Subject: My bodyopus experience.week 16 Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996 Date:
Ok, I want to take a break from compiling the Bodyopus FAQ to talk about what I'm planning to do diet wise as I start my cutting cycle. For those of you just tuning in, this is actually my second attempt at using Bodyopus as a fat loss diet. The first 10 weeks are archived in my home computer so you can't find them on the net. I'm working on my WWW page so that they will be accessible. IAE, I used those first 10 weeks to basically figure out how to get my body to respond to this diet. That is, how to get the most fat loss without losing any muscle, how to train, what to eat, what supplements to take, etc. Having that experience under my belt, this dieting phase should go off without a snap. The basic Bodyopus cycle is 5 days of no carbs with 2 days of carbing to refill glycogen stores in the muscle and rebuild any lost muscle. Due to a big picnic/party this weekend, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to drag my ass out of bed early tomorrow morning so I can get in a weight workout before I train clients. Hopefully, I can get into ketosis by late tomorrow and have 4 full days to burn ketones. I am setting calories at 1500 per day at a bodyweight of about 165. 1500 may be a bit on the low side but that allows a bit of leeway and extra calories I'll get in jello, celery, and other non-counted foods. Since I have no problem eating the same damn foods day in day out, I just figured out a 1500 calorie diet that also adhered to the 1.5:1 ketogenic ratio (1.5 grams of fat per gram of protein or carbs). If this is all greek to you, drop me mail and I can explain the ketogenic ratio and what it's implications are. Breakfast: 3 pieces string cheese, 4 tbsp cream cheese (my dairy phase) Lunch: 1 cup pink salmon with 4 T may (my fish phase) Dinner: 1 scoop designer whey protein in heavy cream (my whey phase) No, no red meat. Long story but our kitchen is being remodeled and I don't have anywhere to cook meat so it's the no-cooking Bodyopus diet for me. What I did was go to the store tonight and buy just enough food to cover the above meals for 5 days. This was: 4 packages of string cheese (20 strips of which I ate 5 tonight leaving 15) 1 package cream cheese (22 tbsp of which I need 20) 4 cans pink salmon (each has just less than 2 cups in it, yes this is actually a bit more than I need but the salmon was on sale 2/$3.00 so I had to get an even number) a container of heavy cream Basically, this is my food for the week. Whether I eat it all tomorrow or ration it out for 5 days, this is all I get. Much easier way of cutting calories if you ask me. Supplement wise, I'm jumping back onto the ECA bandwagon after 5 weeks of none (I AM GOING TO BE WIRED). Although I know better and really should taper up, I'm not going to and will jump immediately into: Ephedrine: 50 mg (AST Dymatedrine) Caffeine: 200 mg (Generic caffeine pills) Aspirin: 81 mg (generic aspirin pills) L-tyrosine: 1 gram (Twinlab l-tyrosine capsules) Cayenne: 80,000 heat units (Nature's Way Ceyenne Pepper) three times a day: upon awakening, at lunch and no later than 4 pm. I have decided to ditch yohimbine since I never really noticed a bit of difference while taking it last time. I've got some DMSO on order and may try the yohimbe/DMSO topical solution described in this month's MM2K. Also, l-carnitine was just too damn expensive and I'm still not convinced it's needed, even on this diet. So the above is my thermogenic stack from hell. On cardio only days, I will add 500 mg of Citrimax to the stack (actually, I'll be replacing one of the ephedrine pills and the caffeine pill with 3 caps of Twinlab Diet Fuel which contains 500 mg Citrimax, 20 mg of ephedra, and 200 mg of caffeine in the form of kola nut). Other supplements will be vitamins, anti-oxidants and that's basically it. I'd like to use some creatine since I'm not going to be eating any red meat but I get sick whenever I use it. During the carb-up, I will discontinue the ECA stack but add 750 mg of Citrimax 4 times daily 30 minutes before meals to prevent spillover and keep appetite in check. Ok, that's week 1 and then I recarb next weekend. After that, I have basically 3 weeks to get shredded. I'm going to experiment again with longer periods of ketosis. I'm actually just going to maintain the above diet for 12 solid days and not carb until after that. In the most recent MM2K, Duchaine suggests that as a possibility although effects on muscle loss are unknown. And, unfortunately, there's no way to know if you've lost mass until AFTER you recarb and do body-comp. Finally, training. Truth be told, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do training wise. This week is standard Bodyopus meaning two heavy workouts Mon and Tue and then the depletion workout Friday afternoon. During the 2 week period of ketosis, I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I've got another week to figure it out. Lyle Also, if anyone else out there have major unanswered Bodyopus questions that I didn't answer in either the diaries or this FAQ? If so, please send them so I can get the damn things answered once and for all. I guess I'll have to get my WWW page put together now so I can archive