If you haven’t met your fat loss goals, or are struggling to knock off those last 5 to 10 stubborn pounds, don’t worry. Many people find their level of physical conditioning perhaps somewhat less than they were hoping for, especially at this time of the year. I have a program that will get you there in as little as five weeks. It is possible to achieve a significant, if not remarkable, change in body composition and appearance in a relatively short time. It will take a serious commitment and hard work, but if you have the motivation and the determination, I can show you how  to do it. This program is about how to gain muscle and lose body fat at the same time.

It’s designed for people who want to get in shape as fast as possible. It is completely realistic to plan to lose 5 to 10 pounds of fat and gain a few pounds of lean muscle in 5 weeks. You will be amazed at what a

difference this approach will make in your appearance and in the way  you feel. Fundamentally, this is a fat-loss program. A by-product is often a gain of a few pounds of lean muscle, although this is not a mass-building program. I have seen a lot of people get extremely good results in a short time from making a few changes in their diet and training routines. Overall, this program involves a diet moderate in calories, low in fat, high in protein and moderate in carbohydrates. The exercise component involves a serious commitment to both weight training and aerobics. You will work very hard, but you can expect rapid and dramatic results. I will walk you through the design of this program step-by-step. This will allow you to understand the rational behind it and also will help you learn how to design routines for yourself as your goals and level of development changes.     First, let’s talk about nutrition. Since your primary goal is fat loss and getting in shape, then you will need to sustain a net energy deficit. This means that more calories are expended as fuel than are consumed from food and supplements. This is a thermodynamic requirement for net loss of body weight. Each pound of body fat contains roughly 3,500 calories.

Therefore, to lose two pounds of fat each week, we need a weekly energy deficit of 7,000 calories, or 1,000 calories each day. Generally, I would encourage you to limit fat loss to two pounds per week. More rapid weight loss than that usually, but not always, is accompanied by loss of some muscle tissue.        The best way to achieve an energy deficit of 1,000 calories per day is through a combination of reduced energy (calorie) intake and increased energy expenditure. I would suggest reducing calories by about 500 per day compared to how much you usually eat. Then, perform 500 calories of extra aerobic exercise per day over what you usually do. This will result in a combined energy deficit of 1,000 calories per day, which will promote loss of two pounds of fat per week. As you know, I am not an advocate of low calorie diets, especially over the long term. But this program is designed to last for only 5 weeks, and a modest energy reduction for this short time won’t hurt you.

Also, the increase in exercise activity will offset the decrease in metabolic rate that usually accompanies energy restriction (1,2). Although weight training is an important part of this program, we don’t consider the calories you burn during weight training. Weight lifting doesn’t burn many calories for one thing, and secondly most of the calories which are burned during weight lifting are derived from carbohydrates. It is important that you perform 500 calories per day of additional aerobic exercise, which is about an hour’s worth of relatively intense cardiovascular work.      Essentially, this diet is high in protein, moderate in carbs, and low in fat (3). You want to take in at least 1½ to two grams of protein per pound of body weight each day. Obtain the rest of your calories from carbohydrates (or CapTri®) while minimizing fat intake. This usually works out to around 40 to 50 percent protein, 40 to 50 percent carbs, and five to 10 percent fat. Reducing carbohydrates seems to help promote fat loss by reducing insulin levels and reducing caloric intake. I feel it prudent to limit fat intake even while on a reduced calorie diet, keeping your fat metabolism and nutrient balance in sync (4-11). 

When you are operating in an energy deficit, essentially all of the food you eat will be used as fuel — except for some amino acids used to maintain or build lean tissue. It would seem you could get away with eating more fat since it’s just going to be burned anyway. And that’s correct — if you eat a high fat diet which is deficient in calories you will still lose weight. (By eating a high fat diet containing surplus calories those extra calories supplied by fat will be retained as adipose.) Carbohydrates have a “protein-sparing” effect: this means that if you have carbs in your diet you’ll lose less muscle while consuming an energy deficient diet. Carbohydrates also have a higher thermogenic effect, which means your body will be forced to rely more on body fat for energy since less energy from food will be available to use as fuel (1). So while two diets may supply the same number of calories and result in the same amount of overall weight loss, I believe that the diet lower in fat will result in a leaner body composition. Another advantage of relying on carbohydrate as your energy source instead of fat is that carbs are much more filling and enjoyable to eat. We will use mostly fibrous vegetables and salads, while limiting starches. Starches are higher in calories than fibrous carbohydrates and occupy less space in your stomach.

While starches usually form a major portion of our diet, for this 5 week program we will limit them to one or two servings  a day. Divide your protein and calories evenly over five or six meals. Most people get better results if they keep food selections relatively simple for this program. You will get good results using egg whites, skinless chicken breast and low-fat tuna for protein sources. Have generous portions of vegetables and salad at each meal. You can have essentially all the vegetables and salad you want. It’s very difficult to eat too many calories from vegetables. I’m talking about things like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, spinach, green beans, and so on. Refer to the Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual for a more extensive list, as well as the nutrient breakdown. Starches are things like potatoes, oatmeal, corn, peas, beans and rice. Treat yourself to a cup of oatmeal in the morning and maybe one other starch during the day. By supplying most of your carbs as vegetables and salad instead of starch, you will find it easier to limit calories. The bulk will help fill you up, the volume of food will be more satisfying and the vegetables will produce a smaller insulin response. 

