Frequency of carb-up is highly individual; you gotta experiment. What you’re suggesting is similar to what Alessi wrote about recently. The only issue I have is that some people forget to distinguish between cheat days and carbup days. Personally, I plan to eat only clean carbs.
doh, my point was supposed to be multi vitamin mineral is especially now a number 1, then maybe bccas or whatever.
Is anyone using any supps from Dr. Mauro’s APT line? It looks like they have some decent formulations to go with a diet such as this…plus, I’m going to be 86-ing ephedra/caffeine in about two weeks and I noticed their Renew supplement has a bunch of things to restore adrenal function? Or would I be better off just hitting acetyl l-carnitine and PS? Also, at the health food store I work at, we have those liquid Isopure drinks marked down (40 g. whey isolate, sucralose, no carbs or glycerine or anything else for that matter). Anyone have any comments on the quality of this stuff? It appears to be decent.
for the first 2 months i was on the diet, i didnt have one cheat meal, only clean carbs like eric said. (oatmeal, whole wheat stuff, etc.) however, now that i leaned out a bit, ive been taking a cheat meal once every two weeks (i still carb up on sundays only), such as a chicken burrito with the works, pizza, donuts, or whatever i want, and the only downfall i had was that i carried more water on the following monday. in fact, ive taken 2 full out cheat days since july, (went a wee bit overboard, but oh well. im talking donuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch, mexican for dinner, and other shit in between), and that didnt even affect me enough to tell. besides the fact that i was bloated and carried a lot of water for about 2 days, i didnt loose any definition or gain any fat. now, im not gonna take a full out day until thanksgiving, but i still plan on taking a meal every two weeks or so. i’d say wait at least 6 weeks before your first shit meal though.
damn. thats awile.well im not cutting now… so im a little more lenient
Good job Eric, you’ve created a monster. I started this diet last monday and today I experienced the “CP shits” I almost didn’t make it to the bathroom. I’m going with a 15 cals/lb
200 gr of protein and a carb-up every 7th day for 1/2 day. next week I’ll add CLA ,Glutamine and BCAA to fish oil. I’m at 195 now and like to drop about 10 lb of fat before another bulking cycle. How much fat loss did you all experience with this diet (if cutting) how many cals/day do you eat?, how much do you weigh? how much prot,carb,fat per day?
monty, in regards to the isopure, yes, they are great. i have a case of them, and even though i use mostly shakes for my MRPs, isopures are just as good. in fact, my buddy who trained with charles said that chazzy himself drinks them. they are perfect if you dont want to take a bar with you when you go somewhere where you cant bring a bottle in with protein powder (like a movie, banquet, etc). just make sure you get some fat with them since they are just protein. when i drink them, i will have 2 fish oils and a handful of cashews.
I have used some of Mauro’s products, and they seem to be of high quality. Right now the only thing of his I am taking is an antioxidant, but I have used EFA+ and a couple of his other products in the past. Renew does seem like it might be something for you to look at. For good prices on APT stuff, contact Scott Mendelson at infinityfitness.com
Thanks JC…one more question: any flavor preference? I know that’s a tough question since everyone’s different. I think we’ve got Apple Melon, Grape Frost, Alpine Punch, Tangy Orange and a Blue Raspberry or something like that. I can get a really good deal on these right now so I may pick up a few of them.
Here’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while. I have read that CP and Serrano often base diet plans according to hormone deficiencies (test, GH, insulin, etc) as well as how fat is stored. Can anyone shed some light on the specifics here in terms of recommended nutrient percentages and food choices?
i like blue rasberry and tangy orange. they need to make some flavors like nacho supreme, meat lovers pizza, buffalo wings, and cheesy enchaladas.
i got a question about this diet… Can you really lose weight on this diet, i mean i weight about 205 and have maybe 15%bdyfat. and if i increase my calories like you say by 20 - 21 calories woudn’t i just add more weight to my fast ass? OR should i lower the calorie intake? If someone can help me out i’d be happy.
Like all diets, I think that you need to tailor the calorie level to your needs. With a keto-type diet, you’ll find that you can eat slightly higher calories compared to standard carb-based approaches. I think supplements become increasingly important on a low-carb diet. I’m using around 2400 cals right now and I’m 158 right now. I wouldn’t go too low though, especially on low-carbs. Good luck!
This kind of diet has always worked well for me. In the past I have done this with a high carb during/post workout shake, but would like to try it totally carb free. What are Poliquin and DiPasquale’s recommendations for the workout shake? I know it’s protein powder, aminos and glutamine-but I wonder if anyone here can elaborate. FYI-whenever I do these diets, I get approx. 60% Cal from fat, the rest from protein. I feel too much protein hampers the causse (conversion to glucose?).
Are any of you experimenting with less frequent carb-ups? I haven’t done an official one yet for the four weeks I’ve been on the diet, other than two Grow bars last Saturday. I’ve done strict keto (Lyle’s, Bodyopus) before and cannot go more than two weeks without feeling flat, lethargic and losing workout performance; however with CP’s plan I feel great. Poundages are consistently improving, I don’t have that depleted look and energy is good other than the two days I don’t take E/C. I assume it’s due to the greens and EFA’s. I’m not using BCAA’s or glutamine before workouts but I use approx. 50 g. carbs post-workout, so daily carb total sits at 50 g. on off days and roughly 80 or so on training days counting the post-w shake. Cals are higher than what I would normally do on keto…where I would generally consume 1800-2000 at the weight I’m at now (158), I’m around 2400 right now. Fat loss is stalling though, so I think starting Monday, I’m gonna lower the fat intake as it’s higher than what is recommended by CP. Also, anyone else doing cardio? I’m generally very sedentary other than my weight workouts so I figure I could stand to do more activity during the week. Either that or go back to GBC…I’ve been doing heavy weight and low reps (1-5).
I think a carb-up, even if only for a half-day, would do a world of good. I didn’t notice you mentioning any sort of thyroid stimulating supplement, so your T3 and T4 levels are probably suffering a bit. The same goes for leptin. Give it a shot; I think it’ll give your metabolism the kick start it needs to shed those last few pounds.
if all the carbs come from greens, does that make it difficult to count grams?
How many carb meals do you have? and do u do it Berardi protien carb, protien fat style?
Eric - is there anything special about greenbeans that they figure so prominently in this diet? What about the same amount of regular beans or legumes? Also, you listed previously that your ratio for carbs was .9-1 gram/lb bodyweight, and for me that would be around 200 grams of carbs from greens and/or post-workout shake. Is that supposed to be correct? Some folks are talking about max 100 grams on workout days! I have everything else lined up to start the diet, but the carb bit is confusing me? Is this a low-carb diet or medium one using specific carbs? Lastly, how are you enjoying your workouts while on this diet? Are you lifting heavy, bulking, cutting?? Thanks in advance, bro…
I’m at about 50-60g of carbs daily from frozen green beans and broccoli. That’s about a cup and half of either at each meal six or seven times daily. Other than that, post-workout carbs are at 80 grams or so from Endurox R4 and/or Cytomax. I took a cue from Eric Cressey regarding the carb-up Sundays: go all out!
If it helps, Poliquin recommends about 50g of carb from greens in addition to your post-workout shake which would depend on total reps performed. Regarding green beans, they’re just convenient… “If it doesn’t fly, swim, or run, and if it’s not green, don’t eat it!”