by Chris Shugart
with Tim Patterson, Ellington Darden, Christian Thibaudeau, and TC Luoma
© 2022 by T Nation LLC and Biotest LLC
This material is for informational purposes only and isn’t a substitute for the advice and care of your physician. Consult your physician to ensure it’s appropriate for your circumstances before following the material’s concepts. The authors and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects resulting from using or applying the information contained herein.
Here’s What You Need to Know
The Velocity Diet is a 28-day state-of-the-art strategy that uses daily protein pulses to stimulate protein synthesis and boost protein uptake, utilization, and metabolic rate. The goal is to lose body fat while building muscle at the fastest, healthiest rate.
Most importantly, the Velocity Diet is doable, and the results sustainable.
Here’s What’s Involved
- Protein Pulses: You consume four fortified fat-burning protein-pulsing shakes daily as the core of the plan, one at breakfast, lunch, midday, and bedtime.
- Healthy Solid Meal: You have a daily healthy whole-food evening meal.
- Critical Supplements: You also take two other caffeine-free supplements; one that provides omega-3 fatty acids (Flameout) and an ingredient that inhibits fat storage (Micellar Curcumin). Superfood is optional and supplies whole-food extracts of berries, fruits, vegetables, and greens.
- Cold-Water Pulses: You drink eight 8-ounce glasses of cold water to help the body function optimally for fat loss and muscle gain.
- Power Walks and Activities: You go on one power walk a day and opt for a more physical life where ever possible (taking the stairs, parking farther away, packing groceries, etc.).
- Mindful Eating: You’re taught mindful eating techniques that make your food taste better and reduce and eliminate cravings.
- Recovery Sleep and Rest: You’re encouraged to sleep nine hours or longer each night for optimal hormone regulation and accelerated body-composition changes.
- Fine-Tuning the Plan: You’ll learn how to customize the Velocity Diet to fit your personal needs better.
- Expert Online Coaching: Chris Shugart, Tim Patterson, Ellington Darden, Christian Thibaudeau, and Velocity Member coaches are online to ensure you experience the most from the Velocity Diet. We’ll look over your logs and make suggestions and answer your questions.
- Your Velocity Diet Log: This is where you post your daily experience and progress photos and record your weight and measurements.
Exercise
We suggest exercising for optimal fat-loss results. T Nation has plenty of workout plans to choose from. Body-weight exercises and band workouts are fine for those working out at home.
You’ll also do power walks and power activities daily to boost metabolic rate, burn additional fat, and speed recovery from training.
1. Protein Pulses
The Velocity Diet is easy to follow. There’s very little calorie counting or food preparation required.
All participants follow the protein-pulsing shake schedule below. The only difference in individual plans is the healthy solid meal.
| Schedule | Menu | Servings |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | ||
| Metabolic Drive® | 2-3 scoops | |
| Biotest® Superfood (optional) | 1 scoop | |
| Flameout® | 1 softgel | |
| Micellar Curcumin® | 2 capsules | |
| Lunch | ||
| Metabolic Drive® | 2-3 scoops | |
| Flameout® | 1 softgel | |
| Midday | ||
| Metabolic Drive® | 2-3 scoops | |
| Flameout® | 1 softgel | |
| Dinner | ||
| Healthy Solid Meal | 300-700 calories | |
| Flameout® | 1 softgel | |
| Bedtime | ||
| Metabolic Drive® | 2-3 scoops | |
| Flameout® | 1 softgel |
Metabolic Drive® Protein Pulse Levels
| Level | Pulses | CAL | FAT | CHO | PRO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 4 x 2 scoops | 880 | 8g | 32g | 168g |
| 2. | 4 x 2.5 scoops | 1100 | 10g | 40g | 210g |
| 3. | 4 x 3 scoops | 1320 | 12g | 48g | 252g |
- Most men and women
- Bodybuilders/athletes 190-220 lbs
- Bodybuilders/athletes 220+ lbs
Healthy Solid Meal Levels
| Level | Description | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Most women | 300-600 |
| 2. | Most men | 400-700 |
| 3. | Bodybuilders/athletes | 800-1200 |
2. Healthy Solid Meal (HSM)
To recap, you’ll have four shakes each day and a healthy solid meal in the evening for 28 days.
