I am a little over 6 weeks away from my two week vacation in the beautiful Florida Coast/Caribbean, and I’m excited to get back to looking relatively shredded. Although my goal is not quite to attain contest-ready, “Greek-God, Statuesque” status, I enjoy looking lean and presentable, and feeling just a tad bit hungry when I’m on the beach. In other words, a look in which most people would be proud. I take pride in my body because, as Deion Sanders’ saying goes, “if you look good, you feel good. [And] if you feel good, you play good.”
Today marks the beginning of my journey back to “relatively lean.” After my physique competition in mid-May, I’ve taken a sort of dieting hiatus. When I’m not obsessing over my macros as I do during contest prep, I walk around at my current “happy weight” of between 178 lbs. – 182 lbs., while maintaining a 5-6 day per week strength training schedule. At a height just a hair under 5’9”, I’d say this puts me comfortably, and conservatively, around 12% – 14% body fat. To put this in perspective, just 4 months ago, I competed at 158 lbs. at approximately 5% body fat.
Despite consistent, clean eating during the prior week, I enjoyed the first Sunday of regular season football yesterday with my father and stepmother, and let loose on the diet for a day. I feasted on ¾ of a large, thin crust, supreme pizza; an entire bag of dulce de leche cookies; and two plates filled with Filipino “comfort” food, consisting of oil-laden beef goodness, copious amounts of garlic fried rice, 2 fried eggs, and 10 deep fried, Filipino egg rolls.
In the offseason, I enjoy myself—to say the least.
But when I want to get dialed-in physically, within a short period of time, I take the necessary steps to make it happen in the most systematic, comfortable, and sustainable way possible. For those of you that don’t already know, the ultimate goal to successfully leaning down is to lose fat while retaining as much muscle mass as possible. Diet is a major part of the equation. The 4 simple techniques, from a dietary perspective, that I apply to modify my body composition are outlined below.
General Diet Guidelines to Lean Down within a 6 Week Time Frame
- Monitor Carbohydrate Intake – For me, keeping my carbohydrate intake under 100 grams on my lower carbohydrate days and no higher than 150 grams on my higher carbohydrate days allows me to maintain intensity in the gym while progressively cutting fat. The closer I get to any given deadline, the more meticulous I am with the monitoring of my carbs. During a quick and dirty cut, I keep my protein and fat intake fairly constant—I manipulate my carbohydrate intake based on my hunger and energy levels. There are times when I know that I need to push through and get my body used to running on lower carbs, but there are also times that a higher carbohydrate intake would be beneficial for me physically, and, just as important, psychologically. I have benefitted from a couple years of experience with manipulating my macronutrients, as it is a constant process of calibrating and re-calibrating based on how I feel. In my opinion, manipulating macronutrients judged solely by feeling, which many call “intuitive eating,” is truly an art; moreover, this art has been crucial in my ability to maintain a comfortable offseason body composition, while making steady progress in the gym.
- Apply Intermittent Fasting Principles – Although there are an abundance of intermittent fasting principles, I find that I can most effectively take advantage of the benefits of intermittent fasting by utilizing a 16 hour fast with an 8 hour eating window. For me, during a typical workday, this means an eating window of 10am-6pm—the period in which I consume all my food for the 24-hour period. Since I enjoy eating large meals, I usually have a large meal with half of my daily calorie allotment at 10:00am, a snack at 1:30pm consisting of 10-15% of my calories, and another meal at approximately 5:30pm consisting of the rest of my daily allotment of calories. As a general guideline, if I do eat a meal outside of my eating window, I apply the following macros: high protein, moderate fat, and no/low carb.
- Consume Caffeine – Black coffee mixed with Creatine and Stevia is my pre-workout of choice before my morning workout, regardless of whether or not I intend to attain a leaner look. Furthermore, I have learned that caffeine effectively suppresses my appetite—so when I feel hunger during a time in which I do not intend to consume food, I drink a cup of coffee or hot tea, in addition to a 28 ounce bottle of water. Caffeine has been an incredibly effective staple during my cutting phases. In addition, I have found that stopping my caffeine consumption at 2pm allows me to fall asleep between 9pm-10pm, negating the adverse effect of caffeine on my sleep.
- Consume BCAAs Mixed with 1 Teaspoon of Glutamine During Workout – In an effort to retain as much muscle mass as possible during a cut, and to buffer the soreness that I feel during my workouts, I utilize a no calorie, flavored BCAA, mixed with 1 tablespoon of glutamine powder and 28 ounces of water. I find that this mixture, along with the creatine in my pre-workout coffee, to be a potent combination in providing the strength and energy necessary to push through my workouts during a caloric deficit.
My goal, by October 27, 2016, is to comfortably walk around at a weight of 168 lbs. – 173 lbs. Assuming my strength remains at the same level, I would say this puts me at 8.5% – 10% body fat, which, on my body, is enough to see a defined six pack and striations on my chest and shoulders.
I weighed in at 182.0 lbs. at 4:45am this morning. I’ve got work to do, and I’m going to love every minute of this short journey.
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