The Velocity Diet

by Chris Shugart

with Tim Patterson, Ellington Darden, Christian Thibaudeau, and TC Luoma

© 2022 by T Nation LLC and Biotest LLC

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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.

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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

1. 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.

2. Healthy Solid Meal: You have a daily healthy whole-food evening meal.

3. 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.

4. Cold-Water Pulses: You drink eight 8-ounce glasses of cold water to help the body function optimally for fat loss and muscle gain.

5. 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.).

6. Mindful Eating: You’re taught mindful eating techniques that make your food taste better and reduce and eliminate cravings.

7. Recovery Sleep and Rest: You’re encouraged to sleep nine hours or longer each night for optimal hormone regulation and accelerated body-composition changes.

8. Fine-Tuning the Plan: You’ll learn how to customize the Velocity Diet to fit your personal needs better.

9. 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.

10. 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 includes a state-of-the-art exercise plan in the Velocity Diet forum that continuously updates with new workouts.

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.

Metabolic Drive® Protein Pulse Levels

1. Most men and women
2. Bodybuilders/athletes 190-220 lbs
3. Bodybuilders/athletes 220+ lbs

Healthy Solid Meal Levels

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:

1. It allows you to remain social or have a meal with the family.
2. It also provides a nice “break” from all the shakes.
3. It retrains your taste buds for healthy food instead of junk foods that cause you to overeat and crave more.
4. 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.

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 to 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.

To combat this and facilitate fat loss, you must drink at least 8 8-ounce glasses of water daily. 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

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Quick Start

1. Get your Velocity Diet Kit.
2. Start your Velocity Diet Log.
3. Get involved in the Velocity Diet Coaching forum.

Cool Tips

Most people who get disappointing results or quit out of frustration change the plan. They use different supplements, ignore the workout recommendations, or don’t do all the scheduled pulses.

The Velocity Diet is built on the synergy of its layers. Every part of it is dependent on the other parts. If you’re going to do the Velocity plan, do it right. Success leaves a trail. Follow it. Successful participants don’t change a thing.

Wait 20 Minutes

Because of a series of complex biological mechanisms, it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to “know” it’s full.

It’s why you can eat until you’re full, then feel miserably stuffed 20 minutes later.

Dr. Janet Polivy, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, explains it best: “We don’t have immediate feedback from our bodies telling us we’ve eaten enough. It takes about 20 minutes for food to digest enough so glucose gets into the bloodstream and the hormones start working.”

Those hormones – insulin, leptin, cortisol, and ghrelin – act as chemical messengers to run signals related to hunger and satiety between the stomach and the brain.

So if you drink a shake or eat an HSM and think, “Hmm, I’m still hungry,” occupy yourself with something else and wait 20 minutes. After that, you’ll feel very satisfied.

Flavor Your Shake With Caution

Metabolic Drive® protein tastes great. But after a couple of weeks on the plan, you may want to experiment with new flavoring. The only rule is this: You can’t add anything that increases calories, especially milk. Use water only.

Here are some ideas for new tastes and textures:

• Try Different Thicknesses. Follow the label directions when blending your shakes for the best flavor and consistency. But feel free to experiment too. Some use extra water because they prefer thinner pulses. Others prefer their shakes thick and icy.
• Add Non-Caloric Flavoring. Good choices include sugar-free DaVinci syrups and baking extracts, such as pure peppermint and almond. If you think you’ll like making new flavors purchase mostly vanilla Metabolic Drive® protein, as it’s the most versatile.
• Spice It Up. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, or pre-made apple or pumpkin pie blends work well.
• Add instant coffee. Stir in one serving of instant coffee or espresso into your breakfast pulse. A serving of quality instant coffee and a little hazelnut or caramel-flavored sugar-free syrup will rival anything you get at your favorite pricey coffee shop!
• Make hot chocolate. Add your chocolate Metabolic Drive® protein to some water that’s already hot (but not boiling), and stir or blend.

Make Pudding or Ice Cream

For variety, many enjoy making their Metabolic Drive® pulses into pudding or even ice cream. It’s easy. Add a small amount of ice-cold water to your protein powder, just enough to make a thick, rich pudding, then eat it with a spoon. To make it into ice cream, partially freeze the pudding mixture and enjoy.

Blend Your Shakes

Despite Metabolic Drive® powder mixing well with just a spoon or shaker bottle, try using a blender for most of your daily pulses. Blending them with a little ice gives you a true milkshake-like texture. It also forces you to drink the pulse slower, allowing you to experience satiety faster.

If you need to drink a shake or two at work, purchase a small single-serving blender. They’re inexpensive and portable.

