Hi everyone.
I am new to this board so please forgive my long-ass first post but here’s my story:
I’m 39 years old and am STILL having issues/battles with weight/fat loss. For years I was over 300 lb’s wearing size 48" pants and 4X shirts. At 5’10", that’s pretty BIG and though I was young and strong, believe me that weight was MOSTLY fat.
Somehow, I was able to get motivated and lose 158lb’s in 10 months - literally cutting my weight in half. Of course, I lost quite a bit of muscle in the process with such extreme low-calorie eating. This was back in 1993/94 and I have since learned quite a bit about nutrition and exercise.
But even still, I’ve gained back a lot of weight (should lose around 60 lb’s of fat) and I’m trying to really figure out the BEST approach in doing this. I’m not as concerned with building lean tissue as I am sparing it while losing the fat. The approaches that I have been considering are obviously the AD, Lyle McDonald’s UD2 (Body Opus revamp), even straight prolonged Ketosis or the more moderate 40-30-30 zone-like approach.
Lyle’s diet is similar to the AD’s except that 4 of the 7 days is not just low-carb but low-fat and calories as well. So my question to all of you is, given my age, diet history and diet choices above, which do you think best suits me.
I have been out of the nutrition loop for a while so any information/opinions you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening !
Josh
I have known of McDonald’s thinking since he was theorizing at the lowcarb-l. He has great things to offer, and his books are excellent.
That said, I cannot do ketogenic diets. I feel like shit. I have done every variation of them. I end up with ketone mind fog and overall apathy towards life.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
I have known of McDonald’s thinking since he was theorizing at the lowcarb-l. He has great things to offer, and his books are excellent.
That said, I cannot do ketogenic diets. I feel like shit. I have done every variation of them. I end up with ketone mind fog and overall apathy towards life.
The AD is completely different.[/quote]
This is the great thing about the AD. Apart from the introductory 12 day period, when you may experience some lethargy, your energy levels, mental state and work capacity in the gym will be unchanged, or if anything enhanced. This makes it SO much easier to incorporate into your life.
I have started the AD and am having trouble eating higher fats then protein. Most meat besides bacon have higher protein then fat. Do you guys drink straight olive oil? I have been eating cream cheese and shots of olive oil to increase fat percentage.
I would like to get my (fat/protein/carb) percentages around (55-60%/30-35%/5-8%) without drinking olive oil. How does everyone do this? Also is there a good “high-fat” protein shake for this diet (without any carbs of course)?
[quote]qbawler311 wrote:
I have started the AD and am having trouble eating higher fats then protein. Most meat besides bacon have higher protein then fat. Do you guys drink straight olive oil? I have been eating cream cheese and shots of olive oil to increase fat percentage.
I would like to get my (fat/protein/carb) percentages around (55-60%/30-35%/5-8%) without drinking olive oil. How does everyone do this? Also is there a good “high-fat” protein shake for this diet (without any carbs of course)?[/quote]
Red meat is always a good choice. Even the leaner cuts have at least 5 grams of fat per 3oz serving.
Eggs of course come to mind.
Nuts are a great snack and a great way to introduce good fats into the diet.
Full fat cheeses are also a nice addition.
As far as a “high-fat” protein shake -no, I know of none. However, milled flax seeds mix well with protein shakes -as does heavy cream flax oil and olive oil.
Honestly, it really isn’t that difficult to get in your fats…it really isn’t.
How are you tracking your intake? -I mean to ask -is it accurate?
fitday.com is a Wonderful resource for this. -The account is free and the database is heeyooge! You can also add foods to your own personal database as well…just take the info right off the label.
I faltered on the AD at first because I “knew” so much about the nutritional values of foods. -I thought I was on top of it all…I was close -but not close enough…actually I was really badly mistaken. I was consuming waaaaaay too many calories, and guess where they were coming from?
Hi everybody
I lost 20 lbs of fat and even gained some muscle when I did bodyopus for 18 weeks drug free. In the process I had to play around with my calories a bit to get the right amount of fat loss.
If I dropped my cals too low I lost strength and if they were a bit to high I wouldn’t burn enough fat. I found out some low intensity cardio on the tread mill first thing in the morning before my first meal worked the best for burning fat with minimal muscle loss.
After that (3 months ago) I went right into the AD to put on muscle bumping up my cals gradually. Compared to bodyopus this diet is cake since I can eat veggies and almond butter. Hopefully I’ll get bigger and stronger than ever on the it.
I’ve read the whole thread and I hope the AD will work as good for me as it has for guys like Il cazzo and Disc Hoss. Has anyone else broken threw some strength and size barriers on the AD?
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
What I’ve learned is that one day carb-ups work best for me. Actually “cheat foods” work best for me. [/quote]
I agree, I also lay into the junk carbs and overfeed on Satuday. I wake up and hit some sprints, then its pancakes or french toast for breakfast. Pizza, ice cream etc. If however, I go into Sunday I start feeling like I’m putting on fat and get that bloated feeling (not in a good way).
1 day of all out putting it away works best. I think Poliquin reccomends something similar as well.
Honestly, I don’t see how people do 48(or more) carb-ups. At that point, it seems the diet would be totally shot, at least for me.
that is because what you are eating in that 24 hour period is all garbage, that is what is making you feel like you are getting fat and feel super bloated. my first carb up was the same way, i ate tons of carby junk high in fats and protein (pizza etc) and felt huge and bloated at the end of the day.
the second week of carbing up, i decided i’d consume 50-6 grams of mostly complex, i ate mostly whole grain mini bagles with natty pb, these all natural whole grain bran mini muffins, and a bunch of kashi go lean crunch with 1% milk and some clif bars.
i ate that stuff (60-70g of carbs) at every meal every two hours. i’d probably consume like 600g of carbs that night, slight more then i did the previous day, but didn’t feel nearly as fat or bloated, still had gass though. the next morning i still felt a little heavier, water retention etc, but felt a million times better, almost as if i could carb a second day.
but i knew it would not be beneficial. 600g is all you need imo.
I’ve had good carb ups using rice, sweet potatoes, eggs, almonds, and maltodextin based weight gainer shakes at around 80/100 g pro 800g carb 100g fat not as tasty as pizza though.
I also try to stay away from fructose or sucrose(which is half fructose) I’m not happy with a scoop of ice cream I want demolish a whole half gallon so its easier for me to avoid it all together.
[quote]Train_smart wrote:
that is because what you are eating in that 24 hour period is all garbage, that is what is making you feel like you are getting fat and feel super bloated. [/quote]
Quite the ASSumption. I have experimented with carb-ups (one and two days “clean,” 12 hours, and one and two “cheat” carbs). Bar none, 12-24 hours of “cheat” carbs work best for me. If I go 48 (or even 36) hours of “clean” foods, I feel bloated and disgusting.
In fact, I’ve been experimenting with mid-week carb-ups. Tonight I had chips and guacamole, an enchilada, and about a dozen pralines.
Within 30 minutes I had the sickest vascularity in my biceps and forearms. I do not get anything like this from “clean” carbs. Tomorrow I am pretty sure the skin around my abs will be tights and that I will be notably vascular. We’ll see.
It could be that the sodium from the “cheat” foods are playing a role in the carb-ups. (I kept running to the drinking fountain and could not drink enough water.) In any event, I both look better and feel better after carbing up with junk.
Your body might be different. That’s cool. But don’t assume that because you do something a certain way, that everyone else needs to do the same thing.
In fact, the entire attraction of the AD is that it can be modified to suit the needs of most carb intolerant people.
[quote]greekdawg wrote:
I wake up and hit some sprints, then its pancakes or french toast for breakfast. Pizza, ice cream etc. [/quote]
This is pretty much what I used to do. I’d sprint in the a.m., eat up carbs, then do an upper-body workout and eat more carbs.
The problem, though, is that by running sprints, I don’t have as good of dead lift workouts on Sunday. So while I like the routine, I have to sacrifice a good dead lift workout to do it this way.
So lately I’ve been doing regular old cardio on Saturday a.m… Then I’ll eat some carbs, rest a bit, do an upper body workouts, eat more carbs, eat more carbs, and then go to bed.
On Sunday, I have some Surge, dead lift, have some more Surge and then cut off the carbs.
I’m still tweaking stuff, though, so who knows what I’ll be doing 12 weeks from now.
Hm … here’s my 2 cents … last weekend I carbed up - experimentally - pretty clean ( rice, fruit ) for the first time in a long time ( I really enjoy pizza lately, hehe ) and I felt better really.
Dunno, think I’ll look into more clean carbing up, with the exception of one, maybe, two, ‘cheat meals’.
I always do 36 hour carbups normally ( friday: work at the office, work out, PWO-stuff with carbs, PWO-meal, party time ( few beers ), saturday: carbs all day, maybe workout, party again at night ). Sunday, usually, the carb-up ends.
Slowly, I’m looking into mid-week carb spikes too.
Idunno, I’m … reorganising changing everything up a bit.
But first up, like someone mentioned on this thread, I’m gonna re-activate my fitday account, check how much I’m eating instead of ‘estimating’, think I’m a bit too high
Hey guys…any opinions on a light jog of friday mornings? I thought if I had a protein shake prior to the jog, I shouldn’t lose any muscle, and I would certainly be burning fat, and only fat! It’s the only day I do cardio too. Other than this, it’s just heavy lifting Mon, wed, thurs, sat.
[quote]LVZzed wrote:
Hm … here’s my 2 cents … last weekend I carbed up - experimentally - pretty clean ( rice, fruit ) for the first time in a long time ( I really enjoy pizza lately, hehe ) and I felt better really.
Dunno, think I’ll look into more clean carbing up, with the exception of one, maybe, two, ‘cheat meals’.
I always do 36 hour carbups normally ( friday: work at the office, work out, PWO-stuff with carbs, PWO-meal, party time ( few beers ), saturday: carbs all day, maybe workout, party again at night ). Sunday, usually, the carb-up ends.
Slowly, I’m looking into mid-week carb spikes too.
Idunno, I’m … reorganising changing everything up a bit.
But first up, like someone mentioned on this thread, I’m gonna re-activate my fitday account, check how much I’m eating instead of ‘estimating’, think I’m a bit too high :)[/quote]
after all this reading of cheating i think ill try it a little…i havnt had any cheat meals since my first couple weekends…and yea two days bloats me too much so im gonna do the friday night all day saturday deal…and im gonna throw in some junk to remind myself that junk doesnt taste like junk
hmm odd usually i go don to 165 from 175 im on my last lifting session (unless i get jumbo energy and time saturday) and down to 170. Eh im feelin good about it though my chest is looking thicker and my abdomen flatter (but still no pack)…all i can say is at least im packin where it counts
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
I have experimented with carb-ups (one and two days “clean,” 12 hours, and one and two “cheat” carbs). Bar none, 12-24 hours of “cheat” carbs work best for me. If I go 48 (or even 36) hours of “clean” foods, I feel bloated and disgusting.
[/quote]
Hmm, thats interesting CLaw. Thats good that you can do that without gaining weight.
But for those of you who aren’t gifted with mixing macronutrients (like myself), heres what I do. I only eat carbs by themselves, literally nothing else with them. The reasons why are if I mix carbs with fats, I look bloated and puffy almost immediately, and if I mix carbs with protein, I feel more sluggish than usual and my muscles don’t fill up at all. For myself I keep any carbups I do to oatmeal and fruit. Plus there are other modifications that I’ve made, like I do not do full day carbups anymore.
I absolutely HATE a full day of carbs. I seriously cannot stand it. It completely ruins my day. I feel sluggish in the morning, then the cravings come in the afternoon, and then by nightfall I pretty much want to end my own life because of the amount of discipline required to keep myself from binging because of the cravings. Those cravings are what made me try mixing my carbs with protein, which didn’t fill up my muscles; and then fats, which seemed to just make me fat immediately. Plus the cravings didn’t seem to go away much by mixing my macronutrients (by mixing protein with carbs it did blunt the cravings somewhat though.) By the way, it took literally since December to figure all this out about myself.
So I actually follow Vince Gironda’s (and Rob Faigin’s) recommendations rather than DiPasquale’s in regards to carb timing, works much better for myself. Plus I never get tired at the end of the week now and I have energy EVERY day rather than ever day but the carbup. But it’s all pretty much the same diet, I guess you could call Vince and Rob’s diet a “modified” AD. Either way just do what works for you, that’s always been the main point that DiPasquale has wanted to get across.
And for you guys who have trouble with mixing macronutrients, first try meals with nothing but carbs, and then adding to them to see how you react. This will probably take a while to figure it all out but its worth it.
I have been on the AD for three days now everything is going good. People have been telling me that this diet will raise my Cholesterol levels and if on it long term will put me in a higher risk of heart related problems? Can anyone point me to information proving or disproving these accusations?
changing everything up a bit.