The Anabolic Diet...I think I've seen the light!

[Rammstein]

For those who tried the diet how did you fare strength-wise on the AD?

[Rudee]

I've tried the Anabolic Diet and had nice results in the terms of fatloss.   I found my strength did decline on most all exercises, but not by a lot.   I'm currently 6 weeks into a modified steak & eggs diet in which I'm making the best progress ever.   I believe I've finally found the diet that will get me ripped while allowing me to retain the maximum amount of muscle.   FYI... the modified diet consists of steak & eggs two to three times per day, replacing steak with bacon or pork sausage now and then for variety when needed.  Also, 3 low carb protein shakes with natural almond butter per day.  Last meal of the day I have broccoli with my meal and drizzle warm melted butter over it.   This is the first time ever I've been lean enough in the ab region to see veins.

[nikinizor]

I downloaded the anabolic diet e-book and it is definitely interesting...when I first read about it here it seemed so much the opposite from everything I "knew"...but once I began reading it made a lot of sense. I have tried keto before and once my carb intake was lowered for a few days I felt like shit....any opinions on whether it would be a good protocol to 'ease' into it to avoid that lousy feeling or just go for it....one of my worries is that the e-book says to avoid operating heavy machinery for the first week 'cause you will be lightheaded and such. I am a tatto artist by trade and dont want to be 'out of it' while doing permanent art. thanks for any replies!

[jordyb80]

I downloaded the anabolic diet e-book and it is definitely interesting...when I first read about it here it seemed so much the opposite from everything I "knew"...but once I began reading it made a lot of sense. I have tried keto before and once my carb intake was lowered for a few days I felt like shit....any opinions on whether it would be a good protocol to 'ease' into it to avoid that lousy feeling or just go for it....one of my worries is that the e-book says to avoid operating heavy machinery for the first week 'cause you will be lightheaded and such. I am a tatto artist by trade and dont want to be 'out of it' while doing permanent art. thanks for any replies!

Severely cutting carbs makes me extremely light headed as well but if you are competing or experimenting this works well...It is important to shock your body and switch up your diet

[NEED2PUMP]

I read this thread last week and decided to try it. I'm 30 yrs old 6'3 and stay around 205lb. Im fairly lean but like everyone else and could stand to trim some body fat from the midsection. I've been lifting for a long time and wanted to make a change so I went for it. This is day 4 and I went from 202 monday to 195 today(thurs). Its hard for me to believe much of this is water weight Iv'e lost because I have drank a lot to keep a full feeling from the lack of carbs. I'm really liking it so far and hope I can stay disciplined for 4-6 weeks on it and see what happens. Do yall think I should carb up this first weekend of the diet or wait till week 2? I've stayed under 30g carbs every day so far.

[andreisdaman]

I read this thread last week and decided to try it. I'm 30 yrs old 6'3 and stay around 205lb. Im fairly lean but like everyone else and could stand to trim some body fat from the midsection. I've been lifting for a long time and wanted to make a change so I went for it. This is day 4 and I went from 202 monday to 195 today(thurs). Its hard for me to believe much of this is water weight Iv'e lost because I have drank a lot to keep a full feeling from the lack of carbs. I'm really liking it so far and hope I can stay disciplined for 4-6 weeks on it and see what happens. Do yall think I should carb up this first weekend of the diet or wait till week 2? I've stayed under 30g carbs every day so far.

awesome,,what have you been eating???..give me a rundown..may try it myself

[NEED2PUMP]

Here's what I had today


Morning- 4 egg omlet with cheese and real butter, 4-5 pieces of bacon
Snack- handful almonds and peanuts, 6oz egg beaters with 2tblspoons olive oil
Lunch-12-15oz chicken with skin, piece or two of cheese
snack pre workout- 4oz egg beater and half an apple
Dinner- 12oz venison burger with 1 1/2 cup broccoli with butter
snack-4 oz egg beater tbspoon olive oil

have no idea how many calories that is or the protien to fat ratio, but its very low carb

[andreisdaman]

