Summer Shredding: The Guide To 10% Body Fat As A Beginner
Is this article too early?
I don’t think so.
Most people underestimate the time it takes to get lean.
This is primarily because of two reasons;
1. They underestimate the amount of fat they have to lose.
2. They overestimate the aggressiveness of the protocol they’ll sustain.
This is exactly why most people who start a diet just a few weeks summer give up.
They feel that there is something wrong with them, while in reality, the problem was with their expectations and the protocol they were running.
I don’t want you to be in that situation which is why I’m putting out this article this early.
This article lays down the complete protocol for getting lean and having those abs pop, so stick around to the end.
Before you begin, if you want to know how long you’ll take to get to 10% body fat, click here!
This is just an approximation, but at least it gives you a better idea of what’s the fastest you can get there if you do everything optimally and sustainably.
In reality, how well you execute the protocol will dictate the time it takes you to get there.
Part 1: DIET
Your diet is the single most important thing if you want to get shredded.
But I’m sure this is not new information.
We all know that losing fat comes down to dialing in our nutrition.
Where things go wrong is when we start focusing on things that don’t matter as much and end up ignoring the things that do.
Let’s take a step back and see what leads to fat loss.
Creating a calorie deficit is the key to losing fat.
This simply means you have to eat lesser calories than you burn.
It doesn’t matter if you eat more carbs or more fats, as long as you are creating a sustainable calorie deficit consistently, you will lose fat.
You see, I said sustainable.
Most people try to rush the process.
What happens when they do this?
They burn out and never reach their goal.
The key to getting ripped isn’t being brutally strict and hardcore with your nutrition for a week or two.
You need to spend a few months dieting down and that is only possible if you do it sustainably.
So how many calories should you be eating?
A good starting point is your bodyweight in pounds multiplied by 10-12.
The more overweight you are, the more aggressive you can afford going, and hence you’ll stick to the lower number of this range.
You will adjust this number over time based on how your weight responds.
It is a good idea to lose between 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week.
If you are overweight and want to start out a little aggressive, you can lose as high as 1.5% of bodyweight a week for the first few weeks.
But even this is pushing it.
Over time, falling between the 0.5-1% range will be best.
Once you get the number of calories you eat, you have to see your macronutrients, protein to be specific.
If you want to get ripped, you need to try to build or at least maintain whatever existing muscle you have.
Protein will help you build/maintain muscle and is very important for this process.
The number of carbs and fats don’t matter as much as you think.
In fact, eating more carbs can actually be beneficial.
Here’s what your priorities should look like:
Hitting calorie target.
Hitting at least 0.8g of protein per pound of bodyweight. (Bump that up to 1g/pound of bodyweight if you’re going more aggressive or if you like more protein!)
Hitting 25-30% of daily calories from fats.
Hitting remaining calories from carbs.
As long as you eat nutritious foods for the most part, you can eat foods you crave as long as you hit your targets.
This means you can eat chocolate or ice cream everyday.
You can have carbs right before bed.
It doesn’t matter.
Hit your calorie and protein target and you’ll be sorted.
Here’s a calculator that’ll crunch the starting numbers for you.
Feel free to make adjustments based on your preferences!
To read more about setting up your nutrition for fat loss, click here.
For a step-by-step guide on how to set up your own meal plan on Myfitnesspal, click here.
Refeeds
When you need a break, refeeds will be your best friend.
Firstly, I want you to forget cheat days.
Cheat days are not going to help you reach your goals.
Refeeds on the other hand are very useful.
Instead of eating whatever you see (like a traditional cheat day), you increase calories to maintenance (15 x bodyweight in pounds) for a day or two every week.
This will give you a break and let the diet fatigue dissipate.
All the extra calories you have on your refeed days should come from carbs!
Read more about refeed days here.
Diet Breaks
While refeeds are great, 1-2 days doesn’t feel like enough of a break, especially if you’ve been dieting for weeks.
This is where diet breaks come into the picture.
Diet breaks are longer periods at maintenance, generally between 10-14 days.
They can actually help you diet better and sustain the weight loss! (Read more here)
As a general recommendation , it can be a good idea to take diet breaks every 6-8 weeks, but this will differ from person to person.
If you feel like your diet is going off track and you are not able to hit your targets for a few days in a row, it’s a good indicator that it’s time for a break.
Part 2: TRAINING
Life would be easy if just eating less could get us ripped.
But sadly, sitting in bed all day creating a calorie deficit by eating less won’t get you the ripped body your desire.
Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still lose weight.
