Introduction to Ripped Body 101
You've finally decided to get a ripped body, but as soon as you start planning, you're bombarded with countless diet plans, workout videos, and blogs that leave you feeling overwhelmed and confused. With so much information, it's easy to feel lost. This blog will give you the essential knowledge you need to understand how things really work in fitness. By the end, you'll be equipped to confidently guide yourself toward your goals.
First things first—what's your goal? If you're overweight at 100 kg, your focus should be on losing fat; if you're 6' tall and only 55 kg, you'll want to gain weight. But is it that intuitive? No. When you plan to lose weight (cut), you don't wanna lose muscle mass instead of fat. And when you are gaining body weight (bulking), you don't wanna gain fat instead of muscle. In short, whether you're bulking or cutting, your primary aim should be to preserve or build as much muscle as possible while minimizing fat. This means reducing your body fat percentage. In short, in your transformation journey (bulk/ cut whatever), you need to retain/ gain as much muscle as possible and lose as much fat as possible. In other word, you need to reduce body fat percentage. You can flex visible abs at 12-15% body fat which can be comfortably reached by discipline and patience. While competitive bodybuilders aim for single-digit body fat levels, that extreme is difficult to maintain long-term.
Now that your goal is clear—reaching 12-15% body fat through cutting (if you're overweight) or bulking (if you're underweight)—the question is, how long does it take to show off those abs? Well, it depends highly on genetics, starting point and consistency. Don't expect you will get body like Instagram models in 6 months, they have trained themselves for at least 5 years and went through many bulk and cut cycles. But don't lose hope, at least you will gain something you can be proud of within 1-2 years. You can expect to gain 5-10 kg of muscle mass in first year of journey naturally (without taking steroid injections) depending on genetics and with patience and consistency.
Now, how would do you reach your goals? The journey rests on three essential pillars: sleep, diet, and exercise.
Sleeping:
There’s not much to explain here—you need at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Without proper rest, neither your diet nor exercise will be effective, no matter how hard you push yourself. Remember, your muscles aren’t built in the gym; they grow when you sleep after a hard day’s work.
Diet:
This is a very open-ended topic because we call come from different food culture. So, you have to design your diet yourself but there are some parameters you have to satisfy.
The first parameter is nutrition. Aim to consume 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight ( e.g. you need 165g protein per day if your weight is 75 kg), and necessary calories to support your goals. Determining your required calories is another topic, but a quick google search for "calorie calculator" will lead you to many relevant websites where you can calculate your "maintenance calories." To bulk, consume 300-500 calories more than your maintenance level; to cut, consume 300-500 calories less. Weight gain or loss isn’t always linear, but you can expect to gain or lose around 1-2 kg per month. While this might seem slow, it’s the ideal pace to preserve or build as much muscle as possible. And when you think long-term, a 10 kg change in six months is a significant and sustainable result.
The second factor to consider is food volume. Those trying to bulk often can't complete their required daily calories (which can be as high as 3,000 calories) because they feel their stomach full long before reaching their target. On the flip side, people aiming to lose weight often feel hungry while restricting themselves to low-calories (sometimes as low as 1,500 calories). The key is to adjust the volume of food you're eating. If you're cutting, focus on high-volume, low-calorie foods e.g. vegetables, fruits, and fat-free yogurt or cottage cheese. If you're bulking, opt for calorie-dense foods e.g. nuts, peanut butter, potatoes, and bananas. This approach will help you avoid constant hunger while cutting and ensuring you hit your daily calorie goals while bulking.
Third, fourth and fifth parameters are taste, price, and complexity. If it doesn't taste good, you won't be able to sustain this diet. Also, you won't wanna spend 60% of your salary behind food and you don't have all day to cook delicate dishes. Considering these, now design your own diet. If you still feel lost, you may check my personal diet given below and then make your bespoke one considering your body type.
