NOTE: 1. Carb Blocking Complex
The culprit that stops many hard trainers from attaining that coveted lean and ripped look is not their intake of dietary fat at all, but how their body actually absorbs and processes carbohydrate foods into fat. Now you can change the balance! SuperShred Carb Blocking Complex works on 4 fronts to reduce conversion of carbs into fat:
• Phaseolamin is an extract of white kidney beans that inhibits the action of the starch digesting enzyme Alpha-amylase in your digestive tract. When starches can’t be properly digested in your small intestine, they aren’t absorbed and so pass through you.
• Green Coffee Extract acts in two ways to regulate carbohydrate metabolism.
1. GCA inhibits absorption of glucose in the small intestine by modulating factors needed for sugar absorption.
2. The key active component of GCA, Chlorogenic Acid, regulates enzymes in your liver that regulate the production of glucose.
This dual effect on sugar absorption and sugar production is an effective mechanism for maintaining normal blood sugar levels and so stops carbs from being pushed into fat storage.
• Hydroxy Citric Acid is found in the tropical plant Garcinia Cambogia. It reduces carbohydrate absorption from the small intestine and inhibits conversion of blood sugars to fat storage.
• Chromium improves the biological actions of insulin, a hormone that is critical for the normal regulation of carbohydrate metabolism.
2. Thermogenic Fat Incinerator Complex
Thermogenic literally means to “produce heat”. Thermogenic nutrients stimulate fat burning to produce heat and energy. By forcing your body to burn more fat all day, while you are exercising and even at rest, you will get leaner and more muscular. SuperShred combines powerful Thermogenic compounds for 24 hour fat incineration:
• Green Tea contains powerful antioxidants called catechin polyphenols that are responsible for many health benefits. One catechin in particular, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), stimulates your metabolism to burn fat and accelerate weight loss. EGCG, along with the caffeine in green tea, stimulates the central nervous system and causes fat to be released into the blood stream for the body to use as fuel.
• Forskolin is produced from the Indian Coleus Forskohlii plant. It stimulates the production of Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (cAMP) which regulates a compound called Hormone-Sensitive Lipase (HSL). HSL mobilizes triglyceride stores to release fatty acids that can be used for fuel within your body, that is, cAMP stimulates thermogenesis.
• Guarana comes from the seeds of a South American shrub. The primary active compounds in guarana are caffeine and the alkaloids theobromine and theophylline. These compounds combine to stimulate the central nervous system, increasing your metabolic rate and thermogenesis. Research shows that caffeine helps trainers burn twice as many fat calories in the hour after finishing exercise. Caffeine will also improve performance during both short term, high intensity exercise such as weight training and endurance exercise such as long distance running, swimming or cycling.
• Carnitine’s key role is to transfer fatty acids into your muscle cells to burn for energy. When you increase your metabolism of fatty acids, your natural energy levels rise which counteracts muscular fatigue usually associated with dieting.
• Choline & Inositol combine to form lecithin. Lecithin binds with fats in your blood to keep them available to cells for fuel. Combined with Carnitine, they provide a powerful fat burning mechanism.
3. Appetite Modulation Complex
One of the key success factors of any fat stripping program is the ability to control food cravings and stay on track with your diet. SuperShred makes this easier by combining several appetite controlling nutrients:
• L-Tyrosine is a precursor to the dopamine family of hormones (the feel good hormones); it is converted into L-dopa, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, which are three key neurotransmitters that amongst other functions, help regulate appetite. Tyrosine is also the immediate precursor to the thyroid hormone thyroxin which is a major regulator of your weight and fat metabolism.
• Tryptophan is the precursor to the neurotransmitter Serotonin. The hypothalamus, where your brain controls hunger, is directly modulated by Serotonin.
• Phenylalanine acts as a natural appetite suppressant. It stimulates your intestines to produce a peptide hormone called Cholecystokinin (CCK). This hormone is normally produced when you have eaten enough food and signals your brain to make you feel satisfied.
• Zinc is a regulator of the hormone Leptin. Like Phenylalanine, Leptin stimulates CCK production to help regulate your appetite to stop you from over eating.
