For the record… AD is NOT designed to be a ketogenic diet. After the initial break in phase and becoming fully fat adapted, you should not be in ketosis.
Prepare to be educated by the Good Doctor DiPasquale:
NM: You’d think that it would make sense to have protein available while under stress, but a lot of people look at protein just for repair when resting. The thinking is that only carbs and fat are used during exercise.
MD: That’s bullshit! The whole business about gluconeogenesis and ketosis is very mixed up. A lot of these so-called “experts” don’t really have their facts straight. They read a couple of studies, do a test or two, and draw a conclusion. I don’t know everything, but when I research something, I like to do as many studies as possible. In my book on proteins and amino acids, I had over 1,700 references. Even that only skims the surface, but at least it narrows down the variables. My new book should have over 2,100 references! This is the way to approach the effectiveness of a product or a diet plan?not to go off halfcocked. I’m working on several formulations that I believe will be effective for several sports-related applications. I may put out my own line of sports supplements called “Coaching Solutions” which will only be products that I believe in. I’m also thinking about putting out an “Anabolic Diet” supplement line. They may not work for everyone, but all I can say is that “this is the best that I can do?this is what I take.”
NM: That was the principle which Tim and TC used when putting together the Biotest line. Tell me, you were one of the first proponents of the high-fat/low-carb diet. What’s the main difference between the Anabolic Diet that you developed and the presently popular Ketogenic Diet?
MD: When I wrote the Anabolic Diet, I wasn’t trying to present an academic hypothesis. I wanted to write about something that would work. These days, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ketosis, but it’s all pretty useless. Staying in a ketogenic state basically means that you haven’t adapted to the diet. If ketones are being excreted in the urine (which is how you determine ketosis) by using “keto-sticks,” then you’re not utilizing ketones for energy very efficiently. Someone who is optimally using fat for fuel should not have ketones in their urine.
NM: Whoa, let me back this up for a second. So what you’re saying is, if one were efficiently using ketones for energy and lipolysis on a carb depleted diet…it shouldn’t produce a state of ketosis?
MD: That’s correct. If you’ve adapted fully to the diet.
NM: So it’s not preferable to be in ketosis if the objective is fat loss?
MD: That’s right. This is where I differ from everybody else and why the Anabolic Diet is so effective where others are not. Ketosis is very catabolic! First of all, the Anabolic Diet keeps you at 30 grams of carbs a day, five days a week. That keeps you out of ketosis, but the body begins to adapt to using fat for fuel. On the weekend, you can eat as many carbs as you like. That’s the anabolic phase, but the body is still in a fatburning mode. Once there’s a spillover of carb calories to fat storage, after no more than 48 hours, you go back to 30 carbohydrate grams a day. Basically, this is meant to be a diet that can be followed easily. Who wants to wake up at night to eat or spend each hour of the day watching exactly how many calories you eat? What’s interesting is that I’ve found that triglyceride levels rise on the days when high carbs are ingested.
NM: That pretty much takes the theory of only saturated fats being the culprit to increasing triglyceride levels and bites it right in the ass, doesn’t it?
MD: Exactly! Interesting conclusion, isn’t it? It’s made me go back and do some rewrites in my book. It’s fascinating?but I won’t lie to you and tell you that I have an explanation for it. Maybe as you start to carb up, the body will stop burning fat and starts depending on all of those carbs coming in, so it makes sense that if your body is still in a fatburning mode at first, it’s still accumulating intramuscular triglycerides. Then, when you stop using them, they begin to increase. I don’t know. It’s just a theory. Another advantage of the Anabolic Diet is that you don’t have to worry about getting enough essential fatty acids. There’s no need to supplement. You’ll get plenty from the diet itself. I don’t make a distinction between saturated and unsaturated, essential or nonessential fats.
NM: What about saturated fats raising LDL?
MD: If you’re a bodybuilder trying to achieve a consistently low body fat, I don’t see much of a difference, and I’ve done the tests to prove it. But everyone should be tested for their enzymatic peculiarities. Another advantage of saturated fat is that it’s been shown to increase endogenous levels of testosterone. Red meat is an important part of the Anabolic Diet. Now, people have drawn conclusions between Dan Duchaine’s BodyOpus Diet and the Anabolic Diet. There are similarities, but the Anabolic Diet was written long before Dan’s book. I never read his Ultimate Dieting Handbook.
NM: That had a similar approach. Cut carbs until you enter ketosis and then gorge on Fruit Loops and sugar frosted Alpha-Bits. I believe it was a ten-day diet plan. It made sense, but whether or not Dan actually followed it himself is another story altogether.
MD: Don’t get me wrong, I think that Dan’s had a lot of great ideas. I know that he gets very particular in his applications. You also don’t have to participate in something to be good at it, or at least to know what you’re talking about. But I take less of an “ivory tower” approach. I’m more in the trenches. Everything that I’ve written about, I’ve had firsthand experience with. I’ve gotten down to 3% body fat. That was too light, but it allowed me to win a title in the 132-pound weight class. I’ve set records in five different weight classes.
