Part III got closed due to its maximum replies. Lets keep this great thread alive!

Pro- How has your progress been over 5 weeks now?
--------------
Well I lost a lot of weight in the first 10 days. But i am slowly increasing in weight again, and i am allmost back as where I started. BF is still the same, weird, because i look different, my shoulders, chest look more toned and i lost 1,5 inch on my waist. so i expected to have loste something.

I eat 3000 cal. my maintainance, i will start lowering next week....
I am getting stronger, but the main goal is fatloss, so i start cutting back next week!

^^ I think I am with you on that one. I lost the initial expected weight when I hit keto, and then stayed for 12 days like that. Now I am gaining 1lb a week, but my primary goal is fat loss also. I cut my calories back to about 2500 now on training days, and maybe 2200 on non training days.

Here is yesterdays diet, tell me what you think:

0730 - 6 Whole Eggs w/ 1/3 cup of cheese
1000 - 40g casein/whey protein with 35 almonds
1230 - 6 oz Turkey w/ 12 cheese cubes
1300 - Gym (heavy legs day)
1400 - 40g whey
1600 - Gym (didnt have enough time to get it all in the first time due to class)
1700 - 20g whey
1800 - 8oz chicken breast mixed in salad w/ bacon and 3 tbsp ranch lite.
2100 - 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter

This breaks down to : 47% (127g) fat, 8% (35g) carbs, 45% (265g)protein, 2447 total cals.

What do you guys think? This is pretty much my diet every day except I alter the portion size to meet my cals for the day, with some meat substitutions when I get tired of eating one thing or another.

Pro- I wanted to comment on thread III about your wife feeling nauseous on Mondays...it's funny, as I was reading that, I wasn't feeling so hot, either. I had to choke down breakfast, and even my morning coffee made me gag a bit. I didn't have that happen on my other Mondays, which is odd because I stuck to a pretty clean refeed this time around - the other times I let cinnamon rolls and some candy sneak in there. The sick feeling went away after a couple of hours, though, and I feel great this morning.

I'm eating about 18 x bodyweight, though on some days I don't get all of those kcals in and try not to stuff myself at night. I do save about 8g of carbs for mixed berries with whipped cream on top and a protein shake at night. Yum!

@artemisa
We got this feeling it has something to do with te ps.husk fiber supps
we dont take them in the weekends. And add them in the mondaymorning pancakes...

Today I weighed in at 195.4 lbs.

I know I should get more veggies in, but really dislike them. One salad a day right now, but I will bump it up with some more veggies with lunch also.

Thinking about cutting it back to 2500 cals on heavy days, 2250 on LA days, and 2000 on off days. I cant see sticking to just one set cal. limit everyday, I am so much more hungry on heavy days, and much less hungry on off days. Hopefully I will see some gains.

This has been the longest 3.5 weeks of my life. Right now I am about to finish week four and I dont feel like I am making any more progress then I would with normal "dieting" and a little cardio. Hopefully in the following weeks, something convincing happens.

However, the all day energy and the better sleep is nice.

Hi all,
Thought I'd join in on the thread...

First off new user to the forum and new to the anabolic diet only started on the 14th of January and only started using it to gain mass on the 3rd of feb...

So far loving the eating on the diet, energy levels are a lot better now, all seems to be good; except that I have seemed to put on a bit of fat too.

Only early I guess so still working on it

Ok, so I am finishing my 4th week of this diet, and it has definately been the worst so far.

For some reason, I am just tired all day everyday. Not really drained, but noticeably more tired than usual. Maybe I am overtraining and need a deload week? I think I will finish this week out (only 1 more heavy session) and start a deload week next week.

Anyone else experience anything like this around the 4th week? If so, are you deloading and how? I have followed my diet 100%, without cheating or missing a meal, and only eating "cheat meals" on my refeed days without splurging.

i am tired this week, week 6, but the weights still go up, so i guess i just need the spring and some sun....

Braunbeck - The book suggests 55-60% fat max, and 40% as a minimum. He states that if you shoot for the 30g of carbs goal and get a minimum of 40% fat, then you should make the switch over.

You are right though, that day just ended up a little leaner than normal because the wife made grilled chicken salad for me for dinner and I had already had turkey for lunch, two lean meats. I typically get between 50-56% fat in my diet, looking back at my logs.

It seems the majority of my days are sitting around 50% fat, 42% pro, 8% carbs, with carbs being under or really close to 30g. I just realized that I did not set my spreadsheet up to calculate the daily percentage of carbs without fiber, so that can skew the numbers. Right now, I just have it calculating my daily percentage of carbs including fiber.

However, I have cut my calories back and am hoping to see some results in the next few weeks. Also, I am going to rethink my carb up, possibly 24hrs, starting Friday evening and ending Saturday evening. I think I am going to give myself one cheat meal Friday, and then clean foods on Saturday.

Smithers-

If your carb totals include fiber you should be on the order of 60g. You really need to make sure to get 25g of fiber a day atleast. I too use excel to track everything I eat, and I have it set up with a column for fiber and net carbs individual, I would suggest doing the same. This will also put your carbs under 8% of your daily total. While Dr. D recommends 5-8% anyways so I don't see that as a concern. I have cuts my carbs back this week for the first time. This is my 4th week as well on the AD. I am trying to get around 2500kcals a day.

I workout 1-2x per day. Early morning lifting and night cardio/exercise of some sort (bball, swimming, HIIT, ab workout, jumprope, stairmaster) I try to mix it up. I have been keeping my ratios around 48%f, 44%p, 4%c, and the rest is fiber.

As for your carb ups. DH suggests not starting a carb up late Friday night. I think he said it is because you will be eating a lot of fat in the day and then if you start your CHO load and then go to sleep your body will store all that excess fat as bodyfat.

In other words, you want to leave enough time left in the day to expend the energy from your fat sources. So if you want to do it like you say I would suggest starting your carb up after lunch on Friday and still continuing though Sat. night. If your reasoning is to incorporate both fri and sat night into your carb load your going to have to stick to the ~30-36 hr carb load timeframe.

I plan to use this method when I want to go out on friday night, which Im assuming might be your reasoning. However if you want to do a 24 hr carb load, from the reading I have done it seems like from Saturday morning through Sunday morning is a good way to go. This is what I did last weekend and it seemed to work well. I am not having any energy problems as of yet and my WOs are going well.

I did sprints after my TBW today (4 days since carb up) and didn't seem to have any performance problems.

