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Alright, so I see constant questions on these boards about what the right diet is? How do I get rid of fat here? How can I look like Brad Pitt in fight club? That one is my favorite. The information is all out there, but it's scattered. I have been in this game since I was 18. I have done fitness modeling and basically have spent the better part of my weight lifting life trying to find the best way to bulk and cut. I have tried it all and I want to share my experiences on each and every diet/supplement with not only the guys who have been around a while, but the newbies who get crucified every time they ask a question that the 275 pound meat head doesn't like! We all have different goals, bodies types, and schedules so achieving these goals will be different for everyone. Mods...feel free to move this post if it is in the wrong section.
Cutting diets:
Cutting fat is probably the hardest thing to do. Multiple diets exist and I'm going to mention a few that I have tried particularly and the results I had with each.
Ketogenic Diet:
This seems to have become one of the new fads in the last few years. Basically, a ketogenic diet is one in which you consume less than 30 grams of carbs a day. Carbs are stored in the body as something called glycogen. Glycogen is used for energy. However, your body can only handle so much glycogen. When you consume to many carbs, the glycogen overflows and is stored in the body as fat. On a ketogenic diet, we stop eating carbs and all our daily calories come from fat and protein. This is basically the exact same thing as the atkins diet. It varies from person to person, but after 3-14 days without eating carbs, our body will go into a state of ketosis. This means it will start using fat for energy rather than carbs. A foggy, starvation feeling does occur for most people after a few days on this diet, but once we go into ketosis, energy levels are high and weight loss can be very fast and very large. It is not uncommon to see weight loss of 5-10 pounds in the first week. This is almost all water weight due to the fact that glycogen is responsible for holding water in our body. I personally do not recommend this diet for most people that will be reading this post. Your exercise performance will be noticeably lower. Strength and endurance is normally very low, and muscle can be burned up quite easily. I recommend this to most of my clients that come in very overweight who have no interest in muscle loss or gain. I have seen some of my clients lose 50 or more pounds in just a few months using this exact diet.
----side note. You can buy something called keto sticks at any CVS or Walgreens. You basically just pee on them and the color change will let you know whether you are in ketosis and burning fat or not.
Cyclical Ketogenic Diet:
I see this diet all over the boards and it's one I have quite a bit of experience. The only difference from this diet and the regular ketogenic diet is a weekend carb up period. This can be done a number of different ways, but I'll explain mine. I spend Monday through Saturday consuming only fats and protein. Sunday, I keep fat extremely low and spread my 6-8 meals out with only good carbs and protein. Again, you will notice a weight loss of 5-10 pounds in just a few days due to your body burning off glycogen and losing water weight. You need to be consuming water constantly because you can become very dehydrated on this diet if not. The general breakdown for this diet is 65% fat 30% protein and 5% carbs, and again none of these carbs come from any direct source. You must make sure you follow thsi general breakdown because too much protein CAN actually be stored as glycogen which is the opposite of our goal. The single most important part of this diet is carbs have to remain extremely low. You are basically teetering on the edge of fat loss and fat gain. If you are not sufficiently depleting glycogen, all that fat will store. However, if done correctly this diet can have unbelievable results. I have used this diet multiple times when I know I need to drop body fat quickly and be in shape for a shoot or show on short notice. I went from 10% to 7.2% in about 6 weeks on this diet at one point. I mentioned the weekend carb up at the top of this paragraph. This carb up on Sunday allows our body to refill our depleted glycogen so that we can workout intensely the following week without burning precious muscle. You will notice a water weight gain the following morning of 2-5 pounds, but trust this will all be gone within 24-48 hours and you will be back into ketosis. The number one question I am asked is what you can eat and what workout I recommend. First off...eating. WHATEVER YOU WANT. As long as it is high in fat and you are not eating carbs, don't worry abotu saturated fats. Ground beef, eggs, cheese, sauage, bacon. All of it. Just make sure carbs stay under 30 grams. Below I posted workout that dropped my body fat almost 3% in 6 weeks while retaining all my muscle.
Monday- Start monday with low intensity cardio on the stairmaster of an hour on an empty stomach.
Tuesday- Arms and Shoulders workout. Keep same intensity as monday workout. Lift heavy 6-8 reps on every set. You never want to lift weights on an empty stomach. I only recommend cardio, but we won't do any of that today.
Wednesday- Take Fuco Burn or some other type fat burner upon waking and hit low intensity cardio for an hour again. No weights today.
Thursday- No cardio today. Legs heavy 6-8 reps sometime during the day.
Friday- I do a full body circuit on the machines to completely deplete all the glycogen left. Hit everything light for abotu 15 reps. No cardio today.
Saturday- Nitric Pure and morning cardio. No weights today.
Sunday- CARB UP!!!! Just as I explained above. Keep the fat very low and load your body up with low glycemic carbs such as oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice. etc...Some people really need to keep calories at maintenance, but depending on your body type..you might be able to just go all out. I use this as my day off from the gym completely, but I know some like to do cardio.
Targeted Ketogenic Diet
Again..this is a diet based around ketosis, but without the weekend carb up. Instead, we consume carbs only around workout times to fuel an intense workout. You can follow the same workouts I listed for the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, but consume about 50 grams of carbs before and after every workout. However, you won't have a weekend carb load with this diet. Weight will come off fast, but I noticed this diet can cause some muscle loss as carbs stay to low for most people to maintain muscle mass. I used this diet once, and did drop a substantial amount of body fat, but definitely lean tissue as well.
Anabolic Diet
I personally don't find much of a difference between the anabolic diet and a normal cyclical ketogenic diet. The only thing that most avid supporters say is that you must have a 13 day period where you eat no carbs at all. SO..you basically just take two weeks of no carbs and then after this initial start up, you have a weekly carb up just like the CKD. I have many friends who stay on this diet year round. They load up on red meat..steak, ground beef, etc. They use it to bulk and cut. Same general rules. When you want to cut...cut the fat first so you start losing weight. WHen you want to bulk...add some more fat to your diet. I find that the "13 day" start up phase is necessary for some and not for others. If you find you are losing significant weight during the first week, you probably need a carb up so you don't start losing muslce and become very flat looking. I personally can get away with 6 days and a carb day on the 7th.
Carb Cycling
This is my single favorite method of not only cutting, but a good lean bulk. Carb cycling is exactly as it sounds. Your week is cycled between high, medium, and low carb days. I like to go high, medium, and no carb. The diet would be set up something like this.
Monday-High Carb-400 grams of carbs
Tuesday-Medium Carb-200 grams of carbs
Wednesday-No Carbs
Thursday-Medium-200 grams of carbs
Friday-High Carb-400 grams of carbs
Saturday-No Carb
Sunday-Medium Carb-200 grams
The example above would be how I would set up a cutting diet while carb cycling. I have two high carb days a week which will rev up your metabolism and keep you burning fat. On these high carb days I like to perform High Intensity Interval Training cardio and I always always always train whatever my weakest body part is. No carb days I stick to low intensity cardio only and no weights. I want to spare as much muscle as possible while cutting the calories. The weight and body fat will come off a bit slower than any ketogenic diet, but I notice I come in much more muscular and notice little to no muscle loss with this diet. You will feel full and never have carb cravings.
For those of you who want to use this diet for a clean bulk...add a couple more days of higher or medium carb days. If you are gaining more than 1-1.5 pounds a week it is most likely fat and you will need to cut back on the carbs.
Supplements
The world of supplementation has come a long way in the last few years. I have never been huge into supplementation, and don't even think abotu steroids if you haven't been training at least 5-10 years. Your body is a science. Every one is different and each of you will respond in a different way to the above diets. It's all about trial and error. I recommend 4 supplements that I take year round.
1. Protein- Get a good whey protein such as L.A. whey or just any brand from GNC. Protein shakes are awesome for post workout nutrition because they re-fuel the muscles quickly. Make sure if you are going to try one of the ketogenic diets that your protein shake has low or no carbs.
2. Glutamine- This is one of the bodies 11 non essential acids, but is very important for recovery and preventing catabolism. When the body is put under stress, glutamine reserves are depleted. Most protein shakes now contain a small amount of glutamine, but it would be beneficial to take some in pill form in before and after workouts.
3. Nitric Pure- This is kind of a mix between a fat burner, appetite suppressant, workout booster. I have tried N.O. Xplode, redline, etc. and this is by fat the best stuff I have used. It gives me an awesome boost for morning cardio, and it may just be in my head, but I always seem to retain more muscle when I take it. If you dont' want to get this stuff...I would recommened getting some type of pre workout supplement from GNC or the morning cardio and calorie deficits will really start to take a toll on you.
That's it. Pretty nice little sum up in one post of every question I see the newbies and others ask about cutting diets and supplementation. Work your ass off and stick to one diet for at least a month to see how your body responds and any goal you have is possible. Feel free to pm me if you have any more questions. I'm not one to rip apart what some would call "stupid questions". We all started somewhere and had someone along the way to teach us the ropes. Take care boys.
Cutting diets:
Cutting fat is probably the hardest thing to do. Multiple diets exist and I'm going to mention a few that I have tried particularly and the results I had with each.
Ketogenic Diet:
This seems to have become one of the new fads in the last few years. Basically, a ketogenic diet is one in which you consume less than 30 grams of carbs a day. Carbs are stored in the body as something called glycogen. Glycogen is used for energy. However, your body can only handle so much glycogen. When you consume to many carbs, the glycogen overflows and is stored in the body as fat. On a ketogenic diet, we stop eating carbs and all our daily calories come from fat and protein. This is basically the exact same thing as the atkins diet. It varies from person to person, but after 3-14 days without eating carbs, our body will go into a state of ketosis. This means it will start using fat for energy rather than carbs. A foggy, starvation feeling does occur for most people after a few days on this diet, but once we go into ketosis, energy levels are high and weight loss can be very fast and very large. It is not uncommon to see weight loss of 5-10 pounds in the first week. This is almost all water weight due to the fact that glycogen is responsible for holding water in our body. I personally do not recommend this diet for most people that will be reading this post. Your exercise performance will be noticeably lower. Strength and endurance is normally very low, and muscle can be burned up quite easily. I recommend this to most of my clients that come in very overweight who have no interest in muscle loss or gain. I have seen some of my clients lose 50 or more pounds in just a few months using this exact diet.
----side note. You can buy something called keto sticks at any CVS or Walgreens. You basically just pee on them and the color change will let you know whether you are in ketosis and burning fat or not.
Cyclical Ketogenic Diet:
I see this diet all over the boards and it's one I have quite a bit of experience. The only difference from this diet and the regular ketogenic diet is a weekend carb up period. This can be done a number of different ways, but I'll explain mine. I spend Monday through Saturday consuming only fats and protein. Sunday, I keep fat extremely low and spread my 6-8 meals out with only good carbs and protein. Again, you will notice a weight loss of 5-10 pounds in just a few days due to your body burning off glycogen and losing water weight. You need to be consuming water constantly because you can become very dehydrated on this diet if not. The general breakdown for this diet is 65% fat 30% protein and 5% carbs, and again none of these carbs come from any direct source. You must make sure you follow thsi general breakdown because too much protein CAN actually be stored as glycogen which is the opposite of our goal. The single most important part of this diet is carbs have to remain extremely low. You are basically teetering on the edge of fat loss and fat gain. If you are not sufficiently depleting glycogen, all that fat will store. However, if done correctly this diet can have unbelievable results. I have used this diet multiple times when I know I need to drop body fat quickly and be in shape for a shoot or show on short notice. I went from 10% to 7.2% in about 6 weeks on this diet at one point. I mentioned the weekend carb up at the top of this paragraph. This carb up on Sunday allows our body to refill our depleted glycogen so that we can workout intensely the following week without burning precious muscle. You will notice a water weight gain the following morning of 2-5 pounds, but trust this will all be gone within 24-48 hours and you will be back into ketosis. The number one question I am asked is what you can eat and what workout I recommend. First off...eating. WHATEVER YOU WANT. As long as it is high in fat and you are not eating carbs, don't worry abotu saturated fats. Ground beef, eggs, cheese, sauage, bacon. All of it. Just make sure carbs stay under 30 grams. Below I posted workout that dropped my body fat almost 3% in 6 weeks while retaining all my muscle.
Monday- Start monday with low intensity cardio on the stairmaster of an hour on an empty stomach.
Tuesday- Arms and Shoulders workout. Keep same intensity as monday workout. Lift heavy 6-8 reps on every set. You never want to lift weights on an empty stomach. I only recommend cardio, but we won't do any of that today.
Wednesday- Take Fuco Burn or some other type fat burner upon waking and hit low intensity cardio for an hour again. No weights today.
Thursday- No cardio today. Legs heavy 6-8 reps sometime during the day.
Friday- I do a full body circuit on the machines to completely deplete all the glycogen left. Hit everything light for abotu 15 reps. No cardio today.
Saturday- Nitric Pure and morning cardio. No weights today.
Sunday- CARB UP!!!! Just as I explained above. Keep the fat very low and load your body up with low glycemic carbs such as oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice. etc...Some people really need to keep calories at maintenance, but depending on your body type..you might be able to just go all out. I use this as my day off from the gym completely, but I know some like to do cardio.
Targeted Ketogenic Diet
Again..this is a diet based around ketosis, but without the weekend carb up. Instead, we consume carbs only around workout times to fuel an intense workout. You can follow the same workouts I listed for the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, but consume about 50 grams of carbs before and after every workout. However, you won't have a weekend carb load with this diet. Weight will come off fast, but I noticed this diet can cause some muscle loss as carbs stay to low for most people to maintain muscle mass. I used this diet once, and did drop a substantial amount of body fat, but definitely lean tissue as well.
Anabolic Diet
I personally don't find much of a difference between the anabolic diet and a normal cyclical ketogenic diet. The only thing that most avid supporters say is that you must have a 13 day period where you eat no carbs at all. SO..you basically just take two weeks of no carbs and then after this initial start up, you have a weekly carb up just like the CKD. I have many friends who stay on this diet year round. They load up on red meat..steak, ground beef, etc. They use it to bulk and cut. Same general rules. When you want to cut...cut the fat first so you start losing weight. WHen you want to bulk...add some more fat to your diet. I find that the "13 day" start up phase is necessary for some and not for others. If you find you are losing significant weight during the first week, you probably need a carb up so you don't start losing muslce and become very flat looking. I personally can get away with 6 days and a carb day on the 7th.
Carb Cycling
This is my single favorite method of not only cutting, but a good lean bulk. Carb cycling is exactly as it sounds. Your week is cycled between high, medium, and low carb days. I like to go high, medium, and no carb. The diet would be set up something like this.
Monday-High Carb-400 grams of carbs
Tuesday-Medium Carb-200 grams of carbs
Wednesday-No Carbs
Thursday-Medium-200 grams of carbs
Friday-High Carb-400 grams of carbs
Saturday-No Carb
Sunday-Medium Carb-200 grams
The example above would be how I would set up a cutting diet while carb cycling. I have two high carb days a week which will rev up your metabolism and keep you burning fat. On these high carb days I like to perform High Intensity Interval Training cardio and I always always always train whatever my weakest body part is. No carb days I stick to low intensity cardio only and no weights. I want to spare as much muscle as possible while cutting the calories. The weight and body fat will come off a bit slower than any ketogenic diet, but I notice I come in much more muscular and notice little to no muscle loss with this diet. You will feel full and never have carb cravings.
For those of you who want to use this diet for a clean bulk...add a couple more days of higher or medium carb days. If you are gaining more than 1-1.5 pounds a week it is most likely fat and you will need to cut back on the carbs.
Supplements
The world of supplementation has come a long way in the last few years. I have never been huge into supplementation, and don't even think abotu steroids if you haven't been training at least 5-10 years. Your body is a science. Every one is different and each of you will respond in a different way to the above diets. It's all about trial and error. I recommend 4 supplements that I take year round.
1. Protein- Get a good whey protein such as L.A. whey or just any brand from GNC. Protein shakes are awesome for post workout nutrition because they re-fuel the muscles quickly. Make sure if you are going to try one of the ketogenic diets that your protein shake has low or no carbs.
2. Glutamine- This is one of the bodies 11 non essential acids, but is very important for recovery and preventing catabolism. When the body is put under stress, glutamine reserves are depleted. Most protein shakes now contain a small amount of glutamine, but it would be beneficial to take some in pill form in before and after workouts.
3. Nitric Pure- This is kind of a mix between a fat burner, appetite suppressant, workout booster. I have tried N.O. Xplode, redline, etc. and this is by fat the best stuff I have used. It gives me an awesome boost for morning cardio, and it may just be in my head, but I always seem to retain more muscle when I take it. If you dont' want to get this stuff...I would recommened getting some type of pre workout supplement from GNC or the morning cardio and calorie deficits will really start to take a toll on you.
That's it. Pretty nice little sum up in one post of every question I see the newbies and others ask about cutting diets and supplementation. Work your ass off and stick to one diet for at least a month to see how your body responds and any goal you have is possible. Feel free to pm me if you have any more questions. I'm not one to rip apart what some would call "stupid questions". We all started somewhere and had someone along the way to teach us the ropes. Take care boys.
