Getting Ripped!
The Perfect Bodybuilding Routine
(part 2 Getting Cut)
by Joe Meeko

Joe Meeko has an amazingly simple understanding of diet and nutrition. In this second installment  of 4 Joe explains the ingredients of a real Bodybuilding Diet.

This is his original article as he wrote it for midwestchristianbodybuilding.com  

This is a continuation of my last article on diet and how important it is in bodybuilding and general fitness. I’m going to get right into it so here it is folks: If you want to get cut and totally ripped or shredded then it’s all in the diet. There are no secrets to getting cut or special weight lifting routines you have to follow. I trained exactly the same off-season during a bulking phase as I did while cutting up for a bodybuilding show. After the initial month of going "flat" my entire body would take on a new look just from what I ate and so will yours. I didn’t add any extra sets to get cut; I just went SUPER STRICT on the diet. This is the key, and many are chasing a perfect routine that they think is going to get them cut but there isn’t any. All it takes is extreme willpower to stay on your diet and train religiously. If you can handle that you’re on your way to getting shredded! It’s all about what you want more - a good healthy body or that Cheese Steak or Pizza. What’s more important to you?



Going flat or not getting a pump is due to your body not being used to eating good healthy foods for its nutrients. The muscles were used to getting a pump from being fueled on high fatty, sugary and salty foods that you were eating prior to eating what they really wanted - natural food from the Earth, Gods food! This flat look and feeling will pass though, just stick it out and you’ll be amazed at how good of a pump you’ll get - and in less time. Once this diet kicks in and you get rid of all the fat that’s in the way of the real feel the muscles are supposed to have, you will get a pump from a clean food diet and the pump will feel incredible! You will be at your maximum pump in only 2 or 3 light sets after being on this diet for a few months.


Don’t worry about strength. You will get weaker in most exercises but that’s not what you’re worried about. It’s how you look and feel, not how much you can bench press anymore. The strength will come back when and if you decide to get off the diet. But my guess is that most will want to stay on a fairly clean diet all of the time because mentally and physically you will feel better not carrying around all that extra fat which was slowing you down. You will go through a period of tiredness and weakness at first but this will pass and you’ll have more energy than you ever had before. After you get rid of most of the fat that you’ve been carrying around! The first two weeks to a month is the critical point where most people give up on a diet and exercise program. It’s like I said before, you were relying on stored body fats and fatty foods for your energy - now get rid of the fat and get your energy from the good foods you’ll be eating. Before reading what you have to eat just remember that the food may be plain to the taste "at first" but you’ll be surprised how good they taste once you clean out your taste buds. All of us have poisoned our taste buds by eating fat, sugar, salt and everything else that are added to the foods of today to make them taste good like chemicals and food taste enhancers. Once you clean out your taste buds, which usually take about 2 weeks to a month you’ll start to enjoy the food for how it’s supposed to taste just plain, without any toppings. For example, I’ll bet most don’t even know that a baked potato plain with nothing added to it has a mild sweet taste. I’m not talking about a sweet potato or yam but just a regular plain old baked potato. Once your taste buds are cleaned out you will be able to taste this remarkable flavor that God has put in most foods. We usually don’t taste this due to the poisoning effects that toppings have had to dull our taste buds.

There are many young bodybuilders that are trying to put on pure lean muscle without adding any body fat and they are going to have very small gains this way. It’s OK to look smooth off season as your body needs that time to grow from eating heavier bulking foods in order to pack on muscle size more quickly. They seem to think that the top pro and amateur bodybuilders look in contest shape all year long; this is a fallacy. You can lift heavier weight when you weigh more "to a point" so the muscle in turn will grow faster. If you’re not trying to be a top bodybuilder, that’s OK and this diet will keep you lean and mean all year round. It contains everything you’ll ever need for nutrition. The only vitamin supplement I took was a multi mineral vitamin just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything from the foods I was eating. There’s no reason to go overboard on vitamins because they come from a well balanced diet. However the last month of a bodybuilding diet is very strict and supplements should be included so as not to deplete your body of necessary life sustaining nutrients.