4. Lean Muscle Growth Signalling Complex
A combination of specific muscle signalling Amino Acids and their metabolites help to push your metabolism anabolic, even while you are stripping body fat:
• L-Leucine AlphaKetoglutarate is the Branched Chain Amino Acid L-Leucine bonded to an Alphaketoglutarate molecule. As Alphaketoglutarate is a krebs cycle intermediate, L-Leucine-AKG can rapidly stimulates muscle growth after exercise by activating a molecule known as Mammalian Target of Rapamycin or mTOR. This molecule is responsible for turning on protein synthesis in your muscle cell which causes your muscles to grow after the stresses of hard training.
• Taurine acts like insulin to regulate the flow of nutrients, particularly amino acids and blood sugars, into muscle cells. Higher Taurine levels stimulate faster uptake for faster recovery and growth. Taurine also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent by reducing tissue damage from micro inflammation in muscles caused by intense weight training, meaning you get reduced muscle soreness with faster recovery.
• Arginine AlphaKetoglutarate stimulates two key responses that are extremely beneficial for athletes:
o It stimulates Nitric Oxide production (NO) which is a vasodilator, it helps blood vessel walls relax and expand to carry more blood to working muscles for higher performance and stronger muscle pump.
o It stimulates the release of Human Growth Hormone, an anabolic protein that binds to muscle cell receptors that up regulates protein synthesis in your muscles.
• Magnesium and Calcium are two key minerals that are involved in the signalling and regulation of muscle contraction. SuperShred ensures these two minerals are at optimal levels for you to train at maximum intensity.
5. Muscle Sparing Recovery Complex
Intense weight training overloads your muscle tissue and causes damage at a microscopic level. Your body responds by repairing and rebuilding muscle tissue a little stronger and bigger after each workout. Months and years of this constant damage and rebuilding results in a much bigger and stronger body. After you train, your muscles are in a catabolic state, that is, they are breaking down at a microscopic level for many hours. This damage and resulting inflammation causes muscle stiffness and soreness and delays the healing process. Specific amino acids can virtually reverse this process and help your muscles to start the repair and rebuild phase immediately after training. SuperShred supports this anabolic phase with:
• L-Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in human muscle and plasma and is needed at high levels by rapidly dividing cells during protein synthesis. Heavy training dramatically lowers blood plasma levels of Glutamine which will inhibit recovery and muscle growth. Post exercise Glutamine supplementation dramatically shortens recovery times and stimulates higher rates of protein synthesis for muscle growth.
• Glutamine Peptides – This stable form bonds Glutamine to other amino acids to form small peptides. Your body can actually absorb Glutamine better in this form to improve recovery and growth.
• The Branched Chain Amino Acids L-Isoleucine, L-Valine, and particularly L-Leucine have been shown to decrease the rate of protein degradation after intense exercise due to their influence on insulin metabolism. Insulin is a storage hormone that helps push amino acids into muscle cells to create an anabolic state.
6. Cortisol Regulating Complex
Cortisol is a hormone your body produces in response to stress. It acts to protect you from the negative effects of stress by breaking down muscle and body tissues to release nutrients for fuel and other functions in times of high need. Heavy training places big demands on your metabolism and can stimulate a large Cortisol response. Unfortunately this protective mechanism actually robs you of muscle and slows your recovery and growth. Supershred’s Cortisol blocking nutrients help reverse these affects and accelerate new muscle growth:
• Phosphatidylserine (PS) has been shown in numerous studies to lower Cortisol levels in response to exercise, which is good news for hard trainers. It will shorten recovery times to allow you to train with maximum intensity at every workout. A side benefit of PS is it’s ability to improves brain function and mood which will help you attack every workout with maximum focus.
• L-Theanine is an amino acid found in the leaves of tea plants, particularly in green tea. Theanine has been shown to reduce oxidative stress and other markers relating to stress response including cortisol and by-products of protein degradation.
7. Bio-engineered Protein Complex
To support lean muscle growth while stripping fat, MAX’S SuperShred combines our advanced fat stripping nutrition with our proven Bioengineered protein base:
• High Glycomacropeptide Whey Protein Isolate contains more than twice the levels of Glycomacropeptides (up to 35%) found in traditional WPI’s. GMP is emerging as one of the critical growth inducing fractions in WPI. GMP’s play a major role in tissue repair – a key factor for muscle recovery and new muscle growth after intense weight training. High GMP WPI is purified using an advanced multi-stage process known as CSEP that results in extremely pure, un-denatured protein fractions with higher biological activity. As an added benefit, this new High GMP WPI contains a multitude of immune boosting factors to help improve and maintain the health of hard training athletes.
