Jan 13
weight 126.4#
skinfolds:
tricep 13.3mm
suprailium 11.1mm
thigh 14.8 mm
body fat 15.9%

Feb 10
weight 121.5#
skinfolds:
tricep 12.0mm
suprailium 9.7mm
thigh 11.1mm
body fat 13.6%

Very impressed at the results after just 4 weeks. I was noticing today when I was demonstrating the leg exercises in water aerobics that I could really see the definition in my thighs. However, I am concerned that I lost over a pound of lean body mass. I think it is a factor of the calorie deficit. My tentative plan is to keep the carbs and protein the same (150g each) but increase the fat. I don't think I need more protein than this since I am taking in significantly more than 1g/pound. Any suggestions?

Jen

Hi,

Why increase the fat? surely it is better to increase the carbs?

Mike

Mike,

Why is better to increase the carbs? I have reactive hypoglycemia and don't know if I can handle any more carbs. Since fat slows down the insulin response it helps my hypoglycemia. I was planning on doubling the fat from 33g to 66g/day. What do you think? Have you been following BFL for a while?

Jen

Assuming that you are already balancing carbs and protein, I think increasing fat makes sense. I can't agree with increasing the amount of carbs to higher than the amount of protein. Maybe Mike thinks you're doing this LC?

IIRC, the reason Bill Phillips says to eat low fat is to force your body to burn body fat instead of dietary fat. Evidently your body has at times dipped into muscle stores for energy too. That's always a risk with a low calorie diet.

I agree with you that increasing fats might help and/or take complete advantage of your free day to convince your body that it's not starving.

I agree with increasing things, but I would increase fat, calories AND protein. In BodyRX, Scott gives reasons for going as high as 1.5 g per lb of body weight. You are very active, and at 13%, you're near essential levels of bodyfat. Frankly, you don't have that much fat to burn. You might even consider eliminating the deficit and eating to gain lean mass as opposed to eating to burn fat.

Also, after your weights, I would try the cortisol blunting remedy of destroxe plus protein. You can get dextrose in the form of pressed powder candies such as sweet tarts or Smarties. You need 15 or so grams, 2-3 rolls of Smarties.

What an awesome set of results for just 4 weeks. Great job! (We want pics!)

Cheers,

Friday

Hi Jen,

I don't know anything about hypoglycemia, but did a little research after you mentioned it. The research does say that a high protein + complex carb diet is best. Will provide a slow release of glucose.

I was talking complex carbs not simple (refined) carbs. I just feel that to increase lean body mass taking on extra fat is not the way to do it, although fat does taste a lot nicer

What sort of carbs do you include in your diet at the moment?

You know your condition better than I do, and what works/doesn't work, so I guess you should go with your instincts and what feels right for you.

I have been training for a few years but never seeing great results so decided to give BFL a try.

In week 5 now and things are going really well, not missed any training sessions and have stuck rigidly to the 6 meals a day plan. Free days are good, mine are on a Saturday.

Last Saturday took the kids out to a Franky and Bennys restaurant and we had the best desert ever,

It is a giant Chocolate Chip Cookie topped with 4 scoops of chocolate ice cream covered in butterscotch/chocolate/strawberry sauce, with another chocolate chip cookie on top then covered in whipped cream It was fantastic, took 3 of us to eat it though, it was huge.

Mike

Thanks Sunski, Friday and Mike for replying!

I must confess that yes, I want to add FAT because I miss it the most! I don't even care about the carbs anymore (never thought I'd say that), in fact, I don't even WANT to eat any more carbs. I do eat primarily natural carbs like fruit, vegetables and whole grains. I have some menus posted in my journal. That said, I did reread BFL and B.P. does recommend adding more carbs when you have reached a low body fat (which he defines as <12% for women - not there yet). He doesn't mention what to do in my specific case of losing LBM. I found another site that mentioned going up to 1.5x your weight on the protein to build LBM. So perhaps I should just keep the proportions the same (40/40/20) but increase total calories. Woke up in the middle of the night again last night too hungry to go back to sleep!

BTW, welcome to the forum, Mike! I hope you will participate in our weekly BFL updates. Taking your kids out sounds fun. I took my daughters out for Mexican yesterday and we had a blast - they probably had to hose down the booth when we left!

Better go to bed so I can get up for my cardio in the am!

Jen

Resist the force Luke


I think in the Q&A part of the BFL book someone asked the question about being low body fat already and wanting to increase muscle, the answer was to double the carbs intake (but remember must be complex carbs).

End of week 5, did my 20 min cardio this morning, free day tomorrow


Down to 12.9% body fat last night, it was 14.1% this time last week.

Mike

Well I have been researching nutrition on BFL and bodybuilding sites. I must admit that I find it pretty amusing reading articles about how to gain lbm, since they are geared toward large body builder men, with lines like "here's how to get huge"... But in any case the consensus does seem to be to increase protein and carbs but keep fat low. At least I have my free day! In BFL, B.P. recommends doubling the carbs on the first 3 meals of the day when you are as low as you want on the body fat. I am also going to increase my protein to 180g (an extra 10g at each of the first 3 meals) and may go even higher. I'll just add 1g fat per meal. I keep forgetting to mention that I am still nursing my 2-year-old, so I'm sure that increases my nutritional needs.

I also found some good articles talking about using dextrose and maltodextrin with protein post-weight training. The kids didn't bring home any smarties from their Valentines parties, so I'll buy a small bag of them today and give that a try tomorrow. If it works well I'll create my own protein shake with dextrose and maltodextrin in it. If it doesn't work, it's dh's favorite candy. His response was, "smarties are healthy? I love smarties?" I told him that if he was going to start hard-core weight training and would eat them with a protein shake I would buy him as much as he wanted. I was going to add creatine, but I read that you shouldn't use it while nursing so that will have to wait.

