My Experience On the Anabolic Diet

Nutrition
3062

I just wanted to jump on as I’ve been hit and miss on this thread for a long time. Over the course of the summer, I’ve made the switch from my short term diet of Little Debbie’s, Ramen noodles and every other shit food in the world back to my beloved AD.

While I haven’t even been particularly rigorous (my roomate made cookies last night, and yah, I had some) I’ve managed to drop about 5 pounds of blubber between weigh ins on July 16 and August 19. I know that doesn’t sound like alot, but you need to remember I make no attempt to cut bodyweight or even to restrict my calories or diet in any way, except to limit the CHO during the week.

Just to add something constructive, I’ll say that I used to, when I would splurge and eat a ton of crap, like my roomies cookies last night, cut out the extra fat. Now I don’t, I keep the olive oil and EFA’s. While I know the fat + carbs seems like a time bomb, 1) hopefully you’re not eating that crap all the time, and 2) the monos and polyphenols from the EVOO are anti-inflammatory and I feel like they ammeliorate the effects of the nastiness to some degree.

I also feel like the high fat diet is more recuperative for your joints if your doing lots of high stress work with bands, chains, etc, as my experience over the summer bears that out. I tend to add even more monos and fishy oil when I’m playing with alot of band tension and my elbows and shoulders thank me for it.

Keep on oxidizing fatty acids, bros.

-Conor

3063

Day nine. I have lost a bit o fat and am feeling quite good. Yesterday’s leg work went better than I thought. I figured lower volume might be a good idea until I get fully adapted so I loaded up the weight (for me) and tried to go heavy on the squats and deads. To my surprise I failed on the sixth rep of the first set of squats and the fifth on the second. I thought maybe three before I started. I stopped one rep short of failure on the deadlifts because I haven’t done them enough recently to have my form tuned to be completely safe for my back, but still got four reps for 2 sets, along with one set of dumbell squats just to finish up. I’ve eaten less carbs in the last nine days than I used to in a day and haven’t even had a carb up yet and felt much improved over Saturdays chest, tri’s and delts day. This is fascinating to me seeing how the body responds to different physiological stimulli.

–Tiribulus->

3064

[quote]SashaG wrote:
aspengc8 wrote:
SashaG wrote:
aspengc8 wrote:

So I will lose insulins anabolic effect, correct? Test and GH levels should still remain high. Im an extremely carb sensitive endo, maybe I’ll limit to just 24 hour carb up. Then again, Ive been on it for 19 days, maybe Ill give it a solid 2-3 months to see how I adapt.

aspengc8,

Mate . . . have you been training with weights as well? If it’s fat loss you’re going for I would suggest having a carb up soon to signal to your body to get out of starvation mode. Especially if you are eating below maintenance, your body will shut off burning fat stores, this is the role that leptin plays, and begin to grind your metabolism to a hault.

I know where you are coming from being an endo and all but do not fear the the carb ups, they are essential for fat loss. Do it for 24 hours and keep the foods low on the GI/II index. If you’re worried about the excess insulin secretion and glucose disposal, take some supplements like R-ALA or Vanadal Sulfate to help out.

Right now, you’re on a modified Atkins. Your improvements will taper off dramatically and you’ll soon be in a situation where it’ll be quite difficult to come off the diet and not rebound.

Hope that helps,

Sasha

[/quote]

Thanks for the input Sasha. I will keep the carbup limited to 24 hours, and mainly consume low GI CHO. Good thing I love oatmeal w/blueberrirs :slight_smile:
I train with weights, following CT’s Superhero workout. Im seeing some great results, allowing myself ~3k cals to se how my body reacts to that. Ratios are about 65%F, 30%P, 5% hidden carbs/spinach. I take in about 3-4 tablespoons of flaxseed oil w/lignan to make sure I get plenty of EFA’s.

3065

Okay, after a festival last weekend I restarted the AD as of last sunday … after three days of living on beer, burgers, and other not-so-neat food ( made the right choice a few times and had me a grilled chicken sandwich ) I’m redoing the break-in phase, seems best…had to cut my workout short a few minutes ago though, I’m a bit shaken by lack of sleep and all. Festival-aftershock, but it was worth it 8)

I was just three weeks or so into the AD and loving it (everybody looking strange when I was munching down fat-loaded foods and getting leaner :slight_smile: ) so I’m really getting back into it. Summer’s almost done so I guess it’s bulking time.

