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Welcome 5
Training Manual 11
Squats 13
Bench-Press 20
Deadlifts 28
Flexible Dieting Overview 36
Calories 39
Protein 47
Fats 52
Carbs 55
Calorie & Macro Calculation 58
Macronutrient Calculator 64
Tracking 68
Be Consistent, Not Perfect 72
Carb Cycling, Cheat Meals and Re-Feeds 76
Meal Timing 81
Supplements 85
Tracking While Away from Home 89
The Dreaded Progress Plateaus 94
Dieting Phases 98
What You Do (And Don’t) Need to Worry About 103
Workout Nutrition
HYPERDBS Nutrition Manual Chapter 111
| 3
Alcohol 115
Reverse Dieting 120
Building Muscle 125
The Psychology of Dieting 130
Diet Breaks 135
Macro Hitting Hacks 142
What You Do (And Don’t) Need to Worry About 146
Beating the Binge 150
Building Your Perfect Diet 154
Micronutrients 159
The Perils of Undereating 163
Big Picture Thinking 167
The Wrap Up 172
Frequently Asked Questions 175
WELCOME
Hey.
& together with the latest research & science-based information, have
complete solution to building muscle, burning fat & reducing the strain
on your lifestyle that there is.
Not only that, but I wanted to share some of the things I've learned from
the experiences & frustration I've been through, and save you the hassle.
You see, if I could go back in time, I would tell myself not to lose sight
of the fact that training, and dieting, and looking a certain way are all
merely parts of life. They aren’t the sole focus.
One of the most important things to realise & be 100% open with is
your true motivation for wanting to make a change. Nobody wants to
get leaner, or get bigger, simply for the sake of being leaner or bigger.
There’s always a reason, an underlying reason for wanting to make a
I never felt as if I belonged - not to the cool group at school, not to the
group of guys that always trained at the gym, not to the group of guys
In my mind, I perceived those that looked great with their shirt off to be
was that if I looked like those people then I would become them - but
experience tells me that it’s never as easy as that.
I don’t want this to be just another eBook & just another training
program. I don't want this to be something that you look at once
or twice and forget about. This is the training program & nutrition
knowledge that is going to set you free.
It is the program that is going to allow you to make the best gains
It is the program that will help you get bigger/ leaner/ stronger, without
forfeiting your social life, drinking alcohol, your favourite foods, your
relationships & your career.
not only be able to apply the most effective training methods and
principles there are, but also ensure that when you look the way you
want to look, or perform the way you want to perform, that you'll do so
without having to feel as if you've made compromises in other areas
of your life.
At the end of the day, this whole dieting & training thing is simply a
small piece of the puzzle, and if you're ever going to have a chance of
completing it, best not to skip out on the other bits you really enjoy.
Calories, protein, carbs and fats. Why these matter MUCH more
than eating certain foods.
How to track your nutrition for guaranteed fat loss or muscle gain.
How to smash ANY progress plateau, and how to split your diets
into phases so you preserve muscle while you lose fat, and stay
lean while bulking up.
There’s so much more to this as well, but for now, hopefully that’s
enough to wet your appetite. Think of this as the resource that’s got
everything you need to fully support the kick-ass training program
you’ve just signed up to & likely will never leave.
TRAINING MANUAL
HYPERDBS Nutrition Manual Chapter | 11
You’re going to notice that the HyperDBS training program focuses
You even get some crazy guys who say things like “squats work your
upper body, and the growth hormone release from doing them adds
size to your chest and biceps.”
The truth?
Do you absolutely need to squat to build big legs and get strong?
No.
Probably.
The science is pretty clear; squats work multiple muscle groups, place a
your whole body and allow you to lift heavy weights, ergo - they’re
That’s why, unless there’s a medical reason you can’t, such as an old
injury that keeps reoccurring, or you straight up hate squatting and
have no desire to ever compete in powerlifting, then you probably
should get some squats in your program. You can’t ignore the fact that
they’re seriously good bang-for-buck.
Whether you’re a newbie lifter, an old hand at squatting who lifts 600
pounds with ease, or you’re somewhere in between, I guarantee you’ll
pick something up from this ultimate guide to squatting.
You could hit your whole lower body and core with a combination
of calf raises, lying leg curls, leg extensions, barbell hip thrusts, back
extensions and planks…
I’m not saying the squat is the only exercise you need, but seeing
that it places a massive emphasis on your quads and glutes, as well
as giving your calves, hamstrings and lower-back, and gives your core
a substantial seeing to as well, it probably makes sense to include it
in your routine. That’s why we’ve placed such a heavy focus on them
throughout HyperDBS. Whether you’re following the 3, 4, 5 or 6 day
training split, you’ll see that there’s every chance you’ll be doing them
at least twice per week.
Plenty of guys and girls in the gym like to claim that they get more
quad activation from leg presses, or that they feel the burn with leg
extensions and get very little from squats.
It’s easy to cheat on leg presses and cut the range of motion short, or
use your hands to extend your knees when the weight gets heavy.
As for feeling the burn with other exercises, again, there’s a grain of
truth in this.
1. Volume
2. Progressive overload
increase over time, so that all you have to do is continue hitting your
programmed sets and reps to keep making the best gains of your life.
It’s much easier to use more weight and thus more total volume on
a back squat than it is with leg extensions, lunges or split squats, and
you’ll also progressively overload faster, another contributing factor to
the effectiveness of the HyperDBS program.
slightly, and re-learn the squat with awesome technique. We’ll start
from the bottom up, and take this form guide from the point just before
you start your rep.
“screwing them out” before you even start to go down. This is the
Push your knees out HARD. (Key cue #2.) It’s no good thinking
about driving them out only on the way back up – you’ve got
to be doing it the whole rep. This is going to help you engage
your glutes.
Pull the bar down into your back hard as if you were doing a lat
pulldown behind your neck. This creates a shelf for the bar to sit
on and ensures your torso will stay relatively upright throughout.
Keep pulling all the way through the movement so that your upper
body stays TIGHT.
Push your hips back (while still driving those knees out) as you
descend. High bar squatters may not need to actively think about
this one too much.
Again, and just in case you forgot, stay as TIGHT as you can
throughout your whole body on the descent and as you reach the
hole. (The hole is what lifters call the lowest point of the squat.)
As you stand back up again, you want to make sure you’re still tight
as hell. Your feet should still be twisting out, as should your knees,
bar pulled hard into your back, and your chest up.
hips forward. Your glutes are a powerful muscle group, so you may
Take your time between reps and have a breath or two as you reset.
Give yourself every opportunity to complete every rep as best you
can. It isn’t a race.
turned out works well, but some guys and girls with a more quad
dominant squat like a narrower stance, while squatters who sit back
and use their glutes and hamstrings more like a wide stance.
The answer?
It really depends.
There’s a lot to be said for building a squat base just in your regular
training gear (i.e. no belts, wraps or knee sleeves) but at the same time,
if you plan to compete in powerlifting at some point, you may as well
use everything you can to better prepare yourself for game day.
That means grabbing a decent lever or buckle belt, some wrist wraps
and potentially some knee sleeves. Just check that whatever you have
is approved by your powerlifting federation.
A gentle suggestion - keep your belt for sets at 80% of your one-rep
max & above only, so that on your lighter days you can work on staying
tight and building a stronger back, core and squat without it.
LET’S TALK
20 | Chapter HYPERDBS Nutrition Manual
Bench presses are great.
Period.
It’s weird - a few years back everyone loved the bench presses, and
deemed them the holy grail of building a big chest. Nowadays though
(and I know I’m sounding old here!) it seems people almost look for a
reason to avoid the bench press.
See with bench pressing, you’re always going to be able to lift more
weight, which means you’ll get more volume in. One of the reasons
why you’ll be hitting this movement pretty frequently throughout
HyperDBS.
all when it comes to growing muscle, but they’re critical factors, and
when you take volume into account too, you know you probably want to
be lifting heavy (relatively speaking)within your programming in order
to grow.
But before you throw in the towel and commit the good old bench
press to the exercise graveyard just yet, take a read of the next few
sections - it might just change your mind.
Or, if you’re still a big bench press advocate then stick around too - I’ve
got some cool form tweaks to maximise muscle and strength gains on
the bench for you.
WHY BENCH?
Okay, maybe that’s slightly short-sighted, but think about it; how often
do people ask “hey man, how much do you dumbbell chest press?”
Doesn’t happen, and if you want to blow peoples’ minds with your
that barbell in your hands. Plus, with the way the HyperDBS program
has been set up, you’re sure to blow your previous numbers out of
the water.
Aside from impressing the bros, why else do you need to bench?
I wanted to kick off this section with a couple of huge (but massively
common) mistakes that will either make you weaker on the bench, or
potentially lead to injury.
body and core out of the equation, there’s more focus on the chest,
shoulders and arms. Thing is though, by doing this, you drastically
decrease how much weight you can lift, and as such, lower volume.
Not to mention, you’re probably now super unstable, which could cause
an injury.
bone than the nipple level,) you can often feel the clavicular head of
the pecs working more, but there are several issues here.
Secondly, the amount you’ll be able to lift is decreased again, and you
already know what happens when you lower your volume.
