1) Don't eat within 3-4 hours of going to bed
I have developed this rule simply by observing myself in the mirror first thing every morning. When I eat within an hour or so of bed I am always fatter the next morning. When I do not eat within several hours of bed I am lean and mean.
I started doing this in China. I would be at home at night, wanting to eat something but since a) I went to the grocery store daily to buy my fresh food for the day b) there is no Chinese junk food I want to eat and c) all the stores close at 8:30 pm and I didn't have any food so I just wouldn't eat at night. This is how I developed a rock hard 6-pack.
Go to bed on an empty stomach, that way your body is burning fat instead of the food in your belly.
2) Just say no to low calorie foods
Low calorie “diet” foods are for fatties. If you eat 5 portions of the low calorie bullshit it's even worse than eating “bad” foods like steak and eggs and butter. High calorie foods are FILLING so you aren't going back to the kitchen again and again looking for more low calorie baloney.
Fat burners speed up the metabolism and decrease hunger. They also help you focus when you're dieting and low on calories.
Red Burner is the best fat burner on the market.
4) Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is the process of fasting for part of the day and eating (feasting) for part of the day. For intermittent fasting you have several approaches:
- fast for 24 hours once or twice per week
- eat all your food in an 8 hour window and fast for a 16 hour window (Leangains)
- eat all your food in a 4 hour window and fast for a 20 hour window (The Warrior Diet
) - eat one big meal a day, like a Lion
- eat two meals per day
I have tried all of the above methods and they all work.
After all, what is the #1 rule when trying to lose weight?
DON'T EAT SO DAMN MUCH!
Bodybuilders of yesteryear were steak and eggs men and they had the physiques to show for it.
6) Walking
Jogging is a bunch of bullshit. Walking is fantastic. Last year I spent two weeks in Thailand. I did not lift weights or do bodyweight exercises. I hit the gym exactly once in that timeframe. I ate two meals per day every day and I walked an insane amount. I could see in the mirror every day that I was getting leaner and more muscular (no drugs). When I got back the first thing they said was “Whoa! You're stronger!“.
What I like to do is wake up early as can be, take the dog out for a walk and catch the sunrise. It's a great way to start the day.
7) Lift weights
To get in tip top shape you must lift weights. When you're trying to lose weight you want to take SHORT rest breaks and you want to get that heart pumping like a maniac. Your weight lifting routine should be a race to finish faster than you did the day before. Taking short rest breaks (30 seconds) and lifting in a slow, controlled manner will get your heart pumping and your lungs burning far better than any treadmill or elliptical baloney.
Remember, look around the gym and find the fittest people and see what they are doing. They aren't playing on a stationary cardio machine. If you can find some old routines by the great Vince Gironda you can follow those. The Hollywood Physique also has something similar.
If you follow 30 days of discipline and don't come out lean like a Spartan that means you didn't follow it.
9) Skip breakfast
“The most important meal of the day!” says the executive of the cereal company. It's just not necessary to eat all the damn time. Two meals per day (lunch and dinner) full of high calorie foods is absolutely perfect for toning and trimming.
You've probably heard the morons say “Well if you're trying to lose weight you should eat more“. Makes a lot of sense if you live in la-la land. Here on Earth to lose weight you've got to eat less.
10) Exercise daily
Get in a daily walk, get your daily lifting done, hell, even go for a jog. But do something each and every day to get your heart going. Rest days are a bunch of bullshit and an excuse to be lazy. That's what sleep is for, rest. Your days should be spent killing and dealing.
11) Sign up for an event that you will have to train for
Something like a mud run / death race. Something that will force you to get into good shape to be able to complete. I recently ran a 12 mile Tough Mudder and let me tell you, you need to be in good shape to do something like that. Signing up for the challenge will get you in gear to losing those extra lbs. I didn't see too many fatties at the finish line.