this sucker somewhere. ------------------------ The body composition log: Taken with Slimguide calipers first thing Monday morning upon awakening. Day Date Wt Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Mon 7/8 152 3 20 10 6 29 8.5 12.75 139.25 Mon 7/15 157 3 20 11.5 6 29 8.5 13.35 143.65 Mon 7/22 159 3 21 13 6 30 8.5 13.5 145.5 Mon 7/29 162 3 24 15 6 33 9.4 15.2 146.8 Mon 8/5 164 3.5 24 16.5 6 33.5 9.4 15.4 148.6 Mon 8/12 164 3 25 17 6 37 10.4 17 147 Notes: Well, it looks like my decision to start cutting was the right one. Bodyfat has hit 10% which was the cutoff point. Also, while it may look like I lost muscle from last week to this one, recall that fat free mass also includes water and glycogen and I likely am more dehydrated from my 2 hours of skating yesterday. Ok, with the above in mind, to reach 5% bodyfat, here is the amount of fat I need to lose. Goal BF% = 5% = .05 Goal weight = FFM / (1-Goal BF) = 147/.95 = 154 Total weight loss needed * = 164 - 154 = 10 lbs. * This assume two things: 1. No muscle is being lost or gained. 2. All weight loss is coming from fat stores. So,10 lbs in 5 weeks is doable on this diet I think, especially knowing what I know about it. So, it's time to go get started. Key: BF% = body fat percentage FM = fat mass in lbs FFM = fat free mass (total weight - FM) My week at a glance: ------------------- Sunday: Went for a long, long easy skate this morning (2+ hours total) with different friends. Have decided to start cutting this week instead of waiting so I'm not so rushed this time. Am going to try to get into ketosis by tomorrow so I have 4 full days to burn ketones and lose some fat. I am really optimistic about this cutting cycle. I feel that I have the fat loss part dialed in after my first foray into Bodyopus. Gonna combine the same successful elements as my last cycle: the thermogenic stack from hell, lots of low intensity cardio, caloric restriction. Basically, all the keys to the fat loss puzzle. Dieting sucks but the end is worth the means. Last time I fell short of my ultimate goal of 7% bodyfat. This time I will not fall short of my goal of 5-6% bodyfat (or whatever is reasonable within my genetic limitations). Training will change a bit as mentioned in the prologue to this week's update. The same basic thing as below but Wed's workout will be done Tuesday morning and Fri's workout will be replaced with the depletion workout. Mon Wed Fri --------------------------------------------- Squat (4/6-8) DL (2/6-8 or 5X5) Squat (2/6-8) Leg curl (2/6-8) Overhead press (3/6-8) Leg curl (2/6-8) Chins (4/6-8) Barbell curl (3/6-8) Seated row (4/6-8) Inc. DB bench (4/6-8) Tri. Pushdown (3/6-8) Machine bench (4/6-8) Seated row (2/6-8) Forearms (whatever) Chins (2/6-8) Machine bench (2/6-8) Abs (whatever) Inc. DB bench (2/6-8) After two light warmups (50 and 75% of top weight for the day), I jump to the heaviest weight I'll use on that exercise to failure. Additional sets are taken at a 5% decrease from the original weight with the goal of getting identical reps to failure on each set. Additionally, antagonistic bodypart exercises (i.e. chins and inclines, flat bench and cable row) are alternated with about a 1:30 rest in between. This gives 3'+ rest between exercises without doubling the length of the workout. (See week 14 update for a longer discussion of this workout.) Monday: Got up and went straight to the gym. Took the thermogenic stack from hell as outlined above and I was flying. Thought I was going to throw up there for a bit but felt better once I got to the gym. Oh, yeah working legs, chest and back as outlined above. Monday workout: Today's workout can only be categorized as strange. First, let me say that there were a few differences between last Monday's workout and this one. 1. Did too much cardio yesterday. 2.5 hours of skating left my legs a bit fatigued and probably depleted some glycogen that would have been better left for today's workout. 2. Different time of day. I've seen research on endurance athletes that performance is maximized if it occurs at the same time of day as training is done. This may have to do with some type of resetting of circadian ryhthms or something. I typically train about 9 pm at night so getting into the gym at 7:30 am was a bit of a change. I actually prefer to train mornings as it's less crowded but appointments have prevented that until this week. 3. Ephedrine etc. In addition to it's thermogenic qualities, the ECA stack is also a stimulant. Many individuals use it just for that reason and not for increased fat burning. You would think that being more stimulated would help workouts but that's not always the case. Research into maximum performance shows that there is some optimal arousal level (don't get dirty now) for performance. Too little stimulation and you do poorly. Too much stimulation and you do poorly (can't concentrate). Somewhere in the middle you have your best workouts. Thing is, the amount of stimulation needed depends on factors like the person involved (ever notice how some lifters have to scream and yell and smack themselves around to get fired up while others just generate a kind of focused intensity) and the activity (obviously something like gymnastics where control is required would require a bit less