Is It Possible to Stay Lean and Shredded Year-Round?

The desire to stay lean and shredded year-round should be no stranger to most of us. After all, who doesn’t want to stay in shape and attractive all the time?

Unfortunately, staying lean and shredded is easier said than done.This is doubly so for those of us with aspirations to stay lean year-round. After all, when I say lean and shredded, I don’t just mean being reasonable slim and in good shape. I am specifically talking about <7-8% body fat for most guys. Of course, this is not to say that it is impossible. On the contrary, it is very much achievable with the right approach.

In this article, we will share our 8 tips for you to stay lean and shredded year-round. With that said, it is important to note that doing so won’t be easy. It takes determination and sometimes, sacrifice. Again, this isn’t to say that staying shredded is going to be very hard for everyone. After all, we have different metabolism and body types, and some of us will have an easier time getting and staying lean than others (if you are reading this article, chances are you don’t belong to this category).

Ultimately, you should decide whether staying lean year-round is worth the effort.



Lean and Shredded Tips #1: Embrace The Lifestyle

The most important thing to consider when you aspire to stay lean is embracing the lifestyle. Since you are not just dieting for a certain period of time, you should realize that what you are doing should work for the long-term. The way to achieve this is to develop a lifestyle that is imbued with positive habits that reinforce your fitness goals.

This means that you are no longer on a “diet”. Clean, unprocessed foods should be your default choice. Junk food, desserts, and sweets should be avoided most of the time. You also need to cultivate a balanced, fitness-oriented lifestyle that you can maintain in the long run.  If all of these sounds too challenging for you, then chances are you won’t last long. After all, we only have so much willpower to do the things that we “hate”. This is why embracing the lifestyle is vital for you to succeed.

Ask most shredded individuals you see about how their diet is like, and it is unlikely that they say they follow paleo, keto, atkins, or any specific type of diet. While sticking to a diet can work for some people (and most people in the short-term), this is not what shredded people who embrace the lifestyle do. Instead, they have a good idea of the calories and macros they consume throughout the day, and 80-90% of the food they consume come from healthy sources.

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Lean and Shredded Tips #2: Track Your Calories and Macros

Speaking of calories: at the end of the day, calories in vs. calories out will determine whether or not you gain or lose weight. Thus, it should come as no surprise that tracking your calories will also help you stay lean year-round.

To be sure, the food you consume plays the single most important role in getting and staying lean. Remember, you can’t outrun a bad diet. While it is not necessary to track your calories and macros down to the greatest detail, it does help to do so in the beginning. This gives you a general idea of what the daily portion for maintenance looks like (here is how you can find out), and as long as you eat reasonably healthy and stay close to this benchmark, you will have no trouble staying lean year-round.

In order to track your calories and macros intake, you can use apps such as MyFitnessPal, Nutritionist, and many others. Alternatively, a good-old journal can also work just as well. Simply calculate the number of calories needed to sustain your body, break that number down into smaller meals and snacks, and keep track of what you eat throughout the day. This is especially helpful to plan ahead for certain occasions. For instance, if you plan on going out for a nice, huge dinner, account for that by reducing your calories throughout the day.



Lean and Shredded Tips #3: Do Cardio!

Cardio is not necessary for weight loss, and it is not mandatory for staying lean. With that said, there is no denying that cardio helps.

Not only does cardio help you burn calories during the exercise and throughout the day, but cardio also promotes cardiovascular health and positive lifestyle. More importantly for many people, having a solid cardio routine year-round gives you the option and flexibility to have a more “forgiving” diet. While cardio can’t outrun a bad diet, it does allow you to splurge every once in a while and pamper yourself with cheat meals. The bottom line is that cardio gives you more leeway in your quest of staying lean and mean, and ultimately keeps you sane.

When it comes to choosing cardio, the most important thing is to do something you enjoy. After all, you are embracing a healthy lifestyle that should be maintained for the foreseeable future. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you will stick to it. As such, the ideal cardio is different from one individual to the next. It may be a long early-morning walk, cycling, swimming, running, pick up sports, etc.



