How to Go From Fat to Ripped in 8 Weeks

[This article was first published on victorpride.com on 10/08/2014.]

What is it they say?

“I just can't seem to lose weight!”

“I just can't seem to gain weight!”

What they really mean is…

“I have no self control or discipline!”

Let me show you how a pro does it.

Let's start at the beginning…

At the beginning of this year I was a little fat. Not a big deal. I was aware of it and didn't care. I'd had plans to fly to America to do some rehabilitation work on my back and I was eating pasta every night for dinner.

Below is a picture of “fat” Vic. The starting point…

When I got back home from America I was still doing rehab work, and had many things to attend to, so I wasn't concerned about looking like a lean and mean statue carved from granite.

But that didn't last forever….

When the dust settled and I got back into the life groove I did two things to make myself look like a Greek statue.

1. I stopped eating pasta
2. I set a date to shoot the “Morning in the Life of Victor Pride” Video

In the video I wanted to look like a normal, athletic guy. An “every man” who is in great shape. I didn't want to look like a bodybuilder, I wanted to look like a Greek statue.

The dieting phase took 8 weeks.

The beginning of my diet was more like a simple guideline. Here's what I did for the first 3-4 weeks…

When I was hungry I wouldn't eat.

I would wait as long as I could. Then I would eat. That was my diet plan for roughly 4 weeks.

After that first phase I emailed a buddy of mine from John Doe Bodybuilding. I told him my goal and sent him pics and asked him to provide a solid diet plan.

I said….

I'm making a video trailer for 30 Days of Discipline in 33 days and I need to get as shredded as I can.

I have attached 2 pics. The shirtless pic is from this morning, no pump, no food and no good lighting. The shirted pic is just from 2 days ago. No lighting tricks or editing.

Any tips you can give me to “peak” would be greatly appreciated.

John Doe responded…

Ok, this is just how I'd do things for the next 30 days. You've been doing this low carb thing for so long that I'd think you would seriously benefit from kicking them up just a tad and going lower fat. At 4 weeks out we are not gaining any strength or muscle, so the trick is to keep everything good and full while in a restricted caloric state. The volume doesn't need to be quite so high right now, you actually want to do less as your event day gets closer. Just enough to get a good pump at this point. I want you to switch to potatoes instead of rice, white potatoes. I want you to slice them up thin and spread them out on a plate, and put in the microwave for about 5-6 minutes, then dip them in ketchup to eat them.

meal 1- 7 egg whites + 1 whole (use condiments if you'd like, ketchup, salsa, etc, DROP THE CHEESE!! 1 CUP OF OATS

meal 2- 8-10 oz chicken, 6-8 oz white potatoes

meal 3- same as meal 2

meal 4- large salad w/ balsamic vinegar dressing (No blue cheese or anything fatty!!) 8 oz of steak

meal 5- 3/4 cup of oats, 7 egg whites + 1 whole

Bro, dont worry about the whole carbs at night jive, 3/4 cup of oats is not going to hurt you one fucking bit. I want you to go like this until 5 days out. Try getting some steak in there on a daily basis, the iron content and nutrients from a steak would be very beneficial at this point.

Start taking something mild like dandelion root to slowly shed water, we dont want anything abrupt like script diuretics. You can start the dandelion root now. Not sure how much test your using, but bring it down to no more than 200 grams/wk.

As for training, I'd cut your volume in half. Also, keep the cardio just 3x/wk, more is not necessary and we wanna look good and pumped up, not catabolic come video day. What I'm doing is adding back into your diet, not taking away more. You're going to have an increased thermogenic effect if you do this, and you will pump up more while losing fat even faster.

At 5 days out, start doing 2 tablespoons of olive oil 3x/day. This will be your fat load, you will notice HUGE changes those last 5 days. As for the pineapple/orange juice thing, you can still do that but ONLY post workout!! The post workout spike is fine, but dont do it at any other time.

A few times per week eat a grapefruit at night with that 3/4 cup of oats. It'll help burn more fat, the acid from the grapefruit will kick the metabolism up more. Candy? Nah bro, drop the candy for now. As for cheat meals, keep it once/wk, that goes for pasta and even sushi as well. The response from the fat load wont be as strong if you cheat any more than that right now. It's only 30 days and it's for your book $$$$$, drop the bullshit for now.

Trust me bro, I know my shit. You're going to see some major changes these last 30 days.

So that very day I started the Doe Diet, with my own minor tweaks.

• Meal 1: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 container liquid egg whites
• Meal 2: 10 oz Chicken breast, 8 oz Potatoes
• Meal 3: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 container liquid egg whites
• Meal 4: 10 oz Chicken breast, 8 oz Potatoes
• Meal 5: 8-10 oz lean Beef, a lot of asparagus

That's exactly what I ate for 3-4 weeks.

Once per week I had a cheat meal (usually McDonald's), after every workout I switched from plain oatmeal to 2 packets of flavored oatmeal, and I drank nothing but water and black coffee.

Did the “Doe Diet” work?

Below are some pictures from the night of the video shoot. These pics have good lighting but no gym pump. Without a gym pump you can see I look like a “normal guy” or an athlete.

Five days after the above pics, I started eating much more food.

Seven days later, I filmed the video stills below. In the pics I am 10 lbs heavier.

How I gained 10 lbs of muscle in 12 days

1. Dieted hard first
2. Ate everything in sight

My secret recipe for gaining 10 lbs in a week was: eating everything in sight, and then eating 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before bed every night.

Let me give you one tip before you start stuffing your face…

There is only one way to grow lean. You have to be mega-lean before you start eating a lot of food. Otherwise you will just get fat.

Your body has to be primed for growth if you want to grow lean.

You can't grow a fat body into a muscle machine but you can grow a lean body into a muscle machine.

You can't explode with muscle if you're a fatass, but you can if your muscles are starved for calories.

-Victor Pride

PS - Be sure to check out John Doe Bodybuilding for more tips and tricks.