Thib's Q&A

Training
2861

Hi Thibs.

I have been cutting down for about 9weeks now and lost a signifigant amount of fat. Everything has been done according Refined Physique transformation. I had two heavy lifting days a week and two lactic acid workouts. Ate only trace carbs and I recently started to have some (50g) carbs post workout.

I feel that fat burn is totally stalled. My bodyweight has been the same for 3 weeks now and my back-fat (especially lower back) isn’t moving anywhere. So I started to do Poliquins Lactic Acid Training for fat loss and take 400-800mg Gymnema Sylvestre with meals that contain any carbs and dosing fish oil to 20-30g a day.

My calories are already below 3000 (about 2700 avg) and I am weighing 205 pounds. 300-350g of protein and rest from fat… But still I feel that nothing much isn’t happening.

Any advice how to proceed to get the most out of the last 4-6 weeks of dieting down? Should I cut down the calories even more? Add some low intensity aerobic work? Any other supplements I could or should take? HOT-ROX isn’t an option so I’m taking 300mg caffeine and 4g EGCG during the day…

2862

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
actionjeff wrote:

I was wondering what type of kcal intake you were using during the ketogenic periods of the week as well as the small weekday carb up and huge weekend carb up.

I don’t rely on calories, except as a broad guideline. I’ve been working with Amit for 3+ years and know how his body responds to X amount of food and what type of food.

So in all honesty it would be impossible for me to give you his daily caloric intake. Furthermore, we are talking about a guy who is 230-235 on 5’4’’ with abs in off-season shape, unless you have this type of physique, his food intake would be of no use to you.

actionjeff wrote:
I was curious if you still use the rest/pause method, and if so, whether you vary reps depending on the exercise.

I use a zillion methods, including rest/pause. But not all methods are used all the time.[/quote]

yeah I guess I should have been more specific

I’ve been doing a similar thing carbing up all day Friday, and again, small on Tuesday night, ketogenic otherwise. My BW is 192 and I’m looking to get to around 8% at 185. I’m no Amit yet, unfortunately, but give me a few more years =)

Maybe you could generalize and give me an idea of what type of intake might be appropriate for me then? I was thinking about 600g on the Friday carb up for supercompensation and 200g on the mini-carb up but have no basis for this number.

I asked about the rest/pause method because that seemed like the type of thing that is effective in exhausting the muscles without excessive volume while working on a deficit.

In the examples I’ve read, you said to start with 4-5 reps on incline press and do rest/pause from there, so I was wondering what type of rep range you would recommend for something like calf raises, shoulder press, leg press.

thanks for the response man

2863

Thibs -

I just finished re-reading your Carb Cycling Codex article and was doing the math on my numbers for losing fat. My question is, do I just start eating at my maintenance calories (3000 cals @ 187 lbs) or should I start eating at 20% less for fat loss?

Here’s what I came up with:

3000 Calories total (to maintain bodyweight)
2400 calories to lose fat:

High Carb Day Totals:

281g of Protein = 1124 calories
293g of Carbs = 1172 calories
37g of fat = 340 calories

Moderate Day Totals:

281g of Protein = 1124 calories
234g of Carbs = 936 calories
37g of fat = 340 calories

Low Carb Day Totals:

281g of Protein = 1124 calories
175g of Carbs = 702 calories
37g of fat = 340 calories

So after all of that, my question is: Do I have to work my way up to 3000 clean calories a day before I start dropping it to 2400?

Thanks

2864

Hi CT,

A question about kidney stones. I eat at least a few ounces of spinach every meal. On avg.,I eat approx. 280grams a day of dark green leafy vegetable which are mostly spninach. I recently have been feeling a minor pain around the kidney area.

I researched and found that the body only digests about 5% of the calcium in Spinach and that the excess calicum combines with oxalate in the intestines.Sometimes oxalate or calcium oxalate stones form because there is not enough calcium in the intestines.

This turns into kidney stones or hyperoxaluria. I drink plenty of water and also green tea. My question is I see alot of press about spinach and green tea causing kidney stones… I have no history of stones.

My question is have you run accross this and should I be eating other types of green leafy vegetables or is this just in people who have a history? Are there any signs other than pain? Thank you

2865

Coach,

When you first went through your transformation, did you encounter a lot of stretch marks? I’m coming down from 308lbs and now weigh 200lbs. But i have a road map of California on my stomach. Is there anything i can do about this?

2866

Hey Thibs,

John Berardi wrote once about coming off of a ketogenic diet and having the symptoms of a type 2 diabetic. How would you slowly increase carbs to get back to carb-tolerant metabolism?

