t
week you should drop another 500 from the daily diet. During this time you must measure bodyfat
weekly. What you want to do is LOSE 1.5–2 POUNDS OF BODYFAT EACH WEEK. Losing
1.5–2 pounds a week will insure that you don’t lose appreciable lean mass as you cut.
If you find at the end of the second week that you’ve lost less than 1.5 pounds during the
week, you’ll know you should cut another 500 calories the next week, and continue cutting
calories in subsequent weeks until you’re at the 1.5 level. Likewise, if you’re losing more than 2
pounds of bodyfat during the week, you’ll know you’ve cut too many calories and will need to
adjust them upward.
The important thing to remember here is that it’s not calories we’re really after. It’s bodyfat.
Because of this, you’ve got to allow for individual variations in calorie count to get that optimum
1.5 to 2 pounds of fat loss. You’ll be doing plenty of experimentation in this phase to find the
right caloric intake for you. Though the 1,000 and 500 calorie drops we outlined above seem
to be a good general starting point, you’re going to have to find what works best for you.
For example, I’ve dropped some bodybuilders on the diet from a 5,000 calorie a day level to
3,000 in the cutting phase. In a few others, I’ve taken them as low as 1,500 to see what happens.
If they’re losing a fair amount of bodyfat (remember the 1.5–2 pound guideline), getting leaner
and not losing lean body mass, I’ll leave them at that level until they “lean out.” At that point,
I’ll increase calories to the point that they’ll maintain or possibly even lose bodyfat while increasing
lean mass again.
KEYS TO SUCCESS IN THE CUTTING PHASE- Measure bodyfat every 3 weeks until a few weeks before the show
- Lose 1.5 – 2 pounds each week
- Experiment with caloric intake. Cutting 1,000 per day the first week and 500 per day
in subsequent weeks is a general guideline - Refine your contest preparation
- Experiment with foods
EXPERIMENT WITH FOODS
Basically, the Anabolic Diet’s “5-day, 2-day” week is almost like getting a person in shape for a
contest every week. In the weekend carb loading part of the diet, you’ll find out exactly how many
hours you can load up on carbs before you begin to smooth out and lose your contest look.
When you get to your “pre-contest” phase, you really won’t have to make many changes.
You’ll be doing the same thing you’ve been doing for the last several weeks in the “cutting”
phase. You’ll go off the high fat, high protein diet and carb up to dramatically increase the
glycogen and water inside the muscle cell. You want them swollen and big, but you’ll cut off
the carbs before you begin to reservoir extra-cellular water or fat and smooth out.
During the cutting phase, you’ll also want to be refining contest preparation. Play with the42 CHAPTER 3