Zig Zag Diet Strategies for Fat Loss and Muscle Building

I have to share with you an amazing tip for both fat loss and muscle building. It’s called the zigzag nutrition strategy.

It’s pretty simple to put it simply.

Just adjust your calories in a zigzag diet pattern over days, weeks, or months, even years. I don’t recommend you do the yearly or even the monthly as it will be too late to tell if it is working for you or you are just getting fatter with less results and your hard body underneath is freaking out. for a long walk on the dirt road.

What I DO recommend is that you follow a zigzag pattern of nutrition on a weekly and possibly daily basis. I prefer to do it weekly.

It works like this (once you know your lean body mass requirements).

First you ZIG. So you ZAG.

You first need to determine how many calories you currently consume, or better yet, how many calories you need to maintain your lean body mass (LBM). That’s the sexy shape and muscle tone that hides under your layers of fat and water. Once you determine what the machine needs to power, start planning your ZIGZAG diet strategy.

Now, this is all assuming you’re eating clean, low glycemic, moderate protein and good essential fats to begin with. We can even zigzag your primary macronutrients as well, but more on that later, since we’re focusing on zigzag calories for now.

Start your ZIG by reducing your total calories by 200-500 per day. I suggest you do this during the week.

Now the ZAG is to use the required daily amount and add 200-500 calories per day for 1 week.

This will provide you with the necessary calories to maintain your lean body mass, but surprisingly you will have a leaner body by following this method after 1-2 months. Bill Phillips wrote about this with Dan Duchaine, Mauro DiPasquali, TC Loma, and a few others many years ago (almost 20 years ago). Dan Duchaine reported that this “cycling” trick resulted in +1 to 2 pounds of lean body fat and -1 to 2 pounds of body fat every 2 weeks for months.

That alone is amazing, as it means you could be the same weight you are today in a year, but you actually have 12-24 pounds less fat and 12-24 pounds more muscle than you do today. This is a GREAT opportunity to change the way you perform, look and feel without changing anything in your diet.

If you had the opportunity to NOT diet and do what you do today, just change the amounts you eat today versus tomorrow by following a ZIGZAG nutrition strategy, you should at least consider it.

Anecdotal reports on this have come from many, including the guinea pigs with the original Dr. Jekyll team above, myself, and many of my clients, and they are as follows:

• energy boost
• reduced fatigue
• Increased healing and recovery.
• pain reduction
• Increase lean muscle
• decreased weakness
• Increased fat loss
• Decreased loss of muscle mass
• increased strength

And the list goes on, its pretty amazing but you will need to experience it for yourself to be a true believer, trust me you will become a believer in this ZIGZAG diet strategy.

Remember that all this starts with a good nutritional base. If you need to do that, there are resources on the internet, but you need to start with a great nutrition game plan for this to be truly effective in the shortest possible time.

To make a ZIGZAG nutrition strategy work for you, first determine how to create a solid, clean nutrition program. A game plan if you will.

If your goal is to lose fat, then you need to know how much to feed the body. Cut that down by 200 calories and that will give you a baseline to start your Zigzag nutrition formula.

If your goal is to gain muscle, know what you need to fuel the machine and work above your baseline by 200 calories and start your ZIGZAG diet game plan.

Let me make it easy for you.

ZIGZAG for fat loss with 2000 calories

2000 calories – 200 calories = 1800 reference calories

1800 calories – 200 calories = 1600 calories on ZIG restricted days

1800 calories + 200 calories = 2000 calories on ZAG recovery days

The net average is 1800 calories, the fat loss is much greater than that and so are the lean body mass gains in the process.

ZIGZAG for muscle development using 2000 calories

2,000 calories + 200 calories = 2,200 baseline calories

2,200 calories – 200 calories = 2,000 restricted ZIG days

2,200 calories + 200 calories = 2,400 ZAG days of recovery

The net average is 2,200 calories; the lean muscle gain is greater than that along with the side effect of fat loss

This is all well done for you, but you still need to know what ratio of primary macronutrients works for you. That is different for everyone and it will change from goal to goal, from season to season.

Simple fat loss math will suggest that you eat less carbs than you do today to lose fat. You can slightly increase your protein and healthy fat intake to offset the calories from carb restriction and experience greater fat loss while eating the exact same calories you did last week.

I would only suggest swapping 100-200 carb calories for protein and fat at a time and give it 1-2 weeks to assess the net results. Once you feel that you are satisfied with your fat loss results or that you are at a sticking point, you should consider a ZIGZAG strategy.

If you are just starting out and have no idea where to feed your machine or what ratios to eat and how to implement the ZIGZAG nutrition method, try this simple math:

200 pounds – 20% body fat = LBM (Lean Body Mass)

200 pounds – 40 pounds of body fat = 160 pounds LBM

160 pounds LBM x 10 calories per LBM = 1600 calories

ZIG days (-200 calories) = 1400 calories

ZAG days (+200 calories) = 1800 calories

This may sound lower than what you’re used to, but remember that the goal is fat loss and maintenance of lean muscle and you can’t lose fat while eating too many calories.

The ratio I would recommend starting with is 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat.

1400 calories ZIG days

Protein = 560 calories / 140 grams

Carbohydrates = 420 / 105 grams

Fat = 420 / 46.6 grams

1800 calories ZAG days

Protein = 720 calories / 180 grams

Carbohydrates = 540 / 135 grams

Fat = 540 / 60 grams

Now that you know how to do this for fat loss, you can do the same process for muscle building, but instead of multiplying your LBM x10 calories, you’ll use x12-15 calories per LBM. To stay lean try the same ratios, this will ensure a lean body muscle building experience without adding unwanted fat.

Of course there are those who claim to be hard gainers, many are too lazy to work hard enough on their nutrition, exercise and supplementation programs, but even they will be surprised by using a ZIGZAG method for lean body gains. Gone are the days of raw MASS dropping all lean attributes, but if you need that kind of program, there are places and merits for that too.

I love knowing that it all comes down to 2 things with nutrition. Simple Science = Math and Personal Choices = Art of creating a program that works for you. Most of the simple science is available to you, just choose wisely and make the right ratio, meal times, and food choices that work for you.

Put ZIGZAG programs to work for you. You can go between the fat loss, muscle building, MASS program every week or month and notice incredible fat loss and lean muscle gains.

I mentioned ZIGZAG from the primary macronutrients and this can have amazing results for you too, but it’s a bit trickier to suggest here and leads me to another article to increase your lean body lifestyle, fat loss and muscle building goals.

Remember that when 90% of the world uses ZIG at the rate of 1 strategy, it is time for you to ZAG and make a difference. 90% of the time, the 10% who run the wrong way are successful in their endeavors.