Shredding Down Without the Frustration – Scott’s Story

Note: You are an individual, your results will vary depending on genetics, adherence, and effort.

When Scott first came to me I was confused. He was bigger and stronger, yet wanted my help. I knew that if I could get Scott’s program right, by helping out someone of their size I’d have a chance to impress upon some of my bodybuilder friends here in Japan the power of IF and show them that fasting wouldn’t make their muscles fall off.

It worked better than I had expected. After 3 months on the ‘diet’ Scott actually came in stronger, leaner and bigger.

Age: 36 Height: 186cm (~6’1″), 14 Weeks

Weight: 91.0kg (200.2lbs) > 85.4kg (187.9lbs)

Stomach @navel: 86.0cm (33.9″) > 77.5cm (30.5″)

Chest +3cm, Legs +2cm, Arms + 1cm

Squat: 145kg*5 > 162.5kg*5

Dips: BW+40kg*6 > BW+60kg*4

Deadlift: 185kg*4 > 195kg*3

Chin-Up: BW+40kg*5 > BW+45kg*5

Training volume was cut. We didn’t use any cardio.

1) You’re a big fella, tell us a little about your training and diet history. How did you get to where you were?

I’ve been training for the best part of 20 years with many lengthy and sporadic breaks. From 15 I would train mostly biceps in a tiny gym on top of a multistory car park (Lancaster Sports Center, Derby). Over the years I gained some decent size but never really achieved my goal.

I moved to New Zealand in 2003 and kept training. I was eating ‘clean’, kept growing and looked big/good in my clothes but out of them it was a different story. A PT at my gym approached me and asked if I would like some help with my diet, when we sat down and looked at my intake it was clear I’d been severely overeating. I dropped 20kgs in 12 weeks, carried on with the diet, lost another 12-14kgs  and entered and won my first bodybuilding show. A huge thanks goes to him (Carl Hammington)

A the time I had a very busy job running a large waterfront bar/restaurant and was finding eating 6-8 specifically timed meals increasingly hard to adhere to so I started looking for an alternative route.

2) Why did you decide to switch to IF?

I was trawling the internet looking fro a way around the 6-8 meal drudgery and came across Leangains.com. It seemed too good to be true, eating big meals and, long periods of fasting and being told this was not only good but essential. It was contrary to everything I had always thought.

I then found Rippedbody.com and after reading through the information thoroughly I decided I was going to give it a go and made my own plan starting at 3 meals a day.

After 2 weeks of IF I thought if I’m doing this I’m going to do it right. I’d been on the site numerous times and noticed every post /comment had a reply from the guy running the page, I was impressed by the attention to detail, if I was going to trust someone to work with I knew they needed to be as anal as me and contacted Andy and we got started.

3) How was the change over to IF? Anything that surprised you?

I found the change to IF liberating, enlightening and a whole lot easier than I had anticipated. I had become a slave to the kitchen and my Tupperware. Before IF my whole life revolved around what time I had to be back, what time we could leave, what I needed to take. It was exhausting. I moved to 2 meals a day and I’ve never looked back, it just felt right. Using simple rules to add macros, not sweating the decimals and odd numbers having someone as helpful and accommodating and Andy to talk me through really (without sounding too dramatic) gave me my life back. I instantly had so much more time, my energy levels were increased and I felt great. All the time. I no longer needed a nap in the afternoon and as for my training that’s been taken to a whole new level.

4) Anything else you would like to share?

I am leaner, lighter and stronger!? than I have ever been in my life. I am still setting PBs weekly in the gym (60kg dips for reps) with no sign of plateau. I will be competing again this year at the Wellington champs using IF, coming in lean and hoping for another win. I look forward to my meals and enjoy them but they’re not ruling my decisions anymore. I feel anyone and everyone would benefit from this way of eating I hope we can help take it to the masses. However, I must admit I do like the look on peoples faces when I tell them I only eat twice a day. -Priceless!

5) Lastly, I’ve been asked a lot in the day since publishing this, can you just tell people your exact training before and during these 3 months?

I was originally body part training over 4 days with a pretty standard split of legs, shoulders, chest & triceps, back & biceps. 4/5 exercises per day, 4 sets 8-12ish reps. Forced reps/rest pause etc the usual bollocks. Worked to a certain extent but not in comparison to the change. 

Now I alternate ‘A’ and ‘B’ workouts with much lower volume.

Workout A: Squat, Dip, Chins & Workout B: Deads, Dips & Bent Over Row. 
Zero cardio, RPT for all sets other than bent rows. Alternate days.

Scott took a chance on me, a relatively inexperienced diet coach, did everything exactly as I said without questioning it once, and I want to thank him for that. In the bigger picture of things, it’s helped out a lot.

I’ve already shown his pictures to a couple of Japanese guys that will be looking to compete in the summer, and they’re interested in giving Martin Berkhan’s Leangains principles a try. I promised to help spread it here, and slowly but surely, the pieces are coming together. I’m looking forward to getting this translated.