Subject: At last! Week 10 of the Bodyopus Experience Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996 Date: 1996/07/08
Alright, this is it. As mentioned in my week 8 update, this is the last weekly one I'm going to do as it concluded the dieting portion of my experiment (the next task is muscle gain). As stated in week 8, if I find out anything monumentally exciting about the diet, I'll post an update but doing this each week is taking a lot of time and I am trying to grow my personal training business. Since there's not much more for me to discuss theory or practice wise, I'll quit boring you with the hardcore physiology of the ketogenic diets and my own ponderings. Instead, I want to make some final comments about My Bodyopus Experience Weeks 1-10. At this point, I hope I've provided some good information to anyone who's considering following a Bodyopus type diet. If you still think that ketogenic diets are a fad or unhealthy or whatever, it's your loss. I think in 5-10 years, the high fat proponents like Duchaine, Pasquale, Atkins, and Sears will probably be validated. (It's funny but, in every field there is always a generational lag between when a new idea is presented and subsequently snubbed by the mainstream and when it is finally accepted as correct. A very related example is during the early 60-70's when endurance athletes were eating lots of protein and fat. Then Costill and some others come along saying that carbs were the best bet. They got laughed at. Now carbs are king and we are making the shift back to fat and protein. The point being that the current crop of RD's and MD's seem to have forgotten past experience with close minded attitudes towards new ideas. When they die and are replaced by new individuals, the new ideas will come to the forefront. And the pattern will just keep repeating itself). Again, if you still reject ketogenic diets out of hand, it's your loss. I have neither the time nor energy to waste trying to change your mind. It worked for me and that's all I really care about at this point. It might work for you. But, unless you're willing to try it out, you will never know. So, Lyle, was it worth it? ----------------------- As I've dieted, and dieted and dieted some more, there have been lots of distractions. With dieting, there always are. When I tell people about my diet, first they look at me funny ("What do you mean you haven't had carbs for 3 days?") and then ask me why I'm doing it. I talked about why I'm putting myself through this in previous week's updates so I won't rehash that here. As Dan points out in Bodyopus, non-athletes and the non-fit can't understand why we do what we do. And, no amount of explaining will make them understand. My mom can't understand why I'm suffering to have 7% bodyfat when I've got 8%. She's got 36% bodyfat if that's any indication. My entire family thinks I'm fucking nuts to work out like I do and eat like I do. Most of them are sedentary and fat and could never understand what I aspire to. But, I digress. Was the hassle and inconvenience of a low-carb diet worth it? Was it fun? Well, dieting by it's very nature is not fun. This is why I get frustrated with 99% of my personal training clients. They think that a little exercise a couple times a week (which they want to be fun and enjoyable) will get them in tip top shape. Oh, if it were just that easy. To me, the end results (placing in a race, 7% bodyfat) is what's fun. Doing 30' at a heart rate of 180 every other week to prepare for races is not fun. Restricting calories and eating meat and fat for every meal is not fun. Nothing worth achieving ever is fun. Low fat dieting was never fun for me for two reasons: 1. I was always hungry. 2. I never got where I wanted to be (which was related to 1). Low carb dieting required more willpower for me than Bodyopus for reasons discussed previously. Well, Bodyopus dieting wasn't fun either for other reasons: 1. I don't like high fat foods. 2. I'm a carbohydrate addict. But, I was less hungry and I did get where I wanted to be so it was worth it to me. Is this diet worth it to the average person? I don't think the average person would have the patience or discipline to put themselves through the necessary dietary restriction or training program needed to get optimal results. But, then again, Bodyopus isn't aimed at the average person. It's aimed at those who want to be more than average. I started this diet at 15% which is well within the recommended range for men (under 18% is considered healthy). I felt fat at that level. I'm now right around 8-9% (not deluding myself that I'm going to hold 7% for very long the first timt out). Most think that is unhealthily low. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't really care in any event. It's where I want to be. From that perspective, the diet was worth it. Unfortunately, the written word is insufficient (even with those f-ing smileys) to convey my excitement over finally reaching my body fat goals. I am 26 years old. I can't even begin to tell you how long I have yearned for low bodyfat and cut abdominals. And, no I may not have made it quite to my goals of 7% but I got a lot closer than I've ver been. This is the first time in fact that I've even been able to attain single digit bodyfat and I feel that cut abs (or at least close enough to make this experience worthwhile) are within my reach for the first time in my life. Some of you can probably relate to this, many of you possibly cannot. It's like the first time you benched 315. Or squatted 405 for a full repetition. It's an achievement that only a small percentage of people can relate to much less understand. That's what makes athletes different from eveyone else IMO: they are willing (well, most of them) to do what it takes to get the job done. They may endure ridicule, criticism, and any number of distractions from their goal, usually from people who don't have what it takes themselves (i.e. there's no better way to deal with your own mediocrity than to pull those around you down into it). Finally, I want to thank some people out there. I've gotten lots of mail (mostly good but a couple of negative items) over the past 10 weeks. Either from people asking for clarification, or back issues of the weekly diaries that they missed, or offering advice/suggestions as to how to resolve my problems. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of but a handful of those people so if you're not on this list, I apologize. I purged my email files and much of the mail I've gotten was erased. The people listed were the ones who I corresponded with the most regularly over the last 10 weeks which is why I remember them. So, thanks goes out to: --------------------------- Dan Duchaine: Well, duh. Had he not written the book, I wouldn't have done any of this. He gets first credit. Also, thanks Dan for answering my stupid questions about this diet to help me along. Mauro Di Pasquale: For getting Dan to look into ketogenic diets again. Jeffrey Krabbe: Who has been posting about and tinkering with the Anabolic Diet approach for over a year on the Training and Nutrition list. He has given me many suggestions/pointers from his own experiences which have really helped out with my plateaus. Bob Koss: my partner in crime who has been fighting with success in Bodyopus for a while. He has gotten me to think hard about some issues (like the ketogenic ratio) to find a solution to his problems (he has lots of problems getting into ketosis which we just can't figure out). He really helped me keep in mind that what works for me doesn't work for everyone. But, we just kept tinkering with things until he got and stayed in ketosis. Also, he gave me many of the recipes that help me to keep my sanity during low blood sugar. Bill Cooper: A fellow low carb dieter. Joe Ritter: another low carb dieter. Byron: Yet another low carb dieter. Marc Flores: With whom I discussed the finer points of thyroid upregulation. And, anyone else who sent me mail asking for past updates, offering encouragement, advice, etc. Again, I wish I had saved all my past mail but my hard drive doesn't have much space on it. And special thanks to those who gave me shit about the diet: ------------------------------------------------------ The RD's who say the low carb diets don't make you lose anything but water. Wow, didn't know I had 13 lbs. of water covering my abs to lose. KC (bozo never did give me his name): an 18 year old know it all punk who doesn't understand the principle of individuality and that what works for drug using bodybuilders diet wise might just not work for others. All the other nitwits who said the ketogenic diets don't work, are dangerous, and all other manners of total bullshit whether it was on m.f.w, the low carb mailing list, the newsletters I read, etc. ------------------------ The final body composition record: Day Date Weight Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Mon 4/31 156 15.4% 24 132* Mon 5/6 153 13.6% 21 132* Mon 5/13 154 7 27 18 8 42 12.2% 18.8 135.2 Mon 5/20 151 6 27 17.5 9 42 12.2% 18.4 132.6 Mon 5/27 154 5 24 18 8.5 37.5 10.4% 16 138 Mon 6/3 149 5 25.5 15.5 8 38.5 10.4% 15.5 133.5 Mon 6/10 155 5 26 16 8 39 11.3% 17.5? 137.5 Mon 6/17 149 5 25 16 8 38 11.3% 16.8 132.2 Mon 6/24 153 5 24 13.5 7.5 37.5 10.4% 15.9 137.1 Mon 7/1 142& 5 21 12 7.5 34 9.4% 13.3 128.7 * These two measurement were taken with the one site home calipers. Therefore, they may or may not be directly comparable to the other measures. &This value is so much lower than the others as I did not carb this weekend. Key: BF% = body fat percentage FM = fat mass in lbs FFM = fat free mass (total weight - FM) My week at a glance: ------------------- Sunday: As stated last time, I did a sum total of 2.5 hours of skating and consumed about 500-600 calories (been eating lots of non-starcy veggies like cucumber and celery to keep my sanity with such low 'real' food intake). Continued working on tan. Shaved the bod down. Gonna wait for it to regrow just a touch and try some Nair. This is a bit of strange week but here's the overview. I'm leaving on vacation on Wednesday and will be gone until Sunday night. Since I will be staying at an aunt's lake house, I've decided to essentially make this trip my 'contest' to hit a peak. Now, an ideal situation would have had me at 7% bodyfat or lower last week but things never work out that nicely, especially the first time out. So, to drop that last little bit of bodyfat, I'm forced to diet right up until the day I leave coupling low calories (as low as I can stand essentially) with high volume, low intensity cardio. I plan to hit the high rep, depletion workout Wednesday and start carbing then (gonna be in the car anyhow). I will carb for 3 days which should put me at my peak on Saturday night (just in time for the real 4th of July party at the lake house area where my aunt is staying.) I plan to use a mild diuretic (Dan suggested buchu extract in a past Ask the Guru column) before my 'contest' and will make sure to get a picture of me in my prime shape whatever it turns out to be. As anyone will tell you, peaking for a contest or an event (whether bodybuilding or sprinting) is an art more than a science. Dan has written articles about how to get 75% there which I will follow to the letter. The last little bit requires practice and tweaking. Unfortunately, I won't have a chance to practice my peaking routine for this weekend. I have a decent idea about how much food I can eat during the carb-up before I start to spill over which is a start. This is one of the big benefits (this is pointed out in the Anabolic Diet book by Pasquale) of this type of diet. You are carbing every weekend while on the diet which gives you a chance to find out when you look your best. This makes it much easier to time your carb-up for a contest. I'm going to be taking daily body composition measurements to keep track of what's going on in my body day to day to chart diet and stuff. Since, I'll be away from the computer, it may be difficult to get all the details in here. But, I'll do my best. Monday: Took the thermogenic stack from hell (described last week) and went skating. Put in a total of 60 minutes with 5X60" intervals at maximum effort in-between. Some of you may be questioning the use of intervals while cutting. I mean, didn't Dan say that cardio over 70% of max will cause muscle loss? I brought this up a while back using sprinters as an example. Well, as Mr. Deadlift pointed out, most elite sprinters are on the juice. Well, Shawn Phillips sure didn't seem to hurt for mass after his bout with High Intensity Interval Training. I've been thinking about this whole question and here's the conclusions I've come to regarding the debate over the best exercise for fat loss (weights vs. low intensity cardio vs. high intensity cardio vs. intervals): Weight training sends a signal to the muscle to be maintained. That's why even high rep weight (20-25 reps) training should at least maintain muscle. Aerobic training at low intensities sends the signal to Type I (slow twitch) fibers to become more enduring which has minimal if any effect on muscle size (there is a theory floating around regarding an optimal muscle size for Type I fibers. In essence, one researcher has found that there is some optimal compromise between fiber strength and capillary density. His research shows that Type I fibers approach an optimal level with training and that small fibers get bigger and larger fibers get smaller). Yes, too much of cardio will lower testosterone levels (got that review paper around here somewhere) but, in reasonable doses (say 30-40 minutes 2-3 times per week), I think it's safe. It's also relatively injury-proof (unless you fall off the treadmill while staring at the thong clad girl on the Stairmaster). Continuous aerobic training near at higher intensities (specifically near the lactate threshhold) seem to send the signal to Type IIa fibers to become more enduring and hence smaller. So high intensity continuous training (i.e. 20' at 80% intensity) is a bad idea. Interestingly, in the new MM2000 (a good issue BTW), Dan talks about new research suggesting that 80% of max heart rate is a better fat loss zone than 60%. I've seen these studies which typically find equal or greater fat loss from higher intensity/shorter durations than lower intensities/ longer durations as long as caloric expenditure are equal. However, these studies are not done on heavily muscled bodybuilders (who are likely overtrained anyhow) and do not adress muscle catabolism. Numerous studies have found that the combination of heavy weight training and high intensity cardio causes overtraining and inhibits strength gains in the muscles which are being overworked (typically the legs). Interval training above lactate threshhold sends a signal to the Type IIb fibers similar to that of weight training. Tension is high, time is relatively low (30-90 seconds which is on par with your average weight training set) so I think the signal is still one of growth or at least size maintenance. However, one thing to keep in mind (even moreso on a low carb diet) is that intervals selectively deplete glycogen from the Type IIa and IIb fibers. So, if you're in a heavy squat cycle, doing interval training for your legs may promote overtraining. But, most of us don't try to cut body fat and gain mass at the same time. If you decide to incorporate intervals for fat loss, you should only be trying to basically maintain muscle mass and strength. Trying to ramp the intensity and volume of both intervals and leg training is going to be a recipe for disaster. Conclusion: either do low intensity, long duration cardio and don't recruit anything but Type I fibers or do intervals. Neither should result in much muscle loss as long as you don't go crazy with either. I think that it's the continuous training near LT where you will run into problems since the Type II fibers will be sent a message to become more enduring, hence smaller. And, as mentioned above there is data that a smaller muscle fiber is a more enduring one as there is a greater ability to diffuse nutrients (oxygen, etc) to the fiber as well as clear waste products (lactate, etc) out due to increased capillary density (number of capillaries per unit volume of muscle). Trained the hell out of the ex-girlfriend (BTW, after a mere two weeks on this diet, she has reduced BF% from 23 to 19 and lost 4 lbs of fat. I'm jealous as hell but she's got my 10 weeks of experience with this diet to help her get faster results). Did another hour of cardio tonight to burn some more ketones. Am I overtrained? Yes. Am I grouchy as hell? YES. Am I almost done with this shit? YES!!! One more day. On Wednesday, I do the depletion workout and then start the grand carb up. A friend in Colombus who I'm going to visit just got a new expensive camera so I'll plan to peak for Saturday and get him to take my action shots for me. Which means I have to pay close attention to this carb-up. Not only is it 3 days long but I have the added pressure of getting photos taken so I can't afford any spillover. Of course, with a mild diuretic and some time in the sauna, even water spillover can be dealt with. Tuesday: Well, as of this morning, I'm stuck at 8.5% bodyfat (still not too shabby considering it's the lowest I've ever been and I started at 15% 10 weeks ago). Since I'm not going to get much lower at this point, I figured I'd back off and take it easy. Going to raise calories today (still protein and fat) to 1500 or so. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if this gets my body out of starvation mode and I lose some more fat by tomorrow. Going to finish tanning with another 30-40' per side today and make the final run to the health food store to get everything I need (glucose replacement drink for tomorrow in the car, perhaps some creatine to load the muscles, some type of herbal diuretic, things of that sort). Also going to start tapering off of the ECA stack. I may be imagining things but my neck seems swollen (the thyroid gland is right there) today so I want to get off the stack as quickly as I can without crashing out completely (which often happens when you go from high dose ECA to quitting cold turkey). I will taper to two doses of 25 mg E, 200 mg C, 81 mg A but still keeping the other stuff (cayenne, etc). Tomorrow, it's one dose but Dan has written that Clenbuterol (and perhaps ephedrine since they are related compounds) does affect the carb up due to changes in insulin sensitivity. Can anyone out there overnight mail me some phenformin? Alright, did the depletion workout and it wasn't fun. I definitely felt depleted (hell, I felt depleted before I even started) and then started carbing. Going to make sure and use HCA, chromium, vanadyl, and all that other good stuff to avoid spillover. Am going to carb for 3 days (hitting the high GI foods into tomorrow and then moving to more complex carbs). Saturday is photo shoot day and I will be using a herbal diuretic pill (as well as finishing my tan between now and then). If I have to I'll sit in the sauna to get rid of the last water. Someone suggested I post my end of Bodyopus pic in JPEG format to the m.f.w gallery instead of directly to m.f.w (so those who want to see it can go download and those who don't won't have to wade past it to get to the most recent flame war about Rob Schuh). I very nearly snapped at some people tonight before my workout. Went to GNC for last minute supplies. The brain dead girl behind the counter asks me if I have a Gold Card (if you don't know, the Gold card allows you to get 20% off the extortion prices charged at GNC the first Tuesday of the month). I answer no rather curtly. She asks if I'm interested. Again, I answer no rather curtly. Rings up my total and fucking asks me again if I'm interested in a gold card. I was very close to saying "What did I say the first time you asked me this question? Can't you fucking listen?" but restrained myself. Then, at the grocery store getting carbo foods, the fucking bagger asked me if I needed help carrying my groceries. I said no. She asked "Are you sure?" No, you stupid twit, I was joking the first time. I definitely need a break from dieting before I kill someone. Coming down off of ECA isn't helping either. Wednesday: Carbs, carbs, carbs. In roughly that order. But I have to be careful not to spillover. The next 4 days are being written after the fact since I didn't have access to a computer at the place I was staying. Thursday: Still carbing at this point. Since I'm meeting with a buddy of mine who's got a new hot shit digital camera, he's going to take the ending Bodyopus pics of me pretending to be a bodybuilder. So, after carbing today on mainly starches and other low GI foods, I switched back to fat and protein. Friday: a little fat and protein for breakfast as I drive to meet my friend. Just enough to keep me full but not so much that my stomach is bloated from too much food. Also been taking some herbal diuretic from the health food store since yesterday evening to drop water under the skin. At high house, we shave the spots I missed and oil me up (taking TC's suggestion of Almond Oil from a previous MM2000). I feel like a 'real' bodybuilder now. I try to pump up but it's not working. I drink some grape fruit juice to see if that will help and then go sit outside in the hot sun (which frequently helps to bring out the vascularity in my legs). Still nothing going on. Am I dehydrated? Not sure. It turned out not to matter as his camera didn't give very good contrast and any veins wouldn't have shown up. My tan is still a bit uneven in places since I started too late on it. I'm not as cut as I'd like to be in the abs but my lower body looks pretty damn shredded. All in all, I learned a few things about peaking (as in how not to) with this photo shoot. I'm not embarking on a 10 week cycle for the recent MM2K best shape of your life and will hopefully have learned a few things by then about how to peak for a photo shoot. The final week body composition measures: *All values are taking into account a -4 mm correction from my Slimguide calipers as compared to Lange calipers (see week 2 update as well as week 9 for an explanation of why).* Day Weight Sum 3 BF% FM FFM Mon: 142 30 8.5% 12 130 Tue: 142 29.5 8.5% 12 130 Wed: 147 29.5 8.5% 12.4? 134.6 Thu: I didn't have access to a scale so I didn't do measurements. Fri: Same as Thu. Sat: Same as Fri. Sun: same as Sat. Friday: Here's the tabulated Friday changes in bodyfat: Day Date Weight Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Fri 5/17 145 8 27 18 8 41 12.2% 17.7 129 Fri 5/24 144 5 24 19 8 37 10.4% 15 129 Fri 5/31 146 5 24.5 17 8 37 10.4% 15.1 130.9 Fri 6/7 146 5 25.5 15.5 7.5 38 11.3% 16.5 129.5 Fri 6/14 146 5.5 25 16 8 38.5 11.3% 16.5 129.5 Fri 6/21 144 5 24 13.5 8 37 10.4% 14.9 129.1 Fri 6/28 143 5 22 11.5 7 34 9.4% 13.4 129.6 Fri 7/5 Since I didn't have access to a scale, taking BF% measurements was fairly moot. Oh well. Key: BF% = body fat percentage FM = fat mass in lbs FFM = fat free mass (total weight - FM) Saturday: After my photo shoot, I carbed like a madman. We went to an all you can eat pasta place and did. At carbs until dinner and then switched back to low carbs after that. Sunday: Back to meat and fat again. I'm still debating what to do for the mass phase of training. Increasing calories is a given. What I haven't decided is whether to: a. carb every weekend b. stay on low carb but do a carb spike before every workout as described by Dr. Squat in an old issue of MDFH. It's Sunday night as I'm writing this so I have to make a decision this week. Well, except for one last little bit (see the Bodyopus epilogue), that's the end of the series. I'll do occasional updates if I find anything out really exciting about the diet but, for now at least, I'm out of here. Lyle McDonald, CSCS