12) If you eat a “cheat meal” skip a meal the next day
Whenever you eat some fattening foods or go on a binge you should counteract by skipping a meal the next day. I had a buddy who went on a rampage to get a 6 pack but he didn't want to stop drinking. For every time he would drink, he would skip a meal the next day. It worked like a charm, he had a 6 pack going in seemingly no time. If you eat some fatso foods be sure to counteract and skip your next meal.
13) Don't buy junk food
If there is ice cream around me, I will eat it. If it isn't here I will not eat it. Concentrate on buying fresh food that you have to prepare yourself. If you have a cupboard full of snacks you will eat them. So just don't buy them, don't have them in the house.
If you wake up in the night and wander into the kitchen and see a bunch of cupcakes you will go to town and eat them. If you wake up in the middle of the night and wander into the kitchen but have no food to eat you will drink a glass of water and go back to bed without eating. Remember, snacking makes you fatter than anything else.
14) Have a nice day
Frequent eating and snacking is usually a sign of boredom, depression or unhappiness. So don't worry, be happy!
Point 14 is so true, I’m usually so engrossed in doing my music that I forget to eat, and when I hear how great my final mix sounds I do hundreds of pushups to celebrate!
Indeed. Happens to me all the time (not eating because I’m busy).
I never heard of Bronkaid. Just follow directions on the package or go take it when I feel like a rush?
One should only use Bronkaid to treat symptoms of asthma, but if you are going to use it then yes, you should follow the directions on the box and your asthma symptoms will magically disappear.
Vic referrring to the popular ECA and EC stack’s that bodybuilders use. I’ve used it for a while and it really works.
You will need:
Bronkaid (or some ephedrine supplement that contains 25mg of ephedrine)
Caffeine Pills (200mg), you can pick these up for hella cheap at wal-mart or a convenience store.
Baby Aspirin
Do a little research on the ECA stack before you get into it so you don’t give yourself the shakes by taking too much at once. You need to accustom your body to taking it.
Basically this is exactly what the orignial Ripped Fuel and Hydroxycut used to be.
here is another tip, secret of the pro’s baby!! Take your ephedrine right before bed. Not an hour before, not 20 min before, RIGHT BEFORE YOUR HEAD HITS THE PILLOW!! You’ll be asleep before it kicks in and your metabolic rate will be thrown into overdrive while you sleep (which most fat burning processes take place in anyways) I would not do this for the entire diet, but when you really want to push the envelope on fat loss do it for 2 wks at a time in those final stages. You’ll get SHREDDED!!!
Great tip!
Is this for real? Fair play if so, but anytime I’ve taken ephedrine after 4pm I cannot sleep for sht! lol…once i took ephedrine right before (attempting to) sleep thinking it was a multi-vit, turns out I was awake the whole night lol!!
Me too! In addition everytime I take ephedrine I argue with someone (get aggressive) I have however seen it work for other women who are now extremely lean and swear by ephedrine.
First of all thanks on your great work! Do you think that a body like zyzz or greg plitt is attainable with hard work and without steroids? Is a workout consisting of training each bodypart once a week with reps between 8 and 12 reps and training the important lifts for strength between 4 and 6 reps appropriate for such a physique?
Harris,
Welcome.
“Do you think that a body like zyzz or greg plitt is attainable with hard work and without steroids?”
I could lie to you and say yes, with a little hard work and dedication you can do it. But that is a lie. The answer to that question is a big fat no.
In re: to training I use a more liquid, rather than rigid, approach. I go by feel. Sometimes I lift heavy, sometimes I do higher reps. I believe this is best.
Thanks! I really appreciate such an honest response, you’re the only one that is outspoken. I just need some kind of direction because I have been on a layoff for a long time. Can you help?
If I were you I would do two things: a) lift hard, either in the morning or the evening, and b) I would spend all day, everyday, trying to make some money online. But that’s me. You got to figure out what you need.
Don’t get anyone wrong, you can become pretty damn amazing going all natural and there are plenty of dudes who have done it. It takes a lot of hard work though. Steroids make it much easier to achieve those results and it’s because of steroids that they get larger than life ripped and big.
