MAX 555CycleDiet

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Vince Del Monte & Ben Pakulski

555 CYCLE DIET WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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INTRODUCTION Where did the 555 Cycle Diet come from? We’ve noticed a tremendous “gap” across the muscle building nutritional landscape. The most expensive information is BAD INFORMATION (you waste your time - and your time equals money) and we’re sick and tired of our followers getting misled by “arm chair experts” and “keyboard rangers” who don’t have a clue how to apply their “classroom knowledge” in a real world setting. That gap needed to be filled, so we set out to educate you by taking a complicated topic and making it simple with a system that allows you to achieve your goals while living your life (exactly how it should be)! Okay, story time. The other day I went back to my home gym for the first time in almost two months. It was great to see the same faces in there hammering away on the weight stacks. I’ve been training in the same gym for yearly two years now and as I look around, I can’t help but notice that everyone, with a few exceptions, looks EXACTLY the same as they did two years ago when I first met them. Take a look around your gym and I bet you’ll notice the same thing. And if you’re thinking, “Shoot, that’s me…” don’t worry, that’s all about to change! WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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From a distance it appears they are all working hard, at least it seems that way. Why do these people fail to change month after month and year after year? Is it that they’ve all reached their genetic limit? Or are they all executing things so poorly that they really don’t do anything beneficial for their bodies? A couple of things immediately come to mind. Either they don’t have a clue how to manipulate workout variables (like sets, reps, tempo, frequency, tension, density, duration, exercise selection etc.) and they’re doing the same thing over and over so their bodies just don’t respond anymore, or there’s something wrong with their diet. After further inspection and inquiry I realize it’s likely both. Most people really have no idea about changing up their workouts or how to do it, and even more apparent is that most people have NO clue how to eat to make respectable progress from year to year. It’s okay; it’s not your fault. How can “average people” (I use that term loosely) be expected to sift through all the contradictory information that is thrown in front of their faces all over the Internet? Eat carbs, don’t eat carbs. Nutrient timing doesn’t matter, it’s all about calories. Cheat your way to shredded abs. Fatty meats and nuts for breakfast or a bowl of oatmeal and some fruit? ‘I heard I can only absorb 20 grams of protein at a time.’ ‘MI40 tells me to take 75 grams of protein in ONE meal!’ Oy! Confusing. The truth is, unless you’re trained in performance nutrition, or have a very good understanding of basic human physiology, you’re more or less stuck having to believe in the people that have gained your trust. So choose wisely. The biggest reason the contradictory information can be difficult to apply is simple. Most people have too many (unclear) goals. In Hypertrophy M.A.X. you’ll often hear us refer to the term “Outcome Based Decision Making.” Don’t worry, WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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it’s just a fancy term for basing your decisions on your specific goal and what’s happening (or not happening) from week to week in terms of your performance, health and body composition. Notice I said “specific.” Once you have a clear goal, the right decisions become much more evident. They’re either consistent with your goal or they’re not. Simple right? “I want to get big.” “I want to get shredded.” “I just want to add a little muscle to a few areas.” “I want to build muscle and not put on fat.” Having goals from month to month is vital to your success. They don’t have to be complicated; they just have to be clear and measureable. Now that you’re a member of Hypertrophy M.A.X. one goal is clear…you want to BUILD MUSCLE!

The 555 Cycle Diet is the most effective way we’ve found to help you continually gain muscle while minimizing fat gain. Fat gain and accumulation is a direct result of a couple of physiological factors.

1) Poor insulin sensitivity and inefficient use of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are NOT essential to growth but they certainly help speed things up. Teaching your body how to most effectively utilize the carbs you eat is the most surefire way to ensure continuous growth and minimal fat accumulation. People who are insulin resistant will have a harder time gaining optimal energy WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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for their workouts and will gain fat very easily from carbohydrates. Regardless of whether you’re eating high glycemic or low glycemic carbs, if someone who is insulin resistant eats an “excess” of carbs, they WILL get fat. The reason the word excess is in quotations is because it can be a very misleading term. It doesn’t even have to do with total carbs for the day, it can be an excess with just ONE SERVING. Excess in this sense has to do with the particular glycemic load of a meal, which basically means the total amount that a particular meal will raise blood sugar (and thereby what amount and duration of insulin will be necessary to utilize it).

2) Improper nutrient timing or food combining. Many people aimlessly throw back food with little understanding of nutrient timing. They believe the only thing that matters is hitting your calories and getting your macros. Yes, those are absolutely critical, but once you master food intake and food choices we must incorporate food timing to advance our results to our full potential. I know the concept of nutrient timing and food combining sounds like it can be complicated, but in reality a few simple rules will actually make your life even easier than if you just went around arbitrarily throwing back calories and taking a Kindergarten approach to nutrition (i.e. simply focusing on calories). Ever wonder what to eat? Wonder whether you should eat this or that? What should you eat pre workout, post workout, before bed, or perhaps how to optimize breakfast? By knowing the few simple principles you are going to be taught in the 555 Cycle Diet, you will not only be able to add more lean muscle, but you will also be able to keep the body fat off.

