I was 25. On a diving boat off the coast of the Philippines. It was my first diving expedition. As we sailed further into the ocean and the island of Boracay sunk into the distance, I thought to myself that life couldn’t be better.

Everything around me was picture perfect – deep blue ocean, jaw-dropping landscape, and a bunch of backpackers I had met a day before while trekking through the rice terraces in the northern Philippines.

Everything was perfect… until I hit my biggest insecurity.

As we anchored at the diving site, everyone started taking their tank tops and T-shirts off to get into the swimsuits. And underneath those tops and T-shirts were the perfect beach bodies: muscular and ripped. In that instance, I almost recoiled, closing myself up, feeling even smaller than I have ever had.

If you are a skinny guy, you know how I felt. You know what I’m talking about.

You might have gone to a beach several times and found yourself gawking at men more than women. Insecure of taking your shirt off, you’ve found yourself wishing that you were more muscular.

Or even more so, every time you look at yourself in the mirror in that S-size T-shirt, you find that the circumference of the sleeves is larger than your arms. You hate how thin your arms look dangling from the rim of the T-shirt.

To be fair, you might have even tried. More than once, maybe.

You might have bought the protein shake, made a gym schedule, and even spent a month or two lifting weights before giving up every time because of lack of progress.

You concluded that your genes are not ideal to get bulky, and it would take you 1-2 years of dedicated effort: 1 hour in the gym, 5 days week. So once you are done with your exams or the all-important work project, you will start again.

How wrong are you?

Well, not entirely. You are 50% right. Your genes are different. You are, what science calls, an Ectomorph. Popularly known as hard-gainers or skinny guys.

But the thought that it will take you 1-2 years of dedicated effort with an hour every day for 5 days a week couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you follow this uncommon workout routine, let’s call it the TDX Workout routine, it will take you 30-Days with just 30-min in the gym, twice a week. And you will gain between 6-7 Kg of Muscle.

If you continue with this TDX Workout routine for 3 months, you will gain around 11-12 Kg. Unreal, right?

I started with a bodyweight of 69 Kg. After 30 Days, I was at 75.3 Kg, and within 3 months, I reached 81 Kg.

And I was able to lift 300+ pounds in Deadlift.

But most importantly, I had to overcome my lifelong insecurity of being shirtless on the beach, so here it is 😉

Disclaimer: The exercises shown in the video are not part of the TDX Workout. They are only there to look cool! (*rolls eyes*)

Before

I spent most of my youth as a skinny guy. Till the age of 25, I weighed a mere 62 Kg (136 Lbs) at 180 cm (5 ft 11).

Not that I was starving myself. Far from it. I ate everything. All the time – including McDonald’s Big Mac meal 15 times a week while in university.

On the other hand, I was fit and sporty as well. Training with half a dozen different sports teams. These trainings included callisthenics and what not.

During the university years, I joined the gym twice, but after a month of banging my head against the machines without any progress, I made the classic excuse of exams and left it, telling myself that I will return more determined. We all know how that works!

But 2 years after graduation, on the diving boat, off the coast of the Philippines, I made the resolution that I would transform myself.

Early Experiments in Bulking Up, resulting in frustration

On my return, I bought a yearly membership of the gym, made the classic workout schedule for 5 days – divided into chest day, back day, legs day, arms day, and shoulder day – and bought 2 canisters of Whey Protein (well, to be honest, there was a 2-for-1 deal going on).

For each of the days, I had 4-5 exercises with 3-5 sets of 10-12 reps each. It used to take about 90 minutes in the gym for each session.

For example, on Chest Day, there were exercises like bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, fly, and dips.

I was not going to leave any stone unturned… or more like, any muscle unworked.

3 months passed by, and the results were, at best, laughable.

I gained around 3 Kg in 3 months. That’s a mere 1 Kg per month, after putting in 30 hours a month on average.

To be fair, a lot of people think that’s how much you should expect to gain. That is true – but only after you have already reached 90% of your muscle-building capacity, you will experience diminishing returns.