Healthy Solid Meal Guidelines
You’ll have a healthy solid meal (HSM) for evening dinner. It’s not a “cheat” meal. It consists of lean proteins, vegetables, and healthy starches.
The HSM has four essential benefits:
- It allows you to remain social or have a meal with the family.
- It also provides a nice “break” from all the shakes.
- It retrains your taste buds for healthy food instead of junk foods that cause you to overeat and crave more.
- It teaches you how to eat for the rest of your life.
Think of this as a daily opportunity to “practice” lifelong healthy eating habits. The HSM has guidelines, but these are rules within boundaries for you to adjust and fine-tune to support your level of progress and keep the fat loss going strong.
Your healthy solid meal isn’t complex. Here’s a simple guideline:
Proteins – Grilled or Baked: Lean steak, chicken breast, turkey breast, eggs, fish, lean pork
Vegetables – Steamed, Grilled, or Raw: Most green and non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, zucchini, squash, peppers
Non-Wheat Starches: Plain potatoes (any variety), yam, rice, quinoa (avoid wheat)
Flameout®: 1 softgel
HSM Calorie Guidelines
Women: 400-600 calories
Men: 500-700 calories
Bodybuilders/athletes: 800-1200 calories
Lower-Calorie Example: For those on the lower end of the calorie range, the HSM could be a half chicken breast, a half sweet potato or a half serving of rice, and a pile of grilled vegetables or a small salad.
Higher-Calorie Example: For those on the high end of the spectrum, the HSM could be a lean steak, a medium-sized baked potato, and steamed vegetables of choice.
Make Adjustments
Everyone is a little different. Experiment, keep an eye on your weekly measurements, and adjust as needed:
-
Increase or decrease the calories in the HSM within the provided ranges to regulate your progress.
-
Reduce your bedtime Metabolic Drive® shake by half if you find that this meal fills you up for the night,
Don’t Skip the HSM
Don’t skip this meal thinking you’re “increasing progress.” A healthy solid meal is crucial to long-term success, especially for reducing cravings.
3. Critical Supplements
When faced with a caloric deficit, your body is programmed to “eat” its muscle rather than burn fat for fuel. So, if you use the wrong supplements for the Velocity Diet, you’ll look much like you do now, only smaller and lumpier.
Biotest only makes elite supplements for elite athletes and those who train like them – people whose lives and careers depend upon performing at or above their known limits. So, Biotest® supplements are the type you need to make serious but healthy changes in your body.
Here’s the list of but also essential to the success of the plan:
Metabolic Drive® Fat-Burning Protein
Metabolic Drive® powder is a delicious milkshake-like protein drink that contains micellar casein and whey isolate. It even received Men’s Health magazine’s “Best Protein” award.
The micellar casein in the formula boosts metabolism and fat loss. It helps you feel full and satisfied longer than you will with other types of protein. Due to its positive influence on nitrogen retention, micellar casein is also the best protein for stimulating protein synthesis, supporting muscle growth, and preventing muscle breakdown.
Flameout® DHA/EPA Omega-3 Fish Oil
The Flameout® omega-3 supplement is a softgel capsule containing the most potent and purest forms of DHA and EPA fatty acids (the same ones found in wild salmon), plus a fat-burning fatty acid known as CLA.
In addition to helping you burn fat, these fatty acids make your body more sensitive to the effects of insulin, increasing nutrient uptake in muscle. Flameout® softgels also support healthy blood lipids, improve cardiovascular health, and help the body’s inflammation response.