If you tried to stay cut all year round your body would get used to the diet and you would most likely smooth out or flatten. The key is to get your body into the Ketosis stage (fat burning process) and hold it there until the show. Afterwards you can hold a somewhat shredded look for a while and then you will go flat because your muscles are starving for nutrients. You don’t want to stay super strict as with the last month of a diet because your body will start to eat all the hard gained muscle for fuel. Also you can only carb up for a show a few times and then your body will get used to it. After a few sessions your body won’t respond to the carb loading routine. This carbing up will be discussed in the next pre-contest prep article. Stating very "dry" is hard because you simply can’t go without water after three days; it’s very unhealthy for you. Top-notch bodybuilders may look like a picture of health on stage but in actuality they are starving and very dehydrated and lack much energy.


First I am going to list all the foods that you can eat, and then I will show how to prepare them. There are many food recipes that I came up with to keep the diet interesting and tasty for the first few months, but in the end the last 2 to 3 weeks is going to be VERY plain and hardly appealing, especially to someone who is used to eating rich tasty, fatty, salty and sugary foods. But this strictness is needed in order to lose the last of the water that the body holds due to sodium levels in the food you’ve been eating up to this point.

PROTEIN SOURCES


EGG WHITES, (until 2 to 3 weeks away from show - will explain why later) separate the whites from the yolks in the usual way by hand and put them in a bowl and microwave them until done. If you prefer you can cook them just like you do in a frying pan. Spray the pan with fat free Pam so they don’t stick. I don’t believe all labels and even though it says it’s fat free, any oil has to have a little fat in it but the tiny amount you’re spraying on the frying pan is so minute that it won’t really have an effect. If you want, you can use a Teflon coated pan but the egg whites will still stick a little. I was able to buy ½ gallon cartons off pure frozen egg whites from a restaurant supply company locally. Check your yellow pages in the phone book for a supplier near you. You can usually order chicken breasts in bulk at the same restaurant supply place like I did to save money on your food bill. The yolks on average have 4-1/2 grams of fat in a typical large egg so you can see how fast the fat content can add up especially if you eat a dozen or more for a meal.
 

God blessed me with a very fats metabolism so I was able to eat until I was full. When I stayed with Mike Mentzer in 1985 he saw me eating two dozen egg whites and a couple of pieces of toast, a few baked potatoes and a large fruit salad for breakfast. He couldn’t believe I got cut on that amount of food. He told me that he had to eat only ONE egg white and a piece of toast for his breakfast in order to get cut. Mike had no problem putting on size that’s for sure but when it came time for him to diet he really suffered. This just goes to show you the varying degrees each bodybuilder must diet in order to get cut, but the foods we all eat are basically the same. Everyone is going to have to find out how much he or she is able to eat for each meal on his or her own. Since I don’t know how you’re going to respond to the intake of this food you must figure out how much you need to eat at each meal. GO BY THE MIRROR not a scale.

- BOILED DE-SKINNED TURKEY BREASTS
(1st month only) turkey has more fat per breast than chicken. No legs, wings or dark meat on the chicken or turkey "only eat the white breast meat". Rip off all the skin you can on the chicken or turkey breast before boiling it in fresh clean tap water. If you leave it on you’ll be cooking the fat from the skin right into the meat You will notice that all the fat comes to the surface of the water and floats as fatty oils. Scoop it off with a spoon as it forms along with the white frothy stuff that also floats on top of the water. After the meat is cooked pour out the old water and fill the pot with fresh clean cold water and boil it again. This "double boiling" assures you that you boiled "almost" all the fat out of the meat.

- TUNA FISH
canned "in water only" plain or you can add mustard or ketchup for flavor like I did or just eat it straight out of the can. Drain off extra water from the can. You can make sandwiches on whole wheat bread - add lettuce, tomatoes and onions, if you like them. I once made a sandwich like this for Jeff King (another former Mr. Universe and Mr. America one year prior to me) when he stayed at my house when we guest posed together at a local bodybuilding contest called the Mr. Lehigh Valley in Allentown, Pa. He said it was great and that it tasted like a hamburger to him. I agreed that it was a hamburger substitute that I came up with and you can come up with many of your own ideas as long as you use no fat ingredients.