Great progress, Mike! Enjoy your free day!

Jen

Hi, Jen, I hope you don't mind if I pop in here with a question.

My participation in BFL has been a little irregular. I work out with weights 2-3 times a week and do cardio 3 times a week (and a couple of Pilates sessions, too), but I don't always lift pyramid style and I usually substitute a long, moderate cardio session for the HIIT once or twice a week. (The HIIT KILLS me--it saps my energy and makes me very hungry for the rest of the day).

In all of these things, I'm working very hard and I rarely miss a session. It's been about 5 months of dedicated weight training. I'm making progress in some ways--definitely getting stronger, better recovery re heartrate, and down a little body fat. But I haven't found the best way to eat in order to optimize the workouts. If I add too many carbs, I gain weight (I think most of it is water weight, but my clothes fit worse.) If I try to limit carbs to pre-maintenance levels, my lifting isn't as good. And no matter what I do, after a heavy workout--even a strenuous cardio--I'm famished!

I'd LOVE some advice--sometimes this feels like infinite regress, at least as far as scale weight is concerned. And yeah, I guess my clothes fit somewhat better than they did, but I gotta say I'm not seeing a dramatic difference from the exercise--most of the improvement came when I initially dropped some weight on Atkins alone (before I started working out).

TIA! And BTW, I'm a 54 year old female.

Hi RoseTattoo,

What is your typical days diet?

Mike

Hi, Mike, thanks for answering.

Well, yesterday I did am cardio--60 min. moderate pace (65-70% max heart rate) on the EFX.

Menu for the day:

1 serving low carb cereal with 1/2 cup blueberries and low carb milk, 1 oz. almonds

3 low carb crackers with 2 tbsp natural peanut butter

small Caesar salad (lettuce, grated cheese, organic grilled chicken, small amount of salad dressing)

Atkins Advantage bar (I know I shouldn't have )

Organic chicken sausage, snow peas sauteed in olive oil, 1/2 cup kasha (whole grain)

2 oz. part skim mozarella cheese

1 serving low carb chocolate

64 oz. water, plus two cups of coffee and three cups of green tea

Total calories: At least a zillion.

I AM SO HUNGRY ALL THE TIME!

Oh, guess I should add that I'm 5"1', very small boned, approximately 115 pounds right now, and about 21% BF.

Thanks so much for your advice!

First off you have made great progress getting from 28%BF to 21%BF, dont be so hard on yourself, well done. 21%BF is a healthy fat level for a female.

Do you feel the Maintenance plan is not allowing you to reach your current goals?

You mention when you up the carbs you put on weight, do you reduce your fat intake? do you make them complex carbs or simple carbs?

Have you tried following the BFL way of eating? if so what sort of results did you get with that?

Don't get too hung up on scale weight, you can lose fat but still put on weight as muscle is more dense than fat, so a small amount of muscles weighs more than the same amount of fat.

Mike

Hi, Mike, thanks again for responding.

Perhaps I'm mixed up about what my goals are, lol. I know I want to continue to lose BF. The 21% is a very generous estimate. I may be more in the vicinity of 23%. I also very much want to lose some more abdominal fat.

And I'd like to get some control over this raging appetite of mine. I've tried all sorts of permutations, but seem to need at least 60-80 carbs a day (complex, low to moderate glycemic) for the lifting. I'm sure I'm taking in adequate protein. As for fats, yes, I have lowered them substantially now that I'm on maintenance. Perhaps too much--maybe that's why I'm always hungry.

Bottom line is I'd like to reach a balance in eating where I'm fueling my workouts appropriately but am not putting on weight as fat. That seems to be a fine line at my age, and I'm not sure there are any answers other than trial and error.

Any further input would be much appreciated!

Hi RoseTattoo,

There was a program on the BBC recently here in the UK called Horizon (it is a documentary/investigatory type program), they did a study into the Atkins diet.

They did a lot of research into why Atkins causes weight loss, now some of the stuff I am about to say may cause an uproar, but was a result of the study and I am always willing to keep an open mind about things.

They tested the Ketosis angle, they placed identical male (35ish) twins in isolation over a 24 hour period, fed one the atkins diet and the other a normal diet. They found that the twin on the Atkins diet had not burnt any significant amounts of calories more than his twin (about 3 calories difference), so they ruled out Keytosis.

They then went on to look at fat.

Put four people in an environment, feed them extactly the same meals but 2 had higher fat content (about 50% higher) and 2 had normal fat content, the people being tested had no idea who had what. They found that the 2 on the high fat actually ate more than those on the normal and put on more weight over the course of the 4 week period they were locked up, basically the fat gave them a craving to eat more.

So the only thing left to look at was the protein, and they believe this is the answer. Protein suppresses appetite.

They had hundreds of people on various diets (some Atkins, some normal) keep food diaries over time (can't remember how long). They discovered that those on the Atkins lost weight and couldn't understand why. Here we have a diet where you can eat as much of the approved food stuffs as you like and still lose weight. They found from the diaries that people on Atkins were actually eating less, taking in less calories therefore losing weight. From their research the only thing that could possibly do this is the protein. They have still to carry out more research but this looks like the key to it all.

So it is maybe worth considering upping your protein, in small increments to see if that could be a possible solution. You should also think about having another bash at HIIT, do you do this in the morning before you have had anything to eat? and how soon after you do it do you eat something?

Mike