Natural Bodybuilder's Diet - My Bodyduilding Competition Diet, Meal By Meal. Inside The Pages Of A Natural Bodybuilder's Competition Diet Journal. Date: From: Tom Venuto. ![]() The Author Practices What He Preaches And Shows How He Uses His Own Fat Burning Diet System For Bodybuilding And Competition Diets.. After reading my letter on the home page, many people are intrigued about the . Of course, I explained on the home page that this nutrition program was created BY a bodybuilder, not just FOR bodybuilders. With that out of the way, usually one of the next questions my readers send me is, ? I teach this customization process in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program. Calories, protein, carbs, fats, macronutrient ratios and food choices, must all be individualized. What you will read below is a sample of some of my personal bodybuilding diet menu plans that I actually used to prepare for competition. My goal is to prove to you that I practice what I preach and to let you see an actual sample of bodybuilding diet menu plans. My very best to you,Tom Venuto,Author, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. ![]() That's my bodybuilding diet plan laid bare for you. Question is, what are you going to do with it? I encourage you to stop, once and for all, the endless. Lifetime Natural Bodybuilder. Pre Contest Diet Changes 1. Weeks Out - Tightening Things up! Tom Venuto. Friday, July 8th, 2. For the past three weeks, I’ve been on what you could call a “clean” diet, but it was far from strict, low calorie or low carb - it was more like a “pre- diet diet”. You can see my 1. July 2nd. After an “official” weigh- in today and an un- official body fat test, it’s definitely time to tighten things up. Here’s what’s changed. I will now begin carb cycling with medium carb days of 2. The carbs will probably go even lower (1. Note: 1. 50 grams is a very low carb diet for me. Information on insulin, insulin resistance and aging. Insulin also causes the retention of sodium, which causes fluid retention, which causes high blood. So it’s March. And at the beginning of March, I’m supposed to report on February’s 30-day trial of Tim Ferriss’s Slow Carb Diet and tell you what new and. The Health Benefits of Raw Eggs - A Life Building Food. Thursday, February 07, 2008 by: Rami Nagel Tags: raw foods, raw eggs, health news. See how to lose weight fast, build muscle, get curves and other ways to look better naked at NowLoss.com. You wouldn’t like me when I eat less carbs than that : ) My early day meals will contain the starchy carbs (mainly oatmeal and yams, sometimes white potatoes or rice, especially after workouts), and my late day meals will contain the fibrous carbs (green veggies & salad veggies), with the essential fats. Protein stays constant in every meal. I’ve bumped up my essential oil supplement to two tablespoons a day in conjunction with the drop in carbs. If I feel like it, I’ll substitute 1 of the tablespoons of oil for natural peanut butter instead (why? Because it keeps the dietary. I need it and tastes damn good when you’re on a diet!) I know some bodybuilders who use cream for their pre- contest fat instead. That can make a nice protein shake if you mix it with protein powder, but I use whole foods over shakes most of the time (go figure. I also get some fat. I eat red meat once every day. The rest of the fat is incidental in my chicken breasts, oatmeal, etc. Whatever works for you. In any case, you want to keep *some* fat in the diet, and the lower your carbs go, the more fat you can eat, within reason. I do NOT like ketogenic diets (close to zero carb, or very low carb/high fat). In fact, I think they suck. I’m not saying they won’t or can’t get you ripped, I’m just saying in my opinion, I think they suck for hard training bodybuilders. ![]() ![]() ![]() Adaptation to low carbs and. You can sometimes remedy the energy problems by taking the fats way up, but I find that a diet over 2. I prefer a cyclical low carb diet with very high protein (for healthy bodybuilders!!! I would not advise copying my precontest diet for general weight loss purposes. When you’re training hard and doing cardio, believe me 2. I’ll undoubtedly be headed soon), is very low. I just can’t understand why anyone would want to drop to 1. Right now my carb cycle is 3 days medium carbs (2. This is still not that strict, it’s only the first adjustment. Here’s the “medium carb days” where I will be 6 out of every 8 days. That’s down another pound since last