My Attempt at the Anabolic Diet

As of October 21, 08, my blog has moved to: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/driven1Please visit me there! 

Day 8 was pretty uneventful. Energy is nice and consistent, and there is no hunger between meals or during the evening. Headaches have subsided and I have been showing consistent trace levels of ketones, showing that fat burning is occurring. Right now, the fat that is being burned is likely coming from my diet, but in about 5 days, the level of dietary fat will be cut, forcing my body to look for other sources of fat… I can think of a few…

Day 6 and Day 7 (the weekend) - The headaches seem to have subsided…. thankfully! I have noticed on this meal plan that you simply do not get hungry. Even first thing in the morning, you are not ravenous, like usual when on the higher carb diets.I’m still not tracking weight, as the prime focus of the first 12 days is to make the metabolic shift. In theory, I’m not even supposed to be counting calories for the first 12 days. But I still am as I do know what my limit is before I will start storing those calories!Later on in the day of Day 7, I really began to feel as though I was running out of steam… so I ran a KetoStix test and found that I was nicely in keto… more than just a trace amount of ketones are registering.  

Day 5. So far, headaches seem to be the prime complaint of the 12 day start up phase. I have been checking with KetoStix, but so far am showing no signs of being in ketosis. On the other hand, I am also reading that it is not uncommon to not show anything on the sticks, and not to get too wrapped up in those results.  However, I stopped taking my regular chewable Vitamin C’s… maybe they have too much sugar and are keeping me out of ketosis? I’ll have to find another type. Wow, I hope I’m not THAT sensitive to carbs! Morning blood glucose is 4.4, so still holding nice and low and steady there… I woke up with the slightest hint of a headache, so rather than wait until it turned into a monster, I took some Advil. I hate using that stuff, but I need to function, and I know that the headaches are only temporary.UPDATE!! I finally hit ketosis this afternoon! The headaches seem to have gone and I feel really quite good! YAY!!

Day 4 and counting…

Had some trouble sleeping last night… awoke at 1:45 a.m. and pretty much stayed awake the rest of the night.

7 a.m. Morning blood glucose is 3.7 mmol/l… I am very pleased with that!!

9 a.m. Morning energy levels are good with no “brain fog”. I have no headache this morning, so that’s a bonus. This is Day 4 and I am still awaiting the really awful, however temporary side effects… are they on the way, or will I be one of the lucky people who shifts over with little to no problems? I hope so!

Noon- yesterday’s headache returns with a vengeance. Maybe I am dehydrated? I’ll drink more water. Before lunch blood glucose is 4.4 mmol/l … still nice and… no big fluctuations.

Day 3… I think something is beginning to happen… Yesterday (Day 2) I felt fine. But this morning around 8 a.m., I developed a nice, nagging headache. It could be coincidence, but then again, I’m not a “headachy” person (meaning that I seldom if ever get them).

By 10:00, and with the help of some Advil, the headache is gone. So now I feel quite well, with no signs of  the ‘brain fog’ or disorientation that I have read about. I’m feeling quite satisfied in terms of my food intake, with the only exception being between my afternoon snack and dinner. I get a bit hungry then, but nothing that I can’t wait through.

All in all, I am finding the meal plan quite enjoyable and very tasty. I am not yet missing the carbs. I am expecting to use up all of my stored carbs sometime tomorrow, so am expecting to be more symptomatic tomorrow. I have KetoStix and plan to begin using them tomorrow. I have been monitoring blood glucose levels as well, and they are staying between 4 and 5 mmol/l (that is 72 to 90 mg/dl for my American friends) throughout the day, so I am VERY pleased with that!!! I have also noticed that I feel much less bloated and waterlogged on this plan. I usually am pretty sensitive to carbs, and can almost appear pregnant due to abdominal swelling at times after eating carbs.

I have kept my workouts standard up to this point, but will change them when I go to the cutting phase in about 10 days or so… I will post the workouts then.

Well, I survived Day 1 without incident. However, I have discovered that I really don’t like sardines…. they were suggested as a good source of protein and healthy fats, so I tried them…. 3 cans. I choked them down and then proceeded to burp up “that taste” for hours after! No more sardines!

Just so you can all see what the meal plan actually looks like, here is what I ate yesterday… with some variations, this is what my meal plan will look like for the next 11 days…

Breakfast: 4 whole eggs scrambled with 10 g butter (no margarine allowed!!)

                  8 slices of bacon

Morning Snack: 3 ounces of Havarti cheese

Lunch : 3 cans sardines

              1 cup of carrots

Afternoon Snack: 1 scoop of whey protein powder, made with 2 TBSP heavy cream and water

Dinner: 10 ounces turkey breast

              large Romaine salad with 1 TBSP olive oil and vinegar to taste

              1 cup carrots

Bedtime Snack: 2 cups sugarfree jello with 2 TBSP heavy cream

This provides 2500 calories, but less than 30 g of carbs. Keep in mind, this is my maintaining level of calories for my body composition. The purpose of the first 12 days is not to lose or gain weight. The idea is to maintain your weight while you make the metabolic shift to burning fat rather than sugar. After that, calories and fat intake is adjusted  to suit your goals.

It is now 11 a.m. on Day 2, and I am still feeling very well… good energy and good mental functions. My blood sugar this morning (before breakfast) was 4.0 mmol/l, so that is EXCELLENT! Nice and low… lower than I used to be on my former higher carb plan. I am expecting to reach a state of ketosis on about Thursday (October 16). At that time, I am expecting to see some temporary effects.

Well, I’ve just finished my first breakfast on the AD…. 4 whole scrambled eggs (cooked in 10g of butter), and 8 slices of BACON!!!! This seems so weird (albeit, so tasty!!) to me… for the past 7 or 8 years, foods like this have been ‘off limits’ on my low fat, “typical bodybuilding diet”. I walked around the grocery store like an idiot, not knowing what to buy. Pork chops? Full fat cheeses? Avocados? Heavy cream??? I’ve read that the first week can be pretty nasty while your body makes the switch to burning fats for fuel rather than carbs. Brain fog, irritability, flu-like symptoms… these are the things that will knock people off of the plan before they give it a fair chance. Apparently, after the first week, you feel great. I have quite a few friends who are waiting to see “what happens to me” before they consider giving it a try. I don’t blame them.

Well, I’m two days away from try a radically different meal plan… the “Anabolic” diet… also known as a CKD or “Cycling Ketogenic Diet”. I’m not happy with the results that my current higher carb, moderate to low fat diet is giving me, and I’ve heard amazing things about CKD’s. I won’t go into that here… if you want to know more about it, research it. There is TONS of information on the net about it.In a nutshell, it is a way of eating that will turn you from a sugar (carb) burner to a fat burner. While the diet is controversial, once you start reading about how your body processes carbs and what it uses for fuel it does make a lot of sense. I should note that this is NOT the Atkin’s Diet. If you want to research it, look up “Anabolic Diet” or “Cycling Ketogenic Diet”.I am excited on one hand at the prospect of trying something new, and apprehensive on the other. However, I have been on wicked contest prep diets (so wicked that the average donut chugging ‘joe schlub’ could not even fathom it…), so this can’t POSSIBLY feel any worse than 1000 calories… zero starch, zero fat (aka, chicken and broccoli) 2 hours of cardio, 1 hour of weight training plus pose practice mixed in with full days at work…. tomorrow we shop for groceries!!!