Whether you’re hanging your head in shame at falling for some of the
In all honesty, you want to bench at least a little like a powerlifter, even
if you’re not competing.
Reason being, these guys have the strongest bench presses, and a
stronger press means more weight on the bar, which means more
volume, and hence more growth (or muscle retention when dieting
for fat loss purposes).
Lie back and position yourself so your eyes are under the bar. Reach
up and grab it with a grip width suitable for you. The reason why
Grip the bar as hard as you can and dig your traps into the bench.
Press your glutes down into the bench and arch your lower
back slightly. You’ll often see powerlifters with huge lower-
back arches, which isn’t what we’re aiming for, but you do
Grip the bar as hard as you can still. You want to think about pulling
it apart, so imagine you’re trying to bend it.
Time for the lift off - either take it out yourself by contracting
your lats and just bringing the bar forward as if you were doing a
straight arm pulldown, or have a spotter give you a hand.
Take a big breath before you start the descent, and give the bar an
as possible here. If you get this right, you should actually feel your
back and lats contracting.
Keep your elbows tucked in. Doing this not only reduces your risk
of injury, but ensures you can use your lats for stabilisation and
support too.
Touch the bar to your chest at around nipple level and pause for
at least half a second. (Don’t bounce your reps. A slight pause is
to compete in powerlifting.)
At the top of the rep, pause for a second before going again, then
purposefully put it back into the rack or pins when your set’s
By the end of a set, your whole body should feel like it’s had a workout
and you should be breathing hard. If not, you probably have room for
improvement as far as contracting everything is concerned.
Don’t worry if you felt a little off benching like this. It does take time,
honestly, it’s worth it in the long run. If you’re a part of the Facebook
group then you’ll have the opportunity to post up your form videos for
critique anyway, so don’t sweat it too much.
Not only will your bench pressing be safer and now be suitable should
you ever decide to don your own leotard and hit the platform, you’ll
get bigger and stronger benching like this too.
LET’S TALK
DEADLIFTS!
28 | Chapter HYPERDBS Nutrition Manual
People say squats are the king of lower body exercises, and bench
presses are the king of upper body exercises.
but did you know deadlifts are virtually essential for any goal?
it’s too high risk an exercise due to the strain on the lower-back.
“It is universally agreed in the literature that the spine is well designed
to withstand compressive forces”
and -
While this may only be one study, it makes sense - use good form,
and your injury risk is much, MUCH lower. Let your ego take over,
and you’re on a shortcut to a back strain, a herniation or even a
slipped disc.
As with the squatting and bench pressing guides, it made sense to start
the form guide section off with what NOT to do.
You may well know some of these already, but it’s worth running
through them to make sure you’re not subjecting yourself to potential
pain and injury. Or worse - a deadlift that isn’t improving.
You’ve also got to be careful of coming too far forward onto your toes.
You want to have your weight planted between your mid-foot and
heels. Being too far forward means your knees shoot ahead, making
it harder to keep the bar close to you, and massively raises your risk of
Falling for any of these? Don’t worry. The next section has you covered.
Let’s go from foot to head with the set-up, and then talk about the
pull and lockout. We’ll do the whole run-through with a conventional
Stand with your feet around hip-width apart, toes facing forwards,
and the bar just over the laces of your shoes.
Without bending your knees yet, reach down and grab the bar
so your arms are just outside your knees. (For now, use a double
overhand grip, with both palms facing towards you. When you go
Dip your knees ever so slightly until your shins are grazing the bar.
If you have to bend them too much, chances are you set up too far
away, so stand up and go again.
Think “big chest” as you drop your hips and arch your lower back.
to you.
Your main movement during the lift needs to come from your hips.
Keep the bar close in to you at all times, and as it passes your
knees, drive your hips forward forcefully, squeezing your glutes
Return the bar to the ground under control, but don’t take too long
Approach the bar, and line up so the bar is still over the laces/
tongue of your shoes, but your feet need to be wider this time.
They can be anywhere from slightly wider than hip-width, right
up to toes almost touching the plates. This is largely personal
This time when you grab the bar, your hands will be slightly closer
together, but you still want them on the rough part of the knurling.
From here, it’s pretty much the same. Your weight needs to be on
your mid-foot and heels, but with more emphasis on pushing your
knees out to engage the glutes. Your feet should also be pointed
out, rather than straight ahead.
close to you, and lock out as you did with the conventional. Keep
your chest up.
The keys with any deadlift, whether you go sumo or conventional are -
Maintain skin contact with the bar for most of the lift
Nailed it!
FLEXIBLE DIETING
OVERVIEW
Now, some of you will already know a little of what I’m about to say.
those of you who don’t have a clue what it’s about. Whatever level you’re
at, I’d urge you to read this anyway; this is all completely fresh, brand
new content. There’s no copy and paste job here & even if you’ve already
invested in my previous e-books or courses, I promise you none of this
from scratch.
doesn’t have to be super strict. There are no good or bad foods, and
whether you lose weight or gain weight comes down to energy balance,
or how many calories you eat versus how many calories you burn. With
you hit your target macronutrients/ calorie (more on these over the next
few days) intake for the day, you’ll still achieve your goal.
They get you to cut out something, right? Whether that’s completely
If you're dieting for fat loss then you can still get hungry from time
to time, and I’m not saying you can eat whatever foods you want in
unlimited quantities - there still needs to be some restraint - but there’s
absolutely no need to go cold turkey on anything.
You’ll learn a lot more about this in the chapters, so if this stuff is 100%
new to you, don’t worry. We’ll go over it in bitesize chunks throughout
the manual.
CALORIES
Calories are king.
You’ll know this if you read yesterday’s instalment of the course, where
you’ll gain weight. If you eat fewer than you burn, you’ll lose weight.
Let’s say that you burn 2,500 calories per day. This is known as your
maintenance level. If you ate 2,400 calories of cookies and Pop Tarts,
If you ate 2,600 calories, even if only from apple, chicken breast & sweet
calories, but again, I’m going to be a tease, and say that these are
coming up later in the course.
So what would happen if you over or under-ate 100 calories per day?
Well, it takes 3,500 calories to lose or gain 1 pound. So eating 100
calories under the number that you burn every day & ignoring the fact
that weight loss at times isn't linear, it would technically take 35 days
for you to lose 1 pound.
If you over-ate by 100 calories per day, it would take 35 days to gain
a pound.
Make sense?
It doesn’t matter how ‘clean’ you eat, what times you have your meals,
whether you have one big feast every day, or 10 tiny meals - calories
rule the roost.
Now, here’s where we get slightly more in-depth. One day of over-
eating or under-eating isn't really going to dictate long-term progress.
You’re better off looking at things on a weekly or a monthly basis. Better
yet, think of things as 'over time'. The reason why many people like the
rule of losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is because this is pretty easy to
adhere to and work out. Like we mentioned, 1 pound of fat equals 3,500
not to track on the weekends. You might not eat all that much Monday
Now, that’s not to say you can never go out and have fun on the
weekends, or even over-eat at times & still get away with it, but it does
mean you need to be aware of what this does to your body, and how
For those of you that have regularly incorporated cheat meals in the
past & at times struggled to see consistent progress, this is probably
Or
Male Female
This will give you your maintenance calorie intake - the number that
theoretically, if you ate every day given your current activity levels, your
weight would stay more or less the same.
The reason why I’ve given ranges to multiply by, and not just set
from your genetics, dietary history, activity levels, and training schedule
dictate how many calories you burn on a daily basis.
As a general rule of thumb though, the more active you are, the higher
the number you should use to multiply your bodyweight by. If you lead
a more sedentary lifestyle or don't do a lot of activity - so perhaps you
work at a desk all day, don’t have any active hobbies, and only train two
or three times per week - you need to pick a number toward the lower
end of the range to multiply by
week, and you tend to move around a lot, you’re probably going to be
better off picking one of the higher numbers.
One thing I will say is that you don’t need to stress too much over this.
What we’re doing here is creating a baseline. We need a starting point
from which to monitor and adjust over the next few weeks, so don’t
stress out over what multiplier you choose.
That depends - are you looking to lose weight? Are you looking to build
some muscle? Or are you looking to stay right where you are?
Right now, with the formula above, you have your maintenance intake.
To lose fat, I want you to take 500 away from your maintenance level
per day will work out to be around 1 pound of fat loss per week.
Once you've added 500 or subtracted 300, we’re pretty much there.
intake is so low, that actually sticking to it & having any sort of enjoyment
in your life is going to be pretty tough, not to mention you won’t have
much room at all left to reduce any further, without getting to the stage
where you’re eating more than just chicken breast and lettuce.
faster, you could subtract up to 750 calories, and not be risking too
much muscle loss, extreme hunger, or huge energy crashes.
Now, calories are still the most important factor, and if you just worked
out how many you needed, and stuck to that every day, you’d do okay.
You’d lose or gain weight (depending on which option you picked) and
start making steady progress.
Protein’s main role is to build and repair muscle tissue. If you want to
gain muscle, that’s imperative, and even if you’re more focused on fat
loss, retaining (and even building) muscle tissue will give you a more
aesthetic physique.
You actually burn around 30% of the calories off while digesting protein,
so in reality, 100 calories from a chicken breast is actually more like 70
calories.