Micellar Curcumin® Lipidized Curcumin
Turmeric curcumin is arguably the most effective natural inflammation fighter and heart-health supplement. Biotest’s Micellar Curcumin® formula contains solid lipid curcumin particles that produce 95 times more free curcumin in the bloodstream than highly pure, standardized curcumin with piperine (Gota VS et al. 2010).*
The formula’s solid lipid curcumin particles are backed up with convincing science, invented by neuroscientists at UCLA, funded by the University of California (Oakland) and the Federal Government, and supported by peer-reviewed research on humans patented (9,192,644).*
Here are the benefits of lipidized curcumin:
- Delivers 95 times more active curcumin into the bloodstream than piperine formulas*
- Causes fat cells to undergo apoptosis, which is the term for cellular death. So killing off fat cells is the ultimate prevention of fat storage*
- Prevents pre-adipocytes – premature fat cells – from developing into full-blown fat cells* Again, there’s no better way to avoid fat storage than eliminating fat cells*
- Reduces a high-fat diet-induced increase in body fat*
- Limits the amount of fat you regain after you finish a calorie-restriction diet, even if, for some reason, you stop training*
- Produces a more favorable insulin curve and much lower C-reactive protein (a measure of inflammation) than the non-curcumin group*
- Supports healthy carbohydrate metabolism*
- Promotes a healthy inflammatory response*
- Supports cardiovascular health*
- Protects brain and neurological health*
- Supports healthy carbohydrate metabolism*
- Increases testosterone by acting as an anti-aromatase*
Biotest® Superfood (Optional)
Superfood is a blend of 18 non-GMO whole-food extracts of berries, fruits, vegetables, and greens. It’ll fill nutritional gaps and provide a powerful boost of healthy, life-extending nutrients. One serving of Superfood is the antioxidant equivalent of eating between 10 and 12 servings of fruits and vegetables. The Superfood powder smells like berries and tastes like mild herbal tea.
4. Cold-Water Pulses
Drinking extra water is critical for fat loss. If you don’t drink enough water, your body retains the water it does have. That hampers kidney function and waste products accumulate, leaving your liver to flush out the impurities instead of metabolizing stored body fat into usable energy.
You must drink at least 8 8-ounce glasses of water daily to combat this and facilitate fat loss. Also, drinking your water ice-cold produces a small metabolic boost.
Water is also essential to an exercise program because 70 to 75 percent of your muscle mass is composed of water, and muscles need plenty of water to function optimally.
So it makes good sense to drink plenty of ice-cold water.
5. Power Walks and Activities
Commit to walking every day – rain or shine, busy or not.
Walk at the Right Pace
The average person walks between 3 and 3.5 mph.
Men walk about one-half mile per hour faster than women. For your power walk, shoot for around 4 mph. For most of us, that means walking faster than the normal pace. It’s not “speed walking,” just moving faster than usual.
Distance or Time
You can walk for a certain distance or for a certain amount of time. So try fast walking for two to four miles or 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your fitness level and available time. Walking at 4 mph, you’ll cover one mile in 15 minutes.
Outside or Inside Makes a Difference
Walking indoors on a treadmill burns fewer calories than walking outside at the same speed, but you can make up the difference by setting the treadmill to a slight incline. Do whichever is most convenient, keeping that in mind.
Time of Day Also Makes a Difference
While you can take your walk before work in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening. However, many experts believe that walking in the morning before breakfast leads to faster fat loss. While we’d never recommend strenuous cardio in a fasted state (which could lead to muscle loss), a brisk walk is fine.
But the key is ensuring you get your walk in whenever you can. Never miss a day because you can’t walk at the ideal time.
Don’t Run!
You won’t increase progress by going for long runs or taking hour-long cycling classes. Instead, you’ll impede recovery from your weight workouts, have less energy, and possibly cause your body to lose muscle tissue.
Seek Movement
Along with your daily power walk, you need to “seek movement.” In other words, try to increase your physical activity. How?
- Park farther away from stores or your place of work. Not only will you get a little extra walking in every day, but you’ll also free yourself from the stress of fighting for a parking space close to the front door.
- Take the stairs. If you have to take an escalator, walk up instead of letting the machine do all the work.
- Carry your luggage; don’t roll it.
It sounds simple, but these small daily actions can lead to additional fat loss, long-term weight-loss maintenance, and improved health. Make them a lifetime habit, and your life will be long and lean.
6. Mindful Eating
Practice “mindful eating” to experience the best food-preference changes. So don’t gobble down your HSM, thinking only of the next bite while chewing the previous forkful. That’s what overweight people do.