week. This was wearing only a t- shirt and sweatpants, no shoes. I unfortunately haven’t had anyone around to take my body fat with the Skyndex (4- site digital body fat skinfold caliper), although there are some trainers at our club that will volunteer for me. I would normally have Richie measure me, as it’s important to have a skilled tester for consistent measurements, but I haven’t been able to connect with him as often as I’d like. So what I did instead this week was to break out my Accu measure caliper. I often recommend the Accu- measure for other people, but for me it doesn’t offer as much precision as I need. Only measuring one skinfold site (iliac crest) doesn’t work well for a bodybuilder who is shooting for low single digit body fat, because some of the. ![]() ![]() I find that once my iliac crest is down to 2mm or so in thickness, I still have fat in other areas that could be measured with a multi site test, but at this point, the Accu- measure has “bottomed out.” You might see a 1. Anyway, just for kicks, I measured my iliac crest with the Accu measure and it was 6. Not so good actually. If I use the age categories on the accu measure skinfold interpretation chart (I’m 3. Which would be quite high (for a bodybuilder at this point). I would put myself closer to 8% if I had to guess! For example, if I were to use the age 2. Body composition testing is obviously not an exact science. ![]() Usually the best bet is to pick one method, use the same tester every time and stick with them for consistency. Next week, hopefully, I’ll get measured accurately with a 4- site test and I’ll log in the results consistently every week after that. But for whatever it’s worth, I know my self- tested iliac crest skinfold is 6 mm, so I do have lots of work to do to get that sucker down to 2 mm or less! Honestly, I don’t really need to test body fat anymore. After 2. 6 competitions, I know exactly when I’m ready by looking in the mirror. I can even tell if I’m getting leaner just by pinching the skin on my abs and waistline with my fingers. The goal is to have what I call “Saran wrap” skin. That is, the skin is so thin that it almost appears translucent and literally “clings” to the muscles underneath. If you pull it away from the abdominal muscles, it literally snaps right back! I’m still keeping my cardio at one session a day, usually 3. I went 3. 5 minutes on the stairmaster 4. PT, level 7 and level 8 at the end, and that was good for burning 5. Was drenched in sweat after that one! That was steady, by the way, not interval. Which is better? Which burns more fat??? Doesn’t take a Ph. D. Did I mention, DUH!!!????). Until next time, train hard, eat right and forget about those silly zero carb diets. If you want to know more about my carbohydrate cycling method, go get a copy of my ebook, Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle Check out chapter 1. After reading that, you will be an expert at carb manipulation for getting as ripped as you want to be! The carb cycling method I explain in my book is really the most sensible and intelligent way to do low carb, in my opinion. Pre Contest Diet Changes 1. Weeks Out. Tom Venuto. Friday, July 2. 9th, 2. Things are on schedule and looking good. I weigh 1. 96 lbs today. I’ve been losing weight slowly, but that’s intentional as I’ve been known to lose too quickly in the past and come in shredded but flat and kind of “stringy- looking.” Gotta keep the size and thickness, but over the next few weeks I definitely need to kick the fat loss up a notch, so I’ve made a few adjustments (slight decrease in calories and carbs on low days.)My new carb cycle is 3 days low carbs (approx 2. This is my second adjustment (downward) in carbs so far. I’m not a really low carb kind of guy, I prefer moderate reduction in carbs and a lot of cardio. That’s what works best for me and my body type. When I go very low in the carbs, I completely “deflate” and look flat. For me, 2. 00 grams IS low carbs, and 1. VERY low carbs (and is about the lowest I’ll go). Even on very very low carbs, I don’t seem to get lean without a lot of cardio. My body simply responds to the cardio more than carbohydrate manipulation. I know some people are the reverse (cut carbs and don’t do much cardio), so it’s important to understand your own body and how it responds. There’s no doubt - I DO get leaner with as reduction in carbs, just not a severe reduction. As of earlier this week, the diet now looks something like this: Meal 1: 6: 4. Meal 2: 9: 3. 0 am. Meal 3: 1. 