It's mid-May...guess what's coming up lightning fast? BATHING SUIT & BIKINI SEASON!! I know, I just freaked everyone out...
Even if you're far from being certified beach-ready, the good news is that 6 weeks is plenty of time to sculpt an uber-toned, lean, sexy beach body. With that in mind, I'm releasing my "TOTAL Summer Beach Body Plan." If you bust your ass, get disciplined, and strictly follow my guidance for at least 6 weeks, I guarantee you that you'll make amazing progress and start to develop a physique that captures stares the minute your shirt comes off. Yep...that's right, you'll be a mini, ripped, beach celeb.
The "TOTAL Summer Beach Body Plan" has 3 critical aspects (and an optional helpful supplements section), all of which are essential to experiencing the best results as fast as possible:
- Optimal Diet
- Exercise -- Building Muscle Tone, Carving out Abs, Cardio
- Sleep & Minimizing Stress
- **Optional** Helpful Supplements
Here goes...
1. Optimal Diet
Diet's first on the list because it's the most important aspect of becoming a lean, mean, beach body machine. The "TOTAL Summer Beach Body Plan" diet is all about maximizing calorie burn, minimizing fat storage, building and maintaining muscle mass, and keeping energy levels high. Here are the rules...
Rule 1. Know how many calories your body needs. I don't require you to count calories because it's a ton of rigorous work (although it's extremely helpful if you're up for it), but I do require you to have some clue about what your body's specific caloric maintenance level is. If you have a ballpark idea of how many calories you burn and how many calories you should be taking in to lose weight, it'll be much easier for you to make smart food choices and eat to lose weight. Keep an estimated running tally throughout the day as you eat--I recommend eating about 300-500 calories below maintenance for optimal weight-loss. Use my post on "How to Calulate Individualized Calorie Needs to Gain, Lose, or Maintain Your Weight" to figure out how many calories your body needs.
Rule 2. Cycle your calories. Your body's pretty intelligent...if you eat in a caloric deficit for a prolonged period of time it'll actually slow down your metabolism permanently to acount for the lower level of calories. Essentially, dieting works for a few days, but eventually your body catches up, your metabolism slows down, and you'll no longer lose any more weight. Oh wait, it gets worse...because your metabolism is now slower than when you began dieting, you now have a lower caloric maintenance than ever before and need to eat less just to keep your weight the same. Not good! To trick the body and prevent adaptation, you should eat in a deficit (300-500 calories) for 3 days and then eat at your maintenance level for 1 day. Continue to cycle 3 days in a deficit and 1 day at maintenance for the duration of your diet.
Rule 3. Tailor carbohydrate consumption to maximize fat loss. Most diets, such as Atkins and others, use the zero carb approach to fast weight loss. Although zero carb diets do produce quick weight loss, they're completely unsustainable in the long run, produce low energy levels, and lets be honest...carbs are the best tasting part of life, who'd ever wanna voluntarily cut them out!? In my opinion, diets recommend eating zero carbs because it makes it easier on the dieter. There are no complicated rules to follow, all you have to do is remember that carbs are prohibited and you're good to go.
On my plan, and the way I eat all year round, carbs are included, necessary, and are used strategically to maximize fat loss and muscle gain.
Rule 3.1. NO Sugar!!! This is THE most important rule. Sugar = fat gain. Not only does sugar signal your body to store fat, but it also has no effect on reducing hunger levels. There's no time to mess around, cut out all sugar from your diet. The one exception is sugar from fruit. Fruit is a great, healthy source of nutrients that's definitely acceptable. Up to 2 pieces of fruit per day is healthy.
But wait...there's one time you can and should eat sugar. That's immediately after an intense workout. After an intense workout your body and muscles are depleted of energy and nutrients--by eating sugar (and protein) you can help quickly pump nutrients and protein to your hungry muscles, start the recovery process, and stop muscle breakdown. This is a fantastic way to use your sweet tooth to your advantage. I'll be honest, I really like cereal so I eat it post-workout (when it's actually really beneficial) and no other time of the day. That's typically the only sugary food I ever eat, and I'm totally happy with it.
Rule 3.2. Only eat complex carbs, vegetables, and whole grains. Cereal, white bread, white rice and other refined carbs are all off limits. Stick with complex carbs and foods that are high in fiber--they'll help keep you full, eat less, and provide a ton of nutrients. Great sources include: Oats, brown rice, whole wheat products, quinoa, vegetables, beans, and fruit.
Rule 3.3. Eat the majority of your carbs in the morning, and decrease carb intake as the day goes on. Metabolism slows down as the day goes on, which is why it's essential to decrease the amount of carbs you eat as it gets later and later. Eat the majority of carbs at breakfast, before your workout, and directly post workout. For later meals and for dinner, try to stick to veggies, protein, and healthy fats. If you workout at night, it's OK to eat carbs post-workout.
Rule 3.4. No carbs at all within 3 hours of bed. Your metabolism drops drastically when you fall asleep. Any carbs you eat pre-bed will just sit in your stomach and convert to fat.
Rule 3.5. Eat a ton of fiber. Fiber technically has 0 calories because your body cannot digest it. Fiber is also an extremely effective way to decrease hunger levels.
Rule 3.5. Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol spikes your blood sugar levels, which increases insulin secretion and signals the body to store fat. Alcohol is also empty calories--keep it to 1-2 drinks maximum.
Rule 4. Eat a ton of protein all day long. Protein is your best friend in your quest for a sexy beach bod. What's all the hype?
