Proteinpowda
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So I started a thread like this about one year ago with a similar name. At the time I was a medical intern living in Florida..... 6 months prior to that I had been in great shape. I had a few months off and just rode my bike ten miles a day and lifted everyday. Prior to medical school I had been an avid lifter; benching 375 at 220lbs, deadlifting 450 or so...never quite reached below 9% or so body fat but I was pretty lean. From med school on it was downhill. Was in my first adult relationship and stress ate....Intern year wasnt much better.
Halfway through intern year I was terrified. I had ballooned to 250lbs. My heaviest ever. To put things in context I was normally 210-220 at 6 foot. My umbilicus was > 40 inches. And I just felt like crap. I worked 80 hours a week and snuck in a workout when I could in my garage (I had a full power rack, 450lbs of weights and treadmill etc). Somehow over a 6 month period I dropped back down to my 220 range pretty much by being on a ketotic diet. I had also been on the road traveling for interviews in anesthesia during that time frame (an impressive 18 interviews).
At the end of June I moved to my newest position; first year in anesthesia in a state with amazing pizza to put it more or less.
New program; new stress...excellent food. I was up to almost 260 by October. I came across a book called Rapid Fat Loss and tried it. 4 weeks later 234...then the holidays..and somehow I hit a record shattering 267...
See the pattern?
How is it that as a healthcare professional (who's undergraduate work was exercise physiology) and prior avid bodybuilder had succumbed to obesity?
How is it that the drugs that most people are afraid of; the ephedrines of the world; micheal jackson juice aka propofol, narcotics 1000x stronger than morphine I carry around in my pocket yet I still don't use supplements correctly?
How does someone go from saying that noone is too busy to at least squeeze in some sort of a workout to being forced to study for your boards, sleep or workout? Forsaking sleep can have grave consequences. Residency hours are better but I still do pull 24-25 hour shifts.
So I was faced with an option this time. I stupidly made a bet with a coworker that I could lose 30lbs in 30 days. I'd lost 25 in 3 weeks so why not this time? Just go on a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) Fat Fast and feel terrible and lose it all...take some fat burners...do some cardio. Never look a carbohydrate in the eye.....
And for once I said stop and examined things....lets say a person is 200lbs and 25% bodyfat. He could drop 20lbs in a month and just look at the scale...which is what I had been doing...and my waistline was barely budging. Or take a different perspective. Lose 2lbs a week...and every 2lbs is roughly one percentage point body fat (ignoring water and such). If I had done that for the six months I had been yo-yoing I would be in a much better place.
So whats the key that really seperates the men from the boys in terms of physique? Is it really your amazingly super secret awesome routine? Does that make it or break it (Someone doesn't out but eats great can be sexy...Someone that works out and eats terrible can still be fat). Its CONSISTENCY. Just like they've shown a lot of the best students created formal study plans so do the great physiques of the world. Yes some have awesome genetics. Some subvert their genetics with anabolics and thyroid hormone, clenbuterol etc....but these are short term fixes. And in the process risking acute and lethal arrythmias from thyroid storm and such (yes yes yes some are pros at titrating this stuff but remember you are dealing in micrograms with this stuff...what if your distributor in making their batched used milligrams instead? Enjoy your Supraventricular tachycardia and Torsades De Pointes). Or increased lipids and the associated increased risk in coronary artery disease down the line? So yes stuff can be a short term fix. I routinely use ephedrine pushes in anesthesia to raise a patients blood pressure and heart rate TRANSIENTLY. Sometimes we even have to use straight epinephrine.
So point being its all about consistency. It's not trying to say hey I have a hot date in 2 weeks let me crash the weight off. It's realizing you can only do so much in a short time frame, accepting it and sticking to the plan (unless major modifications need to be made).
So that's bring me to the crux of the story. What should the plan be? Should it be a high carb, a low carb, a no protein, a high protein etc?
A lot of the data out there does show low carbs effectiveness. But look at who these studies are done on? They're not done on lifters. Its more of the average folk...sitting in their cubicle at work. Their body doesn't need CHOs.
Ketosis works great b/c it kills your appetite (IMO that's the main benefit of it...enhanced lipolysis and all other stuff aside...I'm not sure how much I buy into that).
But at the end of the day it's more on your psychology. What type can you live with? If you get a hunger craving what you can eat to subvert it? A large steak? Or a bowl of fruit.....
For me the answer was a big bowl of fruit. And lots of stir fry veggies. Yes we can just do peri-workout CHOs and post-workout carbs but I think theres a large benefit from having some slow digesting, fibrous, stuff throughout the day. And not tossing fruit out the window. I think as a whole we could benefit from more fruit and veggies in the diet. And if you something is crap food....well it probably is.
And what about workouts for those us who dont have time to workout?
I think there a few solutions.
Realistically the largest time-killer/waster in the gym is cardio. You'll do heavy cardio and burn maybe 500 calories in 30 minutes...or 200 if you're on the bike or incline walking at a slow pace. Maybe a bit more maybe a bit less. All in all you're looking at roughly 4 hours of pretty intense cardio to burn just a lb. The same effect that could be gleaned from decreasing your diet 500kcal a day (not accounting for the associated decrease in metabolism) or what I think is better yet...MAXIMIZE your daily activities and somehow increase them.
Do you work in a multi-story building? Are you using the stairs or the elevator. Our operating rooms on the second floor...our lounge/study areas on the tenth. Just doing that walk a few times a day equals quite a bit of cardio. And also intermittent bursts of activity will help your spike your metabolism.
So for one MAXIMIZE daily activities.
Two: For workouts... You gotta hit hard, heavy and fast. I was a fan of Chad Waterbury's stuff before. I don't have time for it now. I think stuff more along the lines of meltdown training or non-stop full body workouts are your best bet. For this I'd recommend Escalated Density Training. If you're not familiar with it.
