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Ripped in 6 Nutrition Live Video Transcript

Ripped in 6 Nutrition Live Video Transcript

Looking for a get-lean diet plan? Here's the complete transcript of my live video on nutrition for the Ripped in 6 Challenge.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated September 28, 2023

Note: This tutorial video was recorded as a live Facebook event. The text below is an edited transcript of the tutorial intended to provide members with a convenient means of referring to and further researching the topics and content detailed in the video.

Transcript

I got a lot of questions on what the preferred diet is if you're following my Ripped in 6 Challenge. As I'd been stating on social media, the option is really up to you—you have many, many options. Obviously, the ones that I most recommend are Dieting 101 and my Intermittent Fasting Carb Cycling diet.

So let's talk a little bit about each one of those—and the Ripped in 6 Challenge as well—and then what I'll start doing is taking questions, because this is really what it's about. This is the time for you to get your questions answered by me. Specifically, we're focusing on the Ripped in 6 Challenge and questions on the nutrition. If there aren't a lot of questions there I may take some other nutrition questions or other ones that seem to apply, but let's try to keep the questions specific to those doing the Ripped in 6 Challenge.

Techniques Involved

My Ripped in 6 Challenge is my latest workout challenge. So what we're going to be doing is following a full-body system. We've got 6 weeks, we're doing full-body training—it basically follows my Train with Jim series. From the beginning, I started the Train with Jim series right around the 4th of July weekend with my 4-Minute Muscle, so the Challenge actually kicks off with my 4-Minute Muscle technique, and then from there, we do my 5-System. After that, I believe we move into Power Pyramid training, which is a great way to increase power and strength as well as muscle mass. And we also have Giant Sets incorporated as well. We even do some High-Intensity Training—and I'm not talking about high-intensity interval training here, guys. I'm talking about high-intensity training, good old Dorian Yates or—if you're as old as I am—you'll remember Mike Mentzer or even Casey Viator back in the day using the high-intensity training style. Then we end on 100s technique, where you're doing 100 rep sets—all for full-body training. So it's a complete twist.

Full-Body Training

For those of you who haven't been doing full-body training, what you'll notice is that your body's going to respond differently because your training frequency—training more frequently—may be far better for getting gains in muscle size and even strength, and definitely on fat loss. As fat loss is concerned, full-body training is far superior to split style where you're only training a couple muscle groups per workout. For maximizing fat loss while you're still building muscle and strength, full-body training really appears to be the best way to go.

So what you'll notice through this challenge is the way that the fat literally melts off. That's what everybody will tell you when they jump over to following my full-body style of training. There are different ways to test that full-body style training: You could do my Daily Grind program, and try that where you're doing it 5 days a week, or go to my social media, follow me along—these are my personal workouts that I do every day. I use full-body style training, and now what I'm doing is exposing to you guys what my training is and how it changes every day. I teach you the different techniques that we go through.

It's literally not only my personal training program, but you're getting a training tutorial as you go. We're currently going through Reverse-Linear Periodization. We just followed up a week of Linear Periodization. Like I've already talked about, we've done my 4-Minute Muscle, 5-System, Power Pyramid, Giant Sets. We've done 100s training, High-Intensity Training—the list goes on and on with the type of techniques that you're exposed to. Things and training techniques that you really probably never even heard about—or at least didn't try my twist on, like 21s: I show you how to do 21s, not just for curls but for other exercises as well.

So the Ripped in 6 Challenge is basically following along with my Train with Jim series, but from the very beginning—it's starting with those first 6 techniques that I exposed you guys to back then. It's your way to jump-start into full-body training and I think—well, I should say I know—that with the results that you'll see you'll really get a new appreciation for just how effective full-body style training can be.

No Ripped in 6 Challenge Diet?

