From Nick Nilsson
http://www.fitness-ebooks.com

This is going to sound strange but when you're trying to build
muscle, I HIGHLY recommend doing a strategic low-calorie diet on
a regular basis.

Why low-calorie dieting for MUSCLE?

There are several reasons...

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1. Appetite

First, I've found that eating large amounts of food for long
stretches of time tends to diminish your enthusiasm for eating
large amounts of food for long stretches of time :)

When your appetite drops, you're not going to be able to eat as
much without forcing yourself to, and therefore, your overall
calorie intake can potentially be diminished. I can tell you from
experience, if you eat a LOT all the time, you do get tired of
eating. This is a way to fix it and hit the "reset" button on
your appetite, which is going to pay off when you go back to
eating more again.


2. Digestive System Overload

The digestive system can be overworked if you demand too much of
it with no break. By constantly hammering the digestive tract
with piles of food, you're basically grinding down it's capacity
to digest and absorb nutrients.

So even if you're eating a lot of food, you may not even be
getting the nutrition you THOUGHT you were out of it!


3. Rebound Weight Gain

Strategic periods of low-calorie eating sets up a rebound effect
when you go back to higher-calorie eating. Basically, by taking a
few days easy and not eating much, you're going to be creating
momentum for when you go back to eating more again.

Think of the yo-yo diet thing, only with exercise. A short diet
will give you the benefits of rebound weight gain without the
detrimental effects of long-term low-calories eating and muscle
loss.


4. Insulin Sensitivity

By managing insulin levels (via low-glycemic or low-carb
dieting), you can help help improve insulin sensitivity. Insulin
is a powerful anabolic hormone...in fact, it's CRITICAL for
building muscle because it signals the muscle cells to take in
nutrients and unlocks the cellular "doors" to let nutrients in
(like a bouncer at a bar).

Here's the thing...if insulin levels are too high for too long,
your body develops resistance to insulin, which is a potential
problem with long-term heavy eating of carbs, typical of a
weight-gain diet. By backing off on food and carbs for a few
days, you give your body a chance to restore some insulin
sensitivity.


5. Keeping Bodyfat in Check

One of the biggest problems people encounter with weight gain
diets is gaining weight. I'll be more specific...gaining FAT. Few
people train hard to get fatter (nobody I know!). This type of
staggered-calorie eating is an excellent way to keep bodyfat from
climbing too high on a muscle-building, higher-calorie diet.

It gives you the majority of your days in a surplus-calorie state
with just a few days in a negative-calorie state. Those negative
calorie days can have a big impact on minimizing fat gain. I
can't say you won't gain ANY fat...that'll depend on other
factors. But it's going to give you a much better shot at keeping
bodyfat from climbing too high.

---

How to Do It

I'll give you an example from myself. I'm currently doing my Mad
Scientist Muscle program. In that program, I include weekend
dieting...2 days of low-carb eating in this case. So basically,
it's 5 days of high-calorie eating then 2 days of low-calorie
eating.

I don't do any training on the low-calorie days, which minimizes
any chance of muscle breakdown. As I mentioned, it's low-carb so
insulin levels are basically zero.

This sets up a nice rebound effect both from insulin and from
increase calorie load the following week (if you don't want to do
low-carb, you don't have to...low-calorie eating in general will
give you great benefits as well).

I've noticed a SIGNIFICANT difference in how well this strategy
works, as compared to straight-through higher-calorie eating. I
actually find I build muscle and gain weight EASIER when I do two
days of low-calorie eating every week because of this rebound
effect.

Plus, I keep bodyfat levels lower, which is great. To give you an
idea, in the past 5 months, I've gone from 188 lbs in bodyweight
to 217 lbs in bodyweight. I'm not shredded by any stretch, but I
can still see a decent six-pack...which is not bad for having
gained almost 30 pounds in 5 months!

It's definitely something I would recommend you give a try,
especially if you're keen on increasing muscle mass while keeping
bodyfat in check.

---

What to Eat

So here's a quick thing I wanted to throw at you...after talking
about how to use dieting to gain muscle, I wanted to give you
some ideas about WHAT to eat during those two days of low-calorie
eating.

Really, it can be whatever you're comfortable making on your
regular dieting phases. Just eat it over the course of those two
days and you'll be good. I'm not a great cook, so you'll
generally find me eating scrambled eggs, tuna and some type of
basic meat.

So if you stink in the kitchen like I do but still want some
great-tasting food to eat while doing these diet days, THIS is
the book you need...


==> http://www.MyFatLossSolution.com


I've mentioned it a few times over the past few days and it's
excellent - it's called "Metabolic Cooking" and it's a fat-loss
cookbook by my friends Dave Ruel and Karine Losier.

I've looked through the book and even tried out a couple of the
recipes. They're VERY tasty and easy to make. Well worth trying
out!

Nick

P.S. Remember, when you pick up the cookbook (only through one of
these links in this email), just forward your receipt to
support@fitstep.com and we'll hook you up with The Best Ab
Exercises right away!

==> http://www.MyFatLossSolution.com

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