- It's thermogenic, which basically means that protein burns off extra calories during digestion. In fact, protein burns ~ 1/3 of all of its calories thermogenically!!! If you eat 100 cals worth of protein, 33 of them are burned off during digestion, so in actuality you only ate 66 calories...cool stuff, huh!?
- It suppresses hunger levels.
- It builds lean muscle. Not only does having slabs upon slabs of lean muscle make you look like you have a hard, spectacular body, but it also burns more calories at rest. More muscle on your body = higher metabolism and more calories burned all of the time. Also, it's critical to eat protein throughout the day. Constant protein intake ensures that your body doesn't breakdown your hard-earned muscles for energy.
For a full list of the best sources of protein check out my post here.
Rule 5. Eat 5, 6, 7+ small meals per day. Small people eat small, frequent meals, fat people eat few, large meals. Eating small, frequent meals is one of the most effective weight loss tactics. Eating huge meals provides an overdose of food at one time, and as a result your body has no choice but to store the excess as body fat. Because meals are small, it makes it a lot easier for your body to digest what you're eating and the majority is used as energy--not stored as fat. Eating small meals every 2-3 hours also helps keep you full constantly throughout the day (because you're constantly eating, duh!), prevents snacking on crappy, sugary foods (that'll make you fat), and keeps the metabolism revved up in turbo drive all day long.
Rule 6. Eat FAT! Fat does not make you fat. Eating healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, nut butter, fatty fish) is a fantastic way to decrease hunger levels. Also, a specific type of fats--Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs)--are rapidly metabolized in the body and have been shown to accelerate weight loss and burn fat. MCTs are found most notably in coconut oil. Fat's are higher in calories than protein or carbs (fat has 9 calories per gram, protein/carbs have 4 calories per gram), so be conscious of how much you eat.
Rule 7. No liquid calories. Liquids are notorious for having no effect on hunger levels...stick with whole foods. My only exceptions are milk, almond milk, protein shakes, the occasional 100% natural fruit juice, coffee, tea, and water.
Rule 8. Drink water, green tea, and coffee. Green tea, ice cold water, and coffee are all thermogenic, meaning they actually burn off calories. All three act to suppress appetite and decrease hunger cravings.
2. Exercise -- Building Muscle Tone, Carving out Abs, Cardio
Getting on an effective exercise regimen is absolutely key to shredding fat and developing muscle tone. Lets be honest...the most impressive beach bodies ALL have significant muscle tone and are low body fat. In order to most effectively burn off fat, build muscle, and carve out a flat set of abs, this plan utilizes different types of cardio, full-body weight training, and an intense abs routine. I'm requiring that you workout at least 5 days per week, preferably 6. It's intense, but remember...time=sexiness in this case. Here's the schedule:
- Follow my full-body, fat incinerating workout plan 3x/week, with at least 1 day of rest in between each workout. You can find the workout here. This will blast every single muscle in your body at an extremely high intensity, ensuring that you get maximal muscle growth and burn off as much fat as possible. Also, weight training is an extremely effective way to burn off fat--it boosts your metabolism for 24-48 hours post-workout. Each full-body workout finishes off with a 15 minute High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio session to push your fat blasting potential to the next level.
- Do traditional cardio, 2x/week, for 40 minutes per session. This is completely your choice, but swimming, running, elliptical, sports, and any type of outdoor cardio are all great options. I HIGHLY recommend taking BCAAs prior to cardio to minimize muscle breakdown and to preserve as much muscle as possible. If you're really motivated, add in a 3rd cardio session each week.
- Do my "ULTIMATE Six Pack Abs Workout" 2x per week, preferably before cardio or on a non full-body workout day.
- Get enough rest! Take at least 1 day off per week.
3. Sleep & Minimizing Stress
Lack of sleep and high stress are two of the biggest and most overlooked causes of excessive fat gain and difficulties with weight loss. High stress levels and a lack of sleep both significantly increase the release of the body's stress hormone, cortisol. High levels of cortisol creates blood sugar imbalances and directly result in increased fat storage in the abdominal region. If you're chronically stressed or don't get enough sleep--I'm talking about 7-8 hours worth per night--I guarantee that you'll have trouble losing weight and have an incredibly difficult time getting rid of belly fat. Stress and sleep deprivation also significantly boost catabolism--aka the amount of muscle your body breaks down for energy.
So what's the lesson learned? Stress and sleep deprivation increase cortisol levels, which consequently increases belly fat storage and muscle breakdown. That's the complete opposite of everything you'd ever want from a perfect beach body.
I personally recommend exercise and weight lifting, drinking green tea, and listening to relaxing music (I like Enya and Norah Jones) to reduce stress. If you want an extra boost, taking herbal Relora is an effective supplement for promoting relaxation and preventing excessive cortisol production.
4. Supplements and Other Substances that Help
Taking supplements is purely optional, but in my experience I've found that there are a few that can be extremely helpful and beneficial (all of which are healthy) for building muscle and burning fat.
Building/Preserving Muscle -- Whey Protein Powder, BCAAs
Decreasing Fat -- Coffee, Green Tea, Hot Sauce, Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) (non-stimulant fatty acid that helps increase the body's rate of fat metabolism), Carnitine (non-stimulant that prioritizes the use of stored fatty acids as fuel, over carbs or protein)
Decreasing Appetite -- Fiber
There ya go...go get started immediately on your very own killer beach body. Let me know how it goes and what kind of insane results you get. Best of luck.
Until my next post,
~DiSanto