As far as the nutrition goes, it's really up to you. Most of my programs—almost all of my programs—the nutrition is really separate. Sure, we can talk about—most of you are familiar with maybe my Shortcut to Shred program, and you're very familiar with not only the cardioacceleration but you're familiar with the way that the carbs progressively drop. But that's because when I'm doing a program like that where—literally millions of people have done Shortcut to Shred. Millions of people—so I have to create a training program and a nutrition strategy that millions of people can not only understand and follow but get amazing results from. We all know it's tough because we're all individuals. So those sort of nutrition plans are my basic recommendations, and then you guys need to adapt it from there.

Intermittent Fasting

There are numerous ways to diet. I currently use intermittent fasting as my way to diet—not only for fat loss but literally for my health. It's the one thing that really allows me to—along with the full-body training—to maintain my shape on the road, year round. I travel extensively. I'm on the road all the time, so my intermittent fasting not only makes it easy for me to stay lean, muscular, healthy, strong—but it actually improves the way I feel and live on the road. It helps with things like jet lag. It boosts immune function. So I'm rarely sick, despite sitting on planes being exposed to all types of germs, meeting people all the time—constantly exposed to germs. Rarely do I ever get sick.

With jet lag—when I travel, I'm not traveling to go sit on the beach. I'm traveling and I'm going to go train with someone, do a workout, shoot a workout, give a talk, whatnot. I have to be ready to go as soon as I land, no matter what time zone I'm going in. And the intermittent fasting really helps with that. I'm not just saying that from my experience with it, I'm telling you there's research on intermittent fasting with boosting immune function, on helping to fight jet lag. Numerous other benefits as well. But that's not the point to talk about here.

The point is that you don't have to do intermittent fasting just because I prefer intermittent fasting for myself. Doesn't mean it's the best strategy for you. I tell you point-blank: If you want to maximize muscle mass gains, if that's your true goal—has nothing to do with fat loss, you're a skinny kid; that's what I was, a skinny teenage kid. I'd eat everything possible—intermittent fasting's not going to work. Trust me. There isn't a pro bodybuilder out there that I'm aware of who uses intermittent—I'm sure there are a few, but—that uses intermittent fasting, but no one that's over the 250lbs mark is able to maintain muscle mass with intermittent fasting. You just can't when you're trying to maintain muscle at that size.

Carb Cycling

However for smaller people like myself—I weigh somewhere, it varies anywhere from—it could be 210-215lbs, ballpark, in that range—but again, I'm down—it's literally just fluid changes and how much glycogen I have in my muscles on my diet, whether I'm at a low carb phase or a high carb phase. And the reason that I use the low carb and the high carb with my intermittent fasting lifestyle is because when I make appearances or do shoots, I have to look full. But if I'm eating high carbs all the time? I'm not going to be lean all the time.

So you'll notice people say "Oh, did you lose muscle mass?" in one photo that I post on Instagram; then the very next day people are like "Oh my god, you look humongous!" How can I go from one day—and you guys know my photos, except for a few promo photos and things like that—this is me live, right? You see what I look like. I maintain my shape year round. So just changes in fluid balance can make that big of a difference, 10lbs, very easily. But I use the intermittent fasting, that carb cycling, so that I can look my best when I need to but I'm not eating all those carbs all the time. However, if you're always eating low carb all the time, you're never going to look your fullest. That's why I like the carb cycle intermittent fasting diet. And that's one of the diets I recommend if you're doing the Ripped in 6 Challenge.

Dieting 101 and Muscle Building Nutrition Rules

Now, with my Dieting 101 plan—which is different from my Intermittent Fasting Carb Cycle diet—my Dieting 101 plan is a general style diet, where you pretty much aren't limited to what time of day you can eat. So let's really talk about diet strategies. First of all, which diet do you want to go with? Do you want to follow the Dieting 101 which is going to teach you how to build your own diet? Regardless of whether you're following the Intermittent Fasting Carb Cycle diet or Dieting 101 or any one of my diets, make sure you read—critical, critical diet article on JimStoppani.com; completely free, you can just go to JYMSupplementScience.com, however you want to get there, but—is my Muscle Building Nutrition Rules.

