How to lose fat and get ripped, fast!

To attain incredibly low body fat levels quickly, many all-natural, professional bodybuilders use a few simple dieting concepts that remain relatively unknown to the general public.

Most people believe that they must be a "bodybuilder" to use this information, but that simply is not true.

You DO NOT have to be a bodybuilder to get great results from these techniques. Anyone who wants to lose fat, CAN use their techniques to lose bodyfat at an unbelievable rate!

The "not so good" way to lose fat

If you just need to lose a few pounds, then you will probably not want a diet that is too extensive. Though we do not recommend them, most people in this situation usually go on some sort of "fad" diet that will cause them to lose weight from a reduction in calories. These diets do work, but you should be aware of the problems that come along with them:

First
Studies have shown that the majority of people who use these diets, will gain the weight back. Often times, they will gain back more than they lost. This is a consequence that most people do not consider. They drink a weight loss shake, or eat a special food for a few months and lose a large amount of weight, but what happens when it's time to go back to regular food? Most people usually start gaining weight again.

Fad diets will definitely help you lose weight quickly if you eat their foods, but what happens when you go back to the real world? You will most likely go back to your old eating habits. You cannot remain on that type of diet forever, and sooner or later you will have to face real food again. They do not prepare you for this. Most fad diets work. The question is only how long can you maintain the results.

Any successful weight loss will require a permanent change in eating habits. A good program should not only help you lose fat, it should also help you to develop the correct eating habits necessary to maintain your new body.

Second
You will lose more muscle mass than body fat. Now, you may say, "It does not matter as long as I'm thin", but understand that muscle burns more calories than fat -- this helps to keep your metabolism elevated. Muscle also gives you a shapely, firm and more defined physique.

If you end up with less muscle than when you started, you can bet that your metabolism has been slowed a great deal, which, in the long run, means your body will be burning fewer calories and storing more fat.

Ultimately, you may get down to the weight that you desire, but you will have more body fat, less muscle mass and no muscle tone. This is why people who have a history of dieting off and on (yo-yo dieting), will lose weight and look thinner, but still remain very soft or "jiggly". You know them because of their waving triceps. This type of dieting is notorious for weakening the immune system.

The best way to lose fat

Honestly, if you are tired of being overweight and "soft," or if you desperately just want to develop your "six pack," then you must educate yourself and get serious about changing your body. It has to become a priority in your life (at least until you reach your goal). There are no quick fixes, however if you use the right information, you will be able to make dramatic changes to your physical appearance in a very short period of time.

For the last few years, we have been researching ways to gain muscle and lose body fat. During that period of trial and error, we have learned to follow those who have been successful and losing fat and gaining muscle.

Natural bodybuilders have been successful in losing bodyfat while maintaining their muscle mass for years. Their techniques work, plain and simple!

"Smart" Dieting

All bodybuilders know that the first key to gaining muscle and losing fat is eating correctly. When we say eating correctly we mean not only the correct amount of calories, but the correct amount of protein, fat and carbohydrates taken at the correct times. In the past, we would just skip over this part. It seemed too difficult to grasp. That was a mistake. Your diet is the single most important element of a successful fat loss program. It should be geared to maximize fat loss, while minimizing any muscle loss. Here are a few key points to remember:

EAT MORE OFTEN

To lose fat you have to eat! DO NOT starve yourself. Your body is designed for survival, and part of it's survival mechanism involves storing and holding onto bodyfat to be used in times of food shortages. If you make it a habit of not eating, or eating only a small amount of calories each day, eventually your body will think that you are in a time of famine a begin to slow your metabolism. Your body is just trying to conserve energy (calories) because it is getting so little nourishment.

Your metabolism determines the rate at which your body burns calories, so if you have a fast metabolism, you will burn a lot of calories without much effort. If you have a slow metabolism, it will be very difficult to burn calories � especially fat calories. Your body will always slow your metabolism in response to low calorie dieting.

To avoid this, you simply must eat. Unfortunately, eating three meals per day will not cut it! It does not provide your body with the constant flow of nutrients and energy it needs increase your metabolism and burn fat. Ideally, you should strive to eat 5-6 meals evenly spaced throughout the day.

