The 9 Deadly Sins That Will Stop You From Getting Ripped

If you are going to get ripped you will no doubt go through stages where you plateau and need to make adjustments to your diet and training to maximize your results.  In this post, I am going to go over some fatal errors that will screw up your fat-burning potential.

Let’s get at it! Here are the 9 Deadly Sins That Will Stop You Getting Ripped:

 

Sin 1)  Eating Way Too Many Carbohydrates

You would think it would be clear to people that eating a large number of carbohydrates is not a good idea if you have a lot of fat to lose.

But before you go all hardcore ketogenic on my ass and cut every last carb from your diet, notice how I said too many carbs!  Carbs can be your friend in you include them in your diet correctly.

If you want to get shredded though, cutting carbs is, in general, one of the most important steps that you should take right away in your diet and exercise plan. You can still have some carbohydrates, but you shouldn’t be loading up on them and they need to be consumed at the correct times.

As you progress in your training and become more shredded, your body will be able to tolerate more carbohydrates and deal with them more efficiently. However, if you currently have a great deal of fat to lose, cutting down the number of carbohydrates you consume is an extremely important first step to make.

Sin 2) Eating Carbohydrates at the Wrong Times

Most people should limit the consumption of carbohydrates to just after a workout and at night time because you want to be focused and alert during the day. If you eat a lot of starchy carbohydrates during the day, you will lose some of that alertness. Save your carbohydrate consumption for at night when you want to rest, relax, and repair as well as optimize serotonin production.

Carbohydrates around your workout will help create an anabolic environment for your muscles so try and keep the bulk of you carbohydrates either just after or around your daily workout.

 

Sin 3)  Eating Too Much Fat

Ultimately, calories count and need to be closely regulated. If you’re consuming more calories than you burn off in a day then you will never get shredded.  The people who think once you cut carbohydrates you can eat whatever you want and not worry about it at all have definitely gone overboard in listening to Dr. Atkins.

Fat contains calories of course, in the amount of nine per gram, and calories do matter. However, don’t go completely the other way and start following an extremely low fat diet, that’s equally as bad as eating too much fat. Everything needs to be in moderation and at least 20% of your calories should come from healthy fat sources. Some of my favorites are wild-caught salmon, coconut oil, and grass-fed beef. In this way, you can achieve optimal health.

 

Sin 4)  Eating Too Little Protein

Women do this far more frequently than men. An average woman who is having difficulty losing body fat will have a typical day where she eats a bowl of oatmeal with an egg for breakfasts, one egg?  Seriously?

Protein is required to maintain your lean body mass, which in turn will help maintain your metabolism.  If you are losing muscle or lean body mass your ability to metabolize food will actually decrease and slow your fat loss.  It’s a recipe destined for failure.

You should probably also note that although a gram of protein and a gram of carbohydrates both contain 4 calories each, your body will burn more energy digesting the gram of protein than it will the gram of carbohydrate and if the excess energy is not used somewhere else eg in training, it will be stored in the body! (It’s thermogenics baby).

 

Sin 5) Drinking a Lot of Protein Shakes

If you want to get shredded, you should be chewing as many of the calories you eat as possible. The process of digestion and the act of chewing solid foods burns far more calories than drinking a shake. Most fitness competitors cut out the shakes when it is time to get ready for a show, follow their lead and cut down on the shakes. One per day after a workout is fine, but don’t go overboard.

 

Sin 6) Eating Too Much Fruit

Yes, you absolutely can get fat by eating too much fruit. In general, fruit is healthy but the fruit you see at the store today is nothing like what was available back in the hunter and gatherer days. Berries were tiny, dark, and bitter, while today they are huge and contain a large amount of fructose (the kind of sugar found in fruit).

Eating excessive fructose by eating too much fruit will lead to fat gain because fructose needs to be processed by the liver. As soon as liver glycogen stores fill up, any excess gets transformed into triglycerides and stored in your body as fat. If you want to get shredded, cut out fruit either completely for a period of time or down to two or three daily servings. While doing this, raise your consumption of vegetables to ensure you get enough vital nutrients.

 

Sin 7)  You’re Not Training Heavy 

People’s first inclination when they want to lose body fat is to do more reps and cut down the rest periods. However, if typically you rest three minutes between sets and then suddenly cut that down to a thirty second rest period between sets because you thought that was how to get shredded you’re doing the wrong thing. It doesn’t work, all that occurs is that your weights drop on every exercise and you get smaller and weaker. Same goes for doing high reps.

The main role of strength training when dieting is to maintain your level of muscle mass. This is absolutely the most important thing. Don’t use strength training as your main “fat burning” activity, unless you are extremely overweight, like you need to lose in excess of fifty pounds.

A woman can get benefits out of metabolic conditioning workouts that are fast-paced and high-intensity in the right situation as long as she is already strong and has some muscle mass. A weaker woman with no muscle is not going to get anything out of a metcon workout because she doesn’t have enough strength to produce adequate force. A woman should attempt that kind of training only after they have achieved a level of strength.

A man trying to lose ten to twenty pounds of body fat and not lose all his muscle mass at the same time should utilize strength training in order to maintain strength and size. The same ideas that helped you get shredded in the first place still apply when you are dieting. Keep your

 

8) Doing Too Much Cardio

Large amounts of cardio activity can lead to your body overproducing cortisol which eventual leads to numerous health problems including more abdominal fat. If you want to do cardio that doesn’t hurt you and can do some good, take a long walk. Traditional forms of cardio are pretty much useless if your goal is to lose fat. Consider sled work which burns fat and builds muscle.

9) Not Getting Enough Sleep

If you don’t get enough sleep your cortisol raises and your insulin sensitivity goes down. Both of these things can lead to lower than optimal fat loss. In addition, you don’t get the vitally important Growth Hormone boost that you can only achieve during deep sleep. If more fat loss is a goal of yours than you must get more sleep. Don’t ignore this last of the deadly sins. It absolutely will prevent you from getting shredded and may very well be the most important item on the whole list. Make sleep a priority in your life, it improves everything.

 

*This post originally appeared on RickJamesFitness.com