Even if your goal is fat loss, read my—because who doesn't want to build muscle, right? You're never trying to lose muscle—so read my Muscle Building Nutrition Rules. It's a must-read. You'll learn about my philosophy on protein and fat, and how much you need. Basically, you need a minimum of 1g, guys. Stop listening to all this nonsense about kidney issues—there's no data whatsoever showing any issues in normal human beings with a high protein intake. That's what the kidneys are designed to do.

Macro Guidelines: Protein

And then people say "There's no data showing that if you eat that much—" Yes there is. There actually is, if you go through the research you can find data supporting 1.5g and even higher per pound of bodyweight, protein. 1.5g per pound of bodyweight. Protein. There are numerous research studies showing that eating higher protein for certain individuals—who have higher requirements, like wanting to build muscle and strength—actually gets better results. Yes, it's actually true. Eat protein. 1-1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight, and yes it's very, very healthy.

Macro Guidelines: Fat

Fat—now people are often surprised at how much fat I recommend because it's half your bodyweight. So it's 0.5g per pound, or if you just take your—let's say you're 200lbs, you want to eat 100g of fat a day. Seems like a lot, but really it's not. And that amount is really a must for guys. Any guy out there who wants to build muscle and strength, or maximize muscle and strength, but also wants to perform sexually or have some sex drive—I highly recommend you keep your fat up.

A lot of bodybuilders report lack of sex drive or sexual dysfunction while they're prepping for a diet—even then you get a lot of people who say "Well you know, the athlete who's prepping and doing all those drugs, obviously it's going to affect their sexual system." But it really comes down to the low-fat diet. There's proof, there's data, there's research that shows eating low fat will zap your testosterone levels. Not a good thing if you want to maximize muscle mass, strength, fat loss—oh and sexually performance, which is never a bad thing. Eat your fat, half your bodyweight in grams of fat.

Understanding Essential Nutrients

Those are pretty much your standard philosophies of mine. You cover those macros—those are your main macros. And then you get to carbs. You worry about carbs after your protein, first of all, and your fat have been met. Those are what you really want to focus on. And we can break it down into essential nutrients or non-essential nutrients.

With protein, we have essential amino acids—these are amino acids that cannot be made in the body; the body has to consume them. Essential amino acids. So protein is essential to the body. There are essential fatty acids: omega-3s, omega-6s—these are essential fats that the body cannot make; you have to consume them, you've got to get them from your diet. So fat is essential. If protein and fat are essential, that means you want to make sure you're getting adequate amounts—obviously within your macros—but if you're undercutting those you're going to be undercutting your results.

With carbs, there's no essential carbohydrate. None. Our body is great at converting almost anything into glucose. Liver does it, kidneys do it. There are no essential carbohydrates. So when you're trying to lose body fat, even if you want to just say "Oh it's all numbers, Jim. It doesn't matter." Even if you want to say it's just about calories—where should you cut those calories from? The macros that provide essential nutrients, or the macros that the body can make on its own: the carbs? Because the body is damned good at making carbs.

Focus on your protein. Focus on your fat. Then make up your carbs. And that's essentially what my Dieting 101 strategy shows you. What it does is it talks about calories and macros, and it individualizes it for you. Because we're all—the number of calories I eat compared to someone else, for example. Even though our macros might be fairly the same as far as protein and fat, right? We're both nailing the .5—I know he focuses on getting that; he gets plenty of fat; don't worry he never skimps on the fat because it's an essential and delicious nutrient. And he doesn't skimp on protein, so we're both nailing our protein. But our calories are probably completely different. Completely different. I'm around 210lbs or 215lbs right about now. Our calories are probably quite different. I'm probably up to 4000 or so, or more certain days and down even lower, to 2000 on some days. I vary my diet extremely—it's extreme; my diet is extreme because of the shoots that I do, and it's part of the carb cycling. But it all goes with cycling the carbohydrates—the non-essential.

