Anabolic/Metabolic Diet

[wheresmybacon]

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For those too lazy to click the link, the gist of this diet - more accurately, lifestyle - is you eat <30g carbs M-F, then Saturday and Sunday you carb-up. So it's high protein high fat during the week, high carbs on the weekend. At the beginning of your journey you become "fat adapted", and do 12 days straight of less than 30g carbs. That's the cliffs; it's a bit more complex than that. I recommend getting the book or ebook if you decide to go this route.

I'm currently on day 11, so on Saturday I get to do my first carb-up. The problem is I don't know if I really want to! I'm enjoying the fat, meat, veggies, and cheese so much... It's ironic too because I nearly quit after the first day. I was so weak and had a terrible headache. Fortunately by the end of day 3 I felt great. Fueled by fat even.

A bit of background on me: I'm 35 years old, 5'11" 205 currently. Estimate body fat @ about 17-18%. I've been weight training for 16 years, although due to my incompetence and ego for many of those I was part of the "bench-n-curls" crowd. I also took a few years off to drink professionally. These days I'm sober. I do a lot of cardio as well as a 2 day full body split.

My goal with this change in my eating is to drop 20 lbs while retaining the muscle mass I've put on through the winter. Once I reach 185 I'll sort of evaluate how I look and feel and go from there. My thinking is I'll want to get a tad lighter still, but one thing at a time.

Just curious if anyone else has any experience eating this way. My GF is convinced I'm going to die of a heart attack since I eat so much red meat. I told her give me 3 months and we'll see if I'm any healthier... 🙂

 

[SociallyChallenged]

This is pretty much a ketogenic diet. Keto diets are alright for short-term use, but can become harmful if applied long-term. I've never gone keto myself 'cause I'm more of a "incorporate everything" kinda guy. You don't need to go keto to lose this weight quickly and easily. I just wanted to put that out there. Also, most of the weight you lose at first is going to be loss of water weight due to lack of carbs. Keep that in mind when you track your progress by weight. The scale is not what defines being healthy. Many people trying to lose weight define lower weight as healthy and feel terrible if they're 1-2 pounds up. They forget how much better they feel and how much more capable they are.

 

[wheresmybacon]

See that's the thing; it's not a keto diet. You kind of have to look into it a bit more before assuming carb-cycling = keto. It's not keto.

 

[wheresmybacon]

T-nation is blocked at work so I can't quote, but I can provide the links.

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This isn't a diet for people looking to shrink up quickly and have little parties for every 5 pounds they lose. It's a lifestyle change that can be used for cutting or bulking.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: hungfarover
See that's the thing; it's not a keto diet. You kind of have to look into it a bit more before assuming carb-cycling = keto. It's not keto.

Let me respond with: it IS a keto diet. The headache the first couple of days was the delay for your brain to switch to burning ketones for energy. That is a tell-tale sign of ketosis. Having less than 30g carbs will toss your body into such so it's hard to say that it's not a ketogenic diet. It is, for at least several days, a ketogetnic diet.

 

[KoolDrew]

Given the fact that ketosis is a catobolic state hormonally, it's pretty fucking retarded, especially for bulking.

 

[brikis98]

It'll probably work for short term weight loss - ketogenic diets usually do (yes, this is ketogenic, even if it's done in a cyclic pattern) - but seems a bit extreme for anything long term. In fact, any diet that totally shuns a single macronutrient (and then binges on it on the weekends) is probably not a great solution.

 

[KoolDrew]

The Anabolic diet really isn't a bad diet exactly (it's just a CKD). Last night I was mainly referring to it being used in terms of gaining mass. The other problem I have with it is that Mauro is an idiot and has shown this time and time again. However, if you ignore all his nutrition reasoning garbage and just follow the practical side of things, it can be effective.

If you're really interested in ketogenic diets in general (and all variations), I would suggest checking out Lyle McDonalds Ketogenic book. It's by far the best book on the subject matter.