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Although slow steady progress is the best way to succeed in the long term, there are times when you just feel the need to see more rapid results. As we’ve already discussed, creating a calorie deficit while maintaining lean mass is the key to successfully losing fat. Our normal strategy is to cut just enough calories to maintain a decent rate of progress because starvation tends to create catabolism (loss of lean mass) and it’s not easy to stick to a plan that makes you hungry. This plan approaches from the other direction by asking “What is the minimum number of calories I can consume without excessive catabolism?”.

The rule is that you have to stay in a positive nitrogen balance, so you still need to get all your protein grams every day. Normally we allow up to ten Calories per gram of protein for a reasonable protein density, but on this plan we’re going to push that number all the way down to five. That means that if you need 225g of Protein per day, you can push your daily calorie intake all the way down to 1125 instead of a more normal 2500 or so. This sort of massive deficit will cause drastic fat loss over the short term. A little quick math shows that it will produce an additional 2.75 lbs of fat loss per week ((2500 - 1125) * 7) / 3500 over and above that of your normal protocol. If you’re normally losing about 1.25lb per week (which is the middle of the 0.5 - 2.0 acceptable range) then we’re talking four pounds a week!

This program is drastic, and if you were to do it over the long term it would damage your metabolism, so we’ll shoot for 30 days. A month is long enough to see significant results, but short enough that you can recover fairly easily afterwards. To make sure that you don’t get too burned out, and to keep your leptin levels at least partially under control we’ll kick the protein density down to eight on your leptin recovery days (usually the weekend for me). This will give you the ability to vary your diet a bit.

To help you figure out what’s available, I downloaded the USDA food database and whipped up a nice little chart. Essentially you’ll be able to have protein shakes, seafood, turkey, extremely lean red meat, and that’s about it. So looking at the list you have to be thinking, hey won’t that put me into ketosis you said that was bad! Ketosis does tend to be more catabolic (muscle wasting) than normal calorie restriction. To compensate, you’ll need to make sure you continue doing your hypertrophy workouts, cut out all cardio work, and take Branched Chain Amino Acids. For a short period of time like thirty days, this will keep things from getting too badly out of hand. By the way, during this plan you will NOT be using a post workout recovery drink, all that sugar is counter-productive to what we’re trying to do.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

1) LOTS of protein shake mix, probably 10-15 cannisters at least, try to get several flavors.
2) Multi-vitamin, given the severe intake restrictions this is crucial, make sure to get something quality like NOW Adam
3) A fatty acid supplement, this diet is so lean you’d risk rabbit starvation if you didn’t take in some healthy fats. I like Flameout from Biotest. To be absolutely safe, have one tablespoon of fats per day (butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, whatever works) DON’T SKIP THIS!
4) Branched chain amino acids, normally I consider this optional, but you’re going to need all the help you can get to stay in positive nitrogen balance.
5) Plenty of turkey, seafood, and other extremely lean meats.
6) A metabolic booster, like that in most fat burning supplements can help to keep your metabolism from crashing
7) Creatine of course, we always take that!
8) Some extra fiber will help to keep you full without impacting your progress. Milled Flax seeds are a good choice, about two tablespoons should be plenty. Add it to one of your shakes, or take with water, whichever you prefer.

The shakes will give you better fullness so I’d plan on taking at least half your meals that way. Sticking to this plan is brutal, but if you can handle it, the results can be amazing. When you’ve finished the thirty days, ratchet your calories back up slowly and you’ll have a much better transition than if you just went back to normal eating right away. About 10% increase per day works well, that will get you back to normal is just over a week. Make sure that a significant amount of the extra intake comes from fruit and vegetables, that’ll help you replenish any micro-nutrients you’ve been missing out on.

Finding low calorie, high protein foods that aren’t high in sugar or soy isn’t easy. Finding ones that store well and taste good is even harder. Protos Foods has done just that with their Ostrim Natural Flavor Meat Sticks. (For you Starcraft fans, they have nothing to do with the Protoss, and trying to call customer service to order Photon Cannons won’t be very successful). Although the name of the product is a bit cumbersome, the idea is pretty smart. They use a mixture of Ostrich and Beef that produces an extremely lean, high protein density food (6.15 Calories per gram, That’s better than steak!) Here, take a look for yourself: Ostrim

I’ve been using these as part of my afternoon meal now for about six months, and they taste pretty darn good, in fact I may just have to add an online store to the site and become a retailer, I’m that sold on them. Stay away from Teriyaki flavor since they used sugar and soy, but natural, bbq and pepper are safe, though I’ve only tasted natural so far. The product is shelf stable, so you can store them in the cupboard not the fridge, which makes them really convenient for work meals. I don’t know about you, but I’m never excited about storing things in the communal employee fridge.

There isn’t really much of a downside to the product, but since it’s similar to a pepperoni stick, they do tend to be a bit greasy tasting. (though nowhere near as bad as pepperoni) Generally I try to eat them along with something else like hard boiled eggs or cheese. The effect is pretty mild, and not something that bothers me, but your mileage may vary. I advise you to get out there and give them a try today!