I’ll keep this short and straight to the point.
The first thing you need to understand is that to get shredded, fit, and healthy in general, you need to forget about eating that processed shit that you’re (probably) used to eating, and instead, you need to start eating whole, healthy, real foods.
In short focus on eating as much of healthy foods as possible (obviously).
Everyone knows what is healthy and what isn't, but for some reason, people still need a reminder all the time...
• Meat• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Dairy
• Grains
• Fish
• Nuts
All of these ARE healthy (if you are allergic to some of these, or don't like them — don't eat them. Simple).
• Sweets• Processed food
• Pizza, Ice cream, etc.
Basically, anything else not listed above is NOT healthy (try to eat these as little as possible).
In short, everything in its natural form (the way it can be found in nature) = healthy.
Everything that comes in a bag or a box in its unnatural form and/or is highly processed = not healthy.
Really simple. Focus on filling up your fridge with as much food from the "healthy" department, and you are halfway there.
Get Shredded
Now that we got that out of the way, here’s how to get shredded.
Here’s the only set-in-stone rule you need to follow to get shredded:
If you wanna get shredded (i.e. lose fat), you need to lose weight, and to lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit.
That’s it, that’s all that matters when it comes to getting shredded.
To be in a caloric deficit, you first need to figure out what is your calorie maintenance (i.e. the caloric intake that is required for you to MAINTAIN your body weight).
There are two ways you can go about this:
1)
Be conscious of how much you eat, and track your weight on a weekly level. If your weight stays the same, then that’s your maintenance.
If you’ve read my articles in the past, you know this is my favorite way of doing things as I see it as a holistic and healthy approach to eating.
BUT suppose you have no idea how many calories that actually is, and you have never bothered with them in your life.
In that case, tracking your calories for some time just to get a rough idea of how many of them you consume throughout the day can be beneficial for your shred goals.
2)
Go to this online calorie calculator, fill in what’s required (gender, age, activity level, etc.) and it will tell you approximately what is your calorie maintenance.
Now that you know your maintenance, all you need to do in order to lose weight is to be in a slight caloric deficit (i.e. eating 300-500 calories less than your maintenance level).
e.g. Your maintenance is 2500 calories per day. To lose weight — i.e. get shredded, you need to cut that to around 2000 a day.
That's it.
Tip to stay in a caloric deficit
The best tip I can give you that will make it easier for you to stay in a caloric deficit is to shorten the time window in which you can eat.
If you make a rule that you can't eat before or after a certain time of day (and you stick to it), it will be easier for you to eat less food and thus stay in a caloric deficit.
I recommend making a rule where you don't eat for at least 2 to 3 hours after you wake up, and 2 to 3 hours before you go to sleep.
I know that not eating for that amount of time after waking up can be difficult for some people.
If you're one of them, I suggest prolonging that time as much as you can (according to your schedule and your body's cravings) in the morning and then adjusting your evening eating time accordingly.
For example, if you manage to wait for only 1 hour after waking up before having your first meal, aim to have your last meal 4-5 hours before going to sleep instead of 3.
Protein
Besides losing weight, to get that 'shredded' look, you also need to maintain and build muscle.
Otherwise, you're just gonna get skinny, and that's not something that we want, right?
So to maintain and build muscle, besides working out hard, you also need to eat an adequate amount of protein.
So how much protein you should eat?
In general, for optimal health, it is said that eating 1g/kg (of your total body weight) is enough.
For building muscle, however, you need to eat around 1.6g/kg or 0.8g/lbs of your body weight.
This means that if you weigh 100kg (220lbs), you should aim for around 160g of protein per day.
This is considered the optimal amount of protein, and studies show that eating more than 1.6g/kg won't result in any added muscle growth.
I've been following this, and I've seen results.
Animal vs. plant-based protein
In short, animal-based protein is simply superior and more complete, and that's a fact.
If you are vegan or don't eat meat for some reason, that's completely fine (who am I to tell you to do otherwise?).
Just keep in mind that plant-based proteins are of lower quality in terms of their essential amino acid content. To make up for this, include a variety of plant-based proteins in your diet.
Also, if you don't consume animal-based protein, you should up your protein intake by around 20-40% for optimal results.
So instead of 1.6g/kg, you should aim for around 2.2g/kg.
Meal frequency
When it comes to meal frequency, the most optimal amount (science backs this up) is about 2-3 meals per day.
There's been a myth for the longest time that eating a lot of small meals throughout the day is somehow gonna magically increase your metabolism, to the point where you’re almost gonna end up eating more calories, and yet lose fat because that’s how fast your metabolism is.
I can’t believe people still think this is true.
This is flat-out stupid, and it also isn't the way you make your metabolism 'fast'.
The things that are actually gonna ‘speed up’ (or increase) your metabolism, are, amongst the other things, your muscle mass and how healthy you are (on a hormonal level), not how many times you eat in a day.
So yeah, while having a fast metabolism will help you burn more calories (which is important because the amount of calories you burn throughout the day is what ultimately decides whether you lose or gain weight), eating 10 times a day isn’t the way to go.
Cut the noise, and focus on eating 2 to 3 healthy meals per day and you're good to go.
Avoid sugar
The one common nutrition enemy we all struggle to fight against (myself included) is sugar.
Sugar is by far the worst thing you can consume. It's so bad for you that it should be categorized with the rest of the hard drugs.
Every single 'modern disease' is in one way or another related to sugar.
DON'T EAT IT.
The important thing to understand here (data backs this up) is the fact that the majority of sugar consumption in the Western world, doesn't actually come from eating sweets, it comes from eating stuff you would never suspect has sugar in it.
The first thing that comes to my mind is ketchup. A lot of you may know this, but what you don't know is the fact that 100g of ketchup can have more sugar than a small can of soda.
It's not only about the ketchup. A lot of things you can buy in your local supermarket are loaded with sugar, and the worst part is they don't even disclose it.
That's why you should avoid eating as much processed foods as possible.
It's really important to be mindful of how much sugar you consume, and of course, try to consume it as little as possible.
And no, natural sugars from fruits and vegetables won't kill you, no need to worry, eat them as much as you want if you feel like it.
I point this out because I started to see people claim that you should avoid eating fruits because of their sugar content (ironically that same person, after stating something like this, would proceed to down the can of pre-workout 7 minutes later in the same video, but that's the story for another time, lol).
All in all, avoid sugar and processed food as much as you can if the maximum amount of weight lost is your goal.
This is everything you need to know in order to get shredded.
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