Hope this is helpful and if any of this is incorrect, please anyone chime in.

Brian

PS- my current goal with the AD is to maintain muscle and loss a few % of BF and then continue to slowing add LBM.

^^ Sounds good, I will continue starting my carb up right after my workout on Fridays then (early afternoon), that is what I have been doing in the past. Yeah, I like letting loose on Friday nights more so than any other, so I want to not worry about carbs Friday night or Saturday morning when I get my huge carb breakfast! My excel spreadsheet tracks fat, carbs, pro, cals, fiber, sugar. In the cell that calculates my total daily % of carbs, I am using total carbs instead of net carbs. Does that matter? If your body doesnt really digest fiber, is it safe to say that you dont count calories from fiber? How does that work? Is it still 4cals/gram since its a carb?

Honestly, about the fiber, I am only getting about ~15g a day, but I have had absolutley no issues with this, thats why I have not supplemented. Maybe I will start, just for the added insurance of nutrient absorption.

I know you guys are really being strict about following his suggestions exactly, but keep in mind he says that they are not written in stone. I know you want the best results possible, so keep up the good work, but for me whether I get 30g today or 35g carbs today is kind of majoring in the minor stuff.

Airboren, making any progress? Me and you started pretty much at the same time, so Id like to bounce my progress of yours and see what kind of results we both are experiencing. I am also shooting for 2500cals/day and 2000cals/day on off days. What are your stats? For comparison reasons, I am (as of today) 194.0 lbs, 71" tall, 34" waist (which is where I am really trying to trim up, the rest of me is pretty lean).

So far I have:

- started at 199 lbs, dropped to 194. lbs once I hit keto
- stayed at 194.5 lbs for first 12 days
- up to 195.8 lbs the week following my first carb up (though I was up to 199 lbs immediately after carb up)
- up to 196.8 lbs the week following my second carb up
- now down to 194.0 ending week 4.

I am lifting heavier than ever, which in turn with my new found tiredness and lack of motivation, leads me to believe I need a deload week, so I am going to start that next week. If the new calories restriction still isnt dropping any weight in the next few weeks, I am going to add in some morning cardio.

I'm currently on Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program and had a question regarding the carb-up. My bench day is on Saturday (CHO day) and i was planning on doing some sprints in the morning before my CHO load.

My question is: What should i have before the sprints? Should I actually start my CHO load immediately prior to sprints, or should i have maybe a scoop of whey tbs of EVOO?

Been on the AD since January 1st and lovin it! Gained a few pounds of LBM but plan on trying to lean out before summer and continue bulking around mid June.

Hi guys 1st time ad'er. 11 days in on induction phase.bit wary about carb up. Only going to do one meal hopefully! Found fat adaption realy easy as ate no carbs hardly but higher p than f's. Carbs make me feel weak but listening to your results want to strip bf and am def sticking to this. Feel leaner already with more fats. Had one slip on induction phase 4 days in bout 12carbs too much do you think this will affect me? Going to carb on sun with that being my only off day. Is this best plan? thanks

I'm 5'11" as well. I weighed 182.5# today. 32" waist(same on the trimming this section up). I bought some calipers but they are cheap and the method for using them is very inaccurate but it says I'm around 10%. I can see the veins in my upper arms and calves....since being on the AD even in my thighs sometimes but the fat I do carry all goes straight to the love handles/midsection so thats what I hope to lose during my cutting phase. I started the AD as prescribed with the maintenance calories and only doing heavy low-rep lifting. I experienced significant gains in pretty much all my lifts, which I loved. I increased my bench by 30#s instantly, and hit 4 plates on squats again for the 1st time since I weighed 205# and couldn't fit into most of my jeans.

My weight changes are as follows.

I was on a keto diet for 5 days before ashylarryku showed me the light(AD)!! so I was glycogen depleted.

But Day 1 - 178# ....in the morning it would be down to 174.5 if I was dehydrated as well.
Induction Phase- I bounced around alot in the induction phase, ranging 175-180#. The last day of the induction phase, the friday that we both carbed up for the 1st time I weighed 174.5# in the morning.

The next time I weighed myself was Sunday morning following my carb up. I weighed an astonishing 190lb.
This was gone by Tuesday which I weighed about 180lb for the rest of the week.
My weight gain from the 2nd carb up was more like 8lbs...from 180 to 188#.
Now I weigh 182ish on an average for the deplete portion of this week.

So there has been an increase larger than I would like in weight but I do feel leaner and extremely stronger, my previous restricted diets/fads really had me in a weak state.

Now that I am in a cutting phase I do cardio, like I said earlier, just switching it up. I did a few heavy WOs on my carbup days and the Mon. following my carb up and then did alot of anaerobic exercise to deplete my glycogen stores to put me into more of a fat-burning state sooner in the week. I thought that by the end of the week that I would be very tired but energy levels have been higher than previous weeks. I should also note that I'm supplementing with Animal Cuts now that I am cutting. 1st time I have used them..but they seem to help. I also plan to limit my carb ups to 24hrs from sat. morning to sun. morning.

I agree that we can definitely help each other because of our similarity in body structure. So do have any reason for training or just for overall health? I do it for overall health really. I just want to be capable of doing anything so that it why I do so much diverse activity. Long-term I would like to complete a marathon and a sprint triathlon someday. But right now I am just looking forward to Saturdays carbup :).

Brian

tams88- Dont worry about your "slip", its not going to hurt anything (I am assuming you ment 12g over a limit of 30g). You just need to stick to the plan and decide for yourself how many days you should carb up, everyone is different.

Brian - Sounds like we are on the same page, other then the fact that my squat sucks! Dont know why, I train it hard, but I suck at it (max around 325).

I store all my fat around my love handles as well, which I am sure is the last place I will see fat depletion. I am noticing my face is much leaner, my arms and legs are leaning up more, my back is really lean, but my measurement around my love handles has not changed much, yet. The theory is that fat comes of your body in the opposite order it goes on. So, for me, the first place I tend to put on fat when bulking is my love handles. With that being said, I am going to have to stick it out for the long run before I see any results there.

Other than that, it sounds like we are both putting on a little weight after carb ups (when depleted the following week). I would venture to say that this is LBM, because I am feeling and looking a little leaner and getting stronger, so thats good. However, if I am putting on LBM, I wonder if I am losing fat. That is my primary goal. We will see how this next week goes, with the calories at 2500 and 2000.

