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2nd edition. March 2009. Author: Published by: Dean Stephenson www. deanstephenson.

com The Lean Machine Method

2008 Sixpack without Sit-ups

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DISCLAIMER :
This book contains general information only, about weight loss and training. Before beginning any diet or exercise program, you should seek professional medical advice. This book offers no treatment of, cure for, nor any guarantee of, prevention of any illness, disability, or other medical condition. The program described herein is intended for use by healthy people. If you have a medical condition, you should seek specialist advice before commencing any diet or fitness program. All readers, especially readers over 50, should have a medical examination before commencing any fitness program. Neither the author, nor the publisher, nor any distributor, seller or promoter of this book accepts any liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to the information contained in this book. You, the reader, assume any and all risks associated with the use of, or reliance on, any information contained herein.

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THE LEAN MACHINE


M E T H O D

How to get a

Six Pack Without Sit-ups ....and keep it for Life!


by Dean Stephenson
Dean Stephenson, Kiama, Australia, July 2008. All rights reserved.
This document is protected by international copyright law. It may be distributed freely, bu not be copied, quoted, or re-published, either in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the author.

Affiliates please CLICK HERE to earn commissions by distributing this document through ClickBank.

Dedication...
This book is dedicated to YOU.
It was written to help you overcome the difficulty and frustration associated with weight loss, and to ultimately empower you to achieve the body that you have long desired. It was written by a body builder. It is not exclusively for body builders! Its goal is to help anyone interested in using a nutritional and fitness program to improve their looks and general health. Where possible, I have used simplified terms and concepts, in order to avoid confusing you with unnecessary scientific terms.

I want you to use this book, taking action on what you learn daily, and implement your learning for life.
Ask yourself constantly: How can I apply this in my own personal situation? Eliminate every negative thought that might stop you from taking positive action on what you have learned. In any endeavour, it is through action that we see results. I urge you to take massive daily positive action. Just knowing will never be enough to get you to your goals. This book has helped many people change their situation for the better people just like you. It contains everything you need to know about your body. All that is left for you to doand I say it again for emphasisis to take positive action on the information. My wish is that you will be empowered by what you learn, and you will reap the rewards of a healthier body. Congratulations on taking action! I commend you for deciding to allow my book to help give your body fat the knockout punch, and to refute the lies told by many in the weight loss industry. Pat yourself on the back, and be proud that you have chosen to educate yourself in one of the most important aspects of your life.

Be excited! You are about to gain control over your own body like never before!

The Lean Machine Method

Contents
Dedication... ............................................................................................ 4 A message from the author... .................................................................. 7 Body Fat: Why You Should Lose It and Who to Trust for Help ............... 9
Why a Natural Bodybuilder is your Best Ally For Learning How to Burn Body Fat ...11 Abdominal Fat and Your Life Expectancy!................................................................ 12

The Common Myths About Abs .............................................................13 The Caloric Deficit Principle .................................................................. 21
The Traditional Diet Cycle ........................................................................................ 23

Eat Smaller Meals More Often .............................................................. 25 What Body Type Are You? .................................................................... 29 Macro nutrients and Food In Your Body................................................ 33 Food Diary: How to Count Your Calories and Macro Nutrients ............. 39
Choosing the Right Foods........................................................................................ 43 Sample Meal Ideas .................................................................................................. 43 Spicing it Up ............................................................................................................. 45 Cheat Regularly ....................................................................................................... 46 Should you take VItamins and Supplements when dieting? .................................... 47

Body Chemistry: How Fat is Stored and Burnt ..................................... 55 Fiber: A Powerful Fat Fighter ................................................................ 59 Water: Why Hydration is so Important to your body ............................. 65
Your PH Balance ..................................................................................... 69

Anatomy and How your Abs Work ........................................................ 73 Sleep your way to abs and bigger muscles .......................................... 77 Exercise Tips for Success ..................................................................... 83
Types of Aerobic Exercise ......................................................................... 87

How to get a SIX PACK without Sit-ups...and keep them for Life!

Weight Training ....................................................................................... 88 Your Ideal Weights Program ...................................................................... 89

The Mental Toolkit for Success ............................................................. 93 How To get Back On track If you hit the wall ...................................... 99
Top Ten Tips to Spice Up your Results ........................................................ 99

Your Personal Action Plan for Success... ............................................ 101


Your Ten Step Action Plan....................................................................... 102

Figures, Tables and Charts


Figures
Figure i: The Weight Gain/Loss Equation .................................................................. 22 Figure ii: The Traditional Diet Cycle .......................................................................... 23 Figure iii:The three basic body types......................................................................... 29 Figure iv: A Typical food label showing Nutrition Facts ............................................. 41 Figure v: Muscles of the Abdomen ............................................................................ 75 Figure vi: Lean Body Success ................................................................................. 103

Tables:
Macro Nutrient Chart ................................................................................................. 38 Table of Supplements ................................................................................................ 50 Water needs before, during and after exercise ......................................................... 67 Water content of foods .............................................................................................. 68 Table of Abdominal Muscles ...................................................................................... 73 Types of Aerobic Exercise ......................................................................................... 87 Your Ten Step Action Plan ....................................................................................... 102

Templates for Data Recording


Six Pack Without Situps Food Log ............................................................................ 42 Your Personal Progress Chart ................................................................................... 97

The Lean Machine Method

A message from the author...


Dear Reader, This book is your guide to safe and successful body fat loss.
Whatever your goalwhether you just want a general improvement in your health, or you want an amazing Six Pack Without Sit-upsthis book will show you how. With consistent application, the results will last a lifetime. Im Dean Stephenson, and I am sharing with you the knowledge I have gathered over a lifetime of exercising; studying successful weight loss principles; and participating in the sport of natural bodybuilding. If you follow the advice in this bookand implement the techniques in your lifeyou will witness truly amazing results! Depending on your current physical condition, you may see yourself with astonishing abs in no time at all! Or, if you have body fat above 20%, you may have to continue the program a little longer. In either case, you will know exactly what you have to do to own a Six Pack stomach. My desire, in creating this program, is to influence you to live by the principles of the program, and to challenge your friends and family to do the same. What you will achieve in ten weeks is amazing, but small compared to the results of a definite lifestyle change. What Ive learnt through trial and error, over a period of years, is condensed hereto save you time, and to fast track your desired result, so that you dont waste time with methods that do not work!

WARNING:

The information in this book has the potential to change your life.

My hope is that the information contained in this book inspires you to achieve the body of your dreams.

How to get a SIX PACK without Sit-ups...and keep them for Life!

This book will show you exactly what you need to do to achieve it. Youll realize, by reading, that you dont need drugs, surgery or dangerous diets to achieve the body of your dreams. In fact, you will see how simple it is for you to have a great body with just commitment and understanding. At the very least, this book will expand your understanding about: how to lose fat, how to have a great Six Pack how to maintain an ideal body weight how to maintain an ideal muscle to fat ratio. Ultimately, it is up to you to make the principles work by putting the knowledge into action.

I can give you the tools to succeed. It is up to you to use them!


I cant supply anyone with motivation or commitment. Only you can contribute those ingredients. Your contribution will directly determine your success. (Dont worry Ill show you how you never have to run out of either again!) I will show you that getting great abs is really very simple. Simplebut not easy. Dont confuse the two! Simple means not complicated Easy means little or no effort is required. This program is uncomplicated. It is definitely not easy! All that is required to succeed in this program is effort.

I assure you: you can achieve any worthy goal to which you set your mind. I wish you every success! Your Friend in Fitness...

The Lean Machine Method

Introduction

Body Fat: Why You Should Lose It and Who to Trust for Help
In our modern western society, weight loss clinics, gymnasiums, fitness experts, and diet advisers proliferate. Yet media reports advise us that we have a major obesity problem! In some western countries, 60% of people are overweight, and a quarter of the population is clinically obese. Whywith so many weight loss programs and clinics, diet promoters, and fitness gurusare so many people overweight and unhealthy? While many enjoy working out at the local gym, and see good results from their efforts, others seem to get nowhere! Weight loss clinics proudly parade their successes, holding the oversized clothing they used to wear. They dont release reliable statistics about how many fail, and how many regain lost weight after completing the program.

Nutrition advisers proclaim the benefits of so-called wonder foods, but common sense tells us that simply adding one or two specific foods to your diet is unlikely to produce significant changes in your state of health or fitness.

Why, with the proliferation of advice and the ready availability of fitness programs, are so many people overweight and unhealthy?
There are several reasons: Some programs are just too complex, and some advice is too difficult to understand or apply. Much of the available advice is based on unproved theory, or anecdotal evidence. Faced with so many contradictory claims, many people simply dont know how to assess information, or who to trust. Many in the industryincluding some gym managers, fitness equipment sellers, diet clinic operators, and producers of diet foodsare inadequately qualified and experienced. Some havent even yet gained control of their own weight and fitness issues! Many myths and lies have been generated over the years by peddlers of health products. They peddle myths to make sales. Unscrupulous sellers will happily bombard the general public with falsehoods, inaccurate result reports, and misinterpreted information, in order to make sales. This will continue to be a problem while education and public well-being is considered secondary to the common human desire for easy money.
How to get a SIX PACK without Situps...and keep them for Life!

The health and fitness industry is lucrative. It promises huge profits, attracting entrepreneurs of all kinds to devise yet another miracle solution. Though often wellintentioned, many of these entrepreneurs are poorly qualified. Others, sadly, simply lack integrity and are concerned only with profitprofit derived from trading on your desire for improved health and well being! Its far too easy for a self professed guru to offer a new theory on weight loss. Its amazing how rapidly a new weight loss or fitness concept spreads through the media. Its like a match made in heaven! The guru wants fame, and the media wants ratings. Typically the wilder the claim, the faster the theory spreads. Example: A new guru appears and says, drinking a shot of vinegar after each meal will make you lose 1kg a week. Of course, this is completely untrue, and totally CRAZY! Its easy to identify the myth-peddling gurus, because they offer little or no real evidence to back up their claims. When they occasionally do, its almost always evident that a mistaken conclusion resulted from incorrect interpretation of data. Example: A person gives children chocolate to keep them quiet in the supermarket. That person then appears in the media as a guru, claiming that Research proves a diet high in sugar improves the behavior and attention span of children 300%. Ive used a ridiculous example here, to make my point! You can see the problem with some of the so-called scientific data that is used to promote the latest dietary fad.

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The Lean Machine Method

Why a Natural Bodybuilder is your Best Ally For Learning How to Burn Body Fat
The real test of any claim or program is real and lasting results!
The best person to help you achieve such results is someone who has achieved them in their own life. Who should you trust? Someone whose body is proof of the success of his methods, or a profit-seeking theorist whose claims are unproven? A Natural Bodybuilder has the answers that work! Our bodies prove it! I cant think of any other sport that is based on retaining maximum muscle, while minimizing body fat. In fact, Natural Bodybuilders regularly achieve single digit body fat percentages as low as 3% in competitions. This is about as low as the body will allow!

Yet few people ask our advice! Perhaps thats because we are not visible in the media aggressively promoting our theories and offering to sell you solutions! Our goal isnt to profit from your desire to improve your fitness. My goal is simply to share with youhonestlymethods that I and other natural body builders have proved do genuinely work. Natural Bodybuilders have mastered the techniques of controlling weight and body fat in the real world. Their bodies prove it! More importantly, they have mastered the technique without gimmicks, muscle loss, or slowed metabolism. Unlike most diet promoters, they dont rely on short term programs that are difficult to sustain. They achieve results through lasting lifestyle changes! They change their eating and exercising habits to improve their appearance and their health. And their methods will work for you!

The advice of a Natural Body Builder will help you control your weight and body fat for life.

How to get a SIX PACK without Situps...and keep them for Life!

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Abdominal Fat & Your Life Expectancy!


Whether its sex appealin spadesor improvement in fitness that you desire, Six Pack Abs are the recognized medal of health. Its not just about looks! Reducing abdominal fat will increase your life expectancy and prevent serious diseases! Abdominal fat causes premature death! Everyone naturally wants to look more attractive, and fit well into their clothes. More importantly, though, your life expectancy is directly linked to the amount of abdominal fat that you carry. Thats right, the amount of abdominal fat you have is the single biggest indicator of how long you can expect to live. I hope this fact shocks you into committing, right now, to take control of your waistline!

If you are overweight, obeseor if you are a thin person with high body fat contentit is time to wake up and get serious! Lets be absolutely honest. We are talking about your life!

If you are not prepared to fully commit to controlling abdominal fat, you are literally, knowingly, signing your own death warrant.
Carrying excess abdominal fat it is linked to: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, dementia, and over sixty other diseases!

Now the good news:


By controlling your abdominal fat, nearly all of these serious conditions can be prevented, minimizing the risk of early death.

You can live a long and healthy life!


All that is required is commitment. Do it for yourself. Do it for your loved onesto save them from the suffering your premature death will cause them. Commit today to reducing your body fat, looking great, feeling great, and extending your life!

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The Lean Machine Method

Chapter 1

The Common Myths About Abs


Before we really get started, I want to explore with you some of the most common myths about abs. There are many myth pedlars who will want to try to change your understanding of how to get abs! You may not have previously realized the truth behind these myths, but I guarantee you have heard, and will continue to hear, the myths. And many people believe them! I want you to: unlearn these myths, and begin to have a correct understanding about abs. stay focused on the truth. To bust these myths, I want to share with you the knowledge of a competing bodybuilder who has placed in two different divisions in competitionwithout doing a single sit-up in preparation.

Big Myth 1: Performing nnn sit-ups will give you a Six Pack
FACT: No matter how many of these exercises you doeven if it were possible to do a million in a yearyou will never see abs!
This myth developed because of a flawed general belief in spot reduction theories. Spot reduction theories were promoted in the very early days of body building, by fitness equipment manufacturers. The theory was that exercising a specific muscle group with high repetitions would cause fat to melt away around the targeted area (visceral fat). This theory spread quickly, because the principle seemed plausible. To understand why it doesnt work, lets consider an example in sport: a darts player. Logically, if spot reduction worked, a players throwing arm should look like a body builders arms! The non-throwing arm should look like Homer Simpsons arms!
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To illustrate further, look at your dominant hand. Is it any different to your other hand? Yet you use it so much more! Eventually, scientific investigation confirmed that spot reduction is a myth. So, no more crazy sit-up sessions! No amount of sit-ups will give you abs. (Your back will thank me forever!) As a result of doing hundreds of ab exercises, people have come to associate visible abs with strength. Actually, it is your endurancerather than your strengththat you are building by doing repetitive exercises. I also want loud sirens to ring in your head when you hear a telemarketer trying to sell you something that targets abdominal fat. Most of these devices rely on the flawed spot reduction theory. There are exercises that you can do to strengthen your core that are much more beneficial to you. The best kind of ab exercises are those that load the ab muscle. For example, ten weighted crunches done correctly on a cable machine will be far more effective than 100 sit-ups. Replacing your office chair with a Swiss Ball will also work wonders!

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Big Myth 2: Abs can be found in a Pill, Potion or Surgery


FACT: Pills, potions and surgical procedures do not change the root of the problem, and are only temporaryif they work at all. Pills and Potions:
Pills and potionswhether fat burning or fat blockingare ineffective and dangerous. These are band-aid solutions, at best. They do not deal with the cause, which is always over consumption of high calorie foods. In fact, they actually strip the body of its ability to absorb key nutrients from food. The Law of Cause and Effect: Every cause has its effect, and every effect has a cause. To change an effector outcome you must change the cause. Thats right! Your body needs fats in order to absorb nutrientsparticularly vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins are essential for healthy hair, skin, eyes, teeth, heart and bones. Can you see the dangers of ill-advised or long term use of these concoctions? These products were only meant for temporary use in certain medical scenarios. Many, however, were found to have properties that offer quick fixes to other ailments.

For example, Viagra was created as a blood pressure medicine. It is now in common use for a far different purpose! A medicine that is designed for one purpose, but is later found to have fat burning/ blocking potential can generate huge profits for a company lacking a conscience! Using drugs as a short cut to abs will negatively affect your body. Many of the ill-effects may not initially be obvious. Over time, symptoms develop that you might not immediately associate with the drug-taking.

Surgery
There are times when using surgery is the best option for controlling fat. In my opinion, surgery is wise when it is the only effective option available. When surgery is your best option, things are already very grim! Sadly, some people still see surgery as the easy option.

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Invasive surgery should only be considered as a last resort. Avoid it where possible. It is dangerous and unnecessary. Your body is completely capable of losing the weight it has accumulated in a natural and non-destructive way through exercise! Lipo is classed as cosmetic surgery because it is only for appearances! Surgical fat removal does not have the same benefits as fat removed by exercise. While Lipo can offer instant visual results, it violates the law of cause and effect. It addresses the effectthe fatnot the cause.

Many overweight people are told by their surgeon to go away and lose weight or they will not operate! If surgeons thought liposuction was effective, they would simply make overweight patients undergo a liposuction procedure first. You will never see that happen! The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that Liposuction surgery has the highest mortality rate compared with any other surgical procedure. Blood clots are the most common cause of death during this procedure. As in most areas of life, there are no safe shortcuts to a great looking Six Pack. Use the law of cause and effect to your advantage. Learn to identify and become a master of causes and not a victim of effects. Be excited! The Lean Machine Method will teach you how to achieve a great and lasting result without surgery. Youll avoid unnecessary health dangers, and your wallet will thank me!

Big Myth 3: Ab Gadgets


The phrase that comes to mind when I picture the various abdominal gadgets and sit-up machines is high quality junk. Does it work as well, or feel as sturdy, as it looked on TV? Rarely! Telemarketers make buckets of money by selling you these contraptions. Naturally, it is in their interest to get you to buy their latest and greatest machine. Notice how they cleverly use glamorous half naked models to peddle their wares? (Many of their models are natural body builders.) Do you have friends who have bought these machines? Have you seen just one of these friends achieve a model body from using one such device? The problem with these devices is that they simply dont deliver. They dont do what the promoter suggests. They dont do what the public perceives they do. That is not to say

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The Lean Machine Method

that they dont work. Any particular ab gadget may target your core muscles, which is a great thing to do. But you know that great abs have nothing to do with any amount of exercise (see myth 1), but everything to do with the amount of body fat you are carrying. So, the telemarketers are justified in saying their products work the targeted area. But the use of a glamorous, half naked, model using the device repetitiously to advertise is misleading. The paying public dont realize that its the models low body fatnot their use of the gadgetthat makes them look ripped!

Big Myth 4: Celebrity Diets: Why they dont work


When I hear people ordering food in restaurants, I like to mentally translate what they are saying. When I hear Im on the Hollywood XYZ diet, I think only pickled lettuce leaves and onion rings for me today thanks, Im severely restricting my calories so I that can lose a high percentage of musclemuscle that my body will very quickly replace with fat and water as a defense mechanism.

FACT: Dieting is extremely ineffective and dangerous!


How many people would follow fad diets if they understood that they cause muscle to be lost and replaced with fat and water? Some disturbing statistics: 88% of women regularly skip meals to try to lose weight; 20% try to starve themselves for a day; 56% have tried diet pills, and worst of all.. 37% smoke to suppress their appetite! Im often amazed at what people will do to lose weight. Ive heard of people taking shots of vinegar after every meal. Then theres the lemon juice diet; the watermelon diet; the green tea diet; the eat only purple foods diet; the high fat diet; and hundreds of others just as crazy!

These diets focus solely on reducing total body weight, without any regard for what your body needs, or the type of weight being lost.

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The problem starts with the common use of the word diet. Most people understand a diet as a program of severe calorie restriction to achieve a primary goal of weight loss. Weve come to accept a use of the word that almost transcends its original meaning. It is now known that short term severe calorie restriction diets actually lead to even greater weight gain! 98% of dieters end up putting on more weightusually because the diets they follow are simply unsustainable. In fad type diets, precious muscle tissue is the bodys main casualty. Think of muscle tissue as a bank. Your body takes amino acids and proteins from food, and deposits them to make muscle tissue. Amino acids are needed to perform essential cell functions. When insufficient amino acids are available from fooddue to poor dietthe body is forced to make a withdrawal from the muscle. What a tragedy! Did you know that it can take up to a year to build 1kg of new muscle? This makes the damage of dangerous diets very hard to undo! Despite warnings about diets, the madness will continue as long as dieters fail to educate themselves. But if dieters spent the time to understand how their body works just a little better, there would be a huge reduction in eating disorders and obesity epidemics. The worlds obsession with bathroom scales is another problem. As an indicator of fat loss, scales are unreliable! You may not have noticed the natural daily fluctuations of your water weight. As readers of scales become more desperate to lose weight, they are more susceptible to the influence of promoters of crazy and damaging diet programs. This obsession with bathroom scale weight, and a general lack of understanding of how the bodys weight fluctuates, often causes depression and eating disorders. These serious conditions are extremely saddening, because they are avoidable through education.

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FACT: Bodybuilders dont rely on bathroom scale readings because, during the course of a day, your body weight can fluctuate by up to 4kg!

As a bodybuilder, I have to use scales to track my progress for competitions, but scales are not the only measurement bodybuilders use. Nor is appearance a reliable gauge. Muscular, lean physiques look heavier and bigger than they actually are! What is the easiest and most reliable way to measure body fat? Simply use a favorite item of clothing! You know how these pieces of clothing should fit. Its easy to notice a difference, and those differences reliably indicate body fat change. Fat takes up three times more volume than muscle. The fatter you get, the tighter your clothes become. Conversely, the more muscle you gain, the thinner you will be! Using an item of clothing to monitor your body fat will reduce your obsession with what you think the scales say about you. Clothing fit, therefore, is the best gauge of any change in body fat.

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IN SUMMARY... There are no miracle foods to burn away fat. Pills, potions, and surgery are dangerous and unreliable. Gadgets dont produce the desired results. Real, lasting results in controlling body fat are achieved only from a long term disciplined approach to eating and exercise, combined with education. Fortunately, the Lean Machine Method will show you how.

Click Here To Get Your Free Bonuses ($197 Value)

20

The Lean Machine Method

Chapter 2

The Caloric Deficit Principle


Want a Six Pack Without Sit-ups? Heres what you must do:

Create a NUTRITIONALLY CORRECT Caloric Deficit in your body!


I said I wouldnt make this book overly technical, but at this point its worth looking at the science of your body just a little deeper.

What is the Nutritionally Correct, Caloric Deficit principle?


The term sounds fancy, but it is really easy to understand. Nutritionally Correct simply means that all the Macro nutrients your body needs are provided in the food you eat. Macro nutrients are Proteins, Carbohydrates & Fats. Caloric Deficit describes body fat loss that occurs when the total count of calories consumed through food is less than the total number of calories burnt through exercise. If you take in 2000 calories through food, and you use 3000 in exercise, you achieve a net deficit of 1000 calories for that day. The reverse of Caloric Deficit is Caloric Surplus, and this explains how our bodies increase in weight. In a day where more calories are eaten than are burnt through exercise, the surplus food energy is stored as fat. It is important to realize that the body needs all of the basic food types to function properly. Think of your body as a car. While a car will run with just fuel in the tank, you also need oil for the engine, water for the radiator and grease for moving parts to work reliably. Similarly, your body needs all the food types to function correctly. With the abundance of calorie dense foods surrounding us in modern life, its easy to understand how people get fat! Calories are just a standard unit of measuring the energy in food. We can classify calories into three basic food types: Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats. These food types are known as the Macro nutrients. They differ in energy density and what each uniquely contributes to our well-being. It is possible to consume only one or two types of calories for weight loss. Diets using this method, however, overlook the bodys need for the benefits that each specific food type offers.

The most common examples of bad diets promote extremely low carb or low fat intake. While your body may adapt to these diets in the short term, there are consequences and effects that wont be immediately obvious. Imagine depriving a car of oil! Sooner or later you can expect the car to break down! Similarly, a body deprived of an essential food type will eventually break down.

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Your body will allow caloric deficit as long as it is not being starved. Unlike starvation method diets, the Six Pack Without Sit-ups approach works cooperatively with the design of your body. Our bodies are extremely efficient at storing unused calories, and some body types do this much more efficiently than others. Know your body type! The safest, most effective way to achieve caloric deficit is to eat the right food in the right amounts, and follow a program of consistent cardio and resistive exercise (weights). The Six Pack Without Sit-ups program has been designed to make sure you have enough of what your body needs, at just the right time throughout the day. I do not consider it to be a diet, but rather a program you can follow for life. You do not need to go hungry, skip meals or eliminate foods with this program. It is simply about making the necessary changes in your diet and eating habits and combining diet with correct exercise.

As you follow the eating and exercise principles outlined in the program, you will begin to see fat melting away from your body, eventually revealing an enviable Six Pack. Remember, you can achieve all of this without sit-ups. As an added bonus, you will increase your lean muscle mass. This, in turn, will raise your metabolismmaking your body even more defined, and speeding you to your desired look. People you meet will notice an air of confidence about you. You will feel stronger, and begin to feel really good about life!

Figure i: The Weight Gain/Loss Equation Weight Gain Weight Loss


Calories In (Eaten)
(minus)

Calories Out (Exercised) 2000 Cal

Calories In (Eaten) 2000 Cal

(minus)

Calories Out (Exercised)

3000 Cal

3000 Cal

=1000 Calories Net Gain 22

=1000 Calories Net Loss

The Lean Machine Method

FACT: A nutritionally correct caloric deficit diet causes body fat loss.
Have you noticed that I prefer to use the term body fat loss rather than weight loss in describing the goal of the Six Pack Without Sit-ups program? Thats because weight loss is the goal of most regular diets. The vast majority of weight loss diets are based on severe calorie restriction. (Any diet that restricts more than 15% of your basic daily calorie needs). These diets are dangerous, becausealthough they seem to work mathematicallythey do not respect the needs of the body. They are setting people up for failure! Study after study has proved that a whopping 98% of followers cannot keep the weight off long term. Why such a high failure rate? The brain quickly recognizes that the body is being forced into starvation mode. The survival mechanism kicks in: the brain begins to program you with an overwhelming desire to obtain calories immediately, and only stops when it gets the desired result! Because your brain is stronger than your will power, its not long before excess calorie consumption begins! Can you see how persons weight can yo-yo dramatically over the course of their life? Constant cycles of dieting are followed by periods of excessive eating. If you look closely at how they feel, you will see that they become depressed when dieting, because they are literally starving. When they are not dieting, they are depressed because they feel fat! Starvation diets trigger the brain to breakdown existing precious muscle into essential amino acids to enable the body to perform its necessary cell functions. Soon, a vicious cycle is in motion of starving and eroding muscle; over-eating to combat weakness, hunger and depression; and starving again in response to depressing weight gain. starving to lose fat

hunger, weakness

Figure ii: The Traditional Diet Cycle

guilt, distress over fat gain

over-eating
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! Paradoxically, allowing yourself to eat more of the right foods, and to use exercise to burn off fat, is the secret to fat loss. Sensible eating and exercise burns fat, without starving muscles! Your muscle mass stays intact. Sensible eating means, simply, following nutritionally balanced meal plans. Eat plenty of fiber. Eat small meals frequently. Drink plenty of water. Ensure your diet contains a balanced mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Avoid foods that are high in fat or sugar content.

IN SUMMARY... Starvation diets dont work, are dangerous and lead to weight gain. Muscle tissue is a very precious commodity preserve it! Caloric Deficit means more calories are used in exercise than are consumed in eating Caloric Surplus means more calories are consumed than are expended in exercise Macro nutrients are Proteins, Carbohydrates & Fats. You need the right amount of each macro nutrient to be healthy. Fortunately, the Lean Machine Method will show you Fortunately, the Flat Stomach Coach will show you how! how.

Click Here To Get Your Free Bonuses ($197 Value)


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The Lean Machine Method

Chapter 3

Eat Smaller Meals More Often


One of the secrets Body Builders use to achieve an ultra lean physique is to eat more often. Off season or on, I never eat less than 6 meals a day. Tom Motzer, a champion Canadian bodybuilder, ate up to 13 times a day. He cites the development of this habit of eating frequently as the single most important technique in his strategy to win! People with a fast metabolism burn calories efficiently, even when resting! When your metabolism slows down, diets and exercise programs arent as effective. Body fat increases. Slow-metabolism syndrome is responsible for failure to lose fat despite eating very little! The fact is that most people dont eat enough food to keep their metabolism at top speed. Miss a meal, and you will slow your metabolism within an hour!

Eating small meals, more often, burns more body fat, faster.
If you are a food lover, this can sound almost too good to be true. Thats because the idea defies common thinking. But common thinking hasnt achieved your goal of a Six Pack abs! To reach your goal, you need to change your thinking! The simple truth is that eating smaller meals, more often, does make you burn fat faster. A simple illustration will help you understand why eating smaller meals more often works so well. Think of a wood fire as a metaphor for your body. Its happily burning away, but you decide you want it to burn hotter. (Metaphorically, this is you wanting to burn more body fat).

