Most of you who have spent time in the gym know how to eat to maximize the muscle building process:
- Meals - Eat smaller meals every 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Protein - Consume at least 30 grams of protein with each meal.
- Fats - Don't ignore your fat intake! Make sure 20 to 30% of your daily calories come from healthy fats.
- Carbs - Focus on quality carbs sources including fruits, veggies, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa and other complex carb foods.
These rules are old news. You have tried them, and they work. But now you have new goals. It's time to shed the fat, shred your body and reveal the six pack. Here are 8 tips to help you get crazy ripped.
1. Move Some Iron
Forget about training light. Switching to high rep sets and a lighter weight when trying to get shredded is a recipe for disaster. Heavy weight encourages your body to maintain its existing muscle mass. On the other hand, if you stop pushing yourself when trying to shed fat, you send a signal to your body that the extra muscle mass you've built isn't needed any longer.
Stick with your existing muscle building workout while cutting.
2. There Is No Magic Diet
One of the most common questions is...which diet is best for cutting? The reality is this: you need to make adjustments based on your body's unique feedback. There is no "best diet", but there is a best diet for you. Start with a reasonable calorie intake and protein, carb and fat profile, and make adjustments as needed to fine tune your fat loss.
When the going gets tough, try carb cycling between high, medium and low carb days.
3. Whoa On The Cardio!
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow the cardio. It's a fact that few realize, but diet is far more important than cardio when it comes to getting ripped. Dial in your diet first. When you have reached a consistent rate of fat loss, slowly add in cardio. Slowly. Remember that your body is under stress from being in a caloric deficit. Adding in endless hours of cardio right out of the gate could result in the loss of hard-earned muscle mass.
Break away from the treadmill and try HIIT instead - high intensity interval training.
4. Slow Your Fat Loss Rate
Yes, you read that correctly. The best way to get silly shredded is to lose fat at a rate of 1.5 to 2 pounds per week. While a more rapid weight loss pace can be good if you are carrying around a substantial amount of extra fat, it's not the best approach when trying to dial down your bodyfat levels into the single digits. Rapid fat loss can also cause you to lose muscle.
Week one weight loss is always higher than normal. Wait until the 2nd or 3rd week of a cut to make changes.
5. Abs Come From Diet
It's ok to chill on the volume of crunches and leg raises you are doing. Overusing direct ab work won't help you strip away belly fat. Keep your direct ab work to 1-3 sessions per week with a moderate amount of volume. This approach will help you maintain your ab size while you get cut.
Weighted sit ups and cable crunches are an excellent way to add resistance to your workouts, helping you to build thicker abs.
6. Become A Cheater!
Did you know that a strict diet involves cheating? Yes, involves cheating. Prolonger periods of dieting drop your body's leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that helps your metabolism fire as efficiently as possible. A cheat meal or window (or even day in some cases) once a week will surprise your body, and help it to raise stagnating leptin levels. This metabolic boost will help you to burn more fat.
Keep it simple by allowing yourself a one hour cheat window. This window can be moved each week to fit your social schedule.
7.Get Real About Body Fat Levels
Most individuals underestimate their bodyfat levels - by a lot. Having an unrealistic view of your body composition can lead to frustration as your cutting diet starts to drag on for months without end. The best natural bodybuilders and fitness models in the world have a lean body mass (weight - fat pounds) of no more than 170-180 pounds. It's unrealistic to believe you are currently 240 pounds and 18% bodyfat. The more you "get real" with yourself, the better equipped you will be for the cutting process that lies ahead.
Forget bodyfat scales and online calculators. Purchase a skin fold caliper, which will provide a more accurate bodyfat reading.
8. Drink Your Water
This seems like an obvious tip, but for many it's not. A good percentage of athletes, even hardcore lifters, don't drink enough water. Some studies have indicated that proper water consumption alone could boost your metabolism by as much as 30% (this study involved drinking cold water). It goes without saying that under drinking water while trying to get shredded will slow the process. Stop guessing about how much water you are drinking!
Use a shaker or empty milk jug to help you monitor daily water intake.
53 Comments
Hey guys, just sumbled upon this article and I have couple of simple questions. I am 6.2 and I weigh 225lbs, 23 years old. I have been athlete all my life, just got done with college. I have been going to gym for quite a while but there is a problem. I love to eat. I eat a meal that can feed a whole family sometimes. I am not lifting much at this point for no reason and id like to go back and get shreded. I tried some suplements that boost metabolism and they helped to be honest but I didn't make some huge diet changes... I don't jnow how much of what I should eat for best results. I eat 3-4 times per day. I eat pretty much what my wife cooks for me, which is very good food but sometimes very fatty. I would like to get in a really good shape in a course of 3 months (realistic because I already have a lot of muscle built up), i would like my body to look shreded, even though if I have to give up some food. Any tips would be very appreciated.
