My Experience On the Anabolic Diet

Nutrition
1722

[quote]g.anagno wrote:
futuredave wrote:
In totalling the carbs for the day, would you count the carbs in, say, broccoli and spinach… or eat as much of those as necessary to get your 5 servings, THEN count only any bread, rice or “other” carbs?

Or do all carbs count, no matter how healthy they are? (And yes, I already know you subtract the fiber.)

Speaking only for myself, having read the AD where Doc said that after the initial adaptation phase one should find his own carb limit, i decided that i should have all the vegetables i need and not care so much about the 30 gr limit as long as no starchy or simple carbs are consumed.
I’ve done that after 3 months on the diet and didn’t feel anything wrong.
I eat veggies with every single meal (i think Berardi is right on this) avoiding carrots, potatos and beans and sometimes my carbs (without fiber) count over 45-50 grams, coming only from the veggies though.[/quote]

That’s pretty much how I am now. I eat a ton of Spinach, broccoli, etc.

BTW, I have to thank your people for Feta Cheese. Good shit. I mean, not as great as Italian cheese, but pretty close :O)

1723

Except for the cottage cheese (which i like but i think of it more of a vegetable/yoghurt cheese-like product) feta is the cheese with the higher protein:fat ratio with less carbs than cottage and a very strong taste.
I literally grew up on feta cheese and I’m almost addicted to it.
ALWAYS buy it from Greek sources (too many bad imitations…)

1724

Hello everyone and great thread you guys and gals have going on here. Quick question for the athletes here, how has this diet affected your sports related performance and how do you feel when performing sport intensive stuff (sprints etc). Thanks everyone.

1725

[quote]roc wrote:
Hello everyone and great thread you guys and gals have going on here. Quick question for the athletes here, how has this diet affected your sports related performance and how do you feel when performing sport intensive stuff (sprints etc). Thanks everyone.[/quote]

Hey Roc,

I’m going to attempt to type this reply with out going into rant mode toooo much.

In High School I played both sides of the ball in football. My first two seasons I ate the classic high carb foods, and no matter how hard I conditioned, I would tire late. Junior year, I started doing essentially the AD, tho I didn?t know it as that back then. Never tired again.

Fast forward to now. I am 25, still play both sides of the ball?still eat AD style. I am the only player on the team who can go both ways, every play. This notion that one needs huge amounts of carbs to play football is straight up old-school bullshit. It needs to be thrown in the same trash can as making football players run distance to build an aerobic base.

I think that any sport that is anaerobic will be benefited by the AD. If you are really afraid that you NEED carbs before a game, eat some oatmeal that morning. Enough of the bread and Gatorade and pasta. Oy vay the pasta. I remember a game in college where they fed us pancakes before we got on the bus?.I felt like I was gonna give birth the entire game.

Fat is superior fuel. The protein will keep you satisfied?nothing worse than getting hungry at half time. The only thing I avoid the morning of a game is fiber in any huge dose?I think you know why.

So?breakfast the day of a night game will be something like eggs and some cheese maybe a handful of spinach. Then second meal would be kinda small too, maybe a chicken breast and some olive oil.

Then maybe an 1 1/2hrs before pre game starts, a small protein shake, like Grow!, since it is slow release, a multi vit, a few fish oil caps, some vit. C, and 3-5 Potassium tabs. That?s pretty much it. Half-time I?ll take ? a multi Vitamin, a vitamin C, and another 3-5 Potassium tabs.

If it?s an afternoon game, I just cut out the second meal.

Think about it, what is gonna provide you with better energy for the 50 or 60 sprints you are going to run (unless you?re a QB, I hate them so much J)?eggs, cheese and a vegetable? Or OJ, a bananna, cereal, and a glass of milk?

1726

[quote]g.anagno wrote:
Except for the cottage cheese (which i like but i think of it more of a vegetable/yoghurt cheese-like product) feta is the cheese with the higher protein:fat ratio with less carbs than cottage and a very strong taste.
I literally grew up on feta cheese and I’m almost addicted to it.