Macro Guidelines: Carbohydrates

That doesn't mean that they're bad. That doesn't mean that they don't perform any function. Carbs—they're essential if you want to build muscle. Carbs are your—they get stored as glycogen in muscle, and the more glycogen the more water gets pulled into the muscle. And it's not—I'm not talking about water like underneath the skin, I'm talking about water in the muscle. Muscle is mainly water. There's a lot of water in the body. A lot of water, so when we think about water weight—what creatine does, what glycogen does, pulling water into the muscle—it's good, you want fluid in there. You want that muscle to be full. And so that's why carbs—there's no way you can maximize glycogen storage and therefore muscle fullness without carbs. You just can't do it. There's no way to do it. Sure you can look good, you can look full, your body will adapt if you're doing a no carb diet all the time—but you'll never look your fullest. So that's what I use carbs cycling for, to manipulate those non-essential nutrients and get their true benefits out of them when I need them, versus eating too many of them all the time.

Choosing your Diet Plan

So let's talk about—what kind of person are you? What kind of person are you, what makes it easier for you to diet, what kind of strategy? Is it best for you to be able to eat all day long, but have your food choices limited? Some people need that free range. They need to be able to wake up and say "I need something now, even if it's just a protein shake, even if it's beef jerky, just protein—whatever it is—I need to eat now." Okay? Some people are like that. Other people are like "I need to eat that. That right there. I'll wait all day long, if at the end of not eating I get to eat that." Some people prefer that. Right? So it comes down to really what type of person you are.

With the intermittent fasting, like I said—you can't all eat kind of like me. You'll see me posting my donuts all the time—remember I'm already down at 4-5% body fat. So it's easy for me to just maintain that. Getting down there takes a little bit more effort. Doesn't mean you can't have donuts ever, just—people see me posting all the time, they're like "How does he eat so many damn donuts all the time and stay shredded?" It's actually possible when you get this lean. It's about adjusting, knowing your macros, adjusting the fasting window, etc. It's why I love intermittent fasting, because I love donuts. I love to eat. I can go two days without eating if I have to, knowing at the end of those two days I'm going to have this feast waiting for me.

New Pre JYM and Pro JYM Flavors

In fact, one of the best things about intermittent fasting for me is that at 4 o'clock—every day at 4 o'clock—it's like a party. It's 4 o'clock? Yes! It's nothing extravagant—I usually have a Pro JYM and a Pre JYM, but any JYM Army member will tell you those are some of the best tasting—by the way, I have—not here because it's black coffee, because it's not 4 o'clock yet—Rainbow Sherbet Pre JYM. Yep, it's out, and I've been drinking it for a few days now. Oh, absolutely amazing, you guys are going to love—if you love the Rainbow Sherbet Post JYM, you people know what I'm talking about. You're going to go bonkers over the Rainbow Sherbet Pre JYM.

And don't forget, Root Beer Float Pro JYM. My Favorite is still the Vanilla. Root Beer Float, let me tell you about—oh we're going to run out of time here, of course—I've got to tell you the story about Root Beer Float, because it has to do with my dad. By the way, he approved the Root Beer Float. The reason I love Root Beer Float is because, as a kid, it's one of those treats. See, I learned to enjoy food from my family. Stoppani is Italian and my mom's side is Renaldi—also Italian—so we loved food.

Italians love to eat, we love to drink. So I learned to enjoy food and one of the things that we would enjoy on some nights after dinner—a little dessert because I get my eating habits from my dad, loved to enjoy food—he would make root beer floats for my sister and me. And so, I've got a soft spot—for those of you who don't know what a root beer float is, it's simply a glass of root beer soda, or pop—wherever you're located, what you call it—with a scoop or so of vanilla ice cream. And the vanilla and root beer just—oh my god, it's amazing.