- TUNA FISH or CHICKEN SALADS
my way. I just added one whole drained can of tuna to a large bowl of lettuce, tomatoes and onions with Vinegar only for the dressing - absolutely no mayonnaise can be used, as it is pure fat. Sometimes I would substitute the Tuna fish in the salad with a cut up chicken breast. The ideas you can come up with are endless to keep the diet interesting and tasty.

- FRESH or FROZEN PLAIN HADDOCK, COD or WHITEFISH. These have the lowest fat content out of all the fishes. I was also able to get my frozen Haddock in bulk cheaper at the same restaurant supply wholesale company I mentioned before. When cooking, do the same with your fish - double boil it and change the water once.
 
 

Now you’ve got almost all the fat out of the Chicken, Turkey and Fish. Here’s how to get rid of the rest. Pull the Chicken, Turkey and fish meat apart and you’ll find a white gooey substance in between the fibers of the meat in certain parts of it. This is cooked intramuscular fat that was trapped in the meat during the boiling process. You don’t want to eat this like most people do because most simply don’t know that it’s even there and what it is. Remember your body also has this intramuscular fat inside your muscles all throughout your body and by not eating it from your food you’ll also get rid of it within the fibers of your muscles.
 

- LEAN STEAK (first month only) totally trimmed of fat and double boil it just like you did with the Chicken, Turkey and fish. Buy the leanest piece of steak you can find. Look at how much marble there is in it and get that piece. Trim off all the fat you can see on it and do the double boiling like above changing the water. I only had a piece of steak like this once a week for one meal during the first month on the diet. Then I totally stopped the red meat due to its fat content being naturally higher than chicken, fish or egg whites.
 
- SEAFOOD 1st month only Lobster, Clams, Crab legs, Shrimp. Boil them all just like the chicken, fish steak etc. (no butter) although seafood is a no fat food there are high levels of cholesterol in them. But don’t worry about it too much since you’re only going to eat it like the steak, just once in a while for the first month of the diet. Seafood is pure protein but is loaded with sodium and cholesterol, which must be cut out of the diet so you can lose the water weight your body, holds.
 
CARBOHYDRATE FOODS
 
- BAKED POTATOES
- BOILED POTATOES
- BOILED RICE white or brown
- BOILED PASTA spaghetti - use the lowest fat per serving pasta you can find read the labels. Make sure to rinse the pasta off by putting it in a pasta strainer and running cold clean water over it to get out all the pasty starch that's sticking to it.
- BREAD whole wheat or white. Whole wheat preferred but I ate a lot of white too.
- RICE CAKES for snacks
- FRUITS fresh, canned or frozen (up to 2 months on the diet then pull the canned stuff because of the added sugar and salt that absorbed into the vegetables and fruits from the brine they packed it in)
- FRUIT SALADS
- NO FAT Yogurt (last month this goes out of diet)
- VEGETABLES fresh, frozen or canned (again pull the canned last month on diet)
- CREAM of RICE cereal made with water only add Equal to sweeten
- CREAM OF WHEAT cereal prepare same as above
- OATMEAL Plain made with water sweeten as above
- SALADS vinegar only for dressing
 

DRINKS

- NO MILK not even fat free stuff. You’ll never get that freaky cross-striated ripped look if you drink it.

- LOTS OF WATER to clean out your body of all the poisons you accumulated from the regular foods you were eating. I remember that I used to carry a cup or canteen with me everywhere in the gym. I use to put so much effort into each set that I would be pouring from sweat after each set. I would drink water continuously up to the last 2 weeks before a show. Then you must start to limit that amount even during a workout. Again it’s all willpower and what you want more.

- FRUIT JUICES - Orange, Apple, whatever you like but these contain a high degree of added sugar and they’ll have to go the last 2 weeks to a month.

