Anyone read his book Everything You Need to know about fat loss. How does his advice apply to a natural Bodybuilder looking to compete and lose fat? This book seems pretty good but dont know if I’d learn anything new that I dont know already. He was talking about putting on size in a Flex article recently and mentioned a high fat diet is highly over-rated and to take in .35g per lb of bodyweight, which made me wonder about his credentials. Either was the high fat diets didnt do anything for me so i’m looking elsewhere for advice.
I wouldn’t say that high-fat diets are overrated per se, but some people just don’t do well on low-carb approaches, just like there are people (yours truly included) that don’t do well with the high-carb, low-fat approach. The low-carb diets are very individual-they take some trial and error to see what works best for you. A perfect example is the carb-ups. Some people can literally eat anything and as much as they want for two days straight and still lose fat. I remember Dan Duchaine’s (RIP) original carb-up recommendations in the Bodyopus plan. Even avoiding all fructose/sucrose, I couldn’t handle anywhere near the amt. of carbs he recommended (actually eating them was no problem, it was getting back to ketosis and losing fat). The first two times I did a CKD I failed miserably-I later discovered that keeping the carb-up to 24 hrs. and eating a smaller amt (thanks Lyle) worked much better. It should also be noted that whenever I’m dieting, I don’t follow the same plan from the first week to the last, I vary it. I usually start w. a zone approach, then after a few weeks to high pro/moderate carb w. emphasis on MRP’s, then I finish off with a CKD. I get bored eating the same crap all the time. Proper supplementation can make all the difference in the world on these diets, such as EFA’s, potassium, lipoic acid, etc. You said the high-fat diets didn’t work for you, but you didn’t give any info on how you did the diet. Anyway, sorry I got off track. My original point is that anyone that tries to convince you there is a “one size fits all” approach to dieting is either trying to sell you something or is simply misinformed, with all due respect to Mr. Aceto. That would be like saying that every person should use the same training program. Imagine what type of results (or lack of) you would get if you did the same weight routine all the time.
Pete, I agree with Chris that a high fat diet probably is over rated if you are trying to gain weight as it appears he said in FLEX. Loosing fat is a different story. It is definately true that no single diet will work for every body but a higher carb diet will probably work better for gainning muscle as long as you keep the protein high as well. If you are trying to gain muscle you basically need a good amount of all the macro nutrients. Some people will do better on a Zone type diet for gainning and some people will do better on 55% carbs, 30% protein, 15% fat. If someone weighs about 190 pounds and is trying to gain weight eating about 3300 calories, then the 55:30:15 diet would still give you about 250g of protein and 55 grams of fat even though it is a “higher carb diet”.
To get to my point, you asked about his fat loss book, then referenced an article he wrote concerning muscle gain. Generally, you'll take a different approach for either case but as was said by the first guy in this post, not every diet works for every person!
Yes, I would definitely agree that for the majority of people seeking mass gains that a high-fat (ketogenic, that is) diet is not the best option although some people thrive on Dr. Mauro’s Anabolic Diet. Insulin is a very anabolic hormone so you need it if you’re trying to pack it on, and this can’t happen with low carbs.