Leangains Method book review

Leangains Book Review

I want to start with the bottom fucking line: This book is worth the $10 price tag. Buy it.

Here's why. Even though I have been following Leangains since 2012, and Martin has published a plethora of free material on his web site, this book contains new nutritional information that he has not published and, while perhaps was publicly available, I was not aware of.

Specifically, the chapters on the different thermic effects of macros and how they fit into the big picture of fat loss and macro partitioning were very eye-opening. He makes a really strong case for a diet higher in protein than I have ever done before.

The information on strength training in the book is rather sparse, but he references the material on his web site which is freely available. The bulk of the book is on nutrition, with a healthy dose of personal history from Martin himself.

This was a very quick read if you subtract the content that is already on his web site, but I feel that it supplements what is already out there to provide a nice big picture for how and why Leangains works so well.

To share my personal history with IF/LG, in 2012 I was a skinny fat BJJ blue belt who dabbled in powerlifting. I was fairly strict with LG training and dieting from 2012 until 2014, when I switched to different strength training templates and hopped on TRT and other non-natural shit.

For me personally, the minimalist approach to strength training via reverse pyramid training (RPT) worked well enough to gain strength while in a caloric deficit. My best lifts were Squat: 370lbs, Bench 265lbs and Deadlift 430lbs at a bodyweight of roughly 172lbs, while training BJJ several times per week and doing HIIT cardio.

I tried bulking while on the Leangains program, but for me personally the volume was not high enough to gain significant mass or strength. It was only when I switched to a 4-day Texas Method split that I made personal best lifts of 450lb deadlift and close to 400lb squat while still at a mid-170's bodyweight as a natural lifter. RPT simply wasn't enough to get strong or big on, for me at least.

One cool effect I noticed when I was running leangains and trying to lose some fat, was when I started TRT I was still trying to lose fat but I inadvertently gained muscle at the same time. This was evident when seeing family for the holidays and everyone commenting on how big my shoulders and arms were, despite me trying to diet for the past 2 months! So Leangains and TRT go together very well.

Again, for $10 this is a must-buy. Combined with Leangains.com and all the articles Martin has published over the years, its amazing how much content you get for so little $$$.

Quote: (08-29-2018 07:36 AM)Checkmat Wrote:  

I tried bulking while on the Leangains program, but for me personally the volume was not high enough to gain significant mass or strength. It was only when I switched to a 4-day Texas Method split that I made personal best lifts of 450lb deadlift and close to 400lb squat while still at a mid-170's bodyweight as a natural lifter. RPT simply wasn't enough to get strong or big on, for me at least.

Yeah, that is what interested me most. It seems that LG together with his minimalist version of RPT is best suited for cutting and that for bulking program is too minimalistic. For example there is a spreadsheet circulating around and for bulk it has 4 days split with each day having 4 exercises at the most. Coupled with Martin's advice how he warms up for just one or two exercises, I figure these workouts are 40 minutes long at most. I doubt one can get enough volume following this. But for cut there is another story. There you are looking for conserving muscle and even slightly increase it so there is a very minimalist training.

Berkhan got a lot of training advice from Beyond Brawn, book I am also currently reading. Stuart McRobert is proponent of very sparse but intense workouts, such as fabled 2 days per week workouts, or even 3 days per 2 weeks split. Martin obviously modeled his routines according to the book.

I like chapter six the most. "Crunching the numbers". Very straight foward compared to all the other bs floating around. Also, his fiber and protein insight was great. I commented on steelx cutting thread a while back about the guy not getting enough fiber and cutting caloried too much. Martins book covers the why in great detail which is backed by numerous scientific studies. The studies arn't your pub studies with a sample size of like 4 people either. I agree buy the book!

However I do disagree with chapter 5, dit hack concerning the combo of fructose/glucose immediately after a workout. Keeping insulin sensitivity sky high by not ingesting carbs prior to next work out is more important than satisfying muscle glycogen stores imo. But great read indeed.

