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

by Michael Matthews

In terms of 24-hour energy expenditure, they found no difference between nibbling and gorging. Small meals caused small, short metabolic boosts, and large meals caused larger, longer boosts. By the end of each day, they balanced out in terms of total calories burned.

Another study on the matter, this time from researchers at the of University of São Paulo in Brazil, showed that splitting calories into five equal meals per day eaten between 9 AM and 8 PM, eating all calories in the morning, and eating all calories in the evening didn’t affect weight loss parameters or body composition.

This is especially problematic in today’s modern world, which in many ways is literally engineered to keep us always wanting more. Food companies know how much salt, sugar, and fat to include in recipes to hook us, and they know that a never-ending variety of new flavors and options prevents us from becoming “desensitized” to their brands of reward. Video game makers carefully craft experiences that can elevate dopamine to amphetamine-like levels, which explains a lot of the obsessive-compulsive behavior seen in gaming.11 Online shopping, constant sexual stimulation in all forms of media, Facebook, and even the aromas pumped into stores, hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, and ice cream parlors all scream “Here’s a reward!” to your brain, which wallows in all the dopamine like a pig in—well, you know—and we feel like we have to scratch all of these itches, sooner rather than later.

A simple rule of thumb for putting this into use is to wait 10 minutes before acting on a craving or other impulsive urge to do something you know you shouldn’t. This not only gives you time to pause and reflect on the matter, but it also takes away the power of immediate gratification and future discounting. By pushing the reward just 10 minutes into the future, you can take away its most effective weapon against your willpower.

Surf the urge

Another highly effective way to train your willpower is to use a strategy called “precommitment,” which entails taking action now to strengthen your position and commitment to a behavior and ward off any underhanded attempts at sabotage from Future You.66 For many people, the best way to beat temptation is to simply avoid facing it in the first place.

I’m going to just keep it simple: your best choices are meat, dairy products, and eggs; second to those are certain plant sources like legumes, nuts, and high-protein vegetables such as peas, broccoli, and spinach.

On the other hand, if you exercise regularly and aren’t overweight, your body can deal with simple carbohydrates just fine. You’re not going to get diabetes or ruin your heart by having a bit of sucrose every day.

There’s a reason why the Institute of Medicine recommends that our trans fat intake be “as low as possible.” 89 Many cheap, packaged foods contain trans fat, such as microwavable popcorn, yogurt, and peanut butter. So do frozen foods such as pizza, packaged pastries, cakes, and the like, and fried foods are often cooked in trans fat. Any food that contains hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fats.

Eating protein after a workout stimulates protein synthesis, which halts muscle breakdown and initiates muscle growth.

The people selling the body recomp will usually say that bulking and cutting doesn’t work or is old hat and that anyone and everyone can get big and lean simultaneously by following some fancy type of diet or exercise routine. Well, they’re lying.

This is why I always recommend that guys don’t bulk if they’re over 15 percent body fat and that they end their bulks once they reach 15 to 17 percent and begin cutting (as this is where the above problems start to kick in). Then, once they’ve reached the 10 percent body fat range, they’re ready to bulk again and add more muscle to their physiques.