Today I’d like to share two different theoretical approaches to losing body fat and getting shredded. So not just lean, but really lean..borderline contest ready (just without the 
water depletion) Let’s say around 5-6% body fat for men, 12% ish body fat for Women (That’s really low).
In order to share these two theories with you, I need to start with the assumptions we’re going to be working with today.
Assumption One: There is a finite ‘rate’ for which each body fat cell can supply free fatty acids. Kind of like a speed limit… X number of free fatty acids per hour (FFA/Hr)
Assumption Two: Any Lean Body Mass / Volume that is lost during dieting is transient. It’s not ‘gone for ever’ and can be built back up.
Now that we have our assumptions down…here are the two theories.
Approach One: THE HARE – STRIP, Then Build back up.
Under this theory you would fast, diet, fast, diet some more and do everything possible to lose body fat as quickly as possible in order to get shredded.
This theory comes with one inevitability based on assumption 1 – Eventually your body fat will get so low that it will no longer be able to supply 100% of your daily caloric needs.
As an example: Let’s say that each pound of body fat can release about 5 Calories worth of fat per hour. This means that over a 24 hour period each pound of body fat can release about 120 calories for your body to use as an energy source. Under this scenario a 170 pound man with 6% body fat would only have about 1,200 Calories available as fat. Meaning some extra source of Calories must be found.
So in this scenario, it is possible that towards the end of dieting, some muscle mass/volume may be lost.
But, the benefit is that this approach would be quick fat loss, allowing some time to then build the muscle back up once the desired leanness is achieved (since any loss of muscle mass/volume is only transient).Chances are, since we are most likely talking about volume changes with an itty bitty bit of actual protein loss, this wouldn’t take long at all.
Approach Two: The Tortoise: The REVERSE RAMP approach
Basically, the opposite of what bodybuilders do. In this approach you start ‘hardcore’ Fasting, dieting, more fasting more dieting, to get the initial large amount of body fat off as quickly as possible. Then as you get close to contest lean, you would slowly start INCREASING your weekly calorie totals. You’d still be in a deficit, it just wouldn’t be as giant as the beginning weeks. Body fat loss would be slow, but not ‘stalled’.
As an example. Assuming a 6 foot male with 170 pounds of LBM on a 10 week diet down, with a BMR of roughly 2,000 Calories per day, and a daily need of around 2,400 Calories, not including planned exercise.
Week 1: Weekly average 7,000 Calories
Week 2: Weekly average 7,000 Calories
Week 3: Weekly Average 7,000 Calories
Week 4: Weekly Average 7,000 Calories
Week 5: Weekly Average 8,000 Calories
Week 6: Weekly Average 9,000 Calories
Week 7: Weekly Average 10,000 Calories
Week 8: Weekly Average 12,000 Calories
Week 9: Weekly Average 12,000 – 14,00 Calories
Week 10: Weekly Average 12,000 – 14,00 Calories
So weeks 1-4 our example person would be fasting twice per week and eating a max of 1,400 when he isn’t fasting. This would possibly be a combination of ESE style fasting and some ‘during the days’ fasts. During these weeks initial body fat loss would be impressive, probably as high as two – three pounds per week.
Weeks 5- 7 would be fasting twice per week, and eating a max of 1,700-1,800 Calories when not fasting. During this period we’d probably see another 3-5 pounds of body fat loss (total, not per week).
Weeks 8 -10 Fasting would MAYBE be once a week (if at all). Eating would be a strict max of 1,700 Calories Following the guidelines in The Anything Goes Diet. Fat loss would probably be a maximum of 2 pounds.
Under this approach we could see a theoretical 6 foot guy drop from a fairly lean and muscular 195 pounds down to a ‘shredded’ 178 pounds.
(Remember all numbers are theoretical)
So the reverse ramp would be a quick fat loss period followed by a tapering to allow for maintenance of lean body mass. Keep in mind that this tapering would occur at a level of leanness that most of us would already find very desirable (around 8%).
Both approaches have the same goal in mind, just one is the ‘hare’ approach and the other is the ‘tortoise’
I think both approaches have their mertis, and most likely the approach that is best would be completely dependent on the personality of the person following the diet.
Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on these approaches.
[[Please remember these are also theoretical, and only meant as discussion point – Other than the need to get extremely shredded I still recommend a combo of Eat Stop Eat and the Anything Goes Diet ]]
BP