I follow most of these rules to one extent or another. However, I disagree with #9 ‘Skip Breakfast’. I generally skip dinner instead.
During the week I have a large breakfast of eggs, sausages, and tea (w/low-fat milk, no sugar), followed by a smaller lunch of meat (steak/sausages/chicken) or tuna/ham sandwich (w/wheat bread), salad, nuts, and veggies.
I usually I skip dinner or have a handful of pistachio nuts or peanuts.
(On weekends I have dinner).
I avoid sugar as best I can. In fact, it’s to the point now where I can’t tolerate sweetness in any form.
I started this diet about a decade ago and got ripped as a result. I started it without looking into Atkins or Paleo. I simply looked at the dumpy, apathetic slobs around me, and did the opposite.
Cocktails in the evening are my big weakness. But being a little buzzed makes lifting weights in my home gym a little easier. ;-)
Most of the people I know avoid breakfast, or simply get a cup of coffee and a donut or muffin. For them, dinner is the biggest meal of the day.
A 6-pack isn’t that big of a deal. Fun fact: use strength training (read Mark Rippetoe’s book Starting Strength) and cardio and a whole foods diet and you’ll get lean. There’s no point in following a yo-yo diet or using ephedrine (moron!). Keep a log of your training and determine your whole work out before hitting the weights. Look, you could take a bunch of hormones, starve yourself, look lean and have the strength of a chicken. Or you can do strength training, get muscular, then add cardio to get lean, and when someone dares you to deadlift in excess of 400 pounds, you do it and you kick their ass.
Rippetoes is great if your goal is to be a fatass. Otherwise, stay clear of that baloney mess of a program.
One thing I’ve found out with dieting is there are 2 different ways one can diet. #1- take extreme measures to get insanely shredded in a given amount of time, however nobody could sustain this for more than a few months, #2- Add a little more variety to your diet, keep your calories in check, but do this in a way you can sustain all year long. I always used to use diet plan #1 since anytime i dieted it was usually for a competition, but yes I would start getting very weak after a month into it. I now do diet plan #2, and add things to the diet such as more fruit, occasional avocado or greek yogurt, whole eggs rather than just whites (I’ve realized this sport has become ridiculously expensive and could no longer eat 24-36 egg whites/day on top of cost of protein powder and meat) occasionally some nuts, amongst many other varieties of foods. The downside, I’m not quite as lean and crisp as a hardcore contest diet, the flipside is i’m every bit as strong as when I was bulking up but i have condition to go with it. I’m still in single digit bodyfat (probably around 8% at 230 lbs @ 5’9″) can take my shirt off anyplace i go and get chicks staring at me, so its good enough you know? Actually, I think the look of 7-8% bodyfat looks healthier anyways than ridiculously low ranges. so basically I still do feel run down and tired occasionally, only difference is when that feeling comes on I will go have a cheeseburger now, rather than stubbornly pushing through it and becoming more miserable and unbearable to be around. But the key is, after you do it, you need to make believe it never happened and get right back in the game. I have found diet plan #2 to be much better, getting so lean you hardly have enough energy to get out of bed just isnt worth it
This is some good advice. I agree, 7-8% looks fantastic and you can keep it year round. There is some weird thing on the internet where people will say “you should never listen to guys who are jacked about how to get jacked. They don’t know how they did it”. Insinuating that you should only listen to out-of-shapers (like themselves) for diet and training advice. I say the opposite, listen to those who have been there and done it.
Also…
DING DING DING!
Your comment is the 1,000th comment on BOLD & DETERMINED!!!
Fatass? His program works. Go ask any strength athlete. With strength training, you make great muscle gains naturally, not to mention it has great benefits to your health, like a stronger joints, bones, immune system, etc. I’ve been there and I’ve done it. I gained 28 pounds of muscle my first year of using it. Along with being able to squat 405lbs for 5 reps, overhead press 175 for 5 reps, 1RM deadlift @ 495lbs, bench 325 lbs for 5 reps and a power clean of 195 lbs. And guess what, my body fat went from 15% to 12%. And I didn’t even do cardio. If you need more proof, just ask.
