Shredded, peeled, sliced and diced, ripped, and cut. Those are all terms we bodybuilders use when we talk about another bodybuilder with freakishly low body fat. We call this the conditioning. In the best of both worlds, a bodybuilder would have little body fat with insane muscle mass, especially when stepping onstage. How can we achieve this? We will manipulate training and nutrition. In this article I will explain the basic principles of cutting down and keeping the mass when doing so. I will start with training followed by the nutrition aspect and finish with supplementation. You want to burn fat, not muscle. So read ahead!

Weightlifting

I will get straight to the point–don’t increase the number of reps thinking you will define the muscles. 15+ reps is endurance training… Your muscle will stop growing. This is a big mistake I see people make in the gym. They decrease the weight and start doing those giant sets. A giant set is good from time to time, but it will not make you more cut. How did you build the muscles you have? Probably by doing 8 to 12 reps and some strength training.

Why change? The goal is to keep the size as much as possible so keep pushing heavy weights in that repetition range. Now this is very important… My weight training doesn’t change a bit either when I’m cutting or bulking. My training is the same. I train heavy all the way up until 1 week out usually. The last week you may see a lot of guys do high reps to deplete the muscle while trying not to get sore, but that’s a little different. I don’t know what I’m going to do this year for the last week as I am working with a new trainer, Vinny Galanti.

Nutrition

So if it’s not about the training, what is it? What’s the real key? Diet and nutrition. There are a lot of different bodybuilding diet plans out there. Everybody is different so you should try to pick one that suits you. They all have something in common though: high protein. The high protein consumption will help the body preserve its muscle mass. When the body is in caloric deficiency, it tends to burn muscle sometimes too. The body can break down muscle protein into energy. This situation is called catabolism. So we can fight this by providing the body all the protein it needs. You will have to eat high protein meals about every 2-3 hours. ‘What about the fat and carbs, you say? This is where it gets more complicated.

Heard about ketosis? The keto diet is pretty extreme. A lot of bodybuilders do it, but it’s not easy. You need to have below 30 grams in your daily diet. The only carbs you will eat are from green vegetables, nuts and fiber. Let me briefly explain to you how the ketogenic diet works. When your body is deprived from carbs for a while, your liver will convert fat into fatty acids and ketones. The ketones will pass through the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. This state is called ketosis. So try it if you want. I guarantee you will lose fat, but this diet is not for everybody. Some bodybuilders will have high energy levels on it and other bodybuilders will lose too much size and have no torque when training. Here is an example of a keto diet:

MEAL #1

5 whole eggs

4 egg whites added to this

MEAL #2

2 scoops of Universal Ultra Whey Pro

1  tablespoon of natural almond butter

MEAL #3

8 oz chicken breast

1/3 cup cashew nuts (almonds, or walnuts)

MEAL #4

2 scoops of Universal Ultra Whey Pro

1 tablespoon of natural almond butter

MEAL #5

8oz salmon or steak

1 tablespoon of olive oil

MEAL #6

4 eggs

3 egg whites

1 tablespoon of natural almond butter

ADVICE: Add green veggies to some of the meals but make sure you stay below 30 grams per day*

Whatever the specific diet you follow, just remember what matters most. You need to consume fewer calories than what you typically burn in a day. That’s it. A great way to do it is to reduce the carbohydrates a lot. Try eating between 100g and 300g per day and see how you react. The lower the carbs are, the more good fat you should eat in your diet. If you are tired all the time, adding some fat will help you have more energy without slowing the fat loss process. Here is another example :

MEAL #1

1 packet natural oatmeal

2 eggs

6 egg whites

1 apple

MEAL #2

2 scoops of Universal Ultra Whey Pro

12 almonds

MEAL #3

250g of chicken breast

2 cups of broccoli

½ cup of brown rice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

MEAL #4

250g low fat cottage cheese

½ cup blue berries

MEAL #5 (post workout shake)

2 scoops of Universal Ultra Whey Pro

3 scoops of Universal Torrent

MEAL #6

250g of salmon

3 cups of spinach

TIP: The post workout shake follows the workout. If you train between meal 1 and 2 you move the shake there.

I noticed that over the decades, the great bodybuilders ate a lot of carbs when they dieted. They ate 500-600g of carbohydrates, a lot of protein and almost no fat. Despite this (or maybe because of it), they were pretty ripped. So what I’m trying to say is, experiment. Try out different diets and methods and see what works best for you. I’ve been competing since 2004 and I’m still trying to figure out which method is the best one for me! Before you go and make your own diet I have one subject left…

Supplements

A great way to get into shape is by increasing your metabolism. You can get supplements that will just do that. I only trust one brand when it comes to supplements and it’s Universal. While many more people are familiar with Animal Cuts, fewer know about Universal’s Ripped Fast. Ripped Fast does a super job at increasing metabolism and helping you lose body fat through thermogenesis (helping you burn more calories when training and even doing nothing). What I do is take a dose in the morning and another before my workout. If you workout in the morning just take your second dose at 1 pm.

Fat burners are one thing, but when dieting amino acids supplements will help preserve muscle and increase protein synthesis. Universal’s BCAA Stack and Torrent Zero will give you all you need to do so without adding carbohydrates to your diet. I take 1-2 scoops of BCAA Stack 3 times per day and use a full serving of Torrent Zero after my workout.

As I said before, everybody is different. Even so, good nutrition is something we all need to focus on as bodybuilders. Because we each have a different metabolism and body type, the trick is to find the right diet plan for you. Keep training hard, eat well, take good quality supplements and see you next time… Leaner!

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