Instead, eat mindfully. Relax and turn off the TV, computer, and cell phone. Put your utensils down between bites and savor the food. Pay attention to the textures, subtle flavors, and smells. Enjoy this meal, spending at least 20 minutes eating, from the first bite to last.
7. Recovery Sleep and Rest
Most people are surprised to learn that when dieting, at least 50 percent of the daily fat loss will occur while sleeping.
According to research, most adults sleep 5.5 hours nightly, which is unfortunate if you’re trying to lose body fat.
A study (Nedeltcheva AV et al. 2011) compared two groups of overweight people fed 1450 calories daily for 14 days. One group slept 8.5 hours nightly, and the other slept the norm of 5.5 hours. The study finds sleeping 8.5 hours burns 55 percent more body fat than the 5.5-hour norm.
So if you can book the extra sleep time, do it, and you’ll boost fat loss by 25 percent.
8. Fine-Tuning the Plan
Here’s how you can customize the Velocity Diet to fit your personal needs better:
Surge® Workout Fuel Adjustment:
If you’re on a challenging training plan, you can substitute one of your protein pulses with two servings of Surge® Workout Fuel. The thermic effect of Surge® Workout Fuel exceeds that of the pulses and will more than compensate for its additional calories.
Metabolic Drive® Pulse Adjustment:
If you feel too full on the Velocity Diet or are unsatisfied with your fat loss progress, drop the midday Metabolic Drive® pulse. Don’t lower food intake more than that, however, or you’ll risk losing muscle or slowing your metabolic rate.
Very active people, those with a large muscle mass, or those who initially feel hungry can one-half or one scoop of Metabolic Drive® protein to one or more pulses.
Experiment With the HSM Calorie Range
Since everyone is different, play with this calorie range and find out what works best for you. For example, most males do well consuming 400 to 700 calories a day. However, if your fat-loss progress is slowing, consume about 400 calories. If you’re hungry or losing weight too quickly, adjust that up to 600. On the other hand, bodybuilders and athletes might need 800-1200 calories in their healthy solid meals.
You may also find that the lower end of a range is satisfactory on some days, but you need more calories on other days. We want you to make caloric adjustments to make the plan work best for you.
Bedtime Protein Pulse Adjustment
If your HSM fills you up for the night, you can reduce your bedtime Metabolic Drive® pulse by half. Only do this if you’re feeling uncomfortably full. Don’t skip or decrease the pulse thinking you’re “increasing progress.” It won’t do that and may lead to consuming too few calories, which will backfire by slowing your metabolism or causing muscle loss.
Mindful eating reinforces healthy food-preference changes, helping you kick negative eating habits and develop optimal food-related behaviors that last a lifetime.
9. Expert Online Coaching
Authentic expert coaching is rare. But it’s what we do. Helping serious lifters and committed dieters lose body fat while gaining muscle is our specialty, and it’s our science.
We know how to coach you for optimal gains, what to do if progress slows, and how to customize your program for any limitation. And we can relate to your struggles because we’ve all had fat loss and building muscle. We’ve devoted our lives and careers to finding better ways, passing on the knowledge to anyone willing to commit.
Our guarantee is we’ll do our absolute best to help you achieve your most significant progress and ultimate success.
See you in Velocity Diet Coaching and Velocity Diet Logs.
10. Your Velocity Diet Log
Start a Velocity Diet Log. Don’t think about it – do it!
It’s critical for your success. And it’s the place where we’ll do your personal coaching. It’s THAT important.
POST THIS IN YOUR LOG:
Before/After Records
- Photos
- Weight
- Circumference measurements
- Arms, left and right, flexed
- Chest, high, relaxed
- Waist 1-inch above navel
- Waist at navel
- Waist 1-inch below navel
- Thighs, left and right
Daily Updates
- Daily diet observations
- Daily activities
- Questions for us
Daily Rating Scale
- Stress Level: 1-10
- Hunger Control: 1-10
- Mood: 1-10
- Progress: 1-10
Quick Start
- Get your Velocity Diet Kit.
- Start your Velocity Diet Log.
- Get involved in the Velocity Diet Coaching forum.
