• Author: Michael Matthews
  • Full Title: Bigger Leaner Stronger
  • Tags: #Inbox #books

Highlights

  • Myth #1 “Calories In Versus Calories Out Is Bad Science” (Location 1093)
  • much you eat is far more important than what you eat. (Location 1105)
  • Myth #2 “Carbs and Sugars Make You Fat” (Location 1159)
  • If you consistently consume fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight, regardless of how much carbohydrate or sugar you eat. (Location 1201)
  • No individual food can make you fatter. Only overeating can. (Location 1204)
  • Myth #3 “Some People Just ‘Mysteriously’ Can’t Lose Weight” (Location 1208)
  • For starters, studies show that most people are really bad at estimating the actual number of calories they eat.12 They underestimate portion sizes, assume foods contain fewer calories than they do, measure intake inaccurately, and, in some cases, simply lie to themselves about how much they’re actually eating. (Location 1213)
  • The worst type of cheat meal is one that is very high in both calories and dietary fat, which is chemically similar to body fat and thus requires very little energy for conversion into body fat (between 0 and 2 percent of the energy it contains).16 (Location 1264)
  • Myth #5 “You Can Burn the Fat Covering Your [Body Part]” (Location 1282)
  • Myth #6 “Dieting Can ‘Damage’ Your Metabolism” (Location 1298)
  • They also found that higher protein intake led to greater feelings of fullness, but surprisingly, six meals resulted in generally lower levels of satiety than three. (Location 1410)
  • Myth #9 “You Have to Exercise to Lose Weight” If you’re willing to eat very little food every (Location 1418)
  • The best kind of exercise to do while in a calorie deficit is resistance training, which is a form of exercise that improves muscular strength and endurance. (Location 1426)
  • Both groups followed the same diet, and after 12 weeks, everyone lost about the same amount of fat, but the cardio group also lost nine pounds of lean body mass, whereas the weightlifting group didn’t lose any. A number (Location 1434)
  • Myth #10 “Cardio Is Better for Fat Loss Than Weightlifting” (Location 1439)
  • In fact, studies show many people wind up even heavier than when they began their cardiovascular exercise routines.37 (Location 1446)
  • Weightlifting isn’t a popular way to lose weight because it’s a bad way to lose weight, but (Location 1472)
  • it is a fantastic way to speed up fat loss and preserve muscle. (Location 1472)
  • And guess who lost the most fat while also gaining muscle? That’s right, group number three—the resistance training and cardio group. (Location 1482)
  • The 10 Absolute Worst Muscle-Building Myths and Mistakes (Location 1696)
  • Well, exercise is physical activity done for its own sake—to burn calories or improve energy levels or mood—whereas training is a systematic method of exercising done to achieve a specific, longer-term goal, like increased strength, muscle definition, or athleticism. (Location 1711)
  • Realize that most guys only need to gain about 20 to 25 pounds of muscle to have an impressive physique, and literally anybody can do that, no matter how skinny and weak they are when they touch a barbell for the first time. (Location 1783)
  • For instance, many guys can gain up to 25 pounds of muscle in their first year of weightlifting, whereas the best someone like me can hope for is a pound or three of muscle gain in the next year. (Location 1870)
  • From that point on, your goal will be to lose fat and not muscle while in a calorie deficit and to gain muscle with minimal fat while in a calorie surplus (more on this soon). (Location 1878)
  • Myth #5 “If You Do the Same Exercises Too Often, You’ll Get Stuck in a (Location 1880)
  • High-carb diet = high insulin levels = burn less fat and store more = get fatter and fatter. And then, as a corollary: Low-carb diet = low insulin levels = burn more fat and store less = stay lean. This is wrong, and the “evidence” used to sell it is pseudoscience. Eating carbs does trigger insulin production, and insulin does trigger fat storage, but none of that makes you fatter. Only overeating does. (Location 2254)
  • The key difference between these forms of carbohydrate is the rate at which this conversion happens. (Location 2436)
  • There’s simply no denying that eating too much added sugar can harm our health and that reducing intake is generally a good idea. (Location 2454)
  • That doesn’t mean we need to reduce or limit our consumption of all forms of carbohydrate, however. In fact, if you’re healthy and physically active, particularly if you lift weights regularly, chances are that you’ll do better with more carbs in your diet, not less. (Location 2456)
