My Experience On the Anabolic Diet

Nutrition
841

It passes with time. About 2-3 months sometimes. I never experience it anymore. After a few loads, you hold the glycogen much better and start to really get long term adaptation. Use some tic-tacs, sugarless gum and mouthwash. Think there are some veggies and/or plants that can be used to help this too.

Order grilled veggies as a substitute for the taters, bro. You’ll look manly and your enhanced physique in a few months will pay dividends. ;-0.

DH

[quote]kurmatt wrote:
H.D. wrote:

The taste would be a sign that you are in ketosis. I would suspect it would be fairly common during the induction phase. Also, not everyone will have the bad taste in their mouth, you are one of the ones that do appearantly.

I guess it also results in smelly piss. When I wake in the morn. and hit the head- look out. When does this all pass?
I have a first date this week and it will be hard to explain the camel breath and not letting my steak touch the mashed potato’s on my plate : )[/quote]

842

[quote]vasudeva wrote:
JohnnyChainsaw:

I consume between 2850 calories/day to 5800 calories/day during the week, but bump my calories up to 10-12 grand calories/day on the weekends. I estimate my weekly needs and experiment from there. I posted on page 31 Doc D’s recommendations for total daily caloric intake. They were:

Gain = (25xBdywt)
Strength = (17-25xBdywt)
Cut = (subtract 300-500 calories from your daily total per week until desired outcome)

How much you increase or decrease your total caloric intake is dependent upon your goal and approach in applying the AD. What is your goal?[/quote]

vasudeva,
Thanks for the info! This calorie guide also helps me because I am using the diet to cut. However, about cutting down on the fat intake once your body adapts to the diet, to hasten fat loss?: Is this what I should do or just pay attention to total calories? Again, I am going to use the diet to get lean and to preserve muscle mass hopefully.
Thanks!

843

Are y’all counting calories during your carb-ups? I was until last saturday, and when I just ate a ton of carb-y things I got a pretty noticable pump. I’m thinking of going fairly low calorie on the weekdays and sunday, (say 2500-3000) and eating a ton on saturdays, until that “pump” goes away. What do you think? Should I go for the whole weekend?

844

PtrDR:

If I’m understanding Doc D correctly, then you should keep your percentages during the week between 40-60% Fat, 40-50% Pro, and 4-10% Cho.

He suggests to experiment with high and low sugar foods and percentages of fat intake on the weekends. But he doesn’t give a strict guideline other than 20-40% Fat, 15-30% Pro, and 35-60% Cho.

Doc D does write that some folks find success with a high Cho/higher Fat during the weekend. He suggests 40-45% Fat, 50-55% Cho, and 7-10% Pro.

However, he does not recommend this approach until you’ve been on the AD for a while.

Having said that, I suggest you begin by paying close attention to total calories. Per Doc D, “Be sure you don’t start too low. You’ll have plenty of time to lose that bodyfat in the right way.”

845

Charles Atlas:

I count calories on the weekends. But really, I focus more on total weekly calories. If I set a goal of X number of calories for the week, I stagger my daily total calories – During the week, I consume between 2850 calories/day to 5800 calories/day. On the weekend, I consume between 10-12 grand calories/day. I consume heavy CHO for 36 hours, and then begin to eliminate CHO from the meals in the latter half of the day, but still keep the caloric value of the remaining meals quite high.

846

[quote]vasudeva wrote:
Charles Atlas:

I count calories on the weekends. But really, I focus more on total weekly calories. If I set a goal of X number of calories for the week, I stagger my daily total calories – During the week, I consume between 2850 calories/day to 5800 calories/day. On the weekend, I consume between 10-12 grand calories/day. I consume heavy CHO for 36 hours, and then begin to eliminate CHO from the meals in the latter half of the day, but still keep the caloric value of the remaining meals quite high. [/quote]

I don’t mind keeping a food log each day but geeze, it’s tough to find the nutritional values on non-packaged foods such as a burger patty, a slice of cheese, a piece of fish…any suggestions?

847

kurmatt:

Try:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

It allows you to quickly find the nutritional value of just about anything you might consume.

848

Thanks DH - I plan on getting blood work done and finding out how well this T and chol. thing goes.

P.s. - my wife says thanks for the info.

849

[quote]vasudeva wrote:
Charles Atlas:

I count calories on the weekends. But really, I focus more on total weekly calories. If I set a goal of X number of calories for the week, I stagger my daily total calories – During the week, I consume between 2850 calories/day to 5800 calories/day. On the weekend, I consume between 10-12 grand calories/day. I consume heavy CHO for 36 hours, and then begin to eliminate CHO from the meals in the latter half of the day, but still keep the caloric value of the remaining meals quite high. [/quote]

Vasu,
Damn man, thats a shit ton of cals on the weekend. Wow. Are you bulking, is this why you consume so much during the weekend? Do you plan it all out for the week beforehand, like “Monday will be 2500Kcal, Tuesday-3000Kcal…” etc? Or do you sort of go by feel, by how hungry you are each day? It seems like it would be difficult, refiguring each day’s calories. How do you get around this?
-CA.

850

Charles Atlas:

I predominately go by feel. If my body needs more food, I don’t deny it. But generally, I consume lower calories on Monday and Thursday, moderate on Tuesday and Friday, and higher on Wednesday.

About a month ago, I worked out various meal combinations that I can consume for a given caloric total. So, if it is a lower caloric day, I know that any meal from that list is fair game. Same for the moderate and higher caloric days. I have a wide range of caloric totals from 2850 to 5800.

The weekends are a different story. I’m still experimenting. But the rule is to engorge on clean CHO.

And yes, I’m bulking, but I also demand much of my body: I utilize a modified WSB conjugate method on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ve been dragging the sled in some capacity five days a week for the past two and half weeks. I’m also into ballroom dance; that occupies at least an hour of intense practice a day.

Between college and post-college sporting activities, and a fair number of years carrying a ruck and rifle, I think my overall GPP (especially in my lower body) is high.

Anyhow, the weekends are a challenge. I often have to force myself to get through some of the meals, and I’ve not relied upon CHO as a predominant percentage for some years. So, it is quite difficult to get 60% CHO because I generally don’t enjoy CHO food sources.

851

I hear you man, I’ve gotten to the point that as soon as I switch to carb-loading I want to switch back to my beloved fat and protien. I will have to try the waving calories thing sometime, I don’t think I will right yet, but if I stagnate while trying to cut I’ll give it a shot. It seems that upping your daily cals on the weekend is the key, my question is by how much? Should they be doubled? Tripled? What do you think?
-CA

852

I think waving calories is potentially more effective for those cutting than those bulking. Why not remain within the prescribed macro-nutrient percentages during the week, but drop your daily caloric totals (needed for maintenance) on M/T/R/F by 50%? I would increase my calories (beyond maintenance) on Wednesday to spike your metabolism. Just make sure that those calories lost on M/T/R/F are added to your weekend carb-up.

853

Ahhh. Now I get it. It’s more of a 2-day low, then a spike. I thought it was a continuously changing wave. Well, shit yeah I could do that. I’ll try it next week, (kinda late to do it this week). Thanks for the clarification on that man, I was pretty confused.
-CA

854

[quote]vasudeva wrote:
kurmatt:

Try:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

It allows you to quickly find the nutritional value of just about anything you might consume.[/quote]

thanks bro

855

[quote]vasudeva wrote:
I think waving calories is potentially more effective for those cutting than those bulking. Why not remain within the prescribed macro-nutrient percentages during the week, but drop your daily caloric totals (needed for maintenance) on M/T/R/F by 50%? I would increase my calories (beyond maintenance) on Wednesday to spike your metabolism. Just make sure that those calories lost on M/T/R/F are added to your weekend carb-up. [/quote]

I’ve been pondering some different calorie cycling protocols too…possibly dropping calories considerably some days (and consuming those calories earlier in the day for an extended overnight fast). Maybe Monday and Tuesday? Or the middle of the week?

All part of the “game.” Tinker here, experiment there… find what works best for you.

Keep the thread going guys. It’s one of the best this site has seen in a long time.

856

Below is part of an exchange on cycling calories. Perhaps it will help folks…

Person A:

I just calculated the macro breakdowns for what we were just discussing. Here they are, (my maintenance cal. level is around 3500Kcal/day):

Monday - 50% deficit = 1750
Tuesday - 50% deficit = 1750
Wednesday - 50% surplus = 5250
Thursday - 50% deficit = 1750
Friday - 50% deficit = 1750
Saturday -75% surplus = 6125
Sunday - 75% surplus = 6125

vasudeva:

The above would work. The numbers come out okay. However, you might also consider:

Monday - 75% deficit = 875
Tuesday - 50% deficit = 1750
Wednesday - 50% surplus = 5250
Thursday - 75% deficit = 875
Friday - 50% deficit = 1750

Saturday and Sunday ensure that you consume 14 grand in calories over the two days. You can divide these calories any way you want. Just remember the percentages are predominately CHO, and still need to fall within Doc D’s guidelines. And if you really want to complicate the wave, you can also vary the macro-nutrient percentages (per meal) you use on each day so long as you get the requisite calories and remain within Doc D’s percentages for during the week.

I cannot promise this will work for you, but it gives you a good idea of what can be done to manipulate the body into shedding BF. The above places your weekly total at maintenance level, but keeps your body in caloric deficit for most of the week. Really, you’ll need to figure out what best suits you, and that takes time and experimentation. But this is a good start.

Remember, too, that the lower your BF becomes, the more you will have to manipulate the numbers to maintain the LBM and shed the BF.

So this is the continuously undulating wave I referenced in a previous post. By definition, a continuous wave has a constant amplitude and frequency. So, we need to ensure the amplitude of the caloric wave is sufficient to keep the metabolism supercharged. This can be achieved by varying the caloric crests and troughs, that is, increasing or decreasing daily caloric totals. We also need to ensure the frequency of the caloric wave is appropriate to our objective of gaining or cutting. For example, if our objective was cutting, then we would decrease the frequency of caloric crests over the course of the week. We would increase the amount of duration we remained in caloric deficit. Does this make sense?

You could do your approach one week and mine the following week. You are still achieving the same weekly total, but are forcing you body to adapt.

Further, it doesn’t have to be a two day trough and one day crest. It could be any combination. Experimentation is critical.

857

Does anyone get wicked gas during their carb-ups? I’ve had it bad, no matter if my carb-up is clean or no holds barred inaling everything in sight. What have you found to combat this cause I’m making myself sick!

858

[quote]AceQHounddog wrote:
Does anyone get wicked gas during their carb-ups? I’ve had it bad, no matter if my carb-up is clean or no holds barred inaling everything in sight. What have you found to combat this cause I’m making myself sick![/quote]

Ahhh…the joy of carb days…a nice summer morning…a plate full of carbs…the calming smell of Hounddog lingering in the air…

He…he…it happens bro…I just go with it. There are things you can take to minimize it, Bean-o, etc…, but it’s a good way to spend quality time alone with your carbs don’t you think? he…he…

Ask DH, we have had many fond memories with our carb days. What’s the saying, “Let no door go unsealed?” ;o)

-BD

859

Well at least I’m not alone! I thought I was coming down with West Nile or gout or something.

860

Naahh…think of it as an opportunity to maximize alone time…or at least get a few cheap laughs at your friend’s/family’s expense.

-BD