Subject: My bodyopus experience.week5 Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996 Date: 1996/06/03
Before I get into the week 5 update, it's time for some more prelude comments. I've been thinking a bit about the overall Bodyopus scheme as laid out by Dan the Man. I, and others, have to a great degree taken Dan on faith in terms of many things regarding the overall diet. But, now I'm starting to question a couple of those things. For example, Dan said (in a past Ask the Guru column) that Bodyopus dieters should only show ketones in the morning and that ketones in the evening indicate too many calories or insufficient activity. But, back in week 2, I found that a day of almost complete fasting (not by choice) led to extremely high ketone levels that evening. A friend who is also on BO has found the same thing. Ok, this is minor complaint at best but my main question is about the workout schedule. Here are some puzzle pieces that I've been trying to put together in my own mind. 1. At least for myself, skipping the Friday depletion workout made no difference in terms of fat spillover or workout quality during week 4. I had mentioned back in week 1 or 2 that I doubted there could be much glycogen left anyhow and that I was unconvinced that this workout was critical. Which seemed to be the case at least for me. Now, let me say that, for the pre-contest bodybuilder, this workout might definitely be critical in terms of looking their best at contest time. But, I'm not getting ready for a contest so I see it as an unnecessary waste of time for me. 2. Jeff Krabbe (who has been following the Anabolic Diet) for over a year follows his own type of workout plan and he is currently at 4.5% bodyfat and gaining muscle. He also has a friend that trains during the recarb which again goes against what Dan suggests in terms of achieving maximal carb-up. Again, not training on weekends makes perfect sense if you're trying to get maximal glycogen loading. 3. A buddy of mine made the comment that, in terms of burning calories/ glycogen, the high rep depletion workout burned way more than a typical high tension session (this was part of a different discussion which is not important here). This may seem out of place but I'll get back to it in a second. 4. TC has written (in MM2000) that most of the protein synthesis occurs from hour 1 to hour 30 following a workout. That is, this is the time when you need anabolic hormones like test, GH, insulin to move nutrients into the muscle cells. So what am I getting at? Dan suggests the following schedule to optimize results from Bodyopus: Mon: high tension workout for half of the body Tuesday: high tension workout for other half of the body The purpose of these two workouts is to instill an anabolic response to prevent muscle loss while dieting. I'll come back to this. Wed/Thu: aerobics optional to burn ketone calories Fri: high rep, 2 hour depletion workout. The purpose of this workout is to deplete muscle glycogen so that total supercompensation can occur. What I'm thinking is this: What if you switched around the workout schedule to something like this: Mon: either full body 2 hour depletion workout or split body into Mon and Tue. Tue: aerobics or other half of body depletion workout. Perhaps followed by interval training (which, as I mentioned in the Week 4 update) would serve to clear out what little glycogen (especially liver glycogen) might be left and help you get into ketosis faster. Wed: aerobics Thu or Thu/Fri: do high tension workout (either full body on Friday or split routine on Thu and Fri). Sat/Sun: no training Alternately, you could just ditch the damn depletion workout and train normally on some type of split routine. I'd put any weak bodyparts on Monday and Tuesday to take advantage of whatever strength increases you get from the carb loading. Or perhaps use a split like: Mon: legs, back, bis: 1-2 exercises per bodypart or POF or something Tue: chest, delts, tris: 1-2 exercises per bodypart or POF or something Fri: whole body: 1 exercise per bodypart for 2-3 sets to failure. This would do double duty. You can take advantage of the carbo loading on Mon and Tue and then get all muscles trained on Friday before the carb up to take advantage of the anabolic rush. In fact, that's what I'm going to do this week. Here's the rationale: BO is meant to be a fat loss diet and you don't get into major fat burning until you hit ketosis. Which can't occur until you drop blood glucose below 50 and empty out liver glycogen (muscle glycogen doesn't really matter as far as ketosis is concerned). Doing the depletion workout first in the week would presumably drop glycogen and blood glucose levels faster than a normal high tension workout. Interval training would accomplish the same thing. But, Dan says that high intensity aerobics burn muscle. What about sprinters? Or Shawn Phillips for that matter (see MM2000 article by Shawn on High Intensity Interval Training for fat loss several months back). Yes, long duration, high intensity activity will probably cause a loss of muscle but intervals don't *seem* to cause that at least not done in any reasonable amount. Would three days of interval training while in ketosis hasten fat loss? Maybe, but it would suck big time wind to do. Also, doing the high tension workouts on Thu/Fri or whole body on Friday means that, in the first 30 hours post workout, you would be able to take advantage of the insulin and GH pulse that you get while recarbing. Possible drawbacks to the Lyle method: 1. Can't take advantage of the super-glycogenated muscles on Mon and Tue which (supposedly) make you stronger. Personally, I haven't noticed a monster difference as it is. A buddy of mine did feel extrememly strong following recarb this last week but we can't be sure if was because: a. the carbing worked really well for him. b. he loaded creatine that weekend during recarb. c. he took more ephedrine than usual. I put my money on 'b' and 'c'. 2. Soreness from high tension workout may impair carbing. But, question: why wouldn't this apply to normal training. I mean, on a high carb diet, there's no problem getting carbs into the muscles. Here's what I think the problem is: I think that Dan designed BO for the competitive bodybuilder who's getting ready for a contest. In this case, doing the high rep depletion workout prior to recarbing makes perfect sense. That allows all carbs to go to refilling the muscles without being drawn away for repairing the damaged muscle fibers. But, what about those of us simply using BO to lose fat and maintain or even gain a bit of muscle at the same time? In this case, using the depletion workout to get into ketosis more quickly *should* allow you to get into fat burning more quickly. And, since getting every last drop of carbs into the muscle isn't as critical (since we're not preparing for a contest), doing your high tension workout immediately prior to the recarb might create more of an anabolic response than doing it when carbs are lower (which also allows cortisol to be higher as carbs lower cortisol levels) early in the week. A lot of this came out of the differences between Pasquale's Anabolic Diet (AD) and Dan's Bodyopus (BO) which I'll be summarizing and getting into in the prelude to the week 6 update. The AD seems geared towards gaining mass with minimal fat gain which is why calories are not restricted. For that goal, training more 'normally' might be more beneficial. BO seems geared towards maximizing fat loss while minimizing muscle loss which is why it's set up the way it is (calories at maintenance or below). Anyone out there have any comments on this idea? Dan? Lyle McDonald, CSCS ----------------------------- Just to let you know that these shouldn't be as damn long as before. At this point, most of the things I'm doing are the same and I see little need to keep repeating my diet, or my supplement schedule. If anyone missed these from earlier updates, send me mail and I'll bring you up to date. If I try anything radically different, I'll point it out, otherwise there's no point in repeating the same stuff over and over again. And I apologize again for the formatting on the body composition measures. There seems to be a problem between my text editor and my terminal program when I paste these updates onto m.f.w. Ok, it's week five and here's the score starting out. Body-composition measurement: Date: 5-20-96 5-27-96 Change Pec (mm) 6 5 -1mm Abs (mm) 27 24 -3mm Thigh (mm) 9 8.5 -.5mm Supra iliac (mm)* 17.5 18 +.5mm Total of 3 (mm) 42 37.5 -4.5 mm Bodyweight: 151 154 +3 lbs BF%: 12.2% 10.4% -1.8% Fat mass: 18.4 16 -2.4 lbs Fat free mass: 132.6 138 +5.4 lbs Assuming I can keep up a decent rate of fat loss, I figure 3 more weeks to 7% bodyfat (my goal). That would require a fat loss of 6 lbs which, assuming no LBM loss, would be 10 lbs of fat / 148 total weight = 6.75% bodyfat. Whoo-hoo! as Homer Simpson would say. My week at a glance: ------------------- Sunday: As I stated in the week 4 update, I went for a 30 mile bike ride on Sunday with some friends. Finished the junk food carb at 6pm bloated as all hell and took 50 mg of VS before bedtime. Monday: Took squats back to maintanance but upper body lifts (dips and chins) both went up so I take this as a maintenance of muscle mass. This is the week I go below 10% bodyfat for the first time in my life. I'm psyched. I can taste cut abs at this point and there's no way in hell I'm going to stop now. Thyroid levels be damned!! Diet: Going to try increasing my calories a bit this week and see what happens. I've been about 1700 per day but am going to try to move up to 2000 per day (not easy since I hate the food choices). Supplements: took 50 mg Vanadyl with 200 mcg chromium and 250 mg magnesium with my first and last shake in addition to my normal vitamins (one a day, extra A, C, and E, and calcium). Also took ECA three times. My dosages were: 1. 50 mg ephedrine 2. 200 mg caffeine 3. 160 mg aspirin (1/2). I found low dosage adult aspirin (81 mg) at the grocery and will be using that from now on. 4. 1 gram of L-tyrosine (which is a noradrenaline precursor and adds a bit more kick) 5. 8 mg Twinlab Yohimbine fuel (upregulates NE release from nerve terminals and raises body temp which I need. Also does a number on A2 receptors but this is more of a concern for women's lower body fat. However, I won't be surprised if research determines that male abdominal fat has similar receptor concentrations). I was vibrating at Monday's workout after this. Almost too amped up but my workout was great. My whole back is sore today from just one set of chins and one set of rows. Maybe those HIT guys have something right. ;) Unfortunately, I took my third dose too late in the day and got no sleep. I think the yohimbine and tyrosine kept the ECA in my system too long and I'm dropping back to two doses per day for the rest of this week. Tuesday: My weight dropped 5 lbs since yesterday (154 to 149). This is a big drop for one day which shows you just how much water I was retaining from my junk food carb-up. Diet: same as Monday. BTW, thanks to my Bodyopus gourmand Bob Koss for the following low-carb snack: 1/2 container heavy cream 1.5 scoop whey protein 1 packet Equal Mix into pudding (add more whey for a thicker consistency). Almost like eating carbs. Supplements: same as Monday but no vanadyl, mag, or chromium before bed as I'm already in ketosis. Notes: Due to my work schedule, I was not able to lift this morning. Since it was only delts and arms and more of a supplementary workout anyhow, it's no big deal. Also, I'm considering testing my hypothesis that a heavy training session prior to the recarb would be a better way to promote muscle growth than the depletion workout. In an attempt to speed my descent into ketosis (not there this evening), I hit 10 sixty second intervals with sixty second rest on the Stairmaster followed by 20 minutes of easy spinning on the bike. I definitely felt 'bonked' (which is a sign of not only low blood glucose but also depleted liver glycogen which is the key to getting into ketosis. If you've got liver glycogen stored, it will dump glucose into the bloodstream and keep you out of ketosis. This is the genesis of Dan's no fructose or sucrose on weekends (both reglycogenate the liver) rule.) after that workout and am sure I'll show ketones by tomorrow morning. Actually , I checked for ketones when I got home and I'm showing trace so this definitely did the job. Now, I wonder if I could get into ketosis in one day by lifting in the morning and doing intervals in the evening on Monday. Hmmm. Perhaps next week if my schedule allows. Wednesday: Well, I'm full into ketosis and getting the appetite supressant effects of ketones (FYI, one of the early criticisms of the Atkin's diet was that it blunted hunger. Yeah, Grog forbid that you not be hungry while dieting. This shows you how desparate mainstream nutrition 'experts' were to discredit this diet. They simply couldn't come up with anything better. And you wonder why I dislike most RD's. Please note that I said 'most'. Many RD's are progressive enough to accept that maybe, just maybe, high carb/low fat doesn't work for everyone. It's only the close minded idiots who decide that something doesn't work without even rationally considering it who chafe my ass.) I'm trying to keep my calories up but, between the ketones supressing my hunger and my general dislike of the food, it's difficult to do. I understand now why Dan said Rebound Dieting failed: not that it was a bad diet, people just couldn't eat enough to get the best results. For muscle growth, Dan (and Pasquale) suggests 20% over maintenance calories. I couldn't eat that much protein and grease if I tried to. If I could get a Designer/Flax IV drip going maybe. I ended up walking a total of about 45 minutes with my clients at work so I opted not to do any more cardio. That and I'm tired and lazy today. Ok, I lied. Owing to my pathological desire to have cut abs, I went to the gym again tonight and did 45' of easy cardio on the recumbent bike. What can I say, I'm a cardio addict. Thursday: Another good BO snack comes to mind. A food I eat a lot (and actually enjoy) is string cheese which is cylindrical strips of mozarella cheese. Thing is, cold they are a bit chewy and gross. If you microwave them for 30-40 seconds, they melt just enough to be delicious. Kind of like pizza topping just without the crust. I bet dipped into a bit of tomato sauce they'd be even better but watch those carbs. Friday: Ok, time for the pre-binge body composition measurement. Date: Friday 5-31-96 Pec (mm) 5 (no change from 5) Abs (mm) 24.5 (no change 24) Thigh (mm) 8 (no change 8) Supra iliac (mm)* 17 (down 2 from 19) Total of 3 (mm) 37 Bodyweight: 146 (up 2 lbs from last Friday) BF%: 10.4% Fat mass: 15.1 lbs (up .1 lbs from15) Fat free mass: 130.9 *Supra-iliac was not used for determination of bodyfat but only for comparison purposes.* Ok, this is bad. It appears that I have lost zero lbs of bodyfat this week but I don't know why. Everything was pretty much the same as last week as far as I can tell. If anything, I've been in ketosis for longer this week than last. Some possible reasons: 1. I got too much spillover last weekend with my 48 hour eat until your stomach hurts binge. This week I will be cutting down the length of my carb-up to no more than 36 hours (suggested by Jeff Krabbe in private email). That should limit the damage I can do bodyfat wise. 2. Yohimbine: This was the only real change I made supplement wise but, if anything, it *should* be helping with fat loss due to it's effect on a2 receptors and adrenaline release. 3. I mentioned last week that my morning body-temp had dropped. This is where I put my money. If this is the case, I can either: a. drop calories further which isn't necessary as I don't have any pressing contest to get ready for. b. back off for a couple of weeks, increase calories, discontinue the ECA stack and cut back on cardio and try to get thyroid levels upregulated like I said I was going to do last week. This is my plan for at least week 6. I'm also going to try weight training an extra day or two as discussed up above). Perhaps added calories plus some extra training can add a lb. or two of muscle in the next two weeks which should help raise metabolic rate. Notes: Ok, decided to test three hypotheses this weekend (which, unfortunately, makes it difficult to know what's doing what): 1. Shorten the carb load: Seeing as I have a major tendency to overdo it calorie wise during the recarb, I figure I can perform damage control by just shortening the load. This will also give me an additional day in ketosis which might also hasten fat loss. Ok, so I won't get full carbing of the muscles. As I'm going to discuss further in the next week update, I'm not convinced that it's necessary for the non-pre-contest bodybuilder anyhow. I started carbing at about 7:15 pm after my workout (and 30 minutes after taking 30 mg vanadyl, 750 mg HCA (see below), 200 mcg chromium, and 250 mg magnesium). I will continue to stuff my face until 7pm tomorrow night. Then it's a long bike ride Sunday morning to get back into ketosis as fast as I can. For the record, todays' workout went as well as Monday's typically does. In fact, I had more endurance as far as getting the same reps for a given weight with shorter rest periods. This makes me severly question the idea that glycogen compensated muscles are stronger but we shall see what happens on Monday. 2. Hydroxycitric acid (HCA): This is the 'miracle' diet suplement that inactivates the enzyme that converts glucose to fat (citrate lysase for you biochem trivia buffs). Jeff Krabbe has written that he found his appetite severely blunted using HCA during recarb. Also, it's been shown to help replenish glycogen stores over fat stores. I could use some appetite blunting (I already have put away an Ultra Fuel/Designer shake, a Phosphagain bar and 6 chocolate donuts and I've only been carbing for one hour if that gives you any idea of the type of gluttony I'm into on weekends. But, that is why I like this diet set up. With other schemes, I can't make a pig out of myself like this. This approach almost requires that you eat until you burst on weekends. Yes, I could make better food chioces but why do so if I don't have to. I'm sure I would get better glycogen reloading with Dan's exact suggestions but it's a pain and I won't do it consitently. My new catch phrase of "Good advice not taken is still bad advice" stolen from Bodyopus applies. I'm not trying to get contest ready so taking an extra week or two to get to my goals is worth being able to eat what I want for 24 hours). 3. Trained heavy before carb-up: This was the crux of my discussion above. I think part of my low body temp problem is my overall lack of muscle. I theorize that training heavy before recarb may get a better anabolic effect so this might allow me to gain some muscle mass and get my thyroid back on line (on that note, anyone out there know of any non-pharmaceutical ways or supplements to get T3 levels back up except for cut calories, drop ECA, and stop aerobics?). Additionally, I'm going to lift heavy three days (maybe 5 and try the Ironman Fat to Muscle workout or something) next week and cut back on cardio and see what happens. Gotta go eat my Poptarts now (chocolate of course). Saturday: Started my day with a box (!) of Lucky Charms (it was a small box) and then went into a sugar induced, serotonin coma afterwards and slept for 3 more hours. Actually had real food for lunch (tuna with fat free ranch dressing and added Flax). Went skating for about an hour and a half and then ate some more carbs. I finally stopped carbing at midnight since I was up. I know I said I planned to only carb 24 hours but couldn't quite stop. Had I gone to bed at 9pm, I would have stopped earlier but midnight seemed a good place to stop. Notes: the HCA definitely made me feel full quickly. I think I ate much, much less than last weekend. It will be interesting to see what effects this has in terms of spillover and my Monday workout. Also, I wonder if an extra day in ketosis might hasten fat loss (in other private email someone told me that they follow a low carb diet with 4-7 days of carbs every 4-6 weeks with good results.) I think this is workable except that: 1. a heavily muscled individual might lose muscle staying this long in ketosis. 2. I'd be afraid of re-adapting to carbohydrate metabolism with this long on carbs (interesting side note on this: Jeff Krabbe says he's been on the AD so long he cannot revert back to glucose metabolism but Pasquale says this happens if you stay on this diet long enough). Sunday: One major observation, I am not bloated like last week. I mean, last week I could see the water under my skin and felt truly shitty. This week I feel lean and full and my muscles are a bit tight from the lift on Friday. This was probably due to both shortening the carb load as well as using the HCA. Yes, I may have compromised muscle super-glycgenation but it's a small price to pay to be able to eat whatever junk food I want to not be bloated to all hell. It's raining so I can't go riding this morning which sucks. I'm going to try to get into the gym this afternoon to do some mild cardio to start driving blood glucose down and emptying liver glycogen to see if an extra day in ketosis makes any difference. Or maybe I won't and I can just be lazy. Big surprise, I went ahead and hit 45' of aerobics at the gym to hasten ketosis. HR was at 140 (about 73% of maximum). Dropped 50 mg VS before bedtime as usual. I hope to be in ketosis by the end of tomorow or early Tuesday at the latest which will give me 4 full days burning ketones. Some other notes about this week: Picked up the new Ironman this week. It sucked. Picked up the new PLUSA. It was a typical issue. Is it just me or are all the mags except for Peak Training Journal getting really bad? And if so, why don't I quit buying the stupid things? Maybe I should get a subscription to Milo (I already have one to Hardgainer but it gets really redundant after about 3 articles). I looked at this month's Flex which is amusing but there wasn't anything terribly interesting (except for a Q&A on steroids with Jerry Brainum and some others) in it to justify the cost. Even the half naked chick bodybuilder didn't do anything for me (even with the added yohimbine). Still other notes: Time for the Monday morning body comp. Date: 5-27-96 6-3-96 Change Pec (mm) 5 5 +0 mm Abs (mm) 24 25.5 +1.5 mm Thigh (mm) 8.5 8 -.5 mm Supra iliac (mm)* 18 15.5 -2.5mm Total of 3 (mm) 37.5 38.5 +1.5mm Bodyweight: 154 149 -5lbs BF%: 10.4% 10.4% +0% Fat mass: 16 15.5 -.5lbs Fat free mass: 138 133.5 -4.5lbs *Supra-iliac was not used for bodyfat estimation but only for comparison purposes. Ok, observations on the week at large: Well, there appears to be a small fat loss since last Monday but it's within the range of error for the calipers. This again suggests to me that there has been some type of thyroid shutdown from the heavy dieting and use of thermogenic agents. Therefore, I'm going to attempt to maintain that bodyfat level for the next 2 weeks and gradually increase calories to about 2000 per day, discontinue ECA, reduce cardio volume and concentrate on lifting to see if I can get back on track. Dan has written that, for a 10 week diet, the best course of action is to diet for 4 weeks, go back to maintenance for 2 weeks and then finish dieting for the last 4. Looks like I have no choice but to do just that. And, seeing as morning temp was a pitifully low 96.4 (!), that's the plan. I'm also hoping that spending an extra day in ketosis will help avoid any fat gain while I increase calories and try to reset my thyroid. Next week: The differences and similarities between Bodyopus and the Anabolic Diet. Happy Bodyopusizing, Lyle McDonald