12 Week Lean Muscle Trainer - Day 56

You’ve reached the end of your second 4-week phase, and you’re about to enter the last 4-week phase of your 12-Week Lean Muscle Program. Now, in addition to following all of the standard reevaluation tasks you perform at the end of the week, I’m going to make a very slight shift in your macros. Remember calories will still be naturally dropping because they’re based on your current weight—and I’m sure you’ve dropped quite a few pounds, many of them body fat, by this point in the program.

Here are the shifts you’ll make on your weight-training days:

Get in: 1.2g of protein

1.1g of carbohydrates

0.4g of dietary fats

These are all per pound of bodyweight. So, if you dropped down to 150 pounds, you’ll get in 165g of carbs per weight-training day. (150 x 1.1 = 165g)) You’ll also continue to eat slightly fewer calories on non-training days. Here are my recommendations for what you should consume on non-training days:

Get in: 1.2g of protein

1.0g of carbohydrates

0.3g of dietary fats

Again, these are all per pound of bodyweight for each day.

Here’s what else you need to do today in addition to your 2 cardio sessions, as described in today’s chart:

YOUR WEEKLY CHECK-IN

Here’s your Week Eight 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 Seven.

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

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 if it has stalled for you. Rely on foods such as brown rice, yams and quinoa.

* If you have lost more than about 3 pounds since your Week Seven 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 Eight. Don’t make the additional drop that I recommended above.

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. That means that 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 per calorie), which equals 200 calories more each day this week. Emphasize complex carbs such as yams, quinoa and brown rice for this increase.

You should also use a scale to weigh your foods.

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

This is precisely the result you want to see since your major 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. 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 Seven. 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 55, 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. today. However, if you had 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. That’s especially true now that you’re taking photos at this important point in the process.

DAY 56—ACTIVE REST AND REEVALUATE

Cardio	60 Minutes	Perform 45 minutes of steady-state cardio on one machine and 15 more minutes on another. Do not rest between
Cardio	60 Minutes	Perform 45 minutes of steady-state cardio on one machine and 15 more minutes on another. Do not rest between