Yes 12g over 30g. Good i wont worry then. Ill put up my average days eating as still not sure if eating too much protein in relation to fats by habbit.

1. 2x boiled eggs, 70g beef, tbs heavy cream with flax ground.
2. Greek yoghurt with flax, seeds ground.
3. beef/tuna with avacado and rocket. Maybe little cheese.
4. walnuts
5. lamb/ground beef, broccoli
6. lamb/ground beef, broccoli

Split the last two meals. also i read a while back Pauli said not good to eat dairy as plays havock with blood sugars. was having full fat milk til i read that do you think this would upset my induction phase? Thanks, am glued to this site when not training or eating lol

Hood makes a low carb milk called "Calorie Countdown". I tried it, wasnt a huge fan, but it would probably do the trick if you are one of those guys who love milk. I think 1 cup has 5g of fat, 3g of carbs, 8g of pro, 90 cals, 3g sugar.

pff, feel like shit this week, training goes surprisingly well, but i just dont feel that good all day, besides that, i have a lot of ehm, do you call it heartburn? The acid in my stomac is burning all day... did not experienced this for the last 6 weeks....
thank god its friday, carb up is near and it will NOT be a clean one, i can tell you!

Thnks guys. Was measuring milk and only having about 100 ml which is 5g carbs, didnt go over30g a day but even still thought it may have interupted the switch over because of high sugar. Sure i am fully adapted though, do feel good, strong and no cravings, though had bit of a shitty work out today. Looking forward to sunday i have decided on 2 hot cross buns and small bowl of porridge, bet i fall asleep.

I started a controlled-carb diet on Monday 1/25/10 to lose body fat and improve insulin resistance, with the idea to transition into the AD diet once I've become fully fat-adapted and have reduced BF. My ultimate goal is a total recomp. and to do this right, I want to get BF down to around 10% before starting a bulk (as Pauli has suggested). I have not done a carb-load yet and am planning right now to wait until after next Friday to do so (so 25 days before the first load).

Generally I feel great, have had few cravings and have not been above 20 g / day of carbs yet. Strength and endurance are good. Had my first crappy workout after starting this past Wednesday.

I've read the orginal AD book and also thru the previous threads, but now have some questions because I'm confused about some things, mainly ketosis. Up until reading the interview with Dr. D that DH posted here http://tnation.tmuscle.com/...79&pageNo=8 I thought ketosis was a good thing.

1) KetoStix have been purple since day 3 (I'm 18 days into the diet). Is this a problem?

2) How long does it generally take to become adapted into an efficient fat burner (i.e., so ketones are not strongly detectable in urine)?

3) If being in ketosis for this long is a problem, what would I need to do to correct it at this point?

4) Can restricting net carbs to say, below 10 / day, actually prolong becoming fat adapted (I mean do you have to have some carbs each day)?

5) If the main goal right now is to lose weight and my strength and endurance are not suffering, how long can I reasonably continue w/o a carb-load?

6) Finally, once I get the carb loading that works for me dialed in, will that actually help me to lose fat, or could that be done by prolonging the first carb load for several weeks?

I haven't been able to dial in or even track the ratio of fat to protein, but do watch carbs like a hawk. Generally my meals consist of eggs and bacon or sausage in the morning, a chef, cobb or caesar salad for lunch and a steak, burger, chicken breast or 1/2 a rotisserie chicken plus some vegetables such as sauteed mushrooms, broccoli or asparagus for the evening meal. Small snacks of cheese and cold-cuts (like salami) if I get hungry in-between.

I appreciate any feedback, but some from the vets would be great.

Thanks!

Hi Guys,

Quick question...

I am bout 143 pounds at the moment.

I have set mu bulking calories to 30000 a week thus aiming at the ideal weight of 190 pounds; this note does include the 15% extra that the good Doctor notes in the AS.

Do you guys think this is a reasonable goal for now?

My body fat % at present is 10.6%.

Let me know your opinions please.

Should say my height is a touch above 6 foot.

Help much appreciated!!!

banga

Im not sure if I calculated it right but at 30000 kCals you would be eating almost 30x bw. Keep in mind that your body can only build muscle so quickly and with that amount of excess kCals, you are likely to store it as bodyfat. I would suggest lowering your kCals to around the 25xBW range and see how it goes from there. If your energy is down then I would slowly up them but unless you do 3-a-day WOs this likely wont be an issue. So I would shoot for 3575 kCals per day, giving you a weekly total of 25,025 kCals. I think you are right in wanting to bulk, however gaining muscle takes time. You can gain quickly with the AD so look forward to that but you don't add fat at the same time. I'm sure you want to lower your BF% as most people as well. There are 2 ways to accomplish this.
1)Lose bodyfat or
2)Increase LBM.

So you will be inherently getting leaner as you get bigger, and this leanness will make you appear even larger. I can't remember the exact amount of muscle you should aim to gain each week but it shouldn't be as much as you are dreaming. Somewhere around a 1/2 lb per week of all LBM is an excellent gain. It just doesn't live up to the advertised hype gains. I think you should read this article, it discusses the topic of trying to bulk too fast.

http://www.tmuscle.com/...h_about_bulking


Happy Carbing Up Every1!!!! Time to get huge :)

Brian

Thinking will prob only have two carb meals of no more than 200g. and clean. What time in the day should i start i thought bout 3 and have cho for last meals. otherwise think i will be asleep all day and get to fat if i start earlier.lol. also should i cut down fat through the whole day or jjust when eating cho. just so you guys know im a girl. lol

Hi, I tend to use protein bars for an afternoon snack. During the week I don't have access to a fridge (in a hotel), but all the protein bars out there are high-carb, low-fat. Anyone know of a good high-fat, low-carb protein bar?

Or is the only alternative to whip up home-made ones? If so, has anyone tried this and got a good recipe?

Thanks
Jason

tams-

Well there are a few things to take into account here. One is what is your height, weight, est. bf%?

Also since this is your first carbup after the initial phase I would suggest going for atleast 24 hrs...if not 36. At the beginning of this diet you really want to teach your body the cycle that its going to be doing for the AD "lifestyle". So it is best to stay as close to the protocol as you can in the beginning. I know it is hard to not deviate, for all of us lol. IMO I think you should definately keep individual meals to no more than 200g and maybe even less for you. I remember reading in the original thread that an average male (180ish) I think can hold ~250g of carbs in their glycogen stores at one time. During the carb load you are burning these carbs for energy as well so you can eat slightly more I believe.