  • You should eat enough to stay healthy, but have no reason to follow a high-fat diet unless you really enjoy it. And even then you need to do so with caution. (Location 2463)
  • Earlier in this book, you learned that unsaturated fat is a form of fat that’s liquid at room temperature and found in foods like olive oil, avocado, and nuts. There are two distinct types of unsaturated fats: (Location 2489)
  • “strength-endurance continuum,” (Location 2854)
  • Heavy, lower-rep weightlifting primarily increases muscle strength and results in higher amounts of mechanical tension and muscle damage, but less cellular fatigue. Lighter, higher-rep weightlifting primarily increases muscle endurance and results in lower amounts of mechanical tension and muscle damage, but more cellular fatigue. (Location 2856)
  • Law #2 Muscles Don’t Grow in the Gym (Location 2886)
  • if you want to gain muscle as effectively as possible, then you want to do everything you can to keep protein synthesis rates at or above breakdown rates. The more time your body spends in this anabolic state, the faster you gain muscle. (Location 2899)
  • protein synthesis rates decline during the workouts. (Location 2902)
  • restricting your carbs also raises your cortisol and lowers your testosterone levels, which further hampers your body’s ability to recover from your workouts.17 (Location 2941)
  • low-carb diets recover slower from their workouts and gain less muscle and strength than those who eat more carbs. (Location 2944)
  • Building and maintaining an outstanding physique requires a disciplined, orderly approach to not just your diet and exercise, but your life in general. (Location 3120)
  • This loss of momentum is probably why many people seem to give up on their fitness aspirations around the three-month mark. (Location 3128)
  • I Will, I Won’t, I Want (Location 3185)
  • In short, they have trouble saying “I won’t.” There are two other aspects to willpower, though: “I will” and “I want.” (Location 3188)
  • My point is we need protection from ourselves, not from diabolical ground beef and potato sticks, and that’s what self-control is for. (Location 3266)
  • 13 13 Easy Ways to Boost Your Willpower and Self-Control (Location 3343)
  • The researchers found that the day after having sex, people felt 10 to 20 percent less anxious as well as more self-assured and less worried about what others thought of them. This was particularly true for those who were naturally more anxious. (Location 3419)
  • This helps explain why sex’s many benefits seem to be greatest for couples who have been together the longest or are married, and smallest for people in unhappy relationships.16 (Location 3427)
  • Develop a relaxation routine that you follow like your diet and exercise regimens, and it probably won’t take long for you to start noticing improvements in your happiness, productivity, emotional stability, and health. Here’s my personal (Location 3570)
  • A nightly hot bath with my wife. (Location 3573)
  • 14 Use It or Lose It: How to Train Your Willpower The greatest discovery of my generation (Location 3853)
  • There’s also good evidence that we can indeed increase our overall willpower by “training” it with regular, small acts of self-control. (Location 3871)
  • What we’re really training here is what psychologists call the “pause-and-plan response,” which (Location 3876)
  • involves pausing before we act, noticing what we’re about to do, and choosing wisely.4 (Location 3877)
  • We’ve all heard that we’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with, and an abundance of scientific evidence says this is true to one degree or another for every single one of us. (Location 4064)
  • In fact, research shows that simply thinking about people with high levels of self-control can temporarily increase our willpower.27 (Location 4078)
  • flexible dieting. (Location 4704)
  • The Four Principles of Flexible Dieting (Location 4741)
  • How much you eat is more important than what you eat. You should eat foods that you like. The majority of your calories should be nutritious. You should eat on a schedule that works for you. (Location 4750)
  • Manipulating your calorie intake to lose, maintain, or gain weight as desired Manipulating your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake to optimize your body composition (Location 4764)
  • You should get at least 80 percent of your daily calories from nutritious, relatively unprocessed foods. (Location 4794)
  • 17 The Easiest Way to Calculate Your Calories and Macros (Location 4898)