The science tends to suggest that anywhere between 0.7 and 1.5 grams
per pound (1.4 and 3.3 grams per kilogram) of bodyweight is about right,
with the sweet spot being around 1 gram per pound, or 2.2 grams per
Or
Work it out now if you want, or wait ‘til those examples coming up.
There are some exceptions to this super simple rule 1 gram per pound
rule though.
doesn’t get anywhere near the numbers we’ve worked out. Think about
it - most average Joes (or Janes) eat cereal for breakfast, bread for lunch,
something rice-, potato- or pasta-based for dinners, and snack on fruit,
donuts, candy, cakes, chips/ crisps and crackers. That’s a lot of carbs,
and not much protein.
That’s why, if you’ve never eaten a slightly higher protein diet before,
then you might struggle with this initially, so it could be a better idea to
shoot for 0.7 grams per pound, or 1.5 grams per kilo with the intention
of working up from there.
Likewise, those on the slim side will have faster metabolisms, and will
be able to handle more carbs, so you can always take your protein a
little lower too. But we can also go higher if that’s what you prefer.
Plus, you may just have a real thing for steak and eggs. In which case,
you’re more than welcome to slam back more protein than the baseline
1 gram per pound.
pork, turkey, turkey & other minces (keep in mind there are different fat
contents between some brands which you can use to your advantage),
beef, kangaroo, ham, lean pork, tuna & salmon; lean/ pre-packaged
lunch meats such as shaved turkey breast/ ham/ shaved chicken
breast; eggs & egg whites; dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, cheese
& cottage cheese; supplements such as protein shakes, protein bars,
Quest bars.
FATS
So we have two more macronutrients to cover - carbs and fat.
Fats get a pretty bad rap. After all, the name is the same as something
we all want to avoid. Thing is though, fats don’t make you fat. As you
know by now, too many calories make you fat.
Fats have plenty of important roles within the body, with their main
purpose being to maintain healthy hormone levels. Too little fat, and
That’s why, while fat-rich foods like coconut oil, almonds, and oily
pushing you into a calorie surplus & mean you might overshoot your
calorie target This is why a calculated, personalised approach to fats
is vital.
Then eat this many grams of fat per day. Again, don’t stress this for now
if you don’t want to - the full calculations are coming up shortly.
The reason why we’ve got a range again, rather than just strict numbers
is all down to personal preference.
Are you the kind of person who likes rich foods such as fatty meats,
cream and cheese? Or, do you tend to go for sweets and starches -
bread, pasta, fruit, and so on?
If you usually prefer fattier foods, then go for a higher multiplier. If it’s
the latter, then go for a lower multiplier, as this means you’ll be eating
a little less fat, which will give you more calories to eat from carbs.
other cooking oils, fattier cuts of meat such as chicken thigh/ red meats/
fat milk.
CARBS
Is it friend, or is it foe? The truth is, carbs are pretty harmless, provided
you eat the right amounts.
as your body adapts to burning fat for fuel. You’ll feel tired, lethargic,
and won’t perform or recover from training as well. (Not something you
want with HYPERDBS!)
remember - calories are still king, and if you’re eating too many,
regardless of how low your carbs are, you WILL gain body fat.
you’ll lose fat as well, but the initial loss when going low-carb is never
entirely fat tissue, so while most experience a large loss initially and
tend to be spurred on by this, know that it isn’t essentially lasting.
Oh - and lastly, don’t forget that carbs are tasty. And if you can eat tasty
foods and still drop body fat, why would you not?
I know the second option is the more tempting, and I get that, but
personally I’m a fan of understanding the process too, so if you have 5
minutes, how about we do the calculation together?
Subtract 500 for fat loss. (Or 750 if your calorie calculation above came
in at over 3,000 and you want to lose fat faster, and don’t mind feeling
a little hungry.)
Or, if you’re not used to a higher protein diet, you can do your
bodyweight in pounds x 0.7. Note this down.
For fat, we’re doing 0.3-0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight. Shoot for
0.3 if you’re more of a sweet/ starchy person, and 0.5 if you prefer fattier
foods to sweet ones. If you have no preference, just go 0.4. You guessed
Fat has 9 calories per gram, so multiply the number you just got for
your daily fat intake by 9.
Now we need to work out how many of your total calories we’ve given
to protein and fat. What I want you to do is take the number of calories
you’re eating per day from protein (step 3) and add it to your calorie
number from fat (step 5.) Then, take this number from your total daily
calorie target (step 1.)
The number that you just worked out is the number of calories you
have left from carbs. Like protein, carbs have 4 calories per gram, so I
Take your numbers from steps 2, 4 and 7, and these are your target
macros. You can then round these to the nearest 5 grams.
What about a dude who weighs 165 pounds and wants to build muscle?
He’s moderately active, has no preference for fat vs. carbs.
Make sense?
Do it the old school way with the calculations above if you like, or just
use the calculator.
Fat Loss
● Maintenance
Calories
Calories
Calories
Carbs
Calories
Now you’ve got your macros sorted, I wanted to move on and talk about
something that many people think is the most important aspect of
Now, what food you eat is important, but it matters nowhere near as
much as being precise with your macros. We’ve got whole chapters
dedicated to tracking, measuring foods, being consistent and making
The most critical component of losing fat (or building muscle) is hitting
your macros.
Period.
If you ate 200 calories of apple, and 200 calories of candy, what would
the result be in your body composition?
Yep, despite people thinking of the apple as a clean food, and the candy
as fattening, as you know already, calories are the primary driver in
You’ll also get a much bigger volume of food with the apple. 200
calories would be one massive apple, or a couple of smaller ones. 200
calories of candy may only be 60 grams of food or so. (A moderate
handful.)
So in these respects, the apple is better. It’s just in terms of weight loss
and weight gain, they’re more or less the same.
That’s why it’s vital that you don’t stress over food choices, but you don’t
get too slack either.
would come from nutrient-dense whole foods (your typical ‘clean’ foods
could be ‘junk’.
You don’t need to adhere to this perfectly, all the time, but it’s a good
rule of thumb to follow.
When your calories are lower, and you’re dieting, that means you’ll have
while when looking to gain muscle and on higher calories, you can have
a bigger budget for junk food.
No need to get super strict with this - just bear in mind that balance,
enjoying your food, and hitting your macros are the main things to be
aware of.
per 1,000 calories and 4-6 servings of fruits and veggies per day, and
you’re probably doing a pretty good job of getting the ‘healthy stuff’ in.
TRACKING
One of the most common questions I get is -
when you start out, and after the initial excitement of realising you can
eat any foods you want while losing fat wears off, the fear and confusion
of how to actually keep tabs on it all sets in.
If we were doing this 15 years ago, then I’d have told you to use a website
like FitDay.
If it was 25 years ago, I’d be telling you to buy a book with nutritional
data in, and setting yourself up with a notebook or a spreadsheet.
The good news is, it’s 2017, and while you can still use the above two
methods, I’d strongly recommend you download an app like My Fitness
Pal or My Macros +. Both are free (or at least very low cost if you go for
the paid versions,) and just make tracking so much easier.
When it comes to tracking a meal, you will need to measure out what
you’re eating. This requires having a digital weighing scale, so if you
don’t have one - go buy one. You’ll get so much value from it.
Let’s say you’re making yourself a sandwich with turkey, lettuce, tomato
and mayo and you want to track what’s actually in it.
bread on My Fitness Pal, and add in however many slices you’re having.
Next up is the mayo. Put the jar on the scale, set it to zero, then take out
however much you want, keeping track of how many grams the scale
goes down by, and add this into your tracking up. You can then weigh
the meat, and add that in.
Finally, the lettuce and tomato. You can weigh this if you want, and it
may be an idea if you’re brand new to tracking, just to get a rough idea,
or if you’re in contest prep and needing to be ultra precise. But, for 95%
of people, these types of foods are so low in calories you can just enter
‘a serving’ in your app, and it’ll be about right.
After doing this, you’ll be able to see all the nutritional data for the
sandwich on your app.
You might run into a few problems at some points in time though.
Some foods won’t be listed in any app, so when this happens, just
pick a similar item. Like the above, bread is pretty much bread, pasta
is pretty much pasta, low-fat cottage cheese is low-fat cottage cheese,
and so on. It’s not going to make or break your diet if you pick a slightly
different version.
The same might happen when out at a restaurant. We’re going to cover
eating while on vacation later on in the manual, so don’t stress too
The great thing about tracking is, while putting those bits on the scale
does take a little longer than making a turkey sandwich might now, it
allows you to eat just about anything and get results.
In terms of what you need to weigh, I’d suggest all grains, all nuts and
seeds, oils and salad dressings, cereals, higher-carb vegetables like
potatoes, and any ‘junk’ food.
Foods like bread, wraps, and so on will have serving sizes listed per
piece/ slice, and green veggies you can generally estimate, provided
the night before. After a while, tracking is easy, and you can do it on
the day itself, but I truly want you to hit the ground running here, so go
away now, and plan out tomorrow’s food.
If it takes you 15-20 minutes, don’t worry. I guarantee you’ll get to warp
speed levels pretty soon, and be a macro-tracking Sonic within a week
or two.