But weight loss does not necessarily mean fat loss.
Let me explain.
If you don’t train, you will lose muscle tissue while dieting.
Do this long enough and you’ll come to realize that you look soft and flabby instead of lean and ripped.
Thus, if you want to look ripped, you need to train.
How much is the question?
Enough to help you get strong without interfering with your recovery.
You see, things are different when you are in a surplus.
On the other hand, the longer you diet, the harder recovering becomes.
If you think you’re going to keep up your 2 hour sessions 6 days a week while dieting to a point you’ve never dieted before (even if it’s ‘just’ 10% or 12% according to ‘experts’), you’re going to burn yourself out.
Even if you muster up all your willpower to hit the gym, the quality of your sessions will drop.
As a natural lifter, you can’t expect to get away with doing anything and everything.
This is why being focused is very important.
And here’s what your focus should be on:
Getting stronger
Even if you can’t get stronger and just end up maintaining your strength, your mindset has to be such that you are showing up to every session with the intent of adding another rep or increasing weight.
Since getting stronger while getting enough recovery is key, training 3 days a week will be a very sustainable approach.
This might sound very low, especially if you are coming from the hardcore bodybuilding background, but perform the workouts with the focus on getting stronger and you’ll be amazed with what you can achieve.
The Routine
You can download the updated template here.
Here’s what you need to know about this routine.
Exercise Selection
Feel free to customize the exercise selection based on your preferences.
If you don’t like the dumbbell incline press, do the barbell or machine variation.
Don’t want to do barbell curls? Do dumbbell or cable curls instead.
Pick a variation you like and get stronger on it.
Rest Times
Take around 3 minute rest between sets.
As you see, the rest times are longer than usual.
This is to help you recover and perform well in the following sets.
Again, the goal isn’t to just get your heart rate up and sweat.
It is to get strong to build those muscles!
If you’re short on time, you can cut the rest time to 2 minutes on the accessory movements (Leg Extension, Lateral Raise, Reverse Fly, Biceps, Triceps, Leg Curl, Calf Raise)!
Intensity
We’ll measure intensity with proximity to failure.
Failure means you fail to perform another rep on an exercise.
The intensity I want you to train at is 1-2 reps shy of failure.
This means that I don’t want you to push to a point where you cannot do another rep while running this routine.
This will allow you to progress smoothly and not generate extra fatigue.
Based on the current literature, we know that training to failure is not required to grow muscle.
That said, if you do fail a lift occasionally, it isn’t a big deal.
Progression
This is the most important part!
Just going to the gym and lifting the same weight every time will not grow your muscles.
Progression is what will bring you results.
Simply put, you need to get stronger over time.
There are many ways to progress, the most popular being by increasing weight or by increasing reps.
I recommend you use a Double Progression model in this routine, which will incorporate progression in both reps and weight.
In this model, you increase reps till you hit the upper limit of a rep range, after which you increase weight.
This sounds confusing so just see the example below.
Here’s an example of what progress with Incline Dumbbell Press for 3 sets of 6-8 reps with 3 minutes between sets could look like:
Week 1 - 20kgs x 8, 7, 6
Week 2 - 20kgs x 8, 8, 6
Week 3 - 20kgs x 8, 8, 7
Week 4 - 20kgs x 8, 8, 8
Since you hit the upper limit (8 reps) of the rep range on all sets, you can increase weight the next workout.
Week 5 - 22.5kgs x 7, 6, 6
This cycle continues and you’ll keep getting stronger over time.
Obviously, in reality, the rate of progress won’t be linear.
That said, you should intend to get stronger every workout!
This model of progression helps you lift a weight that is heavy enough to cause growth and get your stronger over time.
Keep in mind that your form should be your priority at all times.
There is no point in cheating or swinging the weight just to tell yourself you progressed.
Stay safe and train hard.
Tracking Workouts
One of the most important things you need to do is track your workouts.
This can be as simple as writing;
Week 1 - Squat - 20kgs x 8, 7, 6
in the notepad app of your phone.
Do this for each exercise.
This will help you see what you have performed the previous and will help you make progress by trying to push for an extra rep or increasing weight.
If you don’t track your workouts, you won’t know how much you did the last time, which is the biggest mistake most people training make.
Deloads
Deload is just a period where you train a little easier in the gym.
This helps fatigue dissipate and helps you get stronger in the following weeks.
Here’s a simple outline for deloads.
I recommend syncing your deloads with your diet break.
During your deload week, you’ll perform each of the three workouts once.