Another important thing to take into account is the amount/type of exercise you plan to do on the weekdays Essentially you are preparing your body by filling up the glycogen for the WO's through the week. Therefore if you limit the amount of CHO you intake in your carb load you could also be limiting your performance in your workouts, mainly the ones later in the week.

Your body will use glycogen the same whether you have 250g stored or 80g stored. But when there is ~0g of glycogen this is the "point" where your performance starts to suffer. So that leads to the next important question...

What types/amount of exercise do you have planned for the week?

BTW I am new to this diet as well (1 Mo) so if something I said is incorrect please let me know as this is the information I use to try to optimize my diet as well. Just trying to help others, but don't want to lead them down the wrong path either.

Hope this helps...

Brian

Jason,

I have recently been experimenting with homemade AD-friendly recipes as well. This is where the Atkin diet actually benefits us ADers. Youtube Atkin's recipes and you will find alot of good ideas. Also in the original forum there is a muffin recipe that is out of this world so I will repost it once I find it with its original author as to get credit to this person. So give me a minute lol.

Brian

Nevermind, my computer lost power earlier today and I lost it in my word document collection of AD forum gems, but I will never forget it as long as I live so here it is...and I apologize to the lady to posted this first..excellent recipe and its all yours...lol

1/4 cup of flax meal.
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
1 packet of splenda(optional) i dont use this

mix these together in a coffee mug.

next add
1 large egg
1 teaspoon butter.
mix up some more than microwave on high for 1min ( I prefer 1 min and 20sec)..it just depends on your microvave

I also throw some pecans/walnuts in the mix at the end before i mic it. I'd imagine added whey protein couldn't hurt either if your looking for a whole meal type of thing. Delicious and low carb. I know it sounds and it will look like(pre-microwave) it doesnt work but after you make one you will never go back. I plan to experiment with making "loaves" of this next week.

AirBoren
smithers584
ashylarryku

First off thanks a lot for the information so far!

Ok I have completed induction; I started the diet on the 17th of January and started bulking on the 8th of February.

In regards to the 30000cals that I set I used the formula set out in AS, this being eat 25x your desired bodyweight. So I set my desired bodyweight at about 165 pounds and did as it said in the book and set my caloric intake to about 22x desired bodyweight and went off that theory.

So going on the info so far I should trim this down to about 25000 weekly?

Quick info about me, I wasnâ??t always skinny lol. A few years back I weighed a nice 200 pounds; I lost all that weight, however due to my poor technique ended up losing most of the muscle I had and became a skinny bastard lol.
So yeah there we go...
Thanks for the help guys!

O ya...its desired bw*25 or a 15% increase in ur calories(for those with a drastically higher desired bw than their current bw) so you want to use whichever one is less. Which in your case looks like it would be the 15%...although I havent done the math. P.S. you started the exact same day as me, and i think smithers as well.

Brian

well after rereading the ebook it does say to eat at 25x your desired bw. So I guess that you were right, my apologies on that one. It actually says that if you are contest prepping to use a desired weight 15# over your contest weight and then multiply it by 20-25.

If you eat 4000 kCals a day you would be right around the x21 range so I think that it is probably good to stay closer to the x20 then the x25 until you get closer to your ideal 190#. But even with that said, I think you should try to get enough calories to where your not constantly sore after working out and have plenty of energy throughout the week.

Anything over that will be overkill and will prevent your metabolism from using your bodyfat for energy in place of your dietary fat. If you love eating though and don't mind not being as cut up then the higher kCals is probably a fine way to go, and you will most likely have less of an issue with energy and recovery problems that others on this diet experience sometimes.

Like it is always said "It's a very individual thing and you just have to learn from experiencing it I guess". Gotta love being unique.

Brian

Guys,

I think you are over complicating the bulk. While I believe cutting can be quite a science, bulking is not so much the case (for what the average joe wants).

If you know what your maintenance cals are, they should not change because you are switching to the AD, at least I cant reason why they would (First Law of Thermodynamics doesnt change for the AD!).

Once you know your maintenance cals, add calories and go from there. Thats it, there is no real science to it other then finding the right amount of cals that allows you to add muscle mass without adding much fat, if any.

Heres the deal about bulking. Either you do it right and you end up with more muscle and minimal fat gains, or you end up with muscle and fat equally gained. You dont want the later of the two.

You can follow the book if you want, I dont want to discourage that. With that being said, if it were me, I would add 500 cals to my maintenance and go from there. If you dont know your maintenance, the rest of what anyone tells you probably wont matter.

Banga - One last note, you said you used to be 200lbs. This means once you start eating and lifting, you should not have a problem putting the mass back on. You are going to kick yourself if you jump up in the cals and put on some serious fat with your muscle.

I take you point Smithers584;

What I will do is get my body fat % checked again this Thursday and see what has happened.
As soon as it starts going up I'll cut back on calories and try and find the right level.

The reason I don't want to immediately cut back and not too much is the fact that since I started eating the amount I am my energy levels sky rocketed and I feel a crap load better than I have in a very long time.

In saying that, I understand what you are saying and do take your point...

Also to add my maintenance calories are approx. 2427

I will heed the advice and start at 3000 calories daily and take it from there.

Does that seem like a better level to start at?

This does bring up the question for me when it comes to carb-ups; as My last carb-up from clean carbs went for 17 hours and I consumed 7004 calories.

B4 this carb-up I had a crap overload carb-up which went for 30 hours and was approximately the 7500 calories all up.

So with the carb-load will I need to stick with the 3000 calories per day limit or can I forget about that for the one day?

Thanks for the recipes, gotta try these out!

Thanks Brian. Train 6 days a week sun as day off. Train heavy metabolic circiuts on monday,shoulders,arms and HITT tues, Chest and back wed, shoulders arms HITT thurs, body weight circuits thurs, pull ups, chins, dips press ups etc. Heavy legs sat. I am 5'1 1/2 lol. weigh 122 lbs about 18% bf. Will now go and eat whole wheat hot cross bun instead of waiting until later. yay lol

Ahhh! Im sick. That is probably why I was feeling run down last week and feeling like I needed a deload week. Well, I guess I am going to be out of the gym for a couple days and try and get over this as quick as possible.

sounds good no cardio. what a shame. only thing is i am quite muscley for a girl and dont want to look stocky in clothes. but willl do this as want to look strong ot skinny. feel ok after 7 hour carb up, just wanted to eat fat. hope you feel better soon. thanks smithers

Tams- I forgot you were a girl! My previous post no longer stands (I was saying that as if you were a 5'1" 122 lb guy!). I went ahead and edited it.

I really have no idea what 18% BF looks like on a girl, so I cant really help you there. Sorry! However, 5'1" @ 122lbs for a girl with some muscle sounds alright! If you want to lean down more though, keep the cardio. If you are trying to lean down, what you said you are doing sounds good.

Read CT's "Refined Physique Transformation" and his comments on HIIT and cardio.

Hey everyone. I haven't been on for a while now, but I have been sticking to the AD. More than a month in and I must say, I'm feeling great. I am literally watching my body lose fat and gain muscle mass. I am 3 weeks into my cycle now as well so that has obviously sped up my results. However, I think it is important to note that I have been strictly regulating my macros and carb sources on the weekends. I think this has played a significant part of the success I have had so far. After toying around with different meats and fats, I have came to really enjoy this meal plan,

Pre-workout
Whey Isolate 1 scp
Vitamin C 500mg
Creatine 5g

Post-workout
Whey Isolate 1 scp
Vitamin C 500mg
Creatine 5g
Walnuts 2oz

Meal 1
Smoked Sausage 4oz
Large Eggs 3
Shredded Cheese 1/3 cup

Meal 2
Top Sirloin Steak 6oz
Broccoli 1.5 cup
Shredded Cheese 1/3 cup

Meal 3
Salmon 5oz
Broccoli 1.5 cup
Shredded Cheese 1/3 cup

Meal 4
Same as Meal 2

Meal 5
Same as Meal 3

Meal 6
Same as Meal 2

Meal 7
Micellar Casein 1 scp
Olive oil 1oz
Whey Isolate 1 scp

Macros:
Kcals 4997
Pro 430g
Carb 31g
Fat 331g
Fiber 23g
Omega3 16g


Most will probably find it pretty boring, but I find the meals very enjoyable and easy to prepare/eat. I've been switching the spices/marinates I use to get in some 'variety'. Anyways, thanks for all the help and good luck to everyone.

Aj, can you recommend an online meal tracker that works well with AD? Need to start nailing down the macros and cals..

Also, I have the original AD book, but would it be a good idea to get one of the latest? If so, which one (BB or PL) would be best for a recreational lifter? I'm more of a "powerbuilder" but I'm assuming that the one for BB'ers would be the most well-rounded?

Just finished workout after 1t carb up yesterday. warm up i was going to give up lol, glad i didnt though cause when i got in to it had a realy good session, could have carried on all day, but i got hungry, ha. Feel a bit fat but to be expected hopefully tomoro will be nice and lean again. had about 300g of cho yesterday. think it was easily enough. what do you guys think?

Hey - new guy on the forum. Started CDK around New Years - went to TKD for a couple weeks - now moving to AD. I'm amazed at the anticatabolic effects of keto and eating fat - feels fantastic. Lost 10 lbs in the last 6 weeks and my lifts went up! I'm wondering if anybody has ever considered doing GOMAD on the 2 day carb ups as part of a gaining strategy. Would this make any sense? Thanks.

Tams -

I've posted two comments that won't surface for some reason, probably they were too big, but it was a chart of suggested CHO amount on the loads based on LBM. Since you are female, I'm assuming you have a low LBM. Even for a LBM of 100 lb, the chart suggest loading with 450g the 1st day, and 227g the 2nd day. Then for 120 lb LBM, it suggests 540g the 1st and and 270g the 2nd say.

Loading with 300g is less than half of what they recommend for someone with LBM of only 100 lb so I would suggest to try and increase your next load by a bit and see how things work out.

-Adam

I also use nutritiondata.com because of the very specific macronutrient breakdowns...I made a spreadsheet that calculates a running total of carbs, protein, and fat, and subtracts it out of my daily goal numbers so I know how much I have left to eat at any given time. I just entered in my most commonly consumed foods (eggs, bacon, chuck roast, cheese, whey, berries, whatever) and their macros for a specific serving, so now all I do is input the amount I ate and it tallies everything up for me. It was kind of a pain to put together at first, but now if I eat a new food I just add it in...it's nice because I know precisely how many berries I get to have for a bedtime snack, lol.

Tams -

I have been on the AD since January 1st. My New Year's Resolution on accident lol. I agree with the 1 day CHO load as I am doing something similar actually. "Ovalpline" who says he would eat 15-18XBW during the weekdays and just have one CHO day where he would literally eat everything in sight of up to 8-10,000 cals worth of food and still make progress!

I don't recommend doing this lol, but this just goes to show it is a good idea to stick with one day and get in as many CHO as you want (literally) in that one day, if your goals are fat loss. I'm taking in 2,000 on off days and 2,500 on training days during the work and plan on getting in around 6,000 cals on Saturday just to see how things turn out after a few weeks.

-Adam

Thanks for the fitday and nutritiondata info guys, and for saving me $$$ and time on new AD books. I'll try both of the nutrition trackers out.

Tams,

I have been experimenting with doing the same style of carbing up with the limiting it to an intense 1-day. Dr. D actually says this is a good way to go about it in the MD for fat loss. I remember the reasoning being that it is harder for your body to lay down fat in such a small timeframe. The way I understand it is, during the normal carbup your body is likely to only accumulate fat towards the end of sunday(2nd day) when you're beginning to spill over. During the 1st day of a carbup your system is utilizing all the carbs and shuttling them into the muscle stores and there is very little if any excess that could spillover and store as fat. I did a 1day carb up last week and experienced good results. My weight did increase from the increase in glycogen and the associated water, however I didn't get the bloated or full feeling. I will say that I have had better pumps in the gym from the weekends that I did a 2-day carbup tho. My weight also increases by about 4 more pounds when I do the 2day carbup compared to the 1day. So maybe Im not completely filling myself on the 1day carbs and maybe need to eat even more...IDK only experimenting will tell. Dr.D said that some people can get benefits from as many as 10,000 kCals on a saturday. Note: he did say this is not typical and an extreme obviously.

Brian

I read some people doing a 1 day carb up.... But i think the second day is important too.
When you are cutting, your body responds to it, for instance your leptin and thyroid will decrease, and more methabolic changes will occure.
I think it is more benificial to do the 2nd day too. To reverse some more of the side-effects, a second day of carbs is a second signal for the body that the bad days are gone, i suppose...

what is the opinion of my fellow ADers??