• High Beta Whey Fraction Whey Protein Isolate is a rich source of Beta Lactoglobulin, a protein fraction with naturally high levels of Branched Chain Amino Acids, particularly L- Leucine. High Beta Whey Fraction WPI has been shown in recent studies to produce a significant strength increases over traditional WPI’s in trained athletes. The high BCAA content, particularly L-Leucine, up-regulates protein synthesis in response to progressive overload stimulus. What does this mean to you? High Beta Whey Fraction WPI will help increase strength and muscle size faster with intense training.
MAX’S SuperShred is absolutely cutting edge and the ideal support protein for any trainer who wants to build a lean and ripped body. Use it in conjunction with the getting ripped diet and a high intensity training program and you will transform your body.
The 10 golden rules for getting ripped:
1. Set a realistic time frame – Unless you are already pretty lean, you can’t get ripped in just a few weeks. A sustainable body fat loss for most trainers is about 500g – 1 kg per week. However, the leaner you get, the harder it is to get even leaner. So if you are 100kg and you want to diet down to 90kg, that should take you at least 10 or more weeks.
2. Diet like a competitive bodybuilder – Competitive bodybuilders eat a pretty boring and bland diet for anywhere between 6 – 12 weeks before a contest. They will usually prepare their meals in advance and take them to work or school or uni. They will eat 6 – 8 smaller meals per day, 2 or 3 or which will be a protein shake in water (See sample ripped diet plan)
3. Structure a diet plan – I recommend you get an exercise book, and write down each meal you will eat, every day, for a week in advance. Then go out and buy the food you will need for the next 3 – 4 days. Use your book like a diary, and tick off each meal to help you stick on your plan
4. Don’t starve yourself – Starving yourself is one sure way to lose body fat, but it is also a sure way to lose muscle mass. You train so hard to put on a few hundred grams of muscle here and there on your body, but studies show you will lose muscle really quickly if you diet too hard. Slower, steady fat loss is best, about 500 grams per week will help you keep your muscle while stripping fat.
5. Protein is king – the key ingredient to losing weight while keeping and building muscle is PROTEIN. You should aim to get a good serve of protein, at least 30 grams, at each meal. You want a variety of lean protein. Chicken breast, lean red meat, egg whites and fish are all great sources. A 150g chicken breast will contain about 30 – 40 grams of protein. Make sure you also use a top quality high protein formula like MAX’S SuperShred to help build muscle and actively burn off fat.
6. Cut your carb intake – High carb diet will make you fat. One of the quickest ways to strip body fat is to manipulate your carb intake. First of all you should limit your carb intake to no more than about 100 - 150 grams a day. Secondly, eat all your carbs earlier in the day. Set a cut off time, say 2.00pm, where you don’t eat carbs after. This will mean that you go to be with very few carbs in your system which helps you burn fat while you sleep.
7. Watch your fats – Fats are essential in your diet, even when you are trying to get ripped, but you should always look for foods that are naturally low in fat. High fat foods should be avoid or only eaten very occasionally. The types of fats you want are known as Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) and come from foods like Flax Seed Oil, Olive Oil, avocados and nuts. These should be consumed sparingly but a small amount is needed each day.
8. Eat your vegies – Vegetables are and extremely important source of nutrients and fibre, and are an essential part of any fat stripping diet. Sweet potato is the vegetable of choice for carbs, but eat in moderation. Non starchy vegetables like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, capsicum, etc. can be eaten in relatively large amounts. These vegies can be cooked or used in salads and are great for bulking out a meal.
9. Eat natural – Whether you’re dieting to get ripped or you are bulking up, your basic meal strategy should always be to try to each as naturally as possible. That means stay away from highly processed foods, fast foods, sugary foods and drinks, and foods made from white flour. It’s always better to choose more natural and less processed foods like whole grains, plenty of fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, fresh lean cuts of meat, brown rice, etc.
10. Drink plenty of water – When you are burning off fat, your body produces lots of waste products that must be cleared to keep the process working optimally. Many of these waste products are expelled in your urine, which can easily dehydrate you if you don’t drink enough water. You should aim to drink 2 – 3 litres of water each day to keep your fat burning working at maximum. If you are training hard in hot weather you will need to drink even more. Apart from water you can drink a few cups of tea or coffee each day, but definitely no soft drinks or juices.
