I realize that most of the literature supports 5g as the maintenance dose and I generally agree with that. I aslo agree that taking more will not cause health problems but it could take a little extra cash. I based these recommendations on what I have seen Berardi recommend. I also think that creatine is vital to support lifting during carb restricted diets and because creatine is one of the cheapest supplements out there, I’d rather make sure people have too much than not enough. 10g a day is probably overkill, but low carb diets are tough and any advantage available should be taken. That’s my reasoning.
I see in one of your earlier posts that you used the ABCDE diet to great effect while doing BFL, this is in contrast to a number of others who have tried it (including me) most just end up getting fat. Did you eat clean on the bulking weeks? What sort of calories were you consuming bulking v cutting and macro ratios?
Hello all!! I too have been lurking for a while and decided it’s time to join in on the fun. I’ve been reading T-mag for years now and following the training advice but not the diet advice. So now I have finally decided to shed this fat and see what all these years of lifting have to show for it.
I will start a cycle of Mag-10 for 2 weeks with MD6 & T2(old) Then I will do Methoxy for 2 weeks with the MD6 & T2. After a month I’ll switch the T2 to the new formula. My diet will be…FatFast. I’m 5’9" at 248lbs with a BF of 28%, measured on tanita. Just for an approximation how long do most of your figure it will take to shed 60lbs of lard?? By the post I figure a conservative figure would be about 20 weeks. If this is right would that be too long to shed??
Is it common to wake up in the middle of the night with hunger pains? I took a md6 and drank about 40 oz of water and they went away. I think I’ll be splitting up my md6 throughout the day instead of two at a time, just to prevent this from happening again.
One other thing… I can’t access Eric’s site up there. I keep getting a message that it’s not one of Tripod’s site.
Jason - Thanks; makes sense.
Hyphnz - My caloric intake varied anywhere from 4000-6000 calories per day while bulking. I was pretty strict about what I ate, consuming mostly "bodybuilding" food; but allowed for the occasional snack (i.e. I didn't feel guilty by going out with friends for pizza or for ice cream every once in a while). I was able to be pretty social during my "bulking" cycles. When it came to cutting; I didn't play around. My diet was strict the entire time, intaking roughly 1800 calories daily. The "protein" cycling approach was fundamental for retention of gains while dieting; I would highly recommend it. I used lots of glutamine and aminos on the low-protein mini-cycles. Thos are just a couple of things that I did. Obviously, the type of training I was doing, and specific strategies I employed during both cycles allowed for my results to really stand out. My knowledge brought my results to the next level.
Jake - I don't recommend high-volume workouts while cutting. Reason being, they are very glycogen demanding and do nothing to increase muscle tone. If you are looking for that hard, ripped look; it's not going to happen with high-volume, hypertrophy workouts. You'll end up being leaner, but with a flat and soft look. I just don't think that's optimal.
If I were you, I would go with the typical 5 x 5 power lifting approach. Not very glycogen demanding, and puts a great amount of tension on the working muscle groups (muscle tone is simply resting tension; it's what gives you that "hard" look). A three day split may look like this:
M- (Legs, Low Back, Shoulders):
Sumo Squat, Military Press, Deadlift, and Calve Raises in a Leg Press Machine w/ a 3 second pause at the top of the movement
W- (Arms):
Barbell Curls w/ flexed wrist, Close Grip Bench Press
F- (Back, Chest, Traps):
Barbell Bench Press, Weighted Pull-ups, One Arm Dumbell Shrugs
Hope this helps. I gotta freakin' leave for school. I spend too much time on this forum :)
I have a question. I’m doing the Fat to Fire program (I’m on Week 2) and I was wondering if the T-Dawg diet would be slowing my fat loss with the high-volume training. This is the first low-carb diet I have ever tried. In one week with Fat to Fire/T-dawg, I went from 175.0#/16.0% BF to 173.5#/15.0%. Should I increase my carbs until I finish Fat to Fire and then return to the T-dawg diet? I plan on finishing the 3 weeks of Fat to Fire and then continuing my cutting cycle with a 5 x 5 routine for 5-6 weeks.
Thanks
Wow, I had to take notes and write down questions to figure out how to respond to everybody. This is awesome. The more the merrier.
Jake - Methoxy-7 is a great supplement. I don't think it is quite as potent as androsol, but I'm talking minimal differences, so you should be ok. As a side note, I've got maybe one more day of androsol left. (I'm very sad). I began taking Methoxy-7 on Sunday, so I'll be able to tell you how I respond.
As for waking up with hunger pangs in the night, I'm not to suprised since you are doing fat fast. I've never done something that extreme, but I'm sure you'll adjust in a day or two.
I just connected to Eric's site so I'll post the URL that I used: http://ericcressey.tripod.com/ (Hope that helps!)