To achieve this outcome, you must choose between putting a few large wooden logs onto the fire (the 3 square meal approach), or using lots of small, dry branches (the six+ meal approach). What happens when you put a big log onto the fire? It chokes the bright fire and produces black smoke. Next, you wonder if fanning the flames with your arms will help (this could be described as physical exercise). Youll notice that the dying embers glow a little brighter as you keep moving your arms. After a time, you notice that the fire is finally burning as it was before the log was added, and you are tired and frustrated. That approach didnt work! You still want to have the brightest fire (which translates to you increasing fat burning ability), so you decide to try using lots of the small dry branches. Instantly the fire

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burns hotter! The fire is consuming the new fuel at an increasing rate (your metabolism increasing). Now you start fanning the flames again, but this time the flames roar higher and higher. This is what happens when regular exercise is constantly combined with a high quality fuel supply. When you feed your body small meals more often, you avoid that lethargic, tired feeling and start to burn body fat at the maximum possible rate. Ive explained this to many people, and the method works every time. Even when people dont really change what they eat, but spread the same amount of food over more meals, they lose weight and have more energy!

Meal Preparation for Busy People


These days its rare for anyone not to be busy. But being busy shouldnt be allowed to get in the way of health and well-being.

The key to getting those abs is always eating properly.


In todays busy world, eating properly requires preparation. Eating six times a day can be difficult for workers and busy parents caring for small children. It takes some careful planning.

Prepare meals in advance.


If you dont learn to prepare your meals and snacks in advance, I can predict with 90%+ certainty that you will never have the abs or body you desire. So, how do you reorganize your life to allow time for meal preparation and proper eating? First, spend some time writing down what you like to eat, and working out practical ways to be able to eat those foods. Think about: The cooking facilities you have available at work How you can cut down preparation times Preparing larger amounts of food to keep for a few days Ensuring you always have the needed ingredients Standardizing meal sizes so you can prepare food faster Where you are going to be throughout the next day

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Depending on the type of work you do, it may be difficult to access cooking or food preparation facilities at morning and afternoon tea times (or supper time if you are a shift worker). Workplace rules might limit the time you have for these meals. By preparing and packaging meals in advance, there is no need to skip these important meals. Even during a short break, you can eat fruit, a small salad, or a sandwich. You might replace tea or coffee with soup. Even one or two snack bars, carefully chosen to contain healthy ingredients and minimal sugar, is a much better choice than the traditional tea or coffee with cake or cookies! Things I recommend to help you succeed :

Always have an emergency snack at hand Know what fast food meals are suitable in emergencies Do your shopping a few days before you run out of food Use frozen vegies. You can buy perfect portion size packs! Use 2 minute Basmati rice in the microwave. No mess! Always have enough clean storage containers available Buy your snack bars in bulk. Save money! Have at least 4 clean protein shakers Pay a little extra for better cuts of meat to save time Plan, Plan, Plan..every meal!

If you prepare for 6 meals, you are far more likely to eat 6 meals.
Preparing for six meals each day will support your developing habit of eating six meals a day. If you prepare your meals with regular discipline, and eat at least six times each day, you can expect to see abs much faster.

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IN SUMMARY... Speeding up your metabolism speeds calorie burning and reduces fat. To speed your metabolism, eat more often! Plan carefully and prepare in advance so that you can eat six healthy meals each day. Eating small meals, more often, burns more body fat, faster.

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The Lean Machine Method

Chapter 4

What Body Type Are You?


Your body is unique to you! It is important to work out the most effective way to feed and exercise it.
You can classify your body into one of the following 3 types:

Figure iii: The Three Basic Body Types


As you look at the picture above, you might think of people you know who fit the examples of a particular body type. It is likely that your body is actually a combination of two of the above body types. Most people are predominantly one type, but have secondary features of another. For example, you may look like a Mesomorph. If you have a wide bone structure, but very little body fat, you would be best described as an Ectomorphic Mesomorph: tall, lean but possessing a strong square frame. Although these terms may sound a little strange, dont underestimate the importance of understanding your body type. Your body type strongly influences your calorie needs, and the amount and type of exercise required to acquire great abs! It is important to note that one body type is no better than any other. Each type has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. By determining your body type, you are able to develop training and eating habits that yield maximum results.

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Ectomorph
If you are an Ectomorph, you are likely to be tall and lean. You probably struggle to gain weight or muscle. The reason is that this body type is by far the most efficient at burning calories. Ectomorphs need additional calories in their diet to build muscle. To build muscle, Ectomorphs need additional calories in their diet and heavy weight training. It is important to make sure that these calories only come from quality foods, not junk. Although people with this body type seem able to consume junk with little effect, without restraint and exercise excess body fat will develop. With this in mind, Ill introduce the term Skinny Fat Person.

Skinny Fat People have high body fat with very low muscle content. They are not lean machines. A lean machine body is one with muscularity with very little fat. Despite the scales reporting a healthy body weight, to be skinny fat is just as dangerous as being overweight or obese. Excess visceral fat around the waist (fat that surrounds the internal organs) is the single biggest indicator of heart disease risk. Sadly, there are many women with this condition who worry about cellulite. They often become deeply depressed, and develop eating disorders (severe low calorie diets). They dont understand how they can have a seemingly good weight but still be fat. The answer is body composition! People with this condition (especially women) often think they need to eat less to lose fat. They avoid weights because they think building muscle will make them huge or masculine. These misconceptions result in increased cellulite and increased heart disease risk. To develop a stronger looking physique, Ectomorphs need to train with heavy weights 3 to 4 times per week. Work on the large muscle groups, with low repetitions, long rest periods between sets, and minimal aerobic activity.

Mesomorph
Athletic in shape, strong and muscular, Mesomorphs are generally fit, and find it easy to gain or lose weight. Maintaining a moderate amount of calories in your diet is the key to keeping your enviable Mesomorphic shape.

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Mesomorphs have diluted fat burning ability, and should balance regular aerobic activity with weight training and sensible diet.

I am a Mesomorph, with the secondary features of an Endomorph. I build muscle easily, and generally will maintain my weight, but I have to be careful to avoid acquiring fat. Mesomorphs often fall into the trap of thinking that their genetics allow them to eat and exercise as they please.

Be sensible with your food intake and dont overdo it. You are able to train for strength longer and more often than an Ectomorph. With diluted fat burning ability, you need a regular balance of aerobic activity, while still focusing on strength and definition when using weights.

Endomorph
While Ectomorphs burn more calories than other body types, Endomorphs efficiently store energy as fat. With short, tapered limbs, they will appear soft and flabby without exercise and good food. Endomorphs need moderate weight training and daily aerobic exercise, combined with frequent small meals. They have a lower Some Endomorphs might be described as fit fat people. Despite maintaining a larger frame, their fitness amazes people.

People of this body type can easily gain muscle, but struggle to keep fat and weight within healthy limits. As an endomorph, your challenge is to tolerance for sweets and junk food. lose body fat and maintain a lifestyle that keeps it off. To increase your ability to keep the fat off, aim to increase your muscle to fat ratio. You should maintain a low calorie diet, eating five or six smaller meals throughout the day. Stay away from junk food and sweets. Endomorphs should train using moderate, slightly lighter weights, at a fast pace, with little rest between sets and exercises. A daily aerobic activity, like brisk paced walking, will help you achieve your ideal body.

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IN SUMMARY... Knowing your body type will help you determine the best diet and exercise regime to maintain low body fat and good health.

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Chapter 5

Macro nutrients and Food In Your Body


Food: you know where it goes in, and where it comes out! You also need to understand how everything you eatwhether protein, carbohydrate or fat (the 3 macro nutrients)is converted into blood sugar through the process of digestion. Switching to low G.I. foods will instantly solve the afternoon energy problems many people experience. Some foodssuch as refined white carbohydrates, like sugarare converted into blood sugar energy very fast. Other carbohydrates, like grains, take much longer to convert.

You may have noticed this yourself when you have a chocolate bar or sugary drink. These foods give you an almost instant energy hit. Compare this with eating a bowl of oats, which takes longer for your body to process, and doesnt spike you. To measure the different rates at which different foods break down and convert to energy, we use a rating system referred to as the Glycemic Index (GI). Foods are rated 1 to 100, according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Carbohydrates are not all equal. They behave quite differently in our bodies. Simple and refined carbohydrates are rapidly digested. They are absorbed very quickly, producing immediate rises in blood sugar and insulin levels. These are the foods that give you an instant, but not lasting, energy hit. Low GI foods digest slowly, and produce gradual increases in our blood glucose and insulin levels, producing sustained energy. Eating low GI foods assists fat control, because low GI foods control appetite and delay hunger. Eating low GI foods also reduces your risk of heart disease and diabetes. In fact, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization both advised, in 1999, that people in industrialized nations should base their diets on low-GI foods as a preventative measure against the most common diseases of affluence (including obesity). The benefits of low GI foods extend beyond controlling fat and reducing disease. Good foods also affect mental health and learning performance! Low GI carbs have been shown in tests to improve memory, learning and reasoning skills. Cognitive function has been shown to improve after eating a carbohydrate meal. In fact, if you find yourself short of will power to sustain a healthy eating and exercise regime, you should boost your glucose levels by eating more low GI carbs. Tests show

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that even relatively small acts of self control deplete the brains supply of glucose! Lower brain glucose levels means reduced will power. Just think of the power that knowledge gives you! An increase in your intake of low GI carbohydrates can increase your ability to sustain a healthy lifestyle, to manage your finances, to complete projects... to achieve all of your goals! Researchers report, in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, that ...the bodys variable ability to mobilize glucose may be an important determinant of peoples capacity to live up to their ideals, pursue their goals, and realize their virtues. Measuring GI is complex. Tests are conducted by feeding a particular food to ten healthy people, then measuring their blood glucose levels over the next two hours. In 1995, Sydney University established a GI Research Service (SUGiRS) to provide a reliable commercial GI testing laboratory for the local and international food industry. The laboratory has tested over 400 food types, and provides a database of results at www.glycemicindex.com that will assist you to choose low GI foods. Many foods now carry GI indicators, and you should look on packages for GI readings less than 55.

Balancing the Macro nutrients


Our bodies are actually designed to run on carbohydrates. Thats logical, when you consider that blood sugar (glucose) is a carbohydrate. Protein, even though it has the same calorie value per gram as a Carbohydrate, takes much longer for the body to break down. Fat contains double the energy, on a weight basis, contained in other food types. 1 gram of fat = 9 Calories 1 gram of protein = 4 Calories. 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 Calories. With these facts in mind, it is easy to see how the worlds diet gurus have devised diet theories advocating everything from eating no fat, to minimizing carbohydrates or eating just protein! The problem with these tunnel vision diets, though, is that you need each of these macro nutrients to remain healthy. While most people know that protein helps to build muscle, many dont know that carbohydrates are the primary macro nutrient to preserve muscle tissue. If you dont

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have enough dietary carbohydrates, you can eat all the protein you want, yet still lose muscle mass! Skipping fats in our diet doesnt work, because we need certain kinds of fat molecules to produce essential hormones. For good health, strive for a balance of 50% carbohydrates, 35% protein, and 15% fat. You need to balance the ratio of each of the macro nutrients (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat) correctly in your meal and daily calorie total. For good health, and minimal body fat, you should strive for a ratio of approximately 50% Carbohydrates, 35% Protein & 15% Fat.

The table on page 36 shows the quantity (grams) of each macro nutrient you need each day.

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IN SUMMARY... Your body needs a balance of carbohydrates (50%), protein (35%) and fat (15%) to maintain health and minimise body fat. Choosing low GI foods (below 55) will help control hunger and sustain energy levels longer, thus aiding in the fight against obesity and other diseases of affluence.

If you're also interested in building more lean muscle, I personally recommend Vince Del Monte's proven method :

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You Have Permission to Share This Book


You have full permission to share this eBook with others, as long as you make no changes, additions or deletions to the content. If you received a copy of this ebook from a friend, be sure to register your copy for any updates and revisions. Go to www.SixpackWithoutSitups.com to Register your Copy.

Macro nutrient Chart: Grams Per Day by Height


HEIGHT MACROS
PROTEIN UNDER 151 CM CARBS FAT CALORIES PROTEIN 151 - 160 CM CARBS FAT CALORIES PROTEIN 161 - 170 CM CARBS FAT CALORIES PROTEIN 171 - 180 CM CARBS FAT CALORIES PROTEIN 181 - 190 CM CARBS FAT CALORIES 191 - 200 CM PROTEIN CARBS FAT CALORIES

GRAMS PER DAY MALE


100 - 120 120 - 150 35 - 40 (1200 - 1440) 110 - 130 130 - 160 40 - 45 (1320 - 1560) 120 - 140 140 - 170 45 - 50 (1450 - 1700) 130 - 150 150 - 180 50 - 55 (1570 - 1820) 140 -160 160 - 190 55 - 60 (1690 - 1950) 150 - 170 170 -200 60 - 65 (1810 - 2060)

FEMALE
60 - 80 80 - 110 20 - 25 (750 - 990) 70 - 90 90 - 120 25 - 30 (865 - 1110) 80 - 100 100 -130 30 - 35 (990 - 1250) 90 - 110 110 - 140 35 - 40 (1110 - 1360) 100 -120 120 - 150 40 -45 (1240 - 1490) 110 -130 130 - 160 45 - 50 (1360 - 1610)

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Chapter 6

Food Diary: How to Count Your Calories and Macro Nutrients


After looking at the macro nutrient by height table, you now know what your daily intake of protein, carbs and fats should be. The next part of the equation is learning to count your calories correctly. Record your progress in your daily food diary.

Always remember that EVERYTHING you eat counts! Whether it is sampling the meal you are cooking, or polishing off someones left overs, it ALL COUNTS!
Logically, therefore, you need to keep a record of every morsel of food that enters your mouth. By recording carefully, you will achieve your goal safely, and as quickly as practicable. It is a simple task, but you must form a habit of doing it every day. My experience, observing people who are striving for the ideal body, shows that careful record keeping is commonly practiced by all who achieve success. That fact has always amazed me. No matter how much weight you can or cant lift; no matter how many cardio sessions you do; the most important ingredient for success in building a great body is writing down your food intake. Take action. Start Today! You might be amazed at what you eat in a week! Keeping a log will make you more conscious of what you eat. To discover my own ingrained eating habits, I started writing everything down while still on a fairly normal eating routine. I noticed a pattern emerging. I was eating a chocolate during the day, drinking a can of soft drink in the afternoon, and eating a bowl of icecream with a take-away dinner at night. I wasnt conscious of this pattern until I started my diary. I realized that it was not a good habit! After a few weeks of filling out the log, I noticed that this pattern almost always occurred on a Thursday. Coincidentally this happened to be the day I did my shoppinga day I had no food left in the house. I began making a conscious effort to shop twice each week, so that I never ran out of food. I then didnt need to buy take away meals. I always had enough food to prepare my meals and snacks. If it wasnt for the food diary, I might never realized I had formed this bad habit. Now that you understand the importance of the diary, lets get down to the business of counting your calories.

