more than 30 pounds to lose to their goal weight. They can, however, be experimented with by
anyone.
1) Intermittent fasting (IF)
Intermittent fasting means employing short periods of abstinence from food and caloric
beverages. Fasting methods range from 14 to 24-hour periods, depending on the author of the
methods and his or her reasoning. Martin Berkhan outlines the Lean Gains Method with 14 to
18-hour fasts, where clients skip breakfast and lunch every day then either train fasted after an
intake of BCAAs or break the fast just before their training session. They then eat their allotted
number of calories in 2-3 meals after training. Once they hit their calorie cap, they begin their
next fast until the same time the next day. Brad Pilon, on the other hand, promotes 24-hour
periods of fasting once or twice a week with no special attention given to training or rest days.
With the 24-hour method, you stop eating at any time (whether it be 2pm or 9pm) and fast until
that same time the next day. You choose your fasting window based on personal preferences.
Other methods include Alternate Day Fasting (where you fast every other day for 24 hours) or
randomized periods of fasting, where you skip meals or entire days of eating whenever you feel
like it.
I enjoy using IF in a way closely related to Berkhan’s approach. When I stop eating and drinking
the night before (that might be anywhere from 9pm to 1am, depending on whether I’m partying
or not), I begin counting the hours of my fast. Throughout the day I drink water, tea, coffee and
diet sodas. Just before training, I take a BCAA supplement for protein and energy. If I’m feeling
weak that day, I break my fast before training with a small meal. I then train and eat my calorie
allowance in 1-3 larger meals, then begin my fast again. I have figured out that I enjoy abstaining
from food in the daytime and eating larger meals at night.
If you like this style of eating, my approach will work for you. If you would rather eat during the
day and abstain at night, you can reverse the fasting/feeding hours. The point is to tailor IF to
your preferences.
Doing this can eliminate the need to count calories very closely. As long as you make sure you
hit a 14-18-hour fasting period each day, you have freedom to eat just about whatever you want
at night. You may have to keep track of highly caloric, sugar and carbohydrate foods. But you
will be surprised at how full and satiated you feel.
If you feel afraid to try intermittent fasting, ease into it using these steps:
a. Write down what time you stop eating at night
b. Set your 14, 16, 18 and 20-hour fasting goals
e.g.: If you stopped eating at 9 pm, your 14, 16, 18 and 20-hour fasting goals would
am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm.
be 11
c. Skip breakfast when you wake up. If you wake up later than your 14-hour fasting goal (which
many young people do), you’ve already made it to your first checkpoint.
d. Make it to the farthest checkpoint you can manage. Drink water, tea, coffee (w/ non-caloric
sweeteners) sparkling water and diet sodas to hold you over.
e. When you feel the urge to eat, stop and think first: Do I really need to have my first meal yet?
Do I have excruciating and unbearable pain in my stomach? Do I feel like I am legitimately
going to topple over? Is my life severely affected by the fact that I’m not eating? Be honest
with yourself. If you answered no to all those questions, drink a glass of water and press on.
Usually we want to eat at certain times just because we are conditioned to do so.
f. Drink BCAAs or eat a small meal to break your fast before training if you feel that it’s
necessary.
g. Push for longer fasts each time. Never exceed 24 hours, as this is unnecessary.
2) Carbohydrate and calorie cycling
Carbohydrate and calorie cycling are methods used by bodybuilders to help shed the last 5-10
pounds of fat and get sickeningly lean. If you can’t see at least a blurry 4-pack, you really don’t
need to be worrying about these methods yet.
Cycling carbohydrates and calories use a pattern of low calorie and low carb days with higher
calorie and higher carb days. If you lose a lot of weight, you will notice that the last few pounds
come off much slower than the pounds were coming off when you first started. When you’re
lean, your RMR and TDEE are lower and your body burns fat more begrudgingly. If you think
about it, having no body fat goes against evolutionary programming. Fat kept us alive in case of
famine. Unfortunately, our bodies haven’t “realized” none of us are at risk of starving.
By cycling high calorie/carb days with low calorie/carb days, your body never thinks you’re
starving. It’s up to you how you choose to cycle these days. It’s also one of the most effective
ways to cut calories without going insane.
A common approach is three low calorie/low carb days for every one high calorie/high carb
day. This frequency switches often enough to keep you feeling full and happy while in a caloric
deficit.
Use your TDEE as a starting point, which you should have figured out in the first part of this
book. On every third day in the cycle, and preferably on a training day, you will eat 15-20%
above your TDEE. Multiple your TDEE by .15 and then add that number to your TDEE. This is
your calorie allowance for a training/reload day. On your low calorie days, you will eat at a 2030% deficit, depending on your body type and goals. Multiple your TDEE by .20, .25 or .30 and
subtract that number from your TDEE. Heavier people who tend to store fat should take the most
aggressive deficit they can handle.
High calorie and high carb days should be kept to training days. This makes you more likely to
use those excess calories and carbs to build muscle rather than store fat. This is what the method
would look like in a week:
Day 1 - Training Day
TDEE to 15% above TDEE
Higher calories/Higher carbs
Day 2 - Off
15-30% below TDEE
Deficit day/Low carbs
Day 3 - Sprint workout
15-30% below TDEE
Deficit day/Low carbs
Day 4 - Off
15-30% below TDEE
Deficit day/Low carbs
Day 5 - Training
TDEE to 15% above TDEE
Higher calories/Higher carbs
Day 6 - Sprint workout or Off
15-30% below TDEE
Deficit Day/Low carbs
Day 7 - Training
15% below TDEE
Deficit day/Low carbs
You can play with low-to-high day ratio, and the percentage of deficit or surplus you take.
Heavier people who tend to store fat will want to pick less high calorie/high carb days and more
aggressive deficits. Already-lean people can eat at a higher surplus on training days (30%) and/or
have more high calorie/high carb days in their week, as long as the amount of surplus days
doesn’t exceed the amount of deficit days.
Play with these methods when you have 5-10 pounds of stubborn fat hanging on your abdomen,
lower back and legs. This just might be what you need to get sick lean for the first time in your
life.
***
Many of us can’t trust ourselves to count calories this precisely day in and day out. I hate
counting calories. If you want to get shredded without having to keep an exact count of
your calories, use intermittent fasting in a way that suits your eating patterns. When the fat
loss plateaus dramatically, count again to check in and see where you’re consuming in
excess. It’s not uncommon to lose the last ten pounds in an excruciatingly slow manner,
such as .5 pound every two weeks. Our bodies just work this day. These advanced methods
are the current best for working around our natural programming. Summaries
Using this program to lose fat, gain muscle, or both simultaneously
Transmen or genderqueer individuals coming from female bodies will use this manual in one of
three ways: to lose fat, gain muscle or both. You may be coming from a body that fails to appear
masculine because of a tendency to store fat, resist muscle gain, or both, because this is the way
your sex hormones have determined your appearance.
If you fight to lose fat, focus on the setup in the Losing Fat section.
If you fight to retain muscle, focus on the setup in the Gaining Muscle section.
If you have an endomorph body type that can lose fat and gain muscle somewhat easily, try the
Simultaneous Fat Loss and Muscle Gain section.
Losing fat
Sample daily setup
1) Focus on becoming lean before gaining muscle for the fastest and most efficient
transformation.
2) Calculate your RMR and TDEE. Find your 30 percent deficit and your 15 percent surplus.
Eat at your 30 percent deficit six out of seven days a week (or close to it). Eat at your 15
percent surplus one day per week maximum.
3) Attempt to rid your diet of processed carbohydrates completely. Emphasize animal protein
and fat, vegetables and fruit, in that order.
4) Set your protein requirements and meet them everyday: Your bodyweight in lbs. x 1.4
grams.
5) Receive the bulk of your remaining calories through vegetables, fruit and sides to taste, such
as butter and olive oil.
6) Wait to engage in the resistance and sprinting segments of the training program if you have
more than 30 pounds to lose. Walk only. Pick up the program appropriate for your fitness
level when you are within 25 pounds of your goal weight.
7) Use intermittent fasting each day to make deficit adherence more enjoyable. Record the
time you stop eating at night. Fast for 14-20 hours while drinking water, tea, coffee and diet
sodas with no more than a splash of milk/ some fake sweetener.
8) Drink BCAAs or a protein shake before training if you feel weak, hungry or excessively
tired. Experiment with fasted training if you feel safe to do so. There’s evidence that fasted
training increases fat loss and muscle gain effects.
9) Immediately break your fast after training with a large salad, a large serving of cooked
vegetables, and a serving of protein (meat, fish, eggs, or powder).
10) Enjoy fruit, wine and dark chocolate in moderation to satisfy a sweet tooth or craving. If
you are highly addicted to sugar or carbohydrates, eliminate all sugar and carb foods for
the first two weeks, then reintroduce slowly.
Gaining muscle
Sample daily setup
1) Focus on making muscle gains primarily while keeping fat loss as a secondary goal. This is
the “bulking” process without the fat gain.
2) Calculate your RMR and TDEE. Find your 15-30 percent deficit and your 30 percent
surplus. Eat at your 15-30 percent deficit for three days, then at your 30 percent surplus for
1 day. Repeat this 3:1 cycle.
3) Attempt to rid your diet of processed carbohydrates completely. Emphasize animal protein
and fat, vegetables and fruit, in that order.
4) Set your protein requirements and meet them everyday: Your bodyweight in lbs. x 1.4
grams is a good rule of thumb for protein intake while dieting and training. However, for
smaller people that have a hard time gaining muscle, experiment with 1.5-2.0 grams of
protein per pound of bodyweight daily.
5) Receive the bulk of your remaining calories through vegetables, fruit and sides to taste, such
as butter and olive oil. Fill in higher calorie carbohydrate foods to help meet surplus
requirements.
6) Pick up the program appropriate for your fitness level. Train hard at each session in the
written rep ranges. Always use the theory of progressive overload and do more at this
workout than you did in the last. No excuses.
7) Use intermittent fasting each day to make deficit adherence more enjoyable. Record the
time you stop eating at night. Fast for 14-20 hours while drinking water, tea, coffee and diet
sodas with no more than a splash of milk/ some fake sweetener.
8) Drink BCAAs or a protein shake before training if you feel weak, hungry or excessively
tired. Experiment with fasted training if you feel safe to do so. There’s evidence that fasted
training increases fat loss and muscle gain effects.
9) Immediately break your fast after training with a large salad, a large serving of cooked
vegetables, and a serving of protein (meat, fish, eggs, or powder).
10) Enjoy fruit, wine and dark chocolate in moderation to satisfy a sweet tooth or craving. If
you are highly addicted to sugar or carbohydrates, eliminate all sugar and carb foods for the
first two weeks, then reintroduce slowly.
Simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain
Follow the Gaining Muscle protocol exactly, but make an adjustment to your calories. Eat at a 30
percent deficit for three days, then a 15 percent surplus for one day. Repeat this 3:1 cycle. If you
tend to store fat and have trouble gaining muscle, take this moderate approach for deficit and
surplus calories.
For best results, always put your deficit days on off days or cardiovascular exercise days. Put
your surplus on training days and eat the bulk of your calories post-workout.
I Don’t Want to Count Calories. At All.
Sweet. Many people won’t. Counting and keeping close track of a deficit and a surplus are
proven to recomposition your body, but you may be able to achieve the same effect without this
painstaking process.
My advice is to use intermittent fasting to effortlessly keep your calorie intake in control. Fast
for 14-20 hours daily. Feed in the remaining 10-4 hour window. In layman’s terms, don’t eat
breakfast or lunch and enjoy yourself at dinner.
Make an effort to meet your protein requirements, 1.4 grams x bodyweight in lbs., even while
using intermittent fasting to avoid calorie counting.
If you aren’t counting calories at all and you aren’t losing weight, go back to the drawing board
and reassess. Figure out your RMR, figure out how much you’re eating and track closely for two
weeks. Get to know how much you need to be eating so that you can eyeball it later on.
This process is your experiment with your own body. You’re going to have confusing and
frustrating moments intermixed with moments of astounding success. Once you figure
yourself out, no one will be able to tell you how to lose weight and gain muscle for your
particular body. You’ll be the master of that and have the final say, once and for all.
On The Cheap
Starting your weight loss journey on a budget
Many of you reading this manual are limited financially. That’s why I decided to make the book
free. It’s astounding to me that people hold back the information that will help you live a lean,
healthy life, not to mention a life where you feel good about yourself and will therefore live to
your fullest potential. All people should have an equal chance to do this. Please give this book to
anyone you think could benefit from it.
Many transmen don’t have family support, they’re too young to have credit cards, their jobs
don’t make them much money, and the money they do make is spent on buying an entirely new
wardrobe, paying for hormones, or buying alcohol and cigarettes to deal with the stress of living
in a gender-normative world. I would like to get as many guys in our community past this. Even
if you have no money to your name (or negative money) you can start being healthier right now.
If you do have money, partition less (or none) of it to alcohol, cigarettes, recreational drugs,
clothing, electronics, eating out, packaged food or other things that are keeping you in a cycle of
unhealthiness -- not to mention broke.