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The biggest question we, as fitness professionals and coaches, get is “How do I add muscle without gaining fat?” The biggest question we, as fitness professionals and coaches, get is “How do I add muscle without gaining fat?” Everyone dreams of a bigger, more defined body that will have others taking notice. Most people fail to ever achieve their physique goals because they don’t have a clear-cut plan. In Hypertrophy M.A.X., we directly and immediately address this problem with 12 unique hypertrophy models that all but ensure your muscle building success over the 12 month period, as well as providing one of the best possible education systems imaginable for people looking to change their physique, and their lives. Hypertrophy M.A.X. is by far the best program that exists anywhere. No one has dared attempt this type of program because quite frankly, it’s a lot of work and it’s hard! In creating Hypertrophy M.A.X. we set out to overcome every single imaginable obstacle standing in your way of achieving the physique of your dreams. WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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After spending months looking deep into the underlying issues holding people back in the gym, and delivering the best practical education possible, it then became time for us to switch gears and shift our attention to addressing the limiting factors OUTSIDE the gym - in your home, in your kitchen, in the grocery store, and the restaurants you frequent. The Hypertrophy M.A.X. 555 Cycle Diet was born out of an incredibly glaring need for good, clear, accurate information. If you’ve read this far, chances are you are already a regular gym goer and you have a pretty good handle on what you’re doing there, BUT you’re still not making the progress you want. Why?

Because you’re not PLANNING your progress. I know it sounds simple, but it’s true. In Hypertrophy M.A.X. we precisely design your progress into each month’s workout. Each week strategically builds on the last. On top of ensuring your progress, this also increases your safety by ensuring your body is adequately prepared for what is coming next. Each month of Hypertrophy M.A.X. could undoubtedly be sold as an incredibly effective stand-alone workout plan. If used over 12-16 weeks, the gains would be continuous because THE PROGRESS IS BUILT IN! Now, we’ve decided that if we’re giving you the best workouts imaginable, we must give you access to the best nutrition program possible. The 555 Cycle Diet was designed to perfectly coincide with the week to week progression already built in to Hypertrophy M.A.X. WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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The 555 Cycle Diet When we sat down to design the perfect nutrition plan for Hypertrophy M.A.X., there was only ever one option. We must provide a plan that allows YOU to perfectly tailor your nutrition to meet the exact needs of your body according to the demands you will be placing on it with your killer Hypertrophy M.A.X. workouts. Remember, each Hypertrophy M.A.X. workout has a different type of demand on your body, which means you need to tailor your nutrition around the respective phases. Only makes sense, right?

THE BASICS In order to achieve success with any nutrition plan you follow, it is first necessary to understand the logic and principles that make up the foundation of the program. Having a basic understanding will assist you in making decisions and overcoming obstacles as they arise. The 555 Cycle Diet is specifically designed for people that are looking to gain maximal amounts of muscle mass, while minimizing any fat gain. The biggest problem with most nutrition plans is that they don’t rotate calories, and never base them on your physical workload or output. Here is an example: If you’re continuously eating the same number of calories, eventually one of two things is going to happen. You’re going to get fat, or you’re going to hit a plateau. Let’s say you’re eating 3,000 calories a day and your daily requirement is only 2,000. Yes, you will build muscle, but you’ll also gain fat. For some people this is acceptable. On the flip side of that, what if you’re eating 3,000 calories and you burn about 2,800-3,000 calories a day? After a few weeks at the same caloric intake, your WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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metabolism will adjust, your body will burn through all those calories and you simply won’t have the excess of calories you need to grow. Too many calories = FAT Too few calories = NO muscle gain

Bring on the Cycle Diet! The premise behind the 555 Cycle Diet is to gradually increase your calories in very small increments each week in anticipation of metabolic upgrade. By slowly and strategically increasing your caloric intake from week to week, you will be giving your body the excess of calories it needs to grow without overloading it and bombarding it with too many calories at once, which often leads to insulin resistance and fat gain.