BE CONSISTENT,
One big gripe of mine is when people think they have to be perfect
with their macros, and end up eating butter off a spoon, or weighing
out spinach leaves so they don’t overshoot their carbs.
that, is it?
Without sounding like a broken record - it’s absolutely worth it. After
all, wouldn’t you rather spend 5 minutes per day doing that in order to
eat your favourite foods, than not weigh anything, but spend your life
trying to stick to some kind of disgusting rules-based diet, where you’re
not allowed carbs/ sugar/ dairy/ anything fun in an attempt to try and
control your calorie intake?
And that’s why, I want to make it clear that you don’t have to be perfect.
You just need to be consistent.
Let’s say for instance that you’re shooting for 145g protein, 55g fat and
155g carbs. You don’t have to hit that 145/55/155 perfectly.
For one, that’s going to be a huge pain in the butt attempting to get
perfect, and you’ll end up doing really weird stuff, like drinking olive oil
if you’re under your fat, or weighing out 17g of banana to hit your carbs,
and 160 grams of protein, 50 to 60 grams of fat, and 140 to 170 grams
of carbs.
Ideally, they’d get within 5 grams of protein and carbs, and 2-3 grams
provided they’re also within 5% of their calorie
intake as well.
So this guy (or more likely girl) has target calories of 1,695, so the above
macro targets, provided they were within around 1,610 and 1,780
Perhaps the best way to put this into action is to borrow from coach
BEST
Tier 2 would be just tracking your calories and protein. You’ll shoot to
be 100 calories either side of your target intake, and within 5g of your
protein target. Fat and carbs can fall as they may.
Obviously for the most part, we want to be in tier 1. But spending more
time in tier 2, and even tier 3, is perfectly okay. Where you ‘hang out’
is also goal-dependent. If you’re losing weight, new to tracking and
Make sense?
CARB CYCLING,
CHEAT MEALS
You’ve probably heard all three of these terms. I’m guessing you know
more or less what they mean, too. But I wanted to spend some time
running through each, as they’re not always what they seem.
They can all be potentially useful for your progress, but at the same
time, can be grossly overestimated and overused.
Carb cycling involves changing the number of calories you eat on a daily
basis, usually around your training days and rest days.
It’s been hailed as some kind of fat loss god, or this incredible dieting
tactic that has super-powers when it comes to burning fat.
fat loss.
as carbs are your body’s main source of energy, having more on days
you train might give you more energy to lift, and potentially helps
you go a bit harder, and maintain some strength when dieting. The
other advantage is that having some higher carb days throughout the
week might help your diet seem more sustainable, as there will be
opportunities to eat a more regular amount of food and give you the
feeling that you aren’t ever dieting for more than a few days at a time.
That’s cool, and sounds great. But you could also argue that carbs are
important for recovery, so by depriving yourself of some on rest days,
you’re not going to recover as well. The jury is still out.
If you want to try carb cycling, you could try reducing your rest day carbs
by 20-40% and adding these on to your training days.
Or, let’s say you were following a 4-day workout with HYPERDBS and
have 2 killer lower-body sessions each week, you could still reduce your
carbs by 60g on non-training days, but have the extra 180g only on your
leg days, so you’d get -
It still all comes down to net calories though. You need to be hitting
Would it burn extra body fat than eating the same number of calories
every day? Still no.
A lot has been made of the cheat meal, and its effects on fat loss, and
Cheat meals make sure your body doesn’t get used to eating clean.
The typical idea behind the traditional cheat meal is that you stuff as
much junk down your throat as possible, and eat until you feel almost
sick. Then, you wake up the next day feeling bloated, stuffed and guilty.
Let’s say your maintenance calories were 2,500 and you ate 2,000
Monday through Saturday. If, on Sunday, you went and ate 6,000
calories for your cheat, you’d actually gain fat that week.
You never want to go out of your way to have a cheat meal, but here’s
the thing -
None of us will ever be perfect, and that’s okay. You might be having
a low day, feel the need for some food, and so completely blow your
macros.
You might be on vacation, feel that there’s some food that’s too good
to miss, and so decide not to worry about your numbers for a couple
of days.
100% discipline. The important thing is you minimise your cheats, avoid
actively planning them, don’t let them become a full-on binge, and, if
you do succumb to one, get straight back onto counting and tracking
the day after to stay on track.
MEAL TIMING
If I had $1 for every time someone told me the most important factor
for losing fat was when you ate your meals during that day, I’d have
enough money to invent a calorie-free cheeseburger and fries.
By meal timing (or meal frequency) we’re referring to when you eat
Old-school bodybuilders were notorious for saying you had to eat every
2-3 hours, otherwise your metabolism would slow down and you’d lose
muscle.
The ideas of increased metabolism, fat burning and muscle mass are,
quite frankly, garbage.
Intermittent fasting (or IF) has become all the rage. Most IF-ers only eat
for a period of 8 hours per day.
a couple of snacks.
This is pretty smart, and actually, makes the most sense for those of us
trying to get ripped and build muscle too.
(the speed at which your muscles turn over protein) and means you’re
never going to get too hungry, you don’t risk losing muscle, and you’re
not going to have to eat tiny meals either.
Breakfast
Pre-Workout
Post-Workout
Dinner
When you worked out your protein intake earlier in the manual, did you
think - “Wow, that’s a lot of protein!”
as you need to hit your protein target each day, just making sure that
whole foods are still your main protein source.
do you wonders.
In the last chapter I spoke about meal frequency and muscle protein
synthesis, and mentioned that ideally, you don’t want to go longer than
4 to 6 hours without eating.
Well, if you do have to go longer than that, then BCAAs can help you
out a bunch. They’re basically the building blocks of protein, and digest
a little quicker than regular protein, so, when time is tight and it’s been
a while since your last meal, or, you’re training in a fasted state, amino
acids are pretty useful. I’d generally recommend 5 grams per time, but
if in doubt, just follow the dose on the packaging.
It’s an amino acid (not the same as in BCAAs) that aids with muscle
you take it, so be aware of this, but other than that, the only side effect
is a small, but noticeable increase in strength and endurance.
still help to cover your bases, and make sure you’re getting all of what
you need.
candy bar.
Most are a mix of caffeine, different amino acids, and a few other
goodies that get you amped up to go lift. Just be aware that if you
drink a lot of caffeine already, pre-workouts either won’t have much of
an effect, or will leave you feeling seriously funky.
TRACKING WHILE
AWAY FROM HOME
By now you should be getting to grips with tracking.
I know it’s not always the easiest transition to make, and after 4 or 5
days, you start to hate your kitchen scales, but trust me, it does get
easier, becomes second nature, and, if it’s not happened already, you
almost count intuitively within a week or two.
Thing is, if you always stayed at home to eat, tracking and hitting your
macros would be super easy. But that’s not the case for most of us who
have work, a family, friends and a social life.
I touched on what to do when eating out a few chapters back, and how,
if you can’t measure and weigh what you’re eating, and aren’t 100%
sure of the ingredients, it’s okay. Flexible dieting is all about consistency,
NOT perfect accuracy.
For meals out, you just need to either take a look at the restaurant’s
I wanted to give a few more tips on eating out though, before we launch
into tracking while you’re away from home -
It’s a lot easier to estimate the calories in a steak with a baked potato
and veggies than it is to guess the macros in a Thai curry, where you
have no idea whether they used a tablespoon of low-fat coconut milk,
or half a can of the full-fat stuff.
The calories in dressing and sauces really add up, so don’t be afraid to
You could go out to eat, get a bacon cheeseburger with fries, and still
lose fat. The only trouble though, is that is going to take up in the region
of 120 grams of carbs and 80 grams of fat. That’s going to put a serious
dent in anyone’s macros, and may even send you over your target for
the day in just one meal.
This is where making smart choices comes in. You could swap the fries
for veggies and save 40 grams of fat and 70 grams of carbs. You could
skip the cheese, go bun-less, or have a turkey burger instead of beef.
Sure, it might not be quite the same, but it’s going to make sticking to
everything a hell of a lot easier.
If you know you’re going to be eating out, then go for lower calorie
options earlier in the day. Most of the time, meals out will be carb and
fat-heavy, so you’re going to want to save most of your macros for then.
That means going for mainly protein-based meals over the rest of the
day, just so you have more leeway when you’re out.
Calories from booze add up, so it’s probably a wise idea to go out for
food or drinks. Not both.
All the above apply when you’re away from home, travelling, or on
vacation as well, but I wanted to give you some handy tips for when
you’re away a little longer, and things aren’t perfect for sticking to your
macros.
I know we’ve not covered the training side of things yet, but this one’s
Sure, you may not be able to train exactly the same as you would at
home, but something’s always better than nothing, and means you’ll
carry on progressing.
everything as you would at home, and will likely go over your macros.
This can be easily sorted by adjusting your nutrition for the week before
world, you’d just track each day and be pretty close, if we’re realistic,
no one does that.
So, if you’re away for a week, and you know you’re going to go a little
over, maybe have a few big untracked meals, and will over-eat a few
times, then try lowering your carbs and fats for 10% each day leading
up to the trip, and the same again after, depending how ‘off’ you think
you were.
THE DREADED
Plateaus are going to happen.
