While fruit isn’t as bad as grain, I don’t think it’s necessary or optimal to eat.

Glad to hear your having great results, and glad I could help.

The short version…

Workout less frequently. Perhaps every 10-14 days. Stick to the “big five”, or even a big 3. Basically, only workout enough to “maintain”.

Then, focus on diet. That’s where your money is at. Check out The Primal Blueprint

http://www.thedreamlounge.net/2009/08/09/an-in-depth-review-of-the-primal-blueprint-by-mark-sisson/

Or, again, the short version, eat a little less, but focus on eating way less carbohydrates. Try sticking to under 100 grams per day- preferably low on the Glycemic index.

This will be the most important part of lowering your bf.

good luck, let me know if you have any more questions, and keep us posted

-Anthony

First of all, let me say you have been a great help in pursuing my goal of gaining muscle. I just read your latest article, which helped me a lot in terms of nutrition. Since reading your blog, and especially BBS, I have seen rapid muscle increase that I could have never imagined in the last few months.

Point is, I have been asked as a model for an agency, and it is my goal to pursue that. The downside, I cannot gain a pound more of muscle, or I’ll be too big for the industry. I have been experiencing major muscle growth, for which I thank you, but now all I have to do to get the job of my dreams, is to lower my fat percentage from 16,6 percent to 8-9 percent as soon as I can, without gaining any muscle growth.

Now, I know all I need to know about nutrition. Hell, I know how to build muscle very quickly now. My question is though, how do I get my fat percentage lower without actually gaining any muscle? I know that cardio is ineffective, but how do I train from this point onward? I just need to get a lot leaner and lower my BFP, without gaining muscle. Do you have any advice?

I hope you can help me out, since I know the trainers at my gym are talking crap.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Welcome to TDL! Glad to hear you found it from Tims blog (love it as well).

As for “Super Slow”, I’m not specifically experienced with it. It is a very similar protocol to what I do, but not the same.

In reference to how I exercise, yes it covers all the bases. You are not “hardly” training certain areas of your body- quite the opposite actually. High intensity training is the most brutal way to exercise, period. It is more effective specifically because it is more intense- and by default, of less volume (which will always decrease intensity).

Making sense?

I suggest reading BBS, it will cover any further questions you have, far better than I can =)

thanks for commenting

-Anthony

Very interesting read. I started training just over a year ago and have reached an impasse in terms of strength gains. My physique is fairly lean with a body fat of 14%. I would love to be 10-12% but man it’s tough getting it down (I’ve just been to my sisters where she dished out the chocolate cake and custard, so you understand my frustration). However, recently I have been reading up on the Super Slow workout where you train your body intensely for 10-15 mins twice per week. Also, Tim Ferriss mentioned this technique in his “Geek to Freak” post which I’m sure you most probably have read since I know you’re a fan (I found your site from reading your comment on his web-page).

The question I have with the Super Slow technique is: does it hamper you from building the sort of body, for example, chest, arms, shoulders you desire, because you hardly train them really compared to spending one full session on chest; the next on shoulders etc. How can this be more effective? Is the Super Slow technique only for certain goals?

-Anthony

I believe the 1-1.5g is for every kg of weight. So if you weight 180 lbs, you would have to have 81g of protein total, which is about 14 eggs total.
I think these numbers were for a diet consisting of mostly carbs instead of protein and fat which you recommend.
I’m starting out with 4 free range eggs a day and see what happens. So far so good!

“Many websites, magazines, and etc seem to suggest that an individual working out should ideally consume 1-1.5g of protein in proportion to their own body weight for optimum results.”

There is a plethora of information on exercise and nutrition floating around the internet and mainstream magazines, and more often than not it leaves people confused and not making any effective changes.

Consider this in terms of protein consumption- the majority of all natural protein sources come with substantial amounts of fat- eggs, meats, even poultry and nuts. If I were to JUST eat eggs every and wanted to eat 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, at my current ~180 pounds, I would have to eat between 30-45 eggs a day.

Think about how absurd that is for a second- even if you absolutely love eggs.

Considering this fact- and the fact that eggs are the best source of protein on the planet- one can conclude that eating this much protein every day is downright unnatural. Even with a diet of strictly meat, its incredibly difficult to eat that much protein.

So, if for millions of years it was impossible to eat that much protein every day, why would it all of a sudden be beneficial to consume that much through synthetic substances? (no less, derived from a food that was absent until a recent tiny fraction of our history).

“When you are referring to excessive amounts of protein, to what degree are you referring to as excessive?

Would you strictly rule out and discourage the use of protein powders as a supplement?”

Excessive would be any amount that was derived synthetically and outside the bounds of your natural food matrix- meaning you never would have been able to eat that much protein without modern technology (or it would have been on rare occasions).

So yes, I do rule out the use of protein powders. I believe they are a waste of time and money, and are completely uneccessary for best results- if not counter productive considering the stress they place your body under and the healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals that they will replace calorically that would have been absorbed from natural whole foods (eggs, free range meats, wild fish, nuts, seeds, and so on).

“Finally I believe you mentioned in the above post that you consume anywhere from 6-13 eggs daily. In the post it seemed like you were saying that you were eating not only the egg whites of those eggs but the yolk as well? So are you saying that you eat 6-13 WHOLE eggs daily? I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were saying.”

Yes, I eat anywhere from half a dozen to 13 whole eggs daily- usually fried in virgin coconut oil (pure saturated fat), although Im going to begin mixing in medium/soft boiled eggs again.

In case your wondering, IMO (and many others), cholesterol and saturated fat, from natural sources, not only have nothing to do with heart disease, but actually promote heart health and muscular hypertrophy- among other benefits.

thanks for commenting

-Dream