Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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What foods would be the base of on an offseason diet?
Protein: grass fed beef, wild salmon, whey Iso CFM or cold filtered, chicken, turkey breast, lean
white fish (low mercury), organic free range eggs
Starchy carbs: oats, brown or white rice, sweet potatoes, Ezekiel bread (toast or muffins)
Fibrous carbs: asparagus, kale greens, other greens, broccoli, spinach
Fruit: blueberries, raspberries, organic strawberries, pineapple, papaya, grapefruit, lemon
Fat: Virgin unrefined coconut oil, red palm oil, grass fed butter, EVOO, mac nut oil
PERIWORKOUT NUTRITION
What is your philosophy around periworkout nutrition?
Here it is:
Pre-workout nutrition
Preworkout meal – finish 30-60 minutes before training
I like a small to moderate amount of carbs to give you easily useable energy to make it through the
training sessions.
I add in a little fat to keep your blood sugar from spiking too fast, and then you going hypoglycemic
right after. Fat will slow the entry of glucose into the bloodstream.
Make sure the protein you consume is easily digestible such as whey protein or lean fish or chicken.
Intra-workout nutrition
You want to break down muscle when you are training. You should TRY to kill muscle fiber. BUT, and this
is a huge but, you should limit the amount of actual damage done. Training is very catabolic. Your skeletal
muscle turnover rate is a combination of MPB (muscle protein breakdown) and MPS (muscle protein
synthesis). We want to block muscle protein breakdown, and increase muscle protein synthesis.
So how do we do this? By raising insulin and free amino acid levels.
Insulin will slow down MPB, and is very anti catabolic during training. We will increase insulin
from rapidly absorbed carb sources that also provide a steady release of insulin and not an insulin
“spike”.
Amino acid levels can be BEST raised by EAA’s or hydrolysates (especially casein hydrolysate).
These are broken down proteins (di and tri peptides) that digest almost immediately raising your free
amino acid levels. By doing this you have stimulated MPS!
EAA’s do the job as long as it’s a great amino profile, and do it much more cost effectively.
The protein also helps amplify the insulin response from the carbs
BCAA’s are also a pretty good option for those on a little tighter budget.
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My current recommendation is Intra-MD. It contains EAA’s in a great ratio, Branch cyclic
dextrin, electrolytes, and Citrulline Malate. In other words, only the stuff that you need and in
the right amounts.
Post-workout Nutrition:
Training hard does something really cool. It sends carrier proteins called Glut-4 to the muscle cell surface,
and allows it to let glucose into your muscle cells. This also happens when insulin is raised when glucose is
in your blood from carbs. Insulin actually attaches to insulin receptors on the cell surface, and this triggers
those glut-4 carrier proteins to unlock the cell door.
Just by training hard we can also get Glut-4 translocation to happen (without insulin), thus allowing
cells to open up and let in glucose and other nutrients. You have to train hard and volumous to make
this happen FYI. Not running a mile :)This is called non insulin mediated glut-4 translocation. So
there is still tremendous opportunity here to drive nutrients into muscle cells.
Start eating anywhere between 45 to 60 minutes after training. Remember you had alot of
good nutrition DURING training, so you don’t rush.
Eat a balanced whole food meal such as steak and rice.
When does the “post workout carb shuttled to muscle not fat” window actually begin?
There is some serious debate on that. Here is my gut feeling. If I don’t eat carbs within 90 or so minutes, I
notice more soreness the next day. In my simplistic way of thinking, this may equate to me missing the
window. I never miss the protein part (Casein hydrolysates are huge with recovery), so that is the only
variable that changes leading me to believe that. Since everybody has different metabolisms, trains
differently, etc, I am sure there is some play in that (less or more). FYI, I wait 30 minutes after training (in
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which I drank a lot of casein hydrolysates), then have 40-50- grams of protein. 45-60 minutes after that I
have carbs and more protein most of the time.
How do you adjust periworkout nutrition on lighter training days such as arms and “light/pump”
days?
I reduce intra-workout drink by about 50%.
Will whey iso work just as good in the intra drink than whey hydrolysate?
No no no! Whey iso will require too much digestion during training. You want RAPID absorption.
You are better off with EAA or BCAA if your funds are really tight.
ADJUSTING DIETS
What type of caloric surplus would you recommend starting at for someone natural looking to gain
lean mass?
I like to work people up in 200 calorie increments generally speaking. Work people up slowly and surely, so
that you are building muscle and not adipose tissue.
How do you determine when to have a cheat meal when on a weight loss diet?
Generally speaking it comes down to two things. Do you need it mentally or you’ll go bonkers, and also is
your metabolism stuck and you can’t seem to lose any more body fat (assuming you have been dieting hard
for a while and eating perfect). I would rather someone eat a cheat meal then go on a binge.
Also, the physiological effect of a cheat meal when metabolism is depressed is powerful. Put simply, your
body will no longer think it’s in starvation mode and will allow metabolism to pick back up. Just wondering
what your take is on refeeds or carb up periods if following a lower carb pre-comp diet, much like one would
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if eating only grass-fed beef, whole eggs, coconut oil, salmon steaks, veggies, and 40-50 g fructose (from
fruit per day to regulate thyroid output.)
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Where to Start
I was wondering if you could give me some insight on a meal plan for a 290 pound man. I am roughly 5” 10’
tall 14% body fat and what to get leaner and totally change my eating choices to get all processed and
enriched foods out of my life forever. I work out 5 days a week and do cardio 6 days a week. Most people
are very impressed with my build but, I would like to get extremely lean.
This is a very broad question, but here are some tips for you ok. I want you to try eating 363 (290 x
1.25) grams of protein spread out over 6 meals ok. For fat eat 145 grams (290 x .5). For carbs, I want
you to keep them under 100 grams on days you do not train hard with weights and on days you do
train hard with weights, try to consume 80% of carbs pre and post workout, and 20% with breakfast.
Go 300 grams total so 120 before training, 120 after, and 80 in the morning on the training days. Do
your cardio on empty stomach in the am, and drink a cup of coffee first ok. Just do this, and let me
know what happens!
Can you explain a little bit more specifically how you set up diets for leaning out as well as lean
bulking?
For leaning out, the first thing I have to do is figure out what your maintenance level of calories is with the
right nutrient dense foods. From that point, we can adjust carb intake slowly downwards (with occasional
high days to fuel metabolism).
The truth is that for lean bulking, we can basically do the same thing, except adjust carbs upward.
With lean bulking I also can adjust fats or protein upwards too, but with the leaning out, I generally
prefer to not remove too much fat or protein.
For foods, get into the habit of thinking beyond macros. Think about micronutrition. What I mean by that is
think about the food you are eating and what you expect to get out of it in terms of vitamins, minerals, etc.
You must also consider proper absorption. If you get into the habit of thinking that way, your diet will
become more well rounded, more healthy, and just make you generally feel better and stronger.
Try 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight, and try .5 grams for fat. For carbs, make sure you get 50
grams pre-workout, and 80 grams post workout. Now, see how you feel, and begin to add carbs in
until you think you have found the right level for maintenance. Once you have figured that out, now
you can make adjustments depending on your goals!
I use the template you set up on t-nation and I love your concepts of keeping lean and packing on
quality muscle with your diet. I just have trouble with the quantity of macros, do you have any rule of
thumb you use for this? What about for peri-workout, especially my intra drink of hydrolysates and
high quality carbs?