When it comes to the most effective cardio, however, intensity is key. To this end, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which is a combination of both low and high intensity workouts, is perhaps the mosteffective way to structure your cardio for weight loss purposes. HIIT is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent (or close to it) effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise (the high-intensity portion), followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods (the low-intensity period). The beauty of HIIT is that it can be performed on every kind of exercise, as what you are varying is only the exercise intensity.

HIIT will work on anything you can do in short bursts with all out effort, including burpees, jumping rope, and mountain climbers. Furthermore, because performing cardio at a high intensity if very demanding on your body, you will get the biggest bang for your buck this way, and need not spend hours doing cardio. Indeed, many HIIT programs only last between 5-20 minutes depending on the type of exercise performed and one’s fitness level. A lot of research has gone on to prove the benefits of HIIT in boosting metabolism and stimulating weight loss, and you can read all about it on our comprehensive weight loss article.

You can do HIIT 3 times a week. You may try to do more, but if you are also doing heavy lifting, this may be overtaxing your body. While some people do their cardio on rest days, I prefer actually resting on rest days. Do not perform HIIT on rest days!

If you want to do HIIT, do it on your workout days. If the primary goal is to increase aerobic endurance or lose weight, then you should perform cardiovascular exercise first followed by strength training. If the primary goal is to increase muscular strength, then perform strength training first followed by cardio.



Lean and Shredded Tips #4: Eat Smart and Make Conscious Eating Decisions

When it comes to staying lean, it is important to fuel yourself properly before and after a workout. In fact, we would argue that the meals you consume around your workout are the most important meals of the day. So what type of food should you consume as your pre- and post- workout meals?

Have some protein with carbs and/or fat before you train. This ensures that you have enough energy to complete your workout, and helps jump-start the recovery process down the line.

Have faster-acting simple carbohydrates with protein right after training. Faster-acting simple carbohydrates are high in glycemic index, and they are immediately converted into glucose and go toward replenishing glycogen stores and repairing muscles.

Try out different combinations of food that satisfies the above guidelines and see what provides you with the best results and most energy. Remember, what works best for one person might not work for someone else!

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Lean and Shredded Tips #5: Use Supplementation

At the end of the day, real food trumps the use of supplements. After all, as the name implies, supplements are meant to supplement your diet, instead of being the miracle pill that some are (falsely) advertised to be. With that said, supplements are useful as sources of nutrients that are lacking in our diet, and they certainly play a part in staying lean and energized year-round.

It is important to know which supplements really works so that you are not duped into buying things you don’t really need. If you are under a tight budget and want to stay lean while gaining muscle over time, it is highly recommended to simply get yourself high quality Creatine as well as whey protein that contains BCAAs in them. You can still get quality products for cheap, as long as you know which brands to watch out for. Muscletech Nitro Tech – Performance Series is one example of such products.

If you have a little bit more cash to splurge, then you may consider Pre-workouts, Casein, Multivitamins, Fish Oil, and Joint Recovery supplements. The order of importance will depend on each individual. If you feel like it’s hard to motivate yourself to go to the gym after work, you will be wise to invest in pre-workouts. On the other hand, if you feel nagging joint paint, then you know that it is the area you want to fix first and foremost.

For other supplements not mentioned here, my advise would be to approach them with caution, and only buy them when there is enough scientific research to back up their merit.



Lean and Shredded Tips #6: Train Hard and Smart. Lift Heavy.

What I mean by training hard and smart constitutes a number of things. However, the overarching concept you should pay attention to is progressive overload. For the uninitiated, progressive overload refers to the concept that we have to challenge our body in order to change it. That is, overload must continually occur in order to induce adaptations and changes resulting in muscular hypertrophy in the body. Simply put, if you are not challenging yourself, then you are not giving your body any reason to grow stronger.

As far as staying lean and shredded goes, adding more muscle means that you are boosting your metabolism. Naturally, this makes staying lean easier.

