If you were to pull up to the pump in a NASCAR and fill it with standard unleaded gasoline, it wouldn’t run very well. NASCARs use 100 octane fuel! Similarly, your bodies need proper nutrition to function optimally. That is the first secret to getting ripped.

The second secret - although the same thing - is percentage of body fat as it relates to nutrition or caloric intake. If your abs are buried below a layer of fat, you’ll never see them no matter how hard you work out! Gauging your caloric expenditure, workout expenditure, and caloric intake however is difficult. Lance Armstrong’s site, Livestrong.com makes this easy! I highly recommend it!

At Livestrong.com, you can create a free account called the Daily Plate. Here you enter your food choices and before you’re done typing, dozens of options are coming up on the screen. So if you buy a breakfast burrito at the local gas station, and it’s made by Rico, it’s there! If you down a Minute Maid pomegranate juice, it’s there. It will tell you how many calories per serving and the serving size, how much sodium, protein, carbs, and this by grams, milligrams and also percentages. It makes the science of thermodynamics a snap!

Remember, you can’t really get ripped until you lose the body fat covering your muscles, and you can’t lose it if you don’t know whether you’re in a nutritionally-sound caloric deficit. That’s my tip - go to Livestrong.com and take a few minutes every day to see how you’re doing nutritionally. You’ll be glad you did!