For your diet, I can make a few recommendations. As you begin to eat healthier and cook at
home, you will develop your own methods for doing so cheaply. Here’s how I manage it:
1) Buy cheap things in bulk and frozen. Frozen berries, frozen vegetables and cheaper, fattier
meats (bacon, hot dogs, hamburger patties pre-made, etc) can all be bought as cheaply as rice,
pasta and cereal, and stored for as long when kept in the freezer.
2) Buy more expensive things on a daily or every-few-days basis. Don’t eat frozen all the time,
because that just isn’t palatable. Buy fresh meats, cheeses, vegetables and fruits the same day
or the day before you’ll eat them. Buy only what you know you’ll eat before it spoils. Don’t
waste food because that’s a waste of money.
3) Have snacks prepared to take with you so that you don’t waste money eating out or blow your
diet because of a little hunger pang. Eating out should be intentional, and only once-in-awhile.
Beef jerky, full fat cheese sticks, sliced fruits and vegetables and cold cuts from a deli make
really good, filling snacks.
For your workout, weigh your options. Some of my clients look at me dead on and go “Are you
serious? I can’t afford a gym membership!” I don’t know who said all gyms are expensive ivory
towers that only the elite can enter. Gym chains, like 24-Hour Fitness and Snap Fitness, charge
no more than 30 dollars per month usually, but this changes per location. You can often bargain
them out of their signup fees as well. Drink 6 less alcoholic drinks this month and you have your
gym membership money (and that wasn’t including tip. I hope you tip).
Research the cost of every gym membership in your area. There’s a thing now called the World
Wide Web. That’s how you found me and my book. Yelp! reviews will give you detailed
information on every gym in your area, including price (and some bonus details like whether it’s
queer friendly). I truly believe that, if you can’t build a home gym, a chain gym with a month-tomonth membership and no contract is the cheapest, most valuable and least constricting way to
get started on your weight training program.
Also, please remember that if you go to high school or college, you probably have this amazing
thing called a school gym. If you don’t use it, you’re simply taking for granted what thousands of
people would die to have. School gyms are some of the best in the world.
If you feel uncomfortable going to a gym, consider building up a home gym with just the basics.
To have your best body, you only need a few things at your disposal:
1) A chin up bar that can be secured in a doorway
2) An olympic barbell
3) Weight plates
4) Weight plate fasteners (so that your plates don’t fall off when you lift)
That’s it. Go and price these things on Amazon right now. Shop around, try eBay, go to your
local used sporting goods store. There’s a chance you can find these things for cheaper than the
cost of a gym membership, especially with startup fees. You simply have to try. I know that you
can get your hands on some equipment, or step out of your comfort zone and join a gym.
If you’re underage and don’t have a job, ask for help from people who love and care about you.
What kind of an adult would refuse a young person money to be healthy? Many gyms allow
people sixteen years and older to join with parental permission. Your parents may not be in
support of your transition, but they don’t know this has anything to do with you joining a gym.
Ask for help. Tell them you want to lose weight, improve your health markers and live a long
life. Do you know what I would do if a young person came up to me and said that? Cry. Then
buy him whatever he wanted.
If you have to begin with the bodyweight program because you have no other choice, you will
have to be more attentive to your diet and realize there is a limit to where you can get with
muscle gains using bodyweight alone. As you begin the bodyweight program, begin putting five
dollars aside each day for a gym membership or basic equipment. Save up for one piece of
equipment at a time. There is always a way. No more excuses.
Facing Your Fears
You now have more than enough information in your hands to change your body.
Drastically and permanently.
I’m a realistic person, however. Although I know what I know now and inhabit a lean body, this
was not always the case for me. Unlike guys (both cisgender and trans) with good genetics, I
come from a shorter and fatter-than-average family. Most of my family is morbidly obese. Not
chubby, but so overweight that they are in danger of contracting much more serious problems,
such as cancer, diabetes, dementia and stroke. Many of them already have graduated forms of
diabetes. My grandmother died from cancer. My great aunt is suffering from dementia now and
can’t even recognize the faces of her own children.
We’re not supposed to live miserable, sick lives. We’re not supposed to walk through life
hunched over and ashamed of ourselves. We’re supposed to be lean, healthy and happy. We
should be able to climb hills to go hiking, swim through the ocean with ease, run on the beach,
and grow old enough to see our children live the same healthy and happy lives.
Transmen have the added risk of testosterone therapy. There are no longterm, definitive studies
that can tell us whether or not testosterone therapy is dangerous for our health. We have to
assume that it could be; then, we don’t grow scared and helpless. We take control of our health
and thrive against the odds.
