The Ripped Body Leangains Guide

WHAT IS LEANGAINS?

Skip breakfast, eat big meals, train hard and heavy — these are the core principles of Leangains.

There is a school of thought that it can be beneficial for nutrient partitioning (and therefore body composition changes) to have more calories on the days you work out, and less on the days you don’t.

Swedish nutritionist Martin Berkhan took this a step further by experimenting with higher carb/lower fat intake training days, and higher fat/lower carb intake rest days, while combining it with morning fasts. It can, therefore, be considered a form of intermittent fasting (IF).

This is my guide to Martin Berkhan’s ‘Leangains’ system of nutrition setup. I have used this with my online nutrition and training coaching clients and iterated on it over the years.

In this guide (updated in 2020), I talk about the benefits and give detailed meal timing examples for those looking to set up their diet in the Leangains way.

I also point out the claims which I don’t think we have sufficient evidence to make, and places where I would advise people to set things differently from Martin’s original guidelines, based on what I now know after nine years of working with people.

THE BENEFITS OF LEANGAINS

1. Reduced hunger when dieting

For a person looking to lose weight, this is one of the biggest benefits offered by IF as opposed to other dieting systems. Skipping breakfast allows for bigger, more satisfying meals.

Some worry that they will experience hunger in the mornings. This is true initially, but after a few days the body the body’s hormones, notably the hunger hormone, ghrelin, get used to the new eating pattern and adjust so you no longer feel hungry in the mornings. It tends to take people ~5 days, so give yourself a week.

2. It’s easier to plan meals

With fewer meals, there is less meal prep, it’s harder to screw up your macro counting, and you have more time in your day to live your life.

3. Easier to remove stubborn fat

This is a claim that hasn’t been proven. My experience working with clients suggests that getting shredded lean seems to be less of a hassle when using this method, but that could just be down to the first two points.

LEANGAINS MEAL TIMING GUIDELINES

1. Eat at all your meals in an 8-hour ‘feeding’ window. Don’t go significantly shorter or longer than that.

2. It’s better to skip breakfast and fast in the morning, as that’s easier to stick to socially.

3. Don’t eat or drink anything with calories during the time you are fasting. So, water, black coffee, and diet sodas are fine. (Point 7 is the exception.)

4. It’ll take your body 3–7 days to get used to the new meal pattern. Hunger pangs will happen until then if you’re not used to skipping breakfast.

5. Don’t leave longer than two hours after your training without eating anything. Keep things as simple as possible; eat 2–3 meals per day.

6. Choose your training time based on when you feel best and have time to do it. But if you train late in the day, make sure that you have time to eat a meal after.

7. If you train fasted (before having eaten anything that day) as half my clients do, take a scoop of whey (~25 g of protein) 30–60 minutes before your workout. Take another scoop if your next meal isn’t within 3 hours of that.

8. Spread your calories out evenly throughout your feeding window. Make sure you eat something after you train.

9. You’ll have a higher calorie intake on the training days, less on the rest days. You’ll have a higher carb, lower fat intake on the training days, and vice-versa on the rest days. I have a separate guide to calculating your Leangains macros, which I’ve linked to at the end of the article to save you the math.

10. There are multiple ways you can set things up, but as long as you keep to these principles, then you will be fine. I’ve expanded below with specific suggestions.

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LEANGAINS FASTING MEAL TIMING EXAMPLES

EARLY-MORNING FASTED TRAINING

This setup is the most popular with clients. They all have full-time jobs, and most have families, so they choose this because it allows them to train before the rest of the day takes its toll. The key isn’t waking up early; it’s going to bed at a consistently early enough time so that you can wake up early and be sufficiently rested.

MID-MORNING TRAINING

When I’m in a writing/creative phase, I wake early to work before any distractions, then hit the gym mid-morning. My preferred setup is the left column.

LUNCHTIME TRAINING

This is popular with folks who can take a slightly longer lunch than the typical hour and have a gym close to their office (or in the same building). The key to success is often preparing lunch the night prior.

EARLY-AFTERNOON TRAINING

Fewer clients do this, but it works equally well.

EVENING TRAINING

Training in the evening is completely fine, but if you find that stuff often comes up, which prevents you from leaving work early to do it, consider training in the morning.

LATE-EVENING TRAINING

It’s better to avoid training at this time if it impacts the duration or quality of your sleep.

In this specific case, a slow-release protein shake like casein may be better than whey prior to bed. (A pre-prepared small chicken breast would do equally well if not better, and the banana is just an example of some quick and easy carbs.)

Beware of The Intermittent Fasting nonsense

Intermittent fasting reached a peak of popularity in 2013. Unfortunately, with this popularity, the fitness industry charlatans came out of the woodwork to capitalize on it. This led to a lot of silly claims being made about Intermittent Fasting.

The timing aspects of Leangains are here to make your life easier. But you can’t just skip breakfast and expect to suddenly get ripped without paying attention to your calorie and macro intake. Calorie balance is what determines whether weight will be gained or lost.

My Fasted Training Recommendations Differ

I’ll cover these points for completeness. The caveat is that I haven’t been keeping up to date with the Leangains site for the last few years.

When Training Fasted, Take Whey Protein Not BCAAs

Martin recommends 10 g of EAAs 10 minutes prior to training, then every 2 hours until the first meal. (He previously recommended BCAAs.) I say whey protein is better than both of these options, which is why they feature in the guide above.

I Don’t Recommended Reverse Pyramid Training

Martin recommends a 3-day, high intensity of effort, low volume, reverse pyramid training (RPT) workout. The squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, and chin-ups as the core movements.

For many people, this is the slap in the face they need to snap out of their permanent gym fuckarounditis as it forces people to train hard, and the numbers don’t lie. In a way, Martin has done the world a favor by popularizing low-volume, high-intensity RPT.

However, while this has worked well for Martin and some of his clients, it is far from appropriate for all people at all times.

The problem is, people can’t handle nuance. Give people options, and they get decision paralysis. So I don’t blame Martin for promoting this one style, but it has led some people to believe this is the right way for all people at all times.

It’s absolutely not.

Any effective training program can be paired with Leangains diet principles.

You do not have to use these exercises if you have mobility limitations, a prior injury history, or you just don’t like them. There are plenty of other options, as you’ll see in my guide to exercise selection.

The scientific literature is pretty clear at this point that training volume is the key driver of hypertrophy. So past a certain point, you’ll need to train more.

RPT training sessions can be brutally hard as they go to failure. Training to failure can limit the frequency with which we can train. The scientific literature is now clear that while it’s important to train hard, it’s not necessary to go to failure all the time.

See my guide to choosing the right training program for options.

Leangains FAQ

What To Do Next

Calculate Your Leangains Macros, if you haven’t done that already. Then get yourself my free 15-Day Transformation Kickstart Bundle.