I don't claim to know a lot about nutrition and sport.

 

But I'll start the ball rolling...

 

The diet of the average person contains more protein than they need and this is destroyed by the liver and excreted.

 

Therefore the demands of the bodybuilder for extra protein is not as great as many think. Too much = more body fat.

Starve the Adiposity, Feed the Lean Mass--Reposted 10/22/02

 

Reducing body fat can be done safely (without losing muscle), simply, methodically and in a predictable fashion so that the individual achieves his goal on a predetermined date. The process begins by establishing one's present maintenance level of calories. This can be accomplished by keeping a five-day food diary wherein you record everything you eat, including the quantity, for that period. At the end of each day, sit down with a good calorie-counting book and tally the total calories for that day. On the fifth day, take the five daily totals, add them up for a grand total, divide by five, and you'll have your daily average calorie intake. If you didn't gain or lose weight over that five day period, your daily average calorie intake will also represent your daily maintenance level of calories.

 

Once you've established your daily maintenance level of calories, reduce your food intake so that you are 500 calories below maintenance. Since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, a 500 calorie daily deficit will lead invariably to a loss of one pound of fat a week. Over a period of time, as you continue to lose weight, your maintenance level of calories will go down, and weight loss will slow down or come to a halt. When this happens, reduce your calories another 500 or so and the weight-fat loss will proceed.

 

I had one of my phone consultation clients do this recently, and he lost exactly 12 pounds in 12 weeks. Did he lose any muscle? Considering that his strength sky-rocketed during this period, not to mention that he gained one-half inch on his arms, it's safe to conclude that he didn't lose any muscle. Monitoring strength levels during periods of weight loss is almost a sure-fire method for determining whether or not one is losing muscle. One cannot lose muscle if he is growing stronger during a weight loss program. I emphasize this because I have clients call me to complain that they are losing muscle while following the training and nutritional program (involving a calorie-deficit diet) I put them on. And in every case, when I ask if they're still gaining in strength, they respond in the affirmative; whereupon I explain that one cannot be losing the contractile protein element in the muscle if gaining strength while losing weight. What they perceive as muscle loss is actually water loss. You see, after several days of calorie-deficit dieting, the muscles lose all or some of their stored glycogen. It just so happens that glycogen chemically bonds with and "holds" water in the muscle, with three grams of water bonded to each gram of glycogen. Since the glycogen is not fully restored during periods of heavy training and calorie-deficit dieting, the water is not replaced, and the muscle dehydrates somewhat, causing it to lose fluid pressure and to feel flaccid, i.e., softer and smaller. And remember: muscle is not mostly protein but water, 72 percent, in fact. So, although muscle is mostly water, it can lose a lot of its stored water and, thus, appear smaller. The important thing, of course, is that you don't lose the contractile protein element of the muscle, as the muscle can be readily rehydrated by increasing one's calories - primarily from carbohydrates - above maintenance level.

 

The first symptom indicating protein loss is a significant reduction in strength, or functional capacity. A slight reduction in functional capacity, such as being able to perform one or two less reps, in a given workout may not be cause for concern as it could be from greater glycogen depletion that day. A significant reduction in functional capacity over a period of time, however, and you almost certainly are losing protein from the muscle. When this happens there will also be a dramatic increase in the rate of weight loss for, again, where a pound of fat contains 3500 calories, a pound of muscle only contains about 600 calories. The point here is that one must burn, or use, approximately six times as much muscle to obtain the same energy yield he would get from burning one pound of fat. People who overtrain and overdiet - and thus lose muscle - often report as much as six to 10 pounds of weight lost a week!

 

With a modest calorie-deficit diet of 500-750 calories, you will sufficiently starve the adiposity and lose fat on a continual basis, yet obtain sufficient nutrients to feed the lean mass so that you grow stronger and larger. And it doesn't matter, in one sense, whether you reduce carbs or fats, so long as you reduce calories to below maintenance level. While all weight loss diets are calorie-deficit diets, the best are those which reduce total calories while roughly conforming to a ratio of 60:25:15 of carbohydrates to protein to fats, as all of the world's top, reputable nutritional scientists agree.

 

Mike Mentzer

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

......................as all of the world's top, reputable nutritional scientists agree.

 

Mike Mentzer

 

 

Sound like a sales technique to me. 'The kings new clothes' syndrome :rolleyes:

 

Have these 'experts' ever agreed on anything? And if they have agreed, I bet it's only for this week, until the next time these 'worlds top, reputable...' etc.etc. decide that it was all wrong and the new 'Y' plan is so much better than the previous 'X' plan.

 

Get yerself down to McDonalds, order a couple of Double Quarters with Cheese, chips, apple pie, Smarties McFlurry and enjoy!:D

Originally posted by x-biker

Sound like a sales technique to me. 'The kings new clothes' syndrome :rolleyes:

 

Have these 'experts' ever agreed on anything?

 

--------------------------> Yes.

 

 

And if they have agreed, I bet it's only for this week, until the next time these 'worlds top, reputable...' etc.etc. decide that it was all wrong and the new 'Y' plan is so much better than the previous 'X' plan.

 

Get yerself down to McDonalds, order a couple of Double Quarters with Cheese, chips, apple pie, Smarties McFlurry and enjoy!:D

 

------------------------------> u actually eat that $hit ?? u no tgher is literally faeces in those burgers ?

Don't even start on food hygene mate! Not a nice place to be:eek: :( That lovely clean bit of 'healthy' chicken breast you are about to eat.......sure it hasn't had all the mould and slime BLEACHED off it before it goes in your gob? That super lean chunk of steak....sure it wasn't slaughtered/prepared with instruments covered in the animals spinal fluid? (BSE/ CJD)

 

ANYTHING you eat that was once alive is pretty unpleasant when you get down to microscopic levels.

 

Oh, and while you're in the gym, pumping all that iron.....who was using those weights before? What had they being doing with their hands before they got on the equipment? Where are all those bacteria going when you wipe the sweat down your face and over your mouth?

 

Lifes unhealthy mate, and too short. I'll continue to enjoy my Mickey Dee's until the day I find a bit of bog roll hanging out of it:eek: :eek: :D ;)

Originally posted by x-biker

Double Quarters with Cheese, chips, apple pie, Smarties McFlurry

Uuuuuuuugh... I can't stop drooling! You b*stard! ;)