In bodybuilding it is very common to eat 6 or more meals per day .This can make it very hard to shed body-fat if the above mentioned distribution of nutrients is maintained. Many bodybuilders, even though they loose a lot of body-fat when dieting, also loose a lot of hard-earned muscle-mass. The problem here seems to be, that most bodybuilders have understood that they have to reduce carbohydrates to get ripped. What they have not understood is the fact, that the muscle-mass they have build during years of training does have a certain calorie-requirement to be maintained. As mentioned above, to get the greatest degree of conversion from fat to fatty-acids the insulin-levels must be as low as possible. This can be accomplished by ingesting very low amounts of carbohydrates.

Body-fat-reduction on high- calorie-diets

Example:

At a daily calorie-requirement of 3000kcal and a distribution of 60% carbohydrates, 30%protein and 10%fat respectively, cutting carbohydrates means that 1800 calories need to be replaced by other nutrients. If a trainee now lowers his/her carbohydrate-intake to keep the insulin-levels low, he or she has to reduce the daily calorie- requirement which is absolutely needed to maintain the present muscle-mass. To maintain the hard-earned muscle-mass, the calorie-deficit arising by cutting out carbohydrates has to be replaced by other forms of energy .The most efficient form of energy is without a question fat. The redistribution of nutrients could take place on a 40/40/20 basis.

At our example of 3000 kcal the re-distribution from carbohydrate -energy-to fat-energy would look as follows:

Fat, 1200 kcal = 133, 33 grams

Protein, 1200 kcal = 300 grams

Carbohydrates 600 kcal = 150 grams

At 6 meals per day it would work out to:

Per meal:

Fat 22.21 grams

Protein 50 grams

Carbohydrates 25 grams

If the trainee takes care and the ingested carbohydrates consist mainly of slow-released carbohydrates, chances are very good that insulin-release stays at the very low end and will not interfere with the conversion of stored fat into free fatty-acids .

Real-world-dieting on a low-carbohydrate- high-calorie-regimen

Another very good but not easily performed way of keeping the insulin-levels low, but maintaining the hard-earned muscle-mass is to split the daily calorie-requirements equally in a 50/50 ratio between protein and fat and cut out carbohydrates totally for a period of 3 to 5 days. By ingesting larger than normal amounts of fat, the body up regulates its production of lipase, the major fat-oxidation enzyme and more and more fat, from food-sources as well as stored fat-depots are used for energy.

This cycle of protein-fat-consumption has to be interrupted with 1 or 2 days of carbohydrate /protein-consumption. This interruption of the regular protein-fat-diet must be done for several reasons:

Living on a protein-fat diet gets psychological very old very quickly.

Secondly, by interrupting the protein-fat-diet, the carbohydrate-stores in the liver and muscles are restored again. This in turn increases the overall energy. Further, the accompanying short-term increased insulin-levels increase the uptake of key-nutrients carbohydrates, amino-acids and fatty-acids by the cells again.

This way a trainee can expect the highest rate of conversion of stored fat to free fatty-acids while at the same time saving the muscle-mass with the needed amount of calories per day.

In praxis it has shown very successful to work with a 3 day protein-fat-diet followed by a 1day protein-carbohydrate-cycle managing a distribution of 80% carbohydrates with 20 % of highest-grade protein.

This regime works favourable for people up to body-weights of up to 200 pounds and maximum calorie-requirements of up to 3000 to 5000 kcal per day.

Higher bodyweights, above 200 pounds of bodyweight work well with cycles of up to 5 days of protein and fat and 2 days on 80% carbohydrates and 20% protein. The calorie-requirements are based on calculations released by the Russian sports-teams during the 1980ties. Russian research estimated calorie-requirements of 40 calories up to 100 calories per KG of bodyweight for weight-lifters, power lifters and bodybuilders.

(Article written by Cristopher T. Clarc)

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