Well I have only done the 2 day carb-ups. This is only my 7th week on the diet so I don't want to start changing anything too soon, just trying to go "by the book" for now. Although I can say that I was bulking my first month on it with little IF ANY fat gains. Only these past two weeks have I been doing a half-ass cut ( eating maintenance/slightly above on workout days, below maintenance on off days) and can already tell the fat is drifting away. I even push the CHO ups to the limits, eating a lot of Pop Tarts, ice cream, pizza and the goodies :)

The second day is usually very clean though. Pretty much nothing but oatmeal. I think one should only go to a 1 day CHO load if they are trying to get into single digit body fat. But if you are just trying to get a decent set of abs for summer time ;) 2 day CHO are fine.

Again, this is only my 7th week so I'm no Disk Hoss (where is that brilliant s.o.b.?) but these are my 2 cents.

-Adam

Larry/Brian/Pro -

Any progress to report? Larry, you are know in your 7 week, is the fat lost more apparent in week 7 then it was in the first 6 weeks? I am in week 5 and I am still unsure of much progress in the past couple of weeks. It seemed like a made some progress in weeks 1 and 2, and now 3/4/5 I feel like I have been at a stand still.

Also, for you guys who hate cooking and want something quick and cheap, Walmart has their rotisserie chicken for like $4.99 a chicken, and 6 oz of it has 20g of fat (5 sat), 2g of carbs, 34g of protein, 320 cals. I just mowed some down for lunch, seems to fit the diet pretty nicely, and its cheap and quick. I know this might mean more to you college guys (Larry, Brian).

Sounds good! I have been sick all week, so I havent even stepped on a scale or trained at all. However, I have been sticking to the diet, so hopefully I am still make progress in the fat loss area. I think I will be back in the gym on Friday (hopefully), so I will be able to weigh myself and compare my measurements.

I haven't used any body fat measurements or anything (don't think they're too reliable) but from the old abdomen pinch and mirror checks, I'd say progress is being made. and the awesome thing is, scale weight is pretty much the same! I'd much rather trade fat for muscle than just lose fat by itself :)

I took some pictures the night before starting the diet so I may throw up some progress pics after a few months or so if things are going good.

-Adam

1st....Tam -- For me I always want what I can't have, the same thing every male wants, more strength and less fat. That was my main reason for joining the AD society. I understand that very few people actually get both at the same time with the AD. So I would say that my main goal on the AD right now is to lose bodyfat. I haven't been drastic will the reduction of cals though because I am only a month into this lifestyle and don't want to sabotage the shifting over.

2nd... I will admit I have already experimented with a 1 Day carbup, I talked about this on the previous page, it felt alot better physically and I became depleted earlier in the week. I do believe that my WO's later in the week slightly suffered due to the earlier depletion. I did a 2day carbup this past weekend and everything in my week has shifted 1 day exactly. I expect to be back to my lower bodyweight tomorrow morning, when last week this happen on Wed morning. I too have read most of the forum and agree with Ashylarry, most vets and other AD users have said that to lose bf% you should limit your carbup to 1 day. This one day is all the "signal" the body needs to know that it won't be going without carbs for too long. Humans are creatures of habit, after a few weeks your body understands when it will receive the glycogen and how long it will need to preserve it until it receives more. Another thing that is very important for fat loss that relates to the body's ability to adapt it that you need to change things up and keep your body guessing as to what is going to come next. Waving your calories is a good way to speed up fat loss because your body doesn't go into starvation mode instantly, so the days when your calories are low, your body will use BF for energy.

3rd --- As for results, I haven't got to do enough of a cutting phase to tell if it actually works, but I did feel like I was losing fat quickly and was leaner last week after reducing cal about 500/day, unfortunately I followed this up with a terrible 2 day carbup and think I layed back down some of the fat. I ate 2 cups of ice cream Sunday night so this was probably not the best thing to do...lol.

On the flip side, I weighed about the same weight friday before my last carbup as I did when I started the diet, I can bench atleast 30# more(after months of maintaining). All my other lifts have increased, I just havent kept as good of records of this. Using the clothes/mirror test I love the way my body have been changing. Before I went out last weekend I had to cut a new beltloop. Talk about a good feeling. My sleeping habits have been amazing as well.

Needless to say I won't be leaving the AD anytime soon. I've been through about 3-4 different diets with amazing self-control and seen not much BF loss for alot of muscle loss. I feel like I have approached the eating habits of this diet half-ass so far and have been getting quality results. I feel very confident that when I'm fully adapted and utilize some of the modifications(4/1,RD) that the fat will just fall off.

Brian

I think one of the most important differences between the AD and the other diets was that on the other diets I force myself to live by the motto.

"Eat to Live, Don't Live to Eat"

well with the AD, I don't have to, I enjoy the AD foods, maybe a little too much lol, because now I catch myself wanting to eat things because they taste good. No more forcing down atleast a can of tuna a day...bring on the beef. Once I learn to control my cravings while eating the AD foods only better results can come from it.
I used to live (unconsciously due to brain-fog) on 1200 cals a day on some diets, if that is the most "radical" calorie limit on the AD then I should have no problem with the cutting phase.

Brian

Awesome, thanks for the tips, few more weeks will wave kcal then rather than just reduce. I weight train heavy 6 days per week so shall i just do low kcal on easier sessions like arms?shoulders? sun is myday off when i carb load cant workout with carbs in system! I guess it doesnt matter sometimes if i have lower cal's on leg day cause will use bf for fuel or do you think this may burn muscle? #

Tams

Anybody kick their carb cravings?

I notice that about 3.5 days after a carb up, I get serious cravings again. Fortunately, that means I only have 2 days left until I carb up, so it is not so much an issue. But last night it was quite challenging. I was craving carbs bad and junk food commercials were all over the TV. Anybody else experiencing this? It always happends halfway through my fourth day.

Smithers,

I get these cravings as well, vets said they should go away after a few months. On diets where you are allowed no carbs, I never really had them because I knew I couldn't eat carbs, but since I know that carbs are good on this diet, I do find myself anxious for the weekend towards wed. night. I also start craving P+F meals after about half a day on carbs. I always want what I can't have :( lol. Only a few more days...just remember that even though people around you are eating carbs, there are people like me and the other people on this thread that are in the same boat as you. We gotta stick together. Just close your eyes and imagine that 6-pack you will be sporting come summer.

