Sunday evening sun is setting on my first carb up weekend… Nothing too special, just a lot of oats and cheese on toast, along with stealing plenty of my girls’ Weetos.
Nothing really happened. No psych/physiological changes that i can think of. No mood swings/lethargy/euphoria. Just a standard day, except with less bacon. What’s going on?
[quote]dannyrat wrote:
Sunday evening sun is setting on my first carb up weekend… Nothing too special, just a lot of oats and cheese on toast, along with stealing plenty of my girls’ Weetos.
Nothing really happened. No psych/physiological changes that i can think of. No mood swings/lethargy/euphoria. Just a standard day, except with less bacon. What’s going on?[/quote]
Describe “lots of oats and cheese on toast”. Sounds offhand like you didn’t load hard enough. A few pages back I was telling how I didn’t too earth shattering a first carb up either though. I’m not sure what you were expecting. I ate lots of fruit, oatmeal, raisins, potatoes, sweet potatoes and beans. This is my third carb load and same thing. I’m fully planning on giving this plan at least 12 - 16 weeks before making any definite pronouncements on it’s effects on me.
So far I'm seeing some very stubborn midsection fat dribbling very slowly off, energy is fine and actually the most noticable difference in my case is mental clarity. I am sharper between the ears. No doubt about it. I don't mean it's making me more intelligent which is impossible, but it's like I got a cerebral tuneup or something. Disc Hoss has been living this way for 10 yars and has repeatedly said it takes several months to dial everything in. I have no reason not to believe him. Not that results and differences aren't apparent much sooner, but the full stride takes a little while to hit. I'm giving it that.
–Tiribulus->
Yeah, you definitely need to give it time. Thats what I’ve found at least.
I still over do my weekends to the point that i’m bloated. I must a have psychological block on keeping it clean or something. However, I can certainly tell I have that new muscle when its full. The AD has been working wonders for that…
I found the following excellent article regarding cyclists and fat vs carb metabolism:
The main problem with the low CHO diet for cycling is that you can’t sustain the high levels of intensity that you need for a lot of cycling events. As summarized in the article above:
"What can one take away about fats for training and endurance?
* muscle glycogen stores are a key to maximum performance at>80%VO2max
o fats are not a substitute for carbohydrates in repleteing those muscle stores
o adequate Caloric intake during training is key to optimizing muscle glycogen stores
* fats may extend performance at moderate levels of activity (50%VO2max)
* IF there are optimum muscle glycogen stores, there is no advantage to a high fat content in the 4 hour pre event meal "
[quote]pedaler wrote:
I found the following excellent article regarding cyclists and fat vs carb metabolism:
The main problem with the low CHO diet for cycling is that you can’t sustain the high levels of intensity that you need for a lot of cycling events. As summarized in the article above:
"What can one take away about fats for training and endurance?
* muscle glycogen stores are a key to maximum performance at>80%VO2max
o fats are not a substitute for carbohydrates in repleteing those muscle stores
o adequate Caloric intake during training is key to optimizing muscle glycogen stores
* fats may extend performance at moderate levels of activity (50%VO2max)
* IF there are optimum muscle glycogen stores, there is no advantage to a high fat content in the 4 hour pre event meal "[/quote]
Interesting stuff pedaler however there is a sub context that is not being alluded to in these studies.
The primary piece of information not being covered here is the fact the studied atheletes had not made the metabolic shift as described by Dr. DiPasquale. Even athletes who were fed high-fat diets still derived a good deal of their calories from carbohydrates. This is not in line with the anabolic diet and its mechanics.
You’re points posted above, while valid in the context of those studies, do not apply here. As mentioned earlier, unless you are consistently performing activities at over 80% of your VO2 max, and by consistently I mean several hours a day, you can achieve the same levels of performance following a cyclical, very-low carbohydrate diet.
Again, I encourage you to read the actual DiPasquale literature before posting research like this. I believe you will be enlightened by his approach.
Cheers,
Sasha
I have just started this diet today and since I have plans to go on a 12 week steroid cycle later in winter, I am wondering how this diet is working when on gear.
Does anyone of you have any experience on this?
