How To Get Lean For Your Summer Holiday

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (wind blowing) So, hi. Hi,…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      (wind blowing) So, hi. Hi, everybody.

   2. YUYusef0:08

      Hello.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:09

      Um, you may notice that there is about 105 kilos of missing Aryan perfection over the far side just there. And if you're just listening, you will notice that there is not the sound of a massive arse moving around.

   4. YUYusef0:22

      Just squeaking all over the leather sofa.

   5. CWChris Williamson0:24

      Yeah. That is because Johnny is away on holiday, so it's just me and Youssef today. And we are gonna be talking about how to get lean for your summer holidays.

   6. YUYusef0:34

      This is actually take two.

   7. CWChris Williamson0:35

      This is technically take two. We had a technical problem, but this time it's gonna-

   8. YUYusef0:39

      10 minutes in of pure gold. Pure-

   9. CWChris Williamson0:41

      Yeah.

   10. YUYusef0:41

       ... How To Get Shredded for Summer gold.

   11. CWChris Williamson0:43

       S- so if this is, if this is not as good, then it's not our fault. We already gave up our best. So-

   12. YUYusef0:50

       Sorry, guys.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:52

       ... how to get lean for your summer holidays. I did a little Instagram post about this yesterday and had an awful lot of messages coming back, not least of all because it's June and a lot of people will have realized, "Shit (claps hands) , I'm going away on holiday within the next eight weeks and I'm maybe not as lean or as muscular as I want to be, and I'm gonna have to take my top off on the beach (laughs) or I'm gonna wear a bikini," or whatever it might be. The point that I think struck a chord with a lot of people was what I said about the typical approach for getting lean for holidays. And if you have a look online, a lot of the resources that you will find about how to get lean will focus on potentially fitness competitions or long term slow deficit fat loss approaches. The crucial difference between stepping on stage and going on holiday to Ibiza or Marbella is that when you step on stage, all that you're going to do is flex and tense. When you go out (laughs) to Marbella or Ibiza, you're gonna be drinking Corona and having baguette all day, every day, for s-

   14. YUYusef2:00

       Forget.

   15. CWChris Williamson2:00

       Baguette.

   16. YUYusef2:01

       As in?

   17. CWChris Williamson2:01

       One baguette.

   18. YUYusef2:02

       (laughs)

   19. CWChris Williamson2:02

       One huge fuck off baguette, yeah.

   20. YUYusef2:05

       (laughs)

   21. CWChris Williamson2:05

       You take a baguette out, you're never taking a baguette out with you on holiday.

   22. YUYusef2:07

       (laughs)

   23. CWChris Williamson2:08

       Just a long baguette, and then-

   24. YUYusef2:09

       I think this is where the, the alcohol reference goes over. Is, th- there's some kind of drink called-

   25. CWChris Williamson2:13

       Baguette? No.

   26. YUYusef2:14

       No?

   27. CWChris Williamson2:15

       No.

   28. YUYusef2:15

       You, you do mean baguette?

   29. CWChris Williamson2:17

       Baguette, yeah, just-

   30. YUYusef2:17

       Le baguette.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   So I like that…

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

      on the toning from going to super high rep ranges. Still focus on the moneymaker sets, which are between sort of six to 14 reps at a weight which is moderately heavy, um, and still testing. It's unlikely that you're going, unless you're new to training, that you're going to PR during this particular period. But yeah, that's ... that would be broadly my approach. What are your thoughts?

   2. YUYusef15:27

      So I like that you split it out into a, a, a day, a day-

   3. CWChris Williamson15:30

      Mm-hmm.

   4. YUYusef15:30

      ... daily schedule and also the principle of make the good decisions as easy as possible and make the bad decisions as hard as possible is definitely the way to set up your environment for success 'cause if you have to consciously make the good decision and it's, you know, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops each time-

   5. CWChris Williamson15:47

      Yeah.

   6. YUYusef15:48

      ... then by 5:00 PM you've, you've ... the decision fatigue sets in, which is a real thing. Like, you, you're tired. You think, "Well, I'm just gonna," but yeah.