As an adjunct to the above, which would be better for restoring the carb-tolerant metabolism, Fenuplex or Yin R-ALA?

2867

[quote]Sonelag wrote:
Hi Thibs.

I have been cutting down for about 9weeks now and lost a signifigant amount of fat. Everything has been done according Refined Physique transformation. I had two heavy lifting days a week and two lactic acid workouts. Ate only trace carbs and I recently started to have some (50g) carbs post workout.

I feel that fat burn is totally stalled. My bodyweight has been the same for 3 weeks now and my back-fat (especially lower back) isn’t moving anywhere. So I started to do Poliquins Lactic Acid Training for fat loss and take 400-800mg Gymnema Sylvestre with meals that contain any carbs and dosing fish oil to 20-30g a day.

My calories are already below 3000 (about 2700 avg) and I am weighing 205 pounds. 300-350g of protein and rest from fat… But still I feel that nothing much isn’t happening.

Any advice how to proceed to get the most out of the last 4-6 weeks of dieting down? Should I cut down the calories even more? Add some low intensity aerobic work? Any other supplements I could or should take? HOT-ROX isn’t an option so I’m taking 300mg caffeine and 4g EGCG during the day…[/quote]

Stop dieting for 7-10 days, DO NOT BINGE but do increase your calories and carbs. After those 7-10 days, go back on your diet.

The thing is that your body has adapted to the diet. This happens after anywhere from 8 to 16 weeks depending on your body and how severe the diet was.

Do not panic if you gain 2-3lbs in those 7 days (maybe even more than that), most of it will be water and glycogen. However this break will allow you to restart your fat loss efforts with more success.

2868

[quote]ksommer wrote:
Hey Thibs,

John Berardi wrote once about coming off of a ketogenic diet and having the symptoms of a type 2 diabetic. How would you slowly increase carbs to get back to carb-tolerant metabolism?[/quote]

I answered that MANY times already so I’ll only give you the short answer:

  1. Avoid carbs that are high glycemic
  2. Add carbs GRADUALLY 25-50g per day every week (e.g. week 1 75g/day, week 2 100g/day, week 3 125g/day, etc.)
  3. Only add carbs post-workout (3/4 of your intake) and at breakfast (1/4 of your intake) at first
  4. After 4-6 weeks you can start to add some carbs to the other meals.

[quote]ksommer wrote:
As an adjunct to the above, which would be better for restoring the carb-tolerant metabolism, Fenuplex or Yin R-ALA? [/quote]

Both work via different pathways so it’s impossible to tell you which one will be more effective since it will vary from one individual to the next.

2869

can you find any reason to do a full body workout on a wednesday after you did the exact same workout on monday, and you are still sore from the first workout?

the workout consists of 30 seconds sprints of squats, cleans, deadlift, lunges, bench press, incline push ups, supinated curls, hammer curls, skull crushers, and bench tricep dips. then do that all over again.

2870

christian i was wondering if you were familiar with Omega 7 oils, uses,purpose and dosage?
oh and also GABA, when is the best time to take it and with what?

would it be useful to take it at the same time as some glycine? apologises if either of these seems silly,all the same,
many thanks…

regards
Niall

2871

Hi Coach,

I’ve tried searching through the article library and can’t find your article about what we can and can’t learn from athletes.

I remember reading your part I about Olympic Lifters and how people shouldn’t use the relatively few olympic lifters who are “jacked” as proof that O-lifting is the best for physique development/hypertrophy.

I’d like to read about what you wrote regarding gymnasts and sprinters and the article in general, if it is still accessible.

Much appreciated.

2872

thanks. im tryin to cut but im also tryin to get my bench from 185 up to 235 thats my goal for when i get back to the states. right now me and my partner are in a debate bc he says if im tryin to get to 170 at 6% bod fat i should bulk to like 190 and lose down as opposed to what im doing now which is slimming down to a good 150 ish at an estimated 7-10 %. . my argument is why gain weight when im lookin to get more defined which in order to do so i need to lose some extra baggage. granted all i got left is a good 15lbs left which i think i could lose in bout 2 months if i keep on the schedule im on right now. i think at this point what i need is a lil bit of advice from the pros.

