Starting the metabolic diet

[JDF]

Hello All,

I just got done reading the 'The Metabolic Diet' by Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale and figured I would start a log to track my progress as well as gain some insight from others who have used this diet before.

My stats are; 25 years old, lifting for about 3 years, 215-220lbs, 5'7, probably 20% b/f.

Im trying to lose the weight that I put on at college from boozing basically everyday and eating hotpockets for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I will be doing a 5 day split:

Monday - Legs and calves
Tuesday - off because of night class ( trying to go back and work on an MBA )
Wednesday - Chest and abs
Thursday - Back and calves
Friday - Shoulders and traps
Saturday - Tri's/Bi's
Sunday - off

I have had decent success while trying to cut over the last 8 weeks keeping my rep range around 3-7 ( mostly 5 ). I've tried to focus my workouts around olympic style lifts ( squats, flat bench, deadlifts, clean and presses ) so I plan on continuing this while on this diet.

My current supps are:
Multi 2 daily ( morning then post workout )
Fish Oil 20g daily( was only dosing 10 caps previously )
DCP 6 caps daily
ALA x300mg 30minutes before meals
CLA - 6g's daily
GTE - 6 caps daily ( from Nutra )
ZMT - 1 cap ( bulk caps from Nutra )
Whey Isolate - the walmart brand but most likely picking up some Iso-Pure ZERO-CARB soon
ECA - 25mg/200mg/81mg ( only for the next 2 weeks then I plan on cycling off for a couple of months since I have been cycling for the last 8 weeks, just dont want to over do it here )
I have some yohimbie, should I start taking that or wait? What kind of dosage?
In 4 weeks I was thinking about trying Jungle Warefare or Powerfull, I'd like to get back the strength I lost while trying to diet - not sure but any thoughts or other ideas will be appreciated


I'll post my diet and workout tomorrow evening when I get home from the gym and eat dinner. Thanks all

[JDF]

So today was my first day carb cycling and it honestly was not as painful as I thought it would be. I had been cutting the amount of carbs I consumed over the last couple of weeks in anticipation of this diet.

So here's what my meals today looked like:

Meal 1: 4 ggs, 4 strips of bacon, and 1 tblspn of EVOO

Meal 2: 1 Colby Chz stick

Meal 3: 8oz steak, 1 tblspn of EVOO, 1/4 cup of Chedder, and a cup of mixed veggies ( broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots - will be cutting carrots next time i go shopping )

Meal 4: 2 cups of romaine lettuce, 1 cup of spinach, 1/3 cup of carrots, 1/4 cup of shredded chedder, 2 tblspns of south beach diet Ranch dressing

Immediately Post Workout: Protein Shake with 1 tblspn of EVOO

Meal 5: 8oz steak, 1 tblspn of EVOO, 1 cup of mixed veggies ( same as earlier ), 1/4 cup of Shredded Chedder

Meal 6: ( yet to eat it yet but prepared it already ) 2 medium celery stalks with natty PB with extra Omega 3.

grams cals %total
Total: ------ 3053
Fat: ---228--2050--68%
Sat:---77---692---23%
Poly:---23---204---7%
Mono:-109--981---33%
Carbs:---47--126----4%
Fiber:---16---0-----0%
Protein:-210--841----28%

TTL Kal: 3053
Fat: 68%
Protein: 28%
Carbs: 4% ( 31g )

Supps:

2 multi vitamins
20 caps of Fish Oil
8 caps of DCP ( 2 pills, 4x )
1.5g of GTE
6g of CLA
900mg of ALA
ECA - 25/200/81 - twice

Today was leg/calf/abs day:
Squats - 10/8/6/4 - 2 warm up sets
Lunges - 8 reps each leg - 3 sets
SLDL - 6 reps - 3 sets
Leg extensions - 8 reps - 3 sets

Standing calf raise 8reps/3sets
-superset-
Seated calf raise 12reps/3 sets

I almost always do a circut when I do abs because I hate doing them; knee raises, hyper-X, crunchs on swiss ball, bridge on swiss ball.

I felt pretty good moving through my whole workout ( I usually move pretty quickly through legs ) but by the time I came to begin abs I thought I was going to throw up. Any else feel this way when they started carb cycling?

