What’s up everyone. Do you guys remember the ABCDE or whatever diet where one would overeat for two weeks and then diet for two weeks? Well I’ve been eating “Massive eating” style now for seven weeks and have seen great results. But I’m starting to feel fat. My girlfriend is actually bugging me because she can’t see my abs anymore. So, I was thinking that I would give the fat fast diet a try for two weeks before going back to massive eating. My question is what does everyone think about doing a cycle of something like six weeks of massive eating then two weeks of fat fast. This would be continued year-round. I know the ABCDE diet was dogged by the T-staff, but what does everyone think of this. John Berardi, I’d like to hear your two cents on this one too along with the rest of the staff. Thanks for the support.
just sentin this to the top…sounds intersting
Chadwick…why not just do the Alphabet Soup diet, eat donuts and crap for a couple weeks, then eat like a bird for two weeks? You’ll gain some muscle, a good amount of insulation, then lose most of that muscle and some of that chub and feel like a piece of dung! Just bustin’ your chops:-)
Actually, I think cycling goals and caloric intake is a good plan of attack for several reasons–whether it be 4 and 4, 6 and 2, 8 and 2, whatever. But what I don’t understand is why you think you need to go to such drastic measures as the Fat Fast–don’t be offended, it seems like everyone wants to go this way. I would much rather see you continue with the Massive Eating protocol throughout, just adjusting calories as my good man JB recommend, adding in cardio as well.
Makes sense…doesn’t it. The thing is though, why don’t you just try to mess around with the cals in the massive eating. I have been on massive eating no for about three months or so and i have been tinkering around with the cals. I have noticed that there is a point that actually keeps fat coming, yet alowes you to grow muscel…over the past three months i have gained 2 pounds and my BF has not changes at all, yet my strength is higher and there is a noticable difference in my muscel fullness… ever few weeks i have been upping the cals a little when my body tells me to… Believe me, if you use the massive eating protocol and mess with the cals, you will see you body transform like never before, at least it has for me…
Timbo – I was wanting to use something like the fat fast as a way to keep my fat levels in check. I’m not looking to get shredded, just keep things in control. I could just change the calories like you recomended, but instead of dieting for two weeks it may take me twice as long. My main goal is to gain mass not to diet. So I want to be eating “massive eating” style as much as I can. I do grow very well when overeating, just trying to figure a way to continue to grow while keeping my fat levels under control. Something that I also noticed is that most of my weight gains in the begining of “massive eating” seemed to be muscle. Then recently its been looking like I’m gaining more fat. By doing something like the fat fast hopefully when I start overeating again I will gain muscle. Because I think if i continue where I am at now, (massive eating) I will be gaining more fat than muscle. I think there might be a point were overeating starts to lose its anabolic effect and the body adjusts to the diet and it starts to store more fat.
Chad, you are right. There is a point where overeating leads to more fat gain and it’s when you get fatter. The leaner you are when overeating the more fat free mass you gain. My new appetite column covers this principle for dieting and gaining in detail. Stay tuned. There are 2 things you can do. 1) Do not diet and try to shift the ratio again with extra cardio and/or with a combo of supplements (androsol, a small amount of pre workout ECA, a small amount of T2, 6-10g of EPA/DHA - fish oils) OR 2) Do 1-2 weeks of fat fast and then move back to massive eating. Be sure to really monitor your fat fast cals because you may lose more pounds in 2 weeks of fat fasting than you have gained in 2 months of massive eating!
John – I thought the goal of the fat fast diet was you could lose fat while maintaining muscle. You say that 1-2 weeks of fat fast diet could erase 2 months worth of work? Does this make sense or have I been mislead with the fat fast diet? I’m also not fully understanding your first suggestion. Are you saying add cardio and supplements while keeping calories the same. Wouldn’t this be the same as if I were to lower my caloric intake? My goal with the fat fast was to hopefulluy shock my body to where when I started overeating again I would gain more muscle and less fat. Then when things start to switch again to where I’m gaining more fat than muscle, I would shock it again.
With my first suggestion Im saying that a combo of cardio and supplements added to your current massive eating regimen will certainly shift the ratio back to more muscle gain and less fat gain. Plus you can continue with this (cardio plus supplements) for a long time and continue to reap the rewards of increased nutrient partitioning.
As far as the second suggestion, YES!! fat fast and ANY diet can lead to muscle loss. So all I was saying is that if you go that route, dont drop calories too low. The problem is that only your body can tell you what is too low so your first fat fast diet may be very successful or make you quite unhappy. But at least next time around you will know what to do (or what not to do).
Im not gonna tell you which to choose of the 2 options. Thats a matter of personal preference.