Frank - 60lbs huh? I'd say 20-30 weeks. You'll lose faster at the onset. But this is assuming that you stay strict and focused. Since you are also doing fat fast, please take Joel and I's advice: start supplementing creatine and stick with a 5x5 type program and do your cardio. Avoid anything that is significantly glycogen depleting because you won't be able to perform well at the activity and it can begin to eat up muscle quickly. Good work to get started! Keep us posted on how you are doing? Also, how long do you plan to do the fat fast? I'd suggest starting with it and going as long as you can, but then cycling through the T-Dawg and Don't Diet every 4 weeks or so to change the stimulus on your body and also to give you a chance to mix up your training routine.
To everybody else - If I missed your question, just ask again. Keep up the good work!
Podge - How you doing buddy?
Yes, bump up your carbs. Use Berardi’s Don’t Diet for ideas and keep carbs at at least 33%. When you return to strength work, then go ahead and go back to T-Dawg.
The plan is to do 6 weeks of FatFast will actually to start it will be Steroid Diet with Meltdown. I enjoy the workouts and have noticed good recovery with Surge. MD6 is definitely a savior with this type of eating. So basically 6 weeks of steroid diet then 6 at fat fast then back to steroid diet. I figure flipping back and forth. When I’m on Fatfast I’ll stick to the 5x5 protocol but during the steroid diet I can handle Meltdown. Well not really “handle” more like recover from, it’s some brutal stuff. I’ll keep ya posted. Everything starts “officially” Monday. Up till now it’s been getting into the routine of going to the gym we joined, carting the food around and taking the supplements. Speaking of the supplements I’ll add creatine to the mix. Was the rest of the supplement mix ok?
Frank - the rest of your supplement regime looks good. A word of advice for you while you are using Meltdown on low carbs (how many are you taking?) Either use Surge before and during your workout or use glutamine and BCAAs instead of carbs during these sessions. Check out Kelly Baggett’s article in issue 15 of intensity magazine and figure out the correct dosage from that article. Hope that gets you started.
Alright, I’ll follow your advice Jason. Since my old workout partner has since bailed on me. He started working construction, and that was a big reason I didn’t want to stop using EDT, to keep him on his path of progress, which he was doing well on.
Hey on the Fat Fast… if ya drink 2 gallons of water and with some strategic timing with MD6 you don’t feel that hungry. heh
Hey guys, glad to see everyone deciding to participate here. Like Jason said, we’re here to help. Remember, we’re doing this thing too!
Putting the finishing touches on my Powerlifting Program. Getting really serious about increasing my lifts in order to "prime" my system for some unbelievably hardcore gains come "bulking" time.
Keep up the hard work guys. Podge, what the hell have you been up to bud? What day is pizza day?
Week 1 Update:
6 days @ 1800-1900 cals (50P/30F/20C) and 7th day @ 2400 cals (60C/30P/10F).
Went from 74.8kg (164.56lbs) to 73.0kg(160.60lbs). I think I lost a bit of water a glycogen, so the real test will be next week's weight (although I've been monitoring daily changes).
My modified Meltdown workouts are going well, but I'm really champing at the bit to get stuck into some lower-body work. I need to start adding some quality mass, but I'm not going to go over maitenance calories while I can't work my legs...
I'm still waiting on Methoxy-7 to arrive from the States, and I'm now going to save it for bulking. Has anybody here used it successfully for bulking? For me, its been a good mass preserver while cutting, but I've never tried it for anything else...
well, not quite pulverized :)… i’ve been away from a computer for awhile, doing some feild work… today, at lunch, was the big day. i figured i’d better do it at lunchtime during work, so i wouldn’t be tempted to crash from the food coma. we have pizza magia here, which is a lot like papa john’s, but a little sweeter. i ordered it and picked it up on the way home for lunch. i tell you all what, it was the best damn tasting pizza i think i’ve ever had in my life !! i won’t go into details, so as to be nice… but i only was able to eat half of it to feel full… not stuffed, but satisfied… the other half, i threw in the trash and dumped some coffee grounds on it so i wouldn’t be tempted to finish it off when i got home from the gym… every chance i had, i belched in efforts to try to taste it again !!.. i just got back from the gym, back here at work, and everything feels fine… and my focus is as sharp as ever… thanks to you all, i was able to do it and not feel guilty about it…i’m in serious “i can conquer the world” mode now…!!!.. well, that’s it for now… i’m going to try to catch up on reading here…
Glad you enjoyed the pizza! Thinking of you tossing coffee grounds on your pizza in the trash to keep from eating it, had me rolling on the ground in laughter. Good stuff man!
Podge, glad to hear you enjoyed the pizza. Personally, I would have stuffed my ass 
Ok joel… since you seem to know a lot about cardio, (i think it should be called Metabio, since we do it for the metabolism instead of cardiovascular conditioning) after my binge yesterday, when should I get back to the cardio…??? ( I “took the Browns to the Superbowl” this morning, and I’m almost sure I got rid of all that pizza and a few other things !!)…i feel great this morning !!
Tommorow morning is fine. Today probably would have been fine also, considering you had the pizza for lunch. I just wouldn’t recommend sprinting the day after a cheat/day meal where you consumed a great deal of calories in the evening.