2: 3. 0 pm. Meal 4: 3: 0. 0 pm. Meal 5: 5: 3. 0 pm. Meal 6: 8: 0. 0 pm. Alaskan salmon. 8 oz asparagus 1 tbsl udos oil or flaxseed oil. My high days are the same as before (LOVE those high days: 3. I’ve decreased my oatmeal from 1 cup to 3/4 cup, and decreased the size of the yam (I weigh the yam before cooking to make sure it’s exact). I don’t weigh my food year- round, but before contests, I want to know my carb intake to the gram. You’ll notice that the basic structure of my low carb days is that the first three meals are protein and starchy carb (high carb) meals, and the last three meals are protein, fibrous carb and fat meals (fat from beef, natural peanut butter or udos oil/flaxseed oil). It’s important to keep some fats in the diet as the carbs go lower. I’ve found that approx 2. Higher fat diets don’t seem to do much else for me. I was hungry a few weeks ago when I first shifted from the off season diet to lower carbs, but since I’ve cut the carbs and calories again, oddly enough, I haven’t really been hungry. So far, I’m actually eating more than in previous years and still getting leaner. I’m not concerned with getting lean enough; I can always come in shredded, no problem. The challenge is to come in shredded and FULL. I’ve been looking a little flat by the 3rd day of low carbs (even “medium” carbs), and the pumps haven’t been as good as they could be, but I suppose that’s to be expected. I’ll be keeping an eye on my condition and it I’m perpetually flat and I feel like I’m losing size after being on 2. I’ll probably take 2 high carb days rather than one, or pull back on the cardio a bit. When I started several weeks ago, I immediately began with 3. I’m now doing 4. 5 minutes of cardio, 7 days a week, at moderate to moderately high intensity. Way too much info about the Slow Carb Diet (and my results)So it’s March. And at the beginning of March, I’m supposed to report on February’s 3. Tim Ferriss’s Slow Carb Diet and tell you what new and crazy trial I’m doing this month. But that’s not going to happen. Because, as I mentioned originally, I only want to do six 3. I want to be able to stop and catch my breath if needed, or prolong certain experiments, or just be normal for a while. And in this case, my experience with Slow Carb has been. And so I’d like to give it another month, for reasons that you can read about in excruciatingly long- winded detail below. But to start, here’s the overall pros and cons of this way of eating as far as I see: The pros. The diet itself is pretty awesome. I like eating lots of beans (plenty of vegetarian refried beans, plenty of black and pinto beans. No lentils, though. Those things are fucking disgusting) and I like being forced into eating a lot of vegetables. I feel like I’m “eating well,” whatever that means. I also took a cue from the Four Hour Body book directly and have been eating at Chipotle once or twice a week: Steak burrito bowl, no rice, black and pinto beans, fajita onions and green peppers, tomato and corn salsas, guacamole, lettuce. That meal kicks some serious ass. I love the idea of a cheat day. It’s simple to eat in a regimented way if I know I’ll be eating whatever I want one day a week. Selective cheating is a huge psychological benefit as well as resetting your “starvation response” and pulling you out of ketosis for a while. It’s reducing my desire for certain foods. I find myself eating certain things on cheat days because I think I want them. Then I eat them and say, “That was gross. Why did I think I wanted it?” I think this is because I’m losing some of the sugar addiction that most of us have nowadays, seeing as everything has sugar added to it. I’ve also found that I don’t really want coffee anymore. I drink it on the weekends, but not on weekdays. That happened out of the blue. I didn’t try to quit; I just suddenly didn’t want it anymore. Blood sugars are OFF THE HOOK stable. I’m a type- 1 diabetic, meaning that the only insulin I get is the insulin I inject via my insulin pump. I monitor my blood sugar constantly. Before, I had good sugars on average, but now my graph looks like a flat- lining heart patient. It’s DEAD EVEN most of the time, hovering around 1. Which is an amazing benefit for someone like me, and also for nondiabetics. But especially for diabetics. Because of this, I’m using far less insulin (and saving money). There are two ways I deliver insulin: basal insulin, which is like a steady drip, and bolus insulin, which means that I give a bunch at once to compensate