Shred Training: A Three-Phase Nutrition Plan

Shred Training is built on three distinct nutrition phases. Each phase calls for different amounts of carbohydrates and calories. Your protein and fat intake remains the same throughout Shred Training, but your carb intake gradually drops, which also drops your overall calories.

In Phases 1 and 2, your caloric intake is different on workout days and rest days, because on rest days you will not ingest a pre- or post-workout meal.

In Phase 3, you will have more calories on your rest days than on workout days. This is because when you drop your carb intake down to 0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight, your leptin levels may drop if you don’t have enough calories. Leptin is a critical hormone for maintaining your metabolic rate. If leptin levels drop too low, your metabolic rate drops, too.

By giving your body a high-carb day, you can keep your leptin levels even, which helps you continue burning fat and get through the diet. A high-carb rest day will do wonders for your mind.

Like in Phase 1, on the one day of the week that you don’t train, these numbers will be slightly lower since you skip the pre and post-workout meals. Feel free to have your pre-workout shake as an extra snack on that rest day if you get hungry.

The sample meals are similar to Phase 1, but this does not mean you need to eat these exact foods and only these foods for all 3 weeks of the first 2 phases of this program. The foods are similar so you can see what I removed and changed to bring the carbs down without affecting protein and fat much.

Refer to the alternative foods list for foods that you can use to replace these sample choices so the diet doesn’t become boring and bereft of nutrient diversity.

Dropping calories and carbs again will cause your body to continue burning fat. Unlike in Phases 1 and 2, where you eat fewer calories and carbs on your rest day, the opposite holds true in Phase 3. You will eat more carbs and calories on your rest days.

On your rest days throughout Phase 3, you get to enjoy a high-carb, pig-out day. Since you go so low in carbs six days of the week, you will need this one high-carb day to prevent your metabolism from sputtering and slowing down to spare energy reserves (body fat). The high-carb day will help kick start your metabolism again, keeping you in a fat-burning mode for the final phase

A high-carb pig-out day does not mean you’ll eat pizza and drink beer all day. Sure, a couple beers or a glass of wine won’t derail your progress, but your high-carb day isn’t a full 24-hour chest session.

Shoot for low-fat carb sources. High-glycemic or fast-digesting carbs are fine during the first half of the day, as is fruit, but to prevent any of those carbs from being stored as body fat, focus on slow-digesting or low-glycemic carbs later in the day.

You will notice that the sample meals given in each phase of

Shred Training are very similar. This does not mean that you should eat these exact foods, and only these foods, throughout the program. Refer to the alternative foods below so you can keep your diet diverse and well-stocked with myriad nutrients!

The following meats can be used for any meal on Shred Training. You can also replace any meat with roughly 2 servings of the dairy products listed below, or 2 scoops of whey or mixed protein powder.

You will eat dairy at several meals, including foods like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and low-fat string cheese. Feel to replace any of these with each other, or any of the following:

I highly recommend that you do not replace eggs due to the benefits that they provide for muscle growth and strength. However, I understand that some people cannot stand eggs, others are allergic, and some of you just get sick of eating them. So, if you must, you can replace eggs with the following:

These vegetables can replace the salad at dinner, and since they are low in carbs, you can add 0.5-1 cup to almost any meal on the plan:

Replace any of the fruit with any of these:

Replace the morning oatmeal with any of these alternatives:

Replace whole-wheat bread with any of these:

When get to eat a sweet potato in the early stage of the diet, you can replace it with any of these: