My Summer Get Lean Program 4 Week Wrap Up

The 4 week Summer Get Lean Program has ended after finishing the 10 day re-shock module. This is it for now. I will share some lessons learned. But first my meager results.

So the total damage or lack of damage ended up being as such: I lost 8lbs, lost 2.7% body fat (hand held bio-electrical impedance), and lost 2 inches from my waist. I tightened up, got a little more defined, lost some water retention, detoxed the body, improved my nutrition planning and water consumption.

Ok, so back to lessons learned.

Fitness Training: I strained my lower back (old injury) using heavy weights, when I should have stuck to lighter weights with higher reps during this stage of training. That hampered my ability to execute hardcore metabolic conditioning training and reduced the effects of the nutrition program. When you are trying to get lean, keep things light and fast. You can go heavier but keep the reps higher with less rest. HIIT, tabata, sprints and metabolic conditioning are your keywords for lean. I need to get better here.

Intermittent Fasting: I also learned about longer fasts with intermittent fasting. I did two 36hr fasts after months of only doing 16hr daily fasts. The long fasts of 24-36hrs really sucked. I won't be doing anything over 16hrs again. Some people swear by it. I think its stupid and miserable. 16 hours will be my daily max.

Even my 13yr old son Mike, joined me in my 2nd 36hr fast and he pulled it off with me. He ended up losing 8lbs and 2.5% body fat this past month.

Metabolic Typing: I offer this to my clients to learn more about what type of person you are. There are 3 metabolic types. Protein type, carb type and mixed type. I am a protein type. You need to know which type you are if you want to make gains in your get lean efforts.

Carb Cycling: So I learned that I am a dumb ass. I did carb cycling before separately and I didn't do well on it, nor did I like it. So doing it again combined with high / low calorie days didn't work for me at all. Many swear by carb cycling and I believe it is the carb types and mixed types that respond to carb cycling well.

Clean Eating: I had my kids off and on quite a bit more than normal this past month. Kids make it difficult as all the mom's always tell me. There are no excuses. I simply caved in many times to have fun with my kids that I don't see enough and we ate feel good food and had fun. Didn't help the get lean program and I don't care. When my kids weren't with me, I ate like a paleo caveman. Meat, nuts, veggies and some fruit with tons of water. That works for me every time.

Find out what works for you. I know now that 5-8 evenly sized, frequent meals (old school bodybuilder style) works for me every time. High protein, medium fat and low carb works for me every time. Big picture paleo and primal guidelines of meat, nuts, veggies and fruit, with water, works every time for me.
I know that 16 hours of daily fasting works for me. Combine all of that stuff together and there is my nutrition program for ME. You have to find out what works for you in each of those categories. Experiment and test stuff for at least 2 weeks at a time. There is no one answer. There is only the answer of what works for you.

Hope this helps. Thanks for following me on this past month. I will do it again shortly. If you like my posts, please like, share and comment. Thanks

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness