DIET FOR ATHLETE AND BODYBUILDER

"Eat more fat!" It sounds like anathema to our bodybuilding lifestyle, but that's what Mauro Di Pasquale, MD, advises to help shift the body into a more anabolic mode. His approach is far too experimental for us to advocate, especially with our concerns involving dietary fat and health. So we're not endorsing this program, just presenting it to keep you readers informed about hot topics in the bodybuilding community. We will say, at least, that high-carb diets aren't best for everyone, and that bodybuilders should be sure to get adequate protein and the right kinds of fats in their diets. Stay tuned for continuing updates on the high-fat diet programs.
The high-carbohydrate diet, long considered the athlete's best friend, may not be ideal for everyone. Though performance in some sports is arguably linked to consumption of high-carbohydrate meals, success in bodybuilding may well be an exception. Today, more and more athletes are experimenting with fat-based diets,both precontest and off-season, to achieve muscular and strength gains.
Exercise is the most potent catabolic and anabolic agent known, but it's not the only one. By maximizing the other factors, you can attain your bodybuilding goals more quickly.
Diet, however, is where a great deal of debate today centers. The high-carbohydrate/medium-protein/low-fat diet remains the most common and specialized diet for the bodybuilder. This diet has a number of advantages: It's easy to understand and simple to initiate, and it's relatively inexpensive. The chief disadvantage: It may not be the best bodybuilding diet. Let me repeat: The popular high-carb diet that most bodybuilders follow is not the optimal nutrition plan.
DIETARY FAT & THE BODYBUILDER
In my opinion, the best bodybuilding diet is the high-fat/high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet. This diet creates a hormonal environment in the body that is conducive to putting on muscle mass. In the high-fat diet, testosterone and growht hormone are naturally stimulated, while insulin, which can run wild in a high-carb diet and promote greater bodyfat, is controlled. The high-carb diet can also slow down muscular growth - or even tear down muscle tissue - especially during precontest dieting in which the aim is to eliminate all subcutaneous bodyfat. In my opinion, the high-fat diet limits the accumulation of bodyfat while maximizing muscle gain by increasing anabolic drive (hormone production) and protecting muscle protein. That's why I call the high-fat/high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet the Anabolic Diet.
In the anabolic diet, you go through a kind of metabolic shift where your body begins to burn free fatty acids and stored bodyfat for energy. When carbohydrates make up the bulk of your diet, you instead burn glucose for energy. Insulin secreted by the pancreas turns whatever glucose is not used for energy or stored in the liver or muscles into triglycerides to be stored as bodyfat.
Insulin (released in response to high-carb diets) activates the lipogenic (fat-producing) enzymes in the body while decreasing the activity of the lipolytic (fat-burning) enzymes. The exact opposite occurs with the high-fat diet. With limited amounts of glucose and glycogen in the body, you're burning fat as your primary fuel and sparing precious muscle protein for energy. Once immediate energy stores are exhausted, you burn off bodyfat for energy as needed.
Many experience on bodybuilders with the anabolic diet has also shown that they don't suffer the mood swings and fluctuations in strength levels common to those on high-carb diets. Consuming a large amount of protein, often hard to do on a high-carb diet, is not nearly as difficult on the anabolic diet because protein-rich red meat is eaten in abundance. And those extreme swings in body weight common on the high-carb diet are limited on the fat-burning anabolic diet.
On the high-carb diet, you may find yourself not gaining any lean body mass from one attempt at cutting to another. Bodybuilders who've been on the same carb-based diet for five years find they haven't gained 5 pounds. With the anabolic diet, where bodyfat is limited and lean mass naturally hormonally stimulated, some bodybuilders can make gains of 5-15 pounds a year. Meanwhile, you'll be just as defined, if not more so, than you were previously.
The anabolic diet may be a bit more expensive than the carbobased diet because of its reliance on meat an dairy products. Bodybuilders on a tight budget may find this a limiting factor. Likewise, if you find that a dietary change prompts significant stress, you may want to reconsider changing you diet.
Based on what I've found, the anabolic diet will get you more muscle with less accumulation of bodyfat quicker than dietary alternatives. If you're serious about bodybuilding, you will want to carefully consider the options.
SAMPLE STARTER DIETS
In the anabolic diet, I describe sample eating plans that give you an idea of how a fat-based diet works. The sample meal plan is based on a 3000 calorie diet (which can be adjusted upward or downward depending on bulking-up or cutting-up phases and your individual needs). The diet consists of 33% of calories from protein, 66% from fat and just 1% from carbohydrates during the week (Monday through Friday), and 19% protein / 20% fat / 61% carbs during the weekend carb loading. This introductory diet is more pronounced in terms of fat and carb percentages as a way of speeding up the "metabolic shift" you'll be going throughon your way to setting up a "fat burning" metabolism. Long-term, the diet is less extreme.
Use the information provided in these charts to customize your diet at various caloric levels. Just ensure that you limit your intake of carbohydrates to 30 grams each day during the week.
A few reminders:
- Watch for hidden carbohydrates such as found in ketchup, nuts, BBQ sauce, dressings, etc. Read those labels!
- When eggs are mentioned, use the whole egg, not just the whites.
- Weigh food. Ounces are important in the caloric breakdown of the diet.
- Breaded meats, like fried chicken and fish sticks, are loaded with carbs. Allow for this when you eat them.
- Try to drink only coffee, tea, sugar-free soft drinks and water during the weekdays.
- Check labels to get breads that are the lowest in the carbs.
- These diet are stricter than the diets you'll generally be on as a way of aiding the "metabolic shift" and lopolytic properties of the diet. Usual diet operating parameters are:
Weekdays: 55-60% calories from fat, 30-35% from protein, 5-8% from carbohydrates.
Weekend Carb loading: 30-40% calories from fat, 10-15% from protein, 45-60% from carbohydrates.
- Always check carb grams, as the total carb intake for any given weekday shouldn't be more than 30 grams.

SAMPLE 3000 CALORIE STARTER DIET (WEEKEND)

Breakfast
3 pancakes (no butter, lite syrup) 314 calories
1 banana 105 calories

Snack
6 graham crackers 480 calories
1 cup fruit juice 100 calories

Lunch
1/2 cup steamed rice 246 calories
10 oz Hormel Chili Beans 260 calories
2 pieces bread with butter 140 calories

Snack
1 bagel with jelly (no butter) 221 calories

Dinner
1 Turkey sandwich 200 calories
2 slices wheat bread, 1 oz Turkey, 1 tbsp Lite Mayo, Mustard, Lettuce

2 cups Yams in Lite syrup 440 calories
1 cup canned corn 160 calories

Snack
1 Cake (large slice) 260 calories
1 cup strawberries with 1 tbsp cool whip 66 calories

Total calories 2992 calories

NB: Calories from: Carbohydrates 61%, protein, 19%, fat 20%

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SAMPLE 3000 CALORIE STARTER DIET (WEEKDAY)

Breakfast
5 hard boiled eggs 385 calories
6 oz. smoke beef 374 calories

Snack
1/2 cup cottage cheese 120 calories

Lunch
8 oz. corned beef 320 calories
2 oz. cream cheese 200 calories
1 breadstick 41 calories

Snack
6 oz. jack cheese 660 calories

Dinner
8 oz. chicken 538 calories
2 tbsp. salsa 16 calories
1 corn tortilla 45 calories

Snack
1 oz. pistachio nuts 164 calories
2 slices American cheese 220 calories

Total calories 3083 calories
Calories from carbohydrates 1%, protein 33%, and fat 66%

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