[quote]mitjab wrote:
I have just started this diet today and since I have plans to go on a 12 week steroid cycle later in winter, I am wondering how this diet is working when on gear.
Does anyone of you have any experience on this?[/quote]
I don’t have the book in front of me, but there is a section where DiPasquale explains that the diet works fine fer gear.
–Tiribulus->
Quick question. I’m in the cutting phase and eating about 1500-1700 cals a day, on the weekends how high should I go in terms of calories?
For those of you that still fear the carb up i found a very interesting article that will make your fear disappear.
High GI and LOW GI carbs are also
discussed:-
Check this out
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/mcdonald/carb-up-and-ketogenic-diet.htm
Cheers
Toogoodlookin
[quote]toogoodlookin wrote:
For those of you that still fear the carb up i found a very interesting article that will make your fear disappear.
High GI and LOW GI carbs are also
discussed:-
Check this out
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/mcdonald/carb-up-and-ketogenic-diet.htm
Cheers
Toogoodlookin[/quote]
Thank you.
Silly question:
I know we’re not supposed to do cardio (in general).
However, with the exception of my training and a few daily basic activities, my work and projects are not too active (i.e. Low calorie burners).
Should I make an effort to get more daily simple activities in? I.E: Basketball, walking, or whatever.
Hey all. I just finished reading this thread and have been doing the AD since then (about 5 weeks). I started out doing a ketogenic diet prior to this and basically made a seemless transition to following the AD philosophy more. I must say that I really enjoy eating low carb since I feel less bloated for the majority of the week.
I also got over the whole crappy workout thing quite fast and I really can’t tell the difference between my workouts before and after eating low carbohydrate during the week. I keep the carb up to around 24 hours and have gotten a lot better at not getting really bloated.
I still enjoy somewhat crappy foods (cereal, bagels, pizza or chinese), but I working on finding how much I can enjoy these things before I spill over. Its kinda like starting a new job, you just have to get used to the routine and find what works and what doesn’t.
My goal is to recomp if that is even possible. I am hovering around 200 lbs during the week and for now I’m keeping my food intake here to see what happens. Even though the scale hasn’t moved I do feel I look better. I’ll try dropping calories slightly in the future.
The one thing I notice time and again with people who are not satisfied with this diet is that they go into it expecting to loose fat and gain muscle even though they pig out non stop.
I hope those who know what they are talking about can back me up in saying that if you are getting fatter on this or any diet it is your calories that should be looked at first. Thanks for the thread and I’ll be around.
[quote]AlphaDragon wrote:
I know we’re not supposed to do cardio (in general).
[/quote]
I may get flamed for this, but unless you care about absoloutly nothing else in your life other than size, I see cardio, aerobics, energy system work or whatever you choose to call it as an essential component of training. Unless you have a definite health issue preventing you from doing it, which is unlikely if you can weight train at anything approaching meaningful intensity, only good can come from a sensible, intelligent cardio program.
It’s beneficial to your entire cardio vascular system, prevents artereosclerosis, increases insulin sensitivity, just plain makes you feel better and will give you better wind under the weights as well. Not even counting that it burns fat. It’s NO fun, but tough shit, I do it anyway. 3 times a week (sometimes 4 if especially ambitious) I jump on the stationary bike for 6 or 7 minutes to loosen up and run to the park at the end of my street and go around 3 times. About 2.2 miles and 25 or so minutes total including the bike. I go hard enough to be uncomfortable, but not so hard that I’m gasping for breath. I feel great afterwards. Eventually I’ll give HIIT a try.
Until some earth shattering study proves me wrong nobody’s convincing me I’m doing myself anything, but good. I want to be around long enough to see my grand children and moderate cardio like I’ve desribed undoubtedly contributes to my well being.
–Tiribulus->
I’m going to agree that cardio is a good thing. Either steady state or HIIT, but especially both combined with regular strength training.
And on the question of calories making a difference, I think that it can vary to the invidivual, but yes it is an important consideration. I’m about to start experimenting with going up and down with my calories to see how it will affect my training and fatloss. The latter being the main goal with my diet and training.
Good post. Totally agree.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
AlphaDragon wrote:
I know we’re not supposed to do cardio (in general).
I may get flamed for this, but unless you care about absoloutly nothing else in your life other than size, I see cardio, aerobics, energy system work or whatever you choose to call it as an essential component of training. Unless you have a definite health issue preventing you from doing it, which is unlikely if you can weight train at anything approaching meaningful intensity, only good can come from a sensible, intelligent cardio program.
It’s beneficial to your entire cardio vascular system, prevents artereosclerosis, increases insulin sensitivity, just plain makes you feel better and will give you better wind under the weights as well. Not even counting that it burns fat. It’s NO fun, but tough shit, I do it anyway. 3 times a week (sometimes 4 if especially ambitious) I jump on the stationary bike for 6 or 7 minutes to loosen up and run to the park at the end of my street and go around 3 times. About 2.2 miles and 25 or so minutes total including the bike. I go hard enough to be uncomfortable, but not so hard that I’m gasping for breath. I feel great afterwards. Eventually I’ll give HIIT a try.
Until some earth shattering study proves me wrong nobody’s convincing me I’m doing myself anything, but good. I want to be around long enough to see my grand children and moderate cardio like I’ve desribed undoubtedly contributes to my well being.
–Tiribulus->
[/quote]
[quote]Plisskin wrote:
And on the question of calories making a difference, I think that it can vary to the invidivual, but yes it is an important consideration. I’m about to start experimenting with going up and down with my calories to see how it will affect my training and fatloss. The latter being the main goal with my diet and training.[/quote]
I’m not totally convinced that maintenence calories are the same when eating one way or another. I think we might find that certain people gain more fat then muscle eating one way than another and timimg can play a significant part as well probably.
Over the history of the thread I see a lot of dudes gung ho and starting the diet and all the sudden there attitude is different and they are like “This diet doesn’t work, my waist has gone up and the scale says I’ve gained 10 pounds and I look like crap”. Most of them don’t want to admit that that answer is simple.
It isn’t that their fats aren’t high or even primarily that they haven’t been on the diet long enough. It is most likely that they are pigging out if they have gained fat. They just want their overeating to be enabled.
I’ve seen a lot of guys not give it enough time to know what to experiment with too though. I think this is part of what Plisskin is talking about. You are undoubtedly right that some guys expected to be able to eat a side of beef a day and not get fat as well.
I decided before I started that I would give it at least a few months to show it’s effects and then start to twiddle with calories and maybe some other things depending on how it went. I’m happy so far. Fat isn’t draining from my mid section,(not too fat before I started) but it’s going. Muscle isn’t sprouting like I was doing a cycle of anadrol, but I’m making gains. Energy is fine, I can think clearer (a surprise) and I feel great.
Something this radically different from everything I ever thought I knew about nutrition, by definition has to be given time. Once I can clearly see where I’m going I’ll make the proper adjustments for where I want to go next.
It’s always gnawed at the back of my brain that modern science was finding all these things wrong with the way mankind has eaten for thousands of years and we were sicker than ever taking their “enlightened” advice.
Even having nothing to do with training. As much as anything I’m suspecting this will prove all the corporately motivated buffoons wrong at least to me.
–Tiribulus->
Exactly, time needs to be put in before anyone can know what the AD will or will not do for them. And I seriously think alot of people (who are also constantly overloaded with other methods) look at the AD and get the general idea, but then somehow combine it with the concepts from the mainstream low-carb diets. The ones where they tell you to eat as much as you want as long as its carb free. Sure, that works in the first few weeks, but after that it’ll always be about adjustment or you’ll either reverse or stagnate your progress.
I can see from my own logs that its time for me to begin varying my calorie amounts to cut the way I’d like, while also making sure my refeeds are better than they have been in the past. Thats been my issue all along.
I’m new to the AD but not to low carb in general. One thing I noticed a long time ago is the incredible amount of misinformation floating around, it seems that many people who claim to be doing these diets don’t really know what to do. So I just want to say thanks to all the guys here who know the deal and are willing to help each other out, this thread is a much needed resource.
[quote]ec_fritz wrote:
this thread is a much needed resource.[/quote]
And what a resource it is. If you haven’t already read through the first 30 - 50 pages especially. Not that there’s not good stuff after that, but tons of meaty (pun intended) info toward the beginning.
–Tiribulus->