I wont be able to work out tomorrow because of a night class that im taking so tonight will take a little bit more prep since I'll be on the go from 7am-9pm tomorrow

[JDF]

I think im staying pretty much on track, maybe to many fats?? I sort of had a headache today but it could be the fact that i had 4 cups of coffee today and 400mg of C from the ECA stack. This is way more than I usually intake so I am going to attribute this to that.

Kind of craving carbs and wish I could cheat a little bit but not going to during the initial phase here. I still think I am going to try for the 12 day high fat/pro diet and on the 13th and 14th days I will carb load.

I am thinking that since I am going 12 days w/ 30g of carbs i'll carb load for 2 days but after the intial phase I am going to shoot a 24hr refeed, any thoughts on this? Do you think I should stay with 2 day refeeds and then cut it down to 24 hour refeeds if i dont get good results?

grams cals %total
Total: 2771
Fat:----191--1720--62%
Sat:---66---590---21%
Poly:--20---184----7%
Mono:-88---790---28%
Carbs:--38---121----4%
Fiber:--8-----0-----0%
Protein:-238--951---34%


Meal 1: 4 strips of bacon/ 4 whole eggs / 1 tblspn EVOO

Meal 2: Colby chz stick / protein shake / 1 tblspn of EVOO

Meal 3: 10oz steak / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1 cup mixed veggies / 1/4 cup chz

Meal 4: 1 cup spinach / 2 cups romaine lettuce / 2 tblspn ranch dressing / 1/4 cup ch / 1 small ckn breast

Meal 5: 2 tblspn PB / 2 medium length celery stalks / 1 tblspn EVOO / 2 scoops whey isolate

Plus 4 non-dairy creamers - 1 carb each

Supps today:

2 multi's
20g Fish Oil
8 caps DCP
1g GTE
900mg ALA
6g CLA
1 ZMT nutracap
ECA 25/200/81 twice


I've been good about keeping my net CHO intake to right about 30g the first couple of days, my fats seem to be pushing just over 60% ( should my saturated be this high? ) but I remember hearing some ppl on the board say that they done fine which maintaining this higher level of fat intake. I hit 238g of protein today and I was sort of shooting for 1g of protein for every pound of body weight, I am looking to cut and thought this would be ok since im not looking to bulk ( but would not mind LBM ).

I couldnt get to the gym today because of my night class to I cut my calories by about 300-400 calories less than normal, I'll be back at the gym tomorrow to hammer out some chest. I'll post my workout and let you all know how i feel on day 3.

[frizzlerock]

subbed. hey are you just taking the EVOO right from the tblspn or are you putting it on your food

[JDF]

subbed. hey are you just taking the EVOO right from the tblspn or are you putting it on your food

I usually add it in with my food, especially when im cooking.

I left it out of my Eggs this morning and also out of my first Pro. shake so we'll see what kind of %'s I have tonight. I figured I'd do a little playing early to try and get closer to that 50% fat mark.

[macedaddy]

try increasing your water intake to help the headaches.

Good Luck!

[ZDawg]

Good Luck JDF . Ill be keeping a close eye on your progress to motivate me so dont let us down

[T-Bone]

Add a fiber supplement if you can. Diet looks excellent. For the carb load it is anywhere between 10-48 hours. When you start feeling bloated and like your gonna put on fat it is time to go back to the lower carb portion of the diet. You can use Pslin or anabolic pump on your carb load to make it more effiencient and be able to eat more carbs without worry. Remember the important thing during the assesment phase is to keep fat high. 40% at the lowest. Your percentages are right on track so just keep on keepin on.