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Today, nutritional information is available on the wrapping of just about everything you buy. Your task is to use the information provided to work out the total calories in the food you eat, and the breakup of the macro nutrients in the meal. Then, simply transfer the correct information to your diary. If nutritional information is not provided on the package, visit http://www.nutritiondata.com/ to find the values of the food you have eaten. Choose foods you enjoy, and plan meals to incorporate all the needed nutriments within your calorie allowance. You will save time by listing the values of foods you eat regularly. For example, my first meal of the day comprises 8 egg whites and 1 yolk, with a small portion of Basmati rice and 15ml of Heinz Tomato Sauce. This yields a total of 428 Calories, from 40g Protein, 33g Carbs and 14g Fat.

This breakfast gives me a great start to the day, and a meal that I really enjoywithin my calorie allowance. This is the key to success! Plan meals that you enjoy, while ensuring they contain the right mix of macro nutrients and a calorie count in your recommended range. Losing fat will be so easy, you will wonder why you ever struggled before! You dont have to eat the same thing every day. Whatever you enjoy is fine, as long as it fits within your allowance. You will be amazed at what you can actually enjoy, so I encourage you to think of the meals you currently like to eat and work out how you can make them fit into your eating plan. Mostly, it will just be a matter of re-sizing the portion to suit your calorie requirement for that meal. Now lets take a look at a typical nutrition labelto make sure you know how to use the information provided. Figure iv is a typical food label that complies with the U.S.A Food & Drug Administrations standards. Most labels give similar information. On the label, find: the total number of calories per serve the total grams of protein per serve the total grams of carbohydrate per serve the total grams of fat per serve. If you are not using the standard size serve on the label, you will need to do some math to scale the information to suit your selected portion size.

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You can use the Food Log on page 40 to log the Macro nutrient breakup and calories of each meal. From there, you simply work out the total calories for the day by adding the calories for each meal. Your job is to stay within your allowances.

Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 cup (228g)


Serving per Container: 2

Amount Per Serving Calories 280


Total Fat 13g
Saturated Fat 5g Trans Fat 2g

Calories from Fat 120 % Daily Value*


20% 25% 10% 28% 10% 0%

Cholesterol 2mg

Sodium 660mg Total Carbohydrate 31g


Dietary Fiber 3g Sugars 5g

Protein 5g Vitamin A 4% Calcium 15% Vitamin C 2% Iron 4%

Percent daily values are based on 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Calories:
Total Fat Sat Fat Cholesterol Sodium Total Carbohydrate Fiber Less than Less than Less than Less than

2,000
65g 20g 300mg 2,400mg 300g 25g

2,500
80g 25g 300mg 2,400mg 375g 30g Protein 4

Calories per gram:


Fat 9 Carbohydrates 4

Figure iv: Typical Food Label

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Six Pack Without Situps Food Log


MEAL TIME AMOUNT FOOD TYPE TOTAL GRAMS PROTEIN CARBS FAT

DATE:

MACRO NUTRIENTS: Convert to calories respectively SUB-TOTALS IN CALORIES: Add calorie sub-total to give total calories for the day TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED
x4 x4 x9

Total calories must be less than or equal to the daily allowance for your Height

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Choosing the Right Foods


The single most important thing you can do to succeed in reducing body fat is to design an eating plan that works for you over a longer term. Only you know what you really like to eat. When designing your eating plan, you should take into account any special circumstances. Consider your ability to prepare food at work; your familys needs; and the time you have available for preparation and eating. Strive to remove any barrier to eating the right food at the right time. This is the foundation principle that so many other diets get wrong! You need to be able to enjoy what you are eating, and make sure that it is easy and practical to prepare, even at especially busy times. Here are some preparation suggestions:

Substitute all cooking oils with olive oil Eliminate butter and margarine spreads Dont add too much salt or pepper Go for lean cuts of meat, tuna or chicken breast Choose Basmati or brown rice over other types Avoid pasta Use vegetables and salads to accompany meals Find suitable snacks to have when away from home Choose fat free dressings, and avoid oil based dressings.

Sample meal ideas


I wont tell you what meals to eat.

To reach you goals, you need to work out what works for you.
If you are struggling for recipe ideas, send an e-mail to dean@flat-stomach-coach.com dean@LeanMachineMethod.com and Ill point you in the right direction. On the following page, I have listed meals that I, personally, eat in a typical week. Use this as a starting point for your meal plan. Use your imagination, and add the things you prefer to eat. Do you need help to create your personalized meal plan? Visit www.LeanMachineMethod.com for information on services I offer to help you tailor the ideal eating plan for you.

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Breakfast:

For me, a typical breakfast consists of an omelette made with 8 egg whites and 1 yolk, plus either 60g of Basmati rice or a serving of vegetables. My favorite protein shake in water, or a protein bar. I like to have a 185g can of Tuna (in Springwater) with 60g of Basmati rice and a large serve of salad. I like a little balsamic vinegar on my salad, so I include these macro nutrients in my daily total. This meal is really good for you and easy to prepare. Either my protein shake or a protein bar. Alternately, you could have some boiled eggs; low fat peanut butter on crackers; or a tub of low fat natural yoghurt. Just choose things you like and make them work to your calorie allowance. At around 5:30 or 6pmjust before my weights sessionI eat a chicken breast and vegetables. This is one of my most important meals, because I find I dont train as well on an empty stomach. I get too distracted thinking about food to concentrate on my workout. After my weights session, I have another protein shake in water, to get the nutrients I need. I then eat a small piece of steamed fish with salad or vegetables for dinner. Thats it for the day!

Morning Snack: Lunch

Afternoon Snack 1

Pre Workout Afternoon snack 2

Post Workout / Dinner

I eat regularly so that I never feel hungry, but I eat sensible amounts. I never need to pop a button or roll away from the table! Experiment with your meals and timing until you find what works best for you.

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Spicing it Up
Failed dieters often claim they gave up because they tired of boring, tasteless foods. Theres no need to sacrifice taste! Most healthy foods are naturally tasty. Many people discover natural flavors for the first time when they commence a healthy eating regime! Fresh fruits and vegetables have wonderful flavors, and can be mixed to create a real taste sensation! If you enjoy seasonings and spices, though, there is no reason not to use them. Herbs, spices and seasonings, do not alter your caloric intake significantly. Many, like parsley and ginger for example, have outstanding health benefits. Some herbs and spices are powerful antioxidants. Many believe the hot spices actually promote calorie burning. Spice up your meals with:

Pepper Garlic powder Oregano Parsley Sage Thyme Dill Ginger Chopped Onion Paprika Cayenne Cinnamon Mint Mustard Curry powder Turmeric Cardamom Cumin Caraway seeds Balsamic Vinegar Horseradish

Use low or non-caloric sauces and condiments, low calorie dressings, marinades and salsa. Citrus juices make great flavoring. Try a squirt of lemon juice in water on a hot day!

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Cheat Regularly!
The most effective diet is the one you can stick with long term! For maximum health benefits, you dont just want to lose fat. You want to change your life style, permanently! Thats why Im now going to tell you that its okay to cheat! In fact, Im going to advise you strongly to cheat regularly. Feeling good now? Cravings are the dieters worst enemy. When you deprive yourself of foods you love, cravings can overwhelm. Unless you have incredible will power, this can trigger binges. There are two types of cravings: Physiological cravings are triggered by skipping meals, or by eating too many simple sugars. Psychological cravings result from being too hard on yourselfnever allowing a little indulgence. To combat psychological cravings, and avoid binge eating, I recommend you cheat on your diet one or two meals a week. You are eating forty good, low calorie meals each week. One or two small snacks of junk food isnt going to do any harm. Reward yourself. Knowing you can have a reward occasionally will help you stick to your diet long term. Surprisingly, an occasional fattening meal or snack can also give your metabolism a boost. As your body becomes accustomed to your low calorie intake, it adjusts by reducing your metabolic rate. A cheat meal is like fuel on a slowing fireit speeds up burning. Dont overdo the cheating! Everything you eat counts, and if you stuff yourself with fattening foodseven if only occasionally you slow progress. Im suggesting a small snack of forbidden fruits once or twice weekly. Record it in your diary. Enjoy it. Then return to your routine with renewed enthusiasm.

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Should you take vitamins and supplements when dieting?


There is more to nutrition than just good food. Sadly, however well you balance your diet, and however careful you are to incorporate all the food groups into your eating plan, you may be missing out on certain essentials if you rely on food alone. This is particularly true in modern societies, where we typically eat proportionally more processed food. Nutrition isnt just about good food. You may need additional vitamins and minerals to combat the stresses of modern life. If you work in a high stress occupation, or suffer significant stress in your private life, you may need supplements to counter the taxing effect of stress on your body. Stress causes metabolic responses that erode nutrient stores. Blood flow to the liver increases under stress, increasing the breakdown of sugar, fat and protein stores needed for fuel, and the amino acids used for tissue repair.

Free Radicals and Anti-Oxidants


When body cells use oxygen, they produce by-products, known as free radicals, that can cause damage. This damage is referred to as oxidative stress. In modern societies, exposure to free radicals results from pollutants in air, water and food, (including many preservatives), and exposure to power lines, microwaves, televisions, and computers. It is exacerbated by activities that expose you to oxidative stress, like smoking (including passive smoking), taking drugs (both medical and recreational), exposure to radiation and electronic pollution, and getting sunburnt. Perhaps the most significant contributor to increased free radical activity in your body is stress, both mental and emotional. Free radical damage is often a normal by-product of normal cellular processes. However, free radicals are known to contribute to many health problems, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers, macular degeneration (causing blindness), and many types of infection. In fact, oxidative stress and free radical damage is implicated in premature aging, and almost any disease or degenerative condition you can name. When free radicals are active in your body, they cause a spiraling chain reaction of molecules stealing electrons from other molecules. The result is damage to cellular processes, membranes, and genes, and systemic inflammation. Antioxidantsnutrients in our food that prevent or slow oxidative damage to the body act as scavengers, seeking and destroying free radicals and repairing the damage they cause. By supplying missing electrons for unstable molecules, antioxidants build the immune system and prevent oxidative stress damage.

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The Bodys Master Antioxidant


The bodys master antioxidant is Glutathione/GSH. It protects the body from free radical damage; detoxifies your body; repairs your DNA; regulates enzymes; and strengthens your immune system. Glutathione is manufactured by your body, in your body cells, and is a vital component of every cell in your body. Over the past few decades, an increase in environmental toxins and in the mental and emotional stress in our lives has increased production of free radicals. Our bodies are unable to manufacture enough Glutathione/GSH to meet our needs. Production normally decreases with age, so older people are at high risk of diseases caused by free radicals. Everyone needs to increase their intake of antioxidants to help boost Glutathione production. Glutathione production is increased by increased consumption of foods that are high in antioxidants. It is preferable to obtain most of your supply of antioxidants from foods, rather than from supplements. Beans, grain products, and fruit and vegetablesespecially those that are brightly coloredsupply an abundance of antioxidants. You should eat a variety of these products, mixing fruits and vegetables of different colors. Vitamins A, C and E are important in the battle against free radicals. To maximize your consumption of these important vitamins, increase your intake of: Vitamin A and Apricots, peaches, cantaloupe, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, Carotenoids: broccoli, tomatoes, kale, and collards. Vitamin C: Vitamin E: Selenium: Green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, tomatoes, and citrus fruits. Green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil, liver oil, nuts, seeds. Found in fish, shellfish, red meat, chicken, grains, eggs, and garlic, Selenium also an excellent antioxidant.

Other free radical fighters include tea, oatmeal, barley, rye, flax seed, soy, red wine, grapes, cranberries, and grape seed extract.

Vitamins and Supplements


When dieting to lose fat, it is difficult to be sure you are getting everything your body needs, in adequate quantities. Missing out on certain vitamins or minerals can prevent muscle growth, and cause a variety of health problems. To ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs, I recommend you take some supplements. Carefully chosen supplements are safe, inexpensive, and offer well-documented medical benefits.

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Choosing your Vitamins and Supplements


The health industry is lucrative! Because profit potential is high, it attracts a high proportion of unethical operators. Many of the potions offered have zero nutritional value. Alarmingly, these may include some big brand products. Unethical operators invest heavily in marketing, allocating no investment to research, testing, or purchasing quality ingredients. The result is a well-known brand but a poor quality product. When choosing supplements, look carefully for indications of compliance with respected quality assurance standards. Cheap but well-known brands are usually safer than expensive labels. Form a relationship with a trustworthy retailer, and seek their advice. Or ask medical professionals or dieticians for suggestions.

WARNING: Dont be taken in by advertising and aggressive promotion of expensive supplements and so-called miracle foods. Advertising frequently exaggerates the benefits, and you can almost always find low cost alternatives that provide the same benefits. Be cautious of the newest and latest supplements. New might mean not yet thoroughly tested. Use time-tested and proven supplements that have been evidenced safe and effective. Recommended Quantities
Good quality products offer advice on daily dosage on the label. Read it carefully! Dont be tempted to think that if one capsule a day is good, two per day must be twice as good. It doesnt work that way! Excess quantities of some supplements can cause serious harm. Rarely is there any benefit in taking more than the minimum recommended dose. Any minimal benefit that may result from slightly higher doses is likely to be offset by the harmful side effects of over-consumption.

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Which Supplements?
The following table lists the specific supplements I recommend. Your particular diet and lifestyle may indicate additional needs. As with your food plan, research and experiment to discover what is right for you. If you notice certain symptomslike high cholesterol levels, slow healing of wounds, difficulty sleeping, constipation, or low energy levelsyou may need to investigate which vitamins and minerals are most effective in combatting the causes of those symptoms. Mens sports multi vitamin Cover the basics! Be sure to get all the important vitamins and minerals by taking a good quality multi-vitamin daily. It can be difficult to measure the vitamin content of food accurately, so regard this as an absolute minimum requirement to protect against any deficiencies. B group vitamins serve as coenzymes in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats to create energy. The presence of B group vitamins is also important for the production of hormones and neurotransmitters to assist the maintenance of the nervous system. Because these vitamins are water soluble, the body cannot store large amounts. Therefore, regular consumption is vital, especially in times of stress or strenuous physical activity. The physical exercise necessary to promote weight loss will deplete your stores of B group vitamins. Glucosamine 1500 Glucosamine is made from glucose and the amino acid glutamine. Found naturally in the body, Glucosamine is needed to produce glycosaminoglycan, a molecule used to form and repair cartilage and other body tissues. Production of glucosamine slows with age. Supplements strengthen cartilages and promote tissue growth. Zinc and magnesium enhance muscle strength and endurance. In chapter 11, you will learn how healthy sleep promotes production of anabolic hormones, promoting muscle growth. Taken before bedtime, these minerals promote deeper, more restful sleep.