ALWAYS buy it from Greek sources (too many bad imitations…)[/quote]

Definetly. I luckily have a Greek Deli near me…oddly enough in the same shopping center as an Italian Deli, an asian food shop, and a Russian Deli.

I’ve said this before. When I make sautee spinach in EV Olive Oil, and then add eggs and feta cheese, I almost get high from eating it. I’m not even making a joke…it’s euphoric.

1727

[quote]roc wrote:
Hello everyone and great thread you guys and gals have going on here. Quick question for the athletes here, how has this diet affected your sports related performance and how do you feel when performing sport intensive stuff (sprints etc). Thanks everyone.[/quote]

I read some of your other posts and I noticed that you seem to be asking about MMA…That’s an interesting point as far as would the AD be good for that sport. I’ve never done true MMA, I took judo for 3 years, but I never had any endurance problems. While MMA is endurance based, I think you do need a great deal of explosiveness.

Maybe DH has some thoughts on this as well.

1728

[quote]g.anagno wrote:
Except for the cottage cheese (which i like but i think of it more of a vegetable/yoghurt cheese-like product) feta is the cheese with the higher protein:fat ratio with less carbs than cottage and a very strong taste.
I literally grew up on feta cheese and I’m almost addicted to it.
ALWAYS buy it from Greek sources (too many bad imitations…)[/quote]

BTW, I’ve read where Pyrros Dimas attributes his strength to all the cheese he eats!

1729

I’m going to be going on spring break for about a week fairly shortly. I cant envision how I can possibly stay with the high fat/low carb part of this diet. Any suggestions? I’m basically gonna be hanging out on the beach all day drinking beer. =x Should I just try to keep it as low carb as I can during the week and get back on the strict AD when I get back? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

1730

[quote]Kliplemet wrote:
i think your best option is to face you can not follow the ad during this week and you will have to do the start up phase again after the break[/quote]

I’m not so sure if he definately needs the whole 12-day start up phase to restore fat burning mode, but only the thought of 2-weeks w/o carb-up would be a nice motivation for me to stay put on the wagon!

1731

[quote]g.anagno wrote:
Kliplemet wrote:
i think your best option is to face you can not follow the ad during this week and you will have to do the start up phase again after the break

I’m not so sure if he definately needs the whole 12-day start up phase to restore fat burning mode, but only the thought of 2-weeks w/o carb-up would be a nice motivation for me to stay put on the wagon![/quote]

He won’t need the entire twelve days IF he’s adapted.I’ve been on the diet for 3+ months,so when I get back from my 5-day holiday in France I’ll go close to a week without carbing up to make sure I’m depleted.

1732

I’ve been on the AD for 5 weeks. I’ll try to adher to the AD as much as possible over break then continue as normal once I get back.

I have an unrelated question for the AD vets: Why does Dr. D recommend high carb with moderate fat on the weekend carbups? Most other similar cyclic high fat diets seem to recommend very minimal fat with carbups. Carb + fat is also a big no-no according to Dr. Berardi. Just looking for a little clarification. Thanks.

1733

hey guys
just want to say this thread has me totally intrigued.
ok a little background and then we can see if you guys can help me out please.
im looking to gain some muscle size but i want to lose some body fat as well. well this is very hard to do as you all know. i don t want to lose any weight at all. in fact i d like to gain about ten pounds and lose about 8 percent body fat. i have not been able to find a nutrionit in my area to develop me a plan nor can my trainer help me with my eating either.

so my questions are
will the anabolic plan help me gain some muscle while losing some body fat?
will it affect my workouts as making me weaker,i read on here that some it affected but most it didnt.i will proably keep within the thirty grams in fact i m proably eating just a tad above that now.
as far as the carbups is beer allowed?hey im human and i like my beer.

im also confused as to what kind of combinations are allowed on the carbups ,like is a hamburger with roll acceptable?i know pizza is ok but can i order it with meat on it?how bout a carb and fat laden meal like mac and cheese? and one last question can i do my carbup days on friday and saturday?does it really matter what two days they are as long as thier consective days.
well thanks all for reading my long ass post.im going to ebay now to buy the book as well.

1734

hi new here,I have been lurking for a few months now but i jumped in yesterday and started the diet (although I was probably a bit low on calories as i hadn’t shopped).i have done low carb diets before and always found I lost muscle size probably due to loss of glycogen in the muslces willthe same happen on this diet?
I have been thinking of starting EDT would this type of training be okay on this diet should i consume more carbs on the days of training on a rotuine like this.Also is in nesecarry to go on the induction phase for 12 days if I go in ketosis vey easy.
i have tried to wade through most of this but it is very long.
Thanks

1735

[quote]
Mauro the man wrote:

The added fat aids in slowing the release of glucose in the blood, thus avoiding sugar rushes or crashes that can leave you feeling spent and irritable. By using lower glycemic foods with increased dietary fat, you’ll also be able to extend the length of your carb load and not feel the puffiness and bloating that should signal its end.[/quote]

But what if you get puffy and bloated literally after your first carb meal? Seriously I do, should I stop after jsut 2 meals maybe?

1736

[quote]BGB wrote:

But what if you get puffy and bloated literally after your first carb meal? Seriously I do, should I stop after jsut 2 meals maybe?

[/quote]

It is not possible to take all the carbs you need to fill your muscles with glycogen only in two meals! (assuming you’re depleted and not had any significant amount of carbs during weekdays…)

If you get bloated so easily try making your first three carb load meals kind of “introductory” meals starting with a minimum (for the load)amount of carbs, say 50 gr, coming from low glycemic foods and gradually increase the amount. Don’t start with simple sugars which raise your insuline levels skyhigh with all the relative consequences…

You can also have the higher carb meals before bed, so you don’t feel much of the side-effects.

In general, when i feel bloated early in the load, the most common reason is not being properly depleted (missed workouts or cheat meals on weekdays)

My humble 2c

1737

I’m doing well so far with the AD, but still looking to drop those last 5lbs. I really liked how I looked at the end of the first 12 days, but haven’t gotten that lean since starting carbups. My first few weekends were not very “clean”, but the last 2 have been much better.

I was wondering if it would be good or bad to either go to a 1 day carbup or stretch it out to 10 days between carbups or totally skip one weekend??

I’d appreciate any thoughts - thanks!

1738

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a copy of this in .pdf format…?

1739

[quote]Jillybop wrote:
I’m doing well so far with the AD, but still looking to drop those last 5lbs. I really liked how I looked at the end of the first 12 days, but haven’t gotten that lean since starting carbups. My first few weekends were not very “clean”, but the last 2 have been much better.

I was wondering if it would be good or bad to either go to a 1 day carbup or stretch it out to 10 days between carbups or totally skip one weekend??

I’d appreciate any thoughts - thanks!
[/quote]

Form what I understand, dropping the length of load (from 36 to 24 we’ll say) is a better method than dropping the frequency of the load (from 5 to 10 days in your question). I think it has to do with muscle preservation and the metabolic drop that would occur if muscle is lost. I think I read something to that effect in the past thousand pages or so here!

1740

[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Does anyone know where I might be able to find a copy of this in .pdf format…?[/quote]

yup you can buy it on ebay for $7.00

1741

I started the AD last monday. So far so good I guess. I just feel like I’m coming down with the flew but that seems to be normal. I’m a 41 yr old woman, I have a hard time leaning out.
Anyway, I have a question so far. I hear many of you really dig in to the cheese. But most cheeses I track on fitday seem to have 1gr of carbs per oz. How do you stay under 30gr if you really eat a lot of cheese???

Thanks, hope to keep you posted.