Hey everybody! Im a newbie to the AD…I just started this week. It has been tough because I have a really bad sweet tooth but I am determined to not let it control me anymore…Its time I use some will power!
Right now Im 6’4" and about 240lbs. I dont know my BF% but I would guess that Im around 20-25%. I am in the category of guys who need to lose that gut.
I have a couple of questions for you veterans out there:
Whats the difference between the AD for bodybuilders and powerlifters? I have the bodybuilder version but Im interested in powerlifting.
This is my 4th day and Im having my first carb cravings. Im suprised I made it this long with out craving sweets. But how long does it take before the cravings start to go away?
After my Italian sausage and 4 egg omlete I was completely stuffed but I still felt hungry. Is that just carb cravings? Is it normal?
[quote]Brosekiah wrote:
Hey everybody! Im a newbie to the AD…I just started this week. It has been tough because I have a really bad sweet tooth but I am determined to not let it control me anymore…Its time I use some will power!
Right now Im 6’4" and about 240lbs. I dont know my BF% but I would guess that Im around 20-25%. I am in the category of guys who need to lose that gut.
I have a couple of questions for you veterans out there:
Whats the difference between the AD for bodybuilders and powerlifters? I have the bodybuilder version but Im interested in powerlifting.
This is my 4th day and Im having my first carb cravings. Im suprised I made it this long with out craving sweets. But how long does it take before the cravings start to go away?
After my Italian sausage and 4 egg omlete I was completely stuffed but I still felt hungry. Is that just carb cravings? Is it normal?
Thanks for any info you guys can share.[/quote]
As far as the sugar cravings go…try sugar-free Jello with Cool whip Free.
Helps abit. Just remember to count your carbs, which are minimal.
I haven’t had any trouble keeping under 30g, even when I was on 32-3500 cals/day. I think my 2nd day I went over by about 3 but that’s it.
Stick to your dark green leafy veggies (especially kale, baby spinach, and mustard greens), ground flaxmeal for fiber, and try to keep it to only two servings of nuts (brazil nuts and walnuts are the best for this) per day. Remember that fiber carbs don’t count towards your 30g.
Skyel7,
Carb up P/F/C = 10/40/60 I think. You basically keep your protein low, keep taking in enough fat to let your body know it still has plenty of its primary fuel source so you don’t switch back, and raise carbs to stuff your muscles.
I’ve gone anywhere from 40/60 fat/carb to 60/40 and the only difference it has seemed to make is when I end my carb up.
Brosekiah,
I’m not exactly a veteran yet but I can tell you that by the end of my 12 days I wasn’t craving sugars at all. Took about a week for me, but then I don’t have a huge sweet tooth for anything but chocolate. I remember during my 12 days I craved an orange once, for about 30 seconds and that was it.
The further into the AD you get, the more your sweet tooth will dissipate. I made an amazing trifle last weekend and so my carb up consisted mainly of fruit, and even the sugar in that had me enduring a brutal headache all day. Again though, that’s just my experience - some people can still handle dirty carbs no sweat after several years on the diet.
The key is sticking out the cravings and allowing yourself to indulge SENSIBLY on the weekends. Easy peasy.
You might feel hungry/stuffed while your body adjusts to the change in diet because it takes some time for it to “understand” what you’re telling it. Just keep track of your calories and eat as much as you need to - don’t be fooled by the fake hunger. You’ll notice it will lessen with time as well.
hey all, ok so i have living on the AD life for about 4 weeks and just started my 3rd carb today. i thought it may be useful to post my experiences with different carb ups here as i am going to experiment with different load strategies.
1st weekend → 24 hour load, i had no cravings and started with a veggie pita wrap thing and ice cream later, a chicken/veggie sandwich with veggies for dinner followed by another ice cream.
2nd weekend → 24 hour load, cereal for breakfast, chickpeas, chicken, liver pita, cauliflowers, and zucchini for lunch, an ice cream again and a huge meal of lentils, chicken, and other indian food for dinner.
3rd weekend (so far) → grape nuts cereal with sliced almonds and 2 apricots.
observations:
1st weekend → clearly underate and was ‘flat’ again by monday night, no pump and low energy during the week again.
2nd weekend → absolutley stuffed my self!! excellent pump and energy, heck i felt ready to run around even after my HIIT session yesterday which ususally drains me.
conclusions so far: eating enough is important, and starches are better at priming your muscles. I also supplement with 200mg of r-ala before every meal and add lemon juice or vinegar to lower the overall GI of the meals.
The key here is to get around the thinking that glycogen must be depleted…thats ony necessary if you’re trying to lose weight, other than that the simple load of CHO will bring the necessary anabolic environment.
[quote]Evil1 wrote:
hey all, ok so i have living on the AD life for about 4 weeks and just started my 3rd carb today. i thought it may be useful to post my experiences with different carb ups here as i am going to experiment with different load strategies.
1st weekend → 24 hour load, i had no cravings and started with a veggie pita wrap thing and ice cream later, a chicken/veggie sandwich with veggies for dinner followed by another ice cream.
2nd weekend → 24 hour load, cereal for breakfast, chickpeas, chicken, liver pita, cauliflowers, and zucchini for lunch, an ice cream again and a huge meal of lentils, chicken, and other indian food for dinner.
3rd weekend (so far) → grape nuts cereal with sliced almonds and 2 apricots.
observations:
1st weekend → clearly underate and was ‘flat’ again by monday night, no pump and low energy during the week again.
2nd weekend → absolutley stuffed my self!! excellent pump and energy, heck i felt ready to run around even after my HIIT session yesterday which ususally drains me.
conclusions so far: eating enough is important, and starches are better at priming your muscles. I also supplement with 200mg of r-ala before every meal and add lemon juice or vinegar to lower the overall GI of the meals.
The key here is to get around the thinking that glycogen must be depleted…thats ony necessary if you’re trying to lose weight, other than that the simple load of CHO will bring the necessary anabolic environment.[/quote]
Thanks Evil1 for the tip. I’m sitting here completely clueless as to what to eat. I have been looking forward to this carb-up and I’m stumped. This morning I had a 5-grain cereal with a cup of strawberries. Went worked out, had my PWO shake and now I don’t know what to eat. It’s kind of funny because I was really looking forward to it. I miss my protein!!!
Galen,
Thanks for the ratios.
Evil1, thanks for the tip…I was clueless as to how to get going with my first carb-up. I had cereal for breakfast, but that’s it. Still trying to figure outr lunch…
i really dont see the point of only 10% protein, it seems like it would make more sense to keep protein moderate )around 30%) and lower fat so u dont have a ton of FFA’s in ur bloodstream with insulin at the same time storing things
ooooohhhhh, my stomach hurrts so bad…yeah 3/4 of the 3rd carb up done…lol
New note: huge meal of rice with spicy meat and potatoes for a carb load, and then drinking very milky coffee is baad.
I’m serious i just spent 3 hours on the toronto subway station because i would go out on the platform and then have to run back to the loo. jeez even got a ‘health tonic’ (carrot, beetroot and ginger to help with the pain…
Can you sense that i hate carbing up…lol…
Skyel:
when in doubt on a carb head to your nearest italian/asian joint and order some pasta or pho…beautifully clean carb up foods.
David
according to the previous posts by DH way in the beginning of the thread(pg 40-50 i think), he mentioned that the point of keeping fats high is to let the body know that its new preferred fuel (fat) is still in supply and prevent the switch to fats.
Also, once you make the transition completely, a lot of the normal rules dont apply to us AD’ers since all studies have been for people who are burning carbs for fuel and the whole C and F meals are evil thought has its boundaries and caveats. (Gi level, acticity level etc)
all these questions came to me as well, which is why i am reading the first 70 pages of the thread again.
David
according to the previous posts by DH way in the beginning of the thread(pg 40-50 i think), he mentioned that the point of keeping fats high is to let the body know that its new preferred fuel (fat) is still in supply and this will prevent a switch back to carb burning.
Also, once you make the transition completely, a lot of the normal rules dont apply to us AD’ers since all studies have been for people who are burning carbs for fuel and the whole C and F meals are evil thought has its boundaries and caveats. (Gi level, acticity level etc)
all these questions came to me as well, which is why i am reading the first 70 pages of the thread again.
P.S. what do you guys think about supping with digestive enzymes on this lifestyle (tabs of lipase, protease and amylase etc)
Second carb-up tomorrow. I’m cutting but think I may go fuck-nuts-crazy tomorrow, just to see what will happen. My first carb-up of completely clean carbs didn’t seem to have quite the effect described by other ADers.
About digestive enzymes: I’ve never tried them, but they seem pretty pointless if one is a normally functioning, healthy individual. Perhaps a bit of cider vinegar here and there, but I wouldn’t spend any real cash on it or go out of my way.
Vic:
thats pretty much my opinion as well, i do want to debate the argument that maybe on the CHO load the enzymes would help in efficiently using up the food. so in theory you would know your limits with some concrete #'s. i guess the other part would be that the bloat and gas thats a part of the load would be decreased? whaddaya think?
If my memory serves me correctly, enzymes taken orally are useless since they don’t even make it past your stomach. The HCl destroys them before they even get to the duodenum to aid in the breakdown of whatever you ate. Try probiotics. Just my $0.02.
[quote]Evil1 wrote:
Vic:
thats pretty much my opinion as well, i do want to debate the argument that maybe on the CHO load the enzymes would help in efficiently using up the food. so in theory you would know your limits with some concrete #'s. i guess the other part would be that the bloat and gas thats a part of the load would be decreased? whaddaya think? [/quote]
I’d try the vinegar first, and if that helped at all, would move on to the purpose-built supps. I’m not so worried about my body’s efficiency when it comes to carbs, honestly. Cutting back on bloating would be nice, but it really only lasts a few hours, and then only when one really over-does it. Of course minimal benefit is still benefit.
Actually, I think I’ll start using vinegar this week.
[quote]skyel7 wrote:
If my memory serves me correctly, enzymes taken orally are useless since they don’t even make it past your stomach. The HCl destroys them before they even get to the duodenum to aid in the breakdown of whatever you ate. Try probiotics. Just my $0.02.[/quote]
[quote]Evil1 wrote:
skyel7 wrote:
If my memory serves me correctly, enzymes taken orally are useless since they don’t even make it past your stomach. The HCl destroys them before they even get to the duodenum to aid in the breakdown of whatever you ate. Try probiotics. Just my $0.02.
hmmm…interesting. how was your load today?[/quote]
Sucked…I slept through most
of it…lol! That’s how bad I am with carbs.
Apple cider vinegar works great for digestion - I usually just stir fry my greens in it at night. I do have a couple little bottles of acidopholis (sp?) but haven’t had reason to take them yet. I don’t see how they could hurt. The little guys helped me out a ton when I’d travel and have to eat outside my normal range of foods, even though that was pre-AD.
But yeah, vinegar helped with the bloated feeling when I was starting out, plus it’s damn tasty.
[quote]Evil1 wrote:
David
according to the previous posts by DH way in the beginning of the thread(pg 40-50 i think), he mentioned that the point of keeping fats high is to let the body know that its new preferred fuel (fat) is still in supply and this will prevent a switch back to carb burning.
Also, once you make the transition completely, a lot of the normal rules dont apply to us AD’ers since all studies have been for people who are burning carbs for fuel and the whole C and F meals are evil thought has its boundaries and caveats. (Gi level, acticity level etc)
all these questions came to me as well, which is why i am reading the first 70 pages of the thread again.
P.S. what do you guys think about supping with digestive enzymes on this lifestyle (tabs of lipase, protease and amylase etc)[/quote]
i guess that is a good reason since most carbs will likely be going to replenish glycogen. still its such low protein, i think something like 55c/25-30f/15-20p would be better.
about the vinegar why would u want more acidity in the body? doesnt a keto diet make ur body really acidic anyway? i would think if anything you’d want to take sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to lower acidity
[quote]David1991 wrote:
Evil1 wrote:
David
according to the previous posts by DH way in the beginning of the thread(pg 40-50 i think), he mentioned that the point of keeping fats high is to let the body know that its new preferred fuel (fat) is still in supply and this will prevent a switch back to carb burning.
Also, once you make the transition completely, a lot of the normal rules dont apply to us AD’ers since all studies have been for people who are burning carbs for fuel and the whole C and F meals are evil thought has its boundaries and caveats. (Gi level, acticity level etc)
all these questions came to me as well, which is why i am reading the first 70 pages of the thread again.
P.S. what do you guys think about supping with digestive enzymes on this lifestyle (tabs of lipase, protease and amylase etc)
i guess that is a good reason since most carbs will likely be going to replenish glycogen. still its such low protein, i think something like 55c/25-30f/15-20p would be better.
about the vinegar why would u want more acidity in the body? doesnt a keto diet make ur body really acidic anyway? i would think if anything you’d want to take sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to lower acidity
[/quote]
a)unless you are using the AD specifically to lose weight, dont worry too much about the glycogen depletion since, the beauty of the diet is in the manipulation of insulin to get max growth.
b) the low protein is a point thats been argued to some length and it really is very individual. the split you suggest is pretty much what Doc D pointed out in the original AD.
c)the vinegar is used on carb-ups to just decrease the overall GI of the meals so that insulin doesnt start bouncing around all day and lead to fat gains too quickly. plus if you are doing the week plan properly i.e. good amounts of spinach n broccoli etc, you shouldn’t be in too much of an acid-alkaline imbalance.
Cutting back on bloating would be nice, but it really only lasts a few hours, and then only when one really over-does it. Of course minimal benefit is still benefit.