the secret to getting super lean - I'm talking about ripped, and not just "average body fat" - is all about mastering the art of "peaking." Most people have no clue about what it takes to get there type of low body fat levels that reveal to see ripped six-pack abs, muscle striations, vascular and extreme muscular definition, so they go it completely in the wrong direction.
Here is a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:
"Tom, the Burn The Fat website, you wrote:
"Who better than a model of bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athlete in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. to undergo transformation in the 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes closer to the terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like marathoners triathaletes and often rely on the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bones .'
"Tom, it seems that there is a contradiction unless I'm missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through 12 weeks 'transformation' prior to every event instead of staying 'lean and mean' svevrijeme? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should stay in shape all the time, instead work on losing fat prior to each competitive event, correct ??"
there is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and images of competitors), do not remain completely ripped all year round, and it is the very reason they were able to get so ripped on dannatjecanje ...
I can not keep peak forever or it's not "peak", right? What is the definition of peak? This is the pinnacle surrounded by two lower points is not it?
Therefore, any shape you can stay all year round is not your "peak" condition.
an intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness / Figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to the top, then set aside for maintenance or growth phase.
I'm not talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting is all this off every year. What I'm talking about going from good shape to great (peak) shape, and then ease back off on good shape .... but never getting "out of shape." Makes much sense, does not it? Here's an example: I have no intention of ever walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat as I appear in the image on my website. Off-season, when I compete, my body fat is usually between 8 - 10%. Mind you, it is very lean and still single digit body fat.
I do not stray too far from competition shape, but I do not maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5% -4.0% body fat to "peak" for competition without the loss of muscle mass ... using the same techniques I reveal in my e-books. It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want? For several weeks before the competition I'm so depleted, ripped, and even "drawn" in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer me food.
Ok, so I'm just kidding about that, but let's just say that they "ripped to shreds" is not a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It's probably not healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you're a natural "ectomorph" (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It's just not "normal" to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous fat.
Instead of trying to keep the peak, I cycle back to the less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping over 9.9% body fat. Several years ago I stayed back - like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew that I would be photographed, but I do not let my body fat go over 10%. This practice is not just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build on their best form for the competition. Is December footballer in the same condition in March and April as he is in August-September? It is no coincidence. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form ... That's why they have training camp !!!
There is another reason not to want to maintain a "ripped to shreds" physique all year round - you'd have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one reason that 95% of people can not lose weight and keep it off - they are chronic dieters ... always in some type of diet. Know anyone like that?
I can not stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, and then set aside some time and eat a little more (healthy food, not "pigging out"), the metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach even lower body fat level, until you finally get to the point that your happy maintenance level for life - at a level that is healthy and realistic - as well as visually appealing.
Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that is so effective, it puts them in complete control over their body composition. They have mastered this area of your life and never have to worry about it again. If ever "slip" and fall off the wagon like all humans do from time to time ... No problem! They know how to get back into shape quickly.
Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to maintain a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men and 15% for women), and then on a whim, to reach a temporary "peak" at an extremely low fat authority for the purpose of the competition. Perhaps most importantly, they have the power to control and slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!
What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then the super lean when summer rolled around, or when your vacation in the Caribbean, or when your wedding date is coming up? Would not you like to be in control of your body like that? Is not this the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness / figure competitors not only more practical, real-world level?
And even if you have no competitive aspirations, do not agree that there is something worth everyone could learn from physique athletes? Do not model after a bunch of losers who gobble diet pills, blow their money on exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like slot machines, only to gain back those lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth - natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors ...
These athletes get ripped physique you want to be, exactly when you want, simply manipulating their diets in a cyclical manner between the pre-contest "cutting" programs and off season "maintenance" or "muscle growth" programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal "peaking" approach yourself and you will see that this can work, as well as for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.
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