I tasked my flavor scientists—I actually go right into the lab with them and we start developing these flavors, playing along with these notes to create this root beer float—and what is amazing about the Root Beer Float is there's no carbonation added to it. However, when you drink it, it's not flat—it doesn't taste like flat root beer. You'll get that carbonated feel of the root beer along with the softness of the vanilla, the creaminess. Absolutely amazing. Again, I love food. That's why my protein—I'm so adamant about the flavors. I go into the lab and don't stop until the flavors, I feel, are perfect. And I continue evolving them and changing them, and making them better.

Anyway, so I don't really end my fast with anything—it's not like I'm "Oh, a box of donuts every day!" No. Remember, high protein at the end of the fast. But let me—you guys can read about it, I explain all of this. I have to head out of here, so I want to make sure I get to the questions that you guys have, so let's start scrolling through—I've got to get a better system for the questions, because you know I talk and then I'm here—it's just me in my home gym, shooting the shit with you guys—so I apologize for the low quality here, but I hope you enjoy the information and the candor. Let's see what questions I can get answered, but thanks for listening as I go on these rants.

Looking for some specific questions on the dieting portion here.

Get Ripped in 6 Any Time of Year

Question: "If you can't join the 6 weeks now, will the workouts move over to the regular list of workouts?"

Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, the Ripped in 6 Challenge follows my Train with Jim series. And the Train with Jim series started in July, 4th of July weekend—I literally started the very beginning of July, I think the first one may have been July 2nd. Not sure if it was the 1st or not, but literally right around July 2nd I started the Train with Jim series, giving you my personal, full-body workouts. So those are on the site all the time, and you can follow those at any time. And that'll be more streamlined as well, so yes those workouts will follow.

Question: "Where do I find the workouts?"

JimStoppani.com, guys. It's my Ripped in 6 Challenge.

4-Minute Muscle Explained

Question: "On the app it shows that you're doing 1 set for 36-45 reps."

He's talking about the 4-minute Muscle. So you have 4 minutes to complete as many reps as possible. That 36 is your range you want to shoot for. Make sure you read the article carefully, don't just look at the workout box. Make sure you're actually reading the workout section because it explains to you that you have 4 minutes. That is your range, that's your—you're shooting for 36 to 45 reps. You don't get 36 reps? Then the weight was too heavy for you. So you either can adjust the weight—if you're doing this long term, my 4-Minute Muscle, from there you'd adjust the weight—or try to get at least 36 reps the next time you do it. If you do more than 45 then you know it's a bit too light, but that's sort of the sweet spot. That's all, that's what that's talking about.

A lot of questions on the training, but I don't see many nutrition questions. So I'll focus on those.

Clarifying the 5-System Method

Question: "On the Full-Body 5-System, on the way back down doing the sets are they all to failure back-to-back?"

On the way back down, yes. You're going close—you don't have to annihilate the target muscle on every one of those. But you know, right around—that's pretty much the point. Fatigue and move on.

Question: "Is my coconut cream pie going to kill the program?"

No, especially not if you're intermittent fasting. Have some fun. You've got to enjoy your birthday.

Question: "Can we do this if we haven't done any of your previous challenges?"

Of course, yeah. Anyone can jump in.

To Drink or Not to Drink

Question: "Do you ever drink?"

All the time. I pretty much drink every day. Like I said, I'm Italian, so I grew up—my grandfather made wine on my mom's side, Renaldi, so I grew up actually drinking wine. It's fine, trust me. Like I said I stay shredded to the bone and drink pretty much—you know, I'm not guzzling alcohol all day, but I'll have a drink or two on any given day of the week. And then maybe some days three or four, or more. Not that often, but regular—alcohol actually has health benefits

Adapting the Challenge to your Schedule and Needs

Question: "Can Ripped in 6 be done in a 4-5 day split as opposed to 6?"

