signals your body that it’s had enough food. The leptin levels of
many of the subjects, who were all well-nourished, were similar
to those of underfed people. That may explain why other
studies have shown that sleep-deprived people crave starc h y
and sugary carbohydrates—their leptin levels are low, which
tricks their bodies into thinking they need more food.
One thing that can help is to go to bed at the same time
every night, even on the weekends. If you keep your body on a
schedule, you won’t add unnecessary stress and fatigue;
however, if you stay up late on the weekends, you’ll shock your
body’s built-in clock, and you’ll have a hard time readjusting it.
You may even feel as if you have a hangover on Monday, even
if you didn’t drink alcohol over the weekend, which will be
detrimental to your energy levels and your training. (That’s one
reason people despise Mondays and often get headaches.) Try
to stay on schedule as much as possible.
Q: How do you guys stay motivated?
A:Staying motivated is one of the hardest parts of building
muscle and burning fat. For us it’s most difficult in the winter,
when sugary foods are every w h e re and our physiques are
hidden from view. And to be honest, we both add some fat
f rom about Thanksgiving to past New Ye a r’s Day—but we try
not to let our abs completely disappear (Steve’s before picture
o n the co ver s how s he ’s n ot a lw ays suc ce ssf u l in tha t
endeavor).
For most people it’s just hard to exercise in the winter,
period, much less eat right. We manage to stay consistent,
using a few tricks. For example, during part of the winter we
often go on a basic program similar to the Basic Ultimate Mass
Workouts in The Ultimate Mass Wo r k o u te-book, training only
three or four days a week using fairly abbreviated sessions. We
al so like to experiment with diff e rent tactics, like X-Rep
var iati ons. Findin g and experimenting with new trai ning
techniques is a big motivator for us.
When we’re in that back-to-basics winter phase, we try to