  • Calculate your basal metabolic rate. (Location 4928)
  • BMR = 10 x weight (in kilograms) + 6.25 x height (in centimeters) – 5 x age (in years) + 5 (Location 4946)
    1. Calculate your total daily energy expenditure. (Location 4972)
  • total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is exactly what it sounds like: the total number (Location 4974)
  • Fancier fitness trackers aren’t much better. According to a study conducted by scientists at the University of North Carolina, both Fitbit and Jawbone trackers underestimated steps, under- and overestimated calories burned during different kinds of exercise, and overestimated total sleep time. (Location 5026)
  • How Many Calories You Should Eat to Lose Fat (Location 5130)
  • Therefore, my recommendation is an aggressive but not reckless calorie deficit of about 25 percent when cutting. (Location 5151)
  • When combined with a high-protein diet and rigorous workout schedule, a calorie deficit of about 25 percent allows for speedy fat loss and considerable muscle gain without any serious side effects. (Location 5179)
  • How to Calculate Your Cutting Macros (Location 5181)
  • Forty percent of your calories should come from protein. Forty percent of your calories should come from carbohydrate. Twenty percent of your calories should come from dietary fat. (Location 5183)
  • Or with the macro shortcut: 195 (pounds) x 1.1 = 215 (grams of protein per day) 195 x 1.1 = 215 (grams of carbohydrate per day) 195 x 0.25 = 49 (grams of dietary fat per day) How Many Calories You Should Eat to Gain Muscle (Location 5206)
  • the point of diminishing returns is somewhere around 110 percent of your average TDEE. (Location 5230)
  • That is, you’ll likely gain just as much muscle eating about 110 percent of your average TDEE as you would eating 120 or 130 percent but a lot less fat. (Location 5232)
  • How to Calculate Your Lean Bulking Macros Here’s how to turn your lean bulking calories into macros: Twenty-five percent of your calories should come from protein. Fifty-five percent of your calories should come from carbohydrate. Twenty percent of your calories should come from dietary fat. (Location 5238)
  • How Many Calories You Should Eat to Maintain Your Weight This shouldn’t really come into play until you’ve completed several cycles of cutting and lean bulking and more or less have the body you want. You use your lean (Location 5265)
  • How to Calculate Your Maintenance Macros Here’s how to turn your maintenance calories into macros: Thirty percent of your calories should come from protein. Forty-five percent of your calories should come from carbohydrate. Twenty-five percent of your calories should come from dietary fat. (Location 5313)
  • The Truth about Preworkout and Postworkout Nutrition (Location 5576)
  • If you haven’t eaten protein in the three to four hours preceding your workout, then it’s a good idea to eat 30 to 40 grams before you train. (Location 5590)
  • How to Make Meal Plans That Really Work Don’t measure yourself by what you (Location 5853)
  • This is significant because research shows that the average person makes over 200 food decisions per day, and this can contribute to what psychologists call decision fatigue.1 (Location 5879)
  • How to “Cheat” on Your Diet Without Ruining (Location 6795)
  • Health found that calorie for calorie, low-fat dieting is more effective for fat loss than low-carb (at least in the short term), (Location 6920)
  • Just one or two large alcohol-infused cheat meals per week can be enough to wipe out all fat loss and stick you in a rut. (Location 6932)
  • How to Cheat Without Ruining Your Diet Now that you know what you’re (Location 6933)
  • Cheat once per week. When cutting, try not to exceed your average TDEE for the day. When lean bulking, try not to exceed 130 percent of your average TDEE for the day. Try to keep your fat intake under 100 grams for the day. (Location 6936)
  • Drink alcohol intelligently. (Location 6942)
  • You have to know what you’re doing, though, because you don’t become a “Greek god” by cutting your carbs and doing “functional training.” (Location 7142)
  • Instead, you need to take a completely different approach in the gym than most men, and believe it or not, a much healthier, more enjoyable, and sustainable one at that. We’re going to break it all down in this chapter, and it begins with a simple formula that looks like this: 2–3 | 4–6 | 9–15 | 2–4 | 3–5 | 1–2 | 8–10 (Location 7143)
  • 4–6 Do 4 to 6 Reps Per Hard Set (Location 7181)
  • And a “hard set” is a heavy, muscle- and strength-building set that’s taken close to technical failure (Location 7189)