When you perform them, perform only 2 sets for each exercise instead of 3.
Also, perform at the lower limit of the rep range.
For example, if your Incline Dumbbell Press for 3 sets of 6-8 reps with 3 minutes between sets looks like this;
20kgs x 8, 7, 6
During your deload week, it should look like this;
20kgs x 6, 6
Obviously, this will feel easy, because you have already done more before.
But that’s the point.
These occasional deload weeks can help you recover better and get stronger over time, so don’t ignore them thinking they’re a waste of time.
This routine might look simple on paper, but it focuses on what’s necessary.
You don’t need sets and sets of tons of exercises to build muscle.
Don’t distract yourself from the goal.
Keep it simple.
Perform each set and rep with intent.
Get stronger and you’ll get results.
Note:
This program is set up in a way to make you look good.
This means that it focuses on proportion and will not maximize lower body size.
If you want to maximize lower body size, check out the 4 day training template I’ve laid out in this article here.
It’ll give you slightly more volume with higher frequency for the lower body.
If you feel that this style of training isn’t your thing, no worries!
Follow an approach you like.
As long as you apply the principle of progressive overload in the gym, you’ll be good!
Part 3: CARDIO + ABS
Cardio
Do we need cardio to lose weight?
No.
But can it be useful to burn more calories while allowing us to eat more food?
Certainly.
If you are wanting to get lean by summer, adding in cardio can be a good idea!
We’re going to utilize Low to Moderate Intensity cardio instead of the High Intensity style.
1. No your muscle won’t wither away.
2. No HIIT doesn’t get you shredded faster.
3. No this isn’t the ‘lazy’ way out.
There’s a pretty good reason why I recommend using a lower intensity;
1. It won’t interfere with training recovery.
Your goal while dieting is to preserve as much muscle as you can (if you want to end up looking good).
This will require you to maintain (and try your best to improve) your performance in the gym.
Your recovery will already be hampered because of eating in a deficit.
We don’t want to make it worse by adding in High Intensity sessions on your rest days!
2. It won’t make you hungrier.
A lot of people feel hungrier after a grueling HIIT session.
On the other hand, a lower intensity session wouldn’t be as taxing and could help you control hunger.
But again, this is just my recommendation.
You are always free to do as you like!
Just keep in mind that bodybuilders have been using Low Intensity Cardio for years now and we all know the condition they show up on stage with!
If you want to go ahead with this approach, here’s the plan!
If you follow the 3 day template given above, you’ll have 4 rest days a week!
On your rest days, add in 45-60 minutes of low intensity cardio.
You can go for a brisk walk or you can just hop on the treadmill with an incline.
Select the duration and the type of cardio you’ll be performing and stick to it.
You can split it in parts if you can’t do it all at once.
Click here to read more about cardio for fat loss.
Abs
The only way of getting your abs to show is lowering your body-fat percentage.
You can do all the crunches and planks you want, if you aren’t lean, your arbs won’t be visible.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t train them.
The last thing you want is to get lean and not have a well-developed core.
This is why, here’s the plan.
Before you do your cardio on your rest days, perform 3 sets of an ab exercise of your choice.
While 3 sets might sound less, keep in mind that we’ll be performing this every other day.
This, along with the fact that your main focus is still going to be getting stronger on whatever exercises you do, will be sufficient to develop your core.
Yes, you read that right!
You have to get stronger with your ab training just as you would with your other muscles.
Pick an ab exercise and perform 3 sets 3 times a week:
Planks
Cable Crunches
Hanging Knee Raises
Ab Wheel Rollouts
Renegade Rows
These are few of my favorites but you are not limited to these!
If doing the same exercise 3x a week isn’t exciting for you, pick 3 different exercises for the 3 different session.
Just make sure you do the same 3 exercises every week with a focus on progression!
Conclusion
Once you dial in your nutrition, training and cardio, it all comes down to consistency.
Doing these things for a week or two is easy.
It gets tricky when you have to keep up with it for multiple weeks at a time!
My advice would be to take it slow and take breaks whenever necessary.
Extra rest days, refeeds and diet breaks aren’t a big deal.
If anything, they’ll help you on your journey to getting lean.
2 years down the line, it won’t matter if you reached your goal in July or in December.
What’ll matter is whether you got there or not.
Most people try to go too fast and end up burning themself out, never reaching their goal.
Be patient and put in the work.
The results will come.
Slow and steady wins the race.
If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below!
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*This is just educational content and not medical advice. Please consult a medical practitioner before starting a new diet or exercise regimen.