- COFFEE plain it has zero fat or calories black - It is also a natural diuretic and will be used to help rid your body of extra water in the next pre-contest diet article.
 

NO SALT FROM A SHAKER try to get use to eating foods without adding any salt. If you must, use NO-SALT brand, which is a salt substitute made from Potassium Chloride and is available at any large supermarket in the dietetic section. Potassium will also be used a few days before a show so you don’t cramp on stage. This will be discussed next time in the contest prep. article.
 

Now for some recipes and ideas I use that are fat free that you can also use to make the diet a bit more interesting at first but it all has to go the last month (month 3, 4 or 5) depending on your metabolism and how fast you get cut. The sky’s the limit on fat free recipes as long as you use fat free ingredients. I add cooked onions to my egg white omelets just for taste but I would pull them out the last month just to make sure I’m not eating too much oil from them. The watery tomatoes will have to go the last 2 weeks to a month because of the high water content they have in them. Basically salads in general will have to be pulled 2 weeks out because even lettuce is loaded with water. I also sauté tomatoes and onions in a frying pan on low heat until it changes into a type of homemade tomato sauce. I usually put that on my egg whites, chicken breasts and also on my spaghetti, baked potatoes, rice in order to add flavor to them. But the last month the toppings are all pulled because they contain too much sodium (salt) and will hold water in your body and under your skin. It was kind of an all-purpose topping that I made that tasted good to me. I also added Oregano, Parsley, Onion POWDER garlic POWDER to it for flavor. You can use any spice that appeals to you but make sure it doesn’t have any salt in it. That’s why the Onion and Garlic is the POWDER form and not the salt type of seasonings.

I used to put this homemade topping on just about everything. Egg whites, chicken breast, rice, baked potatoes etc. It has no oil, added sugar or salt like store bought stuff. I used to also dip my chicken breasts and baked potatoes in pure vinegar just to add taste. It might seem like a bitter topping to some but when you know that you can only have certain things even that will taste good. Vinegar is also a natural fat burner and diuretic and will help get rid of extra fat and water that you might be carrying.

I used to love sprinkling Equal sugar substitute on top of my boiled rice. You want to try to get your sugar carbs from natural sources like bananas, apples, oranges etc. not processed white or raw brown sugar. You want to save the SUGAR RUSH for last when you carb-up for a show. This will be discussed in my next article about how to prepare for a show. For now just follow this diet plan and get yourself into a decent cut state. Then we’ll strip off the extra water that you’re holding and carb load you up for the show and you won’t believe what your going to see - PURE ROCK HARD RIPPLING MUSCLE with paper thin transparent skin stretched nicely around the muscles.
 

Many think that they are not cut because they are still holding water under their skin and also intramuscularly as well. This subcutaneous water will all disappear in the last 2 weeks to one month when the salts are cut out of the diet. I’m not talking about salt from a saltshaker, I mean the Sodium (same thing) that’s in almost all foods that you eat. This is where the diet gets real strict, in the last few weeks prior to a show. We’ll get into that in the next article.


MORE IDEAS


You CANNOT use store bought spaghetti sauce because they add too much salt, oil and sugars to them. You’re trying to deplete your body of those ingredients so you can loose the fat and water weight associated with those very things that the manufacturing companies add in order to make them taste good. I also used to put ketchup on my egg whites and mustard or ketchup on my tuna fish straight out of the can to make it taste better, or on sandwiches between two pieces of whole wheat bread. Whatever you prefer as long as it has no fat in it. Read the labels on everything! However, the ketchup and mustard have to go in the last 2 weeks to one month because of the sodium that’s in them, as they will retain water in you.
 

It’s impossible to go 100% no fat. Even a double boiled chicken breast will have a few grams in it and so does bread, but you’re trying to go as low as possible - even a piece of whole wheat bread has a gram or two of fat. I would only eat plain baked potatoes and rice for my complex carbs for the last month since these have zero fat in them.
 

