If You’re Serious About Getting Lean This is all you need

If you want some really good information about dieting and getting lean while maintaining muscle read on. You may think because we are a vending machine company that we have no clue about weightlifting and bodybuilding. Well were not professionals or anything but a few of us in the company have been weightlifting for over 10 years and one of us actually went through a bodybuilding prep diet/ meal plan. While he never competed, he went through the process like if he was going to compete. The reason he never competed was because to compete in most bodybuilding competitions you have to take steroids and he never wanted to do that. Yeah there is all-natural bodybuilding competitions but you have to dedicate more time and at some point most of those natural guys in those competitions took steroids at some point. Which is something this person did not want to do and has never wanted to do. Well here is what he went through. If you want to learn a lot continue on this is definitely some information you will not find anywhere else.  

Well here we go. When I first started working out, I kind of did my own thing. Just ate a lot of protein and tried to stay away from carbs and that’s pretty much it. Which wasn’t to bad for not having any experience with dieting and just being about two to three years into weightlifting. I ate a-lot of protein and tried to keep my carb intake down whenever I wanted to get lean. But I always noticed I couldn’t really lose my mid-section and didn’t ever really get defined.

So, one day I said to myself you know what I got to do this right, I’m going to find someone to help me out. So, I found someone with experience in the field of nutrition/bodybuilding. I went to a nutrition shop I would usually buy my protein from and told the owner hey I need help, since I knew she was heavily involved in fitness and competed herself. I told her I want someone to guide me and take me to the next level. Someone to give me a strict diet, I want to pretty much follow what a bodybuilder does to get ready for a competition. So, the owner immediately contacted one of her employees and said meet with this guy here on this day. Little did I know I was in for a ride. I met with her employee who was a current bodybuilder and had one several physique competitions for the city we lived in and had placed high in a few NPC competitions. He put me through pretty much a bodybuilding/show prep diet for 3 months.

To start, the diet was not easy at all, it consisted of me having to eat about 45 grams of protein give or take every 3 hours with whatever other sides he put in the plan. In the morning it was like 7 egg whites by themselves then 3 hours later it was two scoops of a lean protein shake, then for lunch it was 8 oz. of chicken, turkey, or steak with whatever side he selected etc. It went on like this for 3 months. I would see him every week and he would check my weight and body fat. Aside from checking my body fat and weight he would also tweak my diet almost every week or every other week. Some weeks he would add carbs for lunch and some weeks he would take them out or add them at breakfast etc. Also, all my food while on the plan had to be weighed or measured, which I did I never ate more or less than what was on the plan. I always ate to the “T” what was on the plan. My protein, the carbs, the vegetables etc. To say the least it was very stressful, I had several mood swings and wasn’t in a good mood most of the time. Not having the normal amount of food in you that your used to having and always feeling hungry/hangry wasn’t good for my mood. Also, my energy levels were low since my food intake wasn’t what it normally was.

It was probably one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever done. I never realized how much not having food or changing your food habits really affects you. It was extremely hard. But I did go from about 17% body fat to 5.7% body fat in 3 months. That doesn’t seem like much but going down in body fat is not easy especially once you start going below 10%, that is the hardest. Lowering your body fat below that point I would say was like five times harder than lowering it from 17% to 10%. It requires a lot more to lower your body fat once you start going below 10% body fat.

I ended up doing the entire diet/ meal plan and I learned a lot about dieting and I learned a lot about myself as well. It took me to places I’ve never been before mentally, it challenged me in many ways mentally and physically.

Some of The Things I Learned Through-out the whole process

A-lot of people feel like they can pick up a book and learn a-lot about dieting and bodybuilding. Which is true you can. I myself had read a few books on dieting and bodybuilding. But I feel like going through the actual process with the guidance and experience of a bodybuilder was the best learning experience ever. I feel like going through it helps you remember everything and everything you learn gets in grained in your head because you had to do it all and go through the grueling process.

Here are some of the things I learned. I learned that in order to maintain muscle when dieting so strictly you need to eat protein every three hours. And when your eating protein every 3 hours it needs to be a good amount protein. It has to be your daily requirement divided by the number of meals a day (usually 6). My daily requirement of protein would go up when carbs were taken out of my diet. When going really low on carbs or no carbs in your diet the protocol is to go up a little bit more on your protein. It is believed that carbs act as a buffer to protect your muscle (prevent muscle breakdown). So, when you’re eating a lot of carbs you’re protein intake does not have to be very high, since the carbs protect your muscle somewhat. Then if your going low on carbs the idea is to raise your protein a little more to protect your muscle since you do not have that buffer from the carbs.

I learned that your diet needs to be tweaked weekly or if not at-least every 3 weeks to continue to lose fat and accomplish your goal. By tweaking your diet, it keeps your body from adapting. For example, towards the end when the diet had no carbs in it, he (my personal trainer) would change the types of protein I was eating each week. Like one week it was chicken and the next week it was fish etc. I learned that when you start getting closer to the competition or are trying to get to that low body fat percentage you need to eliminate any protein shakes or dairy products. The reason being that protein shakes have extra chemicals or some have lactose that could cause inflammation. The lactose in dairy foods can cause inflammation as well, which is something you definitely do not want when trying to get to that super low-body fat or when your preparing to get on stage.