In everything in life, what takes you from zero to 90% is different than what takes you from 90% to 100%.

For instance, learning swimming requires a different set of training, as compared to becoming a world-class swimmer once you’ve learnt swimming.

Similarly, going from being a bad photographer to good photographer requires a different approach than going from being a good photographer to National Geographic level photographer.

I needed disproportionate results in muscle gain. I wanted to achieve 5-10X faster results than the masses.

In the next few months, I did several experiments with different workout routines. I experimented with HST, P90X, and 3-Day workout routine divided between Pull, Push, and Legs.

In each case, I collected data and took weekly measurements.

Different routines produced different results, with HST showing better results than the others.

However, the results were still dismal. After a total of 6 months in my training, I had gained 7 Kg overall, reaching 69 Kg (152 Lbs).

At this stage, I burned out and gave up on the idea of working out altogether. I was disappointed with my uninspiring and very average progress.

After

At the end of 2016, as I was finalizing the idea of starting the 30DayExperiment brand, I stumbled upon the ever-famous quote by Mark Twain, which has brought me back, several times since, out of the grinding mindset.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority. Pause and reflect.”

I thought to myself that I’ve tried every routine under the sun, but I’ve not really tried to understand the biology of muscle gain and break it down to its first principles.

That’s where the journey started that led to this TDX Workout routine.

Stumbling Upon The First Principles of Muscle Gain

I spent the next several months studying everything I can about the science of muscle building.

From the research papers to books. I even went out and spoke to a dozen fitness trainers. You’d be surprised to know how much conflicting information is out there. Most of it is passed on as conventional wisdom.

It is true that if you stick to any one routine, you will gain a lot of muscle in 2-3 years, and probably even become a professional bodybuilder in 4-5 years.

But that’s not what I was looking for. I was searching for the fastest way to build muscle for an Ectomorph body type.

I was looking for the strategies and principles that will produce disproportionate results.

What I uncovered formed the basis of my transformation.

In simple words, here are the 5 Principles of Building Muscle Fast:

1. Focus on Compound Exercises Instead of Isolation Exercises

Compound Exercises are the movements that require multiple joints and muscle groups to perform the action.

For example, a Chest Press is a compound exercise, because it primarily trains the chest, but also involves shoulders and triceps.

A Deadlift is a great example of compound exercise as it utilises the muscles in your entire posterior chain (upper back, lower back, gluteus, hamstrings, and even biceps).

2. Number of Sets and Reps Don’t Matter. Reaching Failure Matters.

“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Next time you visit the gym, look around you. How many people are actually reaching failure? Probably less than 10% in your gym. More importantly, what is failure?

Failure is when you are unable to carry the weight anymore, and it falls over.

Most people put the weight back in the rack, just before reaching failure, out of the fear that it will fall on them.

Even worse, many people use trainer buddies to assist them during those last few reps. Having a buddy means that you will never hit a failure.

Failure is a stage when your muscle fibres have broken enough that you can’t keep holding the weight, or you can’t lift the weight up once it’s on the rack.

For the fastest muscle growth, you need to hit the failure in each of the compound exercises in each gym session.

I’ve shared the compound exercises and how to perform them below.

3. Increase Weights in Each Session. Measure Strength.

Each next workout session should have a higher load than the previous one.

Muscles are anti-fragile, meaning that when you break them, they repair to be stronger than before.

How do you know you are building muscle? By measuring strength increase.

It is very easy to see Before and After pictures, and say to yourself that you’ve come a long way. But when you are in the process of building muscles, you don’t notice the difference much as you are accustomed to looking at your body every day.

The only reliable way to gauge progress is to measure your increase in strength.

If you are able to lift heavier weights in the next session or the next week, then you’ve gained more muscle.

In the 30 Days, I was able to increase my strength by more than 100% in some cases.

Imagine how would your performance change in sports once your strength is doubled, seemingly overnight? I saw my bowling speed (in cricket) or racket speed (in squash) increase almost magically.

4. 72 Hours Rest. No Overtraining.

