John Berardis "Dont Diet" diet

I posted this under another message, and thought that others may be interested. The idea behind the “Don’t Diet” diet is to stop the bulking/cutting cycle that most people follow throughout the year. Most people cut too
many calories when cutting. So what if you can stay lean and continually grow? That is the goal of this plan. The three main goals
are: 1) Manipulate insulin’s muscle anabolic properties 2) Minimize insulin’s ability to store fat 3) Minimizing insulin’s ability to prevent fat breakdown.

The idea is to manipulate the body’s hormones. But I won’t get into detail to explain. John Berardi can do that when the whole article goes to print. I’ll give you the basics.

First step is to eat the right meal combos. This is based on the same ideas from Massive Eating. Avoid high carbs in blood, don’t eat carbs alone, eat to avoid chronic elevation of “bad” fats in blood, avoid fats with carbs, etc. There are two methods you can follow. The Stager, and The Taper. The Stagger is better for steady gains but not quick fat loss. For meals 1,3,5 eat moderate protein/carb/no fat. For meals 2,4,6 eat high protein/moderate fat/no carbs. For The Taper, the first three
meals should be moderate protein/carbs/no fat. The last three meals are high protein/moderate fat/no carb.

Use the same methods to calculate your energy expenditure as shown in Massive Eating. To lose, you must calculate your needs and then
subtract 15%. For maintainence, take in exactly what you need depending on training or non-training days. For gain, follow the Massive
Eating plan and eat the same amount of calories on training and nontraining days.

There is alot more to it than that, but it would require a whole article to explain. Something you need to figure out is if you are a carb burner or fat burner. Then you can choose the best meal plan/ratios for your body. JB gives certain tips to figure that out. The main idea is to eat the right meal combinations (based on Massive Eating), experiment with The Stagger and The Taper diet plans, choose carbohydrates with low GI and II (Insulin Index) and eat plenty of protein and get fats from Omega 3’s and avoid saturated fat. And of course, subtract 10-15% if you are trying to lose. But never subtract more than 15% from your total energy expenditure needs!!! I hope that helps. It’s the Cliff Notes version of John’s “Don’t Diet” diet. Hopefully, he will publish the whole thing soon.

Also, for everyone who thinks that you can’t get lean and gain muscle at the same time, this is the meal plan that will disprove that myth that many of us hope to accomplish!

Nate, are any supplements recommended that aren’t discussed in the Massive Eating plan?

Geez, those values sure will be a far cry off the old 12 cals/lb to diet. Its almost 1000 cals difference. Ill have to see how that goes. Thanks Nate

Dogg: As they say in The Corps: “OUTSTANDING; now let’s move like we have a PURPOSE people!”…great summary…

Hi Nate,

Btw, that’s an awesome summary. I always like JB’s stuff since it’s organized and always based on science. Anyway, i have a few questions and i thought you could help me out:

1>. If the stager method is good for steady gains but not quick for fat loss, what is the taper method good for?
2>. If the stager method is good for steady gains, wouldn’t you say that stager = massive eating?
3>. I don’t quite understand when you say: for maintanance, you take calories depending on training/non-training days. Also, what is the difference between carb/fat burner (do you know in terms of insulin sensitivity?)
4>. This is not related to the article you posted but i have been following the JB’s massive eating for 2 weeks with good results. I am 5’6 142 (when started) now i am at almost 150. I am at 3500 cals since i am slightly insulin insensitive, i am doing 25/45/30 ratio. I take the 1st 3 meals as c+p and the rest 5 meals as p+f. Do you think i will gain muscle or burn fat faster? I know summer is coming but i don’t care. I am trying to bulk with minimum fat gains. I am a skinny guy at 23 y/o. Can you give me some suggestions?

Cougar, the main thing JB emphasized was getting enough of your Omega 3’s. I don’t remember if he talked about certain supplements to speed the process. But I have a feeling that he would recommend T2 and MD6 to make further gains. Remember that you need to calculate all your needs per Massive Eating. And subtract no more than 15% from your total needs (resting needs, activity level, Thermic effect of food, excercise, etc.) You may even want to start with 10%. So for someone who needs 4000 calories for Massive Eating, you would take in about 3400-3600 calories for the Don’t Diet plan.

I hope JB will clear up anything else. Like I said, this was the cliff notes version. If you use the Massive Eating calculation and then use The Stagger or The Taper method of meal combos, you should be able to get lean and mean at the same time. JB also has other info that would really help explain this diet! Where are you when we need you JB???? :)

Excellent post!! What are the cardio recomendations for the no-diet-diet, same as for massive eating for increasing inuslin sensitivity??

Steve, good question. But I don’t remember off the top of my head and am not sure if I have it in my notes. JB, will you comment?

Hey guys,

Probably JB is busy preparing his next article due this Friday… who knows…

just trying to keep this post alove until JB can respond. great work on your part Nate.

JB, give us the 411.

Jon, sorry I haven’t responded sooner. I didn’t see your post. To answer your questions, 1) the taper is for faster fat loss. 2) The stagger is for steady, but slow fat loss. Can you make increases in mass? Sure. But will it be equal to massive eating? No. Because massive eating allows for many more calories and a much quicker gain in both muscle and fat. 3) by maintenance, on non/training vs. training days, you have to figure out how many calories you need on each day, and eat that exact amount to maintain. Whereas, the massive eating plan, you figure out how much you need on training days and eat that amount EVERY DAY to increase your weight. The maintenance plan will keep your present weight. If that is what you want to do. I don’t know details about figuring out if you are a carb or fat burner. 4) As for your gains with the diet, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know how your body responds. From looking at your meal plans, it seems logical that you would gain mass and burn fat since you are restricting your carb meals to early meals only. But what if you are a carb burner instead of a fat burner? Well, in that case, your current plan would cause you to gain fat. So it depends on what your body burns better: fat or carbs. And that I can’t answer for you. Only you will know with trial and error. So far, you have made good progress. Good job my man! :slight_smile: