Bodybuilder lean body diet
The goal of so many people who try to lose fat, is to get really lean and ripped. Generally it means going to as low as single digit body fat level. It is very difficult to lose the last few pounds to reach this level and most people fail because they have no idea how to do it.
It is much easier to get from overweight to average then it is to get from average to very lean. It happens because your body adapts more and more as you get leaner. People who want to get very lean have to use different methods. The danger with trying to get lean body is going to the starvation mode. The more stricter your diet is the less food you eat and your body thinks you are starving. It is very important to avoid the starvation mode. Why?
Because if you are in the starvation mode then your fat-storing enzymes increase, fat-burning enzymes decrease, fat-storing hormones increase, anti-starvation hormone called leptin that will decrease, testosterone decreases, cortisol increases, your metabolism slows down and your appetite increases a lot. So how do you get lean if eating to little makes you go on starvation mode?
Bodybuilders and fitness models know exactly how to get super lean and ripped whilst avoiding starvation mode. If you use conventional diets to get lean then your body´s alarm bells start ringing and losing the last pounds becomes impossible. To stop the alarm bells from going off we need to control the hormone leptin.
Your fat cells release leptin when you get enough food and it sends signals to your brain that everything is alright. If your body does not release leptin as much, which happens when you are in starvation mode, your brain interprets that as starvation. The goal is to keep your leptin levels high.
In order to do that you have to eat more every once in a while, so your leptin levels don´t decrease and you avoid starvation mode. Everyone knows you need a calorie deficit to lose fat and eating more seems a stupid thing to do. But if you occasionally eat more then it works. If you eat more periodically and reach your maintenance level for a full day then it stimulates the release of leptin. It is what the bodybuilders call the zig zag method.
If you kept you calories below maintenance for 3 days and on the 4 day eat up to your maintenance level then you avoid the effects of starvation, which I pointed out earlier. It is very hard to stay on a low calorie diet for long periods and that is why you need to re-feed your occasionally. If you hit a fat loss plateau don´t slash your calories but use the zig zag method. It is a very effective method to get a lean body.