stimulation than something like wrestling or football). Ok, the workout. Well, everything went up except for inclines which went down. That's why I characterized this workout as strange. All of the above changes would be expected to have a systemic effect. That is, if I was too overstimulated or too fatigued from skating, I'd have expected the whole workout to have gone poorly. But, it didn't. Even with tired legs, I increased from 315X5 in the squat to 325X5 (my old PR was 325 for one really shitty looking rep). Chins, cable rows and machine benches all went up. Inclines went backwards. Last Monday I got 60X8+1 with some help. So, I figured I'd go 65 and get at least 5 or 6 reps. Got someone to help me get them to the top but I couldn't do it. It was just like my arms wouldn't work at all. Backed down to 60's and even then could barely get them to the top position to start the set. Only got 6 piss poor reps at that. Like I said, very strange. The only guess I can even fathom is that maybe, just maybe the arm swing I use while skating (it looks like a front raise but coming across the body) tired the clavicular (upper) portion of my pecs and that was the problem. But, I'm seriously guessing. IAE, I'm not too worried. I've been cranking along at max. in the gym for almost 15 weeks now and am surely approaching a state of overtraining. Since I'm back to dieting, the goal is to simply maintain strength/size while I cut up. Then I'm taking a week or two off (or just easy) from the gym, going to take a little vacation, and then hit my next cycle. Oh, yeah, I hit ketosis again after the workout. This is 12 hours after stopping carbs so something is going on here. Either it's this particular workout (I put the ex through it last night to see if that was the case) or it's just a long term adaptation to ketogenic diets. I've heard this reported from others (i.e. the longer they do this diet, the quicker they enter ketosis after stopping carbs) so this is where I put my money. Can't complain as it means I get almot 5 full days (instead of a normal 3) to burn ketones and lose fat. Sing it with me "Getting ripped now. Getting lean now." (Sung to the tune of the Rocky theme.) Went back to the gym tonight and did 45' of easy, easy cardio at a HR of 120 on the Lifecycle. Well, it's 11:45 pm and I'm still awake. My resting HR is about 96 (normally about 50 or so) so there's still some ECA in my system. Have to make sure and take that 3rd dose earlier from here on out. Tuesday: Ok, today was tough. Real tough. To fit my workout into the proper Bodyopus pattern, I had to move the Wed workout to today. This is to ensure that muscle trauma (which impairs the carb up) is gone by Friday before the depletion workout. Which means that I trained squats heavy last night and deads heavy today. Showing a strange streak of self-preservation for once, I lowered my DL weight back to 225 for one set of 8 for maintenance. My low back is sore but sore is a lot different than injured. My other lifts for this day (delts, bis, tris) also suffered as they all got worked indirectly last night. I will likely have to change my workout split back to: Mon: legs, back, bis Tue: chest, delts, tris and just drop DL's for now for the remainder of the cycle. The only potential problem I see is that I know my current Monday workout is getting me into ketosis immediately which will hasten fat loss. I don't know if legs, back and bis would do the same. I guess I'll find out next week. Nothing else exciting today. Appetite still blunted as hell from the ECA so 1500 calories was no problem. I'm finding a good strategy by eating very small amount during the day (when the ECA is really blunting hunger) and saving some calories up for later in the evening for when it starts to wear off. Went for an easy, easy 30' walk with the ex tonight to burn some ketones. Serious cardio (i.e. pre-breakfast) begins tomorrow. I'm really excited. Can't you tell? Wednesday: I'm tired, sore and cranky. Took my modified Diet Fuel thermogenic stack and then went walking for an hour about 30 minutes later. Nice easy pace, put in about 4 miles so figure about 400 calories. Came home to a yummy breakfast of string cheese, cream cheese on a stalk of celery (ka-runch), and some Crystal Light. I hate dieting. Nothing else to report today. Tired, cranky, sore, and getting hungry. Almost gave in to the urge to do more cardio tonight but I learned my lesson last time about overtraining. It's 9pm, I'm exhausted and I'm going the hell to sleep. Thursday: Went for a short 30' walk this morning. Was supposed to go do more cardio tonight with the ex. but she weenied out. And I'm too tired and unmotivated to drive out to the gym alone and ride the bike. make it up tomorrow morning before the carb-up. Have decided to go ahead and do the entire 2 hour, f-ing depletion workout. Having learned my lesson last time about getting too much fat spillover, I'm going to make sure I get as much glycogen out of there as I can. One interesting observation: ketosis is deepeing. Was trace first couple of days but I tested it tonight and it's almost into the darkest range it can get. I find this strange since that indicates that my body is geenerating more ketones than I'm burning. But, since calories are so low and