   7. CWChris Williamson15:55

      I'll miss training. I'll-

   8. YUYusef15:56

      Miss training, chocolate bars in the cupboard, any of that, definitely. The yogurt thing, there's, there's some evidence behind this as well, which is interesting.

   9. CWChris Williamson16:03

      Okay. (laughs)

   10. YUYusef16:03

       People have done studies looking at if you feed someone yogurt, the, with a little spoon, and then see how mu- how many calories they eat subsequently in the rest of the day, it's lower than if they were to eat other types of food and they-

   11. CWChris Williamson16:16

       That was an equivalent amount of calories.

   12. YUYusef16:17

       Yeah, so they, they compare calorie matched amounts of tuna, uh, carbs, crackers, milk, uh, whey, all those kind of things and whey-

   13. CWChris Williamson16:27

       And yogurt.

   14. YUYusef16:27

       Whey and yogurt were the, the highest satiating

   15. NANarrator16:29

       (coughs)

   16. CWChris Williamson16:29

       So in terms of s- satiety, you're gonna, you're gonna feel better from that. On a, uh, on a side point on the making sure that it's easy for you to, to, um, stack the deck in your favor, that includes prepping your food. So roll back the clock from the morning that you need to prep your food. If you've got chicken in the freezer and you haven't defrosted it, when you wake up the next morning, you can't cook the chicken that's still frozen.

   17. YUYusef16:52

       So you default to cocoa pops.

   18. CWChris Williamson16:53

       Exactly.

   19. YUYusef16:54

       Yeah.

   20. CWChris Williamson16:54

       So you think, "Oh, well fuck it, the diet's gone for today so I'll just order in some takeaway or I'll do whatever, I go to Gregg's, I get a pastry." Like-

   21. YUYusef17:00

       Mm-hmm.

   22. CWChris Williamson17:01

       ... you know, it, it is all about making the good decisions as easy as possible and the bad decisions as hard as possible. Remembering that you are going to have a lower ... y- you're already using up an awful lot of willpower here. Dr. Roy Baumeister is, um, study that he did with turnips where he had two groups of people in a room. One group had cookies and turnips, and another group just had cookies. The group that just had cookies were allowed to eat them or not if they wanted. The group that had cookies and turnips were told they couldn't eat the cookies and could only eat the turnips. So they were then given-

   23. YUYusef17:36

       (laughs)

   24. CWChris Williamson17:36

       They were then given a cognitively demanding task to do afterwards. And the group that wasn't allowed to eat the cookies gave up 50% faster than the other one.

   25. YUYusef17:43

       Wow, so it's, it's a finite resource willpower.

   26. CWChris Williamson17:46

       Yes.

   27. YUYusef17:46

       And yeah, th- so that's, that's such an interesting (laughs) study, like do, do not trust the future version of yourself-

   28. CWChris Williamson17:53

       (laughs)

   29. YUYusef17:54

       ... to make the right decision. Treat yourself like a little child because-

   30. CWChris Williamson17:57

       You are.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. CWChris Williamson30:00

      T- you shouldn't be obsessing over it. Like if you're walking around at 10%, allow yourself... Do you know what it is? Here's something to think about. We're talking about this rebound effect as soon as you get out there and you start having beer and all the rest of it.

   2. YUYusef30:12

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson30:12

      I bet that a significant proportion of people who are sat at about 10% body fat, let's say, which is probably fairly maintainable for people who train consistently-... if they went into a holiday on maintenance calories or just a little bit above-

   4. YUYusef30:29

      Mm-hmm.

   5. CWChris Williamson30:29

      ... with a slightly increased training output, that after day three or four, they would look better than the same person that they were had they drilled themselves into the ground with the deficit and then got this rebound effect.

   6. YUYusef30:41

      So when you said that day two and three of the holiday you looked your best and then got worse, it's simply that, yeah? You've carbed up almost.

   7. CWChris Williamson30:48

      Yeah.

   8. YUYusef30:48

      And then, but then you keep carbing up more and more- (laughs)

   9. CWChris Williamson30:50

      (laughs)

   10. YUYusef30:50

       ... until it just-

   11. CWChris Williamson30:51

       Yeah. Yeah.

   12. YUYusef30:51

       Yeah.

   13. CWChris Williamson30:51

       And your body's just wholly unprepared to deal with it.

