How to Stay Lean and Fit for Life

Life is too short to work your butt off year-round.

I am a firm believer in spurts of effort and then backing way off on those efforts and just enjoying life.

Is your goal to workout as much as possible or to look and feel good?

You can go periods of 3-4 months on a skeleton workout schedule and maintain an amazing physique if you plan it out properly.

After those 3-4 months you will need to put in more time, then you can go back to maintenance mode. I’ll talk more about how to do this in this post.

You Can Maintain Off Very Few “Official” Workouts

The key to being lean and mean all summer is cutting back your calories a bit.

You can do this and still enjoy nights out clubbing (if you are in that age group), going out to eat with friends and family, etc.

If you want to enjoy good meals and higher calorie foods, you have to eat fewer meals.

Another way to accomplish this is to eat 1-2 tiny meals and just one bigger meal at night when it is time to go out.

I Like to Think Of “Calories Per Week” NOT Calories Per Day

This shift in thinking will make staying lean a breeze while still having an active social life.

On the days where you are just working and then going home to chill-out, eat low-calorie meals. When you are alone, keep the meals small and bland.

Save your calories for the days in the week where you plan on being social.

This approach works extremely well!

If take away one thing from visiting my site, understand that your metabolism will not slow down from skipping meals from time to time -or- having a few low-calorie days in a row.

So How Many Workouts Per Week to Maintain?

It depends on how much you eat. I have found that most people can get away with 1-3 “official” workouts per week.

I will typically do 2-3 workouts each week throughout the summer. A key to making this work is to stay active when you are not in the gym and walk more, etc.

Also, you can do intense HIIT followed by steady state cardio each and every workout… since you are training less.

Have Some Fun While You Are on This Planet

The thing that makes me hesitant about writing fitness posts is that I don’t want anyone to become obsessed with working out.

I encourage general misbehavior, late nights, not following the rules, eating happy hour food at least once per week, enjoying a beer in a mug that is much too large, sleeping on a tropical beach, playing music that is too loud, etc.

Bottom line…have some fun and don’t be a cheesy person that talks about grams of protein and how much you can lift when you are out in the “real world”.