  • For most men, this means working with weights that are around 80 to 85 percent of their one-rep max. (Location 7194)
  • 9–15 Do 9 to 15 Hard Sets Per Workout (Location 7227)
  • Each Bigger Leaner Stronger workout will have you warm up and perform 9 to 15 hard sets. (Location 7229)
  • 2–4 Rest 2 to 4 Minutes in Between Hard Sets (Location 7236)
  • resting enough in between sets is a vital part of this process because it prepares your muscles to exert maximum effort in each set. (Location 7244)
  • 3–5 Train Most Major Muscle Groups Once Every 3 to 5 Days (Location 7278)
  • 1–2 Take 1 to 2 Days Off Per Week (Location 7312)
  • 8–10 Take It Easy Every 8 to 10 Weeks (Location 7342)
  • There are two easy ways to do this: Periodically reduce your workout intensity or volume (known as deloading). Periodically take five to seven days off weightlifting. (Location 7345)
  • The Double Progression Model (Location 7354)
  • In double progression, you work with a given weight in a given rep range, and once you hit the top of that rep range for a certain number of hard sets (one, two, or three, usually), you increase the weight. (Location 7362)
  • Then, if you can at least come to within a rep or two of the bottom of your rep range in your first hard set with the new, heavier weight, you work with that weight until you can hit the top of your rep range again. (Location 7365)
  • If you want to get the most out of double progression, you want to end each of your hard sets one or two reps shy of technical failure, which again, is the point where you can’t do another rep with proper form. (Location 7379)
  • The Right Rep Tempo (Location 7393)
  • the total reps performed with a given muscle group over time is a major factor in muscle gain.16 (Location 7407)
  • Therefore, I recommend that you follow the traditional “1–1–1” rep tempo for all weightlifting exercises. (Location 7427)
  • For example, if we apply this to the squat, it would mean sitting to the proper depth in about one second, pausing for a moment, and standing up quickly. (Location 7433)
  • How to Warm Up for Your Workouts (Location 7434)
  • Here’s an easy and effective routine that will warm you up without doing so much that your performance on your hard sets is compromised: Do 10 reps with about 50 percent of your hard set weight, and rest for a minute. Do 10 reps with the same weight at a slightly faster pace, and rest for a minute. (Location 7497)
  • Do 4 reps with about 70 percent of your hard set weight, and rest for a minute. (Location 7502)
  • Intensity and Focus: Your Two Secret Weapons (Location 7504)
  • The Deload Week A deload week is a weeklong reduction in training intensity (weight lifted) or volume (number of hard sets). (Location 7526)
  • The primary purposes of deloading are fourfold: Alleviating “accumulated” nervous system fatigue Reducing joint and ligament strain Reducing the risk of injury Reducing psychological stress (Location 7531)
  • Here’s the basic outline: You provide a stimulus (exercise). You remove the stimulus (rest and recovery). Your body adapts to deal with the next stimulus better. (Location 7538)
  • That said, a reasonable recommendation is to plan a deload week every 8 to 10 weeks of heavy, intense training. If you’re in a calorie deficit, make this once every 6 to 8 weeks due to the added physical stress and impaired recovery. (Location 7549)
  • You’ll begin to recognize the need for a deload—the most common signs being that your progress is stalling, your body is extra achy, your sleep quality has declined, you have less motivation to train, and your workouts feel much harder than they should. And you can respond accordingly. (Location 7563)
  • How to Avoid Weightlifting Injuries (Location 7566)
  • If you’re new to weightlifting and you can add 10 pounds to your big lifts every week or two for the first several months, you’re doing great. (Location 7619)
  • There are five things to consider when creating a HIIT routine: The type of cardio performed The duration and intensity of the high-intensity periods The duration and intensity of the rest periods The duration of the workouts The frequency of the workouts (Location 7917)
  • or if you’re new to HIIT and want to keep it simple, start with one-minute high-intensity periods. (Location 7969)
  • Thus, when I’m cutting, I like to do four to five hours of weightlifting and one and a half to two hours of HIIT per week. This allows me to get as lean as I want without risking overtraining or burnout. (Location 8000)
  • The Second-Best Type of Cardio for Losing Fat Faster (Location 8002)
  • Walking Is Very Easy on the Body (Location 8019)