Here's what I had today


Morning- 4 egg omlet with cheese and real butter, 4-5 pieces of bacon
Snack- handful almonds and peanuts, 6oz egg beaters with 2tblspoons olive oil
Lunch-12-15oz chicken with skin, piece or two of cheese
snack pre workout- 4oz egg beater and half an apple
Dinner- 12oz venison burger with 1 1/2 cup broccoli with butter
snack-4 oz egg beater tbspoon olive oil

have no idea how many calories that is or the protien to fat ratio, but its very low carb

nice..but eating this every day would cost me a fortune..just in bacon and eggs alone

[Meso_z]

Looks good on paper but in reality its too risky too even try...

not counting calories...
eat only protein and fats..(mostly bad i would say)

Im getting fatter and unhealthier just by thinking about this diet...

[suckmymuscle]

  The anabolic diet doesen't make much sense, either for fat loss or muscle building. You won't lose much fat even with insulin low if you are gorging on calorically dense foods like bacon an eggs. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will get fatter no matter how stable your blood sugar is because the fatty acids you just ate will go to your bloodstream and once the body realizes that the amount of calories contained in the fat circulating in your bloodstream is greater than your body's immediate need for energy the excess calories will not be converted in the liver into glucose to fuel your body's immediate needs but stored as bodyfat. Calories are calories.

  It won't help you build muscle either because how can you build muscles with your glycogen stores low? Without glycogen your body will convert the protein in your muscles into glucose via gluconeogenesis to fuel your workouts. And yes, I understand that the anabolic diet allows you to eat carbs two days a weak to replenish your glycogen stores, but unfortately the body's ability to store glycogen is very limited and glycogen is drained from the whole body to fuel workouts and not from the target muscle of the workout. That is, if you train chest today you might not have enough glycogen to train legs other day.

  And finally, the body puts survival much above building muscles and the brain's only fuel is glucose. If you cut out carbs completely, the body will drain all the carbs from the body to fuel the brain before it starts converting stored bodyfat or the fat you eat into ketones to fuel the brain. Only when all carbs run out does the brain switch from glucose to ketones as it's fuel source.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[NEED2PUMP]

SuckMyMuscle...what would you suggest? Should I continue on this diet if I'm seeing results or continue with it but add a little bit of carbs.?  Have to admit, by Friday of last week I was feeling pretty foggy headed from 5 days of 30g or less of carbs per day. As long as I dont lose any muscle or strength, I'm all about sticking with this for 3-4 more weeks.

[d0nny2600]

SuckMyMuscle...what would you suggest? Should I continue on this diet if I'm seeing results or continue with it but add a little bit of carbs.?  Have to admit, by Friday of last week I was feeling pretty foggy headed from 5 days of 30g or less of carbs per day. As long as I dont lose any muscle or strength, I'm all about sticking with this for 3-4 more weeks.

Look at the palumbo diet instead. Healthier and structured with a controlled carb up.

[Brixtonbulldog]

been 3 days with no carbs and i want to die. 

it's taken everything i have not to take the bag of cornbread leftover from boston market and eat all 8 pieces.  this despite eating around 3000 calories and no fatty food is off limits.

how the hell am i supposed to go 12 days to kick this shit off?

workouts suck ass too.. i just wanna sleep all the time and eat cake and ice cream... boo hoo hoo 

[suckmymuscle]

SuckMyMuscle...what would you suggest? Should I continue on this diet if I'm seeing results or continue with it but add a little bit of carbs.?  Have to admit, by Friday of last week I was feeling pretty foggy headed from 5 days of 30g or less of carbs per day. As long as I dont lose any muscle or strength, I'm all about sticking with this for 3-4 more weeks.

  The anabolic diet is based on the theory of hormone manipulation. The problem with this theory is that there is no evidence that manipulating macronutrient ratios increase or decrease hormone levels, and even if it did the effect would be so minimum that it would make no difference. The scientific evidence is that calories boost testosterone and insulin levels and not macronutrient ratios. GH, conversely, is best increased by caloric deprivation - because GH increases blood sugar levels.

