My Experience on the Anabolic Diet Part IV

Nutrition
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[quote]banga wrote:
Hey Adam,
Thanks for the reply.

My strength has also definitely gone up, I have bettered gym results and I am still pretty fit (although I feel really fat lol). I have to start documenting my weights again, I swapped over to a compound body workout about a month ago and stopped documenting my lifts so I will start doing that ASAP as well.[/quote]

Hey banga,
Sounds you’re doing everything correct AD wise. You have to make sure you’re beating your lifts everytime you step foot in the gym. I have a log book that I have been taking to the gym every session for the past 8 months. Whenever I even start an exercise I look back to the best lift I have done during it, weather it be the most weight or the most reps with a certain weight. If you’re not giving your body a reason to adapt, any excess cals will pretty much be stored as fat.

Do you know how much you have increased in weight in the main lifts? (squat, deadlift, bench, military press)

Make sure you’re training insane and eating the same :slight_smile: results will follow.

-Adam

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oh, yes, on a training note i did almost 2 waves of 5/3/1. but i had to ease up because my hips are waay too tight and i was having a lot of issues.

squat: 145
DL: 185
bench: hardly experience with this, 95
OHP: little experience as well, 75

now back to medium weight, higher rep stuff for now…

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[quote]ashylarryku wrote:

[quote]banga wrote:
Hey Adam,
Thanks for the reply.

My strength has also definitely gone up, I have bettered gym results and I am still pretty fit (although I feel really fat lol). I have to start documenting my weights again, I swapped over to a compound body workout about a month ago and stopped documenting my lifts so I will start doing that ASAP as well.[/quote]

Hey banga,
Sounds you’re doing everything correct AD wise. You have to make sure you’re beating your lifts every time you step foot in the gym. I have a log book that I have been taking to the gym every session for the past 8 months. Whenever I even start an exercise I look back to the best lift I have done during it, weather it be the most weight or the most reps with a certain weight. If you’re not giving your body a reason to adapt, any excess cals will pretty much be stored as fat.

Do you know how much you have increased in weight in the main lifts? (squat, deadlift, bench, military press)

Make sure you’re training insane and eating the same :slight_smile: results will follow.

-Adam[/quote]

Thanks for the help Adam,

The one excersice I have lightly documented is the deadlift, on which I have gone up about 10-15 kg so an increase their.
Squat, I am still relitivley stable in weight, bench I have increased a couple of kilos nothing too dramatic.
I will start documenting my lefts from tommorow so I know exactly where I am going.
My LBM has gone up approximatley 5kg whilst my weight has gone up about 10-12kg. Does this seem normal?

So when it comes to gains on LBM and strength they are present, its just that I am concerned that I am gaining too much fat along with it.

Should mention that I am training 3 days a week, when I do train I am doing all over body regimes. At present I don’t really have scope for much more due to uni/work…
I will say that my training is pretty intense, I usually end up doing 5-8 sets of squats (depending on how much I can take), bench 3sets, deadlift 3-5 sets (again depending on what the body can take); then I add just other excercises. Basically trying to keep my training to about 45min-55mins maximum…

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So I felt craptastic last week and was feeling kinda soft. I identified several things I want to change and am gonna make them happen starting this week.

  1. Adding two days of conditioning into my training. Probably hill sprints since it is getting nice and I have some awesome hills around me.

  2. Weight train 4 days a week opposed to 3. (this week is a deload)

  3. Up my calores. Pretty sure I have let myself slide a little below 18x lately and have felt like ass because of it. Time to up the cals back to 18x and possibly higher. I had also cut out mid day snacks during work. I had gotten too comfortable with the satiety the AD was giving me and eatling less because of it.

  4. Cleaning up my carb ups. Confession time…I have been one dirty carbin fool. I do not want to go into graphic detail about what type of carby goodness I have been engaging in during my day anda half carb ups but it has not been pretty. Gonna do a Saturday carb up from now on and keep it clean until dinner time.

In happy news I have been making steady progress on 5/3/1.

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[quote]talenaah wrote:

[quote]AmericanGirl wrote:
Hi everyone!

I have been wanting to go on the anabolic diet for awhile now, but I’m still on the meal plan at college. My school has the nutritional info of all their food on their website, but I’m worried that I won’t be getting the same serving in person. I could estimate, but I’m afraid it will throw off my numbers and stuff.

