Today you’ll perform your weekly reevaluation in addition to performing the 2 cardio sessions as outlined in the workout chart—the same as you’ve done throughout Week Seven. You’ll also weigh yourself and make certain that the program is continuing to work for you.

Following is a list of all that I want you to do today in addition to your cardio sessions, separated by at least a few hours.

YOUR WEEKLY CHECK-IN

Here’s your Week Seven to-do list, and potential adjustments you should consider making based on your results:

* Weigh yourself upon rising. You should take note of how your body weight and appearance have shifted from the end of Week Six.

* If you have not lost weight—since you re-calibrated at the end of Week Six:

Evaluate whether or not you think you’re adding muscle mass faster than you’re losing body fat by getting an InBody or calipers test. It’s also possible that your metabolism has slowed due to accumulated weight loss. Make sure that you are following my calorie and macronutrient counts as precisely as you can. I recommend that you:

• Use a scale to weigh your foods
• Rely more on the calculator I included in my Nutrition Overview, and make sure that all of your meals and foods adhere to my guidelines
• Try a 2-day carb load, getting in about 25g more of carbs at 2 meals early in the day. That’s only a total of 100g of carbs, but these small additional carb servings may help jumpstart fat loss. Rely on foods such as brown rice, yams and quinoa.

* If you have lost more than about 3 pounds since your Week Six reevaluation:

This may be a good result for you since you reduced calories at the end of Week Four. That’s especially true if you were overweight at the beginning of program. If you like the way you’re appearing in the mirror and in photos, then keep following the same parameters.

However, if you think you’re losing too much weight, and you look and feel depleted, then I want you to return to the calorie consumption that matches what you were consuming on Day 1 of this program throughout Week Seven. The full increase in calories should come from carbs rather than from fats or protein. The reason for this is that carbs are protein sparing, so you don’t need to increase protein. So, if you’ve dropped calories by 200, then you should increase carbs consumption by 50g. Each gram of carbs has 4 calories so you’ll be consuming (50g x 4 grams per calorie, which equals 200 calories) more each day this week. Emphasize complex carbs such as yams and brown rice for this increase.

You should also:

• Use a scale to weigh your foods
• Rely more on the calculator I included in my Nutrition Overview

* If you’ve lost a moderate amount of weight over the past week:

This is precisely the result you want to see since your reevaluation at the end of Week Four. Just stay on track with your weight training, cardio, and supplementation. I’ll be taking up both the cardio and weight-training intensity next week so you’ll naturally be burning more calories, and you’ll potentially be adding muscle mass, which also helps burns calories to support fat loss. As a reminder, here are my baseline recommendations in macros-per-pound during this phase of my 12-Week Lean Muscle Program:

PROTEIN: 1.3g per pound

CARBS: 1.3g per pound

DIETARY FATS: 0.4g per pound

I know that many of you may be consuming slightly different quantities based on adjustments you’ve made, but the above numbers are the baseline recommendations for Weeks 4-8 on this program. I’ll reiterate that at the end of next week, and then we’ll make some shifts for the last 4 weeks of this program.

* Take photos of yourself. You should know the drill by now: I want you to take these photos in the exact same way that you did at the end of Week Six. Here are my bullet points about taking these photos:

• Take them at the same time of day
• Take them in the same place
• Take them with the same lighting
• Wear the same clothes
• Use the same photographer (even if that’s you)
• Pose in the same way

* Don’t forget to fast. After your last meal on Day 48, you’ll go for 16 hours before your next meal today. That means if you ate as late as 10 p.m., then you will not eat until 2 p.m. However, if you have your last meal at 7 p.m. then you can break your fast at 11 a.m. Remember that intermittent fasting helps your body flush damaged cells from your body and regenerate mitochondria—the energy producers within cells.

* Check in with social media using the Kaged Muscle Facebook group if you haven’t before. You’ll find a lot of support there, and you may want to comment and interact with others who are going through this same experience.