Slayer's Den

[01dragonslayer]

The fastest fat loss possible. The most muscle retention possible. Let's do it.​

1. To strip fat and retain muscle, scientist and bodybuilder Dr. Lonnie Lowry does “non-panting” fasted cardio when fat is most vulnerable.
2. Hang on to muscle by drinking Mag-10 during fasted cardio. This will ensure that lean body mass is protected while fat is burned.
3. Unlike intense cardio, walking on an incline treadmill will allow for harder and heavier training later on in the day.
4. As competition day (or any deadline) nears, progressively raise the incline of the treadmill and increase the time of your fasted walking. Spread your Mag-10 intake evenly throughout the workout session.

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“I don’t want to look like a wrestler or a CrossFitter. I want to look like a bodybuilder. That’s why I came up with this method for fasted cardio.”

Dr. Lonnie Lowery is preparing for a bodybuilding show, his first in several years. The nutrition professor and research scientist isn’t taking any chances this time around.

The strategy he just told me about is extreme, but he believes it’ll give him exactly what he’s looking for: maximal fat loss and full muscle retention, something that’s nearly impossible to achieve when dieting down for a bodybuilding show.

“I know this method is crazy. It’s not for everyone. But hey, this is competition time. I’m not playing games.”

Lowery is a natural ectomorph, growing up a skinny, scrawny kid. His body doesn’t “want” all that extra muscle, and he has to use everything in his intellectual arsenal to build it and, most importantly, keep it.

After his mass phase, Lowery found himself sitting at a too-thick 20% body fat. It was time to do something drastic: fasted cardio. But this time, Lonnie had a secret weapon.

The premise is simple. Every morning Lowery wakes up early and performs an hour of fasted “cardio.” That means this exercise is done before he consumes any type of solid food.

Why? Because body fat is vulnerable at this time. It’s weak because your insulin level is at rock bottom in the morning. Fat is left unprotected. This is the ideal time to maximally oxidize fat with a cardio-type of activity, tripling fat mobilization over already high resting values.

The problem? Too much high intensity cardio can catabolize or “eat up” muscle tissue. The goal here is to preferentially burn fat, not muscle.

Lowery has a unique method to avoid muscle loss while draining fat stores. Instead of steady-state running or interval-style sessions, he uses incline walks on a treadmill lasting about an hour. He calls this “non-panting cardio,” though he adds that it’s not “real” cardio in the technical sense of the word.

It seems easy, and the actual workout is, but performed in a fasted state with the addition of caffeine and one other tactical supplement, this method can rip off excess body fat while protecting lean body mass.

Just as important, this low to moderate intensity allows him to save most of his energy for his strength-training session later in the day.

Lowery has been using this style of “cardio” for years. When he cuts 25 pounds of weight for a bodybuilding show, typically only three to five pounds come from muscle tissue, which is quite good.

But what if he could prevent all muscle loss? He’d walk onto the stage with three to five pounds more muscle. At very low body fat, that has a dramatic visual impact. And it could mean the difference between first and fourth.

Lowery has tried several methods over the years to maximize this strategy, including pre-cardio glutamine and a small amount of whey protein powder. The results were hit and miss. He noted,

“I was worried that whole proteins consumed in the middle of a workout might mess up fat mobilization and fat burning. L-leucine seemed like the solution, but it wasn’t readily available until recently.”

The final solution: a small dose of leucine-enriched casein hydrolysate consumed during the cardio session. Mag-10 22 fit the bill perfectly.




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It’s not comfortable performing cardio with a big tube in your mouth, but Lowery was determined to test out this new protocol.

There were a couple of things he had to know. A carb-containing drink will suppress fat mobilization a bit, even during a workout. Would a leucine-casein hydrolysate drink? Would this muscle protectant slow fat loss?

“I went into the lab early one morning, hooked myself up to the metabolic cart and tracked my fat oxidation as I sipped the leucine-casein drink. I can’t tell you how pleased I was to see the results in real time.”

Lowery told me that respiratory exchange ratio (RER) started at 0.75 – about 80-84% of all calories burned from fat stores, which is great. Anything below an RER of 0.80 indicates a preponderance of fat burning.

After drinking the first third of his Mag-10 in minute 15, his RER remained 0.75. Good so far. After drinking the next third at minute 30, his RER was 0.74 – just as good or slightly higher fat oxidation. A final swig at the 45-minute mark and Lowery’s RER was 0.75 – perfect.



These numbers validated his theories, training, and literature reviews. He added,

“With casein hydrolysate and a few grams leucine, my fat burning remained in high gear during my optimized aerobic session, while my muscles were fully protected. This is a prime example of tactical nutrition.”

Intrigued? Here’s exactly how Dr. Lowery uses this powerful strategy:

1. Before bed, place a bottle of water and half a caffeine tablet (100 mg) on your nightstand. Set your alarm for 10 minutes before you want to get up.
2. When the alarm goes off, take the caffeine tablet and hit snooze. Doze back off if you can. Dr. Lowery calls this his “caffeine snooze.” Ten minutes later, when the alarm goes off again, get out of bed, mix up one scoop of Mag-10® in 16 ounces of water, and find a treadmill.
3. Set the incline of the treadmill at 4%. Start walking at 3 MPH. The whole workout should be kept a just-below panting level. Heart rate should never exceed 120 BPM (beats per minute) for younger guys, and should be closer to 110 or 115 BPM for older men. Lowery is 42 and shoots for around 115 BPM.
4. Ten to 15 minutes after exercise has begun, drink one-third of the Mag-10. Halfway through, drink another one-third. About fifteen minutes before finishing, kill it. The idea is to spread Mag-10® intake evenly throughout the workout session. You could also do this in halves: half the drink after beginning the session, half 15 minutes before finishing.
5. Eat breakfast as soon as you’re finished.
6. Lift as usual later in the day with a good peri-workout protocol. That means once again manipulating insulin - jacking it up this time and lifting weights hard in that high-insulin anabolic state.