Has anyone here dealt with the meal plan while doing the anabolic diet? I’d really appreciate advice of any sort. [/quote]

i have not so i’m not sure how hard it would be. it’s tough for girls because we have such a smaller caloric range to play with before we are under or over maintenance. if you have a lot to lose, then that isn’t so much a problem. if you are looking like your avi, you will need to have a decent idea of your cals. one thing that comes with experience of tracking/weighing food is you get to know serving sizes pretty damn good by eye-balling them.

i would think you may not have the amount of protein and good fats needed on a school meal plan. can you supplement that meal plan at all? good luck. i’m new to the AD per se, but have been a low-carber for 7 years. [/quote]

Thanks for the advice! I have a spreadsheet to keep track of my macros, and I’m definitely going to start using the food scale I have at home to get good at eyeballing serving sizes. …Or maybe I’ll bring a food scale to school and carry it around with me to the dining halls. lol.

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[quote]banga wrote:
Hey Adam,
Thanks for the reply.

My carb loads have been quite clean for the past month, mainly due to the fact I was gaining too much bodyfat.
When I first started the AD I did a one or two dirty CHO where I would have some all you can eat (pizza, Indian food); in saying this I shorted these loads to about 15 hours because I was scarred that I would lay down too much fat lol.Essentially I have only done 2 carb loads longer than 15 hours.
Apart from the couple of dirty loads essentially my Carb-loads have been, Cereal (Wheetbix, Oats), Brown rice, tuna and brown bread.
I have been on the AD since Mid January (16th) and when I started the plan I went through the proper 12 day induction phase at less than 20g of carbs daily.

My body fat before I started the AD was at 10% which is now up to 15% (I was hoping this mark would be my absolute maximum bf%).
Some stats:

Friday 5th February 2010
Weight: 62.80 kg BMI:18.3 Chest:89 cm Waist:80.50 cm Hips: 86.50cm Thighs: 46.50

Wednesday 17th March, 2010
Weight: 70.20 kg BMI:20.5 Chest:90.20 cm Waist:83.60 cm Hips: 90.80 cm Thighs:52.20 cm

I have gained some lean body mass mind you, but a lot of fat to boot as well…

I am thinking that maybe increasing the carbs on weekdays would be a better idea and instead of the carb load have a cheat meal.

My strength has also definitely gone up, I have bettered gym results and I am still pretty fit (although I feel really fat lol). I have to start documenting my weights again, I swapped over to a compound body workout about a month ago and stopped documenting my lifts so I will start doing that ASAP as well.[/quote]

Perhaps I read this wrong, but you have gained 5% bf in one month? That just doesn’t seem possible, IMO. What are you using to measure that? I think that number may not be accurate. How do you think you look? That’s what I try to go by in general, or else I get way too neurotic.
Don’t add carbs in the week. Bad idea. Increase your veggie intake, try more peppers, snow peas, maybe some squash varieties. That will give you slightly more CHO without messing up your insulin sensitivity and it’s healthier for you too. I noticed you are eating mainly rice and wheat products for you carbs? Maybe try dropping the wheat, the body can have a hard time processing wheat and many people are slightly allergic to it. I personally stick to oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits and yogurt for my carbs, with very small amounts of wheat (usually just a whole-wheat wrap if anything). People have different results with different foods, so don’t be afraid to try new stuff.
As a former fat chick, I am terrified of getting fat again, so I tend to do mucho cardio. Probably too much, lol. But perhaps you would benefit by adding some condition into your routine. Nothing crazy, but a 20 min jog twice a week could help keep the fat at bay. HIIT is another option, it’s not just for cutting! A once-a-week HIIT session might be a good idea.
Just a few suggestions, hope that gives you a few ideas! :smiley:

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[quote]talenaah wrote:

[quote]Artemisia wrote:

Hi! Yeah, I’m a smidge over 5’7", my weight hovers between 124-126 lbs, and while I’ve never had my bodyfat measured (aside from some arm pad infrared thingy that put me at an insane 28%…put my super-lean bodybuilder buddy at 18%, lol!)…I usually estimate it to be around 18-20%. I am leaner on the top than the bottom; nice arm and back definition and visible top abs, but annoying-starting-to-go-away lower ab fat, inner thighs, etc. I was doing 18xbw for about six weeks, then these past two switched it to 15xbw (1875 kcals) and have been noticing a definite increase in shifting fat. I do sometimes eat a bit more on training days, and a bit less on off days, but it pretty much averages out to 15xbw. I’m just going to hang out at that number until I plateau. Doing 3 full-body workouts a week. I get really bored on splits.

Goals? To lean out my lower half, build more muscle on top, and keep pushing strength PRs.

Get well soon![/quote]

i recognized your avi from the other side. you have a training log there or here? at 5’ 7" and your stats, you must be pretty damn lean as it is. :slight_smile: great to hear you are making solid progress. i don’t live by the scale, but what are you seeing there? at some point i know i will have to see that drop…GD it!! :slight_smile:

and i envy your lean up top…i’m opposite. don’t have much fat at all lower, carry it on my damn arms and it drives me insane! seriously, i joke about lipo on my arms. they aren’t that bad but i want them LEAN!!
[/quote]

Yeah, I posted on FA for awhile, but kinda gave up on it because I don’t compete and there’s too much fan-girling of coaches and cat claws over there for me to get into it much. The more I learn as a nutrition student, the less inclined I am to listen to someone tell me that there’s only one right way to do things. I am also not dedicated enough to keep a regular log…that I manage to maintain a gigantic spreadsheet of food intake is a miracle, pretty much.

I was skinny lean for a very long time - I was a competitive dancer and had that going for me, but then I went to college and got skinny fat, plus a little extra (10 lbs) on top of that. Lost weight, then started to add muscle. Now I guess I am fairly lean, but not in what I consider the most important areas.

So we can envy our respective areas of leanness, haha.

The scale has been hilarious, actually. It was holding steady, and then it went up over the past week, and today it hit 128 - of course, I’m at the tale end of my time of the month, so that may explain it…but my measurements haven’t gone up and I look leaner, so I don’t know what to do with that. I’m going to weigh again at the end of this week since there will be no more girl issues possibly causing water retention and I’ll have had three full weeks of reduced caloric intake. Admittedly, I hate the scale and tend to just use a tape measure and/or put on the designated bikini for this summer and do a mirror check.

I know what you mean about that stubborn area. When I was ridiculously thin, the first place I put it on was my lower ab area and it has been irritating me ever since.

What sort of cardio-type things are you doing? Any? I was thinking about adding in some HIIT, but I’ve heard differing opinions on doing it with the AD.

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[quote]sunshne wrote:
Perhaps I read this wrong, but you have gained 5% bf in one month? That just doesn’t seem possible, IMO. What are you using to measure that? I think that number may not be accurate. How do you think you look? That’s what I try to go by in general, or else I get way too neurotic.
Don’t add carbs in the week. Bad idea. Increase your veggie intake, try more peppers, snow peas, maybe some squash varieties. That will give you slightly more CHO without messing up your insulin sensitivity and it’s healthier for you too. I noticed you are eating mainly rice and wheat products for you carbs? Maybe try dropping the wheat, the body can have a hard time processing wheat and many people are slightly allergic to it. I personally stick to oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits and yogurt for my carbs, with very small amounts of wheat (usually just a whole-wheat wrap if anything). People have different results with different foods, so don’t be afraid to try new stuff.
As a former fat chick, I am terrified of getting fat again, so I tend to do mucho cardio. Probably too much, lol. But perhaps you would benefit by adding some condition into your routine. Nothing crazy, but a 20 min jog twice a week could help keep the fat at bay. HIIT is another option, it’s not just for cutting! A once-a-week HIIT session might be a good idea.
Just a few suggestions, hope that gives you a few ideas! :D[/quote]

It seems impossible; but I guarantee its not.
I don’t measure myself because I never beleive what I come up with so I get measured at my local gym. That’s why I’m so worried in a sense, I am now up to 16%bf as of 22/03/2010, absolutely amazing.
Although my PT is saying not to worry too much about it; it is really difficult to get my head around.
I always documented my carb intake and never let it go over 30g a day so even there I know I didn’t go over.
Thanks for the advice with the cardio, that’s another thing I should mention I’m getting my fair share of cardio as well. I do cardio sessions of 30 mins at least 1 time a week or two and I am playing field hockey.
I never thought about cutting out my wheat intake, I guess that could have something to do with it.

To be honest I’m considering going on a mini-cut because 16% bf is just way too much and all the hard work it took to get down in the first place. Either way I am intending on skipping this weeks carbday.

I might have to call it quits on the diet soon; I just can’t seem to figure out where I have gone wrong.