Period.
ounce of food that enters your mouth, and have monk-like discipline,
you’re not going to lose fat (or build muscle) forever.
There are two main reasons why your fat loss plateaus when dieting -
1. As you get leaner and lighter, the number of calories you burn per
day goes down. If you burn less, you need less, and so sticking to
smaller.
1. Certain hormones can begin to down regulate. This also means you
burn fewer calories, and hit plateaus sooner.
The reverse can be said for building muscle - as you get heavier, you
need more calories just to maintain your daily activity levels, and so
need more to build new muscle tissue as well.
For the purpose of the here and now though, we’ll stick to focusing on
fat loss.
Some people plateau pretty regularly (once every 1-2 weeks) while
others seem to go on and on and on before they hit a brick wall. There’s
not much you can do about that, but what you can do, is ensure that
you do keep progressing.
1. Scale weight.
If your weight’s stagnated or even gone up, but your pictures look better,
you think you’re leaner, and your measurements (particularly waist and
hips) have gone down, there’s no need to make any adjustments just
because your scale weight’s not playing ball.
more active day-to-day, or adding more cardio into your routine. But on
the whole, I’d suggest cutting calories, as this is going to be the primary
driver of bodyweight and composition.
Before I tell you what to do, I will say that a lot of this is individual.
Let’s take a look at what you do. These are all based on your change
in bodyweight week to week, and are for males. Females can half the
bodyweight changes, so if it says ‘between 0.5 and 1 pounds, then for
One suggestion I would make though, is that you don’t do just 1 weigh-
in per week. Weigh yourself a few times, take an average, then compare
that weekly average to last week, on the same day each week. For
instance, if your weigh-in days are Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, then
calculate your average each Tuesday, compare it to last Tuesday’s
average, then make changes if needed.
For building muscle, the same principle still works, but you’re going to
want to shoot for around 0.25-0.5 pounds of weight gain per week. If
you’re not hitting that, then increase your daily calories by 50-100 or
so, and you’ll start seeing progress again soon enough.
Lack of energy
Hunger
Loss of libido
Tiredness
Irritability
Sleep apnoea
Digestive discomfort
Fortunately, these side effects don’t really show up for most people,
and even if they do, they’re pretty mild. For those who are dieting to
compete in bodybuilding, where you’ll need 3-5% body fat for a guy,
and 10-12% for a girl, they’re more severe, but 99% of people won’t do
that.
you diet, the more likely you are to suffer these side effects. The second
reason though, is that the longer you diet, the harder it is to lose fat.
why, sadly, so many people feel like they spend their whole life dieting
without getting any leaner. The truth is, they most likely DO spend
So how do we get round all this? We have phases of dieting. I’m going
to run through each one here -
1. Fat Loss
to lose fat.
3. Reverse Dieting
You may not be eating enough to build muscle yet, but you’re getting
out of ‘dieting mode’ and ensuring that you rid yourself of any of the
dieting side effects we talked about earlier.
(Note: We’ve got a chapter on reverse dieting later down the line.)
4. Maintenance
The only time you should be in an active fat loss phase is if you have
fat to lose, or an event coming up - a holiday, wedding, vacation,
competition or photo shoot.
Ideally, a fat loss phase lasts no longer than 4-5 months, and is followed
by a period of reversing.
Your ratio of fat loss to the other 3 phases should be no greater than
That depends.
Someone who’s focusing on muscle and strength will likely have very
few fat loss periods. A competitor or physique model will have more
fat loss periods, and won’t ever actively try to build muscle for too long,
as they’ll always need to be within a couple of months of shoot-ready
condition. The key thing though, is to not try and diet all the time, and
WORRY ABOUT
We’ve covered a lot of in-depth topics these last few chapters, and you
might have had to do some calculations, make a plan for yourself, or
think hard about how you do things day-to-day, week-to-week and even
month-to-month or year-on-year. Add to that the fact you’re getting
into tracking, and there’s a whole lot of information to consume.
So I thought we’d ease back a little, and talk about stuff you don’t want
myths. Chances are, if you’ve ever been on my email list, you’ll have read
me kick dietary dogma to the curb on more than one occasion, in great
detail, and with much vim and vigour.
I could go for days and days discussing diets that just don’t work, but
honestly? You’re not here for that.
I’d rather tell you what to do than what not to do, so I’m not going to
be penning whole essays on diet myths here. Instead, what I’ll do is
take this chapter to run through some of the biggest fads around, so
you not only know to avoid them, but WHY to avoid them. It’s easy to
be duped into taking some extreme approach when your progress hits
a bump in the road.
But this doesn’t help. Flexible dieting works. Period. All it takes to get
over a plateau is some manipulation in macros, or a tweak in your
activity levels, and you’re right back on track again. And, while you
can lose weight with other diets, their methods are often dangerous,
detrimental to performance, and just not needed. Let’s run through
them now.
But going straight in with a low-carb approach is just plain stupid. Not
only are carbs pretty vital for energy, strength and recovery, they taste
good too, and, like I said before, if you can eat tasty food and lose fat,
why would you choose to avoid it?
lot of the initial weight loss is due to a drop in water weight, and just
having less glycogen (stored carbs) in your system, rather than actual
fat loss.
If you do genuinely love protein and fat and really don’t derive much
pleasure from carbs, by all means, cut back on them, and go for the
higher multiplier option when working out your fats, as we did right
back at the start of the manual. Just don’t feel you have to go low
straight from day 1.
If the thought of dropping your carbs just a few grams sends shivers
down your spine, then keto is your worst nightmare, as it involves
keeping carbs as low as possible.
Keto stands for ketogenic, and most ketogenic diet followers aim for
Again, that all sounds amazing, until you realise a few things -
1.
having when they adopted a keto diet. And in cancer research, it’s been
shown to have some possible upsides.)
Paleo advocates like to claim that this is the most natural, healthiest
way to eat, but seeing how cavemen only lived into their 30s, it strikes
me as somewhat odd.
Not only that, but you miss out on plenty of healthy foods with paleo.
Plus, if we’re being honest, there’s no way on earth you could follow a
strict paleo diet these days, as every food we have is manufactured or
processed to some degree.
Low-fat diets were rife in the 80s, before carbs started becoming the
diet industry’s whipping boy.
If you hate fatty foods and love carbs, you can go for a lower-fat diet,
tired and sluggish if you choose to do so, and it rules out a whole load
of foods most of us enjoy.
popular.
Clean eating involves, as you’d guess, eating only foods that are ‘clean.’
The trouble here, is that clean is a very ambiguous term, and means
different things to different people.
For some, it means organic and natural. For others it’s free from sugars
the middle - milk, brown rice, and fruit for instance are all included in
some clean eaters’ plans, and banned in others.
‘clean’ foods are tasty, but if you’re never allowed any junk, or anything
up, it’s tough to go out to eat, you start to lust after sugary foods, and
you inevitably cave and have a binge meal.
Do a detox.
Seriously - your kidneys, liver, skin and lungs do a perfect job of clearing
toxins from your body, so there’s no need to embark on any kind of
madcap detox plan involving special teas, smoothies, only eating
greens, or taking tablets.
I get how tempting it can be to get sucked into the detox marketing
when you want to want to push for some fast weight loss before a
vacation, or after a time like Christmas, but honestly?
It’s just about the worst thing you can do. Hunger levels will be through
the roof, you can lose muscle, training will be compromised, and the
I was hesitant to list these as ‘fads’ as I know for a lot of people, they’re
a lifestyle choice.
If, ethically, you feel you don’t want to eat meat, more power to you.
But if you’re not that way inclined, I promise you you’ll have an easier
time sticking to your macros (and probably get better results) not
excluding anything.
We could have gone over fruit-only diets, celebrity fads like the
baby food diet or maple syrup diet, and run through every fasting
protocol under the sun. But I’m sure you can guess what the deal with
these are.
The bottom line is this - the diet you’re following should be one you’re
happy sticking to (more or less) for the rest of your life.
Sure, your macros are going to be changing frequently, but the foods
you eat won’t. You can always eat whatever you want, and no food will
ever be banned.
WORKOUT NUTRITION
Let’s switch gears.
So far, we’ve done a lot on the basics of dieting. And that’s no bad thing.
For one, the basics will give you 95% of the results you want.
You need to know them, and I’m well aware that if you’ve never tried
Workout nutrition.
So many people think that what you eat before and after workouts
(or even during workouts) has some kind of magical effect on your
physique.
It’s true that workout nutrition does matter, but it doesn’t matter nearly
as much as bodybuilding dogma, historical rhetoric, pro bodybuilders,
or some supplement companies would have you believe.
1. You need enough fuel in your system to help you get physically
and mentally ready to train.
1. And you need enough afterwards to help your body rebuild and
repair following a gruelling session.
This is rubbish.
Nutrition is far more complex than this, and digestion is a process that
takes several hours.
Therefore, while food around the time you train is important, the old
way of thinking about things is completely false.
It’s a safe bet to say though, that some form of protein and carbs 30-
120 minutes before training, and protein (with optional carbs) 30-120
minutes after training is a good idea. Ideally, you won’t go longer than
4 hours between your pre- and post-workout meal.
