Getting Ripped: A Short Guide

From Getting Ripped: A short guide to training and eating to maximize fat loss while maintaining or gaining muscle,

“During the spring of 1995 I was working as a personal trainer for Gold’s Gym in Green Bay, WI, (now Titletown Fitness) and was involved in a feud in the editorial section of The Green Bay Press Gazette with fitness columnist Jane Bodilly, who I frequently criticized for her erroneous and often contradictory advice in letters to the editor. This frequently involved telling people to “forget aerobics” and focus on proper strength training and diet instead.

These arguments caught the attention of a local news network which interviewed Bodilly and me for a segment on exercise and fat loss. I explained that aerobics was not only not necessary but potentially counterproductive for fat loss and other fitness goals and that you could become as lean as possible without it, doing only brief, infrequent, high intensity strength training and reducing your calorie intake.

Getting Ripped: A Short Guide to Training and Eating to Maximize Fat Loss While Maintaining or Gaining MuscleTalk is cheap though, so I decided to prove it by getting ripped and competing in the NGA Midwest Bodybuilding Classic being held in Wisconsin Rapids, WI in June with only very brief and infrequent high intensity strength training and calorie restriction. Fortunately I was already moderately lean at this time so I did not have far to go. I had been following a typical bodybuilding diet – lots of grilled skinless chicken breasts with sweet potatoes or other vegetables, canned tuna with rice, a lot of milk, etc. – and already had good definition.

In eight weeks between mid April and mid June under the instruction of head trainer Mike Moran I was able to reduce my body fat to between three and four percent (based on multiple measurements performed with skinfold calipers, bioelectrical impedance, and Futrex infrared). During these eight weeks my total workout time averaged less than twelve minutes per week, and I did no so-called “cardio” or any other physically demanding activity. I also did not use any drugs or so-called “fat burning” supplements.

There is nothing unusual or particularly special about achieving this degree of leanness. Competitive bodybuilders do it all the time. What is unusual is that I did it using an approach that is nearly the opposite of what most bodybuilders do when contest dieting. The typical approach is to increase workout volume and frequency, often focusing more on simple exercises for “shaping”, and to perform “cardio” once or twice daily to burn more calories. I reduced my workout volume and frequency to extremely low levels, and did no “cardio” at all, creating a calorie deficit by restricting food intake instead. My total workout time for the entire eight weeks leading up to the contest was under two hours.

Although this was done to reduce an already low bodyfat percentage to competition levels, the same general approach is effective for people with more fat to lose. It has worked for every person I have trained over the past twenty years who was consistent with both their workouts and diet, and it will work for you, too.”

Topics covered include original workouts, pace, warming-up, abdominal, neck, and grip and forearm exercises, updated and expanded workouts, repetition methods and ranges/TUL, body part specialization, how to determine the calorie intake that will allow you to lose fat as fast as possible while still maintaining or gaining muscle, considerations and modifications for the obese, macronutrients, meal frequency and timing, meal planning, and supplements. The guide, which is available as an ebook, also comes with a printable worksheet for the formulas in the book.

Click here to buy Getting Ripped

Click here to get Getting Ripped, High Intensity Workouts, and High Intensity: The Annotated, Uncensored Post-Workout, Delirium-Induced Ramblings together in the Classic HIT ebook Bundle (save 25%)

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  • CF Jul 13, 2015 @ 10:57

    Just bought the book, and am very satisifed.

    I was a little hesitant to buy the book. I was wondering if there was anything in the book that I could not find myself on the internet. So for at least a month or so, I started my “focused” weight loss plan on information that I had gathered myself. I lost about 8 lbs, which I am happy about, but I was not as “methodical” as I had hoped to be. Plus I want to lose another 20+ lbs.

    Was there anything else I needed to do? How do I know I am actually cutting the right amount of calories, as well as consuming? I had some idea, but at the very least, this guide gave me a systematic way to calculate and quantify what I had in the past left to a magic “self regulating” set point advocated by diets like Atkins, Paleo, and Mediterranean. These I feel are good diets and can help people lose weight, but they were not sustainable for me … sustainable meaning something I could actively manage, monitor, and evaluate using my cognitive capabilities (like what is required for a good HIT lifestyle).

    I not only was able to calculate weight loss targets, rate of weight loss and calorie restriction, but was also able to project and estimate a timeline for when I would reach my goal. As a project manager by profession, this was very important to me so I could set realistic expectations … how long it might take, how “off” I might be in my initial / iterative estimation, etc. It’s given me quantifiable means to venture on this journey … (by the way, I developed a spreadsheet that just asks for the few preliminary inputs, and it calculates the rest so that multiple scenarios can be evaluated based around BF%, target weight, etc.

    So I have only had this book for a few days but instantly it set a roadmap for me that I knew I could manage … that ti me was it’s key value, but I am sure there are much more benefits one could get. This book gave me a truly cognitive way to approach what I had left to happenstance … and I am determined to use it as a guide to scientifically lose the weight and get ripped. BTW … getting ripped, to me … is brings thoughts that I feel could be the equivalent of competing in the olympics … something I have always dreamed of but never felt could every be possible.

    I’ve lost about 2-3 more pounds since I got the book and it’s been less than a week. I’ve been studying/researching diets for a long time … this was the EUREKA (I feel at least now) that is helping me to pull it all together in a way that I have not utilized but overlooked before (rejected the idea of calorie counting … sounded to cryptic and obsessive like those free Atkins/paleo/mediterranean guys might say).

    Anyways, this is how I feel now … will let you know my progress when I hit my goals. I took a picture of myself “now” … the “before” picture … and I look forward to the “after” which should be around Sept / Oct based on current projections.

    • Drew Baye Aug 6, 2015 @ 15:24

      Thanks CF,

      I’m glad you like it, and I look forward to seeing your after photos. While the numbers are not perfect (all body measurements and the resulting numbers are averages and/or estimates) they do help set realistic goals which is important for adherence, and I plan to eventually expand on this because it’s an area people have a lot of difficulty with because they tend to overestimate how quickly fat can be lost (a future book will include an appendix with tables for realistic goal setting).

  • CF Jul 13, 2015 @ 10:59

    Drew,

    Was wondering, have you ever had a client who had “genetics” that really made it hard for them to get ripped? Is it possible to be genetically precluded from getting ripped? Or is that a myth? Do you have a success story to share about some thick / smoothed skinned client that reached ripped levels?

    CF

    • Drew Baye Aug 6, 2015 @ 15:14

      Hey CF,

      I’ve never had a client whose genetics made it hard for them to lose fat or get ripped, but I’ve had plenty whose lack of discipline or outright refusal to follow the guidelines I gave them did. With the exception of rare individuals with severe hormonal/metabolic disorders I doubt there is anyone who can not reduce their bodyfat percentage to the mid single digits. Most people just don’t want it badly enough to do what is necessary.

      I’ve had clients who started very fat reduce their bodyfat to a normal, healthy level, and I’ve had clients who started at a normal, healthy level get very lean, but have not had anyone who started out very fat get very lean. It’s not that they couldn’t if they wanted to, but most of them just wanted to get down to a healthy bodyweight and weren’t interested in getting ripped.