Yes. Any of my workouts, I'll tell you, is—basically, if you want to—and I recommend this highly—you've got take my programs and individualize them for you: your goals, your schedule. An easy way to—if you're following one of my programs like [Shortcut to Shred] https://www.jimstoppani.com/training/shortcut-to-shred-overview where it's 6 days a week, or Super Shredded 8—and you don't have 6 days a week to follow that program? Obviously, you'll get better results doing it 6 days a week, but you can do it fewer days a week. Or if you want to do it all 7 days and gone done faster, you can go through without taking a rest day. I'm not recommending this for everyone but some people could actually do that.

You basically take the program and then you take each workout and complete each workout individually. You don't worry about Workout 1 is done on Monday, and Workout 2 is done on Tuesday—you just check off the workouts as you go. If you get 3 workouts done one week? Then you know the following week you pick up at Workout 4, and so on. So if you want to speed up one of my workouts and not take the recommended rest days—say it's a 5-day split, you're doing 5 days a week and get the weekends off. Friday comes, instead of resting on Saturday you do what Monday's workout would've been on Saturday. And then it just follows, that's all.

Now if you want to ask me how to do that on the app? You're going to have to talk to my IT guys, because I'm the exercise scientist, not the computer scientist. They'll help you out with adjusting it there, but yes. That's what I recommend doing on any one of my programs. Adjust it for the number of days a week that you have, that's reasonable for you. Clearly the more days the better—unless, let's say you were coming off a training program where you were training maybe 6 days, even 7 days a week, and then you jumped into one of my programs that's 6 days a week and you're like "You know what, my body needs—" Yeah, you can just slow it down, and then get better results for you because that's what your body needed.

But for most people, try to do whatever the workouts are recommended for that week at least, if you can. That's always the best case scenario. But if you can't it doesn't mean "Oh I can't do the program." No there's always a way to adapt any one of my programs. And just ask me, you know where to get me. Or go to the JYM Army Facebook group page and ask there. Somebody's already asked me, they know what the answer is—if it's not going to come directly from me.

I am sorry that I probably ranted off talking about root beer floats and other nonsense, but I hope you guys enjoyed that. You got some—I kind of talked all over the place, but I hope you get the bottom line, the message that I'm trying to send to those following the Ripped in 6 Challenge: the diet is up to you. It's really up to you.

There's no wrong way to diet. And in fact no one should just blindly follow one of my diets and go "Oh I don't like that food, so I’ll just have to eat" No! There's always an alternative. There's always an alternative, you don't have to stick to what I say. Take those philosophies and then adjust them and manipulate them. Get them to work best for your body. I don't know your body; only you know your body. It's easy for me, on my body. I can adjust all the time because I see the results, I know what I need, what my training is—I don't have all that information. Only you do.

So I'm just trying to give you some ideas and philosophies that you take and run with, and test out. See what works. And ask! Never stop asking. That's what the best part of social media is for me: it allows a way to get so many questions answered, because there's so much confusion out there. just trying to get you guys some clarity.

So Ripped in 6 Challenge, guys. JimStoppani.com. Started yesterday—you still have time to join up and get going. You're going to get lean for the holidays. Lean! Go right in, enjoy the holidays. You know what that means when you're lean like me? You get to enjoy them. I don't go for low-fat Thanksgiving treats, I don't do low-fat Christmas things. Go, eat the real stuff. It's one time a year. Get your body ready so that eating that way doesn't destroy your health.

Hope you enjoy these live sessions that I get to do. Like I said, hopping on here this isn't some high production—this is just me and my little home gym here, getting your questions answered so that we can all get the results we should be expecting. Stay JYM Army strong guys, and remember if you're joining in here later, "What was he talking about earlier about the intermittent fasting and the macros?" This will be saved to my Facebook so you can go back and watch it at your leisure. Thanks for the support. As always, stay JYM Army strong.

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