Lean For Life: Review by David Prokop, IRONMAN Jul '92

If you're like most people who pump iron religiously, your biggest problem probably isn't building or shaping your muscles, but rather getting rid of all the bodyfat to show them off to best advantage. After all, getting lean and staying that way isn't easy--unless you know the secret.

Clarence Bass, the attorney/bodybuilder/fitness writer who has just published his sixth book, Lean for Life, knows the secret. This is the guy who got his bodyfat down to a super low 2.4 percent in 1978 and has kept it at an average of 4 percent ever since--without starvation, deprivation, calorie counting or excessive amounts of exercise. And just to show you how low the above figures are, elite male marathon runners average approximately 6 percent bodyfat when they're in competition shape.

I've known Bass for 11 years, almost the exact length of time he's been writing his Ripped column in Muscle & Fitness magazine. During that time, of course, he's become almost as well known for his book as for his columns. These include Ripped 1, 2 and 3 and The Lean Advantage 1 and 2, the latter two being compilations of his columns.

I must admit that for a long time I thought Clarence Bass had to be a master of self-discipline to keep his bodyfat so consistently low. Surely, I reasoned, he had to be counting calories all the time and starving himself at least part of the time. Only later did I realize that nothing could be further from the truth, for it turns out that the Master of Rippedness never leaves the table feeling hungry or deprived.

As he explains in Lean for Life, "Low-calorie diets are not an effective way to lose fat and keep it off. Severe calorie restrictions almost always leads to failure. It causes hunger and feelings of deprivation. You become unhappy, and that soon leads to binging. You gain back all the weight you lost and probably more. In addition, your metabolic rate slows, and your produce more of the enzymes responsible for fat deposition on the body. So whe you start eating normally again, fat gain is even faster than before. What's more, since muc of the weight you lost while on the restricted diet was muscle, it means you now have less muscle mass and, therefore, a lower calorie-burning capacity. The bottom line is that severe dietary restriction simply doesn't work."

If you want more clues to Clarence's approach to nutrition and leanness, sink your teeth into these comments he's made to me in interviews over the years:

"If you eat the right foods, you don't have to worry about counting calories or overeating. And I don't. Nor do I ever starve myself."

"My basic approach is to eat whole foods--not processed or refined foods. When you do that, I think your natural appetite will control your caloric intake."

"The approach to maintaining leanness has to be a lifestyle aproach. It has to be something you can be comfortable with at all times. And that's what I've done. I enjoy my diet. Even if health wasn't a factor, I wouldn't change my diet, because I think it's an enjoyable, sensible way to eat."

Yes, Clarence Bass knows the formula for staying lean and definied, and he outlines it in greater detail than ever before in Lean for Life. I've always felt that competitive bodybuilders who go through the emotional wear and tear of the three D's--dieting, deprivation and discipline--to bring out the ultimate in muscularity are doing it the hard way, and needlessly so. Particularly when there's a guy like Bass around. The approach he espouses is not only easier, but it makes more sense because severe calorie restriction just before a contest is almost certain to burn off some muscle along with the fat.

One thing that's been abundantly clear to me over the years is that, ironically, the people who need to hear Clarence's message most are sedentary, overweight folks as opposed to the bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts who make up the majority of his readership. Lean for Life is actually his first attempt to reach that broader audience, although he certainly hasn't overlooked the bodybuilders. In other words, this is the first book he's written that's designed to appearl to couch potatoes as well as hardcore lifters.

Lean for Life reflects Bass' evolving approach to training as he's growing older (at this writing Bass is 54). The exercise plan in the book "presents a balanced approach--with equal emphasis on weight training and aerobics. My other books, the Riped series and the Lean Advantage series, basically focused on bodybuilding. Aerobic exercise, or endurance training, was treated merely as an adjunct to bodybuilding, a way to lose fat and make the muscles more defined. I'm still interested in that, of course, but my focus is broader now."

This book includes what is probably the most extensive weight-training/aerobic exercise program you'll see anywhere. In fact, the exercise section is a book in itself, occupying almost 100 pages! Furthermore, the aerobic workouts all involve the type of high-tech equipment--treadmill, stationary bike, rowing machine, etc.--that has become so popular in gyms these days.

Lean for Life is a book that all bodybuilders should read--if only to get the latest and most complete picture of the tried-and-tested techniques Bass has perfected over the years for staying eternally lean--the better to show off those hard-earned muscles. There is subtlety and simplicity to this process that Bass has identified and definied to a T. Follow his advice and you cannot fail. His approach can be both easy and enjoyable! When was the last time you heard those two words applied to losing weight and staying lean?