[JDF]

Arrgghh....I had a headache all day today and felt VERY moody! I tried to drink more water today ( no lie I have been pee'ing twice and hour all day ) and the headache didn't go away but I am thinking that maybe its the lack or carbs? I really want to give in and just eat a pretzel or something, just 1. I have not given in and have pushed forward all though, my diet looked like this today:

Meal 1: 4 Eggs / 5 medium strips of bacon

Meal 2: Protein Shake / 2 oz Chedder Chz

Meal 3: 1 cup mixed veggies / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1/4 cup Chedder / 7oz Steak

Meal 4: 2 cups romaine lettuce / 1 cup spinach / 1/4 cup chedder chz / 2 tblspn ranch dressing

Post WO: 1 scoop whey

Meal 5: ( 1 hour later ) 7oz Pork Chop / 1 cup mixed veggies / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1/4 cup chedder

Meal 6: 2oz Pepperoni / 2 oz chedder chz / 1 scoop whey / 1 tblspn EVOO - I was still super hungry after my 5th meal so tomorrow night im going to eat a larger meat portion of my meal

The Break down is:

grams cals %total
Total: 3383
Fat:-254---2283---67%
Sat:-98---886----26%
Poly:30----272-----8%
Mono:90--809----24%
Carbs:-33--105------3%
Fiber: 7 0 0%
Protein:254-1017----30%


Today I was under the 30g target for my carbs ( 24net carbs ) which I think is ok because I was a gram or 2 over the last couple of days ( plus I imagine 1 or 2 grams is not a HUGE deal ). I also upped my protein intake a little bit while cutting out a serving or 2 of EVOO which could explain why I was a little bit hungrier throughout the day.

CHEST DAY:

Some old guy was on the flat bench today and he honestly must have done 15 sets ( my gym sucks and only has 1 flat BB bench )

I was extremely pissed but not a huge deal I guess I just moved over to a flat bench and used DB's. Felt extremely weak here and just did not seem to have any endurance for the last couple of reps; 3 sets ( with 2 warm up sets ) 10/8/4

I moved on to some bodyweight dips then since all the benches were still being used I moved over to a hammer strength decline bench machine and did 3 sets of 10.

From here I moved on to 3 sets of incline flyes ( 10 reps ) and then over to 3 sets of 10 reps on the cable flyes.

I finished off my workout with some hammer strength incline presses, 3 sets of 12 reps.

I say I didnt have any endurance today but I really moved through the workout today, i was done w/in a half an hour today! I finished so quick I decided to do an ab circut, after I was done with abs i was pretty much whiped out and sweating like a maniac.

I guess im just kind of all over today because I've had a headache and havent felt like doing much but I want to keep up with my log so that I can keep up my motivation to stay on this diet.

Same supps as yesterday with same time/amounts:
Multi
Fish Oil
DCP
ALA
CLA
ZMT
GTE
ECA


Also, thanks all who replied and have been following so far. This gives me that much more motivation to get that 'Beach Bod' :bb2:

[JDF]

Add a fiber supplement if you can. Diet looks excellent. For the carb load it is anywhere between 10-48 hours. When you start feeling bloated and like your gonna put on fat it is time to go back to the lower carb portion of the diet. You can use Pslin or anabolic pump on your carb load to make it more effiencient and be able to eat more carbs without worry. Remember the important thing during the assesment phase is to keep fat high. 40% at the lowest. Your percentages are right on track so just keep on keepin on.

I thought Pslin was an NO booster but then again I never really did much reading on it. Why would I want to add this for only 1-2 days a week ( not calling you out just curious )?

I was thinking about taking either Powerfull or Junglewarfare, basically something to help me get back the strength that i lost from the previous 7 weeks of dieting. Any thoughts?

[JDF]

Today actually went better than the previous 2 days, I didnt feel so cranky and aggrevated. I had a lot of issues to address at work today which helped to keep me busy and keep my mind off the fact that I wanted to eat basically anything with Carbs ( i think i want to so bad because i know im not supposed to ).

Todays meals looked like this:

Meal 1: 8oz Ham / 4 Eggs

Meal 2: 2 oz Chedder Chz / 1 cup coffee with 1 packet splenda and 1 non-dairy creamer

Meal 3: 7oz Pork Chop / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1 cup mixed veggies / 1/4 cup chedder / 1 cup sugar free jello

Meal 4: 2 cups romaine lettuce / 1 cup spinach / 2 tblspns ranch / 1/4 cup chedder / 1 whey protein shake

Post Workout: 1 scool whey and 1 tblspn EVOO

1 hour later: 14oz Pork Chops / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1/4 cup chedder

The break down was:

grams cals %total
Total: 3529
Fat: 264 2372 68%
Sat: 99 888 25%
Poly: 36 324 9%
Mono: 108 972 28%
Carbs: 29 98 3%
Fiber: 5 0 0%
Protein: 259 1038 30%

Again today I think I got enough protein in, I think I will try and get an extra serving of veggies tomorrow because this is the second day in a fow that I was about a cup of mixed veggies below the 30g goal that I have.