I learned that you should eat a small amount fat with some lean protein before going to bed. I would eat 9 almonds before going to bed every day, the fats in the almonds will cause your body to absorb the protein much slower. By your body absorbing the protein much slower, the protein will last longer in your body preventing you from becoming catabolic. Catabolic is when your body starts feeding itself from your muscles, it starts breaking down muscle. The idea behind the almonds is like drinking a shake of casein protein, casein protein is slow release protein, but the reason you don’t use casein protein when prepping for a bodybuilding show or trying to get very lean. Is because casein protein has a lot of lactose which causes bloating and most casein protein powders have chemicals in them which may illicit inflammation or a reaction you don’t want.

I learned that doing steady state slow cardio doesn’t cause much muscle break down. My personal trainer told me to do about 30 minutes a day in the beginning of the program and towards the end I was doing about 1 hour a day. The reason for doing slow walking cardio was to burn as much fat as possible but not burn muscle. It is said that if you run or jog you burn fat but you also burn muscle and since the goal was to maintain as much muscle as possible, I would walk slow just to burn fat and not muscle. I would walk at about a speed of 3.3 on the treadmill with an incline of 11.0 to 15.0 not holding on to the treadmill. It took sometime to get up to 15.0 but I worked my way up there.

More Requirements from The Diet/Plan

I would have to drink a gallon of water a day to get rid of toxins and to help my body build muscle etc. I did all this dieting and then had to lift weights at-least 5 times a week for about an hour every-day. I had to stay away from alcohol because of the calories and the detriment it had to muscle gain. Towards the end of the three-month period about a month before the end of the three-month period the personal trainer told me to take a fat burner. The fat burner did not have anything illegal in it, it was just a fat burner to help me lose a bit more body fat. The fat burner at-least gave me some energy since I was lacking a-lot. It also helped get me down a bit lower in body fat percentage.

About three days before the three-month mark the personal trainer had me take water pills/diuretic pills. I had to take a certain amount each day. The day closest to the three month mark I had to take double the amount of pills from the days before. I also had to control my water intake. I don’t remember exactly but I believe I was only able to have about 3 cups of water each day, only the last couple of days before the three-month mark. On the day that marked three months where I had to check in with my personal trainer, I had to eat half a sweet potato right before seeing him before he took my final result pictures. The reasoning behind eating the sweet potato was since my body was so deprived of fluids and carbs my body would absorb the sweet potato completely and make my muscles look fuller and would cause my muscles to look more-veiny (cause me to look more vascular). And it did I felt as if I gained a pound or two of muscle. I felt bulkier in my upper torso area.

I did everything my trainer told me to do to the “T”, I followed the plan to the “T”. I remember going out with friends to restaurants for lunch, and dinner and just watching them eat. I would just be sitting there watching them eat. We would go to bars just to hang out and I would be the sober one driving everybody home. I also remember stepping out of where ever I was with my friends a bar/a movie etc. and going to my car to have my next meal that was due. I would keep my meals in a cooler with ice in my car and whenever It was snack or meal time I would go and take about ten minutes and eat my snack or meal in my car.

My End Results

Well at the end after following everything strictly I went from about 17% body fat to 5.7% body fat and about 190 pounds to about 168 pounds total. At the end when I was 5.7% body fat, I had an 8 pack in my abdomen area and you could see veins in my abdomen area. That was the best I have ever looked or the leanest I have ever gotten. With a shirt on I looked a bit skinny but once I took my shirt off, I was very, very lean or as some would say very shredded. I got down to 5.7% body fat and when considering that is not that low when it comes to bodybuilding competitions there are bodybuilders that get down to about 2- 3% body fat which is crazy. I feel like if I would have taken some type of steroids or something I would have gotten to that low of body-fat percentage but I did everything all-natural, and still do weight lifting all-natural.

In all at the end it was extremely mentally challenging but a great experience. Ever since then I feel like I re-programmed my body to eat much more -healthy than I did before. I feel like my taste buds aren’t as high maintenance as before, I pretty much can eat anything without any seasoning. Also, I notice I eat a lot of foods for their nutritional value and not their taste. I stay away from a-lot of desserts, I actually hardly ever eat desserts except maybe on the holidays. I don’t eat any fast and food and still eat protein every three hours and control my carb intake daily without any struggle. I feel like it was an amazing experience and something that taught me a lot about nutrition and myself.

If you are serious about wanting to lose fat and maintain muscle. Get with a nutritionist or a very experienced personal trainer/ bodybuilding athlete and do a physique or bodybuilding show diet. It will change your life and your physique.

Also if you have any questions feel free to give us a call, I am sure we can guide you in the right direction. Also check out our products from our vending machines. We got into the healthy vending business to be able to provide good options for people on strict meal plans like this.

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