The health of your body is your choice. Accept right now that your current state of health is your
fault. While that might sound harsh, the root of that statement is empowering. If your health is no
one’s fault but your own, you have the power to change it.
I understand there are extenuating circumstances. A lack of money, a lack of support from
friends and family, a lack of time in your day -- a lack of almost anything -- can deter weight loss
and muscle gaining efforts. When it comes down to it, you make time for the things that are most
important to you. I sincerely hope that the health of your own body is high on your list of
priorities.
This manual has the methods but it won’t do the work for you. Resolve to do the work. Sit down
and write out why you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or both. Put down every compelling reason
you can think of, whether it be to get rid of your Type 2 diabetes or just look hot on the beach.
Write it all down. Put it somewhere you can see it. Think about it every day.
You will have slips and falls on this adventure, but the key is to think of it as an adventure. You
will lose five pounds, then maybe gain back three. You will think through your setback and
reroute. Each time, you will get smarter. You just have to keep going.
Summary
How to Begin Using This Manual
1) Figure out your RMR and TDEE; figure out your calorie surplus and deficit for training
and off days, respectively.
2) Take your starting measurements with a tape measure
1) chest
2) shoulders
3) waist
4) mid-thigh
3) Take a before picture
*** please don’t skip this. Repay me for the free book with your amazing results and
testimonials!
4) Throw out the carbohydrate and sugar foods in your pantry
1) anything in a wrapper
2) anything in a box
3) anything that is highly processed
3) Fill your refrigerator and freezer with natural foods
1) meats
2) vegetables
3) fruits
4) full fat dairy
*** raw and organic is always better, as these foods are free of estrogen promoting
chemicals. I understand this can be expensive. Do the best you can.
*** buy the recommended supplements if you have the money
4) Buy two composition notebooks - one to track your workouts and one to track your food
intake. Use your workout notebook to adhere to the theory of progressive overload and
always do more work at each workout.
5) Begin the exercise program that correlates to your level of fitness; follow for a minimum
of four weeks and a maximum of eight weeks before advancing.
*** Use the theory of progressive overload at each workout.
6) Track your calories and foods in a spreadsheet or notebook
7) Track your workouts in a spreadsheet or notebook
8) Re-take your measurements and a full-body picture each week; keep on hand.
9) Experiment with the Advanced Methods. Get to know your body.
10) Remember to stretch, meditate and record your thoughts and struggles in a journal.
Get to know your mind as it relates to your body.
11) Report successes, road blocks and questions to Michael using his direct email:
spinola.michael@gmail.com
Recommended Reading
My research and the compilation of these methods is owed to a variety of amazing science and
fitness authors. If you’re interested in learning more about any of this information, I highly
recommend the following writers, trainers, scientists and bodybuilders:
Gary Taubes
Brad Pilon
Martin Berkhan
Tom Venuto
Mark Sisson
Jason Ferruggia
Leigh Peele
Thank You
I appreciate you taking the time to invest in me, whether it be through my blog, YouTube videos,
Facebook, or by downloading and reading this book. Training is one of my greatest obsessions in
life, and writing this book specifically for transmen, genderqueer or otherwise masculineidentifying, non-gender normative folks was a pleasure and an honor.
If you find the information in this manual helpful, you can help me out in one of three ways:
1) Take a “Before” picture of yourself before starting my program, then an “After” picture in
three months. Take your measurements once a week and keep them on hand in a spreadsheet.
Send them in with a testimonial about your experience directly to my email:
Michael.Monet12@gmail.com.
2) Spread this book around. Quote me as the author. Send people who could benefit from my
book in my direction, whether that be to my blog, my YouTube videos or my personal email. I
will be opening up personal training appointments next month for clients who live in my city.
2) If you’re willing and able to donate, any amount will be greatly appreciated. The donate
button is directly next to the download for this book on my blog. I took time off work to compile
this manual, but because of what it represents, it was extremely important to me to make this
book free. I’m also attempting to save up to write more and delve deeper into the genetic
potential for body recomposition of transmen both on and off hormones.
Please print and give or email this book to anyone you think could benefit from the information.
When using the information from this book in writing, please quote me as the author. Other than
that, share it freely.
Body transformation is a hard but rewarding journey. Getting yourself into the body you’ve
always wanted is an unmatched success. There is no way for me to describe the feeling. Use this
book and feel it for yourself.
Michael