Congratulations on completing your fifth week on my 12-Week Lean Muscle Program. You’ve also completed your first week after a significant reevaluation at the end of Week Four. At this point, you should feel very locked in with your workouts, nutrition, and supplements, but still ready to make any adaptations based on today’s reevaluation. I’d like to say that this is an easy one, kids, but none of them are easy. However, this one shouldn’t cause any large shifts unless you’ve noticed something unusual happening from your Week Four reevaluation.

So, let’s run through what you should do today:

YOUR WEEKLY CHECK-IN

Here’s your Week Five 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 Four when you potentially made significant downshifts in your calorie consumption as compared the previous weeks on your 12-Week Lean Muscle Program.

* If you have not lost weight—or if you have gained weight since you re-calibrated at the end of Week Four:

Evaluate whether or not you think you’re adding muscle mass faster than you’re losing body fat. If so, then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many people readily add muscle mass, but many people burn stored fat more slowly. 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
• Reduce carbs consumption by about 25g per day, cutting them from sources such as yams, rice and potatoes.

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

This may be a good result for you, especially if you’re overweight and like the way you’re appearing in the mirror and in photos. If that’s the case, then keep following the new parameters you established in Week Four.

However, if you think you’re losing too much weight, and you look and feel depleted then return to the calorie consumption that matches what you were consuming on Day 1 of this program. 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 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:

This is precisely the result you want to see after 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.

* Take photos of yourself. I want you to take these photos in the exact same way that you did at the end of Week Four. 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

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