Note to self: go out and buy more weights.

3066

so its been about 3 or 4 weeks… i love it. i have crazy energy all the time, i have gained 8-10 solid pounds, lifts have gone up as much as 30, 20, 10 lbs, and i am stuffing my face all day and gaining minimal fat. i go nuts on my carbups and i am back to looking thin within a day. with all this great testimony, i AM wondering.

how many of you guys are straight up bulking with this? i really am not worried about losing fat at all. i want to put on as much muscle mass as possible with the smallest fat gain possible. if any of you guys ARE bulking, how is it working?

3067

I know this might of been covered in the pervious threads and sorry if it has, i wanted to know how the training regime is broken down in this diet,

I am currently doing a 3 day spilt and do 3 days CV “FASTED AND LOW INTENSITY”.

Do carb up days match the same number of calories as a weekday “apart from the marconuritent change” and do you have to train on the carb up days ?

Thanks :slight_smile:

3068

Trib,
With a workout effort like that you’ve got to try about 20-30g of BCAA powder during a workout. I am utterly amazed at how I am never sore anymore. One day I missed the BCAA, last Saturday to be exact, and despite the plentiful CHO I felt like a truck hit me for two days after my workout. BCAA rock. I take powder and mix it with some Diet Rockstar or crystal light. It doesn’t mix worth a crap but the taste is very tolerable. Plus the taurine in the drink really elevates my mood.

Best,
DH

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Bizmark wrote:
One of my favorite things to snack on are almonds and walnuts. I went to Low Carb Diet Tools -
and typed both of them in.

Could it be that 50 whole almonds only have 11 total carbs and 7 of these carbs are coming from fiber, and then walnuts are about the same? I don’t see how thats possible. Someone please correct me if this is wrong. If it is correct then this is DEFINENTLY the diet I’m sticking with for a longgggg ass time.

Edit: Common guys, does anyone know any different?

The Doc says in the book that “nuts and seeds like walnuts and sunflower seeds are also good pg. 32” when sorta flipping through a list of AD friendly foods. I LOVE nuts and seeds. They also have some beneficial oils and a few grams of incomplete protein as well. It would seem that as long you fit them into your macro schedule properly they would be very helpful. Especially when I can get a 10 ounce bag of shelled sunflower seeds around here for a buck! My daughter loves em sprinkled over oatmeal.

Today is day eight and tonight is my first leg day since day 2. I have a feeling squats are going to be nastier than usual. I usually have my daughter and my wife help me do 3 double drop sets. 8 or 9 reps, failure and lotsa pain, yank, 2 or 3 more, failure and even more pain, yank again, 2 or 3 reps and I collapse in a pool of quivering submission. I think I’ll probably have to tone it down a bit until I get fully adapted and get a carb up under my belt.

–Tiribulus->[/quote]

3069

TGL,
Once you’ve adapted well, you can usually do any split and be good to go. That said, I’ve always done well by keeping a moderately heavy day toward the end of the week. It’s easier on the glucose stores and keeps any lactic acid from making you feel a little raw. I like the heavy, light, medium approach to a 3x per week structure like CW’s TBT program.

I’ll hit something like 10x3 on Saturday and ride the strength buzz from the first loading day (toward evening for me as I need to get a good amount of CHO in me from morning till evening for a profound pump). Then on Monday, when glycogen levels are maxed out from the two day CHO-fest, I’ll do the “light” day, which consists of 2-3 sets of 12-18 reps, and then on Wednesday I do a “medium/moderate intensity” day to the tune of 4-5 sets of 8-10 reps.

I’m a FIRM believer in not achieving concentric failure and if you do so make sure it is on the last rep of the last set for that bodypart. I could write an article on this issue, and in fact I’ve kicked it around, but suffice it to say that LOAD, and nothing but is what stimulates growth, and then proper volume keeps the stimulus coming for as long as necessary for growth and NO more. Waterbury’s Set/Rep Bible is perfect here.

Well…now that I’ve gone off on a tangent and gotten winded, let get back to your point.

If you are well suited to the diet and fully adapted, then you don’t need to tinker too much with your training program. That being said, I still feel best on leaving thurs and fri to a full body Active recovery style workout.

