[quote]zed962 wrote:
miniarnold- For me, the focus is on making fat the dominant nutrient in my diet. If you’re consistently doing that and getting enough calories, then don’t worry about protein being broken down into glucose for energy. That becomes a problem if carbs get out of control. Focus on keeping carbs below 30 grams, eat enough to feel satiated, get enough fat, and take your fish oil.
As someone who used to obsess over the minutia of this diet, I urge all newcomers to avoid this. It’s really not as complicated as some make it out to be (myself included when I began this diet). Focus on the basics and when those are mastered (in all seriousness this is six months down the road), then tweak based on goals, etc.
Finally, I have found that keeping protein down to somewhere in the neighborhood of one gram per pound of bodyweight has resulted in better energy and no loss of muscle mass whatsoever (I’ve actually gained strength and a little size without that being the primary goal). I actually want to experiment with taking it lower, but It’ll be at least May or June before I consider it further.
-Zed[/quote]
Thanks zed, i think il lower my protein intake a little and up the fats to make up the calorie difference.
As regards to fiber from foods eaten after i have subtracted the fiber from the carbs i am basically consuming no carbs each day as the only foods i eat with carbs are pretty much different veg eg brocolli and spinach and sprouts and different nuts.
So do i need to take in a little carbs each day staying under 30g obviously or does it not matter that i may only take 5, 10 or 15g of carbs as long as its below 30g, or is ther a minimum amount to take in daily?
Cheers
MA
MiniArnold – You may be surprised by how many carbs you are eating. Eggs, most seasonings, mustard, ketchup, most cheeses, essentially all low-carb protein shakes and many fiber supplements have trace carbs. Don’t worry about these carbs too much, as they aren’t significant individually. However, in the aggregate, these carbs often approach 30g per day.
So I say again: an extremely diligent look at your diet may reveal that you are consuming more carbs than you think.
Of course, there’s a good chance you have already taken a “diligent look” at your diet, particularly in light of your questions on this forum. It sounds like you’re doing a good job, so I wouldn’t sweat it. Just try to stay under 30g of carbs, get in your essential fats and veggies and keep up the good work.
QUESTION: I have been on the diet for about a year, with great success. I usually go “hog wild” on the weekends and consume 2x-3x the calories I do on weekdays – probably in the range of 6,000 to 8,000 calories of food each weekend day. Believe it or not, this has resulted in a significant reduction in bodyfat.
I’d like to go to the next level, from 9-10% bodyfat down into the mid-single digits, if possible.
Has anyone consumed the same (or fewer) calories on their carb up? What were your results? Has anyone tried relatively low-calorie carb-ups for a sustained period of time?
If the food says only 4g carbs lets say, but has 3g sugar, do the 3g sugar also lead to carbs? I’m just basically confused on what constitutes hidden carbs.
[quote]tico1028 wrote:
Hey so I’m kind of confused about hidden carbs.
If the food says only 4g carbs lets say, but has 3g sugar, do the 3g sugar also lead to carbs? I’m just basically confused on what constitutes hidden carbs.[/quote]
By “hidden carbs”, we mean carbs within your diet that your unaware of because you don’t identify the food as such, like eggs, ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, etc…
If you’re reading labels then you are aware of all your carbs and none are “hidden”; we don’t mean that food labels are hiding the print, or something.
There is a discrepancy on some foodstuffs, where the sugars+fibers don’t equal up to total carbs. It’s usually off by a gram or two, but don’t fret these because serving sizes are low, and/or you shouldn’t be eating these foods anyway, because of being highly processed.
People, if you stick to fatty beef, fatty pork, fatty fish, fatty cheese, eggs, and green veges, you will be successful. Use extra virgin olive oil to top it all off, and you’re fine. Trust it.
is st jons wart in liqiud form ok to take on the AD, 20 drops twice a day.
the label says ingrediants: tincture of organically grown fresh flower heads of st johns wort (hypericum perforatum), extracted in alcohol (66% v/v), the alcohol bit made me think?
Is soya milk unsweetened ok in drinks also
Ingrediants water, organic soya beans (6%) and natural flavouring, per 100ml protein 3.3g, carbs 0.1g, fat 1.9g, fiber 0.6g. Just checking its ok?
Had a good workout day 2day first workout after carb up wich was very clean,
did cardio am yesterday but no gym, already had a good pump muscles fuller. 2day am cardio at home then bfast of salmon, quarter pounder and cheese. then gym a v good chest workout great pump muscles full and noticably bigger, trained for ages and could have gone longer think the coffee was to strong.
Cheers
MA.
P84- As I said in my response to miniarnold, I focus on making fat the dominant macro in my diet. Over time, your body will use the dominant macro as its energy source. Personally, I want it to be fat rather than protein, so fat stays high. Consult the book if you want specific macros, but Dr. D. will tell you the same thing.
Miniarnold- I agree with the2pin. Carbs sneak up on you. 6-8 eggs a day, a small serving of nuts, and a few servings of green veggies get you much closer to 30 grams than you think.
the2pin- I do not how much you train and what you do for energy systems work, but without knowing those specifics I would suggest adding exercise before decreasing calories. Fasted low to moderate intensity cardio works well IMHO, especially for those of us who are fat adapted. Post some specifics on what you currently do in the gym and I’m sure some of the vets will give you some ideas.
Zed - Thanks for the reply. I do fasted cardio 3-4 days a week. I do weights on three days a week, and often perform some HIIT after my weight sessions.
As you mentioned, the fasted cardio has worked wonders. I am as lean as I have ever been, and extremely pleased.
My question is essentially: Does everyone go “hog wild” and consume tons of calories on the carb-up? I know I do. Or have any of the vets experimented with carb-ups at matinenance calories? Or completely clean carb ups?
I am at a low bodyfat, which I attribute to this diet. I’m simply wondering if it might be worthwhile to clean up my carb-loads – or if that would even make a big difference.
[quote]miniarnold wrote:
is st jons wart in liqiud form ok to take on the AD, 20 drops twice a day.
the label says ingrediants: tincture of organically grown fresh flower heads of st johns wort (hypericum perforatum), extracted in alcohol (66% v/v), the alcohol bit made me think?
Is soya milk unsweetened ok in drinks also
Ingrediants water, organic soya beans (6%) and natural flavouring, per 100ml protein 3.3g, carbs 0.1g, fat 1.9g, fiber 0.6g. Just checking its ok?
Had a good workout day 2day first workout after carb up wich was very clean,
did cardio am yesterday but no gym, already had a good pump muscles fuller. 2day am cardio at home then bfast of salmon, quarter pounder and cheese. then gym a v good chest workout great pump muscles full and noticably bigger, trained for ages and could have gone longer think the coffee was to strong.
Cheers
MA. [/quote]
[quote]the2pin wrote:
I do fasted cardio 3-4 days a week. I do weights on three days a week, and often perform some HIIT after my weight sessions. [/quote]
I’d bump weights up to at least 4 days/week. Use cardio as a fat-loss tool that is always subordinate to weights on the exercise hierarchy.
People who question fasted cardio tend to be fat. It’s very valuable.
My hunger is unbelievable on the carb-up. I’ve tried in the past to limit myself to only about 20-25% more calories than a typical low carb day (I’m usually around 15x/bodyweight on low-carb days) and I just couldn’t do it.
What exactly is a completely clean carb-up? If it means limiting your fat intake, you’re missing out on the supercompensation effect (little known fact: you can store more intramuscular triglyceride than glycogen!) If it means reducing overall calories, you’re missing out on the supercompensation effect (this may be fine for you if you’re looking to drop bodyfat although I’ve dropped fat just fine after supercompensating).
My recommendation is to up your exercise volume (more weight training days), eat at a relative caloric deficit on your low-carb days, and reduce your carb-up day to one day.
the2pin- Here’s the order in how I would manipulate diet/training to reach your goal:
Add a fourth day of weight training (as long as it makes sense within your overall program).
Consistently perform four low-intensity cardio sessions per week.
Reduce the CHO load to one day and really spike calories. Do not eat until you feel sick, but make sure you feel like you get your money’s worth. Really listen to your body and you’ll make the right choices.
Add one low-intensity cardio session.
Increase intensity of HIIT sessions.
Increase intensity/duration of low-intensity cardio sessions.
Take calories on fat/protein days down to 12x bodyweight.
Add one low-intensity cardio session (you’re now at six times a week).
Repeat Step 5.
Repeat Step 6.
I’m actually trying to do something similar, so I might just go ahead and copy this to a Word document and print it out. However, my weekly calories are already low.
I think by step six you’ll be really close to your goal. You may find that if you have to decrease calories during the week your spike days will be higher. That’s fine. Good luck and I’m sure others will chime in.
damn all you Scott Abel fans got me curious about the cycle diet…but im not sure if its for me at all since im more around 12%BF…but further insight would be much aprreciated
[quote]bkmacky9288 wrote:
damn all you Scott Abel fans got me curious about the cycle diet…but im not sure if its for me at all since im more around 12%BF…but further insight would be much aprreciated ;)[/quote]
It’s definitely something I’d only do if under 10% body fat…and I probably wouldn’t even do it until a solid 8%.
But yeah…overall you’ll probably want to be at least as low as 10%.
[quote]SashaG wrote:
labikes wrote:
Guys I am going crazy already. I have been doig the AD for a few months already. Currently weigh at 220 with 14% bodyfat, goal is to reach under 10 percent. I have been doing 1 carb reload every fourteen days to speed up fat loss. Currently doing the Waterbury method training and full body circuits followed by 25 minutes of hiit cardio and also doing hiit cardio on off days for 40 minutes. My protein intake is 220 grams per day and 150 grams of fat, carbs under 30 grams. My question to the vets is since I am getting enough protein is my cardio prohibiting me from getting to under 10%, should I discontinue the cardio? Please fellas any help would be appreciated. Any suggestions to modifying any of my diet or training? I know I will get more because I will not give up and will keep on working at reaching my goal but any help from my fellow tnation brothers will be greatly appreciated.
Mate,
What may be happening is that your body has adapted to your mechanics. What I would recommend doing is to carb load with one meal every 5 days. So, you would go 4 days very-low carb, moderate fats (primarily EFAs) and high protein. I would look to knock at least 600-800 off your daily caloric requirements. Then on the 5th day, for your last meal, take in up to 300-400 grams of carbs + EFAs + a little protein.
Remember we always want to keep our body guessing so that it needs to adapt. When we ramp up our metabolic rate and regulate our leptin levels we put ourselves in an optimal calorie expending state. Then, when we drop our calories right down, fat is the prefered energy source.
In terms of training, push the metabolically intense training . . .it tends to yield the best benefits.
Shoot back with q’s if you have any.
Cheers,
Sasha
[/quote]
Sasha: Thanks brother for the quick response. I ppologize I did not post earlier, my internet was down for days because they had to send a tech out to fix the problem. I am going to try what you recommended, my question is with only one carb up meal will I have enough carbs in one meal to maintain pumps and not feel flat. You also mention to cut out 600-800 calories, if I do that I will be in deficit on the protein side and not get enough. Also in regards to my cardio any advice, whenever I do not do cardio I feel more flabby, on days that I do cardio my skin feels tighter. I have been experimenting for a couple of years and its either my carb up days are too low or too much. Thanks
[quote]Whey Man wrote:
bkmacky9288 wrote:
damn all you Scott Abel fans got me curious about the cycle diet…but im not sure if its for me at all since im more around 12%BF…but further insight would be much aprreciated
It’s definitely something I’d only do if under 10% body fat…and I probably wouldn’t even do it until a solid 8%.
But yeah…overall you’ll probably want to be at least as low as 10%.
[/quote]
Why wait till you’re that low? If anything, I’ve heard of people doing it to get that low.
Hi guys, I read a couple pages back that some of you bought Scott Abel’s dvd about his cyclic diet. I can’t seem to find much information about the diet itself online, so I’m wondering if you all think its a good purchase or not. Because I’m thinking of possibly picking it up. Thanks.
[quote]miniarnold wrote:
miniarnold wrote:
is st jons wart in liqiud form ok to take on the AD, 20 drops twice a day.
the label says ingrediants: tincture of organically grown fresh flower heads of st johns wort (hypericum perforatum), extracted in alcohol (66% v/v), the alcohol bit made me think?
Is soya milk unsweetened ok in drinks also
Ingrediants water, organic soya beans (6%) and natural flavouring, per 100ml protein 3.3g, carbs 0.1g, fat 1.9g, fiber 0.6g. Just checking its ok?
Cheers
MA
[quote]miniarnold wrote:
is st jons wart in liqiud form ok to take on the AD, 20 drops twice a day.
the label says ingrediants: tincture of organically grown fresh flower heads of st johns wort (hypericum perforatum), extracted in alcohol (66% v/v), the alcohol bit made me think?
Is soya milk unsweetened ok in drinks also
Ingrediants water, organic soya beans (6%) and natural flavouring, per 100ml protein 3.3g, carbs 0.1g, fat 1.9g, fiber 0.6g. Just checking its ok?
Cheers
MA
[/quote]
