How to Get THIS Lean (YEAR ROUND!)

[Music] what's up guys jeff cavaliere athleanx.com 5.3 percent body fat officially with the calipers and with Jesse doing the measure alright maybe it's not 5.3 percent but maybe it's six or seven I mean some guys out there say there's no way just under 10 percent to each their own whatever your opinion is on what you think I'm at at least we can agree that I'm probably pretty lean the fact of the matter is Jesse's actually concerned about me when there's loose papers in the office because he doesn't want me to get a paper cut he thinks it could be life-threatening I get it I'm lean the question comes in though a lot of times is Jeff how old do you do it how do you get that lean I want to do the same thing and before I go off and tell you exactly what I do because I'm gonna break it down category by category I'm trying to tell you exactly what that is I would also want to raise a secondary question to you that maybe you haven't thought about yet and that is do you really want to be this lean is there a reason for you to want to be this lean because you might actually change your answer by the time we get all done with this all right so with that being said what are we gonna talk about I'm gonna talk about the way you eat the style that you train and maybe even some of the sacrifices you have to make to get here because I think that's an important consideration that you're gonna have to ask yourself but let's start in the beginning and I mean really in the beginning like when did you start to decide that you want to get lean because if you start to decide maybe the first time in your life in your 30s or 40s or 50s it's gonna be that much more challenging for you to get to the level of leanness we're talking about then if you had started a long time ago and there's two really important reasons for that I started training and actually trying to be muscular and lean way back in my teens because I was playing sports I was never gonna be the big giant person was in the cards for me anyway really but I was really supposed to be maximize my athleticism being lean and muscular so that was my main goals and I started to adopt habits early on that allowed me to start getting on that right path and habits that have now carried through with me for many many years thirty years in the making that now make it almost secondary to what I do whereas if you didn't do that you've accumulated some other habits a lot of times maybe some not-so-good habits and it's really hard to replace your thirty-year ingrained and not so good habits with brand new habits that are required to get to that level of leanness that's the first thing the second thing is you're actually giving yourself an advantage hormonal e because when you walk around in a body that maximizes lean body mass and minimizes stored body fat you've created a hormonal environment that is much different than the body even of let's say even the same weight the body that has an excessive amount of body fat and very low levels of lean body mass and you're able to accumulate year over year over year over year of the benefits that that hormonal environment provides you and the opportunities it creates to add more mass in lean muscle to your frame because of that and that can't be understated and that's why when the guys start later on in life it becomes a lot more difficult now it should not discourage you if you're starting later in life from wanting to get lean you can certainly get to a level of leanness that looks unbelievable that looks fantastic that's probably even better than you thought you could look at a slightly higher body fat level and getting to my level isn't even necessary and that's again something I want to address the next thing is when we talk about the truth of eating I think you really need to hear the truth the truth is it's everything eating and how you eat is everything when it comes to how low your body fat levels are it's a matter of fact I'm gonna make a revelation here in a little bit about cardio and conditioning and where that plays and falls into the overall equation eating is everything now how do you eat you've got a lot of options these days and a lot of them actually revolve around some style of I would say dieting you know where you need to exclude a certain macronutrient or eat a lot less of one or or manipulate your your your calories in a way that is a little bit unnatural and say right off the bat here we got without even sort of ping but importing my finger anyone in particular way and this better be something that you can do forever and I say that all the time and it doesn't mean to be understated I mean you need to be able to do this forever this needs to be a lifestyle that you can follow and for me I started adopting a lifestyle slowly from those times that way back in my teens from going from eating nothing but crap sugary junk food all the time to now hardly ever eating that and the point is is that it allowed me to adopt kneeing style and fine tune and eating style again over some time not drastically not overnight that I could actually stick to so for me what I did was I had three Troy I had three choices proteins carbohydrates fats I opted to kind of cut the fats down and unfortunately back in my teens I grew up in the 90s and fat was the enemy so what I did was I took it to the extreme I actually got rid of all fat in my diet and I paid the price dearly I talked about in the past how I actually had photosensitivity meaning while I was in college I couldn't actually stand outside and wait for the bus to take me to my class because the light was too bright for me to tolerate I'm talking about normal sunlight was too bright for me to tolerate I didn't wear sunglasses I couldn't even open my eyes I had photosensitivity I had damage to my receptors and my eyeballs because of how low my fat was that's not good the next thing I had was I actually felt like an old man at about 20 or 21 when you start to think back to your younger