A quick question to as to bulking what kind of bf% do you guys let yourselves get too before calling it quits? I do realise this is a personal opinion based question, but I am quite interested.

Cheers

Banga

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Could eating a lot of cheese and drinking a lot of soy milk have anything to do with the fat gain?
In saying that both are low carb cheddar cheese taht I eat has .5g per 100g and the soy milk has 1.1g per 100ml…

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[quote]banga wrote:

[quote]sunshne wrote:
Perhaps I read this wrong, but you have gained 5% bf in one month? That just doesn’t seem possible, IMO. What are you using to measure that? I think that number may not be accurate. How do you think you look? That’s what I try to go by in general, or else I get way too neurotic.
Don’t add carbs in the week. Bad idea. Increase your veggie intake, try more peppers, snow peas, maybe some squash varieties. That will give you slightly more CHO without messing up your insulin sensitivity and it’s healthier for you too. I noticed you are eating mainly rice and wheat products for you carbs? Maybe try dropping the wheat, the body can have a hard time processing wheat and many people are slightly allergic to it. I personally stick to oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits and yogurt for my carbs, with very small amounts of wheat (usually just a whole-wheat wrap if anything). People have different results with different foods, so don’t be afraid to try new stuff.
As a former fat chick, I am terrified of getting fat again, so I tend to do mucho cardio. Probably too much, lol. But perhaps you would benefit by adding some condition into your routine. Nothing crazy, but a 20 min jog twice a week could help keep the fat at bay. HIIT is another option, it’s not just for cutting! A once-a-week HIIT session might be a good idea.
Just a few suggestions, hope that gives you a few ideas! :D[/quote]

It seems impossible; but I guarantee its not.
I don’t measure myself because I never beleive what I come up with so I get measured at my local gym. That’s why I’m so worried in a sense, I am now up to 16%bf as of 22/03/2010, absolutely amazing.
Although my PT is saying not to worry too much about it; it is really difficult to get my head around.
I always documented my carb intake and never let it go over 30g a day so even there I know I didn’t go over.
Thanks for the advice with the cardio, that’s another thing I should mention I’m getting my fair share of cardio as well. I do cardio sessions of 30 mins at least 1 time a week or two and I am playing field hockey.
I never thought about cutting out my wheat intake, I guess that could have something to do with it.

To be honest I’m considering going on a mini-cut because 16% bf is just way too much and all the hard work it took to get down in the first place. Either way I am intending on skipping this weeks carbday.

I might have to call it quits on the diet soon; I just can’t seem to figure out where I have gone wrong.

A quick question to as to bulking what kind of bf% do you guys let yourselves get too before calling it quits? I do realise this is a personal opinion based question, but I am quite interested.

Cheers

Banga[/quote]

I suggest you try and reevaluate your goals. This diet is best viewed as a lifestyle and not a quick way to drop bodyfat. This diet needs time to work and also needs a lot of tweeking as it is very individual. I might be able to feel great while eating cheese and soy milk but it may make you feel like ass. Personally I limit my dairy intake to easily digested cheeses like goat cheese and a little cheddar on my hamburgers.

Have you read the book or any of the original thread? If you haven’t I suggest you do and apply the principles to your diet. Possibly consider another 12 day induction phase, just to get a solid early adaptation. Just my suggestion.

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Banga -

You may want to reconsider drinking soy. There are studies suggesting that it decreases T levels in men significantly, while be extremely estrogenic, which is exactly what you dont want.

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[quote]Artemisia wrote:

What sort of cardio-type things are you doing? Any? I was thinking about adding in some HIIT, but I’ve heard differing opinions on doing it with the AD.[/quote]

i have not heard of this. HIIT is awesome IMO. i have gotten SO out of the habit of ss cardio. i started heavier lifting in october and had previously been tapering off cardio. stopped it completely when i started 5/3/1 in january.

i’m doing metabolic type stuff such as: stair runs at my gym with 25 plates, farmer’s walks. push plates back and forth with 45 plate. step-up stuff to 5 risers with 15 DBS. i’m going to try jump-roping again, and hope that my heel spur doesn’t flare up.

and i probably should get some HIIT sessions in again. my ideal is about 15 min intense HIIT on stair-master, followed up with 20 ss on cross-trainer.

what’s the consensus on HIIT/cardio on the AD? i suspect it could be challenging since you don’t have the glycogen stores. but i haven’t been doing any so i can’t say.