Mega B Complex (B group vitamins)

Zinc and Magnesium capsules

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Branched Chain Amino Acids

Found naturally in dairy products, red meat, whey and eggs, these acids are the building blocks of protein. Branched chain amino acid supplements provide the body with three critical amino acids: Leucine: Helps regulate blood-sugar levels. Valuable for promoting muscle growth and repair of muscle tissue, assisting hormone production, promoting wound healing, and regulating energy. Helps prevent the breakdown of muscle proteins after trauma or during periods of severe stress. Isoleucine: Helps regulate blood sugar levels and energy levels; aids muscle recovery after exercise; assists the formation of hemoglobin; assists blood clotting. Valine: A stimulant, it assists muscle metabolism and tissue growth. Also helps maintain a balance of nitrogen in the body, and preserves glucose. Branched chain amino acids are useful in treating degenerative neurological conditions, including reversing the effects of drug addiction and alcoholism. Deficiencies cause headaches, irritability, dizziness and fatigue. No sports nutrition program is complete without the addition of branched chain amino acids. During periods of physical stress, such as intense running and weight lifting, the body can enter catabolic state, in which muscle tissue is broken down. A balanced daily dosage of these three amino acids will reduce protein breakdown and assist muscle development.

Salmon oil capsules (better quality fatty acids)

Brain and memory functions are also assisted by Omega-3 oils. Research suggests that the right kinds of Omega-3 oils can: Reduce cholesterol levels, Relieve joint pain, migraines, depression, and autoimmune diseases, Maintain optimum blood pressure, and Prevent heart disease. While Omega-3 oils are found in a number of supplements, salmon oil capsules are known to provide a rich and high quality source of this valuable fatty acid.

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Slow Release Vitamin C

One of the main antioxidant nutrients, Vitamin C stops conversion of nitrates (from tobacco smoke, smog, bacon, lunch meats, and some vegetables) into cancer-causing substances. Vitamin C is also needed for the synthesis of collagen, the intercellular cement that holds tissues together. Vitamin C also: Builds resistance to infection; Helps prevent and treat the common cold; Builds healthy teeth, gums and bones; Helps heal wounds, scar tissue and fractures; Prevents scurvy; strengthens blood vessels; Helps the body absorb iron; Reduces risk of heart disease, cancer, cataracts, arthritis; Reduces histamine levels in the body (Histamines trigger allergy and asthma attacks); Reduces risks of bronchitis; Fights stress; Helps to regulate insulin release (potentially aiding in the treatment of diabetes).

Metamucil (pure psyllium husk) capsules

Recent studies evidence that eating high fiber cereals containing psyllium effectively reduces cholesterol. Psyllium also cleans and detoxifies the gastrointestinal tract and promotes healthy bowel function. This cleansing is vital to prevent re-absorption of toxins, disrupting the delicate balance in your gut and causing constipation, bloating, flatulence, nausea, tiredness an irritability. Toxin overdose can also make you prone to allergies, and cause immune disorders. While you should ensure your diet includes sufficient fiber, Metamucil capsules or other psyllium husk supplements will help to ensure that your gastrointestinal system remains clean and heathy.

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Other Useful Supplements Tribulus Terrestris


Used by people all over the world to promote overall health, support healthy libido function, and increase muscle tone, this plant contains steroidal saponins, alkaloids, and flavanoids. Its protodioscins content is believed to be responsible for effects on hormone, libido and body composition. Because of its reputed benefits, athletes have used Tribulus Terrestris extract dietary supplements to boost energy levels, promote healthy hormone function, enhance muscle tone, and support athletic training. Although it is unclear how the extract works, scientific research has suggested several possible mechanisms. Clinical research suggests Tribulus Terristris may support healthy libido functions in humans. It has also been shown to support healthy cholesterol profiles and healthy blood pressure, where profiles are already in the normal range.

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IN SUMMARY... Keep a food diary to ensure you stay within your calorie limits, while still eating enough of each of the three food types. Record everything you eat. Every bite counts! Plan meals carefully, so that you enjoy the foods you like, without exceeding your daily calorie limits. Flavor meals with your favorite herbs and spices and low calorie sauces or dressings. Reward yourself with a small cheat meal once or twice a week to avoid the temptation to binge. Include plenty of antioxidants in your meal plan, and add selected supplements to ensure your body gets all the vitamins and minerals it needs.

This Recipe Book is FULL of Great Tasting Meal Ideas:

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Chapter 7

Body Chemistry: How Fat is Stored and Burnt


Everything that we eat or drink is either helping us to burn fat, or to store it! Sounds logical, right? You will be shocked to know that healthy food, such as a piece of fruit or a lean piece of chicken, can be stored by your body as fat, depending on the chemical mode your body is in at the time you eat.

If your body is in fat storage mode, you will store fatno matter what you eat.
Your bodys chemical mode (either fat burning or fat storing) is determined by the most abundant hormone in your bloodstream. The two hormones are Insulin and Glucagon. Glucagon is the hormone produced by the pancreas when the brain detects that blood sugar levels are low. When present in the bloodstream, the Glucagon hormone causes the liver to convert stored energy into Glucose, to raise blood sugar. If the body has used all the energy in the liver, and Glucagon is still present in the bloodstream, then the body will be forced to start converting energy from fat cells to make the necessary Glucose for blood sugar. This means that the Glucagon hormone is a fat fighters best friend! Glucagon puts the body into fat burning mode. The body will continue to burn fat as energy while blood sugar is at a low level. This process of converting stored fat into energy is called Lipolysis. The other hormone, Insulin, can be a dieters worst nightmare. Like Glucagon, Insulin is created by the pancreas. It is produced and released into the bloodstream when the brain detects that blood sugar levels are high. Dont get the wrong idea about Insulin. It is perfectly natural and positive for your body to create Insulin. The problem is that most modern diets contain stratospherically high amounts of sugar and energy rich food. By trying to serve what it thinks is our best interest, the body continues to create Insulin whenever blood sugar is high, so that it can store all of the energy present in the blood in its fat cells for later use. To compound the problem, most overweight people never draw on this stored energy (fat), because they are simply not physically active enough, and/or their body is so high in blood sugar because of poor diet that it constantly puts them in fat storing mode.
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These are the facts behind the current Type 2 Diabetes epidemic. The body doesnt understand how abundant energy rich foods are in our modern lives. Like any machine, it keeps doing exactly what it was built to do with blood sugar. If you are constantly spiking yourself with a sugary diet, you are effectively Drunk under the Influence of Insulin. You can never expect to reach your weight loss goal safely. Worse, though, just as driving a car drunk creates major risks of accident, performing normal daily tasks when drunk on insulin imposes risks of injury. People on these high sugar diets wonder why they are tired, unmotivated & lethargic. It is because their metabolism is doing the equivalent of ten rounds with Mike Tyson every day. No wonder they feel exhausted!

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IN SUMMARY... Your body will store fatno matter what you eat if it is fat storing mode. To burn fat, rather than storing it, you need to maximize quantities of Glucagon in your blood stream, and minimize Insulin. Processed and sugary foods will spike your Insulin levels, causing your body to store fat, and making you tired and lethargic. To reduce fat and increase energy, reduce your reliance on processed and sugary foods.

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Chapter 8

Fiber: A Powerful Fat Fighter


Wikipedia defines dietary fiber as: ...the indigestible portion of plant foods that move food through the digestive system, absorbing water and easing defecation. and goes on to advise that: Dietary fiber consists of non-starch poly saccharides such as cellulose and many other plant components such as dextrins, insulin, lignin, waxes, chitins, pectins, beta-glucans and oligosaccharides. The term fiber is somewhat of a misnomer, since many of the so-called dietary fibers are not fibers at all. The term has largely taken over the role of the older term roughage. Put simply, fiber is that part of plant-based foods that our bodies struggle to digest. Since it can pass through our digestive tract without providing nutrition, it is easy to discount its major health benefits. Yet studies show that populations that eat larger proportions of fiber-rich foods are significantly healthier. Fiber has been shown to: lower blood pressure; prevent constipation; lower bad cholesterol, while raising good cholesterol levels; reduce risks of heart disease; help prevent bowel cancer. Fiber helps to keep our bowel movements regular. It picks up and binds carcinogens in our intestines, and moves them through the colon faster, thus reducing risks of colon cancer and other diseases of the bowel. Fiber also helps rid the body of bad cholesterol. Evidence also exists that fermentable (soluble) fibers improve absorption of minerals into the bloodstream, especially calcium.

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Two Types of Fiber


Fibers are divided into two classifications, according to whether or not they are soluble. Soluble fibers have significant health effects because they ferment during metabolic processing. Insoluble fiber has passive water-attracting properties that increase bulk. These fibers help to soften stool and shorten the time it takes for food to travel through the digestive system. Good sources of insoluble fiber include: Nuts and seeds Oat bran Green beans, cauliflower, celery and zucchini Whole grains The skin of most fruitespecially tomatoes and plums All plant foods contain some soluble fiber. The best sources of soluble fibre are: Legumes (peas, soy beans & kidney beans) Oats, rye and barley Vegetables, like broccoli and carrots Root vegetables: sweet potato, potato and turnip or parsnip Psyllium Husk (Commercially available as Metamucil) Note that meat and dairy foods contain no fiber. It is also important to remember that refining processes remove most of the fiber from grains. You need to eat unprocessed grains to maximise your fiber intake.

Fat Fighting Properties of Fiber


As well as having significant health benefits, fiber in both its forms, is a great weapon in your fight against fat. Fiber helps to stabilize post meal blood sugar levels. Think back to how blood sugar works. By stabilizing blood sugar levels after eating, fiber makes the perfect partner for Glucagon in the process of Lipolysis (converting stored fat and using it for energy). Fiber helps you feel full after a meal. Because it is difficult to digest, it stays in the stomach longer than other foods, slowing down our rate of digestion. That keeps us feeling full longer.

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You can experience this effect of fiber by a simple experiment: In your fight against fat, fiber is a powerful weapon. Try eating two servings of white bread, and gauge how it satisfies your hunger. Next, eat a single serving of whole grain bread. Most people find that the single serving of whole grain bread satisfies better than two servings of white!

If you find it difficult to satisfy your hunger without exceeding your daily calorie count, you may be relieved to learn that fiber contains no calories. (Of course you need to be careful that the fiber supplement you choose doesnt contain sugar. Some do!) Fiber also moves fat through the digestive systems faster. Faster transportation means the body cant absorb as much fat.

How Much Fiber?


Many people consume about half their fiber needs. You can see how the vicious over eating cycle sets in! They dont feel satisfied, so they eat more food! 35 - 40 grams of fibre per day is needed in your diet, in a mixture of solubles (approx 25%) and insolubles (approx 75%). Most Americans eat between 10 and 15 grams of fiber each day. A floating stool and easy passage indicates that your diet has enough fiber. When choosing foods containing fiber, beware of misleading product labels. A whole grain product should be made with the complete grain kernel, whether left whole (as in oatmeal) or ground (to make cereal, pasta and bread). Cracked wheat is also made from the complete kernel. Terms like 100% wheat or multi-grain do not necessarily indicate a high fiber content. These terms are often used for products made from heavily processed grains that have been stripped of most of their fiber content. Similarly, color is not an indicator of fiber content. For example, brown bread may be just white bread with caramel coloring added! Refined grains, like white rice and bread and popular sugary breakfast cereals, have been stripped of almost all their fiber and nutrients. They turn blood sugar into glucose so fast that they spike our insulin levels and tell our body that it has plenty of energy and should stop burning fat, and start storing it! That insulin spike is followed by a sudden drop, leaving us feeling tired and hungry and craving a snack. As most people respond to this feeling by eating another sugary snack, the process starts all over again.

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Increasing your fiber intake will break this cycle, slow your digestion, reduce hunger, increase energy, and reduce the accumulation of fat.

WARNING: Sudden increases in fiber intake can result in gas or diarrhea. Add fiber gradually. Drink plenty of water when adding fiber to your diet. While fiber is great for your digestive system, without adequate fluids to help wash it through your system, it can cause constipation instead of helping to prevent it. Do not consume fiber until it causes many loose stools a day. Important nutrients can be lost and vitamin deficiencies can occur if you overdo it!

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IN SUMMARY... Check your fiber intake! Make sure you eat 35-40 grams daily, to help stabilize blood sugar levels after meals and to help you feel satisfied after eating. Fiber transports fat and toxins from the body, helping you stay healthy and slim.

If you struggle to come up with ideas to make your food interesting and tasty, Here is a Link to an excellent Healthy Cookbook that has some truly great tasting recipes :

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You Have Permission to Share This Book
You have full permission to share this eBook with others, as long as you make no changes, additions or deletions to the content. If you received a copy of this ebook from a friend, be sure to register your copy for any updates and revisions. Go to www.SixpackWithoutSitups.com to Register your Copy.

Chapter 9

Water: Why Hydration is so Important to your body


Plants wilt quickly without water... and wilted plants look rather sad! It might not always be quite as visibly obvious that a human body is wilting due to lack of water, but you can be sure it will if you fail to hydrate it adequately! Yet, despite constant reminders in the media and from health professionals to drink eight to ten glasses of water daily, the majority of people dont drink enough water. As a result, complaints of headache, nausea, tiredness, fatigue and constipation are common. Fat accumulates! Water:

regulates your body temperature transports nutrients through your body helps build body tissues lubricates the joints aids digestion aids circulation aids respiration aids absorption of needed vitamins and minerals, and aids excretion.

The fact is that approximately two thirds of the human body is water. Muscles are about seventy percent water. Bones are about twenty percent water.

Every cell function requires water. Without water, your body cannot perform any
of its natural functions. Water is also essential to flush toxins from the body. After oxygen, water is by far the most important nutrient for the human body. Water even increases both strength and endurance! As little as 1% dehydration can lead to up to 10% loss of strength. If 4-5% of body weight is lost in water, aerobic and muscular endurance may decrease by as much as 30%.

It may surprise you to know that people have survived for weekseven monthswithout food. Being deprived of water can result in death in just one day! In hot, dry or windy conditions, losing just ten to fifteen percent of body weight through water loss will result in death. Losing just 2.5% of your body weight due to water loss reduces your bodys operating efficiency by 25%. A whopping one quarter of your total physical and mental abilities
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are lost! In a critical situation, even a much smaller loss of physical and mental capacity might cause death. It is alarming to consider that a man weighing 175 pounds (approximately 80 kg) can lose that critical 2.5% of his body weight by losing just two quarts of water through sweating and normal respiration.

What happens to the body when it begins to dehydrate?