  My suggestion would be a diet rich in calories and carbs. Protein is not necessary except for tissue building and fats cannot be used efficiently by muscles. Carbs increase glycogen stores which spares protein and increase muscle cell water levels which increases protein synthesis. If you want to grow, your glycogen stores need to be always full so your muscle tissue will never be canibalized to feed your brain - your body cares about your brain a lot more than it does about your muscles, so if you cut carbs your glycogen stores and then your muscle tissue will be used to create glucose for your brain. Eat 500 grams of carbs a day prioritizing low glycemic carbs like brown rice, yams and cream of wheat so that your insulin doesen't shoot through the roof and make you fat. Get 250 grams of protein and 40-50 grams of fat for a total of 3,700-800 calories a day and you will grow if you are training to failure and properly - with a good balance of volume and frequency of training.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[tbombz]

the anabolic diet works, if you dont tihnk so then you havent tried it. you dont have to eliminate carbs completely, just make sure the main protion of your food is protien and fats. if your worried about saturated fats then stick to olive oil, nuts, egg yolks, etc. but really it shouldnt be a problem. it is not a diet where you can eat uinlimited calories and you dont eat super fatty foods like bacon very often and when you do its only in small amounts.

[benchmstr]

the anabolic diet works, if you dont tihnk so then you havent tried it. you dont have to eliminate carbs completely, just make sure the main protion of your food is protien and fats. if your worried about saturated fats then stick to olive oil, nuts, egg yolks, etc. but really it shouldnt be a problem. it is not a diet where you can eat uinlimited calories and you dont eat super fatty foods like bacon very often and when you do its only in small amounts.

about once every week i remove all carbs for 24 hours...not for any diet or health reasons.....i just really rather eat protein instead...no carb days are like a treat to me

bench

[suckmymuscle]

the anabolic diet works, if you dont tihnk so then you havent tried it. you dont have to eliminate carbs completely, just make sure the main protion of your food is protien and fats. if your worried about saturated fats then stick to olive oil, nuts, egg yolks, etc. but really it shouldnt be a problem. it is not a diet where you can eat uinlimited calories and you dont eat super fatty foods like bacon very often and when you do its only in small amounts.

  The anabolic diet makes no sense. The only reason why it "works" is because all those calories from all the fat you're eating puts your muscles in a positive notrogen balance. That's it. But a diet that emphasizes high calories through lots of carbohydrates would work even better for the reasons I explained in my previous post without the potential for developing brain damage from hypoglycemia you get in the "anabolic diet".

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[suckmymuscle]

been 3 days with no carbs and i want to die.  

it's taken everything i have not to take the bag of cornbread leftover from boston market and eat all 8 pieces.  this despite eating around 3000 calories and no fatty food is off limits.

how the hell am i supposed to go 12 days to kick this shit off?

workouts suck ass too.. i just wanna sleep all the time and eat cake and ice cream... boo hoo hoo  

  The anabolic diet is retarded. Eventually you will feel better as your brain starts using ketones as fuel. In the mean time, you are feeling like shit because your brain is hypoglycemic as there is little glucose available and your brain still hasn't learned how to use ketones from fat as fuel. While your body switches, there is potential for brain damage. The anabolic diet is terrible.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[Montague]

I’ve got to agree with Suck.
I’ve done the very low carb/high fat diet before, and while it’s fast and very effective for losing fat, I personally did not gain much new lean tissue while on it.
Adding the consumption of fast-acting carbs during my workouts corrected that.

I suspect that a lot of people who try the “anabolic diet” mistakenly believe they’re building new muscle because, while shedding fat, the muscle they already have becomes more visible and defined.

Many of us have heard the stories of the 60’s warriors living on the heavy cream & raw egg shakes, and the success they enjoyed.
Don’t forget, though: a lot of those guys were - at the very least - dabbling with pharmaceutical grade anabolics that were yet in their infancy.
Guys like Freddie Ortiz & Larry Scott still kayfabe it, but others like Bill March are an open-book when it comes to John Ziegler, Dianabol use, dosages, and who was using.

That’s reality.

Even Charles Poliquin, who advocates fats over carbs, insists that high-glycemic carbs are crucial following intense training.
And, if you’re already as lean as you want to be, most/average people should have no problem consuming a total of 200-250 g of carbs from good sources throughout the day, while maintaining their current condition.