So how should you train hard and smart? The truth is, it is no different than the general advice when it comes to building muscle and strength:

1.Focus on compound, multijoint movements.

2.Do full body workouts 3 times per week for beginners for maximum growth, and 3-6 times per week splits for advanced lifters.

3.Muscle growth is best achieved using heavy load resistance training of at least 70% 1RM; and for those wanting to gain muscular strength as well as muscle mass, then high intensity (at least 70% 1RM), high volume (whether they be low or high rep, as long as they are high volume) training programs work extremely effectively to achieve this.

I recommend implementing a plan of action in which you steadily increase your load. Much like your calories and macros, it is important to track the weight you use. After all, if you don’t measure it, you won’t know whether or not you’ve made progress!



As a recap, here is our recommendation for the general population who have moved on from the beginner stage:

Frequency: 
Training each muscle group twice per week

Volume:
30-60 reps for each big muscle group per workout, with about 2 workouts for each muscle group per week.
15-30 reps for each small muscle group per workout, with about 2 workouts for each muscle group per week.

Intensity:
Varying your workout reps between different rep ranges, but focus on 1-12 reps per set to ensure muscle and strength gains. Go over 12 reps if you want to improve muscle endurance.
Ensure you apply progressive overload within each movement/rep range. For instance, when training chest, you may do the following workouts:
4 reps of incline bench press @ 200 lbs -> 4 reps of incline bench press @ 210 lbs
8 reps of weighted dips @ 80 lbs -> 8 reps of weighted dips @ 85 lbs
12 reps of cable crossover @ 40 lbs -> 12 reps of cable crossover @ 45 lbs

Of course, you can play around with the number of reps performed on each movement, as long as you record your training to guarantee progress. Performing different movements with different rep ranges will ensure you are increasing strength and building muscle, as long as you add more weights to these movements over time. Constantly try to improve your lifts to get stronger and keep yourself motivated. Remember, progressive overload is not just about adding weight.



Lean and Shredded Tips #7: Being Accountable and Having a Support System

At the end of the day, you need to realize that temptations can sway you from your fitness goals. You may skip a workout, have a cheat meal, etc.

When that happens, the most important thing is acknowledge what happened, and stay true to the course. Often, people completely let go once they realize that they have “failed” once. In truth, being tempted is perfectly natural. Just live with it and strive to make conscious future decisions for the better.

Of course, you can minimize temptations in many ways. Don’t keep a bunch of treats around the house, and shop for healthy food options whenever possible. Accessibility is one of the biggest key when it comes to keeping your fitness goals intact.

Another major boon is having a supportive network of friends and family with a similar mindset. After all, if you have a group of friends who are equally committed to living and eating healthy, the likelihood of you sticking to your goals will increase exponentially! Supporting each other and keeping yourselves accountable go a long way in ensuring you don’t stray too far from the path.



Lean and Shredded Tips #8: Stay Active

Our stay-lean / fat-loss quest is not limited to the kitchen and the gym. In fact, today’s health experts have pointed out that we should stay active even when we are working. Take Joan Vernikos in her book “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals”. This book “demonstrates how modern sedentary lifestyles contribute to poor health, obesity, and diabetes, and how health can be dramatically improved by continuous, low-intensity, movement that challenges the force of gravity. Citing her original NASA research on how weightlessness weakens astronauts’ muscles, bones, and overall health, the author presents a simple and effective plan for maintaining good health throughout life by developing new lifestyle habits of frequent gravity-challenging movement.”

While the primary focus here is general health, we can certainly see how staying on the move will help in our fat-loss goals. If your job takes the majority of your time, consider taking 3-10 minute breaks and walk at moderate intensity, where you break a little sweat and are slightly out of breath. Taking these breaks are not only good for physical health, but also for mental health. You will go back to work feeling refreshed and satisfied.

If home life consumes most of your time, consider doing squats or other muscle toning exercises while doing housework. If you work from home, use a stability ball instead of a chair to sit on. Walk on the treadmill during conference calls. In general, gravity-challenging activities such as standing up frequently, stretching, walking, and dancing can be just as effective as conventional diet and exercise regimens.