Stirring or using a shaker bottle is fine in a pinch, but you’ll enjoy the plan more if you make each shake a treat.

Increase HSM Satisfaction

Remember, one of the reasons the Velocity Diet is so successful for long-term leanness is it “re-sensitizes” your taste buds and perceptions of flavor. You’ll notice that healthy foods start tasting better. By avoiding hyper-palatable junk foods and boxed foods for 28 days, you’ll “rehab” your taste buds. To make this work even better, follow these tips when eating your HSM:

• Mindful Eating. We mentioned mindful eating earlier. It’s simple: pay attention to your food. Savor it. Chew slowly. People who have disordered eating don’t do this. They don’t think about the wonderful flavors and textures of the food in their mouths; they only focus on the next bite. Put down your fork between bites and enjoy every bite. It’s what “foodies” and professional chefs do. It’s not what lifelong overweight people do. There’s a lesson there.
• Make a plate and sit at a table. No eating from containers while standing up in the kitchen. And avoid eating in front of the TV, computer, or cell phone, which leads to distracted mindless eating. It causes you to be less satisfied with your meal, and you’ll be looking for something else to eat.
• Eat all your HSMs from a small plate. If you’ve had overeating or binge-eating issues, try eating all your HSMs from a small plate. Researchers at the University of Illinois conducted a study where participants ate from soup bowls equipped with hidden refilling devices. Subjects who ate from these never-ending bowls consumed 73% more than those who ate from regular bowls. But here’s the kicker: They didn’t rate their feelings of satiety any higher than those who consumed less! Those who’ve struggled with overeating also find it helpful to eat with a small salad fork or chopsticks. It reprograms their eating habits, forces them to slow down, and they not only enjoy the meal more, they even feel more satisfied afterward.
• Cook your own HSM. Whenever you can, prepare your healthy solid meals. Studies show that prepping and cooking your meal leads to more satisfaction and fullness. As a bonus, you’ll learn more about food. Ironically, overweight people know little about food because they often rely on restaurants and convenient meals. The fact remains: the more you cook, the better you’ll look.

Answering Your Questions

In addition to ice-cold water, what about coffee, tea, or diet soda?

Non-caloric beverages are fine if they don’t interfere with your pulses or water drinking.

Isn’t this just a crazy starvation diet?

No. Here’s the scoop:

• The Velocity Diet provides five healthy feedings per day. You’re consuming a few hundred calories every few hours or so. That’s hardly “starving.”
• The Velocity Diet has more healthy calories than most popular and widely accepted diets, ranging from those based on clinical weight loss to the frozen-meal plans.
• The Velocity Diet provides more than ample protein, one gram per pound of body weight for most people.
• The Velocity Diet provides more healthy fats than the average non-dieter consumes, especially omega-3s.
• The Velocity Diet provides nutrients equivalent to eating between 10 and 12 average servings of organic fruits and vegetables daily. (These come mainly from the Superfood component of the diet.)

Won’t I be just a little hungry?

Maybe, but it’s a fat-loss diet, and you need some willpower first as your body rids itself of unnatural cravings. But there’s no “starving” or malnourishment. The Velocity Diet provides hyper-nourishment.

Isn’t the Velocity Diet expensive?

Not really. You’ll buy the supplement kit to start the diet, but your grocery bill will drastically decrease. You won’t have to buy breakfast, lunch, or snacks.

Many note that the 28 days on the Velocity plan is often less expensive than eating all solid food for four weeks, especially if you usually eat fast food or restaurant meals.

There’s also no alcohol on the plan. So you may be saving money there as well.

Also, remember the typical Metabolic Drive® pulse costs less than $2.00.

Can I Skip the HSM for Faster Results?

No. This healthy solid meal is vital to the success of the diet for three main reasons:

1. The HSM helps you stick to the diet. If you have a weak moment during the day, you’ll know you have a great meal to look forward to in the evening. It also makes social occasions easier to deal with: dates, business meetings, and holidays can count as your solid meal.
2. The HSM retrains your body and brain to prefer healthier foods. This meal teaches you what many experts call “mindful eating,” which is key to long-term leanness.
3. The HSM ensures success. Those who eat unhealthy foods during their HSM or skip the HSM altogether get less spectacular results. They also won’t experience the long-term taste-preference changes that make the Velocity Diet so powerful.

Can I do the Velocity Diet for more than four weeks?

Yes. There’s nothing nutritionally lacking from the Velocity plan. Many also find it convenient. You don’t have to worry about food until the evening, reducing your time spent grocery shopping, planning meals, cooking, and cleaning up.