The blood becomes thicker and loses volume. Naturally, this causes the heart to work harder and blood circulation is less efficient. Poor circulation quickly results in loss of energy and strength and that hung over feeling. The obvious danger for those following a fitness plan is that depression and feelings of exhaustion set in that destroy your motivation to exercise. The lack of energy may translate, in your brain, to a craving for foods with a high refined sugar content, to give you a badly needed energy hit. But your body isnt craving sugar. Its craving water! Without water, your kidneys cant flush toxic waste from your body through urine. A dehydrating body instinctively holds whatever water is available, as a survival mechanism. With no water to flush the kidneys, toxins build up in your system. When the kidneys cant perform, the liver will try to take over its function. Forced to take over the job of your kidneys, your liver now has inadequate resources to perform its own natural functions. One of these functions is burning stored fat for energy. Unable to burn body fat as efficiently as normal, you feel lethargic and tired, and you gain body fat. As you dehydrate, you will experience nausea, weakness, delirium, and hyperthermia. Signs of dehydration include:

sunken eyes dry mucous membranes in the mouth and nose decreased urine output concentrated urine poor skin turgor (reduced elasticity) skin tenting on the forehead (pinched skin takes an excessive time to flatten) blood pressure changes tachycardia (rapid heartbeat)

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How much water do you need?


We are repeatedly advised to drink at least eight to ten 8 oz. glasses a day. While this is a helpful guide, it should be obvious that the amount of water an individual needs will depend on wide range of variables. Climate is one critical factor. In hot conditions, we perspire more. When you perspire more, you need more water to replace that water loss. What you may not realize, though, is that you can dehydrate equally quickly in some cold climates. Wind, for example, can dry the air. While you are not conscious of water loss through sweating, your body is unable to absorb water from the air through the pores of your skin. You need to drink more to compensate. Also, we tend to urinate more frequently in cold conditions. It also follows that larger individuals need more water than smaller people. If water makes up about two-thirds of your weight, then it follows that to retain that volume of water in your body you must consume water in quantities proportional to your total body weight. Age contributes significantly to water needs. Children need more than 50% more water than adults per kg of body weight. Infants need more than four times the adult requirement per kg of body weight. Your level of activity will affect your water needs. Active people need more water. If you exercise vigorously, or play sport, you will lose water at a faster rate. The following chart provides a guide to hydration needs before, during and after strenuous activity:
BEFORE ExERCISE
One hour prior: 16 oz.

DURING ExERCISE
5-10 ounces every 15-20 minutes, or 20-40 ounces each hour

AFTER ExERCISE
24 ounces per pound weight loss experienced during exercise

The best way to calculate your daily water needs is by daily calorie expenditure. If you are burning 2,000 calories per day, you will need between 66 and 100 oz. water. If you burn 4,000 calories daily, drink between 116 and 174 oz. You can see that the recommended eight to ten glasses is actually a minimum. You should drink at least that much regardless of your size, weather conditions, and the number of calories you burn. Though perhaps not quite as reliable, your skin quality and color also provides an indicator of water needs. Want radiant skin to go with your great abs? Drink lots of water. It plumps the skin and cleanses the pores, making you glow! It is important to realize that your level of thirst is not a good indicator of your need for water. By the time you feel thirsty, your body is actually suffering a degree of dehydration.

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Dont we get the water we need from foods?


Its certainly true that the foods we eat contain wateroften considerable amounts of water. Some fruits and vegetables are actually 90% water. Meat is at least 50% water. Beverages such as milk and fruit juice are mostly water. While this water certainly helps to hydrate the body, it would be difficult for most people to estimate with accuracy just how much water they consume through food. The following chart gives some rough indications of water content in common foods:
91-100% WATER
Water Milk Coffee Soup Sports drink Watermelon Strawberries Broccoli Lettuce Tomato

80-90% WATER
Soda fruit juices Non-carbonated fruit drinks Cantaloupe Orange Apple Pear Grapes Peach

80-79% WATER
Peas Frozen yogurt Popsicle Banana Fish Eggs Casseroles

69% OR LESS WATER


Potatoes Bread Pasta Rice Beef Poultry Nuts Baked goods Crackers Chips

As a general rule, this water should not be counted in your daily quota. Water needs are best met by drinking plain water, or beverages which are >90% water by volume and low in sugar and caffeine content. Although extreme excesses of water consumption can kill, you are unlikely to ever be at risk of consuming too much water. Our bodies dispose of water very efficiently when we are adequately hydrated. It is when the body senses a lack of adequate water that its survival instincts kick in, resulting in fluid retention and uncomfortable bloating. Many people state a preference to drink other liquids instead of water. Beware! Many drinkseven those labelled as health foodsare little more than sugar water. When you are trying to burn fat, you must remember to count the calories in beverages. (Studies show most people who drink a lot of their calories dont compensate by reducing their food intake).

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Consuming a large portion of your daily calorie quota through beverages is not a good idea, because liquids dont have the thermic effect of solid food. That is, you dont expend energy biting, chewing, swallowing and digesting. In particular, you should be careful of high calorie drinks, like alcohol (which, by the way, is also known to actually dehydrate the body) and drinks with high caffeine content.

Your PH Balance
If you own a swimming pool, or are a keen gardener, you have probably performed PH testing. It might surprise you to know that PH levels are also critical to the human body. When the body is acidic, vitamins and minerals are not assimilated properly. This can cause illness, and it will make it more difficult for you to lose fat. The ideal PH for the human body is between about 7.3 and 7.5. If your body is slightly acidic, by increasing your PHmaking your body more alkalineyou empower your bodys immune system to fight illness. You also speed up the bodys biochemical reactions and cellular and metabolic activities and functions. A slightly alkaline body burns fat faster! The main cause of excess acid is poor diet. Most processed foods are high in acid content. While good diet is a major factor in regulating your PH, drinking adequate quantities of water can help flush acids from the body, restoring normal levels of alkalinity. Naturally, it makes sense to pay some attention to the quality of your drinking water, as poor quality water may contain acids and toxins. Good quality drinking water can be purchased in bottles, but a simple filter may be all that is required to ensure both that water is pure, and that its natural sweet taste is preserved.

Spread your Drinking


Spreading your drinking wisely during the day will help to maintain optimum hydration and will help you on your way to your fat loss goals. It is recommended that you drink a quart of pure water over a thirty minute period at least once each morning and afternoon. In the evening, drink a quart of water between 5 and 6 pm. Experts say cold water is absorbed faster than warm. Breakthrough point is reached when your body is sufficiently hydrated. Once reached, it is important to maintain it!

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When you reach breakthrough point...


endocrine gland function (secretion of hormones into the blood) improves fluid retention is alleviated and stored water is lost natural thirst returns hunger disappears (Yes! Drinking water actually prevents hunger!) the liver is free to metabolize stored fat for use as fuel your skin glows, you feel reinvigorated, and you lose fat!

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IN SUMMARY... After oxygen, water is the most important nutrient for the human body. Every function our body performs requires water. Inadequate water restricts circulation, and can result in nausea, headaches, fatigue, lethargy, and loss of will power. Adequate water consumption will improve the quality of your skin, and build strength and endurance. Thirst is not a reliable indicator of a need for water. When you thirst, you are already dehydrated. Water is your secret weapon in your fight against fat! Drinking adequate quantities of water daily enables the liver to perform its functions efficiently: converting stored fats to energy... burning fat! Drinking water also eliminates hunger. To lose fat efficiently, and for optimum health, drink adequate quantities of fresh, clean, cold water every day!

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Chapter 10

Anatomy and How your Abs Work


Four major parts of the human abdomen (shown in Figure v) are involved in every movement of the body. Rectus Abdominis: A long vertical muscle that runs the length of your torso, starting just above your pubic bone and ending in your lower ribs. It provides stability to your torso. The rectus abdominis muscle, when well defined, gives your stomach a six pack look Transverse Abdominis: The deepest-set stomach muscle, it runs horizontally underneath the Rectus Abdominis. It contributes to good posture, balance and stability. This muscle wraps around the torso, creating an effect similar to a back support belt. External Oblique: The External Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle running in a diagonal line from your ribs to your hips. The external obliques, one on each side of the torso, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine. Internal Oblique: The Internal Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle beneath the External Oblique that runs at right angles to it. Like the external obliques, the internal obliques, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine

Often referred to as the core muscles, these parts allow us to walk, stand, run, kick, jump, sit, twist, squat, bend, flex, reach, pull and push. They also protect our vital organs, so they deserve care!

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The importance of the abdominal muscles cannot be overstated. Increasing abdominal strength is the magic key to reducing, or eliminating, most back pain. While the title of this book suggests you can get a Sixpack without Sit-ups, this does not mean you should avoid abdominal exercise. In fact, abdominal exercise will give you even better looking and stronger abs. In my experience, as a bodybuilder, there are much better ways to target the core than performing sit-ups, which I believe contradict our natural design. (More on the recommended exercises later). My primary intention, in naming the book, was to help break the myths surrounding six pack absto show you that six pack abs are achieved by removing abdominal fat through exercise and correct eating. Figure v shows the various muscles of the abdomen. Most people hide these muscles behind layers of fat. They can only be seen, or become defined, as the layer of fat covering them thins. This is important, because I hear too many people in the gym (nearly always young men) say that they want a Six Pack, and to be just 5 to 10kgs heavier. They fail to understand that if their abs arent currently visible, they will certainly not have abs by gaining 5 to 10kgs.

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Figure v: Muscles of the Abdomen


Serratus anterior Linea alba

Transversus abdominis

Tendinous intersection

Internal oblique

Rectus abdominis

External oblique

Aponeurosis of the external oblique

Inguinal ligament (formed by free interior border of the external oblique aponeurosis)

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IN SUMMARY... Four core abdominal muscles allow us to walk, stand, run, kick, jump, twist, squat, bend, flex, reach, push and pull. They also protect our vital organs. They deserve care! Most people hide these muscles behind layers of fat! They only become visible, as the layers of fat covering them thins. Covering these muscles with fat presents a serious health risk! Strip the fat; show the muscles; and live longer!

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Chapter 11

Sleep your way to abs and bigger muscles


Publish a fact, and you can bet someone will interpret it to their advantage to try to sell something or claim fame! Believe it or not, there are gurus promoting the Sleep Diet! It would be nice wouldnt it...if it were true? Of course you cant just sleep off your fat, although you can actually burn some fat while sleeping. Conversely, research shows that poor sleeping habits (including oversleeping!) contribute to obesity. The fact is that, although sleeping wont shed fat and build abs and muscles, not getting the right amount of quality sleep will certainly prevent you reaching your goal.

Have you ever experienced seemingly insatiable hunger after a sleepless night?
It might not be imagined! In a number of recent studies, researchers believe they found a link between sleep, and the hormones that influence our eating behavior. In one preliminary test, two healthy men were deprived of sleep for two days. Their desire for high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods increased by a whopping 45%. In an attempt to confirm the findings from this limited test, researchers asked a thousand healthy volunteers to record the number of hours they slept each night. Doctors then measured their levels of two critical hormones, and charted their weight. Volunteers who reported sleeping less than eight hours each night were found to have lower levels of leptin, higher levels of ghrelin, and a higher level of body fat. Amazingly, their level of body fat actually seemed to correlate with their sleep patterns. Those who weighed most were found to sleep least! Scientific research suggests that sleep deprivation does actually make you hungry! Researchers think that sleep affects production of two critical hormones, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, and stimulates appetite. Leptin is produced in fat cells. It sends a signal to the brain when you are full.

If you dont get enough sleep, your ghrelin levels may increase, and your leptin levels reduce. This causes you to crave food. You dont feel full after eating. In addition, surveys show that sleep deprived people are more likely to choose high calorie sweets and salty, starchy foods for snacks. There are probably two reasons for this:
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Firstly, these snacks are quick and easy to access and eat. No preparation is required. If you are tired, you might lack the motivation to spend time preparing a healthier alternative. Secondly, when you feel tired, you often make the mistake of thinking you need a quick sugar hit to recharge your batteries. As explained in Chapter 5, it does seem to work... temporarily!

Benefits of sleeping to build and repair muscle.


Sleep helps the body use food efficiently to replace energy and build muscle. Sleeping for 8 hours per night means fasting for 8 hours each night. This fasting is important to muscle growth. It allows chemical reactions to take place that help repair muscle and other tissues, and build and repair aging body and brain cells.

Sleep also provides relief for the body from the labor of constantly producing energy to replace energy burned in daily activities. Energy consumption reduces during sleep. Periods of lower energy consumption are essential for resource conservation. Without sleep, energy consumption would rise to the point where we would need many more meals each day to satisfy our needs. Two more important processes take place during sleep. Firstly, growth hormones (GH) are produced by the pituitary gland. GH is known to increase muscle size, to inhibit fat storage, and improve general well-being. In men, about two thirds of daily human growth hormone secretion takes place during deep sleep. Inadequate sleep leads to under-production of GH, resulting in reduced muscle growth. Secondly, protein synthesis takes place. Protein synthesis occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, breaking down muscles to provide the stomach with amino acids. If you eat protein before bedtime, the effect of this is significantly reduced. Body builders, in particular, need a high protein snack before sleeping. Testosterone and Luteinizing (LH) hormone levels are also higher during sleep. Secreted by the anterior pituitary, Luteinizing hormones stimulate ovulation in females and androgen release in males. Testosterone is a potent androgenic hormone that is responsible for the development of male secondary sex characteristics.

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How Much Sleep?


Most healthy people need seven to nine hours sleep each night. Some function well on slightly less. Others find they need more. The fact is that very few of us actually get the minimum of seven hours sleep. To discover how much sleep you need, and to improve your sleeping habits, experts say you should take a few days vacation and sleep as long as you want. Once your sleep needs stabilize, you should find yourself routinely waking naturally after a number of hours sleep. Take note of the time you retire, and the time you wake. You should find thatgive or take a quarter hour or soyou always wake after the same number of hours sleep. Once you know how much sleep your body needs, set your routine accordingly.

Sleep Stages
During sleep, the brain works through a series of cycles lasting 90 to 100 minutes. The two main stages of sleep are known as REM (Rapid eye movement) and non-REM sleep. A sleep cycle starts with four stages of non-REM sleep. Then REM commences. This cycle repeats four to five times each night. Each of these cycles is critical to adequate recovery of the body and brain. In particular, REM stage three and four sleep is essential because, during these periods, both body and brain are at complete rest. Memory consolidation also occurs during these stages. REM sleep decreases with age, and accounts for about a quarter of sleep each night in healthy adults. Most vivid dreaming takes place during REM sleep, and research shows that REM sleep is critical to optimizing memory and intelligence. The length of REM sleep cycles is quite short in the early part of the sleep cycle. As we cycle through the various stages of sleep, the REM sleep periods increase in length. In the last cycle, REM sleep may occur for an hour or more. This may explain why depriving yourself of just an hour or two of needed sleep has a quite devastating impact. You are missing the longest period of REM sleep, which is the period most critical to ensuring you optimize brain function and alertness.

