ripped by clarence bass

In its many guises weight loss is a contentious issue for the MMA’er. Whether it is to lose weight generally in a bid to improve overall fitness, or to get "ripped". The question appears time after time, and though many people seem to be able to achieve it, successful weight loss is, it would appear is rarely passed on.

My own endeavours have lead me down a number of paths ranging from the slightly embarrassing (Slim Slow ^tm), to reducing the quantities of foods, low/no carb alternatives, to the chemically assisted (ECA Stack). All of which have had varying degrees of success in terms of achievements and longevity.

All the while I strive to lose weight in an attempt to drop a weight class (without starving myself and ultimately becoming much weaker). The only pearl of wisdom I have been able to gleam throughout this "search" has been to "eat well" and "exercise" – well what the hell does that mean? Only have 3 M^cDonalds a week (a man needs his Mojo) and a couple of BJJ sessions…?

Not being from a sports nutrition background it was very hard for me to actually know what was meant by the term "eat well", so I was at a loss and on the verge of residing myself to being of "ample" stature.

However, whilst perusing a fitness and nutrition discussion board looking for some clues, serendipity struck (not the shit film, but the happy knack of making fortunate discoveries by accident) I stumbled across Clarence bass – reputedly getting his body fat to 2.4% (incidentally less than 3% is considered medically to be zero due to the need for vital fats to allow joint mobility).

Sceptical at first, I had a good look through his website looking for outrageous claims of "special pills the get you ripped and give you an 11" knob as a fortunate side effect" – which, by the way, I will happily buy if someone can point me in the right direction. What I found was a brief history of a man who had certainly achieved what he said – with photos to back it up, a catalogue of well researched articles relating to exercise and nutrition principles, and a brief blurb on each of the books and videos.

Now intrigued I asked a friend for an impartial second opinion, who confirmed what I already thought which was, on the surface it seems good but that there has to be a catch.

The book wasn’t outrageously priced (about Ł8) and not exhaustive reading either with 90 odd pages (many of which contain photos). The book is set out in a logical manner with the introduction giving a brief summary of Clarence’ achievements. Clarence then goes on to clearly define his goals how he intends to achieve it. The book is written in a retrospective manner, so I would assume that he kept some form of diary over the two or three years in which the book covers. The analytical way in which Clarence explores all aspects of nutrition is excellent and helps even the novice to appreciate the logic behind the thinking. The book covers it all from his diet, why particular foods are included / excluded, protein requirements, eating out, correct training, hydrostatic weighing, steroids, nothing is ignored.

Ultimately, what you are left with is a few basic principles of his findings. These are to stay away from processed foods (especially refined carbohydrates such as sugars), eat only whole foods, and that the key to success is keeping track. He applies these dietary principles to come up with a method of eating that he coined "uniform eating". I wont bullshit you, this quite simply means eating the same thing everyday. I had some concerns when first finding this out, chiefly malnutrition. However, the diet is very well balanced with 4-6 eggs a day, lots of fruit and veg, some carbs in the form of toast / bread. The objective of uniform eating is to lose weight slowly (approx 2lb a month) although the diet can be tweaked to give slightly quicker results. Losing slowly allows you to shed fat without losing muscle mass.

At the time of starting the uniform eating I was approximately 73kg which fluctuated up or down by 1kg depending on time of day or day of week, at 5’8" that’s not too heavy but with a lighter weight category is easily within grasp. Three months down the line I have managed to drop 3kg and still going down. On the plus side, due to quite a hectic job and lazy approach, I find that uniformity of eating can be ideal as there isn’t a great deal of organisation or planning involved. It is difficult, however, for those of us who like food (bacon butties are few and far between).

The benefits for the MMA’er are that weight can be shed whilst (and most importantly) retaining strength. The downside is that for most it will be as boring as hell and that results are long term and not rapid.

So in conclusion, we are presented with a well thought out and researched method of eating, which will, in time, produce the results we all seek. Like everything that is worth having there is a price to pay. We have a way to "eat well", but it can be very boring and restrictive and it certainly wont suit everyone, but I can confirm that it has, so far, worked for me.