I read that book last year. Excellent book. Removing wheat had immediate results, but I don't stay wheat free. I found the best value of the book in that it made me aware of glycemic index and load, which I have incorporated into my diet. I mostly eat sprouted grain bread now, but do occasionally eat rye bread. I keep an eye out on everything I buy for wheat in the ingredients. I have never competed in lifting and don't plan to, but I train 10-15 hours a week + cardio, and train with considerably heavy weight for my age (mid 50s). I get great ideas regarding training and diet from Muscle Mag International. My understanding that reducing fat too much in the diet hurts muscle gain and recovery, so in recent years I began to up my fat from: avocados, all variety of nuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, fish oil, etc. Probably could drop the fish oil because the omegas are quite high in the flax and chia. At 200 lbs, I try and eat 200 grams protein, 200-250 carbs, except down to 100 or so occasionally to cycle if my body fat gets too high, and I've increased my fat intake from 30 to around 60 grams of fat. My metab has slowed to the point that anything beyond 2500 in total daily calories, I start getting fat. On workout days, I supplement with 120 grams of protein from a variety of whey protein, slow and fast digesting. For those who wish to feel fuller, I have had a lot of success with the chia seeds, which don't need to be milled like the flax. They hold roughly nine times their weight in water. Never felt full after a salad until I added the chias. Leap, do you have an ACE Cert? I'm considering taking the course and obtaining one this year as I keep getting inquiries regarding training. Might as well make a few bucks at the gym. Good luck to all in this thread working to lose weight.
It's amazing to me that people focus on all the wrong things when it comes to diet and nutrition. At first, you hear the "High carb, Low Fat" approach, but then after a while you inevitably hear about the "High Fat, Low Carb" ketogenic diet. In either scenario, the only thing that makes them work is that you are replacing excess carbs or fat with protein, respectively. In a recent study, researchers compared four different conditions: normal protein, normal carbs normal protein, low carbs high protein, low carbs high protein, normal carbs Interestingly, the two groups eating the high protein lost the most weight. And the real kicker? Varying the levels of fats and carbs seemed to make no difference to body composition. But regardless of the studies like the one above, most of us will look, feel, and perform our best when we balance a reasonable amount of lean protein, quality carbs, and healthy fats. Here's a recent pic of my own personal progress in this area. I am 5' 10" and 42 years old, just FYI.
Yes, but you are a big proponent of working out, no? The ketogenic diet won't be good for you because you would need more carbs and higher protein levels for physical energy to do your workouts and to build muscle (not that you need to go on any diet, you are in great shape). It's the same thing that LeapUp was talking about and it makes sense for his goals. The Ketogenic approach is strictly to switch your system from a glucose burning machine to one which must rely on burning fat. Of course, you burn the fat which you eat first, but because fat is satiating, you tend to eat less overall (your body should self regulate this, it's much harder to over eat fat than carbs). And, because the process of producing Ketones and metabolizing the moderate protein intake is an inefficient process in the body (it takes more energy for the body to create energy this way) your body burns even more calories just creating energy for the body and brain. For me, and more than the weight loss aspect, is the increased and consistent waking alertness and focus that I'm currently receiving. I can't recall, in my adult life, having this much energy and focus. The only problem I'm having right now is being able to fall asleep, which I'm trying to figure out how to deal with. P.S Regardless of which approach you take, it seems that most everyone is in agreement that grains are bad for you and they should be reduced or avoided altogether.
Yeah, I work out 4 days per week. I'm currently doing the Ultimate Diet 2.0 from Lyle McDonald, who as you probably know literally wrote the Ketogenic Diet book. It took me a while to wrap my head around what I was supposed to do, but in a nutshell, you deplete your glycogen stores Monday through Thursday via a low-calorie low-carb diet and working out. On Friday you rest and basically eat nothing but carbs all day long, and I mean a lot, like 1000 grams. Then on Saturday you eat low-fat, moderate carbs and moderate protein at maintenance level calories and you do a crazy strength workout. Sunday is a rest day and you start to migrate back into the low-carb diet so you can start the weekly cycle all over again on Monday. Supposedly, this method tricks the body into dropping fat like crazy. I've only been doing it for a week so we'll see.
That sounds like a little like Tim Ferris' Slo-Carb diet - 6 days of minimal, slow-release carbs likes veggies and beans + protein , then a massive feast day on Saturday (for him). He doesn't include a workout portion like this program. Also sounds like the standard marathoning carbo-load program, adapted for lifters - 4 days of minimal carbs to fully deplete the glycogen stores, then massive pasta feasting the last 3 days before the race. Basically, it sounds like each program follows similar concepts. The difference is the implementation, which relies on people's discipline to stick with it and follow-through. Since people are the weak part, new programs arise to make it easier to follow. Theoretically.
You're way ahead of the game. Good job! And I was once ACE certified over a decade ago. When I divorced two yrs ago, I gave up training, started drinking, smoking (when drinking), etc., Gave up drinking, and started training, and eating clean six months ago. Huge difference!
I did his Slo-Carb diet for a long time, and what I learned with that diet, as with all diets, is that the body eventually adapts itself to what you're doing, and you just hit a brick wall in terms of continued results. The fact of the matter is that your body doesn't want to be lean. It wants to survive above everything else, and maintaining a good source of usable energy in the form of stored fat is how that happens. So once you get to a relatively low bodyfat level, you have to trick your body and temporarily force it to conjure up metabolic hormones that it wouldn't normally make available.