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Tips for Better Sleep.


To improve sleep:

Exercise during the day and into late the afternoon. Avoid aggressive activity in the evenings. Exercise during the day, especially aerobic exercise, will tire you. When you are tired, sleep comes faster. Intense training very late in the evening has the opposite effect. It actually produces alertness that makes it difficult to go to sleep. Avoid mentally strenuous activity just before bedtime. Intense mental activity tends to put the mind into an over-active state. When you try to sleep, your mind races and your thoughts keep you awake. Allow yourself some time to relax both mentally and physically before retiring. A warm bath will sooth and relax. (Showers tend to revitalize, and should be avoided.) Avoid stress and upsets in the evenings. Go to bed at a regular time. Your body likes routine! Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Caffeine cause hyperactivity, keeping you awake. (Some people drink coffee to combat feelings of sleepiness.) Alcohol disrupts sleep by interfering with the various sleep stages. Foods rich in Tyrosine (an amino acid found in protein) stimulate the brain. Avoid sleeping pills. They work temporarily (though often leaving you feeling groggy next day!). In the long term, they disrupt your sleep pattern. Dont use the bed for reading, work, or watching television. The brain can associate these activities with bed rather than with sleep! Pay some attention to your sleeping environment. The bedroom should be pleasantly cool (about 60 degrees) with low humidity levels. The room should be quiet. Most people sleep best in darkened rooms. Sudden light penetration can wake you, even from a deep sleep, so use heavy blinds or drapes to block out street and neighbors lights and early morning sun. Soft background music may help calm and relax you, so that sleep comes easily.

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Dont Oversleep!
Obviously if you oversleep, you are reducing the time spent in activity and thus the amount of energy you burn during the day. Oversleeping also alters your natural body clock settings. This makes it difficult to get to sleep, but body clock disruption has also been shown to have adverse affects on health and mental well-being. Travellers report a variety of unpleasant symptoms after a trip across time zones, and there are many reports of sickness attributed to body clock disruptions at the introduction and end of periods of daylight saving. Our bodies are finely programmed, and prefer that we stick to daily routines.

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IN SUMMARY... You cant sleep your way to a trim figure and abs... but without adequate sleep, the best diet and exercise regime will fail. Sleep recharges the brain, improving motivation. It allows the body to process stored food to replace used energy and rebuild body tissue, bone, and muscle. Recent research confirms that appetite controlling hormones are produced during sleep... so sleep deprivation actually increases hunger!

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Chapter 12

Exercise Tips for Success


Remember the Caloric Deficit Principle? There are two ways to achieve a Caloric Deficit. Eat less, or exercise more! Weight loss diets usually focus on starving off fat! My recommendation is that you continue to enjoy eating plenty of good food, and focus on burning off fat. Weight loss diets fail because they focus on starving off fat. For good health and successful weight loss, eat well and BURN OFF FAT! Actually, I recommend that you combine both methods, but the healthier and more efficient way to lose fat is to increase the number of calories you burn. By burning calories, you avoid nutritional deficiencies. You improve your metabolism, freeing your body of toxins more efficiently. You increase your energy levels and your motivation.

Regardless of any reduction in your calorie intake, though, you must exercise to achieve fat loss. Even a near starvation diet wont be effective without exercise! Your metabolism will slow, decreasing lean body mass. Your body responds by converting more of the little food you do eat to fat and storing fat more efficiently!

Investment and Return: Benefits of Weights and Cardio Training


I liken the effects of cardiovascular exercise to earning a weekly wage. While you are at work (exercising), you are earning pay (burning fat). It probably takes you fifteen to twenty minutes to start productive work when you arrive each day. You typically greet other workers, take off coats or other outdoor clothing, put lunch in the refrigerator, wait for your computer to boot up, collect messages and mail, etc. before starting productive tasks that actually earn income for your employer. Similarlywhen exercisingthe first fifteen to twenty minutes are minimally productive. You start burning fat when you have depleted your available blood sugar. As with work, if you continue for too long without a break, you cease to be productive. Time your workouts for optimum results. Try to workout for at least half an hour daily, excepting your rest days. Exercising for more than an hour is unlikely to substantially increase fat loss.

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Maximizing fat loss


When doing cardio exercises, fat burning benefits decline rapidly once exercising stops. With weight training, your investment continues to return after exercising stops, because weight training elevates your metabolism for up to forty (40) hours after a thorough session. To keep a lean machine body, you need to build as much lean muscle mass as possible. That can only be achieved through resistance training. Studies suggest that you burn an extra 35 to 50 calories per day for each pound of muscle you add to your body. Add ten pounds of muscle to your body, and you will burn between 350 and 500 extra calories each day, or an extra pound of fat every seven to ten days, without making any other changes. In another study, researchers found that regular weight training increased the basal metabolic rate by approximately 15%. Muscle is metabolically active. It burns more calories than other body tissues, even when you are not moving. An increased metabolic rate means more food converted to energy and less converted to fat! Just as any business needs significant investment to generate reliable income and allow it to prosper, the body needs a program of moderate cardio (income) and weight training (investment).

Fat Burning Exercise vs. Recreation


I encourage you to enjoy exercise. Engage in fun sports. Participate in all the physical activities that you enjoy. All exercise burns calories. Unless there are medical reasons for avoiding specific types of activity, all exercise promotes health. Certain types of exercise, however, are more efficient for burning fat. Recreational activities such as tennis, golf or basketball, and activities like house cleaning and gardening, are not efficient for burning fat, because they are anaerobic (not aerobic). Short bursts of activity burn carbohydrate for fuel. To burn fat, you must use fuel in the presence of oxygen. Aerobic exercises are the most efficient for burning fat. Exercises that enhance respiratory and circulatory efficiency are classed as aerobic. Generally speaking,

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aerobic exercises are rhythmical in nature, involve large muscle groups (legs), and can be sustained continuously for substantial periods of time. Examples include bicycling, jogging, rowing, stair climbing, walking, and skiing. To maximise fat loss, you should engage in regular aerobic exercise.

Exercise Intensity and Duration


Exercise intensity, as well as exercise type, determines how efficiently you burn calories. It is the number of calories burned that determines the amount of fat loss. When you exercise at low intensityeven for longer periodsyou burn less calories than through high intensity exercise. It is the number of calories burned that determines the amount of fat loss. Exercise intensity and type determines how efficiently you burn calories Logically, the longer you exercise, the more calories you burn and the more fat you lose. However, this only applies if the intensity is adequate. A long workout at very low intensity is unlikely to burn enough calories to result in significant fat loss. Conversely, if you exercise too intensely, you may exhaust yourself and be unable to complete your session.

To maximise the benefit of workouts, it helps to establish your optimal fat-burning zone. Moderate intensityideally at between 60% and 80% of your functional capacityis the optimum level. There are complex scientific ways to calculate your functional capacity based on your heart rate, but generally you can determine the right level of intensity by perception: Imagine a scale from 0 (doing nothing) to 10 (exercising as hard as you are able). Exercise at a level of about 4 (moderately intense) to 8 (very intense) for steady sustained fat-burning. You should be breathing quite hard, but not gasping for air or hyperventilating. Your breathing should not prevent you from conversing comfortably while exercising.

Remember Glycogen?
It might surprise you to know that when you start a workout, you use up stores of Glycogen. As your store of Glycogen depletes, the body calls on stored fat for fuel. The length of your workout is, therefore, important if you want to maximise fat burning. To burn fat efficiently, your exercise sessions should continue for at least a half hour.

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Some people assume that if one unit of medicine is good, then two is automatically better. When I suggest exercising for a half hour, they assume that an hour or more must be twice as effective. Not so! You reach a point of diminishing return, and you risk injury if you persist too long in exercise sessions. It is better to exercise for thirty to forty-five minutes twice daily, than to extend one session for more than an hour.

Exercise frequency
How often you need to exercise depends on a range of factors. Firstly, it depends to some extent on your body type. More importantly, however, it depends on your goal. If you are simply trying to maintain a slim body, three or four sessions weeklyhalf an hour per sessionis likely to be sufficient. If you are trying to lose fat, daily sessions of at least half an hour each are essential. Beginners who are unaccustomed to exercise may find that they lose fat quite effectively with just three sessions weekly. Results are likely to slow after a time, and it will be necessary to increase the frequency of training sessions. Regular sessions of moderate to high intensity exercise burns fat. If you want to burn more fat, increase the frequency of sessions, or increase the intensity of exercise. It is that simple!

When to Exercise
Although there is no definitive evidence to support the claim, some advisers believe that early morning exerciseon an empty stomachburns fat more efficiently. They suggest that glycogen stores are depleted, and the body draws on stored fat for fuel earlier in the workout. It has been suggested that if you eat before a workout, your body must burn the food you ate before tapping into stored body fat. There is also less insulin present early in the morning, and insulin interferes with the mobilization of body fat. Morning exercises have the clear benefit of refreshing you and making you feel good at the start of the day. Early morning exercises may, however, impose a risk of losing muscle. This risk can be averted by ensuring you give your body adequate nutritional support. Dont be tempted to skip meals, and make sure your diet includes plenty of protein.

Cycling Your Sessions


We have talked about the need for variety and new challenges when you plateau. To avoid adaptation, and possible injury, you should cycle your training sessions throughout the year. Periodically, change the type of exercise you do.

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Vary the intensity (within the recommended range). Increase frequency and duration of sessions if you find your workouts becoming very easy and less effective. Alternate periods of high volume and low volume aerobic work. Alternate your daily sessions between low or no impact or non-weight-bearing activity and higher impact or weight-bearing activity.

Types of aerobic exercise:


Running/jogging Good exercise, with high fat burning potential. Not advisable for the unfit or overweight. Tends to reduce muscle size. Running imposes increased risk of injury, so caution is advised. Ideal exercise, particularly for beginners and the overweight. Its natural, and probably the best form of cardio after swimming. It is definitely the most convenient! Anyone should be able to walk for 30 to 60 minutes. Fat burning potential is low to moderate unless you walk at a brisk pace. Similar to walking or running, but with the advantage that the design incorporates flex, which reduces impact. Also, machines often give continuous feedback on time, speed, distance, and, in some cases, heart rate. Because bikes coast, outdoor cycling can be less effective than stationery cycling. If you maintain a steady pace, riding outside can burn fat efficiently, and provide great enjoyment., Excellent, safe, low-impact activity suited for almost anyone. Intensity can be varied by pedaling faster or slower. Some bikes offer pre-programmed options such as riding uphill. Fat burning potential is moderate to high Easy, fun and very effective fat-burning exercise that does not stress knees and lower extremities. Safer than running or aerobics classes, particularly for anyone rehabilitating after injury. You must maintain your speed to achieve maximum benefit.

Walking

Treadmill

Cycling

Stationary Bicycle

Elliptical machines

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Types of aerobic exercise (cont.)


Works all the major muscle groups, including legs, buttocks, back, thighs, abdominal, and arms. Safe, non-jarring, impact-free exercise ideal for rehabilitation after injury, but not if you have lower back problems. Burns more calories than most other types of aerobic exercise. Can be exhausting, so you may benefit from combining a short period of rowing with periods of other types of exercise. Great for burning calories, provided you dont lean on handlebars excessively. Machines encourage good posture and target glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Safe, low or no impact activity with similar benefits to rowing, but requires significant skill and coordination. Fantastic fat burner! Great for people with joint pain or injuries. Swimming is one of the more pleasurable forms of exercise. Effective calorie-burning activity, provided intensity is maintained. Swimming can be very tiring, and some people find it makes them ravenously hungry, so beware of the risk of over-eating after a session. Also, it has been suggested that because swimmers stay cool during exercise sessions, the benefit of fat-burning during the cooling off period after exercise may be lost.

Rowing machine

Stair climbing Cross-country Ski Machines

Swimming

Weight Training
No fat loss program is complete until weight training is incorporated into your regime. Without weight training, you will lose body mass. Weight training retains muscle while dieting for fat loss. By increasing lean body mass, weight training speeds up your metabolic rate. Do you recall reading how metabolism affects fat? A faster metabolic rate means you burn more calories, even when resting. Burning more calories while resting also increases the proportional amount of muscle you carry. Physicians recommend weight training for cardiovascular health and improved bone density. It is vitally important to remember, however, that weight training is effective only when combined with a program of regular aerobic exercise and good nutrition.

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The Secret to a Six Pack


The secret to six pack abs is to perform weight training with heavy weights or resistance. Eliminate exercises like sit-ups! They are unnecessary, and unergonomic! Heavy resistance weight training will achieve better results with less risk of injury. Repeat weight training exercises, increasing difficulty with each repetition. You should endeavor to reach the point of failure by the end of each set of exercises. Weights improve overall strength and conditioning, while reducing stress on joints...giving you that ripped look! Just dieting may result in rapid weight loss, accompanied by that pasty, washed out, weak look and a feeling of chronic fatigue, often accompanied by irritability and/or depression.

Your Ideal Weights Program


Four to six exercises per body part is recommended in a daily session. This should not take more than an hour to complete. It is recommended that you follow a routine commonly referred to as a split. A four day split or a five day split routine typically works well, although there are almost unlimited variations of a split routine. Choose routines that achieve satisfactory results for you and fit with your individual lifestyle. I recommend that you keep mixing your routines. Results tend to stagnate if you continue in the same pattern for an extended period.

The Four Day Split:


Chest and Triceps Back and Biceps Rest day Shoulders and Abs Legs (quadriceps, calves and hamstrings) Chest Exercises Biceps and Triceps exercises Rest day Back and abs Quadriceps and calves Rest day Shoulders and Hamstrings

The Five Day Split:


Rest days aid recovery and growth. I recommend you include rest days in any routine.
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Repetitions and Sets


In gym speak, one full range of any particular motion is referred to as a repetition. A chosen number of repetitions, based on the desired outcome, is called a set. Generally, you should complete sets of eight repetitions. Ideally, if you are exercising correctly, repeating should be difficult by the sixth repeat. If you are struggling by the fourth or fifth repeat, the exercise is too heavy. If you are not failing by the end of the set, the exercise is not working. Recommended repetitions per set may vary depending on the objective. A three to five repetition set is used for building body mass. An eight to ten repetition set is used to develop strength and endurance. More than ten repetitions is considered for endurance purposes and is not normally recommended. The exception to this is the drop set.

Drop Sets
In a drop set, after six to eight or eight to ten repetitions, you halve the weight and perform more than ten repetitions until absolute failure. It is recommended you do this only occasionally. You may also occasionally perform a double drop set, in which the weight is reduced by a third and repetitions are performed until failure. The weight is then dropped by a further third, and more repetitions are performed until absolute failure. Performing a drop set is recommended at the end of each type of exercise. The purpose of a drop set is to force as much blood as possible into the muscle. This tears the muscle, helping it to grow. The body releases minute amounts of a natural growth hormone, and the tearing of the muscle causes the body to recruit protein to build new muscle tissues.

