Before we get to the diet and exercise, it’s important that you know that even the best programme of diet and exercise won’t work unless you are consistent. It’s no good training hard for a few weeks, then throwing in the towel because you miss a workout or two. Every workout must build on the last one. If you miss a workout, or mess up your diet, don’t let it get you down.

With that in mind, here are the “basics” to getting in shape. Follow these to the letter, and you won’t go wrong. Forget all the complicated stuff, and just focus on being consistent. The results will come in time, if you work hard and apply yourself.

1. To gain muscle and lose fat, you must eat smaller, more frequent meals. Six smaller meals, rather than three larger ones, is the best way to do it. This isn’t always easy. If you don’t have an understanding boss, it’s difficult to sneak out of the office to eat every few hours. And it’s always a hassle to spend hours cooking and preparing food. Nobody has the time these days.

The solution is to use a high-quality fat-burning meal-replacement supplement, such as Slim-Meal bars by Maximuscle. Think of it like this. Imagine taking a shopping trolley full of food, and extracting the good things your body needs - lean protein, energy rich carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and fibre - and putting it all in one place. How much easier would your life be if you could get all these valuable nutrients from just one meal? Meal replacements give you all the convenience of a fast food without the excess calories, saturated fat and unhealthy sugars.

2. Control your carbohydrate intake. Avoid all simple sugars, such as glucose, or sucrose, unless taken after training as a recovery drink. You should also try to limit your intake of processed and manufactured foods. Stick to complex carbohydrates, such as wholegrain rice, pasta, vegetables, oats, and seeds. Creative cooking, with spices and herbs, can make all dull food taste great.

3. Don’t eliminate all fat. Cutting down on fats doesn’t mean reducing the healthy good fats, such as Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). These essential fats, found in fish, seeds and nuts are responsible for hormone balance, optimum health and actually speed up your metabolism.

4. Get enough protein. Protein is your key to getting slim. While reducing your calories, it is vital to increase your protein intake. If not, you’ll end up burning muscle tissue for energy. Extra protein helps burn bodyfat, whilst preserving muscle tissue (or increasing muscle, if weight training). This will ensure you get the sought-after lean and toned look, not the thin and saggy look, which low protein diets cause. Stick to high quality whey protein that is easily digested and absorbed.

5. You need a minimum of 7-8 hours sleep every night, not week! It’s during sleep that your body releases growth hormone and ensures optimum testosterone levels needed for recovery. If you can’t wake up in the morning without an alarm clock, you’re not getting enough sleep.

6. Do not go into the gym to talk or muck around! Train hard and intense. Your session should last no more than 45-60 minutes.

7. Be realistic. Aim to lose no more than 2lbs per week, anything over and it’s very likely to be muscle or water. It may sound like little, but over 3 months, that works out at 24lbs (10.9kg)

Supplements
To burn fat and build muscle, we recommend the use of Weight Management Stack 1 from Maximuscle.com. When you buy the supplements in bulk, it saves you money. With Weight Management Stack 1 you get 2 bottles of Thermobol (enough for two months use), 2 bottles of CLA-1000 (enough for one month), and 1 tub of Slim-Meal (enough for one month when used as described below) for only £127.46 - a saving of £42.49 (25%) off the normal price of £169.95.

Here’s the best way to use it:
Thermobol - Take 3 capsules daily
CLA-1000 - Take 6 capsules daily
Slim-Meal - Take 1 serving daily on weekdays, and take weekends off

To help you build muscle, it’s also a good idea to use a high-quality whey protein, such as Promax. Although you do get some high-quality whey protein from Slim-Meal, the extra muscle that you want to build will require eating more protein

Take 1 scoop of a high-quality whey like Promax (Maximuscle) in the morning, to increase the protein content of your breakfast. On the days you train, take 1 serving immediately after exercise. On the days you don’t train, you can have 1 scoop of Promax with some yogurt or fruit as a snack.

Diet
This sample diet is for a male weighing approximately 190 pounds (13 stone 8 pounds) training 3-5 times a week to build muscle and burn fat.

8.00am Breakfast
Shreddies (60 grams), Skimmed milk (150 ml), Promax (1 scoop)
CLA-1000 (2 capsules)
Thermobol (1 capsule)

10.30am Snack
Slim-Meal (1 serving)

1.00pm Lunch
Wholegrain bread (2 slices), Low-cal mayo (10 grams), Tuna steak in brine (200-gram tin)
Thermobol (1 capsule)
CLA-1000 (2 capsules)

3.00pm Snack
Peanuts (28 grams), apple (138 grams), low-fat yoghurt (plain)
Thermobol (1 capsule)

5.30pm Weight training: 60 minutes

6.45pm Promax (1 scoop)

9.00pm
Salmon fillets (200 grams), mixed vegetables (250 grams), new potatoes (200 grams)
CLA-1000 (2 capsules)

11.00pm Sleep

This diet provides approximately 2,000 calories, 204 grams of protein, 184 grams of carbohydrate, and 54 grams of fat.

Exercise
Get proper instruction on all exercises. On the first training session, start off light, do one set per exercise. You might ache the next day, this is normal and shows you have trained well.

After a few weeks, perform two sets for each exercise. After around three months, perform a maximum of three sets per exercise. Always do an additional easy warm-up set of around 20 reps, to get the motion right and the blood into the muscle.

Perform a maximum of around 10-12 reps for each exercise. The weight you are using should be heavy enough so that the last rep should be near impossible. Try and increase the weights or reps you are doing every session, to ensure you are progressing.

Monday
Squats OR Leg Press 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Leg Extension 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Leg Curl 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Standing Calf Raise 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Leg Raise 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions

Wednesday
Incline Bench Press 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Close Grip Bench Press 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Behind Neck Shoulder Press 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Lateral Raise 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Dumbbell Biceps Curl 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions

Friday
Shoulder Width Lat Pulldown 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Close Grip Seated Pulley Row 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Triceps Pushdown 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Crunches 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Hyper Extension 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions
Shrugs 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions

Add some cardiovascular work on the days you are not weight training. Stick to light jogging, cycling on the stationary bike, fast walking or the step machine. These have been shown to be some of the best exercises for burning bodyfat. Don’t waste your time with swimming.

There is no point in going to the gym just to do useless, low level, halfhearted cycling, jogging, etc. You must do it at the right intensity. Your heartbeat should be around 80% of your maximum heart rate. To measure this, you can buy one of the many heart rate monitors, sold in most sports shops or advertised in the running magazines. Most good cardiovascular machines now have built in heart rate monitors in the handgrip.

Do your cardio first in the morning, and you’ll burn a little more fat too. Plus, you’ll get it out of the way early, so the rest of the day is free.

Here’s how a typical week might look:

Monday: Weights
Tuesday: Cardio (30-40 minutes)
Wednesday: Weights
Thursday: Off
Friday: Weights
Saturday: Cardio (30-40 minutes)
Sunday: Off

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