Some tips for taste: Use green leaf lettuce with fresh peppers and onions, tomatoes and some fresh cilantro. Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice make tangy dressings with practically no calories. Grill your chicken outside to keep things flavorful. Or have some fresh grilled salmon or swordfish instead of tuna. Add some fresh mushrooms and chopped peppers to the egg whites. It doesn’t take too much effort to make this diet enjoyable. You will enjoy it even more once you see how fast the results come. You should avoid fruit and dairy products, which contain simple sugars, and also avoid bread, pasta and other refined carbohydrates (12). What about supplements? There are four supplements that really help on this program. First are the Essential Vitamin™ and Mineral-Electrolyte™ formulas. Since we are avoiding fruit and milk, you will need a vitamin and mineral supplement.

It is especially difficult, if not impossible, to supply your body’s requirement for calcium without using a lot of dairy products, unless you use a supplement. Next is creatine, which is in a class by itself in terms of supplements. You cannot be your most muscular and lean without using creatine. No matter how good you look, you’ll be better if you add creatine. Last is Optimized Whey Protein™. We started with the finest quality whey protein and then fine tuned the amino acid profile by adding extra glycine, glutamine and branched chain amino acids. I would consider this a “must have” supplement while dieting strictly. The high levels of glutamine and BCAAs act to protect muscle tissue during energy restricted diets. You can also use CapTri® since it is not stored as body fat. Now, about exercise. This intense shape-up program demands a serious commitment to exercise. To get optimal results you will need to lift weights 45 to 60 minutes a day four or five days a week. Plus, you will need to do 60 minutes or more of aerobics everyday. I didn’t say this was easy. I just said you could get very fast results. On this program I would recommend a three day split, which means you train all muscle groups in three workouts.

After this, you take one day off from lifting, then start over. This way, each muscle group is trained every four days and you’re lifting five days a week usually. Feel free to design whatever sort of routine you want. It doesn’t matter so much how you divide up the workouts as much as that you train very hard whenever you lift. After warming up, train to failure in the six to 12 rep range. Do some work with heavy weights at low reps (six, say) and some work with lighter weight (around 10 reps). It is important to work hard and train to failure. This means performing the exercise in proper form for the prescribed number of repetitions until you can’t perform any more repetitions. Don’t forget your rep set of 20-30 reps at the end of each exercise group. I would aim for about 25 total sets per 60 minute workout. That’s a fairly brisk pace. Spend most of your time on free weights, although a few machine exercises are OK. Stick to the basics like squats, bench press, bent over rows and shoulder press. The aerobic component of this program is very important. Although there are a few people who can get in good shape without aerobics, most of us need it. You will need to do at least 500 calories per day of aerobics, and more is fine.

Many of the exercise machines these days will tell you how many calories you’re burning, which makes it

easy to keep track. You must exercise at an intensity level where you are breathing hard and sweating. Moderate to high intensity aerobics will promote fat loss much faster than low intensity activities. Running on the treadmill is probably the best; stairclimbers are also good. If your equipment doesn’t display calories burned, plan on one hour of fairly intense aerobics per day. This program works best if you are able to monitor your change in body composition. Following overall body weight just isn’t enough. If you don’t already have a way to measure body composition, you might consider the Parrillo BodyStat Kit. If you’re not losing fat on this program at the rate of two pounds a week it means you overestimated your maintenance energy requirement at the beginning. Decrease calorie intake by reducing starches by another 300 calories per day. If things are going extremely well and you are gaining muscle while losing fat, keep doing what you’re doing. Generally speaking, if you want to speed up your progress you are usually better off by doing more exercise rather than further reducing calories. The lower you go in calories the more important it becomes that those calories are extremely nutrient dense, and that the protein source is very high quality.

ReFeRences

1. Van Zant RS. Influence of diet and exercise on energy expenditure - a review. Int. J. Sports Nutr. 2: 1-19, 1992.

2. Leibel RL, Rosenbaum M, and Hirsch J. Changes in energy expenditure resulting from altered body weight. N. Eng. J. Med. 332: 621-628, 1995.

3. Piatti PM, Monti LD, Magni F, Fermo I, Baruffaldi L, Nasser R, Santambrogio G, Librenti MC, Galli-Kienle M, Pontiroli, and Pozza G. Hypocaloric high-protein diet improves glucose oxidation and spares lean body mass: comparison to hypocaloric high-carbohydrate diet. Metab. 43: 1481-1487, 1994.

4. Flatt JP. Dietary fat, carbohydrate balance, and weight maintenance: effects of exercise. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 45: 296-306, 1987.

5. Horton TJ, Drougas H, Brachey A, Reed GW, Peters JC, and Hill JO. Fat and carbohydrate overfeeding in humans: different effects on energy storage. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 62: 19-29, 1995.

6. Astrup A. Dietary composition, substrate balances and body fat in subjects with a predisposition to obesity. Int. J. Obesity 17: S32-S36, 1993.

7. Schutz Y, Flatt JP, and Jequier E. Failure of dietary fat intake to promote fat oxidation: a factor favoring the development of obesity. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 50: 307-314, 1989.

8. Thomas CD, Peters JC, Reed GW, Abumrad NN, Sun M, and Hill JO. Nutrient balance and energy expenditure during ad libitum feeding of high-fat and high-carbohydrate diets in humans. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 55: 934-942, 1992.

9. Hill JO, Peters JC, Reed GW, Schlundt DG, Sharp T, and Greene HL. Nutrient balance in humans: effects of diet composition. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 54: 10-17, 1991.

10. Flatt JP. Importance of nutrient balance in body weight regulation. Diabetes/Metabolism Reviews 4: 571-581, 1988.

11. Flatt JP. Use and storage of carbohydrate and fat. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 61: 952s-959s, 1995.

12. Miller WC, Niederpruem MG, Wallace JP, and Lindeman AK. Dietary fat, sugar, and fiber predict percent body fat content. J. Am. Diet. Assoc.  94: 612-615, 1994. 

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