28 Days to Redemption Meal Plan: Step #6

SWITCH TO INTERMITTENT FASTING

Once you get down to 0.25 grams of carbs per pound of body weight, it’s next to impossible to go any lower. This small amount of carbs is coming from protein sources and vegetables. If you get down this low in carbs and hit a plateau, there’s a very good chance that it’s because you’re down at extremely low levels of body fat but want to get even lower. For men, this would be somewhere around 5%, and women somewhere around 12%.

To keep losing body fat, you could continue by dropping protein and fat, but that could compromise muscle mass. So an alternative to try first is intermittent fasting (IF).

To sum it up briefly here, the version of IF that I recommend involves restricting all of your calorie intake every day to an 8-hour feeding window and taking in absolutely zero calories the other 16 hours during the day (yes, the time you’re sleeping counts toward this 16 hours). This is your basic 16/8 intermittent fasting regimen – 16 hours of fasting followed by an 8-hour feeding window. For example, fasting from 9:00pm to 1:00pm the following day and eating from 1:00pm to 9:00pm.

So basically, your calories and macros don’t change when doing IF. You’re not changing what you eat, just when you eat it – in this case, within an 8-hour window.

Dieting 101 Key: What Flies in a Fast?

During the 16-hour fast, you can drink plain water, black coffee or plain green tea. I typically avoid drinking zero-calorie artificially sweetened beverages during a fast because the sweeteners could cause an insulin release and make your body believe it’s being fed; however, there’s no hard scientific evidence of this yet, so artificial sweeteners during a fast is still up for debate.

SAMPLE STEP #6 MEAL PLAN – INTERMITTENT FASTING

This IF sample day meal plan is designed for an individual (still based off the 200-pounder) training in the early evening, after work and before dinner. This sample meal plan is using a carb intake of 0.25 gram per pound of bodyweight.

Fat-burning supplements (take as soon as you wake up)

• 1 dose Shred JYM

Breakfast (this starts your 8-hour feeding window, so you have this 8 hours before you plan on having your last meal)

• 1 scoop Pro JYM protein powder
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg whites
• 1 tsp olive oil (scramble eggs in olive oil)
• 4 capsules Omega JYM fish oil

Late-morning snack

• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

Lunch

• 6 oz. can albacore tuna
• 2 cups mixed green salad (add tuna to salad)
• 2 tbsp salad dressing (olive oil and vinegar)
• 1 dose Vita JYM multivitamin

Fat-burning supplements (take between lunch and afternoon snack)

• 1 dose Shred JYM

Afternoon snack

• 1 scoop Pro JYM protein powder
• 1 tbsp peanut butter

Pre-workout (30-45 minutes before workouts)

• 2 grams CarnoSyn® beta-alanine (the amount included in one serving/scoop of Pre JYM by JYM Supplement Science, along with other active ingredients)
• 1 scoop Pro JYM protein powder

Post-workout (within 30 minutes after workouts)

• 2 grams CarnoSyn® beta-alanine (the amount included in one serving/scoop of Post JYM by JYM Supplement Science, along with other active ingredients)
• 1-2 scoops Pro JYM protein powder

Dinner (30-60 minutes after postworkout meal)

• 8 oz. steak (or salmon or other fish, or chicken or other poultry, or pork)
• 2 cups mixed green salad
• 2 tbsp salad dressing (olive oil and vinegar)

Snack (within 8 hours of breakfast)

• 1 scoop Pro JYM protein powder or 1 cup cottage cheese

Before Bed Supplements (taken at least 1 hour after last snack)

• 1 dose ZMA JYM (females take 2/3 dose)

OFF DAYS SUPPLEMENTATION

On days you don’t train, continue taking 2-4 grams of CarnoSyn® beta-alanine, taking one scoop of Pre JYM and/or one scoop of Post JYM at whatever time of day you like. (Pre JYM and Post JYM each contain 2 grams of CarnoSyn® beta-alanine.)