Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM)E-

Book Quick Start Guide

By Tom Venuto

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the most comprehensive fat loss book ever published. At 340 pages,
BFFM is so thorough, it has become known as the "Bible of Fat Loss." It was designed from day one
to be and remain for years the definitive guide to burning fat, using the bodybuilding and physique
athlete methodology of body composition transformation.

Because BFFM contains so much depth and detail, it takes some time and effort to read and study the
entire manual.

The BFFM quick start guide is designed to get you off and running fast right from day one. It's also
great for experienced BFFMers to review and keep the basic principles in mind without getting too
bogged down in details.

This is part 1: The 10 steps to success

Part 1: BFFM Quick Start Guide: 10 steps to success

1. Set written goals with realistic deadlines. Open the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle e-book to
chapter 1 on goals. Read the entire chapter. Do what it says. Do not skip this step or skim this
chapter. Sorry, no short cuts on this step - read the whole chapter!

2. Calculate your maintenance calories aka total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Energy (calorie)
expenditure for the day is also known as your maintenance level -- the number of calories where you
will maintain your weight. For a quick start, this can be estimated instantly with the averages method:
average maintenance calories for men and women are 2700 to 2900 and 2000-2100 respectively. For
more precision (better), use the calorie formulas from chapter 6 to get a customized calorie intake.

Burn the Fat inner circle members can use the online calorie calculators. If you know your body fat
percentage, use the Katch McArdle calculator. If you don't know your body fat percentage, use the
Harris Benedict Equation:

Katch-McArdle Calorie Calculator for Men and Women

//www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/400.cfm

Harris-Benedict Calorie Calculator For Women

//www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/381.cfm

Harris-Benedict Calorie Calculator For Men

//www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/380.cfm

3. Choose an appropriate calorie deficit for fat loss goals. You MUST establish a calorie deficit to lose
fat and (important) you must continue to maintain a calorie deficit to continue losing fat even though
your body is always trying to trick you into shrinking the deficit. On the other hand, cutting calories too
much can decrease your energy, slow down your metabolic rate, reduce your ability to train hard,
increase your hunger, stimulate cravings or bingeing and make you one grouchy, moody son of a gun.
Find the right balance for calories; not too low, not too high. Cut calories conservatively using the
BFFM calorie deficit guidelines:
Conservative deficit: 15-20% below maintenance
Moderate deficit 20-25% below maintenance
Aggressive deficit 25-30% below maintenance

The more fat you have to lose, the safer it is to use a larger deficit and lose weight a little more
quickly. It is not advisable to use more than a 30% deficit unless you are very overweight or obese
and even then, very aggressive deficits should be done with caution. Obesity scientists consider a
50% deficit semi-starvation. The leaner you are, the more conservative you should be with your deficit
and the slower you should lose weight.

4. Select your macronutrient ratios - the percentage of your calories that will come from protein, carbs
or fat. The simple quick start method: eat a lean protein and a natural carbohydrate food with each
meal. Include a small amount of healthy fat every day. The more precise method: choose
macronutrient ratios as follows:

Baseline BFFM nutrition: 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat

Maximum Fat Loss: 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat
Contest Diet: 25%-30% carbs, 45-50% protein, 25-30% fat

How to choose your macros: Most people should start with the baseline nutrition plan. If you are high
on the endomorph body type rating or you suspect you are highly carb intolerant, start with the
maximum fat loss plan. Try that for at least one week then measure response. Hold protein steady
and reduce carbs further if necessary. Contest diet is literally only advisable for people pursuing
physique competition. Please note that the contest plan uses the word "diet" because it is intended as
a short term peaking method.

Burn the Fat inner circle members can use the online macronutrient calculators:

Burn the Fat Macronutrient Calculator

//www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/316.cfm

5. Decide how many meals you want to eat. BFFM is based on bodybuilding and physique athlete
nutrition which traditionally calls for smaller meals eaten more often. Four to six meals or feedings
total per day is typical. Picking a meal schedule you can stick with is critical. If you don't think you can
follow the full-out bodybuilding-style meal plan of 4-5 meals per day for women and 5-6 for men, go
with the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner (3 main meals) and have 2-3 snacks in between so you
are still getting 5-6 "feedings" per day but only 3 of them are sit-down meals that require cooking and
food prep. Plan for at least one of those snacks to be a protein snack so you can get a minimum of
four protein feedings per day and easily hit your protein macro target (ideal would be a little protein
with every feeding, even snacks). VERY important: pick a meal schedule you can stick with. Meal
frequency can be customized but meal frequency and timing cannot be haphazard. Inconsistent meal
patterns, including skipping meals are extremely detrimental to your health and body composition
goals. You MUST have structure. BFFM is structure based! Pick a number of meals. Pick a time of
day for each meal... and stick with it.