5 WEEKS The cycle diet is set up to incrementally increase your caloric intake only 250 calories/day each week. After four consecutive weeks of incremental increase, the calories come back down on Week 5. Example: Rocky Balboa (yup, the legend himself) needs 2,750 calories a day to meet his BMR (caloric requirement at rest) needs. In week one of Phase 1 of Hypertrophy M.A.X. he consumes 2,750 calories. Week two rolls around and now Rocky is going to consume 250 calories more each day for a total of 3,000 calories each day, on training AND non-training days. We told you this was going to be simple! ☺ For those of you who are new to the Hypertrophy M.A.X. system, each week the workouts incrementally build on the previous week. The volume is slowing WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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increasing, therefore so is your caloric output. Intelligently adjusting your calories according to the caloric demands your workout program places on your body is a very advanced nutrition concept typically reserved for elite level athletes who need the greatest competitive advantage in their sport. It can be extremely complicated and require hours of tedious calculations and work. Nobody wants to do that. The truth of the matter is that if you take some time to map it out, it doesn’t have to be complicated at all, and it will all but guarantee your success and progress. The third and fourth weeks continue to increase calorically by 250 calories/week until you have reached a level 1,000 calories above baseline for seven days. When Week 5 rolls around, you will have been in a large caloric excess for seven days so it’s time to drop the calories down for a bit to ensure your body does not store fat. At this point, “outcome based decision making” comes into play. You must now decide whether you want to gain muscle/weight FAST, or if you just want to gain a little bit of muscle and really minimize fat gain. OPTION 1 - If you’re after the fast track to muscle gain, when you start Week 1 again, start 250 calories ABOVE where you started your first time through the five week diet (Rocky would then start at 3,000 calories/day for Week 1). OPTION 2 - If you are getting close to your ideal weight and want to ensure you minimize fat gain, then go right back to where you started the first time through. For many people, this is the option they follow for the first few months, and then realize that they’re not gaining weight as fast as they like, at which time they reassess and decide to start at the elevated caloric intake in Week 1. *NOTE: This system is extremely effective for people looking to lose body fat as well. After four weeks through the plan, on the fifth week you would drop down 250 calories BELOW where you started in Week 1 (Rocky would then drop to WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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2,500 calories). This can be a very effective way to kick start the first two to three months of a diet for contest or similar. This approach basically halts metabolic shutdown because you’re constantly feeding your body more calories each week. The 1,000 calorie drop from Week 4 to 5 leads to a drastic fat loss during that week. Some people have been known to drop 10-15 lbs of fat in seven days.

Rocky’s Starting “555 Cycle Diet” Week 1 - 2,750 calories/day for 7 days Week 2 - 3,000 calories/day for 7 days Week 3 - 3,250 calories/day for 7 days Week 4 - 3,500 calories/day for 7 days Week 5 - 3,000 calories/day for 7 days** **Rocky decided, like most of the members of Hypertrophy M.A.X., that he wants to build the maximum amount of muscle, so in Week 5, he decided to increase his calories by 250/day over his original starting point of 2,750 calories.

With this type of diet, your caloric starting point is very important. Personalizing it to your current level of fitness, as well as your current goals is also necessary. There are three factors for you to consider as far as individualizing the diet before you get to work on building your new muscular physique.

STEP 1 Determine your calorie needs We are offering a very simple guideline to help you choose the caloric intake that most suits your goals and lifestyle. See the chart below. First, pick a goal (weight lost/maintenance/gain), then choose the appropriate activity level for your current lifestyle and multiply the WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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corresponding number by your current LEAN body weight (if you’re 200 lbs and 10% body fat by your best educated guess then 200x10%=20 (you have 20 lbs of body fat) so your lean body weight is 180 lbs. Weight Loss Sedentary (minimal exercises) 10-12 Moderately Active (3-4 times/week) 12-14 Very Active (5-7 times/week) 14-16 Weight Maintenance Sedentary (minimal exercises) 12-14 Moderately Active (3-4 times/week) 14-16 Very Active (5-7 times/week) 16-18 Weight Gain Sedentary (minimal exercises) 16-18 Moderately Active (3-4 times/week) 18-20 Very Active (5-7 times/week) 20-22 Example: Vinny “The Dreamboat” Del Monte weighs 200 lbs and when joining Hypertrophy M.A.X., decides that he wants to utilize the resource as best he can and GROW for the first six months of the year. Vinny knows that Hypertrophy M.A.X. contains some pretty crazy hard workouts and he is a very hard worker in the gym. Outside of the gym, Vinny knows his job is pretty sedentary and isn’t physically demanding. Vinny has a decent metabolism, but he knows that if he overeats he does tend to gain fat pretty easily because of his sedentary job. Vinny decides to go with a “moderately active” lifestyle even though he is going to the gym five days a week. Vinny would then multiple his LEAN BODY WEIGHT x 18. 180x18=3,240 WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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His daily caloric requirement for Week 1 would be 3,240 and he would then round off to 3,250 and use the DONE FOR YOU MEAL PLANS at calorie level 3,250. Step 2 Macronutrient Split The next step is to determine your “macronutrient split” based on your current body fat level and your goals. *If your goal is to gain muscle and your body fat level isn’t above 15% (15%) try using the lower carb meal plans. *Higher Carb Muscle Building Plan - 50% carbs - 30% protein - 20% fat **Lower Carb Muscle Building Plan - 20% carbs - 50% protein - 30% fat Step 3 Nutrient Timing Protocols Based On Your Workout Schedule Another question we get asked all the time is “What if I train at ‘X’ time of the day, what should my meals consist of?” In the 555 Cycle Diet Cheat Sheets downloadable PDF you will find a template of how meals might be structured, depending on what time of the day you train. Notice that for optimal body composition we don’t mix a lot of fats and carbs. It is not necessarily WRONG to mix fats and carbs, but when trying to optimize body composition we minimize the frequency of mixing high carb meals with high fat meals. *Definitely DO NOT mix saturated fats and high glycemic carbs - ever. If you’re going to mix carbs and fats try to ensure your carbs are low glycemic. WWW.HYPERTROPHYMAX.COM

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