Summertime is almost here! If you live in Wisconsin, you might need to wait for June, but if you live in San Diego, summer is already here.
When it comes time to kick it on the beach all day and drink a cold beverage at a beachside bar, we want to have the abs to complete the package. Whether you’re a dude rockin’ board shorts, or a shorty in a bikini, following these tips will put the final touches on the hard work you’ve put in, and shed the pounds gained during the winter months.
1. Avoid eating within 3 hours of bedtime
This is oftentimes easier said than done – but instituting just this one trick can change the game. First and foremost, you don’t need calories when you’re not doing anything physical. We always say that you should eat to support activity. Sleeping is effortless. Second, when you go to bed slightly hungry, your body will be forced to burn stored fat for fuel the entire time you are at rest. Pretty good deal to burn fat while dreaming!
2. Embark on physical activity immediately upon awakening
The coolest thing about doing a quick workout first thing is that you only need to workout for 1/3 of the time you would have to workout in the afternoon, or after eating. There are two primary benefits to this. First, without any stored glycogen (carbohydrates) in the body, all activity will use primarily stored body fat. Second, working out first thing will spike the metabolism, and keep it spiked for the majority of the day!
3. Perform a mix of steady state and interval-based activity
Steady-state activity will burn fewer calories for the same period of time, but more of the percentages of calories will come from fat. Walking will burn almost 80% of all calories from stored fat. Interval training will burn about 40% from fat. However, interval training will keep the metabolism spiked for longer AFTER the session. For optimal results, try to complete three sessions of each throughout the week!
4. Train with weights
Weight training is the holy grail of physique enhancement. Metabolically, training with weights has the same effect as cardiovascular interval training – it will spike the metabolism for many hours AFTER the session is complete. Furthermore, weight training provides you with an opportunity to really enjoy food and “indulge” during the post-workout window. If you have been craving something sweet, or something fried, you can consume it guilt-free directly after weight training, and the majority of the calories will go towards recovery, and not be stored as fat. That’s pretty cool, eh? And just as cool, every pound of muscle gained requires approximately 50 additional calories per day just to maintain body weight. If you were to gain 10 lbs of muscle, you would be able to consume an additional 500 calories every single day!!
5. Consider trying out “Intermittent Fasting”
This lifestyle method is much more than a diet! For many people, including myself, intermittent fasting is just a way of life. There are many ways to implement it, but I prefer the 16/8 method. This means that you fast for 16 hours and eat for 8 hours each day. Depending on your life, this could potentially be a game-changer when it comes to body composition. Imagine if you could have a clear mind, an energetic mental state, and laser-sharp focus, all because you withheld food? The mind and the body compete for resources. When you eat, the majority of your resources are used digesting and the mind struggles. Furthermore, if you can eat all of your calories for the day during an 8-hour period, think about how much awesome food you can eat?
And if you like to drink alcohol and show off those stellar abs you’ve been working on, just tailor your 8-hour period of consumption to fall during the time you want to drink and eat. It takes a couple weeks for the hunger pains to dissipate, but once they do, you might be surprised how great you feel, and how awesome your body looks!
6. Drugs are cool!
No, not all drugs – well, a lot of drugs – but we are more talking about the types of LEGAL drugs that can help you get shredded. These are generally energy-based supplements that can be bought at your local nutrition outlet, or even at most grocery stores. The simplest version would be just straight caffeine. Caffeine alone is responsible for elevating metabolism rate for 3 hours after consumption. Studies have also shown that consuming a large dose of caffeine prior to exercise can mobilize fatty acids to the tune of 300% more fat burned during a single session. Imagine if you combine an early morning workout (referenced in #2 above), which already burns fat at an elevated rate, and now you have the ability to burn even more calories from fat, just by getting more energy (which is amazing, because “energy” will allow you to workout harder and longer, as well!!).
Other examples of supplements that have been shown to aid in getting shredded (legally) are:
- Green Tea
- Synephrine
- White Willow Bark
- Yohimbe
- Rasberry Ketone
- Carbolin-19
San Diego Athletics, located at 1019 Garnet Ave in Pacific Beach, San Diego, is the home to all this knowledge and more. If you are local, stop by and ask about how you can join our crew and start owning the beach life. If you aren’t local, shoot us an email at admin@sandiegoathletics.com and we can talk about different remote/online coaching packages so that you can be your best self no matter where you are!
Happy Shredding!
Additional tips:
- BW x 10-12 for calories per day
- Balanced meals (protein at each meal)
- Size of palm/fist assessment
- Exercise before/after eating for body comp
- Carbs at night (vs pre/post workout)
- Try “new stuff” (inefficiency means more cals burnt)
- Hierarchy of nutrition (total cals, macronutrient percentages, food quality, food timing)
- Drink water (esp cold water, spike metabolism)
- Benefit of “Mini workouts” to constantly rev metabolism (just 3-5 minutes of intensity)