Here is an example of our fat loss diet schedule:

 

EAT FEWER CALORIES

Your diet should create a mild caloric deficit. In other words, your body should burn off more calories than you take in. After your body has used all the food calories for energy, it should (in theory) turn to using your fat cells for energy. However, as we stated earlier regarding fad diets, this is not always the case. Without resistance training to stimulate muscle growth, and diet manipulation to prevent muscle loss, your body will turn to using muscle cells for energy instead of fat cells!

Anyone interested in losing bodyfat, should begin by eating around 10-12x their bodyweight in calories.

Eating six meals each day, weight training and cardio will help to increase your metabolism. Because of this, everyone will have an initial loss of weight, and then the results will begin to taper off after a couple of months. What you must do it stick with the diet and be consistent. The fat will begin to come off again if you do not quit.

After about 6-8 weeks you will have to change your program since your body will have adjusted itself to the calorie levels and it will have also made the diet much less effective by slowing your metabolism. This is where cycling your diet will be beneficial.

EAT MORE PROTEIN

The ideal fat loss diet contains moderate amounts of fats, moderate amounts of carbohydrates and large amounts of protein. Protein helps to build and repair muscle, and it also aids in increasing your metabolism and enhancing your immune system.

To promote maximum muscle growth and repair, you should try to eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Some good sources of protein are lean meats, egg whites, whey protein and soy protein isolate.

We recommend starting with a diet that is around 40% protein.

Many of you may worry that this amount of protein is too much or harmful. And we understand your concerns. However, since everyone is different (size, weight, metabolism, physical stresses, lifestyle, etc.) it is almost impossible to have a standard number. We believe that any amount over 2x your bodyweight is too much, however, that is a matter of opinion, and so are all of the answers you will get to this question.

Most doctors will also say that you are eating too much protein. "All that protein is not necessary", they say. They are however assuming that you are an average (sedentary) individual. They do not take into account demanding physical activities like weight training, which put strains and stresses on your body that the average person does not have to deal with.

It is true that large amounts of protein can put a strain on your kidneys. Ammonia and urea (waste produced by protein assimilation) are removed from the bloodstream by the kidneys and liver and excreted in the urine. When you have a lot of these waste products in your system, your kidneys will have to work harder to keep your system clean.

There has been no major study on the effects of a high protein diet on individuals or athletes with healthy kidneys. There was however, a study done in 1982 with patients who already had kidney problems. The high protein intake, did of course further degrade their kidney functions.

Those with a history of kidney or liver problems should probably not be on a high protein diet. If your kidneys cannot efficiently remove any excess production of ketones from your bloodstream it will increase your blood acidity, which can lead to other problems. Because your liver is also involved in the process of metabolizing protein, if it is not functioning properly, high protein diets can cause further problems due to the added strain.

EAT MORE FAT

Yes, that's right, fat! We know what you are going to say -- "My doctor said that my cholesterol level is too high and I should eat a low fat. . ." Sound familiar?

You have to understand where your doctor is coming from. Most people in the medical profession tend to be on the overcautious side. If it's not a fact among their peers, it will be dismissed by them.

However, many techniques that bodybuilders, weightlifters and athletes use to gain strength and weight have not been proven the medical community, so they consider them ineffective. For example, most physicians still argue that steroids and hormone supplementation does not increase lean body mass, because there has been no study on this level--but bodybuilders know differently.

Saturated fats (found in all animal flesh, eggs, some vegetable oils) will raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) level. This is the stuff that clogs arteries, but impossible to cut out of your diet completely.

Saturated fats are the cause of many illnesses like heart disease, and cancer, so beware. However, Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) are unsaturated fats that are necessary for thousands of biological functions throughout the body. Since they cannot be manufactured by the body, the must be provided by your diet.

Essentially, these are the only fats you will ever need. There are two types of EFA's, they are linoleic acid (omega-6) and linolenic acid (omega-3). Linoleic acid is primarily found in oils like canola, sunflower and safflower. Linolenic acid is found in cold water fish. It is also found in linseed oil. Oils that contain both fats include evening primrose, borage and my favorite, high lignen flaxseed oil.

These fatty acids not only help increase testosterone production, they aid in the prevention of muscle breakdown, help to increase your HDL level (good cholesterol) and assist in hormone production.

