| Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter | | | | creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve |
| subscribers recently sent me this question: | | | | stayed leaner - like 6-7%, (which takes effort), |
| Tom, on your website, you wrote: | | | | especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I |
| ‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness | | | | don’t let my body fat go over 10%. |
| competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as | | | | This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. |
| quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The | | | | Athletes in all sports use periodization to build |
| transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to | | | | themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a |
| competition would boggle your mind! Only | | | | pro football player in the same condition in March-April |
| ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low | | | | as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many |
| body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes | | | | show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for |
| and marathoners often get lean at the expense of | | | | training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are |
| chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing | | | | in peak form... that’s why they have training camp!!! |
| but skin and bone.’ | | | | There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to |
| "There seems to be a contradiction unless I'm missing | | | | maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year |
| something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness | | | | round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie |
| competitors have to go through a 12 week | | | | restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons |
| 'transformation' prior to every event instead of staying | | | | that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it |
| 'lean and mean' all the time? If they practice the | | | | off --they are CHRONIC dieters... always on some |
| secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying | | | | type of diet. Know anyone like that? |
| in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing | | | | You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. |
| fat prior to every competitive event, correct?" | | | | Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you |
| There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and | | | | plateau as your body adapts to the chronically |
| other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), | | | | lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and |
| don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and | | | | push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a |
| it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped | | | | while and eat a little more (healthy food, not "pigging |
| on the day of a contest… | | | | out"), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few |
| You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a | | | | weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss |
| "peak", right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a | | | | phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until |
| high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it? | | | | you finally reach the point that’s your happy |
| Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is | | | | maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy |
| NOT your “peak” condition. | | | | and realistic – as well as visually appealing. |
| The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which | | | | Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for |
| almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors | | | | losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in |
| use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion | | | | complete control of their body composition. |
| and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance | | | | They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will |
| or growth phase. | | | | never have to worry about it again. If they ever |
| I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and | | | | “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at |
| out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every | | | | times … no problem! They know how to get back into |
| year. What I’m talking about is going from good | | | | shape fast. |
| shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to | | | | Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a |
| good shape.... but never getting "out of shape." Makes | | | | low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or |
| a lot of sense, doesn’t it? | | | | about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a |
| Here’s an example: I have no intentions | | | | temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat |
| whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at | | | | for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important |
| 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. | | | | of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease |
| Off-season, when I'm not competing, my body fat is | | | | back from peak shape into maintenance, and not |
| usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very | | | | balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters! |
| lean and still single digit body fat. | | | | What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, |
| I don't stray too far from competition shape, but I don't | | | | and then get super lean when summer rolled around, |
| maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 | | | | or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or |
| weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to | | | | when your wedding date was coming up? |
| 3.5%-4.0% body fat to "peak" for competition with NO | | | | Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like |
| loss of lean body mass...using the same techniques I | | | | that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and |
| reveal in my e-book. | | | | fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, |
| It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, | | | | real-world level? |
| and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few | | | | So even if you have no competitive aspirations |
| weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, | | | | whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s |
| and even “drawn” in the face, that complete | | | | something of value everyone could learn from |
| strangers walk up and offer to feed me. | | | | physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the |
| Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just | | | | huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy |
| say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a | | | | exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets |
| desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a | | | | like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! |
| monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not | | | | Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth - |
| even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme | | | | natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors… |
| low body fat. Unless you’re a natural | | | | These physique athletes get as ripped as they want |
| “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body | | | | to be, exactly when they want to, simply by |
| type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic | | | | manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between |
| hormones may drop and sometimes your immune | | | | pre-contest "cutting" programs and off season |
| system is affected as well. It’s just not | | | | "maintenance" or "muscle growth" programs. Even if |
| “normal” to walk around all the time with literally | | | | you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal |
| no subcutaneous body fat. | | | | “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see |
| Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into | | | | that it can work as well for you as it does for elite |
| a less demanding off-season program and avoid | | | | bodybuilders. |