I don’t go too crazy with macro calculations, but a good general rule is 1.25 grams of protein per lb, .4
grams of fat, and carbs are going to vary based on metabolism and activity level. For peri workout just
shoot for 30 grams of carbs, 30-40 of protein, and 10 of fat in pre-workout meal. For the intra drink
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start at 20 grams of hydrolysates and 50 grams of branched cyclic dextrin. If you continue to get really
sore work your dose up. Do this until you see a big change in recovery. That is when you have hit the
optimal point. Post workout have a bigger meal. I like 8 oz of beef with 2 cups of rice personally.
Do you count calories when dieting, or do you simply eat leaner cuts etc, and monitor your fat loss?
I monitor portions and calories VERY closely. I am very meticulous pre-contest. Off-season I do not.
NUTRIENT TIMING
Is it possible to lose body fat by only adjusting macronutrients and timing without actually lowering
calories at all?
This is a tricky one. There is a lot of disagreement here. I personally think yes because of the hormonal
effect of food, and also because of the state your body is in during and after training. For example, take
someone who has 150 grams of carbs spread out all day, getting insulin surges and making it harder for body
to tap into fat stores (not saying it can’t), and then you move them all to intra and post workout training. At
that point the carbs are much more likely to be shuttled into muscle cells due to training, whereas say
in the morning, your fat cells were insulin sensitive too. Now you have lowered carbs early, so body
will tend to burn more fat during day.
So you know, you may be ridiculed for believing this, as many believe the only way to lose fat is by simply
consuming less than you are actually burning. I don’t think the body is this simple. For weight loss I might
agree, but for body composition, my best evidence is that I see hundreds of people every year gain
muscle and lose weight at the same time. So were they in caloric excess? Below maintenance?
In regards to meal timing, I work from 6 am to 2:30 pm usually every Monday through Friday with a
long commute, so I need to train after work. Now, I am trying to follow the diet plan that you created
for Antoine Vaillant, but due to time restrictions, I’m not sure of the best time to eat certain meals.
This usually means that once I finished working out, I need to eat, shower, and sleep. I know you stress
eating carbs around your workout, but is it alright for me to do that when I workout only a couple of
hours before bed?
Absolutely it is ok to have carbs at night around training! When you train, you set your muscle up to
preferentially suck in glucose, and it doesn’t matter if it’s morning, noon, or night. Don’t be afraid of
getting fat. That is more of a function of just overeating over the course of a day. If you are trying to
get leaner, keep those early meals primarily protein and fat.
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I have read you saying to take fats with carbs pre-workout to eliminate the risk of going hypo. Does
“hypo” mean the down you feel after a big insulin peak? Can I just prevent this by using a lower GI
carb?
Correct, but any carb can cause it potentially. Fat pretty much eliminates the risk because it slows
down how fast glucose can get into your blood, and without the rush of glucose, you won’t have the
same magnitude of an insulin dump.
Are there any upper limit for how much carbs I can eat for my last meal, and still get lean?
There is no set answer for this. Experiment starting at 25 grams and see how you do!
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Excellent, excellent question. First of all it is my belief that part of the answer to that question lies in
the insulin sensitivity of your muscle and fat cells. People who are more prone to depositing glucose
from their blood and into muscle cells, will be able to use fat as an energy source better and stay
leaner. Those who are insulin resistant will have the opposite effect. Their bodies won’t be as efficient at
getting glucose into muscle, heck it might not get into fat cells either…so it just continues to stay in the
blood. So the guy who eats more carbs, if he is insulin resistant, might actually get fatter than the guy who is
on the higher fat diet. One thing is for sure though, it’s hard to burn fat when your blood sugar is high! Now
of course you have other factors like the type of fat (degree of saturation) and carbs (simple vs complex) etc.
You also have to factor in when the high carb guy eats his carbs. Does he eat them in the morning
when fat cells are more insulin sensitive, or concentrate them around workouts? So you see it’s a very
complex question, with a very complex answer. I am just scratching the surface of this.
Do you and how do you count the carbs coming from veggies and will they raise insulin levels?