A single set of 25-30 reps NOT taken to failure will help enhance recovery, heighten glucose reception on the load to a degree, and prime your muscle for a good workout on Saturday. This is optional. I also love the Titan Training System. You can get it for like $30.00 from Amazon, but they spelled it “manuel” like the name instead of “manual”

Best,
The long-winded DH[quote]toogoodlookin wrote:
I know this might of been covered in the pervious threads and sorry if it has, i wanted to know how the training regime is broken down in this diet,

I am currently doing a 3 day spilt and do 3 days CV “FASTED AND LOW INTENSITY”.

Do carb up days match the same number of calories as a weekday “apart from the marconuritent change” and do you have to train on the carb up days ?

Thanks :)[/quote]

3070

[quote]toogoodlookin wrote:
I know this might of been covered in the pervious threads and sorry if it has, i wanted to know how the training regime is broken down in this diet,

I am currently doing a 3 day spilt and do 3 days CV “FASTED AND LOW INTENSITY”.

Do carb up days match the same number of calories as a weekday “apart from the marconuritent change” and do you have to train on the carb up days ?

Thanks :)[/quote]

As a rough guideline to start, yes, just use the same caloric intake level you have during the week but modify your CHO intake to accomodate the 45-60% of your daily CHOs. Because CHOs have roughly 1/2 the caloric value of fats, you’ll note that there’s quite a lot of food to eat.

Once you have a grasp of the diet, then you can increase or decrease your CHO intake based on your goals, successes, etc.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Sasha

3071

[quote]Disc Hoss wrote:
Trib,
With a workout effort like that you’ve got to try about 20-30g of BCAA powder during a workout. I am utterly amazed at how I am never sore anymore. One day I missed the BCAA, last Saturday to be exact, and despite the plentiful CHO I felt like a truck hit me for two days after my workout. BCAA rock. I take powder and mix it with some Diet Rockstar or crystal light. It doesn’t mix worth a crap but the taste is very tolerable. Plus the taurine in the drink really elevates my mood.

Best,
DH
[/quote]
Yeah huh? You really do seem to believe in those branched chain aminos. I’m going to be doing some ordering soon and I’ll grab a bottle or jug as 20-30 grams will be a lot easier to consume in powder form. You were saying that concentric failure may be counterproductive and load figured into volume is key. That is an article I’d like to see. A quick whirl around the brain gives me an idea of what you’re saying. In a nuthshell 4 sets of one rep each at 95% of 1 rep max stimulates more action than 1 set of 4 reps done to failure at whatever percentage of one rep max that turns out to be? That because, simply put, you’re moving more weight over the same amount of work. Is this where you’re going? If so I never thought of it like that before.
Thanks,

–Tiribulus->

3072

Thanks for the info, can any of you guys/girls describe how your cutting regimes have gone with this diet, BF%, weight and waist changes from and to, “if thats ok ?”

I am really intrested about this diet, rather than follow counting calories i count grams “by working the number of grams for each macronurtient from my total number of calories that im allowed in a day”

Is that ok ?

3073

I’m rereading this thread, on page 14, would just like to BUMP and say what an awesome thread, and gift this is

3074

It’s fucking funny for me too- my mate is from Cheddar, where the cheese is from, bet he’ll be useful!

3075

Is it true that fiber carbs (like in nuts) don’t count? So practically i could eat a shit load of almonds and sunflower seeds with no worry (but dutiful care, calculation etc of course)?

Don’t know if i missed it, i read AD and it seemed to be vague, are we to do cardio on this? If so, what type/ duration? How many days per week? I’m training 4X week, nice compunds, waves etc. I’m gonna start this next week and need advice pls. Thanks

3076

[quote]dannyrat wrote:
Is it true that fiber carbs (like in nuts) don’t count? So practically i could eat a shit load of almonds and sunflower seeds with no worry (but dutiful care, calculation etc of course)?

Don’t know if i missed it, i read AD and it seemed to be vague, are we to do cardio on this? If so, what type/ duration? How many days per week? I’m training 4X week, nice compunds, waves etc. I’m gonna start this next week and need advice pls. Thanks
[/quote]
This is covered in the book and this thread, though the thread has gotten a bit unwieldy. If a food has 10 grams total carbs and 5 grams of fiber you count 5 grams against your daily total or total minus fiber. Seeds and nuts do have some usable calories from carbs so you would still need to watch that.