You sound just like me only younger.
I'm 15 and 5 foot 8. I weigh 116 pounds and I am really skinny. I want decent muscles and I have a very high metabolism. Any tips that will help me?
Can someone help me with the stuff I need to do!! I am big built and weigh 225 at 6 foot at 15 years old can you give me tips at protein and weights on how to get strong and ripped!! Just give me any kinda tips you know of I am trying to become fullback in football so I need to be stout in my arms core back chest and legs
Sounds like you need some strength and conditioning training. Go here to get strength workouts:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/strength
Then add some cardio training to your routine like HIIT.
Hope that helps!
Squats are the most important thing you can do. it will build up your core and at the same time it will release testosterone to help the muscle building process everywhere else. At the same time on an alternating day you will want to incorporate some cardio into your workout this will help with that ripped effect.
Well, I tried every fastest little trick for a 6 pack, from frequencies to magic spells. They are all fake. If you want true answers, go to wiki how.
I am thirty yrs old I'm 5'4" tall and weigh around 160lbs. Acording to my health assessment at work I am around 14% body fat and my bmi is around 27 I am wanting to lose around fifteen lbs and lean up a little I am already a stocky build just want to not get totally ripped just lose a little bit of belly fat and tone up what muscle I do have any tips would be greatly appreciated thanks
with these tips,anyone can achieve their goal...fnxxx a lot.
Great article, very helpful. I have a question though; How many times a week should I do HIIT training? I've been doing it 5 days a week but I'm guessing that's too much. I want to get started on my weight training journey of getting ripped but I'm not going to start until I get everything figured out.
Hey.i am a 17 year old boy. i weight 43 kg and i stand 5 feet 9 inch tall. i am trying to gain weight but i dont see any results and i lift weights at home and i want to make some abs and muscles at home because for my studies i can't go to a gym right now. please if anyone have some suggestions reply me.
You're just going to have to eat more. Try having bigger meals and make sure you up your protein intake to 1.5 per pound of bodyweight
i got ripped buy doing hours of pushups plus i have good genetics for bodybuilding
Your tips contradict themselves. In tip #4 you say you have to slow down your fat loss. In tip #8 you say that you should drink a lot of water because it speeds up the metabolism. Well if you speed up the metabolism with tip 8 you are going to burn more fat, making it impossible to slow your fat loss. What you are essentially saying is "Slow your fat loss" with tip 4 , but drink tons of water to "Speed up your fat loss" with tip 8. How are you supposed to slow your fat loss and speed it up at the same time? Huh? It makes no sense and is completely contradictory. It is like saying "I want you to eat more", but I want you to "eat less", while your eating more. Huh?
Fat loss and metabolic rate isn't the same thing...
Nevermind what I said, I was drunk and trying to show off to this girl at a party
This is definitely one of the better articles with advice on how to lose weight properly. Couldn't really pick out anything that would hinder your results. Good job.
Hi,
I've been working with this routine :
andstrength.com/workouts/10-week-mass-building-program.html
but i changed the leg day for wednesday and im doing crossfit on friday
Now for the summer (im from south america), i want to start loosing some fat, so is good for me to keep going with this routine or should i change it ?
thanks !
Keep going. You don't really want to change your training. Just your diet.
Then could you give me any advice on diet?
Im 20 years old, 1.78 m and I weight around 80 Kgs (176lb)
I would appreciate any tip!
Thanks again!
Get ripped quick
I'm 29 almost thirty and over the past few years I have gained a little too much fat for my comfort I'm 5'9" and I weigh 204lbs . My chest is not toned and I have a gut now . any advice on workouts to tighten those up and turn my fat into muscle would be greatly appreciated.
Chris, fat does not turn into muscle, however, you are at a prime age to get great results. I would recommend strength training, one muscle group per day, changing your reps and sets every week. I do 5 days of training Mon-Fri with the weekends as my rest, and recovery days. You can find many routine examples online to fit your needs. Download a calorie/macro nutrient tracking app to log in what you eat daily. Plus this will give you a great idea of what you need to take in to get your desired results. Study up on nutrition timing as well. Not only do you need to do the work in the gym, your homework (nutrition) is equally important.
before i came here in US from Philippines. my weight was 210 lbs thats is when im fully bloated and my waistline is 38 inches. funny thing is when i worked at walmart as overnight stocker it only 3 mos for me to ripped off my fats so fast :D probably after that 3 mos i was about 180lbs. that was soo tiring work it so physical that my body liquid is dripping off the floor :)). And now i bought a simple home workout equipments my fav is (PULL UP, CHEST DIP) yeah! and i what i do is i dont really eat after 6pm until 7am. maybe i got no appetite to eat anymore, and i just want to rest. and now this present time right now in my chair my current weight is 158lbs so 210 - 158 = 52lbs! and now i dont wanna go back to my old self love my figure today. waistline is 30 Im 5"6'. These tips really worked! its that i got different approach on how to loose weight THANKS! WILL DO THESE TIPS :)
People are asking for workout regimes. You do what you feel comfortable with whether you want to tone or bulk up then it's the persons choice.