Probably the single most important principle. You need to take at least 3 days gap. By going to the gym every day, you hinder your muscle’s fast growth.

A muscle takes roughly 3 days to repair to be stronger.

And you can test it. If you reach failure in, for example, Chest Press one day, you will not be able to lift the same weight for the similar reps the next day or even the day after.

But 3 days later, you will be able to lift an even heavier weight for Chest Press.

Training every day is great for endurance, and burning fat to get ripped. But you are not in that stage yet. You need to first pack a large amount of muscle, and break your decades-long struggle with being a skinny guy.

An ideal schedule for you could be training just twice a week (Mon & Thurs, or Tues & Fri), for roughly 30 minutes each (only 5 compound exercises to failure).

5. Eat Everything but Junk.

We are not going for Dirty Bulking, which loosely defined is 50% fat and 50% muscle.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat carbs. You need carbs (rice, dairy, etc.) to replenish Glycogen in your muscles that would be depleted after each workout session.

And you need to eat A LOT.

I ate 5 times a day, roughly 600-700 calories in each meal.

Each meal would be your standard portion with proteins, fats, and carbs.

In fact, the number one differentiator in whether you will be able to increase your strength and lift heavier weights in the next gym session would be your diet.

At least 3000 calories, spread around in minimum of 4 meals is a must. Anything more than this would be even better.

Avoid empty junk calories like fast food or nachos. They are worthless and will only lead to fat gain.

With these 5 Principles, let’s get into the TDX Workout routine that helped me pack 6.3 Kg of Muscle in 30 Days and 12 Kg in 3 Months.

The TDX Workout Routine

This routine is deceptively simple… but not easy. Breaking your muscles to the point of failure twice a week will require high pain tolerance.

In fact, if you don’t leave the gym feeling totally depleted and satisfied, you have not pushed it to the limits.

The Exercises

The 5 compound exercises you are going to do in each session are (in this order preferably):

1. Deadlift
2. Chest Press
3. Leg Press
4. Shoulder Press
5. Reverse Bicep Curl

The trick here is to use Machines for Chest Press, Shoulder Press, and Leg Press.

This is absolutely critical because you are going to do each exercise to failure. This means that in the last rep, you will not even have the energy to put the weight back in the rack, and it will fall over you.

The machines are designed in a way that the weight doesn’t fall on you (diagrams below).

In order to avoid falling over, people put them back in the rack before reaching failure or use a trainer buddy to assist them. Both these approaches mean you give up a few seconds before the actual failure.

The Protocol

For each of the exercises, you are going to do only 2 sets.

First set with heavy enough weights that you should only be able to do a maximum of 7 reps before getting tired out.

In practice, you will be using the first gym session to test out and form your baseline. Your baseline is the weight you can carry for a maximum of 7 reps.

After the set of 7 reps, take a 1-minute break.

This is important for creatine phosphate to get replenished in your muscles, giving you the strength to lift again.

Then you will increase the weight by 2-5 Kg for all the exercises.

Usually, for the bigger muscles groups, e.g. chest and back, the increments can be of 5 Kg, while for the other 3 exercises, increase the weight by 2-2.5 Kg.

With the heavier weight, you will do only 3 reps, and hold the last of those 3 reps in mid-air until your muscle completely fails, and you are not able to help the weight from falling.

Key here is to do each of the reps in both the sets with zero momentum. Take 4 seconds to go up, and 4 seconds to come down.

You will notice that a lot of beginners in the gym are swinging their arms with momentum, rather than controlling both the upwards and downwards motion precisely.

After each exercise, take 3 minutes rest, before moving on to the next.

When you return after 3 days for your second workout for the week, do all the same exercises, but start with higher weight for each of the exercises.

Here’s my exact 30-Day chart with weights, and body mass measurements.

You will notice that towards the end, for some exercises, I was not able to increase weights in every gym session, and had to do both 7-reps set and a 3-reps set with the same weight.

This is typical. As your muscle size grows, you will start seeing diminishing returns. The law of diminishing returns applies to everything in life.

The growth will be explosive initially and will slow down later.

That is why I gained 6.3 Kg in the first 30 Days (explosive growth period), and a total of 12 Kg in 3 Months (diminishing returns period).

Details of Performing The 5 Exercises

Deadlift

Notice that in the diagram, the Deadlift is starting from the knee height, rather than from the ground. This modification makes sure that the primary muscles being trained in this exercise are the back muscles.

Most often when you are starting out, your leg muscles aren’t developed to lift heavy weights from the ground. Since the barbell is raised off the floor, you can use more weight than you can with the traditional Deadlift.

Performing Deadlift

1. Place the barbell on the safety pins of the power rack, or any raised platform. The barbell should be just under the knee height.
2. Load the barbell with your starting weight.
3. Stand with your legs close to the barbell, and your feet shoulder-width apart.
4. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip, with your hands shoulder-width apart.
5. While bent, keep your back straight and look forward.
6. Keeping your head looking forward and your back and arms straight, exhale as you lift slowly (taking 4 seconds).
7. When lifting, push your hips forward and drag the barbell up the front of your legs until you are fully standing.
8. At the top of the lift, squeeze your hips and pull your shoulders back.
9. Stay there for 2 seconds.
10. Inhale as you slowly (~4 seconds) lower the barbell down the front of your legs to the safety rack in a controlled manner.
11. Repeat.

Tips when lifting heavy

• When lifting very heavy, hold your breath as you make the lift. This helps to stabilize your body. Exhale when at the top.
• If your grip starts to fail when lifting heavy, use one hand in overhead grip and the other in an underhand grip.

Chest Press

There are various types of Chest Press machines in the gyms. Choose one (either incline, decline, or straight back) and stick to it for 30 Days.

Note down the height of the seat in your first gym session, and keep it consistent. Make sure that all the variables are constant in every gym session, and you only change the weights.

 

Performing Chest Press

1. Adjust the seat height so that the handles are approximately at chest height.
2. Load the machine with your starting weight.
3. Sit with your back pressed firmly against the back-rest.
4. Grasp the handles with an overhand grip.
5. Exhale as you push the handles out, taking 4 seconds, until your arms are fully extended.
6. Hold the position for 2 seconds. Make sure not to lock your elbows. Keep a little bit of bend in your arms.
7. Inhale as you bring the weight down in a slow and controlled manner (~4 seconds).
8. At the lowest position, hold for 1 second without letting the weight touch the rack.
9. Repeat.

Tips

• Do not lock your elbows when fully extended.
• Also, don’t let the weight touch the rack when at the lowest position.
• Either of these things will mean that you’ll be taking the pressure off your chest. You want your chest muscles to be supporting the weight for all 7 reps in set 1, and 3 reps in set 2.

Leg Press

For Leg Press, use the machine that has safety bars in your hand grips. This is absolutely critical when reaching failure in the 2nd set.

 

Performing Leg Press

1. Load the Leg Press machine with your starting weight.
2. Sit with your back pressed firmly against the back support.
3. Place your feet hip-width apart on the platform.
4. Release the safety bars.
5. Inhale as you bend your legs and lower the platform until your knees are fully flexed.
6. Driving with your heels, push the platform back up, in 4 seconds, to the starting position as you exhale.
7. Hold the stretched position for 2 seconds, without locking your knees. Keep a slight bend in your legs.
8. Inhale as you bend your legs again, lowering the platform in a slow and controlled manner (~4 seconds).
9. At the lowest position, hold it for 1 second.
10. Repeat.

Tips

• As you lower the platform, do not allow your lower back to curl up. Keep it in firm contact with the support.
• Do not lock your knees at the fully stretched position. That will take the pressure off your leg muscles.

 

Shoulder Press

There are various types of Shoulder Press machines in the gym. Choose one and stick to it for 30 Days.

Note down the height of the seat in your first gym session, and keep it consistent. Make sure that all the variables are constant in every gym session, and you only change the weights.

