[150reasons]

I just read about the anabolic diet. My question is: Is this diet ok for someone who still has a lot of weight to lose, or is this targeted toward those who are already very fit, and just wanting to get buff? It sounds pretty doable to me, but I read about on a weightlifters forum, and am not sure if it is geared toward us "chubbies" at all. Thanks in advance.

[Eves]

I thought about going on this diet before and asked a couple of guys at my gym about it. They are both on it, both are on their schools weight lifting team. this is what they told me, and from the research I did about it, it sounds about right.

To get the full benefits from going Anabolic you have to be strict and work hard.

Strict as in other than a post workout shake (and even then, they get less than 20g of carbs from that), more than 90% of your carbs have to come from low carb vegetables. Even if they are whole grain, or whatever. It's spinach, kale, broccoli and the like for them 5 days a week. No cereal, bread, or oatmeal.

Their 6th and 7th days it's pastas, bread, whole grain only. It's the day when you go high carb, low fat, low protein.

Working hard. These guys leave everything at the gym. Both of these guys are currently cutting, so it's 3 days a week of heavy lifting, their heaviest being the day after their carb overload, and HIIT on the off days other than their rest day.

Both warned me that if I go on the diet and am not strict with my carbs, I'll gain weight. If I don't work hard, I'll gain weight. Calories definitely count, so you can't eat away 3,000 cals and not expect to gain. Both also said that I have to not be afraid of fat, and that they mistake that they both had was going for chicken breasts instead of fattier meat.

I'm following the Stronglifts 5 x 5 program, sans anabolic diet. Here's some info for women: http://stronglifts.com/the-anabolic-diet-for-women/

The reason I have not tried to go on the Anabolic diet is that I have to go on trips for work every other week. This should stop in September, and I'm thinking about trying it then, but right now I don't have as much control over my tough workouts and meals as I need to do the diet properly.

Also, everyone in every forum that I looked at said that the first week was ****.

Hope this helps.

[150reasons]

Thanks, that actually did help quite a bit. I was considering trying it out, but as I am currently not lifting weights, I think I will wait until I can get into a gym. I do a lot of other exercise, but I don't want to gain any weight right now, unless it's muscle. Thanks again.
Michelle

[Mel]

OK, that sounds just like the Cyclic Ketogenic diet by Lyle McDonald. I lost a few pounds on it, but I was miserable. Not so much the food, but doing the workouts towards the end of the week in a carb depleted state, and then doing the total depletion workout was miserable. I eat what seems like a low carb diet (about 25-30% of my calories are from carbs), but I was trying to stay under 20 grams daily except for the carb up days. Those weren't even fun

Let us know if you try it!

Mel