Just wanting to keep tabs on all the people who are sticking with Poliquin’s diet reccomendations. Have any of you switched diets, modified your diets, or are you still just plugging along with the same old thing? Would like to hear how all of you are doing!
-Sean
I’m still on it, although I’m using more of Don Alessi’s recommendations. My carb-ups the last month or so have not been good (too much binging on the wrong food choices) so bodyfat has crept up to the 10 percent range. I was hovering around seven, so I’m hitting it very strict right now to get back to my low single digits. Just finished six weeks of Fat-Loss EDT, and started back up on Meltdown I again, only this time I’m doing the cardio intervals too. Still pretty light at the 160 range, but I have to admit I like the “fitness model” look better than being huge. Performance and energy are definitely better for me on restricted carb intake.
Hey silles,
Could you post that diet by any chance? I looked through the search and just got a lot of dialogue about David Boston.
I've been following poliquin's diet since I started trimming down in september. I started bulking in december, and went from 189 lbs to my current 201 lbs - without gaining any measurable fat whatsoever. <p>Difference's night and day.I follow alessi's recommendations in iron dog. My refeeds consist EXCLUSIVELY of yams, oats, multi grain cereals, brown rice, and some fruit (apples, and especially grapefruit). I havent touched a soda, pastry, nachos, white rice, lasagna in so long you'd think I wouldnt be able to contain myself. Fact is - I have no craving whatsoever for these foods and stick to my diet plan like glue. Only thing I found to work better for me is to take in 70-80 grams carbs immediately post workout, even though he recommends keeping carb intake at 50 grams max on not carb days. Since I started doing this, the little fat gains that registered week after week disappeared - and since I started GVT 2 weeks ago it slashed 1.8% off my body fat from 9.7 to 7.9, while keeping my 201 lbs, even though i completely stopped doing cardio due to the extreme intensity of the program, AND increased my calories by an extra 600-800 calories/day. Just my two cents.
Jaz, Alessi outlines the diet perfectly in one of his iron dogs (you'll have to look it through). Here's the outline though:
M,T,R,F - 50 GRAMS CARBS, WITH YOUR 1.5 GRAMS/LB BODY WEIGHT PROTEIN. ALL OTHER CALORIES WILL COME FROM FATS.
W,S-100 GRAMS CARBS.
SUNDAY - 200 GRAMS CARBS. This is your carb refeed, and I make it a point to eat only complex carbs. You'll find people who say they'll eat much more than the recommended 200 grams, and eat all the cake, sweets, and pasta they want (poliquin notes eating higer glycemic carbs is fine too)
Poliquin also has his athletes take in 50 grams glycerol with breakfast and 50 grams post workout on wed, sat., as opposed to 100 grams of real carbs. Hope this helps! I'd go find that iron dog now - the poliquin diet will be the first question of his column, and all i know it's one of last years issues.
Teddy: Would you make up your damn mind, bro! Are you going to be Teddy, Montie, or what, baby:-) I’m just pullin’ your leg, bro. Nothin’ but love for my brutha. Hey, have you read Faigin’s Natural Hormonal Enhancement? Tampa got me into it and I think it’s quality. I know that you would definitely like it and do well with something lik that.
Hey, Poliquin Guys, I had all the links to the old Poliquin Diet threads in the old Forum format. Unfortunately, you can’t hook up to those threads if they were bookmarked, though. I suggest you try searching it out. There was one on David Boston, a Poliquin Support Group, and two more that were pretty extensive on the diet.
I know…I know…the teddykgb72 is driving me nuts! I forgot that was what I used for a user name when I signed up for T-Nation. And being a former spelling champ, I have to correct ya Timbo…it’s Monty, not Montie. I still love ya though!
NHE is about the only low-carb book I haven’t read, but I think I’m going to purchase it. I’ve been meaning to get in on the refeed thread too…just been a hectic week and I finally have a full day off to get caught up on here.