2873

hello Thib

i am currently on HSS 100 program, and am pursuing the accumulation or first phase, presently the third week into it!

i have set aside the 16 weeks plan as outlined by you.i have selected the exercises too according to the set parameters.

my query is: having chosen the exercise to be followed during the accumulation phase…do i have to change these exercises when i switch to the intensification phase, or from there to the next phase? or am i going to follow the same set of exercises during the entire sixteen weeks?

please forgive if the question has been already posted on the forum.

thanks

2874

[quote]thelivingrock wrote:
hello thib

i am currently on HSS 100 program, and am pursuing the accumulation or first phase, presently the third week into it!

i have set aside the 16 weeks plan as outlined by you.i have selected the exercises too according to the set parameters.

my query is: having chosen the exercise to be followed during the accumulation phase…do i have to change these exercises when i switch to the intensification phase, or from there to the next phase? or am i going to follow the same set of exercises during the entire sixteen weeks?

please forgive if the question has been already posted on the forum.

thanks [/quote]

If you stopped progressing on an exercise, change it. If not, you can keep it in. I’d change the heavy movement more often while the assistance work can be kept in for longer.

2875

[quote]jsheptock wrote:
thanks. im tryin to cut but im also tryin to get my bench from 185 up to 235 thats my goal for when i get back to the states. right now me and my partner are in a debate bc he says if im tryin to get to 170 at 6% bod fat i should bulk to like 190 and lose down as opposed to what im doing now which is slimming down to a good 150 ish at an estimated 7-10 %. . my argument is why gain weight when im lookin to get more defined which in order to do so i need to lose some extra baggage. granted all i got left is a good 15lbs left which i think i could lose in bout 2 months if i keep on the schedule im on right now. i think at this point what i need is a lil bit of advice from the pros. [/quote]

The problem is that you didn’t give me a PRECISE (not estimation) measure of your body fat, so it’s kinda hard for me to know how much fat you actually need to lose.

If your picture is recent you could be anywhere from 16 to 20% body fat, which would give you a lean body mass of around 140-145lbs.

So you could assume that to be 10% body fat you’d only have to go down to 165-170, but this is not the case.

Lean body mass is not only muscle. It’s also your bones, organs, blood and WATER.

For every pound of fat lost you will normally lose 0.5lbs of water. So in your mind you might think that you only need to drop around 15lbs to be at 10% while in reality it will be closer to 25lbs.

This would leave you at 145-155lbs at 10% body fat depending on the amount of muscle you lost (if any) while dieting and doing that much cardio.

To reach your goal of 170lbs at 7-10% body fat you will then need to add 15-25lbs of muscle, which can take a long time to do (anywhere from 1 to 4 years depending on your current experience level, nutrition, activity level and genetics)

If you plan to get your bench press up, I really would not suggest trying to drop fat too drastically right now. Or more precisely I would not go on a diet that is too restrictive because of the cardio you are forced to do.

Tons of cardio + highly restrictive diet = the best way to lose some muscle and thus strength

2876

[quote]-Sigil- wrote:
Hi Coach,

I’ve tried searching through the article library and can’t find your article about what we can and can’t learn from athletes.

I remember reading your part I about Olympic Lifters and how people shouldn’t use the relatively few olympic lifters who are “jacked” as proof that O-lifting is the best for physique development/hypertrophy.

I’d like to read about what you wrote regarding gymnasts and sprinters and the article in general, if it is still accessible.

Much appreciated.

[/quote]

It was in one of my online newsletter, which has been discontinued. But I never got to writing the part about sprinters and gymnasts.

2877

[quote]NiallC wrote:
christian i was wondering if you were familiar with Omega 7 oils, uses,purpose and dosage?
oh and also GABA, when is the best time to take it and with what?

would it be useful to take it at the same time as some glycine? apologises if either of these seems silly,all the same,
many thanks…

regards
Niall[/quote]

Omega 7 oil (palmitoleic acid mostly) has good antioxidant properties. So it could be added in periods of high stress (training-related or otherwise).

GABA is a great product to add to glycine 30-45 minutes prior to going to bed, or in the evening to promote relaxation.

2878

would i be quick to assume then that omega 3 fish oil from a high quality source would be more effective both physically and financially, then omega 7s, as it too would have high antioxidant properties, among its other benefits,

2879

wow that put a lot in perspective. currently i workout about 6 days a week on a 1-2 bod part split. i normally put in 12-15 miles a week depending on how bad my legs hurt after leg day. but here in the good ol desert all we really do is do alot of workin out. simply put i just wanna get leaned out and put some mass on it doesnt necessarily have to be 170 but thats what all the trainers at the gym i go to back in the states would give me that hard dense look im looking for.

2880

[quote]NiallC wrote:
would i be quick to assume then that omega 3 fish oil from a high quality source would be more effective both physically and financially, then omega 7s, as it too would have high antioxidant properties, among its other benefits,
[/quote]

Let’s put it this way. Fish oil is always on my client’s list while omega 7 I only gave to one person and he was a supplement junkie with who liked to use everything under the sun.