Eat as much fibrous veggies as you like, just don’t eat so much you upset your digestive tract. Fiber is a
tricky little guy. Most fibrous veggies will raise insulin very little, I wouldn’t worry about that.
HEALTHY FATS
I have had low test levels for the last few years, and working out has been a struggle. I have incorporated
your recommendations into my diet, and I have to say, this is the best I have felt in years. My strength is
skyrocketing, I am setting new PRs every week, and I just feel so much better mood-wise. Just wanted to
thank you. I now love beef liver, whole eggs, and grass fed beef, when I used to mainly eat tuna/chicken and
rice. You live and you learn I guess. I want to talk more about why I believe this gentleman’s personal bests
are not placebo.
I am a huge believer in saturated fat (in the right quantity, and the right type) and fat soluble vitamins
A,D,E, and K.
Think about this, we know that Vitamin A is essential for mineral and protein metabolism, production of sex
hormones, and thyroid function. Now those sound pretty important to not only someone concerned about
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general health, but to a bodybuilder as well too right. Now if animals are not consuming green grass – they
will be missing a great deal of Vitamin A (and K actually)…so egg yolks, liver, butterfat in milk, etc..will be
much lower in fat soluble vitamins…If an animal is raised in confinement without the sun also, now you
have a double whammy – lack of vitamin D ( needed for healthy insulin production, nervous system, and
protection against heart disease…hmmm..those sound pretty important too huh… Those are just a few of the
reasons of why I am so anti-grain fed and pro-grass fed.
Please ease my wife’s concerns that I am not going to drop dead of a heart attack from it.
Don’t buy into the hype that butter clogs up your arteries due to the saturated fat content. Let me tell you
what butter really does to your body.
The Omega 3 to 6 ratio is perfect. That equals better health and better fat loss. It has palmitoleic acid
in it, a monounsaturated fat, that is very antimicrobial, and is key for communication between cells.
The saturated fats are generally short and medium chain like coconut oil which protects us against
infection..
I am scared to follow your diet because I have always heard cholesterol is bad, please relieve my
concerns so that I can make the leap as the others on here have, and experienced great results.
I don’t blame you my friend! I was in the same boat as you at one time. I was totally sucked into the lipid
hypothesis. I get asked a lot about managing cholesterol.
My very short story of what I believe:
First of all, cholesterol is the strongest anti-oxidant in your body. It heals.
Sugar and trans fat cause arterial inflammation, so cholesterol is sent to the arteries to repair them. If
you lower refined sugars, and trans fats, your total cholesterol will come down. So when you try to
eliminate cholesterol from your body, it’s kind of like blowing up the ambulance that is going to a
car wreck, you’re killing the wrong thing. I have people reduce carbs, and take Alpha Lipoic Acid,
Chromium Picolinate or both with carb meals (which definitely helps get you leaner during dieting
phases too btw), and it works every time. Also, low fat, low cholesterol diets are really unnatural
because of cholesterol being a parent molecule to so many adrenal gland hormones. When I have
people with low test levels, I bomb them with whole eggs (organic free range only). They always
feel better, feel stronger, and usually their HDL goes up. Now I know that your liver increases or
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decreases cholesterol output based on your diet, but when you don’t eat any saturated fat or
cholesterol, you really stress it. Hope this helps! By the way – cholesterol readings above 200 have
never been proven to cause a great incidence in heart disease EVER. Don’t even bring up the name
Ancel Keys, or we will have a war on our hands. HAHA.
SUPPLEMENTS
What are the benefits to using MCT oil?
I don’t like MCT oil one bit. I do like medium chain triglycerides when they occur naturally in food,
such as coconut oil. The plain oil though seems to cause gastric distress in many people who take it.
This alone make me leery of it. MCT’s are great because they are a very useable source of energy.
They are so easy for your body to use; your body doesn’t even need to really need to make bile salts to
break it down. Your liver sucks it up, and boom, energy.
Which brand for alpha lipoic acid do you recommend, and how and when do you take it?
