There Is No Such A Thing As A Perfect Workout Or Diet Plan…
Everyday I get dozens of e-mail & comments from followers asking me for the perfect workout and diet plan.
what supplements I need to take, and what exercises I need to do in the gym…”
It seems simple enough doesn’t it?
However, the challenge is that there is NO perfect program for anyone. There are countless variables that come into play when designing a muscle building or fat loss program for someone; (i.e. level of training experience, individual fitness goals, previous workout and diet plans they’ve followed, etc.)
All anyone can do is make an educated guess and set you up with a solid training and nutrition program template to follow based on your physical stats, fitness goals, training experience, etc. And then help you modify that program based on your actual results.
The process of Monitoring Your Results and Modifying Your Program never ends!
As you become more advanced as a bodybuilder and your body adapts to the current program you are following, your training and nutritional needs change as well. The program you followed originally to gain that first 20 pounds of muscle, or lose that first 20 pounds of bodyfat, may not be the same program you’ll need to follow to continue making progress.
I’ll use myself as an example;
The diet and training programs I followed when I was a skinny teen looking to bulk up varied A LOT from the diet and training plans I followed when getting ripped for competition. And you’ll experience the same type of thing as your body changes, your diet and training routines will have to change accordingly.
Each phase of your physique transformation will require a different approach to diet and training.
It is a constant cycle of Monitoring Your Results and Modifying Your Program. However, you can “short-cut” this process and save yourself years of trial and error by working with an experienced coach who has already achieved what you want to achieve. And that’s exactly the service that I’m going to provide you here in the Total Fitness Bodybuilding “Inner Circle”.
So with all the data you get from Monitoring Your Results and tracking your bodyweight, bodyfat percentage, body measurements, and progress pictures you’ll be able to make modifications to the program as needed.
These are some of the possible scenarios that you’ll experience
when following a Muscle Building Program.
–>> You gain lean muscle while maintaining bodyfat.
–>> You gain lean muscle while losing bodyfat.
–>> You gain lean muscle and also gain bodyfat.
–>> You maintain muscle while losing bodyfat.
–>> You maintain muscle and maintain bodyfat (no change)
–>> You lose muscle and gain bodyfat (highly unlikely!)
You gain lean muscle while maintaining bodyfat.
Congratulations! This is exactly what a good muscle building program is supposed to do. Your current program is a success. Keep on doing what you are doing because it is working!
You gain lean muscle while losing bodyfat.
Again, congratulations! You achieved very positive results. You improved your body composition by gaining muscle and losing fat. This is actually what most guys want to achieve with their workouts. However, if you are a very skinny guy who is looking to build up a lot of mass and you don’t want to lose any more bodyfat. Simply increase your calories by 500 per day. This should be enough of an increase to cause you to gain more muscle without losing bodyfat.
You gain lean muscle and also gain bodyfat.
This isn’t bad, you still made positive gains in muscle mass. But some of it spilled over into bodyfat stores. What I’d suggest you do for the next few weeks is decrease your caloric intake by 300 per day. In addition to that increase your cardio. Either add an extra session per week and / or add an extra 10-15 minutes to each of your current cardio sessions. These changes should allow you to minimize your bodyfat gains during your muscle building program.
You maintain muscle while losing bodyfat.
While this is not the ideal situation, it’s not bad either. You still made positive progress towards improving your physique. But to gain more muscle simply increase your calories by 500 per day. You can also cut back on your cardio to a maximum of 3 x thirty minute sessions per week. These changes should be enough to cause you to gain more muscle mass.
You maintain muscle and maintain bodyfat (no change).
Ok, this is not good… If you are following a proper weight training and nutrition program without making any positive progress what so ever, then something is wrong. You will need to honestly re-evaluate everything you’ve been doing over the past month and see where you went wrong. Did you faithfully follow the diet recommendations? Did you perform the workouts as outlined in your program? While it’s normal to slip up every now and then, you need to stick to your plan 90% of the time in order to make progress.