So I’m finding it nearly impossible to adequately an effectively consume 225 grams of protein in my small 8hr feeding window. You think using Casein at the end of the window would help?
Any suggestions?

Quote: (09-01-2018 01:46 PM)DimeBait Wrote:  

So I’m finding it nearly impossible to adequately an effectively consume 225 grams of protein in my small 8hr feeding window. You think using Casein at the end of the window would help?
Any suggestions?

I would imagine that supplementing with whey or casein products is a given.

Definitely using Whey Protein but I’ve never used casein and was wondering if the slow release was beneficial in keeping the excess protein from being turned into glucose instead of for muscle synthesis.
I read somewhere that you can only really absorb about 40g of protein every 2-3hrs. If we only have an 8hr eating window, it seems nearly impossible to utilize 225g of protein within that window.

I'm looking into moving my current diet into an IF model. I currently take fiber, fish oil, and vitamin supplements in the morning. Do these things disrupt the effect of IF if you consume them outside the feeding period?

Fiber is about 2 calories per gram - semi digestible carbs.

Fish oil is fat and does not interfere with IF, because IF is a fat burning mode.

Some vitamin supplements have calories in them and honestly I would recommend taking them with food because they are generally more effective when taken with food.

What I would do is take the fish oil in the morning and then slam the vitamins and fiber after your first meal.

Quote: (09-03-2018 08:25 PM)Hannibal Wrote:  

Fiber is about 2 calories per gram - semi digestible carbs.

Fish oil is fat and does not interfere with IF, because IF is a fat burning mode.

Please expand on that because I have no idea what that means.

Quote: (09-03-2018 08:25 PM)Hannibal Wrote:  

Fiber is about 2 calories per gram - semi digestible carbs.

Fish oil is fat and does not interfere with IF, because IF is a fat burning mode.

Some vitamin supplements have calories in them and honestly I would recommend taking them with food because they are generally more effective when taken with food.

What I would do is take the fish oil in the morning and then slam the vitamins and fiber after your first meal.

I thought too much of any calories break your fast. The recommended dose for fish oil ends up being about 200-250 calories.




Another question:

I've been fasting for about 18 hours; that's how my schedule works out some days. I realized I had been taking in 800-1000 calories a day (my previous diet had me taking in about 1500 and I was losing 1-2 lbs a week). What I'm finding is that eating protein powder and lean meat I just cannot shovel that much food into my face at once.

At what point do I need to worry about my metabolic rate dropping from adaptive thermogenesis? I haven't begun to feel sluggish yet, but it's only been 3 days. I was thinking about doing a shot of olive oil to up the calories if I need to.

-Take your fish oil, supplements, and fiber during your 8 hour eating period.
-No calories at all during the fast. However, diet soda, 1 coffee is fine with a splash of cream. Water is obvious meaning drink water during the fast
-Fasting for 18 hours and not 16 is fine as long as your consistent about it i.e. your fasting everyday for 18 hours.
-Seems like your not eating enough calories. Yes even during a cut. Too less calories you sacrifice losing muscle mass. Go back to your old diet, just eat it during the 8 hour period.
-1500 calories tells me your about 155lbs. Every fitness book and research i've done on "cutting" says 1 lbs a week is the sweet spot. You should gain a VERY SMALL AMOUNT of muscle and be losing fat at the same time. So aim for 1 lbs/week of weight loss.
-Can't eat 1500 calories in 8 hours? Than move those 8 hours to another part of the day.
-Carb cycling will keep that sluggish feeling at bay. Eat the majority of your carbs on training day. Ironically it seems like your getting too much fat daily. Lower it and replace with green leafy veggies.
-Don't worry about thermogenesis yet. You will over whelm yourself. Just concentrate on getting your diet right than start fine tuning shit.
-Remember, this is a LIFESTYLE change, meaning you will be eating like this for life. So be patient and everything will fall into place around the 12 week mark.
Good luck!