I'm not eating much, I can only assume that these ketones are coming from stored bodyfat. Just gonna keep pissing that fat off of me. Friday: Have decided to start taking Friday body composition measurements again to check for spillover from carbing. Day Date Wt Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Mon 8/12 164 3 25 17 8 37 10.4 17 147 Fri 8/16 155 3 25 15 6 37 10.4 16 139 Well, this shows a pretty similar trend to last time. First skinfold to drop was the superiliac with little change in abdominal skinfold. The last 10 weeks, abs were the last to start responding to the diet. Still, absolute fat mass went down although I can't believe I dropped a full 9 lbs of weight in 5 days. Must have been holding a hell of a lot of water last Monday. Time to go do some cardio. Started the morning with another 30 minute walk to burn some ketones after dropping the citrimax, ECA, tyrosine, cayenne stack. Otherwise, a typical Friday on this diet. Ate more or less as described last week meaning I eliminated saturated fats as much as possible. Since I didn't have time to make my tuna in mayo goop, I just mixed up the following instead to drink throughout the day until the depletion workout: 2 scoops Ultra Fuel: 2 TBSP flax oil 2 TBSP olive oil some Crystal light fruit punch water About 2 hours out from the depletion workout, I had two bananas to get 50 grams of carbs and get out of ketosis. Friday workout: A pretty typical depletion, high rep, boring as shit circuit workout. Did about 5 total circuits in about an hour 15 minutes. I was done for the day and started the carb with some Ultra Fuel/Whey. So far this carb up has been a bit different than before. I'm not pigging out like I have in the past. During the first 10 week dieting cycle, I tended to eat as much crap as I could simply because I could. The end result was less than satisfactory bodyfat losses. During the mass phase, I ate all I could on the weekends to stimulate anabolism and gain some muscle. But, hitting the carbs this weekend, something is different. Either I've gotten over the novelty of 'getting' to eat carbs or my mindset is changed regarding the diet. After the last cycle, I know what is necessary to get where I want to be. That requires some self control both during the week (let's face it, 1500 calories is not a lot of food, especially when 75% of it's from fat) and on the weekends. Said self control wasn't there during carb-ups before but it is now. Strange. And, now, bedtime. Saturday: Just plain carbs. As mentioned above, my carb up was much more controlled this time around. Just sort of ate when I was supposed to and didn't feel compelled to either starve or gorge myself. A good day. A bit tired. It's always tough to cold turkey ephedrine, etc. after 5 days at high doses but I figure my system needs some time off of it. Sunday: Nothing to report today. Didn't go skating or anything because it decided to rain. Continued carbing until 6pm and then made the switch back to protein and fat. This weekend really gives me hope for getting where I want to be. I just didn't feel the prevsious compulsion to eat and eat and eat. I don't feel overfed or bloated or anything. Have to see what the body composition record says tomorrow. See ya next week. Other notes: I want to thank everyone who's made suggestions as to where to find glucose polymers. Between the previous post where I complained about not being able to find them, I found a source of very inexpensive pure glucose polymers. It is a mail order company called Beyond A Century and carries all manner of goodies for the well-supplemented athlete. They have generic, cheap vanadyl sulfate, DMSO, glucose polymers, very inexpensive creatine, even guar gum which I've wanted to use during carb ups for a while. I highly recommend their products and their service is excellent. I'm not going to give the number out here since this is supposed to be My Bodyopus Experience, not My Bodyopus Advertising space. If you really want to find them, you can. Check any issue of Powerlifting USA or the back of the bodybuilding mags. They *may* have a web site but I don't know for sure. Another company that I highly recommend is The Power Store Great service, excellent product selection, a real no-bullshit attitude and great prices are a winning combination. Again, not going to put the number here. If you want to try them out, you can find them if you want to. Other supplement purchases (FYI) are done either at GNC (which I typically dislike) or Good Life Health Food Stores. Oh, I gotta GNC funny from the other day. Was in there getting tyrosine for the ECA stack. Anorexic clerk asks "Did you see the OKG on sale? It's anti-catabolic." I nod and go "Yeah, at about 10 grams per day in one dose." He shuts up. A minute later, even skinnier guy comes in (makes me look huge and I'm a runt) and asks "Where is the stuff you take that makes you gain weight when you are lifting weights?" I almost looked at him and said "What do you mean? Food? It's down the street at the supermarket." But, I restrained my normally acerbic tongue. This guy will probably add Weider Mega Mass 4000 to his routine of leg extensions and cable crossovers and wonder why he's not growing. Maybe he needs some OKG. Hey, it's on sale. Lyle McDonald, CSCS