I guess you were too much of a pussy to push through with the program. You ate the calories but you didn’t follow through with the training, it was too hard for you, eh? To me, you’re no better than an anorexic chick. Ephedrine, HA!
That’s what all the fatso’s in the Rippetoe’s cult say. Guess what fella, I can OHP a buck 75 for reps, power clean 195, dead 5 plates and I didn’t have to join the fatso Rippetoe’s cult to do it.
For other readers: strength training is essential but fatso scared-of-overtraining Rippetoe’s is a cult full of gullible kids who think they are fit when they are horribly out of shape.
perhaps it worked with them.
anything works for newbs who never touched weights before in their lives.
Another thing if its a bodybuilder on a high volume plateu.
He can use a drastic change so it might be true that it worked for some…
Dude, Rippetoe has NO degree in exercise science. Normally a degree wouldn’t mean much but as far as exercise science goes, it’s needed. His lifting schedule is wack. To gain strength, there is absolutely no reason to be doing 5 reps when a max of 3 reps of heavy weight will do. He’s a clown, short and sweet. If you really want to get strong, go find out what Donny Shankle does, better yet, watch some vids of him. That is real strength.
Vic is right . These type of programs assume you are some kind of robot that can just keep constantly adding weight forever. You will destroy your joints and back doing nothing but low rep progressive training. The guys on the playground doing thousands of dips and push-ups look better than the dudes doing these power only routines. Unless you are a competitive power lifter you have to take it easy with the 5-1 rep stuff. By this I mean keep the volume low and keep the frequency sensible. Push yourself when you do it but don’t be hitting ball busting failure on the lifts that could put you out of the lifting game for your life.You will fuck yourself up for the sake of your ego
In a very early post you recommended yohimbe/yohimbine as a supplement. Do you prefer bronkaid or yohimbe/yohimbine?
I recently combined bronkaid and yohimbe with good results but for fat-burning purposes (or asthma symptoms) bronkaid works far better.
I already do the steak and egg diet and 16 hour daily fast. I’m sporting the six pack and I am making the panties wet for sure. However, I would like the six pack to be a little more defined and sharper (harder to do at age of 48) so I bought some Bronkaid and 200mg caffeine pills. But I’ll be damned, ephedra and caffeine mixed together puts me right to sleep… I googled it and I guess quite a few people have similar reactions… I’m told the fat burning part is unaffected so I’ll keep doing it for now…
Hey vic!
I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for about a month now and saw great results in just 4 days, i burned off so much body fat. But ever since those 4 days i stopped burning fat and i am currently stuck. Should i simply eat less?
*It should be noted that i do eat post- workout.
Another thing is, i do Karate lessons at 8 pm. as you mentioned in the article “Don’t eat 3-4 hours before bed” should i then just eat my biggest meal earlier on the day?
Would really love to hear your take on this
Greetings from Denmark.
With intermittent fasting do the same rules apply for not eating 3-4 hours before bed. I’m asking because I have a really messed up schedule. I’m doing the warrior diet but I work until 2 am. I eat from usually 2:30 to 4am, then hit the sack. I work out in the morning (only looking to cut) and am back at work at 4pm. I fast for about 22 hours a day. I’m wondering if the “not eating 3-4 hours before bed” will eventually affect me in the long run?
Im a 39 year old female, 5ft 6inches and weigh 12 stones! I need to loose 3 stone and look toned by my 40th birthday in feb- I have brough ephedrine and caffine tabs but dont seem to be loosing any weight- I joined the gym this week and certainly train better but havent lost any weight!!- If I train fasted- eat lunch and dinner will I loose weight? shall I buy whey protein or do paleo?