for the carbohydrates in a meal. I find myself rarely even giving boluses anymore. There are physiological benefits to using less insulin, but the more immediate advantage is that I’m also having to buy less of it. And it’s fucking EXPENSIVE. I estimate I’m using 3. My athletic performance is very good now that I’ve made some adjustments. Keep reading to see what I mean about adjustments. This diet was a clusterfuck for me before making the adjustments, but it’s great now, with them. The cons. There’s really only one. I’m not losing much fat. Kind of a big one, right? Seeing as the whole point of the diet is supposed to be to lose fat, the fact that I’m not seeing much of that is a problem. Now, I’m not the person this diet was really written for, I don’t think, so there’s that. I can maybe lose 1. After 4 weeks, I seem to have lost around 3 pounds. I seriously doubt that number is deceptive because I’m gaining muscle; I’m a highly- trained gym rat, and we’re not the kind of people who experience rapid “beginner’s gains” anymore. People like me are delighted if we can gain a pound of muscle in a month, and we have to eat a caloric surplus to do it. To explain a bit more, let me review the modifications I’ve had to make. If anyone is an exercise physiologist and can shed some light on this, let me know. The modifications. The problem with the diet as written is that I’m not an average case. I have too many variables: I’m training for a marathon in addition to my normal training. So in an average week, I run 3 times (a short run of 4- 6 miles, a medium run of 8- 1. Yoga workout once or twice. I’m an insulin- dependent diabetic. I’m still doing the biphasic sleep thing. So when you put all of those odd things together with a new, low- carb diet, it’s hard to figure out what’s what. When something isn’t working, it’s hard to know why. The problem I had right away was skyrocketing blood sugars that would take all day for me to bring back down. That’s not good. I could go on and on and on about this (and have, in emails to a few people), but here’s basically what was happening: I’d do a hard workout, like a hard or a long run. During that workout, my muscles want fuel. They quickly burn all of the glucose (sugar) available in the blood, and because I’m on a low- carb diet, there is no stored glucose available in my muscles (glycogen). So my body would burn fat. This feels like shit. I was slow and tired and unresponsive and beat, because fat is an inefficient fuel. After the workout, my muscles really NEEDED fuel to recoup and repair. Because there was REALLY nothing available and it needed fuel NOW, my body would turn to a process known as gluconeogenesis, which is nerd speak for “crank a fuckload of glucose into the blood by breaking down muscle and fat.”When this happens to a nondiabetic, your normal insulin response controls it and shuttles that glucose into the cells where it’s needed. When it happens to a diabetic, it’s nearly impossible to control. So I’d end up with stupidly high blood sugars all day long. Which is bad. I fixed it by adding carbohydrate immediately before, during, and immediately after my workouts. This solved the problem, but it’s no longer the same diet. So I don’t know if that’s what’s causing the slow fat loss or not. Ferris says it’s okay to have starches right after a weight training workout, but not after a run. But then, I don’t think this diet was written for runners anyway. The verdict. I have a bet going with Clay Collins that we’re jokingly calling The Internet Marketing Abs- Off 2. Clay is going to win it hands- down. I’m simply not losing fat fast enough, and I think that other than that modification, I’m doing everything right. But I decided to give it another month. Here’s why — I have three goals, and they are: Have stable blood sugar values. Maintain and increase athletic performance. Lose fat. Since I’m getting such great results on the first two goals as well as really enjoying this way of eating and living, I’ll accept a slower- than- desired fat loss for now. And after all. It’s just slow. And I really don’t have much to lose. So? Let me know. I’ve thought WAY more about this than I ever thought I’d have to, and I don’t have a degree in exercise physiology so it’s taken a lot of sleuthing. Even my doctor hadn’t thought of most of this until I pitched my thoughts to him. But if you’d like my bottom- line thoughts, they’re this: I really like the Slow Carb Diet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |