Subject: My bodyopus experience.week 1 Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996 Date: 1996/05/06
Well, since there appears to be a lot of clamoring about Bodyopus, protocols, results, etc. I thought I'd do a weekly write up (like some others) of my personal results, training, etc. Today marks my following the BO plan for exactly 7 days. As suggested by Dan, I eliminated carbs from my diet at 6pm two Sunday's ago. I took 50 mg of vanadyl sulfate (VS) with my last meal as well as prior to bedtime to being lowering blood glucose. Personal stats: Bodyweight: 156 lbs BF% (by one site home caliper): 15.4% Fat mass: 24 lbs Fat free mass: 132 lbs Monday: at about 1700 calories. Trained legs, back, and bis in the gym. Followed with 20-30 minutes of cardio at about 120 BPM. Still feeling ok at this point. Shouldn't have taken 3 doses of the thermogenic cocktail (50 mg ephedrine, 200 mg caffeine, 150 mg aspirin) as I couldn't sleep. Tuesday: still about 1700 calories. Trained chest, delts, and tris in the gym. Also followed with 30 minutes of cardio at 120 BPM. Wednesday: In mild ketosis right on schedule. Did 60 minutes of cardio even though Dan says not to. It was not fun. Hunger starting to get blunted at this point and find myself not eating meals. Thursday: same as Wednesday but only 30 minutes of cardio. Feeling really shitty at this point. Still skipping meals although I know it's bad. Friday: 30 minutes more cardio on empty stomach. Ate one apple and one banana at 11 am to get out of ketosis. Start depletion workout at 1:30. Did it in a Peripheral Heart Action type of circuit: Squat chest row leg curl shoulder press lat pulldown leg extension biceps triceps leg press abs low back Each exercise for 20-25 reps or about 3 reps short of failure whichever came first. It took about 20-25 minutes per circuit with 60" between exercises but I still only finished two total circuits. Not because I was tired but because I was getting bored. Mental note: How much muscle glycogen can possible be left after 5 day with no carbs? Is the mammoth grand depletion workout all that necessary? Started my carbing. For the first 24 hours, I was perfect. Got up in the middle of the night (damn you, Duchaine) to eat Powerbars and drink Ultra fuel and switched to more solid carbs (sweet potatoes) later in the day. With each meal I took 10 mg of vanadyl, 100 mg of chromium, and 125 mg of magnesium. (I used a pill cutter to cut the chromium and magnesium tablets in half). Going into the second 24, I was starting to get full. In fact, I didn't even bother getting up in the middle of the night. I ate some carbs at breakfast and lunch and then had a couple of final Ultrafuel and Designer Whey shakes before 6pm when I cut out carbs. Yuck. More red meat for dinner. Ok, so it's Monday morning, what are the fruits of my labors. My weight had been as high as 157 on Sunday but it was back down to 153 this morning. Got out the calipers. Here was the breakdown. Bodyweight: 153 BF%: 13.6 Fat mass: 21 lbs Fat free mass: 132 lbs. Wow! Even though Dan told me that 2 lbs/week was realistic, I somehow managed to drop 3 lbs of fat with zero loss of muscle tissue. If I keep this up, I'll be shredded in 4 or 5 weeks. On top of that, all lifts in the gym were up this morning. I opted to work my whole body in one long session as I had the problem last week with my pecs and delts being sore when I began carbing. I intend to do about the same amount of cardio this week as last. Other mental notes: Just how critical are the quality and frequency of carb feedings? I mean, assuming I stay below 16 g of carbs/kg of lean weight, will it make a huge difference if I eat glucose polymers or donuts as far as recomposition goes? How will this effect my workout on Monday? I plan to test this next weekend when I go on the Bodyopus for slugs variation and eat junk food whenever I damn well please making sure to stay below about 5000 calories. We shall see what effects (if any) it has on the overall results. Until next Monday, Lyle McDonald, CSCS