Using the Anabolic Diet to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

The Anabolic Diet is a high-fat, high-protein, low-carb lifestyle. Five or six days a week, you will eat roughly 55% to 60% of your calories from fat, 40% to 45% from protein, and 10% or less from carbohydrates. (If less than 10%, fill the rest in with protein/fat combos.) One or two days a week (typically weekends), you will reverse all this; your diet will be about 60% carbohydrates, 30% fats, and 10% protein.

The Anabolic Diet has been around a long time. If you want to be precise, it has been around millions of years. It has had many different names in recent years, but I can tell you honestly that in our evolutionary past, it was just the standard diet for many parts of the world. I feel wonderful eating by Anabolic Diet guidelines. I have more energy and I just feel better before, during, and after eating. Of course, the look of my body also reflects this feeling.

Before I dive in, a quick warning: if you are vegetarian or vegan, especially one who is offended by those who eat copious amounts of flesh, get away now! I am a wanted murderer in your books.

During the majority of my week, my diet consists of beef, eggs, heavy cream, fish oil, and fibrous veggies. LOTS of these foods. LOTS AND LOTS. These are the core sources of my calories. I will have small "fillers" that flavor my food or compliment it, and sometimes I will eat something else like chicken if it is presented to me. However, the vast majority of my calories come from those foods listed above.

But the weekend -- hoo-boy, do I love the weekend. On the weekend, when I get to "carb up," I am a lot looser. I love how I eat during the week, but the weekends are very rewarding. I eat burritos, pizza, fruit smoothies, pancakes, burgers; you name it, and I can eat it. Because I only eat these things over a one or two day period, it does not show up on my waist line. Of course, if preparing these foods myself, I try to make them as healthy as possible, but I don't kick myself if I have to stop by In-N-Out for a burger!

I can tell you that I love what I eat 7 days a week. That is the real secret of the Anabolic Diet.

The Anabolic Diet -- to the shock of most people -- is incredibly healthy. Cholesterol is not a concern on this diet. In fact, with all the healthy fats you'll be eating, you'll find that your LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels will go down and your HDL ("good") cholesterols will go up.

Listen, most everything you know about fats and cholesterol is a myth. Most modern research shows that your body prefers healthy cholesterol from foods like meats and eggs. But also talk to anyone on the Anabolic Diet; even me, for example. I am the healthiest I've ever been in my life, and I have the blood results to prove it.

I am big on real-world results. I respect science, and the scientific process, but feel that in the world of bodybuilding, scientific results are too often favored over stuff that just works and has always worked.

With that said, here's a brief overview of the (basic) science behind the Anabolic Diet. Throughout the week, you will eat largely just fats and proteins. Your body, after a short adaptation period in the beginning, will flip a switch and go from using carbohydrates for energy to using fat for energy. Most peoples' bodies are far more efficient this way; rather than storing excess carbohydrates as adipose tissue (fat) on the body, the body will keep stores of energy for later use that are less likely to be stored as blubber. On your carb-up day(s), you will fill up on lots of starchy, high-glycemic, insulin-inducing carbs. Since your body has already "flipped the switch" to using fat for energy, these carbs will be utilized primarily for muscle repair, shuttling all the protein in your body to the muscles and restoring muscle glycogen.

Those are the basics of the diet. With all that said though, what matters, bottom line, is that the Anabolic Diet works.

I've already given you the food choices. Now prepare yourself for a very "different" way of eating.

You should have six meals throughout the day. Forget the standard three meals a day; your results will be suboptimal. Each of those six meals should be split up evenly in terms of fat and protein.

If you're looking to bulk up, you're going to be eating a lot of calories, generally starting around 3500. That means you'll be eating around 200 grams of fat a day, as well as roughly 300 or more grams of protein!

I like to start my day with a protein shake made with heavy cream and high-quality protein powder. I'll follow it up with a plate of beef, around half a pound. I'll follow that with maybe scrambled eggs and bacon. I'll alternate and have one or more of these meals again later.

Basically, I eat LOTS AND LOTS of meat and eggs throughout the day until I hit my fat and protein goal. It is not abnormal for me to eat up to two pounds of beef and over a dozen eggs! Hey, but I'm healthy and growing like crazy, so I have no issue with it.

On the weekends, I have free reign. I don't count calories; I just eat what I want. Of course, I try to make as many meals as healthy as I can, but I don't stress over it.