So yes. Quite the rant; and something I'd like to organize into an actual article later... but a few starter points I'm going to try and incorporate and see where it goes. I'll follow up with you soon.
Halfway through intern year I was terrified. I had ballooned to 250lbs. My heaviest ever. To put things in context I was normally 210-220 at 6 foot. My umbilicus was > 40 inches. And I just felt like crap. I worked 80 hours a week and snuck in a workout when I could in my garage (I had a full power rack, 450lbs of weights and treadmill etc). Somehow over a 6 month period I dropped back down to my 220 range pretty much by being on a ketotic diet. I had also been on the road traveling for interviews in anesthesia during that time frame (an impressive 18 interviews).
At the end of June I moved to my newest position; first year in anesthesia in a state with amazing pizza to put it more or less.
New program; new stress...excellent food. I was up to almost 260 by October. I came across a book called Rapid Fat Loss and tried it. 4 weeks later 234...then the holidays..and somehow I hit a record shattering 267...
See the pattern?
How is it that as a healthcare professional (who's undergraduate work was exercise physiology) and prior avid bodybuilder had succumbed to obesity?
How is it that the drugs that most people are afraid of; the ephedrines of the world; micheal jackson juice aka propofol, narcotics 1000x stronger than morphine I carry around in my pocket yet I still don't use supplements correctly?
How does someone go from saying that noone is too busy to at least squeeze in some sort of a workout to being forced to study for your boards, sleep or workout? Forsaking sleep can have grave consequences. Residency hours are better but I still do pull 24-25 hour shifts.
So I was faced with an option this time. I stupidly made a bet with a coworker that I could lose 30lbs in 30 days. I'd lost 25 in 3 weeks so why not this time? Just go on a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) Fat Fast and feel terrible and lose it all...take some fat burners...do some cardio. Never look a carbohydrate in the eye.....
And for once I said stop and examined things....lets say a person is 200lbs and 25% bodyfat. He could drop 20lbs in a month and just look at the scale...which is what I had been doing...and my waistline was barely budging. Or take a different perspective. Lose 2lbs a week...and every 2lbs is roughly one percentage point body fat (ignoring water and such). If I had done that for the six months I had been yo-yoing I would be in a much better place.
So whats the key that really seperates the men from the boys in terms of physique? Is it really your amazingly super secret awesome routine? Does that make it or break it (Someone doesn't out but eats great can be sexy...Someone that works out and eats terrible can still be fat). Its CONSISTENCY. Just like they've shown a lot of the best students created formal study plans so do the great physiques of the world. Yes some have awesome genetics. Some subvert their genetics with anabolics and thyroid hormone, clenbuterol etc....but these are short term fixes. And in the process risking acute and lethal arrythmias from thyroid storm and such (yes yes yes some are pros at titrating this stuff but remember you are dealing in micrograms with this stuff...what if your distributor in making their batched used milligrams instead? Enjoy your Supraventricular tachycardia and Torsades De Pointes). Or increased lipids and the associated increased risk in coronary artery disease down the line? So yes stuff can be a short term fix. I routinely use ephedrine pushes in anesthesia to raise a patients blood pressure and heart rate TRANSIENTLY. Sometimes we even have to use straight epinephrine.
So point being its all about consistency. It's not trying to say hey I have a hot date in 2 weeks let me crash the weight off. It's realizing you can only do so much in a short time frame, accepting it and sticking to the plan (unless major modifications need to be made).
So that's bring me to the crux of the story. What should the plan be? Should it be a high carb, a low carb, a no protein, a high protein etc?
A lot of the data out there does show low carbs effectiveness. But look at who these studies are done on? They're not done on lifters. Its more of the average folk...sitting in their cubicle at work. Their body doesn't need CHOs.
Ketosis works great b/c it kills your appetite (IMO that's the main benefit of it...enhanced lipolysis and all other stuff aside...I'm not sure how much I buy into that).
But at the end of the day it's more on your psychology. What type can you live with? If you get a hunger craving what you can eat to subvert it? A large steak? Or a bowl of fruit.....
For me the answer was a big bowl of fruit. And lots of stir fry veggies. Yes we can just do peri-workout CHOs and post-workout carbs but I think theres a large benefit from having some slow digesting, fibrous, stuff throughout the day. And not tossing fruit out the window. I think as a whole we could benefit from more fruit and veggies in the diet. And if you something is crap food....well it probably is.
And what about workouts for those us who dont have time to workout?
I think there a few solutions.
Realistically the largest time-killer/waster in the gym is cardio. You'll do heavy cardio and burn maybe 500 calories in 30 minutes...or 200 if you're on the bike or incline walking at a slow pace. Maybe a bit more maybe a bit less. All in all you're looking at roughly 4 hours of pretty intense cardio to burn just a lb. The same effect that could be gleaned from decreasing your diet 500kcal a day (not accounting for the associated decrease in metabolism) or what I think is better yet...MAXIMIZE your daily activities and somehow increase them.
Do you work in a multi-story building? Are you using the stairs or the elevator. Our operating rooms on the second floor...our lounge/study areas on the tenth. Just doing that walk a few times a day equals quite a bit of cardio. And also intermittent bursts of activity will help your spike your metabolism.
So for one MAXIMIZE daily activities.
Two: For workouts... You gotta hit hard, heavy and fast. I was a fan of Chad Waterbury's stuff before. I don't have time for it now. I think stuff more along the lines of meltdown training or non-stop full body workouts are your best bet. For this I'd recommend Escalated Density Training. If you're not familiar with it.
So yes. Quite the rant; and something I'd like to organize into an actual article later... but a few starter points I'm going to try and incorporate and see where it goes. I'll follow up with you soon.