 

Performing Shoulder Press

1. Adjust the seat height so that the handles are approximately at shoulder height.
2. Load the machine with your starting weight.
3. Sit with your back pressed firmly against the back-rest.
4. Grasp the handles with an overhand grip. Exhale as you push the handles out, taking 4 seconds, until your arms are fully extended.
5. Hold the position for 2 seconds. Make sure not to lock your elbows. Keep a little bit of bend in your arms.
6. Inhale as you bring the weight down in a slow and controlled manner (~4 seconds).
7. At the lowest position, hold for 1 second without letting the weight touch the rack.
8. Repeat.

Tips

• Do not look up. Keep your head facing forward.
• Do not lock your elbows at the fully extended position, or let the weight touch the rack at the lowest position.
• At the top, you can shrug your shoulders to raise the weight even higher. This will get your traps involved as well, and help you to get even more out of this exercise.

 

Reverse Bicep Curl

During this exercise, you will face the tension in both your forearms and biceps. That’s what makes it the most holistic arms exercise.

 

Performing Reverse Bicep Curl

1. Load the barbell with your starting weight.
2. Stand holding the barbell using a shoulder-width overhand grip.
3. Exhale as you curl the barbell up, taking 4 seconds, until your forearms reach the highest possible position.
4. Hold that position for 2 seconds.
5. Inhale as you lower the barbell back to the starting position in a slow and controlled manner (~4 seconds).
6. At the lowest position, hold for 1 second. Keep it controlled, instead of letting it dangle freely using your shoulders.
7. Repeat.

Tips

• Keep your body still and arms a bit outside (see starting picture above).
• Do not swing the barbell with momentum.
• When starting out, you can use the barbell without any extra weight.

—

And that’s it!

Your total time in the gym will be 20% of what most people spend, and your gains will be 80% more than those of average people.

There are a few key strategies that are crucial for this TDX Workout routine to work wonders for you. Especially, these 3 strategies:

1. Everyone has opinions when it comes to gaining muscle or losing fat. Your friends, acquaintances, and every other person in the gym will give you advice. And once you go the uncommon route, people will try to berate you with their conventional wisdom. Avoid listening to anyone for 30 Days, and then blow their expectations with your results.
2. Collect data and tabulate it in the Progress Table in every gym session. We overestimate our ability to remember. Treat it as an experiment in which all the variables have to be controlled, and all readings have to be noted.
3. The idea of this blog is to deconstruct complex skills and routines into their first principles and reassemble them to get disproportionate results. If I’ve promised you 6-7 Kg of Muscle Gain in 30 Days, and you get 3-4 Kg instead, that’s still more than what most people get in 6 fucking months! Over time, you will start getting a grip on the nuances of diet, discipline, hitting failure, and other variables. Keep an open mind, and keep learning.

So what’s it gonna be? Are you going to stay at the level you currently are? Or are you going to transform yourself in 30 Days?

The choice shouldn’t be hard 😉

 

When you achieve your transformation, do send me your pictures and story at [email protected].

I love hearing awesome stories 🙂

 

 

Last time I had a coke was on 31st Dec 2015. Made a new year resolution to not have it again.

My everyday meals routinely include pounds of butter, mouthfuls of cheese, and scoops of oil. On Saturdays, I eat 6000 calories of junk food. All year round I stay between 10-12% body fat at about 75 kg.

Most of what you hear about fat loss and dieting produces no results. If you are reading this post, you are a testament to it. How many times you have tried to eliminate oil from your diet? How many times you have tried to avoid red meat or eaten those tasteless overpriced salads? What were the results like? You might have lost a kg or two in a month (Oh, gosh!).

I’ve completed 30 Day Fat Loss Experiments with over a dozen people in the past year and average weight loss for the first 30 days is usually between 4-8 kg depending on your starting weight.

If it is:
90-100 kg – fat loss 4-6 kg
100-110 kg – fat loss 5-7 kg
110+ kg – fat loss 6-8 kg

Here I’m sharing with you exactly what to do to achieve similar or better results, how the biology of fat loss works, and what you have been doing wrong.