Also, I added my fish oil caps into my totals today ( and yesterday ) which I forgot to do on the first couple of days.

Back Day:

I felt pretty good today before my workout, no headache and decent amount of energy so I started it off with Rack DL's. This was the first time i've ever done them and i really liked them, really felt the pump in more of my mid to upper back rather than right above my glute. I've lost some strength because of dieting the last 8-9 weeks but today I actually DL'd 455 3x's. Yes it was a rack dead and not off the floor but it was good for my self esteem which I really needed.

The rest of the workout looked like this:

Front Pulldowns: 3 sets/ 10 reps - really squeezed at the bottom
Underhand cable rows: 3 sets / 8 reps
Close grip barbell rows: 4 sets / 10-8-6-5 ( also a personal best; 5 plates for my last set )
Cable pulldowns ( palms facing me ): 3 sets / 8 reps

Supps:
2 multi
20 fish oil caps
8 DCP
900mg of ALA
6g CLA
1 ZMT cap
3 GTE caps
ECA

I really want to have a beer this weekend and gorge a little bit for the super bowl but im really going to try and stick this out for the full 12 days

Im also going to be ordering some bulk fish oil caps from nutra in probably a week or so, are recommendations on what I should add while on this diet? or recommendation on a specific workout regimine while on this diet? Just looking for ideas here to switch some things up. Thanks all!

[T-Bone]

I thought Pslin was an NO booster but then again I never really did much reading on it. Why would I want to add this for only 1-2 days a week ( not calling you out just curious )?

I was thinking about taking either Powerfull or Junglewarfare, basically something to help me get back the strength that i lost from the previous 7 weeks of dieting. Any thoughts?

Pslin will help you utilize carbs better. The diet also works to help utilize carbs better...You are more sensitive to insulin during carb ups. It also depends on the person though and how long you can stay on your carb up without adding extra fat. With Pslin you will be able to stay on carb up longer than you normally would without feeling bloated and uncomfortable(the point at which you should normally stop and go back to eating low-carb). The carb normally lasts between 10-48 hours. With Pslin you should be able to do the full 48 hours and not worry about gaining any fat(even if you go overboard and have too many snacks, treats, or cheats!).

[JDF]

Thanks for the responses T-bone, i'll have to take a look into that!

I felt alright tonight even though it was the end of the week and I was tired from work and the new idea of carb cycling.

The diet looked like this:

Meal 1: 8oz ham and 3 eggs

Meal 2: 2oz chedder and 2 oz pepperoni

Meal 3: 10oz Steak ( for all of you that read the metabolic diet you know the part in the book where Dr. Pasquale talks about how his friend was rude and ordered just a steak and always needed to repeat himself to the waitresses, ya that happened when i went out to lunch here )

Meal 4: 2 cups romaine lettuce / 1 cup spinach / 1/4 cup chedder / 2tblspns ranch / 1 scoop whey

Post Workout: 1 scoop whey

Meal 5: 8oz steak / 1 tblspn EVOO / 1 cup mixed veggies / 1/4 cup chedder

The break down looks like this:

grams cals %total
Total: 3204
Fat: 237 2137 67%
Sat: 90 808 25%
Poly: 29 264 8%
Mono: 83 748 23%
Carbs: 28 92 3%
Fiber: 5 0 0%
Protein: 242 967 30%


I've been closer to 20g of CHO the last 3 days and i've felt kind of tired, should I keep this low if I can deal with if to see better results or should I up my carbs? Im not sure which route to go because it is only day 5 of this diet.