I always encourage people to experiment and find what works best for them, but be honest in assessing the results and understand what is happening and why.

[tbombz]

theres no risk of hypoglycemia in a healthy individual if they are eating sufficient protein.


very low/no carb diets are extremely safe, in fact healthier than high carb diets.


vegetables should be eatin, they do not count as carbohydrates.



as i mentioned in my earlier post, you dont have to go zero carb for the diet to work, and you would benefit from adding some around your workouts. otherwise, the diet works awesome..

if your a natural trainer, this is the only way to eat, unless your one of those guys who cant eat everything and not put on fat. then add carbs in with the fats, but dont remove the fats.

[Dr Loomis]

Good post tbomb

[suckmymuscle]

theres no risk of hypoglycemia in a healthy individual if they are eating sufficient protein.


very low/no carb diets are extremely safe, in fact healthier than high carb diets.


vegetables should be eatin, they do not count as carbohydrates.



as i mentioned in my earlier post, you dont have to go zero carb for the diet to work, and you would benefit from adding some around your workouts. otherwise, the diet works awesome..

if your a natural trainer, this is the only way to eat, unless your one of those guys who cant eat everything and not put on fat. then add carbs in with the fats, but dont remove the fats.

  Your knowledge of physiology as well as biochemistry leaves a lot to be desired. There is no hypoglycemia if you eat enough protein? Oh, really? Protein is even more problematic than fat as an energy source. Protein has to be converted into glucose in the liver by a process called gluconeogenesis, which is extremely ineffective and puts an enormous drain on the body's resource capacity. This is the reason why when you cut carbs your brain switches to ketones as it's energy source instead of continuing to get glucose from protein conversion in the liver. Turning protein into glucose is so metabolically expensive and ineffective that the body simply cannot furnish enough glucose for the brain by turning protein into glucose so it switches to ketones.

  And how are diets full of saturated fats healthier than high carbs diet? Saturated fats increase the output of LDL cholesterol in the liver whilst inhibiting the cytochrome 450 enzymes which metabolize it, increasing your risk of artherosclerosis. Very high levels of glucose do foster the formations of triglycerides which contibute to artherosclerosis, but the effect is much milder than that saturated fats do, and I am not recommending carbs that boost insulin but low glycemic carbs like brown rice, cream of wheat and yams. You can be absolutely, positively sure: a diet rich in brown rice and cream of wheat with little saturated fats is a lot healthier than a diet rich in bacon and eggs with little carbs. Your statement that a diet rich in saturated fatty acids is healthier than a diet with lots of low glycemic carbs is simply absurd. It doesen't even deserve an answer. You know nothing, dude.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[suckmymuscle]

Good post tbomb

  He has no idea what he's talking about.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[tbombz]

 Your knowledge of physiology as well as biochemistry leaves a lot to be desired. There is no hypoglycemia if you eat enough protein? Oh, really? Protein is even more problematic than fat as an energy source. Protein has to be converted into glucose in the liver by a process called gluconeogenesis, which is extremely ineffective and puts an enormous drain on the body's resource capacity. This is the reason why when you cut carbs your brain switches to ketones as it's energy source instead of continuing to get glucose from protein conversion in the liver. Turning protein into glucose is so metabolically expensive and ineffective that the body simply cannot furnish enough glucose for the brain by turning protein into glucose so it switches to ketones. You know nothing, dude.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

yes, protein can be and is converted to glucose. thus, no hypoglycemia when eating sufficient protein. 

[suckmymuscle]

yes, protein can be and is converted to glucose. thus, no hypoglycemia when eating sufficient protein.  

  I repeat: the process is extremely metabolically inefficient. This is why the brain uses ketones from fat and not glucose from protein gluconeogenesis as it's energy source when you cut out carbs. Why does this happen? Answer: because protein cannot be converted into glucose fast enough to supply the body's energy needs, putting it into a state of hypoglycemia. People on very low carbs diets are always slightly hypoglycemic.

SUCKMYMUSCLE