Brian

Ok its me.... confused!
Got my bf measured yesterday. It stayed allmost the same for the last 7 weeks.
My bodyweight is fluctuating a bit, nothing special.

This week (week 7) I dropped 4/500 cals and it really looks different, i see the changes in the mirror...
Since the start I lost 5cm , almost 2 inches at my waist...
So all in all, my body in changing but my bf isnt.... which would be pretty cool, because i want a single diggit this summer :)

I train doggcrapp, strength goes well, but i really doubt to continue with this combination.... Maybe some regular volume training will help me cut faster.
Any toughts?

Pro - Do you track your cals to the T? Im sure you have a pretty good handle on it, but if you dont it can be easy to ad a hundred extra carbs every day.

What do your cals look like now? Maybe consider dropping them another 500?

I am a pretty firm believer in using your diet for fat loss. I think for the most part, if you bust your ass in the gym 4 or 5 times a week and have your diet straight you should lose weight. Some types of training may work better than others for fat loss, but again, I am not sure that isnt majoring in the minor stuff.

Also, what do your carb ups look like? I feel like I am losing a little fat, slowly, but I think if I limited my carb ups, maybe to once every 10 days (once again, like CT recommends), I would make better progress. You might be ruining everything you are doing during the week with your carb ups.

Ok, I just weighed in at 196 lbs. That means I am up 1.5 lbs from last week. Strange. I weigh in on the same scale, on the same day, at the same time of day, following the same exact eating protocal, so I know the deviation in the weight is accurate.

However, I am putting myself in a caloric deficit, why did I not see weight loss? BTW, this is the end of Week 5, and I am 1.5lbs up from my starting weight (after the initial weight loss due to glycogen depleetion). The calories I have taken in are based on non-exercise day requirements, so they have only been around 2000 +/- 20 cals.

One idea is:

I have been sick all week with a cold, which means I have not be training at all. However, I have stuck to the diet. Is it possible that I have gained muscle due to supercompensation from not training all week (like a deload week?), while in a caloric deficit?

Second idea:

Since I have not trained all week, am I still holding stored glycogen? If so, I guess that would explain the extra weight. If this is the case, should I still carb up this weekend?


I wish I could have BF measurements and stuff done, but I dont know anyone around here that does this. However, I do feel more lean, but that just might be my imagination going.

^^^ Yeah, I think I am experiencing the same thing. My wife keeps telling me how much better she can see my muscles, and I measured around my waist this morning and I am a little more than two inches down from the start.

You are telling me about the cals, this week I hit 2000 cals +/- 20 and I gained 1.5 lbs, what the hell? I think it is strange because it goes against everything we have ever been taught about losing fat and putting on muscle at the same time, but that has to be what is happening here. I am getting stronger (noticeably), I am getting leaner (according to others, I feel like it also), and my weight stayed the same for a while and has increased slightly on my week off.

Quick question, can someone answer me by tomoro PLEASE lol. Can i change my one day carb up from sun to sat, as didnt have enough cho last week realy craving it. will this be ok? It will only be my 2nd carb up weather it is tomoro or sun. Help. Thanks Tams

Tams -

I see nothing wrong with doing Saturday instead. Some people do the full Saturday, Sunday CHO up, myself included. So they are spacing 5 days between the start and end of each load. Since you stopped on a Sunday, there is no Problem starting again on a Saturday this time. There are 5 days in between.

You're good to load ;)

-Adam

http://www.tmuscle.com/..._getting_leaner

Pretty cool stuff. Very AD similar. The article itself is not that great but if you take a look at the discussion part of the thread (click "Discuss" at the bottom of the article) they have some good info and studies of fat loss with low-carb diets.

-Adam

Its ok, have refrained from being a pig. I will get over it and do carb up tomoro as planned. !
Thankyou all. Only a day left, knowing this makes it easy. xxxxxxxxxxx

Oh my god. I feel so sick! I HATE carbs. Why do I look forward to sundays all week then feel like shit when I get there. Ha. My 4th week next week. Want to start getting a bit more se3rious with the whole fat loss. I guess if i can resist eating cream this will be a start. Not going to drop dramaticaly just a little to see how little change i can get away with making. How did all your loads go, hope you dont all feel as sick as me. x

With all the current hype regarding peri-workout nutrition (I'm thinking pre/post-workout carb loading, etc), what do you ADers ingest around the workout period?

Confession time guys....I have been been on the AD for a few months now as you guys know, but the last week or two I have been experimenting with carbs around my workouts. I have tried 50 grams of dextrose pre/during with some oatmeal after and then cut my refeed to usually a few hours. I honestly felt pretty good doing this and I realized I can't start my carb load before my training ( I feel like crap the whole workout).

This week I think I try a little more Poliquin-esque type of workout nutrition with some BCAAS pre/during, and then CH plus 50 grams of dextrose after, and then the one big meal refeed. I am kind of going for a recomp as I want lean up a little but still keep my strength up (only 25 more lbs to go for 605 deadlift).

Why if you guys have read the previous thread with DH's recomendations for pre/post workout cho are you still trying stuff. Im sure you have all said you are getting results from this diet why confuse your bodies by changing cho consumption? Not wanting to sound rude just wondered incase im missing out. lol

I've seen a lot of people say not to try anything too crazy until you are fully adapted, which is a solit 6 months or so. I'm not planning on doing anything different until around that time. that is, if I ever experiment at all anyway. Results are more than good so far so why change what's already working? just my opinion.

-Adam

From listening to Mauro Dipasquale recently, he doesn't recommend whey protein around the workout, since we know that Whey is the fastest digesting but can also enter gluconeogenis the fastest as well raising insulin and creating carbs. He recommended a casein/fat or other slower digesting protein(steak). A great point he made was about post workout carbs, he says all the studies have focused on glycogen compensation for the ENDURANCE athlete and had nothing to do with hypertrophy. He stated protein synthesis is the most important factor in muscle growth. If anyone wants to listen to him, it was on superhumanradio.com.

OB

Hey Everyone,

Just got done reading all 385 pages of the original "My Experience.." thread. All I have to say is Disc Hoss is the man, one of the first and only members to have references and footnotes in his posts. The amount of time and effort he put in there helped me immesurably to get started.

I got the ebook last week and started the diet yesterday. I've gone low carb in the past, but never to gain mass.