Shoulder Day:

I usually start shoulders out with clean and presses, 1 warm up set then 3-5 working sets depending on how my body feels. I was actually somewhat strong today during my sets and did all 5 sets ( 5-5-4-3-3 )

Then i moved on to some reverse grip presses on the smythe machine - 3 sets / 10-8-8

upright rows - 3 sets / 8-8-8

side laterals on the cable machine ( I stand in front of the cable and let my arm go slightly behind my back to get a better ROM ) 3 sets / 10-10-10


behind the neck presses 3 sets / 10-8-8

reverse pec-deck -3 sets / 10 reps ( did one are @ a time )

BB shrugs - 3 sets / 10-8-6

DB shrugs - 3 sets / 10-10-10

Felt good and moved right through my sets ( almost faster than I wanted to since I was waiting for my buddy so we could play raquetball ).

I actually did some cardio tonight in the form of raquetball, i really hate doing cardio but I know its a necessary evil.

[JDF]

I went to bed last night wondering if I would push my body and try to go for the 12 days before a refeed and yesterday I was pretty confident that I was not going to push it.

However, I woke up this morning and decided 'I hate being fat and refuse to quit at this point'

So i'll be making the 12 day trek, I took a couple of pics of myself like a day ago and I figured i'd post them to see where I stand in a couple of weeks.

try not to be to brutal but honesty would be nice too!

[T-Bone]

Your doing very good at this point. Diet is really good. To me, you sound like you can make it the whole 12 days no problem. If you can't you can always raise carbs depending on how you feel. First start adding potasium supplements, then look at the flow chart in the book. Depending on how tired you feel I would add potasium supplementation first, and then go from there and decide whether or not to ad some carbs.

[JDF]

Your doing very good at this point. Diet is really good. To me, you sound like you can make it the whole 12 days no problem. If you can't you can always raise carbs depending on how you feel. First start adding potasium supplements, then look at the flow chart in the book. Depending on how tired you feel I would add potasium supplementation first, and then go from there and decide whether or not to ad some carbs.

Thanks for the support and advise bro, it honestly means a lot to me and a little support goes a long way when things get rough

[hman85]

Keep it up man!

[frizzlerock]

JDF hows the diet going. Having any gastrol or stomach problems? i tried to start AD on 1-29. 3 days in i started to get bad gas cramps, & pain in my kidney area. I was damn near on my way to the doc, got me nervious. Any issues like this?

[proeliator]

Good work man, I actually started the AD on 28JAN08, so I believe I'm at about the same place as yourself.

Weekend was a little rough on me, was pretty tired and I really got a sense for making sure I'm eating often enough so I don't shut down.

Keep up the good work man, the dividends are nearing by the day

[JDF]

Hey all,

Thanks to everyone else who has now joined our regularly scheduled program

I kept strong on the diet this weekend, I stayed about about 65% fats / 32% Pro / <3% CHO.

Took down about 3200 on saturday, felt pretty good while doing arms today and had ppl coming up to me at the gym telling me I look like I am leaning out while staying at a pretty good size.

I also had ALLLL sorts of energy today at the gym ( probably the ECA, I took it about an hour and half before lifting and I usually have to take it like 3-4 hours before lifting during the week ). I zipped right through my workout and then played some raquetball against some dude who completed waxed me Im pretty good but this guy was pulling shots from no where, so kudos to him.

Sunday was a different story now. I stayed strong on the diet but it pissed me off that I didnt even have one beer/slice of pizza/plate of nachos ( Go Giants ). I cut my calories for sunday since I didnt do any lifting and only took in around 2200-2300 and only like 160g of protein. Next time I cut my kals like that I'll make sure to get aleast my body weight in g's of protein.

Here it is Monday afternoon, lunch time, and I am still on the diet and pushing forward. Seems to be getting easier and I have less and less cravings for Carbs or atleast its easier to handle then cravings.

Good luck to all of you guys who just started the diet as well, are you guys doing a log? If so then def. post the link so I can follow along with you to see how you all are progressing.


I am pretty sure that this will be my last week of ECA for a little bit since this is week 10 of cycling it on and off ( only 5 weeks on ). I am going to wait probably like 2-3 weeks then start the ALRI stack to see if I can recomp while on this diet as I hear so many people talk about. I was thinking about running it 8 weeks:

JW for wks 1-8
BAM for wks 1-4
ProA for wks 4-8

with week 4 being an overlap for BAM and ProA. Im still open to other options/stacks and plans for running this individual stack. Thanks all!!!