Diet, Workout Regime and Cardio if you wanna shed a few pounds is the key to building the right body but this cannot be done over night it is done in time.
Do what is right for you and take the right supplements to help in repair and growth of muscle tissue and you will see results given time :).
I see people using bikes in the gym expecting to shed the weight fast (Sorry but this does NOT work) Get outside and jog a route you want to set out and inhale the fresh air while your at it. (Fat strippers also work as well) :)
hi there, i am 18 years and i am a about 175 cm heigh and 90 kg weight , the problem is that i am flappy but i think i have good muscles under neath this flappy fat , so my question is how much time needed for me to lose these fats and show up the muscles with frequent cardio workouts and frequent gym workouts and good diet??????????
I am 6 ft 2" and I am fat and want to lose weight and get rip fast what should I do
Please suggest exercises for belly fat... I really need em
Wow, I cant believe all the thumbs down votes on comments! Just wanted to say thanks for the tips, I will definitely apply them.
My body fat % is 21! Im doing heavy weights n fewer reps ..should i change it to maximum reps lighter weight ! I want toned look rather than bulk ! Someone said for cutting you should change your workout to maximum reps n medium weight !is it ?
Hi prabal you should do both. On day you should go heavy with as many reps as you can and then a couple days later go lighter and make sure you put up as many reps as pissible. Also make sure your giving your muscles time to heal in between workout days and get plenty of sleep
I need to get super ripped could you help
Hi Steve,
Is there a way to remove this nasty love handles? Heavy weight lifting burns fats faster than light weight lifting + high reps?
what if you have 0% fat on your body will this method still work im 5'11 and about 145 . with 0% fat iv been trying to get built for a year or so and i just get shredded not bigger . and i eat like food is going out of style please help me out ?
thanks for the tips!
hi steve , i am 18 years old and i have recently lost 15 kg , now my waist is 30 but i still have aloot of loose skin around my belly . i want a ripped body . please help
hi steve , i am 18 and i have lost about 15 kg . my waist has become 30 but i still have loose skin around my waist . i want a a ripped lean body . please help me out
thnx
would this program help me add some muscle ( am a skinny guy , and i would like to grow some ripped muscle ,exactly like they guy with the red head band ?)
Here is the workout (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/daves-vif-mass-building-progr...)
Thank you
Hi Dave,
That's a solid choice. You want to focus on two things to maximize results:
1) Pushing yourself in the gym. Using good form, always push yourself on every set. When you can perform the recommended number of reps for a set, add weight.
2) Eat to maximize muscle gains. Here are some articles that can help:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-create-a-bodybuilding-...
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/building-muscle-eating-like-a...
I am a female wanting to compete i am 29years old 1.57m Tall or should i say short which is a disadvantage in itself i currently weigh 50Kg and my body fat % is at 20.9% (Taken on a skin callipure). What is the best way to drop my body fat % to 12% and obviously be competition ready - Remember Shape or physique!
Here is an article that can help you get started in the right direction:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/your-go-to-guide-for-cutting-...
For more specific advice check out this thread:
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/forum/general-chat/60283-q-get-ripped-w...
hola!
I am 5.11 ft tall with 78 kg and age 19+
I am determined to get those 6 packs as fast as possible, so I need ur help!
Also I do gym 4 days a week, and also Mixed Martial Arts 3 times a week
I have never followed any diet before...
Soo...I am in need to help!
i want to lose fat and build muscle. i have love handles and i want to get rid of them.how can i do it?
How Mich water should you drink a day.
How much water do you recommend drinking daily?
Ian great tips! Yes I think many resort to hours and hours of cardio for fat loss when the nutrition and iron are key! Good article!
All seems like common sense, but gets put by the waistside all too often. Thanks for the reminder as this is a great reference to get back on track when the going gets tough...
hi,
pls tell me, my age is 30+, ht 5.6 inch wst 28, weight 50 kg, how i can i reduce the body mass weight,
Hi Rajinder,
You want to focus on two things to maximize results:
1) Pushing yourself in the gym. Using good form, always push yourself on every set. When you can perform the recommended number of reps for a set, add weight.
2) Eating to maximize muscle retention while cutting fat. Here are two articles that can help:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/your-go-to-guide-for-cutting-...
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-create-a-bodybuilding-...
Dang i cant go under 30" on my waist i follow a strict eating plan ( I count calories everyday) but I don't do cardio. I was thinking of adding calisthenics like the 300 workout program. Just doing 300 reps of exercises nonstop and try to increase the speed every time...