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Whats up everyone. Recently I have been in a cutting phase and my protein in down about as low as I want to go. My fat is at about 50%. If i were to drop more calories I cannot drop protein so I was thinking of dropping fat to about 35% and maybe increasing protein. Any suggestions, how low can fat% go?

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[quote]broken4head wrote:
Whats up everyone. Recently I have been in a cutting phase and my protein in down about as low as I want to go. My fat is at about 50%. If i were to drop more calories I cannot drop protein so I was thinking of dropping fat to about 35% and maybe increasing protein. Any suggestions, how low can fat% go?[/quote]

How low is your protein? It has been said in the original thread you can go as low as 0.8g/LBM because the AD is very protein sparing. I’m guessing you can go a bit lower in protein. Depending on how long you’ve been on the diet, you might be able to drop fat to below 50% but I would try not to.

That’s just my opinion. I try to never go far above 1g/BW for protein, cutting or bulking.

-Adam

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[quote]ashylarryku wrote:

[quote]broken4head wrote:
Whats up everyone. Recently I have been in a cutting phase and my protein in down about as low as I want to go. My fat is at about 50%. If i were to drop more calories I cannot drop protein so I was thinking of dropping fat to about 35% and maybe increasing protein. Any suggestions, how low can fat% go?[/quote]

How low is your protein? It has been said in the original thread you can go as low as 0.8g/LBM because the AD is very protein sparing. I’m guessing you can go a bit lower in protein. Depending on how long you’ve been on the diet, you might be able to drop fat to below 50% but I would try not to.

That’s just my opinion. I try to never go far above 1g/BW for protein, cutting or bulking.

-Adam[/quote]
My protein in a hair over 1g/BW.

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[quote]broken4head wrote:
Whats up everyone. Recently I have been in a cutting phase and my protein in down about as low as I want to go. My fat is at about 50%. If i were to drop more calories I cannot drop protein so I was thinking of dropping fat to about 35% and maybe increasing protein. Any suggestions, how low can fat% go?[/quote]

The general concesus is do not drop below 40%. Remember, fat is your fuel on this diet. It is individual so if you decide to drop your fat off pay close attention to energy levels throughout the week. I run extremely well on 60% fat and when I drop below 50% I start dragging. Olive oil will save you, I feel great when I incorporate a lot of it.

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[quote]Snydiesel609 wrote:
I suggest you try and reevaluate your goals. This diet is best viewed as a lifestyle and not a quick way to drop bodyfat. This diet needs time to work and also needs a lot of tweeking as it is very individual. I might be able to feel great while eating cheese and soy milk but it may make you feel like ass. Personally I limit my dairy intake to easily digested cheeses like goat cheese and a little cheddar on my hamburgers.

Have you read the book or any of the original thread? If you haven’t I suggest you do and apply the principles to your diet. Possibly consider another 12 day induction phase, just to get a solid early adaptation. Just my suggestion.[/quote]

I went through quite a bit of the original thread and have read both the Anabolic diet and Anabolic Solution books. The AD for me was never ever to lose bodyfat whatsoever, I was planning to use the AD to bulk without gaining too much bodyfat. No matter what I seem to do my bf just keeps going up. I feel fine eating everything bar bacon, thus I dropped it.
I’m just bemused that no matter what I increasing fat so rapidly.

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[quote]smithers584 wrote:
Banga -

You may want to reconsider drinking soy. There are studies suggesting that it decreases T levels in men significantly, while be extremely estrogenic, which is exactly what you dont want. [/quote]

Thanks Smither’s
I had no idea that this was the case; will look into that for sure

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I’m about to start my Mass phase next week. According to the equations in the book I’m supposed to take in around 6500 cals a day or 46000 a week. How low am I supposed to keep my carbs? Below 100g or around 10% of total calories?

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[quote]TMillions82 wrote:
I’m about to start my Mass phase next week. According to the equations in the book I’m supposed to take in around 6500 cals a day or 46000 a week. How low am I supposed to keep my carbs? Below 100g or around 10% of total calories?[/quote]

Carbs should always be kept <30g during the weekdays, no matter what the calorie count.

Also, just because the book recommends 6,500, doesn’t mean that’s the magic answer. That sounds like a straight road to fat gains. How much do you weigh? I would suggest starting off lower and gradually adding in cals and see how you do. 6,500 sounds crazy to me, but if that’s what you’ve been doing previously then I envy you :slight_smile:

-Adam