I like TrueNutrition.com brand for this. The way you take it depends on your goals. If you want to get more
glucose disposal from it, take 900 mgs after training. If you want more of the antioxidant effect (I am
nitpicking here), take 300 mg 3 x a day. No matter when you take it you will get the liver health benefits, and
many, many other positive things. The r-ALA version is in the supplement (MD’s Ultimate Glucose
Disposal Agent) I created along with other very useful ingredients.
Can you explain the significance of the casein hydrolysate in more detail? Why is it superior to
hydrolyzed whey?
This is a great question. The key here is not to focus on whether it is casein or whey, it’s that it is
hydrolyzed. This means that the protein is broken down into smaller units (di and tripeptides). This
means they absorb rapidly with very low digestive stress. Rapid absorption means an increase in
plasma amino acid levels. This in of itself doesn’t really mean much, BUT when you introduce this
around training (Intra especially, or even post workout), protein synthesis is the result.
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What is your opinion of using protein bars as part of a person’s diet? I know that most of the bars on
the market are essentially glorified candy bars, but I only buy Parrillo brand or Biotest brand.
I am not big on 99% of the protein bars out there. They beat starving, but many of them are loaded with crap.
I really like Finibars from Biotest (especially pre-workout), and funny you mentioned Parillo bars, I used to
carb up on them back in the 90s. I am not sure what ingredients go in the bars these days.
What do you think about the ECA stack for fat burning? How about yohimbine?
Ephedrine, caffeine, and baby aspirin – the ole ECA stack. It works, and it is potent. I would only use it for
short bursts at a time though. 4 weeks on, 20 weeks off. It can be hard on your body. I have never tried
Yohimbine by itself or had anyone else do it by itself, so it is hard to honestly tell you the effect, when I am
not sure. Dan Duchaine was the guy that brought this stuff into the mainstream saying it worked on Alpha
receptors and in particular, trouble spots (hips and thighs for women – love handles for men). I don’t think I
ever noticed anything significant along those lines.
Here is one nice simple suggestion I can give you to try that I give to all my athletes
Before your breakfast, drink a big cup of coffee and take 2 grams of Tyrosine then hit your cardio.
Make sure it is on an empty stomach. This works awesome for fat loss! Try it and let me know what
you think.
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workout the vasodilation from Arginine can help with nutrient delivery, but I just don’t see lasting results
with actual muscle gain. Believe me, I love a supplement that helps with transient muscle pump, but
good food can do that.
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During a pre-contest phase, what is your opinion on Crystal Lite and sugar free gum? Do you limit
these or not? Or do you eliminate them completely?
I think you are fine with these in moderation, but just be aware that most sugar alcohols don’t absorb
correctly in your small intestine and can bloat you or cause stomach issues. Again, just use in
moderation…don’t go overboard.
Can I use any sugar free, gluten free condiments and beverages? I typically stick with hot sauce and
mustard. Lemon juice, should it be fresh, or can it be bottled? Kimchi, how much should I take? When
should I take?
Gluten free Szechuan, stuff sweetened with Sucralose (I am not a Splenda hater yet). I mostly do hot sauce,
low carb (no HFCS) ketchup, and mustard myself. Lemon juice should be fresh, unless you can find 100 real
lemon juice that is bottled. I have some, so I know it’s out there. But just be sure to get the REAL stuff…not
the fake (from concentrate) stuff. I like to take Kimchi before bed, but you can anytime really, or use this as
a condiment, it is AWESOME on scrambled eggs, and rice…I eat probably about 1 cup a shot.
NATURAL vs “ASSISTED”
With adequate peri-workout nutrition do you see adding in weight sessions and reducing cardio
sessions as a viable approach for an unassisted competitor?
It absolutely is. The insane thing I am seeing is that perfect peri-workout nutrition seems to work every bit as
well (in terms of recovery) on people whether they are “enhanced” or not.
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