I know from personally coaching literally hundreds of people that 9 out of 10 times if someone makes ZERO progress it’s because they didn’t faithfully follow their program. Review your program again and be totally honest with yourself. Don’t wallow in self pitty and say “poor me, I tried everything and nothing works…” Instead, man up and take responsibility for your results and find out where you went wrong. Regardless of your age, genetics, or physical situation – Improvement Is Always Possible!
You lose muscle and gain bodyfat (highly unlikely!)
I have a confession to make; I just put this one in here as a worst possible case scenario. I’ve NEVER seen this situation before from anyone that I’ve coached, but who knows it may happen someday…
If you honestly feel that you did everything 100% as outlined and still lost muscle while gaining fat, please do yourself a favor and get checked out by a doctor ASAP. This could be the sign of an underlining medical condition that may need treatment. If you really fall into this scenario, you’ve got bigger issues to deal with than the Total Fitness Bodybuilding “Inner Circle” Coaching Program can solve.
These are some of the possible scenarios that you’ll experience
when following a Fat Loss Program.
Note: A lot of the solutions to these situations will be the opposite
of how we’d modify things for a muscle building program.
–>> You lose bodyfat while gaining muscle.
–>> You lose bodyfat while maintaining muscle.
–>> You lose bodyfat and also lose muscle.
–>> You maintain bodyfat while gaining muscle.
–>> You maintain bodyfat and maintain muscle (no change)
–>> You gain bodyfat and lose muscle (highly unlikely!)
You lose bodyfat while gaining muscle.
Congratulations! This is exactly what a good fat loss program is supposed to do. This is a perfect body composition change – losing fat and gaining muscle. This is what most guys want to achieve with their workouts. If this happens your current program is a success. Keep on doing what you are doing because it is working!
You lose bodyfat while maintaining muscle.
Again, congratulations! You achieved very positive results. You improved your body composition by losing fat. When following a serious fat loss program I would not make any changes in this situation.
You lose bodyfat and also lose muscle.
This isn’t bad, you still made positive progress with losing fat. But you depleted yourself a bit too much and lost some lean muscle mass in the process. What I’d suggest you do for the next few weeks is increase your caloric intake by 300 per day. In addition to that you can try cutting back on your cardio to a maximum of 30 minutes per day. These changes should allow you to continue losing bodyfat while maintaining your muscle mass during your fat loss program.
You maintain bodyfat while gaining muscle.
While this is not the ideal situation that you are training for, it’s certainly not bad. You made positive progress towards improving your physique with gaining muscle. But to tip the scales in favor of fat loss, simply decrease your calories by 500 per day. You can also increase your cardio as well. Either add an extra session per week and / or add an extra 10-15 minutes to each of your current cardio sessions. These changes should allow you to burn more bodyfat during your fat loss program.
You maintain bodyfat and maintain muscle (no change).
Ok, this is not good… If you are following a proper weight training and nutrition program without making any positive progress what so ever, then something is wrong. You will need to honestly re-evaluate everything you’ve been doing over the past month and see where you went wrong. Did you faithfully follow the diet recommendations? Did you perform the workouts as outlined in your program? While it’s normal to slip up every now and then, you need to stick to your plan 90% of the time in order to make progress.
I know from personally coaching literally hundreds of people that 9 out of 10 times if someone makes ZERO progress it’s because they didn’t faithfully follow their program. Review your program again and be totally honest with yourself. Don’t wallow in self pitty and say “poor me, I tried everything and nothing works…” Instead, man up and take responsibility for your results and find out where you went wrong. Regardless of your age, genetics, or physical situation – Improvement Is Always Possible!
You gain bodyfat and lose muscle (highly unlikely!)
I have a confession to make; I just put this one in here as a worst possible case scenario. I’ve NEVER seen this situation before from anyone that I’ve coached, but who knows it may happen someday…
If you honestly feel that you did everything 100% as outlined and gained fat while actually losing muscle, please do yourself a favor and get checked out by a doctor ASAP. This could be the sign of an underlining medical condition that may need treatment. If you really fall into this scenario, you’ve got bigger issues to deal with than the Total Fitness Bodybuilding “Inner Circle” Coaching Program can solve.
If you have any questions or comments about how to modify your program,
please post them in the forum and we’ll chat there 🙂