Okay, I’m a bit confused now. I know Alessi recommends glycerol in that Iron Dog program, but in a Poliquin Q and A from a couple years ago (and this may be the key…couple years ago), he made a recommendation to someone who was having a hard time dropping fat to avoid glycerol and use glutamine instead. I can’t think it would be a bad idea if you’re not going to use carb post-workout. I’m gonna catch hell for this, but I’m actually using the glutamine protocol (40 g. glutamine, 40 g. whey) post-workout.
Also, on the protein: I couldn’t see where Alessi recommended 1.5 g. protein per lb (I know Poliquin does). In the T-Mag interview he said 1.2-1.8 g. PER KG. This seems awfully low for low carbs, and I wondered if this was a misprint.
On a related note, I am quite intrigued by the recent info in Alessi’s latest column on regional fat storage and the appropriate training protocol to follow. Has anyone on here ever been to one of Poliquin/Serrano’s body comp seminars?
I also saw an old post on here from someone saying that you could tell by your tricep skinfold/bicep skinfold ratios if you would benefit from an estrogen blocker. I truly think that this is a great area to explore.
Jaz-nick: The article you want is on-line issue 205(Meltdown II). Alessi recommends using T-dawg diet, but try T-Dawg version 2.0. It works quite nicely.
Alessi’s Diet can be found here
Teddy, my dog, thanks for keeping me honest, and you know I’m good for busting your chops every once in a while:-) I really do recommend the NHE book. You probably are quite familiar with the concepts and such, but this, for me, was a whole new look into the hormonal aspect. I knew a little, but now I feel I know much more. We’ll see if theory translates into practice now.
On a sidenote, Teddy, I’m low-carbing it (i.e. 30g or less per day), and therefore am passing up the post-workout sugar. I’m going to go with 40g of pre-digested whey, 5g of glutamine and 5g BCAAs. What do you think about that (i.e. add/subtract anything)? I’m also taking in 5g of glutamine and BCAAs during training.
I want to look through Coach Alessi’s Iron Dog that gives specific recommendations. Only 200g of carbs for a refeed seems drastically low. I don’t see how this can provide any benefit. 200g per meal, perhaps, but not 200g total.
Arthur: Thanks for the link, buddy.
Well if you’re ditching the carbs post-workout (and I’m not sure I would do it completely with your low level of bodyfat), I would either up the bcaa’s or glutamine post-workout. Play around with it and see how it goes.
I’ve been able to maintain strength/performance with the one 200 g. meal every Sunday, but now I’m wondering if I could’ve done better with more carbs and spreading them out more. Based on current info and what little experience I do have with “letter perfect” refeeds, I would have to say yes. Thus, I’ve started my first 8 hour refeed today, which will consist of four meals of 100-125 g. carbs then back to keto. I’m going to skip the Wed. refeed until I get back down to eight percent or less.
Are you still doing the show? I lost track of how you were doing. Keep me posted and hit it hard!
I have had great success with a Poliquin-style diet on two occasions now, but have since transitioned back into Massive Eating protocols.
As many peoples already know, I followed the Fat fast diet followed by the T-Dawh diet in order to loose a lot of fat FAST.
After 8 weeks I pretty much stopped loosing fat and found myself regressing in the gym.
Since then I started using JB’s Don’t diet plan in order to get past that plateau and gain a bit more muscle (ideally I would like to be 220lbs at 6-7% for the NYC seminar).
I must say that so far I’m VERY impressed by the protocole! I look a lot harder, gained a few pounds and lost some more fat.
Bottom line in my book, when you have lots of fat, a low-carbs diet (Poliquin’s, Fat fast, T-Dawg diet, etc.) is a good initial strategy, but at some point you will have to switch to something like the “Don’t diet plan” to spark new improvements.
Thanks for the postings.
Teddy: Thanks for the info on both this and the other thread. Your comments–along with a few others I’ve corresponded with–regarding carb intake–post-workout and as a whole–in my situation have made me re-think my stance on low-carbing it.
I really think that this measure (i.e. low-carbs) may be unnecessary for someone like myself. I think I’ll start out with a higher intake of carbs and just decrease as the time comes.
As far as the show, I’m planning on dieting as if I were competing, but I have not yet registered. I’ve still got some things to square away.
I also think that your revised approach to “loading up” will prove much more effective and pleasing.