days when you were 15 or 16 because you can't do what you were doing then and you're only 20 because everything aches and hurts that's not good so that came from being uneducated or maybe taking it to the extreme so over the years what I did was I determined that low carbohydrates are part of my picture they fueled me I need them and I continued to eat them but I started to work in the healthy fat since the equation so I'm afraid you're looking for it a complete day of what I eat actually put that up on YouTube not very long ago I'll actually show you what it looks like here and I'll link to it at the end of the video and you can see again this is not a low-calorie diet I'm gonna access the 3,000 calories every single day and I need that to kind of fuel my activities but there's no exclusion there there's no exclusion of carbon there's an inclusion of healthy fats now there's protein I don't think that being exclusionary is a good thing ironically if you look back I was able to get away with you probably know guys like this I was able to get away with eating sugars in my diet because I really didn't have any fat and what they found is that in isolation eating a high sugar diet while not healthy at all you're still able to maintain some levels of leanness that way if you're not having fats at the same time or very low fats on the contrary people nowadays that high levels of fats in their diet but exclude a lot of carbohydrates particularly sugary carbohydrates are able to maintain levels of leanness too but how long can you do that if it's something that you could actually stick to that's the main key equation here but what they have found now more recently is that the real devil is in the combination of them so if you're going to stick to high sugars which I never advise you to do and you can continue to eat higher levels of fat that's gonna become a problem now was I able to achieve a level of leanness through that ridiculously low fat diet yeah I was I mean very easily because we know that fats on a gram for gram basis are calorically twice as dense as carbohydrates or proteins so when I cut that out I very quickly got hypocaloric and I was able to drop a lot of body fat it was simple to actually do and again it wasn't really that deprivation base for me because I didn't really crave fatty foods I really craved the sugars so I think you need to adopt an eating style that's not really exclusionary and that's something definitely you're gonna be able to stick to you because again it's everything you need the consistency in order to not just get to the low levels of body fat but to be able maintain them people that say well how do you do trains like in a specific way do you lift you must lift a lot of light weights and high reps and I don't even know where that came from but that's still a belief that lingers these days that that's to get your ripped that's not what happens what you need to do those you need to be able to maintain lean body mass you need to maximize the amount of muscle that you carry on your frame no matter how big your frame is and for that you need to explore all the opportunities in your training to get there not just follow one so for me realizing that progressive overload with compound movements and progressively lifting heavier weights on the big lifts is going to allow me to build muscle they've always been a part of my training philosophy number two lifting lighter weights with the purpose of creating a different kind of stress of metabolic stress we know as a is one of the main avenues of hypertrophy so they too made their way into my training not one or the other both and we also know that focusing on eccentric stress and overload slowly slowing down the eccentric portion of a live can create a separate type of tissue damage that sparks hypertrophy in the long run that to was something that I do in still to this day something that I do and work my training around not excluding any of them looking for the opportunity to include all of those in my training plan a lot of times people get into the mindset of this or that heavy or light all of them you need to make sure you're looking for every opportunity to introduce different kinds of stresses into your training program to get the best benefit when it comes to adding lean muscle realizing that the more lean muscle you carry the easier is going to become to get lean and stay lean a revelation that people throw shots when they hear about it is my lack of cardio I do zero steady-state cardio zero now I'm not making that as a recommendation here too I think that this is just more than a mission I don't do any steady-state cardio I am bored by it I don't like it does it have benefits absolutely should it be done for the benefit of your own cardiovascular health absolutely it's just something that I don't do I wish I did a little bit more of it but I don't but I will tell you this it's not a requirement to get ultra lean it's not I'm living proof of that I do zero now I do some conditioning athletic conditioning hit training that works into the style that we train with athlean-x but that's even at best a couple times a week more so it's the fact that you don't need to do fasted cardio in the morning you don't need to do an extra hour of cardio at night you don't need it unless you're not really following what you should be following in terms of your nutrition then it's when those types of methods to accumulate a little bit of extra calorie burn can come in handy then become a little bit more of a requirement but if you're following good nutrition plan that takes care of everything you don't need to start sneaking in these extra cardio sessions or finding a way to do fat to cardio in the morning it's just not necessary now with all this I think the admission comes in as well and the question you need to ask yourself is how much do you want to sacrifice because there's sacrifices I wouldn't sit here and tell you I know it's super simple it's where I do all the time no