Quote: (09-05-2018 09:04 PM)S3K2 Wrote:  

-Take your fish oil, supplements, and fiber during your 8 hour eating period.
-No calories at all during the fast. However, diet soda, 1 coffee is fine with a splash of cream. Water is obvious meaning drink water during the fast
-Fasting for 18 hours and not 16 is fine as long as your consistent about it i.e. your fasting everyday for 18 hours.
-Seems like your not eating enough calories. Yes even during a cut. Too less calories you sacrifice losing muscle mass. Go back to your old diet, just eat it during the 8 hour period.
-1500 calories tells me your about 155lbs. Every fitness book and research i've done on "cutting" says 1 lbs a week is the sweet spot. You should gain a VERY SMALL AMOUNT of muscle and be losing fat at the same time. So aim for 1 lbs/week of weight loss.
-Can't eat 1500 calories in 8 hours? Than move those 8 hours to another part of the day.
-Carb cycling will keep that sluggish feeling at bay. Eat the majority of your carbs on training day. Ironically it seems like your getting too much fat daily. Lower it and replace with green leafy veggies.
-Don't worry about thermogenesis yet. You will over whelm yourself. Just concentrate on getting your diet right than start fine tuning shit.
-Remember, this is a LIFESTYLE change, meaning you will be eating like this for life. So be patient and everything will fall into place around the 12 week mark.
Good luck!

I should probably have included a bit of info about myself. I'm 5'10'' and 300 lbs. I've lost 190 lbs working on the 1500 cal diet over the past 30 months, I just want to ramp things up.

My old diet was basically: 200 calories from fish oil, 400 from protein powder, 240 from 3 soft boiled eggs, 660 from 400g chicken breast. Once every 4 weeks I would do a "reset" and take in about 2400 calories including a lot of carbs. Hunger hasn't really been a problem due to ketosis. I'm eating the same things, just in a smaller time period (although it turns out that it's closer to 5 hours).

The discipline not to eat isn't my problem, so that's why I want to skirt the line of eating as little as possible while still maintaining a sufficient metabolic rate. Adaptive thermogenesis is what causes your body to not build as much muscle and become sluggish at a low enough energy intake. So I'm looking for some first-hand advice on this to limit the amount of guesswork I need to do.

Lately I've been reading up on the Snake Diet and longer term fasting.

Last week I completed a 48-hour fast, immediately followed by a 72 hour fast after a small refeed meal. I am currently two-thirds of the way through a 4 day fast and am feeling really good. I started 8 days ago at 5'8" 185 (~16%-18% BF) and weighed in at 174 last night. My goal is to cut down to 160 or so till I'm shredded up, and then put on a bunch of muscle in a clean bulk.

After very cautiously experimenting with fasted exercise during my first week of long-fasting, I decided to train on Monday and Tuesday after not having eaten since Sunday night. I kept my intensity at around 80% of what I would normally do just to be careful. I was pretty amazed that even 48 hours later I still had almost all of my strength.

If you are trying to cut, I wouldn't be too scared about losing muscle mass, especially if you are really fat. Even if you do lose muscle mass, you can put it back on very quickly.

Check this article out about 1970s bodybuilder Casey Viator, who put on 63lbs of lean mass in a month after having been injured/sick for a few months and hopping back into a hardcore workout regimen.

Arthur Jones Experiment

I've been lifting for 16 years. I've been slowly getting fatter because my diet hasn't been perfect and I've been very scared about restricting calories and losing my gains. Fuck it - from now on, it's get lean at all costs and then rebuild.

Since my last post I completed my four-day fast and an additional three-day fast. The latest three-day fast was a piece of cake. I did the following workout around the 48-hour mark:

~30 mins shooting around on the basketball court
Squats: 1x5 @ 205 (warmup), 3x6 @ 225, 1x1 @ 265
Overhead Barbell Press: 4x6 @ 95, crapped at rep 3 or 4 on final set
Low Row: 4x8 @ 130

Felt great. Last night I broke my fast with the following keto meal:

Bag of Frozen Broccoli: 120 cals
1 avocado: ~250 cals
4 whole hardboiled eggs: ~320 cals
3/4 of a block of cheese: ~450 cals
1 vodka soda at the bar (still gotta live right?): ~200 cals

I've been doing one meal a day and it really works great for me. I had a major setback over this past weekend which included sizeable servings of liquor, tortilla chips, and blow - however, that is definitely not the norm for me.

