5 FAT SHREDDING Tips You Wish You Knew Last Summer!

What’s going on Gronk Fitness! With summer approaching fast, I know many of you are looking to shred fat, bring those abs to the surface or just get in shape in time to hit the beaches!

At the end of the day, there’s really no reason why you would want to kill yourselves in the winter trying to make some gains if you can’t enjoy the physique you’ve built.  And that doesn’t have to be for just showing off, it can be for overall health reasons, maybe there is some clothing you really like and want to fit into, or maybe a special occasion you just want to look your best for.  There are many reasons why we train hard and when it comes time to trim down, in my opinion, most of us take WAY TOO MANY drastic measures to cut the fat off.

So, I thought I would share with you guys my top 5 tips to help you trim that layer of body fat as fast and as safe as possible.

Tip #1 – Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute To Start Cutting

Now, you might think this is a bit TOO obvious to be a helpful tip, but it’s actually very important. Most people forget or neglect to start their cutting phase until it’s too late.  Then they realize they don’t have enough time, start panicking and employ drastic measures in a futile attempt to drop weight fast. This never works and in most cases you will lose a lot of that precious muscle you have been building during the winter season. In fact, you might even end up being less lean and less defined because you are depriving yourself of food and water to “lose weight” and your body just isn’t getting the hydration, vitamins, minerals and macros it needs for your muscles to look healthy and full.

In fact, RIGHT NOW is the time to start cutting.  February is almost over and you’re left with 3 - 4 months to get it done. 

Tip #2 – Don’t Fall Victim To Crash (Fad) Diets

I’ve read the articles in the so called “fitness magazines” too, you know! I know what they’re spreading around, and it’s nothing more than misinformation which can even be dangerous and unhealthy at times.  The worst was about 2 years ago when every damn Instagram account with over 100k followers was promoting that detox tea bullshit.  Do you guys remember that?  Made me CRINGE every time I saw it because I knew for a fact that 99% of the fitness “influencers” posting about it didn’t even touch that junk.  At the end of the day if you eat healthy, you don’t need a detox and a few weeks of drinking  FLUIDS ONLY will of course make you lose weight because you are going to shit and piss your brains out.

You also see articles about how low carb diets and ketogenic diets can be excellent for dropping weight fast too. Listen guys, these are just drastic and desperate measures to sell subscriptions or gain views and they are bound to fail. First of all, a low carb or ketogenic diet isn’t any better for losing weight than any other calorie deficit diet and secondly, in many cases they can even be bad for your health.

You have to understand that losing weight comes down to calories in versus calories out. As long as you’re in a caloric deficit (which means you eat less calories than your body needs), you WILL lose weight, regardless of the macronutrient ratios.

However, notice I said macronutrients and not micronutrients. Of course, a calorie deficit diet WILL help you lose weight.  But that doesn’t mean you can eat whatever junk you want and still hope to drop weight like all these people eating McDonald’s and claiming IIFYM would like you to believe.  In fact, if someone is telling you to eat McDonald’s in moderation, stop listening to them.  It’s low quality food and should never be on your mind as an option.  Now there might be times you HAVE to get it because you had a crazy day and it’s a matter of eating something or nothing… but you’ll never look ripped eating McDonald’s in moderation unless you’re on drugs.  Period.  It’s LOW QUALITY shitty food guys.

All you have to do is stick to a simple calorie deficit diet with a deficit of about 250-500 calories per day and that should be more than enough to get you to lose about 2 - 4 lbs per month without restricting your performance in the gym and in your day-to-day life.

Tip #3 – Carb Cycle On Rest Days

While low-carb diets for an extended period of time can be detrimental to your health, it might be smart to limit your carb intake on days that you don’t work out and your body doesn’t require too much energy. So if you are following a 250 calorie deficit diet on your workout days, you can bump that deficit up to 400 calories per day and adjust your macros so that your total carbs do not exceed 100 - 150 grams. Obviously, you will have to increase protein and fats, since your carbs will be considerably lower.

This is a very smart and common way to manipulate your macros when trying to shred fat and it has no negative impact to your health and performance since you are only dropping calories on your rest days.  

Tip #4 – Include HIIT In Your Program

For those of you who don’t already know, HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and it’s the answer to the age-old question “How to burn MORE FAT and make the treadmill or bicycle less long and boring.”

Believe it or not, jumping on the treadmill and jogging for 40 or 60 minutes is not the most effective way to burn fat and it takes up a lot of precious time you could be allocating toward your weight training.  In fact, you can burn the same number of calories or more with HIIT and not have to worry about muscle breakdown.

Now there are many ways to include HIIT into your workouts and the simplest one is probably the treadmill. For example, all you have to do is jog for 60 seconds, then sprint as fast as you can for 30 seconds and repeat that cycle for 15 to 20 minutes max.

Another way to implement HIIT into your workouts is by using different exercises in a circuit, and in my opinion this is far less boring than running on the treadmill. All you have to do is pick 4 or 5 exercises, preferably multi-joint movements like squats, presses, pull-ups, dips, push-ups, burpees and sit-throughs, and perform each exercise for 30 seconds without taking any break in between. Then, as soon as you complete one round, rest for 60 seconds and repeat the circuit for 3 to 4 more rounds. This form of HIIT has become known as the Gronk Fitness Practical Sports Interval Training and you can find out more about it HERE.

This way you’re essentially performing a full body workout while building up your muscle endurance and burning an insane amount of calories at the same time and all in just under 15 minutes.

Tip #5 – Get Your Mind Right

Just about everything in life has its ups and downs, its breakthroughs and its setbacks. Always measure your progress but don’t lose motivation if you don’t make progress for a few weeks. It’s natural to plateau sometimes.  If this happens, maybe you just need to change your macros or workouts or maybe you just need to push yourselves harder, but you definitely shouldn’t give up.

Getting shredded is not difficult, it just requires persistence and patience. Having the right support can also help when it comes to staying motivated. Find someone who has the same or similar goals as you, someone who can support and motivate you and vice versa.  

At the end of the day, if everything else fails, just take a break, think about what you’re trying to accomplish and just get your mind right. Then, regroup, reengage those goals and get it done!