   14. YUYusef30:54

       So the solution that I would propose to, to the... This is the simplest way as well, meaning that you finished your diet, your aggressive approach that you've had to take because you're an idiot and you've left it until the last minute.

   15. CWChris Williamson31:05

       (laughs)

   16. YUYusef31:05

       Um, rather than trying to track your calories while you're away and stressing out over it, pick the, the shittest, most pointless meal of the day, usually breakfast, especially if you're in-

   17. CWChris Williamson31:15

       (laughs)

   18. YUYusef31:15

       ... Ibiza and you're in a hotel and you're getting boiled eggs and like-

   19. CWChris Williamson31:18

       Mm-hmm.

   20. YUYusef31:18

       ... what, croissant or something.

   21. CWChris Williamson31:19

       You've never been to Ibiza.

   22. YUYusef31:21

       (laughs)

   23. CWChris Williamson31:21

       It's, it's not, it's not boiled eggs and croissants for breakfast.

   24. YUYusef31:25

       Oh, okay.

   25. CWChris Williamson31:25

       No.

   26. YUYusef31:25

       What, so what, what would it be for breakfast?

   27. CWChris Williamson31:26

       Pills probably.

   28. YUYusef31:27

       Oh, okay. For... (laughs)

   29. CWChris Williamson31:29

       (laughs)

   30. YUYusef31:31

       Well, I mean, that's excellent.
4. 45:00 – 58:13

   Yeah. …

   1. YUYusef45:00

      shredded for the next eight weeks or as much as you can, but keep up the momentum-

   2. CWChris Williamson45:04

      Yeah.

   3. YUYusef45:04

      ... and focus on next year's holiday.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:06

      And it's definitely, definitely as well, like a lot of people will lean out for eight weeks, go away, maybe have a little bit of this rebound that we've discussed here. But within seven days of coming back, you could get back to the set point that you were at beforehand quite easily.

   5. YUYusef45:21

      Oh, exactly. Don't think, "Holiday's over. Back to the-"

   6. CWChris Williamson45:23

      Yeah. "Oh, I've ruined it, I've ruined it. I'm never gonna be lean again."

   7. YUYusef45:26

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson45:26

      You're like, "Well, no, that's the exact opposite." So a, a structured and consistent training program is sort of number one. That's the zenith.

   9. YUYusef45:34

      So what you and I have done is a proper, proper diet, get lean once and for all. I got... Last time I dieted was 2013.

   10. CWChris Williamson45:44

       (laughs)

   11. YUYusef45:45

       I spent five or six months getting bone shredded, like pancreas lean.

   12. CWChris Williamson45:49

       Dick skin lean.

   13. YUYusef45:50

       Dick skin lean, and then gradually reversed, reversed dieted, which is systematically increasing the calories up to a point where body weight isn't, isn't influenced by it.

   14. CWChris Williamson45:59

       Yeah.

   15. YUYusef46:00

       And then if it starts to spill over, then you pull calories back. Painstaking pro- process, but what it's meant is that I've now topped out my calories.

   16. CWChris Williamson46:09

       Mm-hmm.

   17. YUYusef46:10

       It supports your training. You're eating as much food as you, as you want really. You're, you're very happy with the amount of food that you're eating, maintaining your post-diet condition, and I'm still reaping the benefits of that five years later.

   18. CWChris Williamson46:22

       Yeah. You're still abs-

   19. YUYusef46:23

       So-

   20. CWChris Williamson46:23

       You're still abs lean.

   21. YUYusef46:24

       Still abs lean thanks to that diet. So-

   22. CWChris Williamson46:26

       Yeah.

   23. YUYusef46:26

       ... the short and fun-

   24. CWChris Williamson46:26

       You only need to get lean once.

   25. YUYusef46:28

       Exactly. Get lean once properly.

   26. CWChris Williamson46:30

       Yeah.

   27. YUYusef46:30

       Do it gradually and then systematically reverse back.

   28. CWChris Williamson46:32

       Okay. So-

   29. YUYusef46:33

       And then you'll set yourself for five years or-

   30. CWChris Williamson46:34

       So... (laughs) Yeah.

Episode duration: 58:13