The “Spike” method can be used to convince your body it isn’t starving and bypass its natural “starvation mechanism”
In the last example, John’s calorie consumption per day is around 2800 calories and a 20% reduction in his diet would mean that he has to now consume 2240 calories every day to get rid of his fat.
As discussed in earlier chapters, you body is a superb machine and it takes up many mechanisms to help survive and none of these mechanisms are conscious, they all happen at a very basic biological level and you may not even be aware of how your body is responding to different stimuli.
Through research and continuous observation, many trainers and coaches know that it is impossible to lose weight just by cutting the calories. The body is too smart for that. It adapts very quickly and reduces your metabolic rate so you can survive longer. As a result your metabolic rate slows down and you burn less calories.
This is where you need to remind the body on a consistent basis that it is not under threat and there is adequate food in the environment. One of the ways of doing that is by introducing a spike in your diet.
What you do here is that you reduce your diet for three days in a row and just when the body begins to adapt to the low food intake you give it higher amounts of food… so it doesn’t get used to the low calorie diet.
This is a proven method that many models and professional bodybuilders use to lose fat just before a competition.
Of course some bodybuilders resort to fat burning pills that increase the metabolic rate and induce a “fever like” state to burn off excess calories. Such techniques are temporary and place your body under metabolic stress. This can only serve as a short term desperate strategy. But if you are looking for a long term plan that will help you stay in great shape forever then you need to follow the body’s natural trends and patterns and learn to ride it successfully.
To sum up, if you want to lose fat at a consistent level and keep your fat loss working long term without damaging your body… then you need to follow the basic principles we have discussed so far:
- Calculate your daily intake and decide that you are going to cut down 20% of your daily intake.
- Follow the spike method discussed above, you want to take 80% of your calric intake for three days in a row and you take 100% of your caloric intake on your 4th day.
Using the example of John, he would take 2240 calories on 3 days (80% of caloric intake) and on the 4th day he would consume 2800 calories. His diet would look like the chart below:
