Anabolic Diet

[Chimaira]

It's been a long time since posting here, but I do have a few insights on this diet. I have tried it a couple of times and have since abandoned the idea.

Pros: Good amount of weight loss, both water and fat. I did have some strength improvements in my weightlifting as well. Also, I was never hungry because the food was very filling.

Cons: First couple days sucked, as most people have stated, but that passes very fast. It is a little hard in some social situations, too. There were two big downsides that have prevented me from ever wanting to do it again. First, on the reload days I had a habit of going overboard, so my progress was much slower than it could have been, but I take full blame for that.

The big con for me is that after a few weeks I pretty much stopped crapping. The scale started going up because I was losing fat but retaining waste. My kittens were taking bigger shits than me. Frankly, I am a man that loves a good dump, and this diet took some of the joy out of my life. I can do without muffins. I can't do without poop.

[War Wizard]

I don't think I did make it through 2 weeks actually. But I decided that my performance on the mat was more important to me. I managed to lose the weight I wanted in the end just by reducing portion sizes and eating more frequently.

The first two weeks really do suck. I had murder on the mind every time somebody was eating a large amount of carbs in my presence. The really shitty part was that the managers at work decided to have a managerial cake baking contest all week long during week 2.

[Happy Panda]

research acidosis and ketone bodies

Not quite sure what I'm looking for. I glanced through the wiki on metabolic acidosis and saw something about rapid breathing, but my breathing was always normal even when my heart rate was through the roof. My heart rate is still a little higher than normal, but not nearly as much as before.

[RaddyD]

I notice it mostly in the morning since I always have to piss like a racehorse an hour or two before my alarm goes off (high sodium = lots of water), and my heart is beating like it's going to break through my ribcage and attack me. It's definitely higher throughout the day too though.

research acidosis and ketone bodies

[Asriel]

I don't think I did make it through 2 weeks actually. But I decided that my performance on the mat was more important to me. I managed to lose the weight I wanted in the end just by reducing portion sizes and eating more frequently.

[Happy Panda]

I tried the diet you're on Panda and couldn't cope with it.

I was training BJJ 3-4 times a week and hitting the weights 2-3 times a week and found that without *any* carbs, I was struggling in a major way to keep up in training and I was always tired and weak.

One of the older guys at work who doesn't train at all also followed it and the weight fell off so I guess it can work.

Did you make it past the first 2 weeks? I can't say how my recovery is since I only wrestle about once a week, but when I do I can keep up pretty well and don't feel weak at all. If I had been trying to train regularly during the first 2 weeks though, I probably wouldn't have made it either.

[War Wizard]

Yeah you weren't kidding about that thread being long. Maybe on the weekend I'll make a marathon out of it. As for the recipes, I suck at cooking and don't have the motivation to learn right now. I'm usually not very picky about food, so I'll just stick to fried meat and frozen broccoli for now.

Thanks for the links though, and it's encouraging to hear that someone's getting results with the diet.

Really all you need is a decent skillet and a range. Literally the only items I ever use are my George Foreman, two skillets and the oven. Learning to cook is super easy, pick up How to Cook Everything. Between that and a decent grill book (I've got five actually) you're set. I'm not picky either, but a little variety every now and again goes a long way.

[Asriel]

I tried the diet you're on Panda and couldn't cope with it.

I was training BJJ 3-4 times a week and hitting the weights 2-3 times a week and found that without *any* carbs, I was struggling in a major way to keep up in training and I was always tired and weak.

One of the older guys at work who doesn't train at all also followed it and the weight fell off so I guess it can work.

[Happy Panda]

4 weeks in here.

Down 15 pounds (mostly water weight 4-5 real fat pounds). Lost 1 inch off my waist.

Honestly it's not hard to stay on. Stronglifts has 3 articles of recipes here, here, and here. Use those recipes to get started and then use the food list here, a decent cookbook, and Nutritiondata.com.

I would also strongly advise checking out this thread at T-nation. It's REALLY long but there's an incredible amount of info about the diet and people's adventures with it in there.

Yeah you weren't kidding about that thread being long. Maybe on the weekend I'll make a marathon out of it. As for the recipes, I suck at cooking and don't have the motivation to learn right now. I'm usually not very picky about food, so I'll just stick to fried meat and frozen broccoli for now.

Thanks for the links though, and it's encouraging to hear that someone's getting results with the diet.

[Deadmeat]

*subscribes*

[War Wizard]

4 weeks in here.

Down 15 pounds (mostly water weight 4-5 real fat pounds). Lost 1 inch off my waist.

Honestly it's not hard to stay on. Stronglifts has 3 articles of recipes here, here, and here. Use those recipes to get started and then use the food list here, a decent cookbook, and Nutritiondata.com.

I would also strongly advise checking out this thread at T-nation. It's REALLY long but there's an incredible amount of info about the diet and people's adventures with it in there.

[honesty]

I think it might be interesting/useful to others if you were to log any changes you see.

I'm going to start this on Monday next week. I'll stick my numbers and thoughts in this thread as I go.

[Happy Panda]

Actually I'd be interested in starting this myself reading up on it now. Some questions, did you do a loading period, if yes how long for?
Your doing 4 meals rather than 6, was that just for convenience?

I'm not sure what you mean about the loading period. If you're talking about doing something before going on the diet, no, I just jumped in. 4 meals a day is for convenience and because I'm used to eating as much as possible when I take time to eat.

This is really common when someone moves to a low-carb diet. There's often around 2-3 weeks of feeling shitty, after which everything suddenly goes awesome.

I experienced something sort of similar (to a much lesser degree) last time I was doing low carbs, but I can't really compare them since I was restricting my calories last time. It may just be because of how bad my diet was before I started, but for whatever reason, I am objectively much stronger than I was before starting, and I have hardly been exercising.

The best and most pleasurable variation on this theme is The Paleo Diet for Athletes

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look for it next time I'm at the bookstore. Regardless of whether or not this diet's any good though, I'm going to stick to it for another month and a half at least to see what happens.

Honestly I wasn't planning on turning this into a log at first, I was just depressed because I missed carbs and wanted to talk about it. I started the diet on a whim and didn't think to record anything but my weight and some less-than-comprehensive 'before' pictures. I normally just go by the scale and the mirror and how I feel when I'm experimenting with stuff.

That being said, I realize I'm not being very objective, and since this is kind of turning into a log, I'll do what I can to fix that. I'll see if I can get a BF measurement sometime soon.

[Kentucky Fried Chokin]

[Kentucky Fried Chokin]

I read the book a while back and tried to do a variation on the diet called Natural Hormonal Enhancement