I'm at 185lbs, 11% bf . Looking to get up to 200lbs by May 1st and keep the bf as close to 10-11% as possible. That gives me about 8-9 weeks at 1.5 - 2lbs per week, hopefully I can get there.

Starting off at 3300-3400 cal per day. Looking to bump it up to 4000-4200 in the next 3 weeks to trurly get into the "mass phase."

So, take a look at this:

- Last week I did not train because I was sick, but I weighed in Friday before carb up at 196.2 lbs.
- Carbed up 36 hours, Friday afternoon until Saturday night, weighed in Sunday afternoon at 196.0 lbs (pre-training)
- Trained heavy chest/back Sunday afternoon, did not train Monday, weighed in at 191.6 lbs pre training today.

So it looks like I did not put any weight on from the carb up (probably still had glycogen stored from the prior carb up, because I did not train that week), and 48 hours later I am down 4.4 lbs?

This makes it appear that I am completely depleting my glycogen stores with 1 heavy workout. I typically add 4 lbs on carb up and drop 4 pounds 48 hours post carb up, but I typically have two heavy training sessions, one Sunday and one Moday.

So as of today, mid week 6, I have lost a net (weight after carb depletion initial - weight after carb depletion current) of about 5 lbs. Kinda slow, but I have not lost muscle, and possibly gained some.

Maybe I am not carbing up enough? I dont count anything really when I carb up, just keep a running total in my head. This weekend, I had somewhere around 300-350g of carbs/day. Mostly clean too, I dont want to risk laying down some BF.

smithers,

I definitely think you should eat more. I think they suggest 250-300 carbs just on the mid-week carb spike. I have done both 1 & 2 day carb ups and on a 2 day I have been taking almost 1000g of carbs total and like 700-800g if I do a 1-Day. I'm 183 right now. But it is weird that your weight fluctuates like it does. I normally gain about 6-8 lbs depending on the size of the carb up and i would guess the amount of water is a big factor in the weight gain.

I usually eat high GI/II to low GI/II on the carb up. I try to eat meals no bigger than 125g at a time, so they can absorb all day. I also eat my sweets early and then cut them off and eat more healthy carbs. I think that its very important to stop before your too full. If I completely deplete myself I probably weight 1-2 more than when I started the AD...aka the same day as you. I have been lifting alot more weight and feel stronger, I don't have anything for an accurate BF measurement except for the mirror. I feel like I'm in that range where you don't see much change for a while around 10% but I think its going in the right direction. I hope so because I love eating like this. Hope this helps.

Brian

Since I'm new to the thread, hopefully I can give a little back to start:

AD Brownies

1 cup chocolate casein powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1.5 cups water
3 whole eggs
3 tbsp butter

Melt the butter then whip it all together in a bowl until smooth. Coat a glass baking dish with cooking spray, then spread the mixture in evenly. Cook for 45 min at 350 degrees. Makes 8 brownies.

Not the prettiest looking brownies you've ever seen, but very tasty and perfect for the AD.
Protein - 23g
Fat - 7g
Carbs - 1.5g

I hope to be able to give at least a fraction back of what I've gained from all the AD threads.

ADvanced TS -

King Pin!!!! Haha, I love that movie man. Woody Harrelson is hilarious. I like how you emphasize AD in your name :)

Smithers -

Tams and AirBoren are right, you should definitely CHO up more. I only weigh a bit over 170 and I just recently stuck to a 1 day CHO up last weekend and had 700-800g easily and I still looker leaner today. I am on 5/3/1 right now and only lift 4 days a week too. I throw in some HIIT every now and then but not really lol. I always break a good sweat when I lift though, I try to just go crazy with the weights and burn my share of calories through that. I think if you stick to 1 day, depending on your weight (but not really) you should get in a solid 700g at least. try that out and go from there.

This is an extreme case, but a poster by the name of OvalPline in the original thread said he would have 1 day CHO and get in 8K cals, sometimes up to 10K cals and still get a tad leaner throughout the week.

[/quote]

I'm 99% sure you are wrong about Dr. Di's view on protein. His own website publishes the benefits of whey hyrdolsite, the second fastest protein available, and he even has his own supplement line in which he markets a whey hydro protein as a peri workout shake!

He also says that cassein protein is best for bedtime. [/quote]


Yes, I see the contradiction with the "Power Drink" he sells on site, I was just going off what I heard him say on Superhuman radio and yes that drink is a intra-workout only, he did not talk about intra, only pre and post nutrition. And I agree Casien at bed time is best cause of slow digestion, but even his pwo shake is a blend to slow absorption. If you listen to interview, I was more referring to intake prior to cardio in the AM, he suggests any slow type of protein as opposed to whey.

Oh dear god! I went 1 day with no cream, then bought some today! Im soooooooooooo discucting, need to find something else that makes me feel as satisfied as all that fat, im def going quite a bit over my kcal. Though not putting on weight and i look leaner BUT seriosly with the cream it will just be a matter of time until im a whale. lol. What else is better than cream??? Help x

Yeah, I dont track calories on carb up days, well, not like I do on regular days, but I am sure I am getting around 3000-3500 cals each day. However, I have been doing a 36 hour carb up, so Friday I am probably at 3000 and Saturday I am probably around 3500.

Adam, if what you are doing works, keep doing it!!!! Dont get me wrong, I would love to eat 700-800g of carbs on my carb ups, but I know for a fact I would be putting on some body fat. I have spent really the last two years experimenting with foods and how I handle them and I know that would be over kill for me.

I guess what I am trying to get at is that everyone needs to pay attention to what is happening to their body as they are doing this. The outline Dr. D gives is very generic, and obviously wont work for everyone. It may work for the majority, though. But even though I look like a guy who puts on muscle easy and is naturally athletic or has better genetics, I dont, it has all come from hard work and being critical with my diet. People always ask me why I am so careful with my diet, and its because my body does not respond to lots of carbs or excess calories, it just turns it into BF.

I feel like carbs have kept me out of single digit BF in the past, so that is why I am doing this diet, and that is why I am more critical of my carb ups.

The funny thing is, I am still getting stronger in the gym. I am in a 500 cal deficit, I am usually only getting 20g net carbs a day, and somehow I am getting stronger. For example, when I benched last Sunday, I had increased my inclined dumbell press by 30 lbs total since the beginning of this diet. Maybe I am just more focused, or better rested, or whatever, but its pretty cool.