Anabolic Diet

If anyone is having trouble adjusting or staying on the AD check out this information it might help out.

Adjustment Phase
Dr. Di Pasquale

I've found it usually takes about three to four weeks on the phase shift part of the Metabolic Diet to see if we can survive and thrive on this low level of dietary carbs or if we need more carbs throughout or just at one time or another. However, for the sake of assessing whether or not the strict Metabolic Diet suits you I decided to do it 2 weeks at a time. If after the first two weeks you feel OK then you merely carry on with the 5+ days at 30 grams and 1-2 days in the higher carb phase.

If you're mildly to moderately tired and otherwise affected then you go through another 2 week assessment phase to see if things even out. If you're severely affected then you go on to one of the variation diets where you selectively take in more carbs depending on when you're feeling fatigued.

If you feel good from Saturday to Wednesday and start to get tired and generally unwell by the time Thursday rolls around then a Wednesday carb-spike day should do the trick. So on Wednesday you should increase your carbs to at least 100 grams and usually more. Again the .5 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight rule generally applies.

If you're OK most of the time buy just don't have enough gas for your workouts then you might try taking in 30 grams of carbs before and after your training. The 30 grams increase is not written in stone. You can actually vary the amount of carbs you use before and after exercise and use anywhere from 10 to 100 grams before and after exercise and see what works for you. The type of carbohydrate you use also makes a difference in this case. For various reasons I've found that the use of a combination of high glycemic and low glycemic carbs works best at both times.

If you're tired and feel bad for most of the low carb weekdays then we can try and double the carb intake to 60 grams per day on the weekdays to see if this helps. If that doesn't help we then increase the carb intake by 30 grams per day once a week for as many weeks as it takes for you to feel normal and function optimally.

Most people who have to increase their daily carbs usually level off between 100 and 200 gr per day. I've found that about one half to one gram of dietary carbs per pound bodyweight per day is the norm in those who are relatively poor fat oxidizers. In a small number of cases it may be necessary to work up to as much as 3 grams of carbs per pound of body weight, depending on the individual and the activity that he or she is involved in.

When you have to increase the level of carbs in your diet it will take a while before you discover what your carb set point is. I've found that it takes people about two months on the average to find their ideal dietary carb level. Once you discover your Metabolic Set Point, you can fix your diet at that level for several months while you work on changing your body composition.