Cardio depends on goals, caloric intake and body type. Personally I’m after long term health as much as size and strength so I include some cardio work as it rounds out a total fitness routine.

–Tiribulus->

3077

[quote]toogoodlookin wrote:
Thanks for the info, can any of you guys/girls describe how your cutting regimes have gone with this diet, BF%, weight and waist changes from and to, “if thats ok ?”
[/quote]
I can’t be as specific as you’re asking, but I can tell you I started training again at the end of March after thirteen years of slovenly pitiful living that included way too much drinking and the worst eating habits imaginable. I became a disgusting fatbody.

For the first few months of eating an ultra clean diet and weight training fat fell off me and I lost an assload of excess slop as well as gaining a quite noticable amount of muscle. I then hit a wall head on where no matter what the hell I did I could NOT get any leaner.

I kept making satisfactory gains, but the remaining fat just sat there with it’s tongue stuck out at me. Today is day 11 of this diet and it is coming off again. Nothing but the mirror and pinch test to verify, but my wife even noticed in gape jawed astonishment after watching me hammer down bacon, cheese, butter, beef, whole eggs and EFA oils for the last 11 days.

She cannot understand how I could be losing fat while eating enough of it to make the low fat gurus have a heart attack just hearing about it. I’m still a noob and I know that’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but for what it’s worth.

–Tiribulus->

3078

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
toogoodlookin wrote:
Thanks for the info, can any of you guys/girls describe how your cutting regimes have gone with this diet, BF%, weight and waist changes from and to, “if thats ok ?”

I can’t be as specific as you’re asking, but I can tell you I started training again at the end of March after thirteen years of slovenly pitiful living that included way too much drinking and the worst eating habits imaginable. I became a disgusting fatbody.

For the first few months of eating an ultra clean diet and weight training fat fell off me and I lost an assload of excess slop as well as gaining a quite noticable amount of muscle. I then hit a wall head on where no matter what the hell I did I could NOT get any leaner.

I kept making satisfactory gains, but the remaining fat just sat there with it’s tongue stuck out at me. Today is day 11 of this diet and it is coming off again. Nothing but the mirror and pinch test to verify, but my wife even noticed in gape jawed astonishment after watching me hammer down bacon, cheese, butter, beef, whole eggs and EFA oils for the last 11 days.

She cannot understand how I could be losing fat while eating enough of it to make the low fat gurus have a heart attack just hearing about it. I’m still a noob and I know that’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but for what it’s worth.

–Tiribulus->

[/quote]

Thanks for that, helps to hear your experiences of the program so far, im to having a hard time shifting this last bit of fat, i have tried everything, i have been doing cv every morning before breakfast for the last 6 weeks and not much differnece on the hold belly fat :frowning: and thought i would give this a try, the only thing that i fear is the carb ups as i was told not to eat large amounts of fats and CHO togetherm/the same time.

Can anyone help me out ?

Also should i be counting in grams or in terms of total calories ?

3079

Is it ok if we start this during a “back off” week?

I just realized that my 2nd week on the AD (assuming I begin on Monday, which was my original plan) will be a scheduled back off week. Is there any problems with this?

Thanks.

3080

[quote]AlphaDragon wrote:
Is it ok if we start this during a “back off” week?
[/quote]
Some of the vets will know better than me, but having read the book and tons of other stuff I don’t see how this could hurt.

–Tiribulus->

3081

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
dannyrat wrote:
Is it true that fiber carbs (like in nuts) don’t count? So practically i could eat a shit load of almonds and sunflower seeds with no worry (but dutiful care, calculation etc of course)?

Don’t know if i missed it, i read AD and it seemed to be vague, are we to do cardio on this? If so, what type/ duration? How many days per week? I’m training 4X week, nice compunds, waves etc. I’m gonna start this next week and need advice pls. Thanks

This is covered in the book and this thread, though the thread has gotten a bit unwieldy. If a food has 10 grams total carbs and 5 grams of fiber you count 5 grams against your daily total or total minus fiber. Seeds and nuts do have some usable calories from carbs so you would still need to watch that.

Cardio depends on goals, caloric intake and body type. Personally I’m after long term health as much as size and strength so I include some cardio work as it rounds out a total fitness routine.

–Tiribulus->

[/quote]

Thanks for clarifying that trib