sweat that would be [ __ ] and I'm not gonna do that the sacrifices come in in many forms number one I think it's well documented I don't eat sweets anymore I did now I have my once a year carrot cake maybe twice a year sometimes I sneak in a second piece but we're not talking about twice a week not at all or twice a month we're talking about twice a year and yes I'd like my whipped cream but we're talking about I think ten calories per a whipped cream not that big a deal so are you willing to do that maybe probably not and I would say good for you like in other words I don't think it's a requirement I don't think it's necessary to get down to this level of body fat to look unbelievable I don't I think you can look amazing at 9% 10% 11% it's not necessary but it's what's on your goal list and this is where you want to be then you're gonna have to make some sacrifices and you might have to start making something along those lines alcohol is another one I don't drink alcohol I never I never started drinking I never got started drinking when I was a younger kid I avoided it I think I was afraid of becoming addicted to it so I never I just never had it these days socially when I go out I don't need to have alcohol to to to function a lot of people do when they like it may enjoy it but you can quickly add up the calories even with just a few drinks that are gonna wind up taking its toll on you and your body fat levels over time particularly if you go out one or two nights a week so are you ready to make those sacrifices maybe you're not again socially it means more to you to go out and and and have fun the way you prefer to have fun and it doesn't in having a ripped six-pack and obliques that you can see from every angle maybe it doesn't mean as much to you and I would say again identify your goals but to get there to that low level you are gonna have to make some serious sacrifices that way and you need to be able to stay consistent with it again I've mentioned before like I'm not particularly fond of the fact that my face at times can look a little bit like Skeletor you know I mean I'd like to have a little I wish I could take some fat and put it right here and round out the cheeks but I can't selectively do that so I think we had to sort of live with some of the other things that come along with it but I'm ok with that and again I think what's most important for me is practicing what I preach this is what I do this is what I do for a living I I I stand in front of you guys and teach you every day I'd be athletic and lean and to me it's important to practice what I preach and to show that it's achievable and I do that every single day so for me there's a secondary benefit here for me wanted to be able to lead by example is very very important to me the last thing I'll say is just sort of rounding it all out just to sort of fill in the blanks I think that when you're at low body fat levels there's less forgiveness here you need to get the other things right you need to make sure you're covering I sleep I try to get seven hours of sleep in a night now some guys say Jeff you need eight and a half or nine from me seven is good but I'm not out there trying to get four or five I try to regularly make sure I get my seven hours of sleep hydration is critical especially again when you're a little body fat levels so I hydrate and I've done videos before where I show you that the very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is during 24 ounces of water from a glass of 12 ounce glass to make sure I get kick-started and a head start on that hydration and I will then maintain and take seriously the rest of the day and then finally I supplement as well and again this is not meant to become a commercial so I'm going to devote 30 seconds to it but for you guys who want to know exactly what I do I take my supplements of course I take mine because I know what's in them but I take a pre-workout supplement to give me adequate energy to train hard because I think again the hard training factors into this a post-workout protein - just to make sure that I have adequate protein I have muscle recovery that we that at night again to maximize my ability to recover for my training and then I have some individual ingredients I talked about before cinnamon because we know the benefits of cinnamon has a metabolism I have a ginger I made a whole video on that what else green tea extract so I have a few different vitamins that I take as well just because I've shown in studies to have even a her impact on maintaining leanest but I have I include those because they're part of what I do anyway and if you look back to that video that I showed you on nutrition all these things are incorporated into there anyway all these things are incorporated into my into my daily plan so I take all the elements seriously I try to make sure that I stay consistent with them so at least we're back to that question of is this right for you and again only you can answer that question but at least you have sort of the mapped out game plan of what this entails and what you need to do and I think the most important thing is that it's something that you truly want and what it is you'll feel and find that you're able to do things a lot more easily than if it's something that you're fighting every step of the way and I hope that by laying all this stuff out here for you guys in our workouts in our plans and our videos that you guys basically say hey you know what this is something I want to do and I want Jeff to take me there and this is again the responsibility that I like to have and I kind of take on willingly so if you're looking for plans on how to do that guys I have them all laid out for you over at athleanx.com in the meantime we've found the video helpful leave your comments below let me know what else we're going to cover if you haven't already make sure you click Subscribe Attorney notifications so you never miss a new video when we pull it out alright guys see you soon [Music] you

