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Nutrition

How To Lower Body Fat As A Natural Athlete For Optimal Performance

by Austin Letorney Published on May 22, 2021 Fact checked by Dr. Jacob Wilson

athlete
This post may contain affiliate links (disclosure policy).

How Simon Bitner can get from 10% body fat to 6% body fat as a natural athlete and compete on the bodybuilding stage.

Simon Bitner has been weightlifting for many years and he built an aesthetic natural physique holding around 10% body fat. As a natural athlete, he knows that if he starts dieting hard or training with more volume or adding more cardio then he will start losing muscle in addition to fat.

As we get leaner it becomes harder to lose the remaining fat because the body will preserve certain fat perceived necessary for survival even though in this modern day and age we don’t need excess body fat for survival. And as we get leaner the body begins to see excess muscle as a liability and will begin to lose muscle.

athlete

This is the art and science of bodybuilding. How do we trick the body into burning that remaining fat while retaining the muscle. Sure its easier to do with anabolics, HGH, peptides, Insulin and other advanced chemistry.  But even the most chemically enhanced bodybuilders benefit greatly from exploiting and healthy manipulation of the same fat loss and muscle preservation pathways that natural athletes must solely rely on.

So even though Simon is a natural athlete, the same protocol is effective for the Enhanced Athlete.

Fasted Cardio

4 capsules of Code Red Fat Burner before 20-50 minutes of fasted cardio.

During cardio drink All Day Shred (tastes good and refreshing if you add ice and don’t dilute it too much)

If hunger cravings before fasted cardio become distracting or uncomfortable, then you can drink the All Day Shred at that time. It will not break a fast.  It enhances fasting by releasing fat and facilitating the transportation and usage of fat for energy.

Enhanced Labs All Day Shred

Click here for All Day Shred

Breakfast

By the time we finished cardio we will have been fasting for some time.  Sort of intermittent fasting and the benefits of fat burning, insulin sensitization, and detox are evident.  But the longer we fast, the more that many pathways that we collectively call “metabolism” slows down making it harder to burn fat.  In bodybuilding we must maintain a superhuman metabolism in order to make fast changes to the body.  By breaking the fast, we ramp the metabolism back up.  Simon will be eating carbs on this cut.  This will allow him to maintain some muscle volume, preserve muscle, give fuel for harder weightlifting sessions, and speed up the metabolism.

Take 3 SLIN pills with breakfast. This will shorten the time that blood sugar and insulin levels are elevated allowing the body to enter fat burning mode much faster after breakfast. The more hours during the day we are in fat burning mode makes a huge difference in how fast we can get shredded.

Breakfast should be high in slow digesting protein because it satisfies hunger and rebuilds and protects muscle. We aren’t worried about the protein causing insulin release and negating fat loss because the SLIN pills will keep insulin low despite the additional protein.  The low insulin levels also don’t handicap the muscle cell ability to uptake amino acids (protein) because the SLIN pills sensitize the muscle cells to be more responsive to less insulin.

Click here for SLIN

Mid Day

If Simon feels low on physical or mental energy or has hunger cravings then his body is struggling to release and use the fat for fuel.  We don’t want the body using carbs for fuel because that means its doing that instead of burning fat.  We want the carbs to remain stored in the muscles and liver as much as possible while fat is being released and utilized.

Thus, Simon needs to avoid snacking on carbs as a source of energy.  This is the biggest mistake that the general population makes.  We need to break the addiction to carbs.  2-4 capsules of Code Red Fat Burner will reduce the cravings for carbs, release fat from storage including from the stubborn areas such as the abs, and assist the body in utilizing the fat for fuel instead of the carbs.  I think of the Code Red Fat Burner Pills as a meal because it replaces eating food to get calories.

Simon can also drink All Day Shred as much as he wants.  It will also reduce hunger cravings and cause the body to burn more calories from fat than muscle while also maintaining a high metabolism despite a caloric deficit.

fat burner

Click here for Code Red

Weightlifting

A natural athlete benefits most from heavy lifting in shorter intense sessions.  3 sets of each exercise, 3 exercises per muscle, the final set of each exercise should be far beyond failure.  We aim to fail about 30 seconds into the set then use intensity techniques to make the set last 2 minutes so there is nothing left in the muscle afterwards.  But we keep the amount of sets lower for the natural athlete.  The Chemically Enhanced Athlete can do much more volume of exercise.  For Simon we are focused on fat loss.  We are not trying to burn calories during the weightlifting session.

We are instead sending a message to the muscle that we must maintain the muscle or build the muscle for survival.  It doesn’t require long duration to send that signal to push past a certain threshold of muscular failure. There are many exercise approaches for cutting but this one has been very successful for our rapid transformations. Leave the calorie burning to the cardio, the 24 hour increased metabolism from the supplements, quality sleep, the controlled carbohydrate intake, and the weightlifting afterburn and increased calorie demand from rebuilding the muscle after stimulation.

athlete

Largest Meal Post Workout

If Simon can eat his largest meal soon after the workout that is great but if he feels better waiting to eat more later, then he can.  The important thing is he takes the other 3 SLIN pills with his largest carbohydrate meal.  This prevents the carbs from converting to fat, allows the muscles to uptake more carbohydrates, and puts the body back into fat burning mode quickly after the carbs are stored.

Before Bed

The ideal meal before bed for Simon on this Shredding Diet is to eat slow digesting protein with healthy fats.  Ideally we would not eat carbs before bed.  However, for many of us its hard to sleep without eating carbs.  I need to eat carbs before bed and in the middle of the night or its hard to sleep.  Sleep Juice can help a lot to get to sleep faster and deeper causing more HGH release, more restful sleep, better recovery, and more fat loss.  But sometimes only carbs will do the trick.

In this case we can take 2 SLIN pills for the same effect and reasons above with our night time carbs and we can drink All Day Shred for the reasons above especially since it doesn’t contain any stimulants.  It is one of the few fat burners that can be taken at night and not interfere with sleep.

We should not take Code Red Fat Burner or any other stimulants within 6 hours before sleep.

Generation Iron may receive commissions on purchases made through our links. See our disclosure page for more information.

Let us know what you think in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

About Austin Letorney

Austin Letorney is a writer, actor, and fitness enthusiast. As a former rower, he has shifted his focus to sharing his knowledge of the fitness world and strength sports with others.

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