Section 1: Common Traits of Fat People

Tell me if this is not true. When you see overweight people (or even yourself) who are trying to reduce weight, you see them doing one or all three of these things:

1. Eat less oily 

I’ve been to several restaurants with friends and acquaintances who are rather overweight. One common thread I’ve observed is that most of these people who are trying to live healthily are conscious of ordering something that is less oily.

They, and maybe even you, are doing this for years. You use less oil to cook, order less oily food, and avoid deep-fried yummylicious dishes.

Time to face the first hard truth: Eating less oily food has nothing to do with your weight loss or weight gain.

2. Run on treadmill

When I go to the gym, I see that 80% of people running on treadmills are fat. They are thinking that if they do it for 30 minutes every day, someday in the distant future they will be slim.

I’ve been going to the same gym for over a year now. And I still see the same faces and same bellies. These people are still running.

Your second hard truth is: No person in the history of this world has gotten slim by running on a treadmill.

Yes, running is useful when you are trying to get rid of those last few pounds of fat and get those chiselled six-packs. But if you are far from it, don’t waste your time. That day will come as well. Very soon. But till then, let’s focus on spending the same time in choosing the right food.

Of course, running keeps your muscles in shape and your stamina high, so feel free to run. I run a lot. Just don’t run with the mindset of burning calories and reducing fat.

And if you are interested in gaining muscles while losing fat, then here is my Uncommon Guide To Bulking Up in 30 Days

3. Eat 2 times a day


Fat people think that eating less, 1-2 times a day, will make them slim. It’s true that if you starve yourself you will lose weight. What you probably don’t know is that you primarily lose weight by reducing your muscles, not your stored fat.

I weigh about 76 kg. If I start starving myself, and let’s say lose 5 kg in 30 days, about 3 kg will be muscle mass and only 2 kg will be fat mass, approximately.

You might think that if you have more fat, your body will reduce more fat than muscles when you starve yourself. That’s not true. It’s easier for the body to break down muscles to generate energy, instead of burning fat to fuel you.

So when you starve yourself and reduce weight, you are basically losing strength and stamina. You are getting weaker. Before you realise you will develop lower back pain and whatnot. Just don’t do it.

So the third hard truth is: To reduce stored fat, you eat A LOT – like 4-5 times a day. And you never miss breakfast.

Section 2: Biology of Fat Loss

If you are like most people, you probably think that eating fats will make you fat.

And then if you want to sound a little bit intellectual, you will breakdown fats into saturated fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and then transfats. Tell me you have not done this or not found yourself hearing this from other intellectual-sounding people? 😉

I am going to change the biology lesson for you today.

Carbs, and not fats, make you gain weight. 

Carbs = Carbohydrates = Sugar

The entire theme of this uncommon guide will be to reduce carbs from your diet and shift it to proteins and fats.

Most people don’t know if a certain item contains fats or carbs. For e.g., butter, oil, and cheese are usually zero-carbs and all fat. Did you know that? I’ll clear this confusion as well through this uncommon guide.

As a general rule, everything you see in this picture is carbs.

The second theme of this uncommon guide will be to make you eat more. Isn’t it awesome?

Your biggest challenge will be to eat more. 4-5 times a day. Eat all you can!

The biology of eating works like this:

If you feel hungry, your blood sugar is below the optimum level needed to burn fat, so your body starts to burn muscle and hold onto fat. Conversely, if you eat a high-calorie meal with a lot of carbs, your blood sugar goes higher than optimum level and body stores those extra calories as fats.

Most people eat big carb-full high-calorie portions of meals twice a day, so essentially they are going from one extreme to the other.

Here’s what happens:

No breakfast – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat.

Heavy lunch – blood sugar high. Body stores more fat.

6-8 hours gap between lunch and dinner – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat after first 3-4 hours of lunch.

Heavy dinner – blood sugar high. Body stores more fat.

No food from dinner till next day lunch – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat after first 3-4 hours of dinner.

Your goal is to stay within the optimum band

From the chart above, your goal is to eat 4-5 times a day, every 4 hours approximately, in moderate portions.

