Im currently doing the T-Dawg Diet V:2.0, and Im very happy with my progress.
However, on a general basis, is it really necessary to do low-carb when getting ripped?
Ketosis-diets (or near-ketosis) have many negative side-effects, even if it is effective; no or few vegetables and fruits, too much bad fat, reduced perfomances when working out, and so on.
Couldnt a diet consisting of perhaps 30% low-GI carbs (energy) achieve just as good results? After all, fruits and vegetables help promote fat-burning, and are good energy-resources for kicking ass in the gym! =)
Hey T-Dog,
I kinda have the same question as you. I dont know…only 100 carbs a day seems low. I figured out my personal macronutrient percentages and I am eating around 3500 calories per day.
Total Calories=3582 % Total
Fat=61 grams 17%
Sat Fat=9 grams 3%
Carbs=323 grams 35%
Protein=391 grams 48%
I do admit my carbs are really high (but after looking through my diet, I can get rid of about 150 of them). However, most of my carbs are from grains, fruits and veggies. Shit…one freakin banana has 38 carbs! Anyways, my current goals are to put on some weight (I weight 187, would like to get to 195-200) and then I can tweak my diet to lower the carb intake. And my BF% is around 8%. I would like to get down to 6%, but its pretty damn hard to put on mass and lose BF at the same time. So I have to concentrate on one or the other. Regardless, I concure with you in that T-Dawg 2’s recommendation for only 100 carbs is insane…but for fat loss it is neccessary. Any thoughts?
If you think 100 carbs is too low then you’ve never done a “real” keto diet which go from 0 to only 20 grams a day! The T-Dawg 2 is very generous in that regard compared to most other diets. And remember, it’s for fat loss only! I keep hearing about these guys wanting to gain a lot of muscle and then ask about the T-dawg. It’s a fat loss diet, not a muscle gaining diet!
Steve69…yeah i know T-Dawg is for fat loss only!!! Thats why at the end of my post, I said that T-Dawg 2’s recommendation for only 100 carbs a day is necessary for fat loss. I only stated my goals cause I am thinking about trying T-Dawg AFTER I put on mass.
Agreed. It is not necessay to go keto at all. IN fact there are many diets that keep an isocaloric profile and just reduce cals. Check out Don’t diet diet by JB or the Delta 123 err something like that. Lookup diet manefesto it has all that stuff.
Hi, T-Dog. No, a low-carb diet is not necessary to drop BF, though a lot of BBs do cut carbs to get to low BF percentages for competition. There are any number of diets here on T-Mag. All that is REALLY necessary is that you’re hypo-caloric (i.e., below maintenance calories).
Myself, dropping BF is extremely difficult/challenging. I’m extremly insulin INsensitive. It’s a genetic thing. A number of people in my family are/were diabetic and died from complications due to diabetes. So even though I do well on a low-carb diet, you may not need to do low carbs to drop weight/BF.
There’s a lot more to T-Dawg than meets the eye. For one thing if you change from a free-feeding type of approach to life to restricted carbs, you’re also cutting the insulin that’s secreted. And what’s the big deal about avoiding chronically high levels of insulin? Well, when insulin is present, any fat eaten with it is immediately stored. Additionally, fat mobilizing hormone cannot be present at the same time insulin is present. Low levels of insulin and/or timed spikes results in your body drawing upon fat reserves to a greater degree.
All I can say is experiment. If you continue to lose weight, that’s all that matters. If you stop losing weight/BF, go back to T-Dawg basics.
I started the T-Dawg diet one week ago, and my stomach’s already smaller and I’m seeing some definition in my lower legs that I’ve never noticed before. I can manage to eat a few servings of fresh vegetables daily. I could fit in more if I ate less nuts/nut butters and more olive oil. Only having a few servings of fruit a week sucks, but every diet has drawbacks. At least I now have a much easier time refusing foods I shouldn’t be eating thanks to all the satisfying fat that’s allowed.