If you’re eating 5 times per day, it makes sense to evenly divide your
protein between these meals. Let’s say your daily target is 200 grams,
you’d have 40 grams at each meal, meaning 40g pre-workout and 40g
post.
As for carbs, shoot for between 25 and 50% of your day’s target between
pre- and post-workout combined.
So a 300g daily target would mean having at least 75g, and at most
150g. This could be split between pre- and post however you best see
The only reason not to approach workout nutrition like this would be if
you feel particularly sluggish after eating carbs, or if you’re going out to
eat later in the day, want to save some carb macros, and so decide to
skimp on them around training so as not to blow your budget later on.
ALCOHOL
What would life be like without it?
I’ll admit, I’m not a big drinker, but for some people, I know it’s an
important aspect of socialising.
alcohol whenever you like. Okay, you can’t go out and get steaming,
but you can include it in your plan (even on a regular basis) with no
negative effect on progress.
If having the odd drink here and there makes dieting easier for you,
and actually, not abstaining completely means you’re less likely to get
huge cravings, break and binge when you do get access to it, then I’m
all for including alcohol in your diet.
1.
When it comes to what makes you feel more satiated - alcohol or whole
foods, there’s no doubt that food wins the day.
up more?
Your body sees alcohol as a very mild poison, meaning that it tries to
In moderation, this really isn’t that big a deal, but if you do go and get
drunk, not only is that very likely to put you into a calorie surplus for
the day, it can mean your fat loss stalls.
Also, the thermic effect of alcohol is higher than carbs and fats, at
around 20%, meaning that 20% of the calories in alcohol are burned
off during the digestion process.
However, rather than set up separate macros for alcohol (as it’s unlikely
you’ll be drinking every single day) it’s easier to count it as one of the
macros you’ve worked out already - either carbs or fats.
Take the total calorie content of your drink, divide it by 4 and count
this as carbs.
Or
Take the total calorie content of your drink, divide it by 9 and count
this as fat.
OR Fat
If a glass of wine has 180 calories, for instance, this could be 45g carbs
(180 divided by 4) or 20g fat (180 divided by 9.)
Don’t look at the carb and fat content on the bottle, as this will show
a much lower number (often close to zero if it’s a spirit.) Instead, take
the total calorie content and do what we’ve said above.
Make sense?
REVERSE DIETING
Back in the chapter on dieting phases, I mentioned reverse dieting.
plan for building a killer physique. I said how important it was, but, if
I’m honest, I really skirted around the ins and outs, knowing that we
had this coming.
They use crazy, dramatic tactics to get lean, reach the date they set
themselves, or get to their desired level of leanness, then go back to
eating ‘normally.’ (i.e. not giving a crap about calories or macros, and
Plenty of people also decide that once they’re done dieting, they need
to have a massive blowout or a whole week of cheating to get over the
Our bodies don’t particularly like being lean. Sure, it’s healthier than
being obese, but we weren’t designed to be ripped 365 days per year,
and so that’s why it’s unrealistic and unhealthy to want to stay shredded
year-round.
You don’t want to balloon up, and lose the results of several months’
of hard work in just a few weeks. This means many people get stuck in
the middle, where they’re not sure whether to keep dieting hard, or let
themselves go completely.
Regain strength
But, unlike just going straight back to a calorie surplus, you avoid feeling
bloated, guilty and putting on excess fat.
If you’ve found getting lean to be absolute hell, are dicing with Zombie-
mode, and feel that your diet has had a big impact on your health and
relationships, you’ll want to reverse a little faster.
If, however, you’ve not felt too bad through your diet, but know it’s
time to up your calories and add some muscle, then you can go slightly
slower.
As usual, I can’t give you hard and fast numbers, as they’ll be dependant
on your own individual macros.
However, here’s how I tend to lay out a reverse with most of my clients -
End of Diet - Cut weekly cardio time by 30-50% and increase calories
by 10-20% by upping carbs and fats appropriately
1 Week After Diet - Repeat the above step again, provided scale weight
hasn’t increased by more than 3 pounds (1.5kg) for guys or 2 pounds
(1kg) for girls.
Here’s something that’s important for me to say - You might see a lot
of coaches who say -
This is great, and it can happen, but it’s not typical. Sometimes you’ll
due to the fact your metabolism gets a jolt from the extra calories, and
you subconsciously start moving around more, so you end up burning
extra calories.
But this doesn’t happen for everyone, and it rarely lasts long.
We’re not talking about a full-on bulk or muscle gain phase yet,
where you’re looking to get heavier and stronger, but you do want
to be seeking to get your body back to normal, stabilise your hunger,
hormone and sleep levels, and get back to eating more delicious foods.
BUILDING MUSCLE
We’ve touched a LOT on building muscle through the manual so far,
but we really have only touched on it.
I’ve mentioned the fact you need around 300 extra calories over your
maintenance to build muscle …
The fact that you can’t force feed muscle with extra calories …
That you need to be looking to gain muscle slowly, and that a gradual
increase in carbs and fat are needed if your weight gain and strength
progress stalls …
But I’ve not really talked you through the process in any detail, so that’s
what we’ll in this chapter.
Sure, there’ll be those of you who know you need to build some muscle
too, but generally, people think of fat loss coming before muscle gain
- “I’ll lose the fat, then I’ll build some muscle.”
There are the obvious reasons that you probably know already. For
Secondly, the kind of physiques most people strive for are actually
pretty muscular.
Your average dude on ‘Men’s Health’ will be a lean 175 pounds (80kg)
and if you’re looking at ‘Muscle & Fitness’ then it’s more like 200 pounds
(90kg.)
Thirdly, and perhaps more importantly - you can’t lose body fat if you’re
not eating many calories already.
I’ve known plenty of people who’ve kept on slashing their calorie intake
lower and lower and lower in an attempt to get leaner, interspersing
with sporadic episodes of binge eating, or not tracking, or, people
who’ve just reached a genuine plateau, where calories are low and
they can’t seem to progress.
These guys would have been so much better served by putting their
fat loss on hold for a while, spending some time in a calorie surplus,
building some muscle, raising their macros, and putting themselves in
a stronger position to lose fat from in the future.
I don’t mind the word ‘bulk’ but I’m not a huge fan of the traditional
bulking methods, which can be summed up in 4 words -
A huge surplus of calories is only going to make you fat, and while you’re
Your macro calculations can stay the same. You still need around 1 gram
of protein per pound of bodyweight, but obviously your carbs and fats
will be higher now.
If you’ve been training more than a couple of years though, then it’s
going to be slower than that.
As not all your gain is going to be lean, then shooting for somewhere
that guys will be aiming for a 3-4 pound gain per month, and women
for 1.5-2 pounds.
If you’re not hitting that, then you need to up your calories. You can
follow the reverse of the recommendations for fat loss plateaus, by
increasing calories by between 50 and 100.
Don’t freak out if you do gain some fat. Remember, fat is easier to lose
than muscle is to gain, and you can easily drop 4-8 pounds of fat in
a month.
Advanced guys and girls will always build muscle slower, and your gains
won’t be noticeable. (At least not until you’re super lean.)
That’s why it’s a wise idea to keep an eye on your strength levels too.
Clearly you’re not going to add 45 pounds (20kg) to your squat every
week, or be slapping extra plates on the bench press session-to-session,
but you should be gradually getting stronger over time. Whether that
means adding sets, reps, weight, or just doing more total work in your
sessions, increased strength is a good indicator of muscular progress,
even if the scale isn’t playing ball. But because you’ve already got this
manual in your hands, you needn’t worry about that. HYPERDBS has
your volume sorted.
I could never sit here and tell you building muscle is easy.
But I will say it’s something that everyone should do. As you know from
the dieting phases chapter, it’s an integral part of building your ultimate
physique, making dieting easier, and staying sane!
OF DIETING
We debate low-carb vs. low-fat, we chat macros, and everyone out
there seems to get about as passionate over nutrition as they do about
religion or politics.
You tend to think that once you have your initial macros sorted, and
know how to get round a plateau, then you’re good to go. But the truth
is, dieting is as much a psychological game as a physical one.
This applies much more to losing fat than building muscle, but no one
is completely exempt. Over the duration of your diet, you’ll experience
plenty of different emotions -
Insecure that you’re not as big/ lean as you want to be yet. (Or as
big/ lean as you see others are.)
These (and many more) can all happen in the space of a few hours. If
you think I’m joking, I’m not. Obviously they don’t apply to everyone all
the time, but it’s perfectly possible for any dieter to go through a wide
When you just start out a diet, you’re probably going to feel more of the
positive emotions than the negative ones.
You’re still kind of on a high, as you’re not too tired and fatigued yet, and
you can see the quick initial progress from being on the right macros,
and keeping consistent.
You’ll probably be getting some cravings, and feeling like your strength
and energy levels may be dipping at times, as well as missing your old
You’ll probably be annoyed that, even though you’re lean, you feel
smaller and weaker. You’ll also be jealous of anyone who isn’t dieting.
For one, stage 3 is often about as far as folk are willing to push
themselves. Secondly, if you’re starting off at a normal weight or with
an okay physique already, 8-12 weeks is enough to get pretty darn lean.
That’s why I suggest most people don’t go there though. Unless you’re
competing or getting ready for a shoot, the negatives grossly outweigh
the positives.
After stage 3 (or stage 4, if you need to get here) you’ve got to go
into a reverse diet, or take a diet break, which we’ll talk about in the
next chapter.
If you’re a guy at 12% bodyfat, or a woman at 18%, each stage will only
last 2-3 weeks. If you’re starting out with 50-70 pounds to lose though,
you can spend several months in each stage, meaning you’ll probably
feel pretty good for a long time at the start of your diet.
I don’t want to get clichéd and say “Pain is Temporary, Pride Lasts a
Lifetime,” but there IS a degree of that involved.
DIET BREAKS
Diet breaks are an integral part of anyone’s diet, so let’s dig into them
now. It sounds highly counter-intuitive to break from something that’s
going to get you the long-term result you want, but there’s a reason
for doing so.
A diet break sounds just plain detrimental. If you want to lose fat, why
break from your diet? Surely that would only lead to fat gain, and give
you work to do to get back to where you were?
I get it. But, when used appropriately, and sparingly, diet breaks are a
powerful tool to create lifelong fat loss.
We’ve touched on this a little going through, but when you diet, your
metabolism slows down. This is due to two things happening -
In order to protect what really matters (i.e. your vital organs) your body
can down regulate the production of some hormones, particularly
those which have a role to play in muscle mass and metabolism, such
as testosterone, thyroid hormone and leptin.
progress again.
Sure, dropping 50 calories might not seem like much, but tell someone
who’s already hungry 24/7 that they’re going to have to take away their
nightly spoon of peanut butter, or half their morning serving of oats,
and it’s not going to be pretty.
Secondly, if calories are already low, then you risk muscle loss if you
keep cutting calories.
If you remember we talked about the weight loss that can happen
due to increased metabolism and subconscious activity when upping
calories in a reverse diet? Well, the same can happen when you take a
diet break.
Your body suddenly isn’t in hungry mode all the time, so your hormone
production goes back up and fat loss kick starts again.
The most important thing to note, is that a diet break isn’t a ‘cheat
meal,’ a binge or a free-for-all.
It’s also not a re-feed or a high-carb day, as these are only very short-
term practices, and may well be included in your diet anyway. A diet
break is a small to moderate, calculated increase in calories. (Mainly
from carbs and fats.)
I wish I could give you an approach here that works for everyone. To
pluck some numbers from the top of my head that promised you’d
mentioned.
Unfortunately, I can’t.
You’re now lighter, leaner, and with a different metabolic rate to then.
That’s why, if you’re going to do things this way, you need to use your
current bodyweight.
For example, if you’re on super low macros, and only shooting for 80
grams of carbs and 40 grams of fat, then an extra 16 grams of carbs
and 8 grams of fat isn’t going to do that much, so you may want to go
to 30%.
Let’s say you’ve got a photo shoot coming up in 5 weeks, need to get
another 3 pounds off, and have hit a plateau; you don’t suddenly want
a massive bump up in calories.
For our photo shoot dude, he’s only going to want to take a week or
two at higher macros, as he really does need to get his butt in gear and
lose some more fat.
Someone who’s not got a particular date to aim for though? They could
You could even take an impromptu diet break before a trip or a vacation.
For many people, sticking to lower dieting macros just isn’t going to
happen when they’re away from home, and they’re prone to binging.
Let yourself have more macros with a diet break though, and you can
still stick to some kind of ‘diet’ while giving yourself more room for
delicious, indulgent foods, and come back home having not completely
blown all your progress.
dieting, even though you’re not actively aiming to lose weight, that’s
what happens anyway.
It’s for this reason, that many start a diet break with the intention of
If you’re lucky enough for this to happen, you may as well make the
most of it.
a possibility.
MACRO HITTING
HACKS
By now, you should be well versed in the art and science of tracking
macros. I know it’s not always the easiest thing to get your teeth sunk
tough time letting myself eat some junk, not freaking out when I had
something I’d previously classed as ‘un-clean,’ and I got frustrated
plenty of times at having to weigh out my servings of cereal, rice and
peanut butter.
When I saw that I could get results eating delicious foods, it was a
game-changer.
That’s why, even if you’re struggling a little now, I promise you, it’s well
worth it in the end, and you’ll have a hard time remembering what you
All that said though, I know it’s still tough, so today we’ll run through
some tips that I’ve used (and used with my personal one-to-one clients)
to make all this a whole lot easier.
That means you can be slightly over, or slightly under - it really doesn’t
matter. Tracking is never 100% accurate anyway, and over time, any
3-tier system to make things a lot easier and guilt-free for you.
When you sign up to My Fitness Pal (or whatever tracking app/ site
you’re using) it will give you some target macros based on the data
you input.
Ignore these.
They’re designed for the average person, not someone who’s training
hard, who wants to build (or at least preserve) muscle mass, and
look awesome.
Most apps will give you woefully low protein targets, carbs that
are through the roof, and will lay down strict guidelines on sugar
and saturated fat, which you don’t need to concern yourself with all
that much.
You should probably just ignore the pie chart too. Focus on the
cumulative daily total of each macro, rather than percentages. (By the
way - for more on the video at the end of the chapter.)
help to have a variety of single-macro foods you can dig into, should
Ideally, I want you hitting macros pretty closely. But, like we said at the
time of lining everything up, just aim to get your calories there, or
thereabouts, and hit a minimum of 0.7 grams of protein per pound.
(1.5 grams per kg.)
meal prep every day, and it’s so easy to eat on-the-go, or track later in
the day and just make up any numbers you have left over.
It takes time to get into the swing of things, and that’s why I suggest
be planning each day the night before, and mainly cooking your own
meals, rather than waiting to get food until you’re out for the whole day.
WORRY ABOUT
A good 70% of questions I get asked can be answered with -
to worry about.)
Spooning sugar straight from the bag isn’t a great dieting strategy for
anyone. But provided your diet is balanced, mostly healthy, and you’re
hitting your macros, sugar on its own is not going to make you fat.
We went deep on this on chapter 12. They’re far from the be all and end
all, but a few select supplements can be useful.
Yep. I’ve said it time, and time, and time again. You need to be consistent.
That doesn’t mean perfect. I’d rather you were 90% compliant, 100%
of the time, than absolutely perfect 50% of the time, and completely
If you screw up, don’t worry. Provided you get back on track pretty
sharp, it won’t have done any damage.
Tracking macros and giving yourself freedom over food choices does
remove many of the cravings you get with other diets, but it’s not
absolutely guaranteed.
As you diet for longer, and get leaner, your brain always wants more
delicious, tasty food.
The important thing is, you learn from it, and move on. Let’s cover what
anyway? You didn’t do anything all that terrible, you just ate a little too
much food!
Was it hunger?
Had you been denying yourself a certain food, got a tiny taste of it, then
just couldn’t say no?
There are plenty of reasons why binges happen, and not all of them can
be controlled as easily as others, but most are manageable.
If you binged because you’d not eaten for 6 hours for example, you’ll just
know in future, that you’re going to need to plan better, and perhaps
you’re the kind of person who needs more frequent meals.
Was it stress? Maybe think about alternative ways you could get rid of
that anger and pent up energy - a gym session could help.
The biggest reason why people binge time and time again is because
post-binge, they get stupid.
Thing is, unless you’ve gone and eaten your bodyweight in pizza and
ice cream for a whole day, you can probably be pretty much back on
track within a week.
The exception to the rule though, is those who have a contest or photo
shoot coming up.
I don’t want you to judge this the next day, or even the day after that,
but 3 days post-binge, check your weight, measurements and photos,
and if you have taken a small step back, then it might be worth getting
a little bit more aggressive with your macros and/or your cardio.
It’ll just make you depressed and annoyed, and won’t do you any good.
We’re all going to binge from time to time. It’s human nature.
BUILDING YOUR
When people ask me if I write meal plans, my answer is always a
Reason being, I don’t think meal plans are ever a good idea. At least not
the kind of meal plans laid out in magazines that say -
And so on …
Secondly, meal plans like this are seriously hard to stick to. Let’s face
it - you might not like some of the foods on there, it probably won’t
include your favourite ones, and if you go out to eat, want to grab a bite
with friends, or haven’t done a load of planning beforehand, it’s not at
all easy to adjust.
everyone. Sure, you may not get the same plan given to a 200-lb guy
looking to build muscle as to a 140-lb girl looking to lose fat, but apart
Therefore, it’s safe to say I think pre-written meal plans like this are
rubbish. That said, I’m certainly not against creating a plan based off
lot easier.
If you’re busy, your day rarely goes completely as planned. Maybe you
made your lunch in the morning, but forgot to take it with you. You
meant to go grocery shopping, but just ran out of time. Then you miss
your train, have no idea what macros you have left, and so decide to
screw it and have a pizza.
Sometimes, stuff like this is just going to happen, but if you have a
game-plan, you have strategies in place to get around any potential
pitfalls and obstacles.
starting out is a little overwhelming, and you can’t decide what foods
This is where having a baseline diet, and certain meals that you revert
to is going to help a lot. It also means you stay in a routine, and get a
handle on your hunger throughout the day.
Let’s say your daily targets are 170 grams of protein, 220 grams of carbs
1.
grams of peanut butter.