Is It Worth Staying Lean and Shredded Year-Round?

The choice of whether you should stay lean and shredded year-round is of course up to you. For some people, this can be an important goal either because a) their jobs demand it, or b) they simply want to look good all the time.

Other people simply can’t be bothered with staying lean and shredded year-round, and they would rather be reasonably lean and cut when summer approaches.

And both are completely fine.



So what are the disadvantages of trying to stay lean? While there are not many disadvantages as long as you go about it properly, there are some risks involved when it comes to getting shredded year-round:

Suppressing Your Metabolism. Excessive calorie restriction can result in suppressed metabolism, and you will end up requiring to eat less and less food to stay lean. This is of course an undesirable downward spiral that we need to avoid. In order to prevent your metabolism from slowing down, you should:
Refrain from slashing calories too aggressively. Diets with very low calories are not sustainable, and it poses serious health risks. Remember, staying lean should be a part of your lifestyle. Meaning, drastic and unsustainable measures are unlikely to succeed in the long run.
Take scheduled diet breaks. Remember, there is a right way to have your cheat meal.

Doing Too Much Cardio. Excessive cardio can also take a toll on your body, especially when you do HIIT. Due to its intense nature, you should start off slow with HIIT. Start with one HIIT session and one Low Intensity session per week, and gradually increase to no more than 3x HIIT per week. Remember that aside from cardio, resistance training is just as important. Think of resistance training as an investment, where it helps you lose more fat (and keep them off) at a resting state.

Staying Lean Makes Increasing Muscle Mass More Difficult. Since you won’t be in a caloric surplus most of the time, building muscle and strength becomes more challenging when you attempt to stay lean year-round. It is still possible, but there is no denying that a state of caloric surplus is more ideal in making gains. With that said, as long as you are eating enough, consume plenty of protein, and train hard with focus on compound movements, you will still be able to gain muscle and strength, albeit at a slower rate.

Staying Lean Year-Round May Be Unrealistic For Some People. In the beginning of this article, I have alluded that staying lean is simply easier for some individuals. For the general population, it certainly presents quite the challenge. So unless you are genetically gifted and/or have an ectomorphic body type, you should carefully weigh whether staying lean is truly worth the effort.

There Are Health Risks to Staying Too Lean / Having Drastic Measures. It is important to have enough calories and nutrients everyday, despite your “staying as lean as possible” aspirations.
High volume of training, low energy intake (calories), and stress hormones produced by psychological stress, may lead to a physiological alteration in the endocrinological control of the menstrual cycle (loss of periods) for women. This can eventually lead to Osteoporosis at some point. For males Testosterone levels will drop in most cases.
Low energy levels over a period of time can cause higher concentrations of growth hormone, cortisol, and lower concentrations of leptin, insulin, and triiodothyronine. These are all hormones related to metabolism, and thus to nutritional and metabolic status.


Conclusion

Clearly, just like everything in life, there is a right way of going about staying lean. In addition, if you are unable to commit to it year-round, there is nothing wrong with dieting for 3-4 months out of the year and then bring calories back up to maintenance or surplus for the remainder of the year.

If you are unsure whether you should or should not embark on this journey of staying lean, then I suggest you try it out for at least a month. Ultimately, every individual is different and how you feel should dictate where you should go from there. If you are too low on energy during the month, chances are you won’t last the whole year. If you’re killing yourself 24/7 to stay lean, you are not only chasing an unsustainable goal, but you are also harming yourself. In that case, the classic cutting-bulking cycle is the clear alternative.

Finally, remember that you are doing this for the long term. You cannot expect to hit your calories, macros, and training perfectly every time. So what if you ate 200 more calories than you are supposed to today, and you missed a couple of workouts this month? Staying lean is already challenging as it is, you don’t need to make it worse by having unrealistic expectations! Mistakes do happen–as long as you acknowledge it and strive to improve, you are well on your way in achieving your fitness goals. Good luck!

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