Your road to get lean starts with building simple healthy habits. We reached out to top trainers & experts to find the most effective and proven tactics to help you get lean now. No gimmicks. No fads. Just principles that we all agree will get you the best short term and long term results.
>>> Expert Round Table: Fat Loss & Getting Lean
Get Lean: Principles
A lean physique is a fat burning furnace. Whether looking to dramatically reduce your body composition or simply trying to lose a layer of fat to unveil the muscle that you worked so hard for, eating clean is 80% of the battle.
Odds are that you already have a chiseled core. You just can’t see it because it is being covered by fat. With discipline and hard work, you’ll get there – just know that you can’t out train a bad diet.
Get Lean: Priorities
- Diet & Eating Clean: In our expert round table, every expert found diet to be the most overlooked facet of getting lean. Surprisingly, it is also the most important.
- Diet & Eating Clean: Yes, it is that important that we had to list it twice.
- Smart Training: Lifting burns calories which means that it also promotes fat loss. The myth that heavy lifting prevents you from getting lean is absurd and inaccurate. Opt for sprints to get your heart racing, compound exercises (squats, deadlifts), and either perform these exercises as circuits or conduct your lifts in rep ranges of 8-12.
- Stay focused: There is not a magic supplement. There is not a magic workout machine or infomercial gadget. Stay disciplined and keep it simple.
- Rest: Sleeping means you have less time to eat junk. It also means allowing your body to recover.
Eating Clean to Stay Lean
The gameplan is very simple. The hard part is sticking to it. To simplify things for yourself, we highly recommend creating a meal plan. This will help you make smarter choices when you are at the grocery store and it will also mean that you won’t be settling for convenient junk food because you will always be prepared when it comes time to eat.
Cut Calories & Limit Carbs: Calories and hormones are the regulators when it comes to burning fat and getting lean. Cutting your calorie consumption means that you will have less calories to burn. In addition, you’ll want to take control of your insulin (drives fat storage) and the best way to do that is limiting your carbohydrate intake.Less carbs means less stored fat. Less calories means you’re minimizing what you’ll need to burn through training.
Don’t Eat Less. Eat Smarter: Less calories and less carbs doesn’t mean you have to eat less. It means you need to eat smarter if you want to get lean. More protein. More vegetables. Smart protein choices include lean meat (chicken, turkey, steak, lean ground beef, tuna), eggs (the yolks contain the fat, so discard most of them if you want to be very strict), protein powder (whey or casein) and low-fat cottage cheese or greek yogurt.
Timing is Everything: Eat 6-8 meals throughout the day while keeping a 2 hour window before you sleep as a food-free zone. More meals spread out throughout the day means that your metabolism will be cranking away. For best practices, spread your meals out to be 3 hours apart and stay on a routine. Longer breaks between meals will cause your body to go into starvation mode which means storing fat.
Training to Get Lean
Train insane, my friends. While the optimal frequency of reps will really vary by person, the most effective approach is to have minimal rest periods between sets (60 seconds) and to do as many reps and sets as you can within a 60 minute training session.
Cardio: Cardiovascular exercise is very effective when it comes to getting lean. It helps burn fat and has a very positive impact on hormone levels. Keep the intensity up with incline sprints and high intensity interval training. Your goal is to keep your heart racing and your body burning.
Lift to Get Lean: As we mentioned earlier, lifting burns calories. While your goal is to torch fat you also want to build and sustain muscle mass as much as possible. Our experts all agree that compound exercises are ideal for getting lean fast. Looking for some quick recommendations? We recommend: squats, deadlifts, pull ups, push ups, planks.
Start a Program: It is easiest to stay disciplined when following a plan or schedule. That being said, we highly recommend following a program. If you want something free and simple you can check out our Summer Meltdown. If you prefer paying up to give yourself an extra reason to give it your all, we recommend Built Lean.