Or
2.
fat cheese.
Or
3.
banana, 100g raspberries.
You could then do the same for lunch, and a pre- or post-workout meal.
Once you’ve put 3 meals in for the day, you know you’ve got 2 meals
left to hit roughly 70g protein, 90g carbs and 30g fat.
If you get a kick out of preparing everything, by all means go for it, but
you don’t need to.
I’m not going to make you do any of that, but I will say that having a
few grab-n-go meals in your fridge or freezer is going to be seriously
useful. Make up a batch of protein and veggie-based dishes that you
can take out and cook in a matter of minutes, and have your cupboard
stocked with rice, pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, wraps, or any other
Provided you can be fairly accurate on the macros, it makes life a lot
easier. It’s worth making a note of the most macro-friendly options
at local restaurants, cafes, shops and takeout services for when you’re
really pushed for time.
The more adept you get at counting and tracking though, the more
comfortable you’ll be with getting new dishes into your repertoire, and
after a while, you probably won’t even need a base plan.
MICRONUTRIENTS
We’ve talked a lot about macronutrients.
are small, and are just a fancy way of saying ‘vitamins and minerals.’
Now, I’m sure you’ve heard it enough times from your Mom that you
need to eat your veggies. And it’ll come as no surprise to hear that I
agree with her.
But what are the best ones, when should you eat them, and how much
do you need?
Look at any food label, and you’ll see the RDA (Recommended Daily
Allowance) for a whole host of different nutrients listed.
What I will say, is that you have a wide variety of foods, and stick to a
few simple guidelines that I’ll reveal in just a moment, you’ll be
per 1,000 calories. Any less than that, and you probably aren’t eating
enough fruits and vegetables.
Spread them throughout the day if you can, and even if you’re not a
huge fan of ‘the green stuff’ I promise you, it’ll do you good.
advice, but it’s genuinely a good plan of attack. Another reason why
I’m not a fan of typical bodybuilder-style diets is because they usually
contain just 2 or 3 different vegetables, and sometimes ban fruits,
meaning they’re really not all that healthy.
Not really.
You need your micronutrients, and fruits and vegetables are the best
sources, so you’ve got to eat them. If you’re really veggie-averse, then try
cooking them in loads of spices, drowning them in hot sauce, mixing
them into meat-based dishes, or, if the worst comes to the worst and
If you struggle with hunger, fruits and vegetables are usually low in
calories, but high in volume, so you can have a huge serving without
spending many macros.
UNDEREATING
I see a lot of dieters do, because they believe it will give them better
Undereating.
would give you 4 pounds of fat loss per week. So, if you can tolerate a
low-calorie intake and a lot of activity, why would you even consider
doing anything other than this?
Well, there are several reasons as to why this is not only ineffective, but
downright dangerous. And it could screw up your dieting progress for
a long time to come.
a hell of a lot. But one thing it doesn’t like doing is giving up all its
fat tissue.
Then, when I ask what their macros are, they tell me they’re supposed
to be shooting for a certain number, but actually have decided to go
lower than that, and they’re not really sure on their day-to-day totals.
Well - you can’t change what you can’t measure. The whole point of
being accurate with your macros is so you have a point of reference
from which to change things when you do plateau, and so you don’t
need any drastic tactics to get over any fat loss humps.
If you push your calories as low as you can and hit a plateau, you have
nowhere to go, unless you start starving yourself and doing endless
hours of cardio, which is a majorly unhealthy practice to get into.
If you want to make this diet, and all future diets harder, then I
strongly suggest undereating. ‘Metabolic capacity’ refers to your rough
metabolic rate. People with a high metabolic capacity tend to be able
to lose or maintain their weight on a higher number of calories, while
those with a low metabolic capacity are the opposite. (They need to go
low to get lean.) Dieting consistently, incorporating periods of reversing,
bulking and maintenance help to maximise your metabolic capacity.
Before starting a fat loss phase, most guys should really be maintaining
their bodyweight on at least 2,500 calories, and girls on 2,000,
otherwise, it’s just going to be too tough to stick to your macros and
make progress. If you’re not at that level yet, spend some time bumping
up your calories gradually before you diet.
The hungrier you are, the higher your chances of binging. The more
tired you are, the higher your chances of binging. The more miserable
you are, the higher your chances of binging.
If you can lose weight eating a higher number of calories, and without
having to slash your carbs and fats, why would you do any different?
THINKING
I’m not a psychiatrist.
But, over my years of dieting, and helping others to do the same, I’ve run
into plenty of psychological issues when it comes to losing fat, building
muscle and sticking to your diet.
I guess calling them ‘issues’ sounds like a bad thing, which they’re not.
Perhaps obstacles is a better word.
There are only really two types of comparisons you can make when it
comes to your progress -
years, and never quite achieve the muscularity or the symmetry and
appearance of some genetic freak who’s only been hitting the weights
and counting macros for 24 months.
And there’s a reason why most bodybuilders, models and athletes don’t
take shirtless pictures outside the contest season. (They’re not as lean
as they want you to think they are!)
That’s why, for the large part, comparing yourself to others isn’t a
great idea.
The only true comparison you’re ever going to have when it comes to
your level of leanness, your muscularity and strength, and how well you
adhere to your diet, is what you’ve done before.
Making small improvements on what you did yesterday, last week, last
always looking externally for their inspiration, a lot more people would
be in a lot better shape.
But trying to achieve your targets too quickly could well be selling
yourself short in future.
While some short-term goals are great, you always want to have the
big picture in mind. Sure, you probably could lose 20 pounds over the
next 5 weeks, but what else would happen?
If you’re a competitor, and you get a show thrown on you last minute,
or you make your living from being in shape, then this might be a
Whether that means not eating out as much, having to give up your
formerly-alcohol fuelled Friday and Saturday nights, taking 4 hours out
of your social life every week to hit the gym, or the fact that your health
and appearance now take more of a priority.
This works on a sliding scale though. In serious fat loss mode, when
you’re coming to the end of the diet, hitting your macros and keeping
consistent with training are going to take up more time and be more
important than most aspects of your life that aren’t related to work,
friends, and family.
For the rest of the time though, it’s all about balance. Do you really want
Can you afford to tell your husband/ wife that you can’t go on date night
because you’re scared of overshooting your macros?
Is it really healthy to stop going for ice cream with your kids because
my life.
Not only did it make actually getting results easier, and the whole
fat loss/ muscle building process much more manageable and less
frustrating, but it’s meant that I can almost effortlessly maintain the
body I want year-round, without needing to obsess over anything.
It’s done the same for my clients too, and I know it can do the same
for you.
useful.
that you’re not enjoying your diet as much as you’d like, so need to
do some tweaking. Perhaps you’ve forgotten how to track alcohol, or
maybe you just need a refresher on certain parts.
There’s not much point putting the work in with HYPERDBS if you’re
massively undereating or overeating, or hitting the wrong macros …
… and you can follow everything in here to the letter, but if you’re not
So I’ll just wrap up by saying I hope you’re enjoyed the manual, and
continue to get maximum results from your training.
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
HYPERDBS Nutrition Manual Chapter | 175
THIS SECTION IS SPLIT
UP INTO FOUR PARTS:
it! There will be details on how to go about testing your one rep maxes
sent to you & you can enter your results in the boxes for that workout.
Note – you must test for the programming to be effective.
youtube.com/channel/UCr1VTF90JcdOUe7rtPlqlFw)
www.youtube.com/channel/UCr1VTF90JcdOUe7rtPlqlFw)
When you see the word accessory, you’ll have the opportunity to choose
Once you’ve made your selection, you won’t be able to change it, so
choose carefully.
box of every workout for it to be saved. If that fails, try quitting the
application & opening it back up again.
After navigating away from the receipt page of the HyperDBS Sales
Page, you’ll be sent individual receipts & relative information for all of
the products you purchased. These emails will have everything you
AMAP - As many (reps) as possible. During these sets, you should aim
to perform as many reps as you possibly can before reaching technical
failure. Don’t risk injuring yourself.
CUST – Custom rep scheme, meaning that each set may be different
to the next.
Eccentric – the portion of the lift that moves with gravity e.g. the
‘downwards’ phase of a chin-up or the ‘upwards’ phase of a lat pulldown.
There will be designated times & posts within the HyperDBS Facebook
Community to post form-related videos & receive feedback on them
for HyperDBS PRO members.
If you miss a week of training, simply skip that week and move onto
the next. Do your best to continue to hit the designated target weights,
or simply enter the weights you were able to hit, as we’ll take that into
account in calculating future target weights for you.
these around – simply perform the workouts in order on the days that
suit you.
In the event your target weights are numbers between the typical 2.5
increments most often found in the gym, it is always safest to round-
down and use the closest weight available. Make your progress as
sustainable as possible.
get stage-lean.
refunds available.
If you aren’t gaining weight despite trying to, you’re eating too few
calories. Increase the amount you’re eating or reduce the amount of
calories you’re burning by removing or reducing any cardio you might
be doing or incorporate a combination of both.
simply reduce your intake from where it is currently until you begin
losing weight at the desired rate.
simply increase your intake from where it is currently until you begin
gaining weight at the desired rate.