The Leangains Method: The Art of Getting Ripped. Researched, Practiced, Perfected.

by Martin Berkhan

An 80-kilogram (175-pound) man with 25 percent body fat has 80 x 0.25 = 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of fat mass. Theoretically, he can sustain a caloric deficit of 20 x 69 = 1,380 calories without losing muscle mass.

If his deficit is 652 calories, 552 calories will be mobilized from adipose tissue and 100 calories from muscle. In this case, a 500-calorie deficit could therefore result in muscle loss with the Leangains Method.

This is exactly how our body functions; once you’re lean enough, it’s impossible to lose only fat. And if you’re very lean and very muscular, you will literally burn only muscle at a certain point.

It’s a bummer, isn’t it? I agree. Evolution, however, gives zero fucks.

My clients typically go for a thirty- to forty-five-minute walk on rest days. That’s all

them do. With the Leangains Method, however, cardio is entirely optional. You burn fat with diet, not with treadmills or jogging shoes.

On the contrary, some cardio is encouraged, because staying active does wonders for adherence and well-being. This is partly why I tell clients to take a walk outside on rest days. It’s not a bad i...

Ketogenic diets sap performance and cause unwanted muscle loss. That’s according to research and extensive personal experience (ref. 10).

low. Lack of glycogenic precursors, meaning protein and carbohydrate, gradually leads to muscle glycogen depletion. This severely compromises various levels of anaerobic performance. Coupled with insufficient protein to maintain muscle mass, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The only supplement I recommend across the board is a 2,000 IU dose of vitamin D3 daily.

a multivitamin is something I’ve done from time to time, but there’s a lack of scientific support,

For performance, creatine is worth considering. Aside from caffeine, it’s the only legal supplement with proven and significant effects on strength; users typically report an increase of two repetitions in all movements across the board, and that’s nothing to scoff at.

Cottage cheese or low-fat Greek yogurt are some high-protein alternatives that make eating less of chore.

What should I do when I’ve reached my goal? A: First off, congratulations. The diet has ended, and now comes the real challenge: maintaining it all. I’m going to suggest a very specific approach, which requires your full attention for the last month of your diet.

Add 715 calories to your current calorie intake, and you’ll get your maintenance intake.

Once the two weeks have passed, you’re free to do as you choose. You can have 2,455 calories of whatever you want. But remember, being and staying lean is a lifestyle—not a quick-fix to be over and done with, then followed by same reckless behavior that got you fat in the first place.

“The Leangains Guide 2.0” is the long-awaited update of the “The Leangains Guide.”

Intermittent fasting is not a mandatory component of the Leangains Method, but it’s a very useful tool to try, use, and dismiss depending on your results.

“A Single Quality of Utmost Importance” is a taste of what you’ll find on the Leangains

“List of High-Protein Foods” is self explanatory, but I’ll explain it anyway; it’s a list of high-protein foods, ranked in terms of their monetary cost per gram of protein.

“The Magic Bullet,”

“The Leangains Guide” (ref. 1), a 2010 blog post on my website, is the official blueprint for 16:8 fasting. Invented in 2006 by yours truly, it’s the oldest version of intermittent fasting, and the only one made with lifters and athletes in mind.

But why fast? Because fasting takes your mind off food and allows you to focus on what’s in front of you: work. Eating is a distraction and time sink that takes you out of your workflow, so why be preoccupied with food when you can eat later—at home, for example? That’s one good reason.

Any liquid or beverage, including diet soda, is fine as long as it follows the rules.

More calories on training days, vice versa for rest days.

exercise burns more calories with carbs pre-workout, and that carbs are discounted when consumed in the post-workout meal. Mechanisms involve the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the cost of converting carbs to muscle glycogen.

no scientific evidence exists to prove that cyclical diets yield better results in the long term, or that muscle growth or muscle protein synthesis is enhanced or superior compared to a conventional approach (non-cyclical).

That’s what I’ve been doing for the last decade, and I’m done waiting for science to validate everything I do. It’s just important for me that you understand that the Leangains Method itself is 100 percent scientifically based, while 16:8 is not.

Intake + 7.5 percent:

To most people, it means cereal and orange juice in the early morning, but to us it means a high-protein meal around noon, or whenever we break our fast.

I recommend you make breakfast the biggest meal of the day on rest days, calorically speaking. It used to be a rule, but now it’s simply a best practice and a good starting point.

amino acids need to be available during and after weight training. This means you shouldn’t train entirely fasted, and that’s why pre-workout protein is given in the fasted protocols.

30 grams of whey protein. If supplements are out of the question, 30 grams of well-chewed meat will produce the same effect as the above.

This is the most common application of the fasted protocol. Fast, eat some protein, hit the gym on your lunch break, and make it back in time to enjoy a big breakfast. And draw envious looks from your colleagues, as they sit and wonder how you can eat so much but stay so lean.

Just like you can choose cottage cheese and protein powder over chicken and meat, you can choose to apply 16:8 to the Leangains Method.

Good luck. You won't need it.78

if you look at how inefficiently the body converts ethanol to fat, you’ll find that it’s completely backwards.

Also note how the proposed negative effect of alcohol on muscle growth doesn’t even exist in the scientific literature.

Each time you eat, metabolic rate increases slightly for a few hours. Paradoxically, it takes energy to break down and absorb energy. This is the thermic effect of food (TEF) (ref. 4). The amount of energy expended is directly proportional to the amount of calories and nutrients consumed in the meal.

Myth: Maintain a steady supply of amino acids by eating protein every two to three hours. The body can only absorb 30 grams of protein in one sitting.

Whenever you hear something really crazy, you need to ask yourself if it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. It’s a great way to quickly determine if something may be valid, or if it’s more likely a steaming pile of horseshit. This myth is a great example of the latter. Do you think we would be here today if our bodies could only make use of 30 grams of protein per meal?

For some concrete numbers, digestion of a standard meal (ref. 27) is still incomplete after five hours. Amino acids are still being released into your bloodstream and absorbed into muscles. You are still “anabolic.” This

Think about this for a second. How long do you think a big steak, with double the protein intake of the above example, and a big pile of veggies would last you? More than ten hours, that’s for sure. Meal composition plays an important role in absorption speed, especially when it comes to amino acids. Type of protein, fiber, carbohydrates and prior meals eaten all affect how long you’ll have amino acids released and being taken up by tissues after meals.

whey protein is the fastest protein of all, and digests at 10 grams per hour. Casein is much slower; in Boirie’s study, the casein protein was still being absorbed when they stopped the experiment seven hours later. Most whole food proteins are absorbed at a rate of 3 to 6 grams an hour. Add other macronutrients to that, and they’ll take longer.

strength and lower-intensity endurance training is unaffected—even after 3.5 days of fasting

They are too busy emulating the latest bodybuilding pro, doing the Biceps Blaster routine, or rolling around on a Swiss Ball somewhere.

For someone interested in aesthetics, which I assume most my readers are, relative strength is the single best measure of progress and the quality of your physique. Before seeing a picture of a client, I can easily get a very good idea of his or hers body composition by simply knowing three stats: weight, height and strength.

three out of four of the following goals should be reached within five years,

A 185-pound male who has been training consistently for five to ten years should therefore be expected to: Bench press 275–280 pounds. Do a chin-up with 90–95 pounds hanging from his waist. Squat 370 pounds. Deadlift 460–465 pounds.

“Double progression” means that you progress both in reps and load; first you hit the reps you need, then you increase the load.