Just wanted to start a thread getting people’s experiences about the T-Dawg diet. How did people do? Did you like it? Was your training affected much by the reduced carb intake? Cheers
My experience with this type of dieting has been phenominal thusfar. Once my post-workout nutrition was in order, I stopped feeling lethargic. My workouts are fantastic. I have added some mass and am beginning to see a good amount of fat loss; I have been on this type of diet for 4 weeks now.
If you wanted to get an idea where to start, post your stats and I’m sure there are several very experienced people who can help you out. I’ll answer any questions that you might have.
Good luck!
Or at least I’ll try to. 
There are some folks here that have been very helpful for others with these kinds of questions.
I have been doing it and like it. My progress has been slow, but there are so many factors to pay attention to in order to determine what needs to be improved. For example, I was at first concerned with keeping carbs below the requirements, and being okay if fat and protein was a little over/under. I am trying to get more accurate now. Also, I mostly looked at the end of the day for totals. Now I am looking at each meal in order to make sure that one meal isn’t too big, and then the next one too small to balance out, those kind of things.
It also took me a “detox” type of period in which I had to cut out bars and those kind of carbs and replace them with healthy fats instead. Took my body a little bit to get used to it, but now I’m fine having natural pb, fish oil caps, etc. instead of carbs at every meal.
Here are my stats:
Age: 24
Height: 5’10
Weight: 240
BF %: Estimated between 20-25 %
Training: Playing with Quattro Dynamo program by CW.
I know my body fat is high, and it is partly diet, partly situation. I don’t like excuses, but I am due for ankle reconstruction and have not been able to engage in any real activity besides weight training for 6 months. Before my injuries I was very active and was involved in football. Like many athletes, I have struggled with the whole idea that the volume of food I eat must go down with less activity.
I don’t know if this will help, but any info would be appreciated. Also, giving lists of food sources for protein, carbs, and fats would be great.
Jimm,
Hows it going there. As others have stated Tdawg is a vrey good way to go. Many ppl have been able to shed fat and preserve or build their LBM while on it.
To give you some #'s to shoot for we are goig to use your LBM. So @ 240 and 20 -25% BF, we will call it 187lbs of LBM. (240 x 22% = 187.2)
So to figure protein intake you will want to shoot for 1.5 x LBM(187) = 281grams per day.
For the fats you will want to pick either .4 or .5 x LBM. These figure up to be 75grams or 93grams. I would go for the higher of the two and then check your progress after a few weeks, if you are not losing around a pound a week or so, or losing fat while maintaining then go for the lower figure. Included in this intake you should be making sure to get in your flax and fish oils. Try and shoot for an equal breakdown of sat., poly, and mono’s each day.
The carbs are simple. On non training day you will get 70grams and 100 grams on training days. A big shot of your training day carbs will come post workout, in a surge or surge type beverage. PWO nutrition can be the largest determining factor to progress while dieting or not.
The rest of your carb intake will come throughout the day in the form of lower GI carbs. Get plenty of veggies and such. As far as some foods to eat check out the “foods that make you look good nekid” article. Cut and paste below.
http://www.t-nation.com/nation_articles/172food.html
Another good source for you to read is going to beanything by JB. His 7 Habits article and massive eating are a must. They will help you get the basics of any diet and also the massive eating will get you a little more familiar with the P+C and P+F meal combos.
Another source with massive amounts of info. on this exact diet is a thread started by Shiggy on his diet. Great advice from a plethora of ppl around the forumn. Either do a search on the forumn or copy and paste this address.
Diet is going to be your #1 factor @ transforming your physique but training shouldn’t be overlooked. After all you are here @ T-mag. I will kep it simple and just say pick a program, stick with it as laid out, bust ass in the gym and watch the progress come.
Cardio is a very touchy subject around here as of late. I will just say check out the cardio round table I and II.
Read these and you will have a great base of knowledge to figure out what is the right type of cardio for you and possibly an amount. I will suggest gatting in atleast 1 session of HIIT a week.
Well I guess I will stop here. If you need further explaination or suggestions on nutrition or training just ask. Myself and others, I am sure, will be glad to chime in.
I am sure I missed something but I gotta take some time for the gym also.
Good Luck,
Phill
By the way I am sure TT will be coming in no time to mop up what I missed.
I have no idea how picky you are about food but I have my numbers all laid out for the day, each meal, and when to time them (carb meals are post-workout almost exclusively). Once I got those numbers, I just figured out how much (by weight) chicken, tuna, salmon, whilefish, etc made my protein requirements for a particular meal. Same thing with fats and carbs for post-workout. With this list in my head (I’m not terribly picky about eating the same stuff day to day) its super-easy to make my meals for a day. It generally takes me about 12-15 minutes in the morning and I’m set. The PWO meals are easy as well… I’ll generally cook a bunch of brown rice and I know what measurement for which meal. The PWO shake is a no-brainer. No problems!!!
I tried dieting while keeping my food intake pretty varied and I found it to be more difficult. I guess it just gets easier when you see the results you are getting to eat the same stuff day in and day out and saving the variety for “cheat day” if you have one of those.
Good luck!!!
The diet dropped my weight too much and I didn’t lose any bodyfat… I lost about 10 lbs in 6 weeks. But when I got my bodyfat measured again, it was virtually the same! Also, with minimal carbs, I had a bad case of constipation… OUCH!
Gosh, Phill, there’s nothing left to mop up!!! You and Lucid and Shiggy have it well under control. (chuckling)
Jim, you’ve got good info, there, enough for a running start. Figure out what meals you want as P+F and divide your fat up between your P+F meals. From there, decide which meals will be P+C and divide up your carb allotment for the day between your P+C meals.
What will help you achieve your goals more than any other thing would be keeping a food log. Doing so allows you to fine tune things and make subtle changes to your program.
Give your body a couple of weeks to settle into new eating patterns. Track how much weight you lose from week to week. At the three-week point if you’re not losing an acceptable amount of weight per week, check back in, and we’ll help you trouble-shoot.
It would be a good idea to get in for a BF test. Find someone you can go back to month after month and who is experienced. Pay them if you have to. Doing so will allow you to dial in your program even more precisely. Follow-up BF tests will give you an idea of how much BF you’re losing and what’s going on with LBM.
Good choice of programs, by the way!!! (grin)
Any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. You’ve got some of the best of the best here, replying to your posts.
mqgeek, I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t get the results for which you hoped.
Re the constipation, that’s a problem, fershure! It’s a problem any time you drop carbs. The fix is to take a fiber supplement daily. Psyillium seeds or husks work great and is very cheap if purchased in bulk. I recommend adding a heaping teaspoon to something like Crystal Light. Dosage can be increased slightly/slowly until you are regular. Follow up with a glass of water after the Crystal Light.
10 pounds of weight loss is not a bad number for 6 weeks. If you wanted to lose weight more slowly, all you’d need to do is increase calories slightly.
Re your BF%, how did you measure? Some forms of BF testing are inaccurate/problematic by nature.
I know this is counter-intuitive, but I didn’t start getting results until my calories increased. Its always tempting to take the “numbers” and run them as low as possible without letting your body adjust or simply starting moderate and seeing what happens with your body. At 2200 kcal/day I wasn’t making progress, at 2700-2800 my progress is fantastic. If you are losing that kind of weight and not losing fat, you are burning off all your muscle. The only way to change the shape of your body is through progressive resistance training coupled with a diet that will initially allow you to put on some muscle. If you have things worked out correctly, the fat will just melt off.