  • Walking Minimally Impacts Muscle Gain (Location 8028)
  • Walking Preferentially Burns Fat (Location 8039)
  • The most successful approach looks like this: Three to five one-hour weightlifting sessions per week One to three 25-to-30 minute HIIT sessions per week Two to three 30-to-45-minute walks per week (Location 8061)
  • Here are the six major muscle groups that you’ll be training in my Bigger Leaner Stronger program: Chest Shoulders Back Arms Core Legs (including calves) (Location 8200)
  • After a year or so of focusing almost exclusively on incline pressing, however, the imbalance was corrected, and my chest had a much more balanced, aesthetic look. This is why I’m going to include a fair amount of incline pressing in your Bigger Leaner Stronger workouts. (Location 8233)
  • The Best Chest Exercises You Can Do Barbell Bench Press (Incline and Flat) Dumbbell Bench Press (Incline and Flat) Dip* Cable Fly* (Location 8237)
  • Shoulders (Location 8242)
  • The Best Shoulder Exercises You Can Do (Location 8260)
  • Back (Location 8273)
  • The Best Back Exercises You Can Do Barbell Deadlift Barbell Row One-Arm Dumbbell Row Pull-Up Chin-Up T-Bar Row Lat Pulldown (Wide- and Close-Grip) Seated Cable Row (Wide- and Close-Grip) (Location 8292)
  • The Best Biceps Exercises You Can Do Barbell Curl E-Z Bar Curl Alternating Dumbbell Curl (Location 8330)
  • Dumbbell Hammer Curl Chin-Up (Location 8331)
  • The Best Triceps Exercises You Can Do Close-Grip Bench Press Seated Triceps Press Dip* Lying Triceps Extension (“Skullcrusher”) Triceps Pushdown (Location 8334)
  • Remember too that body fat percentage is crucial here. No matter how much you work on your core or how developed it is, it’s not going to look “ripped” until you’re around 10 percent body fat or lower. (Location 8362)
  • The Best Core Exercises You Can Do Captain’s Chair Leg Raise Hanging Leg Raise Lying Leg Raise Crunch Cable Crunch Weighted Sit-Up Plank Abdominal Rollout There aren’t hundreds of ab exercises (Location 8366)
  • The Best Leg Exercises You Can Do Barbell Squat Barbell Front Squat Hack Squat (Sled, Not Barbell) Single-Leg Split Squat (Barbell or Dumbbell) Leg Press Lunge (Dumbbell or Barbell, Walking or In-Place, Forward or Reverse) Romanian Deadlift (Location 8418)
  • 24 The Definitive Guide to the “Big Three” Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes (Location 8515)
  • They’re known as the “Big Three,” and they are as follows: Barbell squat Barbell deadlift Barbell bench press (Location 8522)
  • You Paint by the Numbers, Your Body Does the Rest (Location 10796)
  • The Bigger Leaner Stronger Diet Plan (Location 10836)
  • A good rule of thumb is this: your cut phases should end when you’re around 8 to 10 percent body fat (unless you have a special reason to get leaner, don’t bother because it’s not sustainable for most people), (Location 10883)
  • and your lean bulk phases should end when you’re around 15 to 17 percent body fat (go any further and you’ll regret it once it comes time to cut). Thus, when cutting, you should generally go for as long as it takes to get to at least 10 percent body fat (unless you want to end sooner for whatever reason), and when lean bulking, for as long as it takes to get to 15 to 17 percent body fat (again, unless you want to end sooner). (Location 10885)
  • When you get settled into this rhythm of moving between cut and lean bulk phases, you’ll probably find that your cuts last 10 to 14 weeks and your lean bulks 12 to 16 weeks. (Location 10891)
  • Five Tips for Better Cuts (Location 10896)
  • This is one of the reasons why most fruits and vegetables are so helpful when cutting. They add a significant amount of volume and fiber but not calories to meals, helping you stay fuller longer. (Location 10902)
  • Take diet breaks if needed. A diet break is different than “cheating”—it’s a planned break from dieting, and it can last anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks. Why would you want to do that? Research shows that when cutting, scheduling periods of planned and controlled increased calorie intake can help you lose fat faster and better maintain your muscle mass and metabolic rate. (Location 10904)
  • If at any point during a cut, you’re feeling especially tired, worn out, or just plain sick of cutting, take a one-week break and then get back to it. (Location 10923)
  • 29 The Bigger Leaner Stronger Training Plan (Location 11851)
  • When you get 6 reps for one hard set of most exercises, you immediately move up in weight by adding 10 pounds to the bar or moving up to dumbbells that are 5 pounds heavier (per dumbbell). (Location 12012)