All vegetable should be steamed or boiled. In the first few months you can use canned veggies, just drain off the water they add to them and rinse the vegetables out twice with clean cold water while they’re still in the can. This will get out most of the salt that’s added during the canning process.
 

You will have to switch to frozen or fresh in the last month to be sure that you’re not eating any salt from the canned stuff. Frozen vegetables usually contain NO SALT added - check the label on the box of frozen goods, it should say the vegetables name and water ONLY. ALL canned vegetables usually have salt and sugar added to them and you simply can’t have any salt the last 2 weeks to one month at the end of the diet going into a show. This is because salt retains water in the human body everywhere - under the skin, in between muscle fibers, in and around internal organ everywhere.
 

The only Vegetables you MUST stay away from are OLIVES and CELERY. Olives are loaded with FAT ever hear of Olive oil? That’s where they get it. Although olive oil is great and a good natural oil to eat off-season it is still fat and will keep you from getting super cut if kept in the diet. Celery is loaded with sodium and although you can have it for the first couple of months on the diet, you must cut it out at least one month to 2 weeks away from show time or it will hold water under your skin and in between the muscle fibers and you won’t be able to get that super shredded cross striation look to your muscles. In the fruit department, you should stay away from coconuts. They are loaded with fat from the coconut oils that are in them naturally. Make a fresh fruit salad from fruits that appeal to you. I used to cut up Apples, Pears, and Bananas and mix them up in a bowl and add NO FAT Yogurt and mix it all up. This was a real treat!

I would also prepare most of my foods in advance and store them in the fridge so I didn’t have to cook for every meal. Store everything in zip-lock Baggies or Tupperware. This will keep you from cooking for every meal, which can take up a lot of time. I really didn’t care if I was eating a breakfast food for breakfast or not. Also, I didn’t care if I was eating a dinner food for dinner; as long as I was eating I was happy. So if the fancy struck me I would have egg whites late at night if I felt hungry for them. I didn’t follow the typical breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. I just ate what I was hungry for at that time, but I would always make sure the meal included both Protein and Carbs so the muscles would stay full. It didn’t matter what I ate and when because I knew I was limited to certain types of Protein and Carbohydrate sources. I was just happy that I didn’t have to restrict the amount that I ate. For some, you won’t be as lucky and will probably have to restrict the amount you can consume at one sitting. I would split my meals up into about 5 meals per day to keep a constant supply of protein and carbs for my muscles to absorb.
 

When you don’t eat fats in your diet your stomach doesn’t produce a chemical we have that makes you feel full. God put in a self-regulating design in all of us that will stop you from eating too much so you don’t get too fat. This chemical is released when you consume fat and it’s not released when you don’t. So you’re most likely going to feel hungry all the time while on a no fat diet. Did you ever notice how bogged down and slow you feel when you eat some junk food like a greasy cheeseburger or pizza? You will fill up very fast and stay full for quite a few hours, maybe even feel a little sick. That’s the chemical being released into your stomach that slows you down so you don’t continue eating too much fat and get too overweight. However modern science has come up with a way to stop this natural process and filled our foods with chemicals that counteract this natural chemical in our stomachs. That’s why we have so many overweight people in our world now especially in the United States.
 

Remember everyone has a different speed of metabolism. You’ll have to figure out how much of the good foods above you can eat at each meal, but anyone will surely see results just from switching over to them. Bodybuilding is 100% individualized. You must find out what works for you, but the above diet has helped many of my friends achieve much success in bodybuilding and general fitness.

Once you get yourself down to a decent cut look my next article will take you the rest of the way into a contest by cutting certain water retaining foods out of the diet. It will also contain carbohydrate and sugar loading so the muscles will be at their fullest and hardest and your skin at it’s thinnest when you walk on stage. This extreme shredded look is absolutely necessary to win a show of today’s modern bodybuilders.

< Part 1 of series  -- Part 3 of series>

 Joe Meeko

Mr. Universe
Mr. America
Mr. USA
Mr. North America
Mr. Pan America
Mr. Eastern USA AAU & NPC

 Please Visit Joe Meeko site http://www.power-grips.com