The only carbs you will be eating will be from vegetables and lentils / legumes, as they are low on sugar carbs to spike the blood sugar past the upper limit.

Basically, you will be training your body to burn fat to fuel you, instead of breaking down muscles or carbs.

The way we do it is to feed ourselves primarily proteins and fats.

Our mind gets the signal that it is not going to get carbs so it shifts our metabolism to breaking down fats (both stored ones and the ones you eat) to fuel us.

Section 3: What You Are Going To Eat

Let’s talk about the good stuff first.

You are allowed to eat all of these – as much as you want:

All Meats – No meat is superior or inferior to another. Chicken, beef, fish, mutton, pork – humans – anything. Eat as much as you want. At least twice a day. Eat grilled, fried, or cooked anyway.

Don’t look if the piece is fatty or lean. Red or white. Thick or thin. Just eat.

Meat will form the baseline of your nutrition. Ignore it and you will feel hungry all day.

All Vegetables – Just like meats, no veg is superior or inferior to another. Eat as much green or red, as you like. Eat raw, steamed, cooked, or fried.

Vegetables will provide you with the necessary dose of carbs. 

p.s. Potatoes are not allowed! I know I said all vegetables are equal – but potato is an exception. It’s too high in carbs so it’s usually considered a substitute of rice.

All Daals (lentils and legumes) – Lentils and legumes are a great source of both proteins and natural carbs that don’t spike the blood sugar.

They can be a part of your every meal or you can just have a bowl between lunch and dinner. They are cheap and fulfilling.

All Nuts – For your munching habits, you will have to shift you from Lays and Pringles to Nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashew nuts, etc.)

Nuts are high in fats so they will fill you up quickly. A packet of nuts forms a great asset to snack on between lunch and dinner.

All kinds of Oils and Butter – Finally someone is telling you not to care about how much oil there is in your meal. Hurray!

Olive Oil is still better for other health reasons (e.g. cholesterol control), but for weight gain or loss, all oils are the same. Feel free to choose any. So is butter. Cook in butter or just eat a butter cube with your tandoori chicken (like I do).

Eat everything on Cheat Day – Now the best part of this uncommon guide is that you get one day off every week to eat all the shit you want.

For most people, it is either Friday or Saturday, depending on which night you go out most, and drink and eat junk.

No restrictions on this day. Eat fast food, drink alcohol, eat biryani – whatever makes you feel good.

Start with a proper no-carb protein-rich breakfast to set the baseline right. Then from lunch onwards, till you sleep (or pass out), go crazy on food. Eat 5000 calories if you can!

The psychological benefits of having a cheat day to satisfy your cravings far outweigh any potential negative effects.

Our body can store just as much extra calories in the form of fat in a day. All the excess calories you will eat will be excreted out so don’t worry about eating a lot.

This one day fuels you for the entire next week.

I would not only recommend but emphasize that you stick to having one go-crazy-day every week. Otherwise, you will burn out within a week or two.

For all the uncommon people who have completed at least a 30 Day Experiment, binge eating on a cheat day has not contributed in any weight gain or reduced the rate of fat loss.

This is your day! Enjoy. And even take me out for a drink 😉

Section 4: What You Are NOT Going To Eat

I have clustered them into the 4 commandments of food religion.

Every time you hit a situation in which you have to ask, whether or not you can eat this, run that item through the list of 4 commandments. If it is there, it’s a forbidden apple. Unless of course, it’s your cheat day.

Here are the 4 commandments:

Supplementary carbs – these include bread (both brown or white), rice (both brown or white), roti, parata, chips, fries, biscuits, wrap or crepe, pasta, and breakfast cereals.

These are usually what we eat with our meat, vegetables or lentils / legumes. All of these have to be avoided completely. All of these will result in blood sugar spike and storage of fat.

Even a small portion will hack your mind into thinking that more carbs are on their way, so it will not shift your metabolism to burning fat.

At first, it will seem odd to not have rice in your plate with meat and vegetables. But after a while, it will become natural.

I’ve always found that one way to spot a fat person in an office is to see on whose desk you will find a pack of Pringles. Don’t be that person, please!

The only exception to the rule is oatmeal or oats. 

Sugared drinks, sauces, spreads, and candies – this category deals with all coca-colas, packet juices, milo and sports drinks, to ketchups and other sauces in Subway, to Nutella, and candies.

All of these have to be avoided completely unless it’s a cheat day.

But wait a minute, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat anything.

Mayo, mustard and ranch sauces, and peanut butter are all almost zero-carbs and full fat. All of these are allowed.

Dairy (milk and yogurt) – Irrespective of whether you are religiously following the above 2 commandments, if you are taking even a little bit of dairy, it can fuck up the rate of fat loss pretty badly.

Same principle: mind gets hacked that more carbs are on their way.

You might wanna ask whether skimmed milk is better than full cream milk. The difference between the two is that one is fat-less and the other is full-fat. Both of them have an equal amount of carbs. Did we say we are avoiding fats or carbs?

Now the great thing here is that cheese is allowed. Why? Cheese is made from milk when you take all the carb component out of it and are left with fats only. Isn’t it awesome?

Fruits and fruit juices – Ah, this commandment always receives the most hatred. It’s like ‘Thou shall not have sex outside wedlock’ type commandment.

But unfortunately, fruits are nothing but carbohydrates. They contain fructose, which is converted to glucose – and what is glucose? It’s sugar.

Trust me, you won’t die if you don’t eat fruits. Just leave it till you reach your target weight then you can have them back forever. You shall eat the forbidden apple forever!

But we always have exceptions to the rule, don’t we? Yes, we do!

You are allowed all kinds of berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc.). Go finish the stock in your supermarket!

Section 5: Sample Meal Plans

Using all the information above, let me give you some options of how my meal plans and those of other uncommon people look like.

Breakfast (between 8-10am) options:

• Protein shake in water (1min)
• Protein shake in water, mixed with peanut butter in a mixer for enhanced taste and more fulfilment (2min)
• 3-4 eggs – either scrambled, boiled, half-boiled, or made into omelette (10-15min)
• Lean Shake from GNC (1min) – slightly higher priced
• Protein bar (should be 20+ grams in protein) – higher priced

Lunch (between 12-2pm) options:

• Any meat dish from any restaurant with vegetables and lentils
• Beef steak with vegetables (usually broccoli and carrot)
• Grilled chicken or grilled dory with salad (and mayo/mustard, if available)
• Hot ‘n spicy chicken / chilli chicken / chicken chop / basil chicken / chicken kebabs, etc.
• Cooked chicken from supermarket
• Nando’s (anything), McDonalds (grilled chicken salad), Subway (anything without bread or wrap), or any burger place (throw the buns, just eat what’s within – trust me one of my friends do that)
• Make your own combination!

Late Afternoon snack (between 4-6pm) options:

• Bowl of lentils / legumes (masar, moong daal, red beans, yellow daal, orange daal, red daal – whichever you like or find) – get in the habit of eating with a spoon
• Chicken hams (with or without cheese)
• Protein shake / protein bar (any combination from breakfast options)
• Boiled sweet potato (different from potato)

Dinner (between 8-10pm) options:

• Any one from the lunch options

Midnight snack (optional) options: I’ve a problem going to sleep if I’m not full on stomach. You can avoid this.

• Protein shake / protein bar (any combination from breakfast)
• Bowl of lentils / legumes
• Boiled eggs crushed with fork and mixed with mayo and black pepper (YUM!)

Folks, this is pretty much all you need to change your life in 30 Days.

I know once you start it, you will have tons of questions like:
Can I miss breakfast?
Is Alcohol zero carbs? etc.

For this, I have prepared an extensive 6-pages of FAQs that will answer all your questions (pretty much!) and hold you by hand every step of the way. You can download it here: Uncommon Guide To Superfast Fat Loss

I can’t wait to hear your transformation stories.

Email me at [email protected] when you see those extra pounds being melt away.

I love reading awesome stories! 🙂