PHASE 2 is where things really start to get interesting when it comes to training and dieting. We’ll cover dieting first since you get to partake in Cheat days, which are a treat if you love food!
We’ve done the insulin reset and are now reintroducing Carbs. Your insulin receptors are operating at higher levels.
You’ll be eating more on training days, and eating less on non-training days. – and then there’s the Cheat day, which we don’t only advocate, we insist you use as part of your fat-loss journey.
Phase 2 DIET
Calories
We subtract 300 calories from your maintenance amount.
Essentially, you’re eating less during the week, but your cheat day makes up for this deficit and bumps your leptin levels back up.
Protein
Consume 1grm per lb of lean body mass
Carbs
Consume 0.75 grams per lb of lean body mass.
If these numbers don’t make sense, don’t worry. I have adjusted your calories for this phase and you’ll find them on the App.
This is what happens when you diet…
The human body is amazing… and very adaptive. When faced with famine, the metabolism quickly shuts down the hatches and prepares for famine. This is great for surviving a famine, but not awesome if you’re leaning up. Your body will adjust to less calories and hold onto more fat.
Decreased T3 and T4 levels
These thyroid hormones play a major part in regulating your metabolism. In underfed individuals, there is a decrease in T3 and T4, which contributes to the downregulation of your metabolism. – so if you eat fewer calories, your body will attempt to balance energy expenditure by holding onto fat. A cheat day, or strategic overfeed can help increase these hormones.
Increased Cortisol levels
Severe dieting extends the half-life of cortisol. Cortisol is a catabolic agent and will attack the muscles if on an extended caloric deprivation diet. This is not ideal if you wish to hold onto your muscles and get lean.
Decreased Serum Leptin levels
A periodic bump in leptin from a cheat day has several benefits, including increased thyroid output, increased energy, and a heightened basal metabolic rate as well as increased thermogenesis, also known as fat burning.
Bring on the Cheat Day…
- Don’t gorge; Stop eating before you feel hopelessly stuffed.
- Buy your cheat foods on your cheat day. (if it’s there, chances are, – you’ll eat it)
- Eat your meals and make them as decadent as you like. the rule of thumb is to consume more carbs and overall calories.
- Have fun…! – If ice cream is your thing, then that’s what you’ll have. It’s the one day that I am asking you to eat what the heck you like!!
The Feast/Fast Model
When I started applying the Cheat day, I was getting a ton of benefits from a fat-loss perspective. – But I found that I was paying the price on a Monday. As you can imagine, a night of brownies, ice-cream and steak and cheese had the ability to cause some intestinal distress, also known as the loo-run. lol
Eventually, I started pushing the normal feeds back further and further and the discomfort ended. The results were impressive – increased fat loss, better muscle tone and a happier tummy.
I will not ask you to jump off the cliff of a total fast day just yet.
During week 1, – just have your cheat day. You’ve worked hard for it and can indulge without any reservations.
During week 2, – You may have a light dinner on Monday, but nothing else during the day.
During wee 3, – We are now ready to jump into the deep end, and I invite you to fast the whole day. This can be challenging, but it is probably the best thing a Silverback or Vixen can do for their health and longevity. There’s a deep Autophagy that kicks in, where the body gets rid of dead waste cells and this practice literally sets back your aging clock and can remove cancerous cells from the body.
WHY IT WORKS
You’re trading one day of gluttony for one day without food and you’re ending up in a better position than where you started. – not bad at all.
Remember that dieting causes your leptin levels to drop which slows down fat loss, but overfeeding boosts your leptin levels back up to the point where they assist in fat loss.
Putting a Fast day after a Cheat day does 2 things:
- Prevents any fat gain from your caloric spill-over from eating “it all”
- Prevents stagnation of fat loss, allowing the hormonal benefit to proceed uninterrupted.
Cutting out food the day after your cheat day is something that works because you’re also reducing the overall amount of calories consumed over a week. Not everybody has the mental fortitude to practice this extended fast… (Last meal is on Sunday evening, and the next meal is Tuesday midday) I’ve been doing this for about 5 years now, and have gotten used to it and am a great advocate of the benefits hormonally as well as staying lean. If this seems like a tall order to you, you can keep your training wheels on, have the cheat day, and then have a small (no more than 400 calories) at night. This may slightly slow down your progress, but at least the psychology on having NO food will not be messing with your head.
Phase 2 TRAINING
TRAINING DENSITY
This is essentially the measure of how much work you do in a given time period. To get more done in a given amount of time, you decrease your rest periods and you increase the speed of your repetitions. Density-based training burns a huge amount of calories and increases your strength and endurance. This is good for the heart and increases the rate of muscle hypertrophy.
If you’re a walker, or a cyclist, or a yogi, you can gladly continue with your chosen modus of exercise. All I will ask you to do, is up the intensity over the same amount of time.
Lastly…
There will be days when you wonder if all this effort is really worth it, and you will be looking to cut corners with your diet or your training. Remember that you’ve begun a journey. You’re going to get tired. You’re going to NOT FEEL LIKE IT. – But do it anyway. You’ll be happy that you did and that will affect all manner of other parts of your life. You kinda owe it to yourself to put your head down.
Enjoy the process!