What is Failure?
The last two repetitions of every set should be difficult. As you perform more exercise sets, failure should increase. We refer to the point where exercises become difficult as failure. You should never reach the point of collapse. Failure implies awareness of considerable difficulty, while still being able to complete the set without injury or undue stress. You should be breathing heavily and feeling mildly exhausted and sweaty.

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Pain vs. Injury


An exercise program should involve mild painthe pain of harmless physical stress. Pain suggests that the correct techniques have been followed through to the point of failure. If no pain is felt, the exercise program is probably inadequate, and will achieve poor results. The pain of injury is a different pain, and the correct response to this pain is to stop immediately and seek help. If less severe pain suggests impending injury, reduce the weight and check that you are using the right technique.

Squeezing
Squeezing may be described as the technique of forcing blood through a particular area of muscles, creating a pumping sensation. The technique involves both mental and physical effort. Mentally, it requires strong focus on the sensations felt in the muscle as you train it. Physically, it involves a technique referred to as isometric training: the wilful tensing of muscles to induce maximum contraction and hardness. When one can squeeze at will, feeling the muscles pump, training results will improve dramatically.

More Exercise Tips

Complete a set of repetitionseight repetitions per set. Repeating should be difficult by the sixth repeat. If you are struggling at the 4th or 5th repeat, the exercise is too heavy. If you are not failing by the end of the set, the exercise is not working. Ignore what others are doing. Focus on your own needs and exercise program. The work others are doing, and the results they are achieving, are unlikely to be relevant to your program. Results are determined by a wide range of variables. Others have different body types, different eating regimes, and are accustomed to different levels of physical activity. Therefore, their exercise needs may be completely different to yours. Train with a friendpreferably someone with similar goals. Training with a partner is safer. Workouts are more enjoyable. You are more likely to be motivated when exercising with a friend. Experiment. Dont stick to gym routines. Muscles build resistance to repeated exercise. Shock them occasionally! Break up the routine.

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IN SUMMARY... Weight loss diets fail because they focus on starving off fat. For successful, healthy weight loss, eat well and BURN OFF FAT. Exercise for at least a half hour daily, cycling the types of exercise to include routines that work all the muscle groups, and indulging in occasional rest days. Cycle suitable aerobic exercises and weight lifting, at intensities that cause mild pain and a feeling of moderate exhaustion. Perform exercises in sets of six to eight repetitions, increasing the degree of difficulty to reach failure at the end of the set. Exercise with a friend, and break up routines mixing in recreational sporting activitiesto make exercise enjoyable.

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Chapter 13

Your Mental Toolkit for Success


Goal setting is essential for success in weight loss, and in life!
Armed with the knowledge to discover the sexy six pack under those fat layers, you are now ready to add the mental tools to your arsenal! The first of these tools is the ability to set goals. Goals are essential for success in anything! Without them, nothing worthwhile can be achieved. So, lets look at what is important in goal setting.

Be specific about your goal.


It is extremely difficult to hit a target you cant see! When you can see, and focus on, the target, you increase exponentially your chances of hitting a bulls-eye!

Defining your goal, in writing, in as much detail as possible, is critical to your success.

The more specifically you define your goal, the greater the likelihood of achieving it.
To understand the importance of being specific in your goals, imagine the different responses when you ask a number of people for directions to a restaurant.

Someone might say, its down the road a bit...over there somewhere...sort of near a car park. This is exactly how many people treat their goals. They conceive vague, unrealistic ideas. They are going somewhere...sort of in that direction. This lack of clarity explains the lack of results and direction in their life. Its impossible to travel efficiently towards a destination if you dont know where you are headed! Another person might be slightly more specific. He might say:

250 metres down this road; Turn left; Take a right at the fifth set of lights; Then a right at the third intersection after that. Its on the left, next door to a chemist and opposite the 24 hour car park.

Definitely an improvement! You can find your destination reasonably quickly following these directionsif you can remember them and count the intersections accurately!

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The surest and fastest way to any destination is to follow clear written directions, or a map.
You know where you are starting, and which direction to travel to reach your destination in the shortest possible time. By writing down, in exact detail, the goal you want to achieve and how you plan to do it, you have the equivalent of a satellite guided GPS system for reaching your goals.

Make sure the goal is measurable.


Measurable, in this context, means you can record your progress toward the goal with factual and relevant numbers. Begin by establishing where you are currently in relation to your goal. Then measure this against what you want to achieve. Write down your weight. Use top quality scales (Tanita is a respected brand) or find a person who has experience with body fat calipers to give you an indication of body fat percentage. Have a friend measure the circumference of your thigh, chest, waist, neck and arm with a dressmakers tape. Now, refer to page 89 for a chart to record your progress. Write the specific numerical goals you want to achieve in each area, and a date twelve weeks from today.

Be optimistic, but realistic, when setting goals.


Remember, all goals are achievableusing the right method, and allowing reasonable time. For a twelve week time frame, up to 12kg of body fat loss is attainable and safe. If you want to lose more, add one week for every extra 1kg you wish to lose. Studies prove that people who aim for consistent body fat loss of around half to one kilogram per week are able to keep it off for much longer periods of time than crash dieters. I believe this is simply because you are building better long term habits. Also, radical, short term weight loss results substantially from just shedding water.

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Dont allow yourself to be discouraged by an ambitious goal.


Remind yourself constantly of the answer to the question, How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time. Focus on what you have to do today, the present meal, or just finishing the exercise you are doing with 100% effort. Be in the present moment. You will avoid being depressed by long term goals if you focus on your short term successes. Eat the elephant by setting smaller goals, to be measured every few weeks. If your goal is 20 kg over twenty weeks, commit to having lost 5kg by the end of week five. Focus on losing 1kg every week. Setting goals and target dates makes you accountable. On any specific date, you can measure exactly how well you are progressing toward your major goal. This monitoring is critical to your success. If you genuinely commit to reaching the goals you have set, regardless of any obstacles that might occur, you guarantee your success.

Goal setting review


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Be specific about every detail Write and rewrite your goal daily Consider where you are today, where you want to be, and what you need to do to reach your goal Be constantly optimistic about your goal Focus on succeeding one meal, one exercise, one day at a time Commit 100%

Now well look at the most powerful technique for guaranteeing motivation and success...

Visualization Your secret weapon for success


This technique will absolutely guarantee your success and keep you motivated. I use it to prepare for everything I do in life, and I find that it increases in effectiveness every time I use it. The process involves two parts: one physical; the other a mental exercise.

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With your goal sheet and body fat targets written, and with specific start and finish dates recorded, make large copies of your chart and place it where you will see it regularly. Your fridge, work desk or bedroom door are good places. Having several copies in different places will work better than just placing one. With a constant visual reference, you will think about your goal many times throughout the day, which increases the importance you place on achieving it. Faithfully record your progress, by completing your Progress Chart each week. While measuring progress using clothing is generally recommended, for formal recording purposes, while pursuing formal goals, you should use scales to measure weight and body fat percentage. Next, create a positive picture in your mind of the body you are now absolutely committed to achieving. This is the most important tool in getting you to your goal! The more seriously and often you use the power of your mind to visualize yourself as you plan to look, the faster you will reach that goal. Everything you do, say and experience begins with an equivalent thought. The quality, frequency and detail of your thought determines your result. Improving your thoughts will, therefore, improve your results. Adding emotion to the thought gives it the power to come to life. You can do this simply by imagining how you feel in your new body.

Picture yourself feeling young, and healthier than ever before in your life. Picture yourself enjoying the admiration of people who find you attractive. Feel your new energy and strength. Picture your radiant skin. Create an image in your mind of fat melting away from your body to reveal that new you. Picture the goal clearly, and revisit that thought often.

The stronger the emotion behind the goal, the more powerful and decisive the result. You must use this process continually. It increases your focus on your goal so that succeeding is the only option.

The power of your mind is the most powerful tool you have in life. Use it!

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NAME: STARTING WEIGHT STARTING BODY FAT %
reason) _______________________________________________

PROGRAM START DATE

By (date)____________________, I will achieve my goal of (describe goal)________________________________________________

_____________________________________________as a result of successfully achieving my first milestone of (specify first goal)

__________________________________________________________________________________and my second milestone of

(specify second milestone)_________________________________________________________________________________________.

This major goal is vitally important to me because (describe powerful motivating

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

so I have resolved as of (date)_________________________ to do whatever it takes to achieve it. 1 MILESTONE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 MILESTONE 2 9 10 11 12 GOAL

WEEK

Prepared all meals

(indicate task completion with Y or N;

PROGRESS CHART

Followed meal planner 100%

Completed cardio sessions

or X)

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Completed weights sessions

Completed diary and goal chart

Achieved Milestone Objective

PROGRESS

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WEIGHT

BODY FAT

IN SUMMARY... To succeed at any endeavor, you need clearly defined goals and a map of the route to your destination. Set realistic, measurable goals. Put a goals chart where you will see it often. Visualize yourself as you want to be...having achieved your goals and enjoying the satisfaction, respect and admiration that brings!

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Chapter 14

How To get Back On track If you hit the wall


Your body is complex machine. Its defense mechanisms are way smarter than your conscious mind! Occasionally, you can be doing everything righteating and exercising correctly and diligentlyyet seemingly making little or no progress. For example, you may have noticed that you initially lost a lot of weight and/or body fat after starting this program, but gradually the results reduced. This is because our bodies quickly adapt to routine. Its not that what you have been doing is wrong. It is simply that your body has adjusted, and needs a stimulus to get back on track. At the start of the program, the results are dramatic because your body is not used to the changes. As your body becomes accustomed to the changes, it reacts differently. I like to call this a plateau. It is only a temporary stop! You could think of it as your body asking to be challenged in a new way in order to continue achieving results. Dont allow yourself to become depressed, stressed or frustrated. Just recognize that you need to spice up your strategy. Check your strategy against the checklist on the following page.

Experiment to find what works best. Keep track of everything you do!

Checklist: The Top Ten Fat Loss Tips to Spice up your results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Check your Food diary. Are you counting every calorie properly? Check meal timing. Are you spacing your meals every 2 to 3 hours? Eat the same amount of food over more meals Switch foods. Substitute cooked foods for raw equivalents Increase duration of exercise. Exercise longer. Do more in each session. Mix up the type of exercise you do. Try swimming instead of walking. Lift Your Intensity. Train harder, with increased speed or resistance.

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8. 9.

Double up. Increase the number of cardio sessions you do. Dont be unreasonable. Losing just 0.25 kg / week is 13Kgs per Year!

10. Shift your Mental Focus. Think Positive! Eliminate negative thoughts.

IN SUMMARY... Dont be discouraged if your progress slows or stalls. Plateaus are normal as your body gets used to the changes you have made. Recognize the need to spice up your strategy. Increase your exercise periods, or change some of the exercises. Check that your expectations are reasonable. Dont expect too much! Eliminate negative thoughts. Always thinking positive is the recipe for success!

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Conclusion

Your Personal Action Plan for Success...


Congratulations! You have made a conscious decision to lose fat and improve your health and appearance. You have armed yourself with the knowledge you need to succeed. Now it is time to confirm your goals. Remind yourself that all goals are achievable with consistent application of the correct knowledge; and begin your journey to improved health and well-bring and a body your friends will admire. I am here to help you. When you accepted my offer to trial this book, I gave you a guarantee. I stand by that guarantee, and I promise to support you as you strive to achieve your goals. On the next page, you will find your personal ten step Action Plan. As you progress through the steps, remember these key points:

Life was meant to be enjoyable. Eating is one of the great pleasures of life, and in our affluent modern societies we are fortunate that most of us have ready and affordable access to an abundance of tasty foods. Dont deprive yourself! If your diet doesnt include regular servings of the foods you love, in modest quantities, you are likely to give up after a short time, or break out regularly. Plan your diet to include foods you enjoy, so that sticking to it is easy! Enjoy exercise. Include fun activities. Exercise with a friend. Its too easy to tire of performing a tedious chore every day. Be creative, and find ways to make workouts fun. Dont be discouraged if you stall occasionally. Introduce some variety into your routine. Find new ways to challenge your body. Celebrate your achievements and keep your expectations reasonable. Be positive, and determined. You can do it! You will do it if you believe in yourself, and stay focused on your goal. Visualize yourself as you want to be. Enjoy feeling amazingly fit and energetic. Enjoy your great new body and radiant skin. Enjoy the admiration you attract. By actually feeling the energy and health you are working to achieve, you will recharge those batteries with a fresh dose of determination!

How to get a SIX PACK without Sit-ups...and keep them for Life!

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Your Ten Step Action Plan:

Step 1:

Know your body type. Set your ideal goal. Decide how many lbs/kgs you wish to lose, and what percentage of body fat you would like to shed. Plan your journey, and set achievable milestones. Discover your ideal macro and calorie counts, based on your height. Design your own personal menu, to suit your macro and calorie needs and personal taste. (A calorie counting book or web site might help!) Set an appropriate exercise regime based on body type and lifestyle. Develop the habit of making time to prepare your food, and to enjoy your regular exercise sessions. Start recording all food and exercise in your personal diary. Monitor progress against your milestones. Adjust and re-align your plan until the desired outcome is achieved. Commit to long term changes of lifestyle. Develop good eating and exercise habits that will keep you fit for life.

Step 2:

Step 3: Step 4: Step 5: Step 6: Step 7: Step 8: Step 9:

Step 10:

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The Lean Machine Method

Enjoy one "Cheat" Meal Every Week

Drink 3 Litres of Water Daily

Figure vi: Lean Body Success

Regular Cardio Exercise

Eat 6-8 Small Meals

Eat Correct Balance of Macronurients

Your Lean Body Success

Choose Low G.I. Foods

How to get a SIX PACK without Sit-ups...and keep them for Life!

Consume High Fibre Foods

Eliminate Alcohol Minimize Saturated Fat

Maintain Moderate Caloric Deficit

Regular Resistance Exercise

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Ask for my help...


Visit www.SixpackWithoutSitups.com often, for information and personalized programs to help you achieve your goal.

I can tailor a personal eating plan that includes the food you enjoy, and fits with your busy schedule. I can help you set realistic goals. I can help you plan enjoyable exercise programs that will work for you. Ill regularly publish stories from readers that might encourage and motivate you, or help you over specific obstacles. Ill strive to continually update the web site with helpful additional information and links to useful resources.

I invite you to share your achievements with me. You might even allow me to use your story (anonymously if you prefer) to inspire and encourage others? I look forward to helping you celebrate your success.

Your Friend in Fitness...

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The Lean Machine Method

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