Hey gang. I was looking through some old copies of FLEX magazine last night (I was feeling Nostalgic) and something occured to me. All the stars from the 80’s (Strydom, Gaspari, DeMey) where able to get ripped to shreds on almost the same level as today’s “champs”. I’m wondering what chemicals they had available to them to help get them cut. Did they have those types of chems then? I know it wasn’t a million yrs ago or anything, but you get my point. It was pretty interesting to see guys as big as DeMey have a small waist (for those of you new to all of this: symmetry used to be rewarded.) compared to today’s pros. Alot has changed, hasn’t it? So, did they have ripping drugs, or was it just tight dieting?
Aaron, I’d say the single biggest difference is the prevelant use of growth hormone today as opposed to the '80s. That’s why we see so many protruding guts with defined abs on them, farther out from the body than their chests.
Plus the GH & Insulin has made a difference-they may be just as lean (almost) but the Pro’s of today come in weighing more…
I found a couple of articles on nutrition for contests, one by Vince Comerford, and another by Berry DeMey. The interesting similarity beween the two is that they were both on high carb, low to no fat diets and ample amounts of lean protein. When I say high carb, however, the carbs where clean: rice,veggies,potatoes, yams ,an occasional piece of fruit: no bread, rice cakes or FAT FREE processed food. I am wondering if all of this “fat free-high carb diets don’t work” is because people used sources of fat free carbs from processed foods. Eating 400 grams worth of carbs in rice is a hell of alot harder to do than eating that many grams in fat free cookies (and alot more filling too.) How did these 80’s pros get so ripped if high carbs are supposed to be so bad?
Aaron, I think what you said in your last post was interesting. I personally stay rather lean using similar diet protocols like the one you described. I think going low carb is fine for some, but I personally think it’s disgusting. I like carbs. But I did sacrifice bread and wheat (or products containing gluten), and several other water retention causing elements, and got a very good result. I also ate rather low fat when I was trying to cut up (I am now trying to gain weight, so the fat included in my food is usually the yolk of the eggs I eat).
Taking out certain things, especially those elements in foods that create bloating and water retention, goes a long way towards streamlining the waist and “shrink wraps” your skin. At least this way, you can see how much fat you have without any water obscuring the picture. So I’d imagine that if these pros did eat mostly low fats, moderate “clean” carbs, and lean proteins, they would get pretty ripped, because that worked very well for me in the past, and I still base my eating on those protocols. It makes for easier manipulation of bodyfat should I want to take my weight in any particular direction.
Well Aaron,
you are forgeting one thing. Many people will say it is the GH or the juice but the fact of the matter is those guys are rare genetic freaks (all the Pro’s.)
I take in a good 2g of Test a week, I eat spotless, & train hard. I am big but I will never look like a Pro & I will never have the shape of a Ronnie Colman. (no I don’t want to be a Pro) Most of those guys can eat and eat & eat-even carbs (which make me fat!)
For instance, when I did my first cycle (way back when) I took 250mg of Sustanon 250 per week for 8 weeks. I got a little bigger and leaner BUT I got the dramatic results when I went up to & over 1,000mg a week. Now I know people that have seen great results with only the 250mg per week! This means that for whatever reason they respond better-it’s there genetics.
As far as diet everyone responds to different things.
Another note, now a days with these guys doing 12-18IU of GH per day with T3, Androgens, etc. you aren't going to get too fat because your metabolism will be RACING!
HardcoreMF: Your post validates all the info I was reading. I remember back when I was 18 and competing in bodybuilding shows, I already had a fast metabolism (as most teenagers do) so all I had to do was drop the junk and got ripped. My training partner was 28 at the time, and he dropped all the fat out of his diet (I think I remember him telling me he had it down to about 10-15 grams a day- he was eating ALOT of tuna) ate clean carbs and fresh veggies and got ripped inside of 10 weeks. Never once did he complain either. What interests me is how we seem to have gotten away from that style of eating because Americans “proved” that low fat dieting doesn’t work. I can see how people got fat: ramming boxes of snackwells cookies, healthy choice ice cream, and fat free chips down their gullets. I’m guilty of it too. It was fun thinking it was ok. I think maybe the way to go about fat loss it to eat low fat, “clean” foods and cycle the number of calories you eat. I did the low carb thing for a while and after a few weeks I wasn’t losing any body fat and was becoming increasingly aggressive in a not-so-positive way. So, I totally binged on about 4-6 cups of rice and yams spaced throughout the day with some protein. Apparently I had to restart my thyroid gland, because over the next few days I dropped even more fat! This cycling thing might be the way to go for me. (cycling calories, not carbs mind you.)
I totally agree with the inclusion of carbs into your diet. In fact with the latest research showing leptin’s correlation with glucose metabolism, I feel it is important to eat as many carbs as your particular metabolism allows. This is even more punctuated by the Insulin Index which shows oatmeal and pasta to be excellent choices for anyone attempting to keep muscle glycogen and leptin levels elevated while dropping fat. For many people a ketogenic or even excessively high protein diet is not ideal…we can always learn by taking a look back to those that have come before us.
I’m not sure I’d trust any of those bodybulding magazine articles. Most of them are ghost written and you’ll never know what the hell the pro actually did because he has no real incentive to tell the truth. I remember an interview with a pro where he discussed a back training article of his that appeared in a magazine. Apparently, he couldn’t do bodyweight chins to save his life so he stuck to pulldowns. But the photographer got a great photo of him “chinning” with an 80 lb dumbell. So the article came out with chins as the core of his back routine.Why? Because the magazine wanted to use that picture.
One of you mentione oakmeal as a good carb source. Can I get away with the yummy instant maple and brown sugar variety, or do I need to stick to the plain old make it yourself variety?
Dan- Check the search engine here at the forum for “oatmeal”. There were a couple of threads about it a few weeks ago. Long story short: Instant flavored oatmeal = bad, old fashioned regular oatmeal (which you can still microwave)= good.
Was talking to a friend about this thread that i posted and he told me to check out this guy named Larry North. He has a program out and book called the North American slim down, and another called living lean. His recommendations were to eat 6 times a day, 1 portion of pro, 1 starch carb, 1 fibrous veggie. Sounds like the info that Parillo used to pump out back in the day. Anyway, I did a bit of research on this, seems he eschews refined foods and just has people eat clean and often. From some of the testimonials on amazon.com it works for most who stick with it. I’m giving this low fat clean carbs thing a go.