8) Meal Plans

Sure. It’s calories and hormones. But it’s also the way your body handles the food you eat and whether it deposits food into muscle or body fat. Meal frequency, how many times you eat each day, affects the overall metabolism. Every time you eat, the body’s calorie burning engine, also known as metabolism, slightly increases. So, if you eat 6 times a day, you’ll experience a greater metabolic uptick then 4 or 5 meals and 7 times would be even better then 6. That’s one way to lean down, without having to drastically reduce calories. Frequent feedings tends to increase the chance that what you eat makes its way towards and into muscle tissue rather then be packed away as body fat.

9) Prioritize the Post Training Meal.

After you train, it’s difficult to gain body fat. Why? Depleted, broken down muscles “soak up” both protein and carbs for growth and recovery. If you eat too little here, you may actually set your self backwards by impeding recovery. Supporting recovery and growth actually increases the metabolism while impeding it slows the metabolism. Try 40-50 grams of easier to digest protein like whey powder, fish or ground turkey breast along with a hefty serving of carbs; a large potato, 2 cups of rice or pasta. Point here: don’t be afraid to eat a generous portion of carbs, even simple carbs, along with lean protein. It jumpstarts growth and supports the metabolism.

10) Leverage Epinephrine Levels.

When you hit the gym, the body releases a fat liberating messenger called epinephrine. It attaches itself to fat cells allowing fat to be burned as fuel. Caffeine coupled with extracts of oolong tea, vinpocetine, and evodiamine augment the natural epinephrine blast creating a greater rise in this potent fat burning chemical. The idea; to maximize fat burning by elevating or prolonging epinephrine levels. (Chris’note: Nordrenalean is designed to increase Epinepherine levels) Carbs come into play here as well. Refined carbs before training suppress the exercise and supplement induced epinephrine rise compared to eating the same amount of carbs derived from slower digesting carbs. So make sure the meal before training contains protein, say 20-40 grams, and just enough carbs to help you train hard all the way thru your workout (30-50 grams). Stick with slow digesting carbs like oat bran, oatmeal, rye toast, brown rice and yams.


11) Empty Your Glycogen Stores Once Every 2 weeks

Glycogen is a term for the unused and stored form of carbs located in muscles. When glycogen stores begin to peak, from eating plenty of carbs, the body upgrades its fat storing ability. As glycogen stores fall, fat burning increases. One way to ensure you are burning through body fat is to take two consecutive days out of every 2 weeks and drag your total carbs down to less then 60 grams a day. This ensures you burn thru glycogen stores which, in turn, signals the body to burn more fat. After two days, you can return to a more normal, though not excessive, carb intake.


12) Do Cardio At the Right Time

Cardio exerts two benefits. It burns calories and it changes hormones in the body. Specifically, cardio helps raise norepinephrine levels. However, when you do cardio makes a big difference in the way your body handles the hormone change. Cardio on an empty stomach in a “hungry” state allows norepinephrine to readily target fat cells triggering maximal fat burn. On the flip side, if you eat, then do your cardio, the “hungry” state is disrupted, another fat blocking hormone, insulin, rises making norepinephrine less effective at liberating and burning fat. In a game of inches - no pun intended - every fat burning advantage is a must.


13) Train Until You’re Beat, Not Dead

The age old question: how many sets do you need and how long, time wise, should you spend in the gym each day. The answer will vary from person to person, but use this guide in burning fat. Always train until you are pretty beat up. After all , you have to train hard enough to stimulate muscle growth. However, don’t go overboard and train until you are flattened, dead, exhausted beyond hope. That type of kamikaze training may satisfy your ego, but truth-be-told, it kicks your anabolic hormones, those that build muscle, in the derriere. How’s it tie in to fat burning? Serious fat loss requires you to retain muscle mass because muscle is the body’s primary metabolic driver. If you train way past the point of feeling decent, hormones that support muscle repair free fall and the metabolic rate, the calorie burning engine which is intimately tied to muscle mass, follows suit.


14) Pump Up the Volume

Do more. Ok, sounds like it could violate law #13 and wipe you out, so you have to use this one judiciously. When you do more sets and reps, or do the same workout you typically do yet fit it into a shorter time frame, you ultimately end up forcing glycogen stores to drop. Once that occurs, muscles run low in carbs, fat burning increases and hormones that favor fat burning ratchet up a bit. The plus here is that you can get leaner by doing more volume, the potential downside is you may end up flattened and dead which could crush anabolic hormones. The solution is to simply implement the higher volume training on every 3rd or 4th week to ensure you benefit without taking a good thing too far.