You need to loose 3 stone? How are the stones stuck? Try jiggling them back and forth to loosen them, that ought to do the trick.
them englishmen they use “stone” - I wasnt used to it at first but I saw that “everybody” , any bodyboduilder from Europe tend to use “stone”. As it turns out stones are huge!! 14lbs per stone!
2 stones lost (or gained as msucle) is a lot
Okay first of all, when you say you’re “Training better”, what does that mean. By whose standards are you “Training Better”.
Secondly, are you really “Eating better” or do you just think you’re eating better? If your diet is wack, then your results will be wack too. If your not eating enough calories or just a bunch of diet foods, then that could be your problems.
Considering that you aren’t even sure about what meal plan to follow, it’s possible you are eating garbage which is affecting your results.
Stay away from whey protein if you’re trying to lose weight. Whey is worthless as long as your eating enough protein. Besides, most of the stuff is trash and not pure whey anyway.
Look up Lyle McDonald’s Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD). he was the originator in which all others ripped him off. Bodybuilding.com has the whole thing listed for free.
Intermittent fasting + CKD + solid progressive training schedule + ECA stack + regulated sleep and adequate hydration = Best results and fastest weight loss.
Hey Vic!! Thank you so much for the Bronkaid tip! This stuff is amazing.I love it!!
Hi Victor,
These are some great tips, but I would like to add 2 more tips (which, by the way, are often overlooked or unknown).
1. Drink lots of water.
2. Eat slowly.
Sincerely,
Bob
I really only have time between school to eat a big breakfast (9:00am) and a big dinner(7:00pm). Would eating these two meals alone be a good plan?
Havent read the whole article but from going through military bootcamp, I can attest that going to bed hungry is huge for getting lean and ripped. Combining that with working out in the following morning on that empty stomach, and you get a double whammy. Add drinking a gallon of water a day and eating a calorie deficit and there you have it. Weight loss and six pack abs!
PS that is not Greg Plitt, come on man!!
Shocking news. Greg Plitt died today from getting hit by a train. It’s on yahoo news. I couldn’t believe it. I mean imagine like promoting fitness and living a good life and the next thing you know, get hit by a train.
Great tips vic,what’s your take on clenbutrol??
IMO,I would steer clear of that sh!t. More side effects than benefits.
Mr. Pride,
I think this part is mis-phrased and should be altered:
2) Just say no to low calorie foods
Low calorie “diet” foods are for fatties. If you eat 5 portions of the low calorie bullshit it’s even worse than eating “bad” foods like steak and eggs and butter. High calorie foods are FILLING so you aren’t going back to the kitchen again and again looking for more low calorie baloney.
What you say is true, at the start: “Diet” foods are for fatties. Lots of [email protected] in them.
But you jumped the rails here:
“High calorie foods are FILLING […]”
Hmmm, yes, a candy bar - calorie dense - is filling … Not, and you know better. ;-) As you mention Ice Cream in #13. ALSO calorie dense, and “filling” - for about 15 minutes.
So your advice for #13 contradicts how you phrased #2.
REAL food, high calorie density (MEAT) works great. Manufactured and over-processed foods, no. Sugar (carbs, even), no.
But try to overeat salad… Even chicken or steak. Really NOT possible. The body just … WANTS energy, cheap and easy energy - and as we’re being bred to be like cattle, feedlot/Plantation USA - we’ve got abundant, cheap carb sources… Expensive meat products, by comparison. (Donuts, candy, cookies, baked goodies, all over; beef jerky by comparison is quite expensive, for the perceived quantity. Twinkies and cookies and a soda for the price of a small bag of jerky, mind says eat the [email protected], so - don’t listen to it. Eat the protein.)
Ah how cool! You’ve run a Tough Mudder. I’ve completed six and got a gnarly bloodied nose at my last one. You should run the World’s Toughest Mudder. Anyways, I enjoyed this and agree wholeheartedly with all of it. If only you could convince everyone else. It is sad to see people struggle to lose weight when the answer is so simple. Stop. Eating. So. Much.