I'm currently weighing in between 171 and 174 depending on how hydrated I am, and I expect to crack into the 160s sometime next week.

Extended fasting has seriously transformed my relationship with food in a very positive way. It's really empowering to know that, whether by choice or due to an emergency, I can easily go three fully-active days in a row without eating a damn thing.

I first tried IF briefly when I was trying to pop my abs for my summer holiday. I pigged out on holiday and gave it a rest until recently when I took it up again.

I'm doing the 8 hour eating window and have lost 5lbs in just under two weeks. No loss of strength and even some slight gains (in reps)on the Bench Press! But the main thing is I look better.

I never would have believed this would work if I hadn't read some of the testimony and reasoning on here. I see no reason not to keep this up for the rest of my life, it's piss-easy! I haven't even paid close attention to my diet yet either, just my eating windows. It's a great feeling when 1pm comes round and I start eating like a horse for the next 8 hours!

I always attributed my ever-present (though not sculpted) abs to genetics but apparently its IF all along. Since teen years i never felt hungry in the morning.

For awhile I wonder if skipping breakfast is rhe cause of my low energy in the morning but 3 months of 4 meals/day proved me wrong. No energy boost whatsoever, just a slight gain increase. Morning most important meal, my ass. One of the great myth from the time most people were farmers and actually needed a heavy morning meal to work the fields.

My only concern is that constant IF tend to make an asian face looks gaunt

Yeah I'm beginning to think the whole 'breakfast being the most important meal of the day' talk is a marketing con. Why do we need to eat as soon as we wake up? We've been asleep for 8 hours! Our ancestors wouldn't have had refrigerators and cupboards full of food upon waking either, theyd have to go and hunt and forage first. Also they would sleep when dark, not have supper. This makes perfect sense to me.

Quote: (10-23-2018 01:41 PM)Dalaran1991 Wrote:  

For awhile I wonder if skipping breakfast is rhe cause of my low energy in the morning but 3 months of 4 meals/day proved me wrong. No energy boost whatsoever, just a slight gain increase. Morning most important meal, my ass. One of the great myth from the time most people were farmers and actually needed a heavy morning meal to work the fields.

My only concern is that constant IF tend to make an asian face looks gaunt

Quote: (10-23-2018 04:36 PM)Richard Turpin Wrote:  

Yeah I'm beginning to think the whole 'breakfast being the most important meal of the day' talk is a marketing con. Why do we need to eat as soon as we wake up? We've been asleep for 8 hours! Our ancestors wouldn't have had refrigerators and cupboards full of food upon waking either, theyd have to go and hunt and forage first. Also they would sleep when dark, not have supper. This makes perfect sense to me.

Gentleman, you're forgetting that not every individual's innards work the same as your innards, do.

As a fellow believer of IF and its benefits, I still choose to have breakfast in the morning (9am for my 8/16 routine) as it keeps me charged for the rest of the morning and not yawning before 6 pm.

Is it the "most important meal of the day?" must be based on an individual's own experience and not a 'third party speculation.' It's called "breakfast" for a reason = to "break your fast." During the night, our bodies are in a state of breaking down what we ate during the day to repair the torn muscle, and then come morning, we sit down for a bowl of oats 'n hoes, in which, the body restocks the shelves with the necessary components to fuel its engine throughout the day.

Everyone is different. Some of us don't need to eat in the morning, while others require it each day. If I don't have breakfast in the morning I begin to feel dizzy, lightheadedness, nausea, and irritability, within two hours of waking. I also start my day off with 20 ounces of water upon waking, it really helps increase my energy levels, and I feel much more energetic than if I'd started my day with coffee.

