Diet tricks for fat loss
I get many guys asking me about “intermittent fasting” and “carb cycling” and similar “tricks” in the search to drop body fat.
Let’s look at this objectively.
I am not going to shoot any of these methods down, I think there are enough counter-proof that at least for some it is working.
However the people contacting me is never advanced athletes but Joe average who plays around with bodybuilding and want to get a quick road to loosing fat.
This is where the problem comes in.
The advanced athletes employing these diet tricks are already at very low body fat and are preparing for a show or event. In their toolbox which they use constantly, are their fat-callipers, tape measure and weighing scale and caloric counter. They approach this very scientifically and got the whole process down to a tee. They hardly ever make a mistake. But even then some do make a mistake and the consequences are close to disastrous. The truth is that with these tricks they are walking a thin line and it is very easy to make a mistake. You really need to know what you are doing and monitor the body extremely closely. You need to be very scientific about it to the extreme!
But Joe average is not a guy who will put in the time and effort these guys do with these tricks. He will not daily pull out the fat calipers, the tape measurement and scale and double-check calories etc. He just wants a simple to follow solution that will allow him to shed fat. And this is NEVER a simple solution. This is a hardcore solution. And nearly 99% of Joe average who have tried these hardcore solutions have badly burned their fingers. By burned fingers I mean training derailed, getting sick (due to immune system dropping as a result of too much required from the body) or losing all the hard-earned muscle in the process.
If you want my complete training/diet/supps system customised specifically for your body and goals, have a look here: https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/
The risks simply outweight the benefits for Joe average …by far.
It is not worth it.
For Joe average and most advanced athletes it makes sense to follow a proven sensible approach.
Such a sensible approach is to monitor the body every 14 days with fat calipers and a weighing scale. Then to interpret the results with wisdom and make the necessary caloric adjustments to reach your goal.
In the cutting phase you want to lose fat and keep muscles safe (not necessarily build muscle but definitely not losing muscle!).
In the building phase the goal is adding a little body fat (2%-4%) and built muscle. Whenever you have to adjust calories, never do it with more than 10% in 14 day period up or down. The body need time to adjust and by adjusting calories with more than 10% will throw the body’s normal responses off for up to 1 month which makes the 14 day monitoring very difficult to interpret correctly.
The type of diet to follow is simple.
For cutting: https://gertlouw.com/2014/08/16/cutting-diet-challenges/
For building: https://gertlouw.com/2014/10/27/muscle-building-phase-sample-diets/
Now I hope this let’s you think twice about venturing these risky paths. If you want to use me as an example…I have never done these diet tricks, simply because they are too risky! I am not about to sacrifice my hard-worked by slipping up once.
Wish you all happy training!
Gert Louw
