Well, day 12 is here. Im feeling great energy wise. I didnt really have a ‘crash’, and if I did, It went unnoticed. I remember feeling a bit sluggish one day last week, maybe that was it. Im going to move on to the leaning out phase. I’ll be monitoring the flab around my tummy, since thats all thats left. I will start at 3k, and adjust every 2 weeks.
Do you guys do AM fasted cardio during this phase, or just keep on liftin’ w/no cardio? I was thinking about HIIT sprints on off days, and slow incline treadmill walk on lifting days AM since I don’t train until 9pm.
I’ve felt a little “off” ever since I started yesterday morning. Not bad necessarily or wore out, just odd. Maybe it’s psychological. If I’m understanding the science here, it shouldn’t make as much difference if you do fasted or interval cardio or both because you’re in a fat burning state all the time so it would seem that any sustained excercise would by definition burn fat. Though I suppose in a fasted state it would maybe be more stored fat that was burned more quickly to some degree as opposed to fat in the blood. I’m just thinking out loud. Some of the vets can answer better. Much of my knowledge is a bit rusty.
Hey guys, I know that Ketosis is NOT the goal of the AD. However, I was at Wal-Mart and figured I would grab some Ketone test strips and see whats going on before my carb up tomorrow. I did the test twice today, and both times came back negative…not even “trace amount” on the scale. What gives?
[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Well, day 12 is here. Im feeling great energy wise. I didnt really have a ‘crash’, and if I did, It went unnoticed. I remember feeling a bit sluggish one day last week, maybe that was it. Im going to move on to the leaning out phase. I’ll be monitoring the flab around my tummy, since thats all thats left. I will start at 3k, and adjust every 2 weeks.
Do you guys do AM fasted cardio during this phase, or just keep on liftin’ w/no cardio? I was thinking about HIIT sprints on off days, and slow incline treadmill walk on lifting days AM since I don’t train until 9pm.[/quote]
Here’s the gist of the Fasted cardio roundtable:
If you do fasted cardio, it should be low intensity (walking) and…
? AM fasted cardio should be done when you’re only interested in body comp and you have either a mesomorphic or endomorphic body type.
? AM fasted cardio should never be done when you’re an anaerobic athlete requiring strength and power or you simply have an ectomorphic (naturally skinny) body type.
[quote]allNatural wrote:
Here’s the gist of the Fasted cardio roundtable:
If you do fasted cardio, it should be low intensity (walking) and…
? AM fasted cardio should be done when you’re only interested in body comp and you have either a mesomorphic or endomorphic body type.
? AM fasted cardio should never be done when you’re an anaerobic athlete requiring strength and power or you simply have an ectomorphic (naturally skinny) body type.
[/quote]
By fasted I assume were talking about no recent caloric intake whatsoever. What if you, say, took like a tablespoon of EVOO and a gram each of fish oils and flax oil with maybe a cup of iced green tea in the morning and then did you’re stationary bike or whatever about 15 or 20 minutes later? Which is obviously what I was thinking of. I’m going to have to find the roundtable on cardio too. Sounds interesting.
[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Hey guys, I know that Ketosis is NOT the goal of the AD. However, I was at Wal-Mart and figured I would grab some Ketone test strips and see whats going on before my carb up tomorrow. I did the test twice today, and both times came back negative…not even “trace amount” on the scale. What gives?[/quote]
That’s good, you don’t want to be in ketosis. It reminds me of when I first decided not to be a fat turd in high school, after reading “Protein Power”. I basically shed a ton of fat kid blubber by low carbing it. I did that for several months with only the occaisonal “cheat”. I was basically never in ketosis even when fasted after a couple months. This tells me, in retrospect, that I was quite well fat-adapted. Of course, I’ve read literally thousands of hours since then, so my hindsight is understandable. At any rate, what I should have done was incorporate a carb up once or twice a week and not worried about it.
So, the point of that rant was that not being in ketosis is fine, and probably a good thing. It would be interesting if you monitored your urine through the course of a normal week and noted any fluctuations.
Conorh, thanks for that input. I will monitor my urine for ketones through the rest of the week, and next week. I started on 8/3/06, crashed early the week after, and feel great now. I’m suppose to carb up today, but I’m going to finish the week off, and carb up this upcoming weekend. Im very carb sensitive, so will probably just carb up saturday (legs day woogoo!). I’ll log my ketone tests and report for the rest of this week, over the weekend and into next week. Just curios to see how my body reacts.
This seems to indicate that Ketones will only rise to detectable levels if more is being produced than what is immediately required. This seems to further indicate that one could be in ketosis and escape detection (that sounded wrong). I find all the physiology behind this fascinating, always have, but I have a lot more research to do.
It’s becoming readily apparent that much has been learned in the 13 years since I was last actively studying these types of things. This, for instance brings up the question… if ketosis is not the goal, but ketones are the fuel produced by the liver from fatty acids, does this mean there are other mechanisms we’re after whereby lipids are utilized directly? Or maybe another process whereby fats are converted into something else. Or by Ketosis are we maybe referring to a state that actually is, but remains balanced enough to be undetectable? I’m sure the answers are there for the finding.
so i have been on this diet now for a little over two weeks… i have gained 8 pounds (coming off a low calorie diet) which i know is mostly water weight etc but my chest, quads, and lats look bigger, i have kick ass through the roof energy, and all my lifts have gone up (added 30 lbs to my squat!!!) i can now work out for an hour plus and not be completely spent. its wierd to sound like the people that are like OMG THIS DIET IS AMAZING IT WORKS UNBELIEVABLY WELL, but… it does.
