The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED,
not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of
"peaking." Most people do not have a clue about what it takes to reach
the type of low body fat levels that reveal ripped six-pack abs, muscle
striations, vascularity and extreme muscular definition, so they go
about it completely the wrong way.

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors?
No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and
fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior
to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes
come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like
triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing
up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

"There seems to be a contradiction unless I'm missing
something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go
through a 12 week 'transformation' prior to every event instead of
staying 'lean and mean' all the time? If they practice the secrets
exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time
instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive
event, correct?"

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other
physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain
completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are
able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a "peak", right? What is
the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower
points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all
bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet
in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off
to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape
every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about
is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to
good shape.... but never getting "out of shape." Makes a lot of sense,
doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around
365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my
website. Off-season, when I'm not competing, my body fat is usually
between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body
fat.

I don't stray too far from competition shape, but I don't maintain
contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually
drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to "peak" for competition with NO
loss of lean body mass...using the same techniques I reveal in my
e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I
could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m
so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete
strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being
“being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain
because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably
not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat.
Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body
type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may
drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just
not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous
body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less
demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat.
Some years I’ve stayed leaner - like 6-7%, (which takes effort),
especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body
fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all
sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for
competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in
March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up
fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others
just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form... that’s why they
have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to
shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie
restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of
people can’t lose weight and keep it off --they are CHRONIC dieters...
always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or
later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to
the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and
push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a
little more (healthy food, not "pigging out"), your metabolic rate is
re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat
loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally
reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level
that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so
effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition.
They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry
about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all
humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape
fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all
year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a
whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the
purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the
power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance,
and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get
super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to
the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you
like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing
that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more
practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you
agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from
physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers
who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through
starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they
lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth - natural
bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly
when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical
fashion between pre-contest "cutting" programs and off season
"maintenance" or "muscle growth" programs. Even if you have no desire
to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and
you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite
bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto

www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified
personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning
specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"
Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print
magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding,
Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as
on hundreds of websites worldwide.

For information on Tom's Fat Loss
program, visit: www.BurnTheFat.com