LC BFL Diet Advice
 

OK. I've read the book twice now, read lots of how-to articles and testimonials from people on this board as well as a fair share of negative feedback from people on other forums.

All in all I am prepared to do the BFL (Ta-Dahhh!) - With modifications (I hope these will not degrade its effectiveness).

The exercise modifications are two 90 minute swim training sessions a week in place of two aerobic sessions. The remaining aerobic session I will run for 20 minutes. I need to swim Wed and Fri and for convenience I'd like to keep Sunday as my free day. I hope this arrangement (The long swims) will not overtrain the muscles too much when combined with the weight sessions.

The other modification is LC BFL. I am under the impression everyone here is doing LC BFL not stock BFL. As well as getting an opinion on the exercise modifications above, I am in need of confirmation on food group ratios, timing, calories and supplements for LC BFL.

So far I have this for starters (I am a 36yo male, 6'1", 209lb and been on Atkins 4 months):

Morning:
1. Take 10mg glutamine
2. Drink 2 cups of water
3. (Optional caffeine)
4. Do the exercise
5. Drink 2 cups of water
6a. For weights days or running day take whey protein isolate for muscle repair within 45 mins of workout as well some carbs but low fat. QUESTION: Calories & ratios?
OR
6b. For swimming days take in 800 calories of 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs.

For the remaining 5 meals, what kinds of things are people eating with the LC version?

I am thinking overall that my calorie intake should be less than 2500 with around 55% fat, 35-40% protein and 5-10% carbs (30-60g).

How does this sound? What supplements are people using?

Lots of questions I know. But I need to come up to speed fast from people who have done LC BFL with successful results.

My recommendation would be to get about 200 g of protein. I g per lb is a body-building rule of thumb to prevent muscle loss. After that, you will need to monitor carb levels vis a vis performance. For example, at 20-30 g of carbs a day, I fail at my cardio in the middle of the week. At 50, I struggle, but it's ok, and at 100, both my cardio and my lifting are good.

Since you've been stalled and fatigued on Atkins (20-30 g), I would recommend that you start somewhere in the 50-100 range and see how you feel. Once you set proteina nd carbs, fat just makes up the rest. I monitor calories, but I don't try to hit a set amount per day. Mine tend to vary throughout the week, being as low as 1200 right after free day (not hungry) and hitting 2200 or so by Friday.

Did you ever consider if potassium might be part of your fatigue problem? Too much is bad for you, but if you're running low, a tab or three over the course of 2-3 days will perk you up fast. In the summer, I add a pinch of half-potassium salt to my shakes as a preventative.

BTW, I have also done by-th-book BFL, so if you want opinions on that, I can help, and so can Arnie, and a few others. A fair number of us have tried regular BFL even if we usually do LC. For me, I wanted to know how 'regular' worked before I tried tweaking.


Glutamine: Do you mean 10 *grams*? 10 mg is nothing. ;) You may want more than 10 g, and you want it powdered. I take 20 g during the week and none over the weekend. 5g in the morning, 5 g before lifting, 10 g before bed. TrainerDan goes up to 40g.

Cheers,

Friday

Mmmh,

90 min. endurance training *might* reduce muscle growth, that's what I have heard actually. How about swimming for a shorter time, but with higher intensity, like doing interval training?

Concerning LC: Friday's advice is very good, even I follow a different way. But I seem to be the only one here who is doing striktly LC during the week and adds a carb loading day on Sunday. I would choose one option and stick to it for a few weeks (with shlight modifications, if necessary).

Oh, I do take a free day/carb load day. And I STILL bonk midweek, lol

so hat kind of results did u get following bfl the way it says in the book? were ur results better doing it lc?

Mee Too
 

fridayeyes, I am also interested to learn about your experience doing BFL and LC BFL.

Seems to me like your energy intake is closer to what one would follow in CKD. Not are you changing BFL to LC BFL, but you are also cycling your carbs - low during the week with a weekend carb up. Although I do see that CFD is 20 all week and it would not be possible to do the BFL workout on this all week.

What you've really got is the 'fridayeyes' program - a bit of everything!

BTW, after my massive two week binge where I gained heaps of weight followed by 10 days of induction, I lost it all (11 pounds in the last week) which to me is just pure water weight as I drained the carbs from my body. I did the 90 minute swim this morning and definately feel more tired that when I did it twice last week with all those residual carbs. Thinking to myself now that I will have to be fed well enough if I am going to survive two of these in between the BFL workouts. It is a lot of work.

Oh, one final thing. For BFL'ers, when are you taking these protein shakes?

mine usually breakfast (on the rush) and mid-afternoon

I did BFL LC last summer with the ratios 50% fat 25 & 25. The results were good.

If you're going to exercise for more than an hour consider taking a break at 50-60 minutes to 'refuel'. I found that aerobics longer than an hour ate up my newly gained muscles.

I take .5 L-glutamine post workout and it is brilliant in that it keeps me from getting sore. I've also taken creatine in the past which helped me from 'bonking'. If you don't want to raise your carbs then creatine might be an alternative. Saying that if you're gonna up your carbs I HIGHLY recommend that you do it the way DANR prescibes ih his 'power of 10 list'. Stay away from bread, pasta and processed cereals.

Keep reading and studying, pay attention to how your body reacts and eventually you'll have an plan that you can follow indefinitely.

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