Where to begin. I started the Velocity Diet yesterday and Meltdown Training today. Right out of the gate I’m experiencing a few problems. The main one being that I started to experience cramping (pretty much everywhere) this morning after the third circuit of Meltdown Training. I have for most of my life been prone to cramping, and have tried to compensate by drinking lots of water. Granted yesterday I fell decently short of that (two liters for the day).
My questions are this: Does carb cutting as prescribed by the Velocity Diet encourage cramping? If it does will simply adding more water fix this, or is it symptomatic of something else? If it means that I have to drink Gatorade or Pedialyte to help curb the cramps won’t this mess up the carb parameters of the diet? Any general suggestions on how to reduce cramping?
Next I was wondering about the Meltdown Training. Due to the demands of this program is not a good fit with the Velocity Diet? I noticed that the routine performed with the Velocity diet was more along the lines of the Waterberry Method. Was this just a matter of wants or does a CW type program mesh better with Velocity?
Are you sure V-Diet and Meltdown together is a good idea? I’ve done both separately but wouldn’t even consider doing them together. In fact, when I did fat to fire (which is harder than meltdown imo) I made sure to get maintenance calories, because I knew that I would be just too taxed on a really hypocaloric diet.
That was actually one of my questions, though due to an unfortunate typo it read incorrectly. However, after reading the V-diet support forum I think that you are right. That it would be best not to role with Meltdown Trainging while on the V-diet. I’m just going to use the training parameters put forth with the diet for the time being.
In the first few days of the V-Diet you’re going to lose a lot of water weight (due to the low carbs), so that could very well be the cause for those cramps. I didn’t suffer any cramping problems on the V, but I did drink even more water than usual.
Well, I had my second workout this evening. Again I fell short on my water consumption for the day (again only two liters) and again I started cramping. This time I didn’t use the Meltdown training (basically went with the program outlined with the diet). I did however by a gallon of water after the workout which I plan to put down tonight and use a unit of measure for water consumption the next few days (a gallon or two of water). Hopefully the cramping will cease.
I noticed that the workout really dragged for me as well. But that’s fairly common with this diet I’m sure.
Off to read as much of the support group forum as I can get through. Their must be good tips in there as well.
One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post: I think Waterbury Method is fine on V-Diet because that’s exactly what I used the first time through, and I actually made some (very) small gains in my lifts. Although my progress in squat was the result of having to lift up less fat along with the bar!
The caffiene intake (and the water) had been the two things I was falling short on in the parameters described. I’m actually having a cuppa now, plus I got my gallon water jug primed for the day.
Through the first two days I noticed that I’d been getting pretty bad shakes (in my hands) intermittently throughout the day. I’ve also been feeling pretty sluggish, and my workout last night was just short of awful as I definitely noticed a decrease in strength.
I’m going to up the green tea (and one cuppa joe) intake, up the water, and try to start downing my Surge about a half hour before I start training to see if this alleviates everything.
Although by the end of day three it seems that I’ve lost about 4+ lbs (water weight no doubt).
Again, thanks for the responses. I really hadn’t thought that the lack of caffiene would have an affect. Hope it helps.
I experienced the same cramping problems on the V-diet. I even posted a question on it in one of the V-diet support threads. I was drinking more than enough water (which was the obvious initial replies on the thread). The only thing that cured it was a bannana every evening. I know it doesn’t fit with the program, but it worked and I still lost 18lbs. I’ve slipped quite a bit on the clean eatin lately (a lot of fried foods at the in-laws) and still only returned 4lbs of the 18 that I lost. Stick with it.
Also, you may be overdoing it on the training end. Remember that Shugart toned it back a bit during the diet. The first couple of V-diet articles outlined his entire workout for the duration. I would suggest following that during the diet and transitioning to your current workout when you come off of the diet. You should see some explosive gains then.
Good Luck!!
Any low carb diet tends to be Low in Potassium. The V diet tends to be low on the potassium side, and most vitamins do not have alot of potassium in it, due to it being an electrolyte
Symptoms of low potassium are cramping and easily bruising/bleeding (like your gums)
Try taking a postassium suppliment, or eat some veggies with some postasium chloride (lite salt)
Thanks for the feedback. At the very least it’s good to know that I’m not the only person who suffered this symptom. I’ll definitely add either the potassium supplementation if I can find it at a local vitamin shop or the bananas otherwise.