Don't Blow Up
Q: If you had the diet knowledge that you do now when you were just starting to rebound from your dieting/anorexia days, what would you do to fix up the metabolism without the intermediate blow-up and regain of mostly fat?
It seems that's where I'm at, and what I'd like to work on over the winter. I'm thinking minimal cardio, weights, and a squeaky clean diet. The last part sucks, but at least if I make a hard break-in period, the sugar cravings will just stop - that I know from experience. I might even do a TRUE Atkins phase, eating meat-eggs-nuts-cream plus 20g (80 cals) or less of carbs (basically my daily huge salad of romaine & bell peppers, OR a stir fry, not both). I'm finally getting that there's a reason for cutting diets being fabled as "tuna and water" - it really works. Thoughts?
A: If I were a time-traveler, I could have avoided the whole rebound weight gain just by jumping forward to 2007 and coming back with Precision Nutrition and Afterburn, and possibly an iPod Nano. ;-)
For metabolism fixing workouts:
Total body metabolic resistance training 3-4 days a week - no bodybuilding body part hoody hoo.
Lung-chucking, metabolism blasting high-intensity interval training 3-5 days a week.
As much general, recreational, bonus activity as feasible. Doing something burns more calories than doing nothing.
Plenty o' sleep. If you don't fully recover from your lung-chucking and metabolism blasting, things begin to go awry.
For nutrition:
Level I Precision Nutrition - lean protein every 2-3 hours, loads of fruits and vegetables, starchy carbs post-workout, healthy fat, no food totally off limits.
That's sanity. That's effective. That's not what I did, of course. I went straight from starvation to becoming a vegetarian, of all the stupid things. And I'm not talking a Precision Nutrition vegetarian. I'm talking somebody who lived on bread, bagels, waffles and french fries - an all-processed-carbs, all-the-time plan. And to really finish myself off, I began... drum roll, wait, wait for it... a walking program. LOL
So, I had this trainwreck of a metabolism, I was ravenously hungry all the time and my cravings were running amok from years and years of undereating, and my solution was to have some pasta and go for a walk, maybe curl my 8lb dumbbells occasionally. Not good, not good.
It took me years to slowly bumble onto the right track. First I found The Firm, which for video workouts was way ahead of its time with the total body strength training and interval cardio combined. Then I found
The Zone and it finally dawned on me why I was getting fatter by the second. Then I found
Body for Life, put the strength training, interval cardio, and frequent high-protein meals together, and WHAMMO! Suddenly I actually looked like a fit person.
My metabolism was getting a lot better, but when I switched to
Precision Nutrition, I was able to increase my calorie intake from around 1,800 on BFL to the nearly 2,800 that I average now. If I'd just started with PN in the first place, it would probably have been a faster fix, or maybe not. It takes time to bring your calories up without losing sight of your abs. Definitely, those calories have to be mostly clean, but you need carbs, and you need starchy carbs post workout, and you need an occasional pizza overfeed or big piece of Death By Chocolate. :-) These are the things that tell your metabolism everything is ok, that there's an abundance of fuel, that it's alright to roar along wasting calories.
Do not do the Atkins induction thing. DO NOT. It's totally counterproductive to what you're trying to accomplish, which is a lean body with fast metabolism and a normal calorie intake. Any kind of a low carb, squeaky clean, contest cutting scenario is not only going to destroy your energy level for the hardcore workouts, but it's going to set off every metabolic alarm you have. Picture a submarine with red flashing lights, noisy alarms, and a voice yelling, DIVE!! DIVE!! That's what happens to your metabolism after any length of time on those "tuna and water" plans. The metabolic wreckage is such a sure thing that when Berardi wrote The Get Shredded Diet, he also had to write Getting Unshredded so that people could come off of it without blowing up like balloons in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Train to maximize your metabolism. Eat to fuel your new higher energy expenditure. Make gradual adjustments based on your results. It's basics. It's not anything drastic or tricky.
Posted by skwigg
at 2:38 PM CDT