Update Post:
It’s been about five weeks now that I’ve been on the AD. And everything seems to going well. I’m a little disappointed that the pants haven’t become as loose as I’d like, but they have gotten a bit better. Hell, they’re tightening up in the thighs from leg growth! And this week is probably my best week yet as I managed not to over do it on the refeed and gain so much back. Almost every week i’ve seen at least a pound decrease in bodyweight. This week might be two or three because I added in some “high octane” cardio and some extra walking most nights. Of course, my goal is to lean down.
The only issues i’ve encountered are some early to mid-week lulls and sleepiness right after I get home from work, but they quickly pass. I’m kind of wondering if its the diet or if its the 105 temps we’re getting every day here in Texas. Which make my car an oven that cooks my brain on the way home from work.
How long until someone dries out after the carb up? I still feel a little soft. Now, I admit I went a little crazy with the carb up this weekend. This was my second. My first carbup i was at the lake running around all the time on vacation so i didn’t really notice a huge change in the way my body looked. But this time… A whole different story.
I gained about 11 pounds in 24 hours. And by wed. morning I am back down about 4 of those. What is the norm? does it take all the way until sat. morning? I am keeping it to a clean 24 hour carb up this time.
Well guys, today was my birthday (I turned 19, yay) and also my first carbup after 13 days on the diet. Im not gonna lie, I think I overdid it.
Breakfast: 2 Bananas
Snack: 2 bowls of cereal, a handful of almonds, and 2 table spoons of peanut butter
Lunch: Half a carton of cottage cheese, 1 full sugared yogurt, another handful of almonds, 1 peanut butter and jelly sandwitch, 2 glasses of milk, and 1 metabolic drive protein bar
Snack 2: small piece of bread and vitamins
dinner: it was my birthday dinner so my family took me to Sweet Tomatoes (for those of you who havnt heard of it its a salad buffet that has tons of muffins and soups and other wonderful things). there i had 1 heaping plate of several different types of salads, about 10 different types of muffins, 1 bowl of soup, 1 bowl of pasta, and 1 bowl of ice cream.
So did I overdo it?
Oh also, has anyone else ever noticed that their digestions gets all f’ed up after eating carbs? I’ve had really bad gas almost all day long.
Pssh. I once ate so much on a carb up I felt like I was going to poo and throw up at the same time. I literally had issues breathing. It was awesome. I put on like 17 pounds in one day. Never again.
It’s been six weeks for me on the AD, I think - maybe 5 - and it has gotten much easier to function every week. Like the previous few posters, I was concerned with the startling weight gain over the weekend, with about 9 pounds being average after a 36 hour feed.
I actually was beginning just after midnight on Friday, scarfing down some popcorn and stuff, but have slowly got it under some kind of control. I have decided to rein it in some more, and plan things out a bit better with more steel cut oats and other grains.
Last week the first insulin rush in the morning just fucked me up good and I sat stewing in my own anger, my temper set on boil and fight. Eesh. Not good.
To respond to an earlier post, everyone’s body will respond differently to the carb up, and lose the fluids at your own rate. Pasquale recommends determining your own best day so that if you ever enter a contest or want a special day to hit the beach you can plan out your carb up accordingly. I think I look the best on Thursday, but that may change without the frenzy that my weekends have been.
It’s a great diet.
This is my 10th day on the AD. I’ve notice that during the day I seem to retain water around my mid-section. When I wake in the morning, my mid-section appears smaller (I’m up 2 or 3 times a night pissing away). What can I do to avoid water retention during the day? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Day 5 here. No drastic changes to report in any area since I started actually. I do sweat a bit more it seems. I did also grab a boxxa Ketostix from CVS and they show traces of ketones so I guess at this point that’s good. No energy issues. Not even during morning jogging(after some EFA’s and green tea). Today will be Abs, back and bi’s, first workout since day one so I’ll see how that goes.
On the topic of ketones. Are we supposed to move through ketosis eventually? Also does the whole idea of ketosis apply only to exogenous, dietary fats or is the utilization of adipose fats accomplished through ketosis as well? If both of the above are true, and they may not be, how do you ever move out of ketosis? Or is ketosis defined as only when there are sufficient levels to be detected in urine and utilizing ketones for energy goes on in a balanced state without actual ketosis.
I’ve been through the book and can’t seem to find answers this specific, but there are some implications.
Thanks,
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Day 5 here. No drastic changes to report in any area since I started actually. I do sweat a bit more it seems. I did also grab a boxxa Ketostix from CVS and they show traces of ketones so I guess at this point that’s good. No energy issues. Not even during morning jogging(after some EFA’s and green tea). Today will be Abs, back and bi’s, first workout since day one so I’ll see how that goes.
On the topic of ketones. Are we supposed to move through ketosis eventually? Also does the whole idea of ketosis apply only to exogenous, dietary fats or is the utilization of adipose fats accomplished through ketosis as well? If both of the above are true, and they may not be, how do you ever move out of ketosis? Or is ketosis defined as only when there are sufficient levels to be detected in urine and utilizing ketones for energy goes on in a balanced state without actual ketosis.
I’ve been through the book and can’t seem to find answers this specific, but there are some implications.
Thanks,
–Tiribulus->[/quote]
I’m sure that some of our veterans would be better qualified to comment on the mechanics of ketosis and the AD but I will say that ketones in urine will decline the longer you’re on the AD as your body adapts to using them as fuel. Right now your system isn’t optimized for using ketones and they’re being expelled. As you become adapted your body will become accustom to using them and fewer will show up in your urine.
Cassandra Forsyth did a great spiel on this in a FitCast episode not too long ago and really explained the mechanics behind it. Might want to check it out.
I found that energy levels stayed elevated for the first week and then dropped right off the chart when I crashed. A few days after the crash things started returning to normal.