I was interested in trying the anabolic diet. I was trying to find the book, but it looks like all there is now is the CD rom. Is this true and has anyone out there tried the diet and what do you think? Thanks
Read the 2 “Eat Like a Man Articles” in the t-mag archives. They cover the anabolic diet. Dipasquale has updated the anabolic diet and it is now called “The Metabolic Diet”.
Jeremy,I tried the diet years back.I did it for about three weeks,I thought I would die if I did it for any longer! I must say I got leaner than I had ever been up to that point,without losing any muscle size.However I felt like absolute crap the whole time.I was averaging around 4500-5000 calories a day,virtually all protein and fat.I noticed after the weekend carb-up I would feel a little more energetic,and would look really pumped and vascular,but this effect disappeared by about Wednesday.
This was my experience,I have read favourable posts by others,I also met Leo Costa a few years back,he apparently had been on the diet for four years at that point and he looked fine and seemed pretty coherent.
I now follow a paleo diet,with low carb meals, and large carb servings right after training,and it works really well.So it is still a carb-cycling type diet,but with more regular carb intake and what I consider to be much healthier protein and fat sources.
My personal recommendation would be to read Natural Hormonal Enhancement by Rob Faigin,and Neanderthin by Ray Audette.NHE is a great book,although I don’t agree with everything Faigin says(I think he is way off base on his negative stance re post workout drinks),but he explains the concept of carb-cycling well,as well as other factors that can enhance natural GH output.Neanderthin is a very informative book on paleolithic (or hunter-gatherer) eating.The beyondveg.com website is also a good source of info on paleo eating if you are interested.
I agree w/ you boombam, paleo eating is the best way to eat, w/out doubt. Regarding the Anabolic Diet, and Dr. Di’s updated Metabolic Diet, some people get great results with it. I’ve given both a very fair try, but they do not work for me, at all. When I eat high fat, even w/ no carbs, I still get fatter. I would suggest lean meats supplemented w/ fish oils, along w/ greens. Results are superior and I feel health is better too, as large quantities of Saturated Fat are not natural to our diet.
Ive went on the anabolic diet for about a month and I will say that it is a very workable diet if you have a high degree of will power, after fine tuning the diet for the first week I found myself loving and hating the diet:
after the metabolic shift from carb burning to fat burning (about 48-72 Hrs)I found myself having high levels of consistent enengy, I had no food cravings, no growling stomach, no bloating or gas.
I also noticed an increase in power on all of my lifts, I noticed myself getting leaner week after week(eating btw 3700-4000 cals per day.)
I did not do any cardio, I simply exercised like an animal.
The down side: once you start shifting from carb to fat burning (within 48-72hrs) you will feel like death for about a day, headache, stomach cramps, the runs.
I also found myself doing alot of cooking and preparing meals to take with me to eat during work you cant eat out that much if you want to stay within your daily carb count, once you have a set list of food choices that you like, you may start to get bored, bacon and eggs/w cheese and big 1lb steaks are all good at first, but after a few weeks you make simply get tired of feeling limited to certain high fat foods,
the first free weekend you will most likely pig out completely pizza, mickey d's ect, but this too will need to be fine tuned a bit, some people can carbs up for 2 days maybe even 3 but I could only do it for one day before I started to feel myself retaining water and getting smooth.
this monday 12/3/01 I plan to start the cutting phase of the diet, I did completely stop the diet for a week just to see what would happen once I started eating rice, pasta and breads again and truth be told I did not feel that great. I did enjoy the week of free eating but I did not enjoy the high & low energy jumps, the gas ect.
despite the boredom I really like the way I feel while on the anabolic diet, Im going to try the cutting phase for about 6-8 wks I will let you guys know what happens.
The book includes a version that is fairly similiar to berardi’s low carb version of his own diet. look up Dipasquale’s name for hits on the web to find a site you can purchase the book it is called the metabolic diet.
I ordered the book a couple of years ago and got the tape with it. I don’t know what’s on the CD, but if you can find either the book or the tape, my recommendation is to buy one or the other - NOT both. The reason is that they both cover almost exactly the same thing. I was very disappointed that I spent money for a tape and got no extra info for my dollars.