Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body

by Michael Matthews

calorie restriction acts as a physiological tripwire that increases hunger, decreases motivation to move and exercise, and reduces metabolic rate, and these phenomena make getting leaner increasingly difficult as time goes on.

To lose fat, you must consistently eat fewer calories than you burn. To maximize muscle growth, you must consistently eat more calories than you burn. If you want to maintain your body fat level and slowly add muscle and strength, you want your calorie intake to roughly match your calorie expenditure.

When cutting, eating between 8 to 12 calories per pound of body weight per day creates a 20-to-25 percent calorie deficit in most people.

You’ve just learned some of the most fundamental lessons in the muscle-building racket: lift heavy weights, progressively overload your muscles, use free weights, constrain cardio, and do a combination of compound and isolation exercises.

you’re not going to enjoy every workout. You’ll always enjoy having worked out, though. Remember that.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON

O’Connor found a person’s vocabulary level was the best single predictor of long-term success in all disciplines and endeavors that he analyzed.

When you’re learning something new, the first major hurdle to clear must be to learn the precise meanings of key words if you’re to have any hope of gaining a deep and practical understanding of it.