Channel: ATHLEAN-X™

Views: 1,907,405

Rating: 4.9345961 out of 5

Keywords: how to get lean, how to get shredded, how to get ripped, lean muscle, ripped muscles, how to get ripped muscles, how to look lean, how to get leaner, how to look ripped, how to build ripped muscle, muscle definition, low body fat, how to get low body fat, diet for lower body fat, lose body fat, how to get lower body fat, diet to lose fat, meal plan, athleanx, athlean x, jeff cavaliere, jeff cavaliere body fat

Id: W-2CrwBajUk

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SeeAllThePlanet]

I'll never be that lean and I accept that. If I could get to 10-13% body fat I'd be pretty damn happy. 5ish%? Nope.

That's the point of this video, to make you actually think about whether the lifestyle changes necessary to look like Jeff are worth it to the average viewer.

[u/Emancipator123]

Makes me feel even worse about going out and eating a pack of cheezits and a muscle milk protein shake after I saw this video.

To be fair I've had a bad cold for days keeping me away from training but was still at work. All I wanted to eat was proteins and starches and have had low energy. Most fruits except bananas and tangerines were unappetizing. To be fair I tried to find some whole wheat pretzels but couldn't find any in the store and didn't want any salted nuts. I added a scoop of whey protein (I keep a 1 scoop serving in my bag) to the muscle milk to make a serving of 50 g of protein to hopefully balance out the crappy snack choice somewhat more.

Forgive me Jeff, for I have sinned! Lol

On a more serious note, this is a good example of changing habits as was discussed in the video. Even though my food selections weren't great, once upon a time in a similar situation, I would have likely got the cheezits, a chocolate bar and either a large juice (not so awful considering I have a cold) or a chocolate milk or large sugary iced tea or coffee. (I've never liked soda). Now I would pick among a protein shake, a protein bar instead of a candy bar, whole wheat pretzels or crackers (couldn't find any at the store) or some nuts ( appetite being thrown off by my cold notwithstanding). Not great, but better. And no, chocolate-coated pretzels don't count.

[u/Freefall132]

I don’t drink soda or fast food and haven’t for a while but what I was eating and how much was causing me to slowly gain weight. The straw that broke the camels back wasn’t many people telling me that because my gf is pregnant I was going to gain weight as well. The big straw was me not wanting my daughter to eat unhealthily.

So I began eating everything i eat at home. I Cook almost everything. More vegetables less meat I lost about 25 pounds in a bit over a month eating really lean food but enough to be full.

I’m 6 foot 2 and weighted 220 before changing my eating habits now I weight 198 with my phone and stuff on me. Tomorrow I’m getting my blood work done to make sure my eating style is balanced because I don’t feel bad in the slightest. But I did have to start counting calories to make sure I’m getting enough.

I also only do the six pack promise as of now. Been too busy finishing up my last few weeks of classes to work out but that’s my goal for after the semester.

[u/Emancipator123]

I've had success with 4 minute fit and tracking calories (Google the book) and then with intermittent fasting (IF) without tracking calories, although my diet could have been cleaner on both approaches. IF was less mentally taxing.

At this point I am slimmer and more muscular than I was about 2 years ago, but I am by no means an example for anyone.

Going back to 4 minute fit and calorie tracking with a cleaner diet than last time (less incidental fat, less fruits and more vegetables, less added sugars except some honey for my allergies, better starchy carb selections, etc) as IF seems to have fizzled out for me at the moment. It seems to be closer to Jeff's approach although Jeff allows more carbs. I have found that unless my workouts are really on point and regular (and some weeks aren't) I need to track my intakes more until I get results.

At 5'10" I went from about 245 to 218 and then back up to about 227 (the latter rise due to injuries and a crappy schedule for a couple of months).

For what it is worth, I've always had big legs and my old martial arts training partners felt I had heavy limbs compared to other sparring partners...for whatever that means, I have usually looked 20 lbs less than my scale weight for most of my adult life. People nearly always underestimate my weight by at least that much. I'm saying this to give more of a picture of what I look like, as most people at nearly 230 at my height are really fat or really jacked. At best, I look like someone who "used to work out" or gets asked if I work out.

[u/TooMuchRainbowSix]

Video was extremely high level without much meat. Gist of the whole thing was diet is everything, excersize plays a smaller role than you think, sacrifice is needed for sweets and alcohol, and supplements may help. Just enough to be interesting but basically an ad for the diet plan he sells.