6. Create one meal plan. Most people are conditioned to expect to have weeks or months of meal
plans (typical diet books are usually full of generic meal plans). In reality, the people most successful
at fat loss usually eat mostly the same thing every day, and make simple substitutions when they are
bored. You can take as much variety as you want, but in the beginning, start with ONE meal plan.
That's all it takes to get started -- one meal plan with foods you really like and could eat most of the
time. Download an excel spreadsheet from the Burn the Fat site or create your own. Download the
most recent version of the Burn the fat foods guide (contains 300+ recommended foods with calorie
and macro information). Drop foods into each row to create your meals out of foods you like. You can
use sample meal plans to get started but to be successful long term and understand the lifestyle, you
have to learn how to make your own meals rather than using "canned" meal plans or someone else's
plan. Everyone has different tastes.

A simple way to make meals is to use the BFFM meal template:

Pick a lean protein (example chicken breast or egg scramble)
Pick a natural starchy carb (example sweet potato or oatmeal)
Pick a natural fibrous carb (example broccoli or mixed veggies)
Note: Add in fruit for snacks or as traditional breakfast food
Optional: Add in dairy to meals or as snacks if you are not lactose intolerant (counts as a lean protein
and also contains simple carbs / milk sugar aka lactose)

That's a BFFM Meal! See BFFM chapter 14 for more examples.

Spreadsheets or nutrition software will add up the calories and macros for you automatically. Usually
the numbers are a bit off the first time you enter your foods. If you're using a spreadsheet, simply
adjust the serving sizes up or down to hit your calorie target and your macro target for the day. PRINT
OUT your meal plan and carry it with you on paper or electronically.

COMING SOON: The Burn the Fat Meal Planner software has been in development for the past year
and is nearing completion. It will be available exclusively to Burn the Fat Inner Circle members and
will be the fastest, easiest way to quickly create meal plans.

7. Follow the meal plan for a week and establish a baseline. Use your mealplan as your eating goal
for each day. NEVER wing it. Always go into every day with a meal plan to follow. You don't have to
count calories literally speaking, you simply have to follow your menu by eating the foods you selected
and weighing or measuring them using a food scale or measuring cups and so on. You wont have to
weigh and measure food forever, but it's very important during the early learning stages until you
become an "unconscious competent. " Until you've been doing it a while and everything is second
nature and turned over to habit, do not guess. Do it by the numbers. After one week, you will have
established a baseline and produced a result.

8. Choose a weight training routine and a cardio routine and put the schedule in writing. Just like you
must have a meal plan on paper, you must have a workout plan on paper. BFFM includes sample
programs for full body weight training, 2 day splits, 3 day splits and 4 day splits. Choose the plan most
appropriate for your goals and your experience level with a minimum of 3 days a week of strength
training. Weight training is not optional -- it is absolutely mandatory. Choose a type of cardio training
and choose a starting cardio frequency with a minimum of 3 days per week of cardio. Refer to BFFM
chapters 16 and 17 for more details.

9. Keep Score! Measure your weekly weight and body composition results. Performance improves
when performance is measured. Copy the progress chart out of the BFFM ebook appendix or
download one from inner circle. After 7 days, record your weight and body fat percentage on your
"official weigh-in day". Mondays are a great day for official weigh-in day because it keeps you more in
check over the weekends when most people are likely to get off their plan. One of the goals you
should have set is a weekly goal. If you produced the result you wanted, you got it exactly right the
first time around. This means your calorie estimations (theoretical calorie needs) were right on the
money and you followed them correctly. Do not change a thing. Do it again for another week. If you
did not produce the fat loss result you wanted, this means your calorie estimations were incorrect and
you have to reconcile them with your real world (actual) calorie needs. You must make a change to
your nutrition or your training program to establish your deficit (if you didn't lose any fat) or increase
your deficit (if you lost fat more slowly than you wanted).

10. Continue following your plan, repeating the weekly feedback loop process and troubleshooting -
tweaking when necessary until you reach your goal. This is the essence of success in body fat loss or
any endeavor in life: get into a feedback loop. Keep measuring results every week, then adjust your
approach according to your results. If you continue getting the results you want, don't change
anything. If you don't get the results you want, troubleshoot the source of the progress plateau and
tweak your program. Rinse and repeat. Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting a different result. The flipside of that is changing something that IS
working for you, just because some expert's dogma tells you to. That is also insanity. If something is
working, do more of it. if something isn't working, make a change (for stalled weight loss, that always
means re-establish the deficit), and get back to work another week. Never, ever ever quit. Persist until
you succeed.