Having high cholesterol levels does not mean that you will have coronary or heart problems in the future. About half the U.S. adult population has total cholesterol levels less than 200, which is considered desirable. But it is a fact that just as many heart attacks occur among people with total cholesterol levels less than 200 mg/dL as occur among individuals with total cholesterol greater than 300 mg/dl

To avoid heart or blood vessel problems in the future, it is recommended that you concentrate on RAISING YOUR HDL levels instead of concentrating on lowering your total cholesterol.

USE NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS

There is a lot of hype in this industry. Some supplements are a complete waste of money, but there are also a few great products out there that can really help you � if you have the correct diet and training program in place.

The key word here is "supplement". They supplement your existing diet and training program. If you are not training and eating correctly then they will not help you. You will be wasting your money! Supplements are not a substitute for proper nutrition and training.

The supplement that has helped me to lose the most fat has to be whey protein powder. This product helps me to get my required daily protein amount without having to eat a lot of animal products like beef or chicken (though I do eat a lot of chicken). It is also very quick to drink and can be mixed with a variety of foods or liquids. In this respect, it is much better than meat or poultry; not to mention far more convenient.

Two other supplements that we advise everyone to use in their program are Vitamin C and the amino acid L-Glutamine. The vitamin C aids in connective tissue repair, while the glutamine helped to strengthen my immune system, maintain cell hydration and protect against muscle breakdown.

The secret to getting a "six-pack" is DIETING!

If you ever want to see your "six pack" of abs, DIETING is the only way! Many people will dispute this, but we are sorry, it's the truth. No amount of crunches, ab gadgets or special hanging abdominal exercises will make your abs magically appear. You cannot spot reduce. In other words, you can't burn abdominal fat simply by doing abdominal exercises. Your body doesn't work that way.

Go to any auction site on the web and you will see hundreds of those fancy AB machines for sale. Why do you think that is? It's because they don't work. If they did, do you think people would be trying to get rid of them?

If fat is covering your abs, implementing a consistent fat loss diet, coupled with moderate exercise is the only way to reveal your "six-pack". Doing unusual and difficult exercises -- trying to make them appear, but they never will.

It was not until we start dieting correctly that they finally began to reveal themselves. During our fat loss program, we only worked our abs by performing crunches (yes, regular crunches) 3 times per week, before our weight training session.

To be totally honest, 3 times a week was too much. Your abs are just like any other muscle, and technically should be worked no more than twice per week. Even though we know it's not helping us, we still work our abs 3 times per week -- it just makes us feel better (I'm human) -- but no more than that.

No matter how many times we say this, it will not sink in with most people. They will still continue to look for that magical abdominal exercise, or secret product. Here's the secret --

"Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym!"

Wednesday (Legs)	Friday (Chest, Shoulder,Triceps)	Sunday (Back, Biceps)
Squats leg extension superset Calves 4 strips sets Abs Crunches (4 sets of 50)	Flat bench press incline dumbbell flyes superset Shoulder press side raises superset Tricep pushdowns Abs Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 45)	Wide grip pull-ups latbar pulldown superset EZ bar bicep curl incline dumbbell curls superset Abs Crunches (4 sets of 50)

• To lose bodyfat you must eat fewer calories than your body burns off, so EAT LESS -- but you must NOT starve yourself, otherwise you will lose more muscle than fat!
• Start eating 5-6 meals per day (space them out to about one every 3 hours).You are eating more often, but not necessarily more.
• Increase your protein intake. Without protein your body cannot build new muscle. Protein also helps to increase your metabolism -- which burns calories.
• Increase you water intake. A good formula for this is to multiply your bodyweight by .66 to get the required number of ounces per day.

• Keep your workouts under 75 minutes.
• Concentrate on compound exercises that work the large muscle groups.
• Use moderate to heavy weights with low reps, rest 2 minutes between each set.
• Do only 2 (maximum 3) exercises per body part.
• Train no more than 3 times per week, working each body part only once per week.
• Include some form of cardiovascular activity in your program. This will not only help to burn calories, but it will elevate your metabolism for hours afterwards
• Perform aerobic exercise 3-4 times per week
• Rest

1.	Decide on a very specific goal.
2.	Educate yourself.
	You must learn the best way to build a house before you start building. Otherwise you will be wasting your time and effort.
3.	Plan and organize yourself.
	You must put all your great information into a training program that you will be able to follow everyday.
4.	Carry out your plan.
	Follow your plan consistently, without fail until you reach your goal.