>>If I don't have breakfast in the morning I begin to feel dizzy,

You need to go on a three day or longer water fast to reset your metabolism. Of course humans vary, but fundamentally we (and our mammal relatives) all have the same underlying metabolic systems. All humans can go with either high-carb low-fat or low-carb high-fat, otherwise their ancestors would have never survived. Water fasting is just a variation on low-carb high-fat, with the source of fat being the body. It takes a few days to switch from one system to the other, hence the advice for a three day water fast. Nothing wrong with high-carb (those oats) low-fat, and that's how I eat, but high-carb diets can easily mess up your metabolism, which is evidently what has happened to you.

Got a body composition test on Saturday at my gym.

I weighed in at 166lbs and 15% BF, which is down from 195 and 19% BF the last time I checked it in May 2017. My goal is <10%, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm going to start incorporating some dry fasting so that I can keep this momentum going. 9 more pounds of fat loss should get me to the promised land.

Quote: (11-06-2018 07:45 AM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  

Got a body composition test on Saturday at my gym.

I weighed in at 166lbs and 15% BF, which is down from 195 and 19% BF the last time I checked it in May 2017. My goal is <10%, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm going to start incorporating some dry fasting so that I can keep this momentum going. 9 more pounds of fat loss should get me to the promised land.

Going from 20%-15% is just a medium chore requiring discipline. Going from 15 - 10 is much more difficult even if you have a very disciplined approach. If, like you said in your previous post, you have a breakdown even for just one day and gorge on booze and chips, that will set you back weeks. Gotta stay the course. Also, 15%-10%, even with the fasting, you have to be careful what you eat and begin thinking of food only as a nutrient. Eating for fun or taste isn't really an option (unless of course you enjoy eating bland food just for fuel).

Good luck!

You lost 30 lbs and only 3% body fat? Seems like you lost a lot more than fat.

Quote: (11-06-2018 09:47 AM)Dulceácido Wrote:  

Quote: (11-06-2018 07:45 AM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  

Got a body composition test on Saturday at my gym.

I weighed in at 166lbs and 15% BF, which is down from 195 and 19% BF the last time I checked it in May 2017. My goal is <10%, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm going to start incorporating some dry fasting so that I can keep this momentum going. 9 more pounds of fat loss should get me to the promised land.

Going from 20%-15% is just a medium chore requiring discipline. Going from 15 - 10 is much more difficult even if you have a very disciplined approach. If, like you said in your previous post, you have a breakdown even for just one day and gorge on booze and chips, that will set you back weeks. Gotta stay the course. Also, 15%-10%, even with the fasting, you have to be careful what you eat and begin thinking of food only as a nutrient. Eating for fun or taste isn't really an option (unless of course you enjoy eating bland food just for fuel).

Good luck!

It's not that bad if you do cardio daily. I recommend 30 minutes of HIIT (High Intensity interval training) cardio every 2 days and 30 minutes of medium intensity in the alternating days. I use a stationary bike so it's very convenient and can do it at home.

If he does cardio daily and watches his calorie intake, he'll get there soon enough.

Of course it depends on his body type. Some people can go down from 15% to 10% easily while other may struggle.

Quote: (11-06-2018 10:28 AM)Seth_Rose Wrote:  

You lost 30 lbs and only 3% body fat? Seems like you lost a lot more than fat.

Yes, he probably lost some muscle.To retain muscle mass and prevent losing muscle, increase protein intake.

It IS possible to lose weight while actually gaining muscle, but protein intake must be high.

Quote: (11-06-2018 10:28 AM)Seth_Rose Wrote:  

You lost 30 lbs and only 3% body fat? Seems like you lost a lot more than fat.

Yeah this is the big takeaway for mine as well.

Probably worth looking into your macros and your exercise regime as something is wrong in this scenario and making sure both of those are on point will massively help with your goal.

If my math is right that equates to about 12 lbs of fat loss. Another 12-15lbs is water weight that I shed within a few days cleaning up my diet. That means I lost 3-5lbs of lean mass. I'm not concerned about it.