Dr. Foodlove

[Monster]

Let me start by saying that I have a little too much time on my hands, and when that happens, these little decents into madness occur. As this the following thoughts swirled through my heads, a Peter Sellers movie was on (some of us older members may catch the reference [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]) and the two gave birth to this...

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Dr.Foodlove
(or how I learned to start bulking and stop worrying about the fat)


Well, first let me say that this may not appeal to many people, but I think it is worth considering and mabye adopting to your personal goals and/or desires.
The thinking behind it applies to natural or "enhanced" athletes, though those of use using can take things to more of an extreme.

Lets look at the most underrated tool we have at our disposal for making SERIOUS muscle gains.
FAT.
Forget EFA's, and all the fish oils, flax oils safflower oils and assorted other beneficial fats. Definatly forget saturated fat. Im talking about good old fashioned "I shouldnt have ate that", "one piece of cheesecake wont hurt", "no bikini for me this summer" body fat.

Now if youre happy with gaining 5 or 10 pounds a year this isnt for you. Plus, if you arent able to diet down you might want to steer clear... but for big muscle gains, the kind you keep post cycle, there isnt any other way to go!


One of the single most forgotten reasons for keweping gains post cycle, is one of the most overlooked ones (IMO). Most people feel that bringing natural hormonal levels back into their normal range is the main concern (for men especially). This is a gfood thing to do, bnut the logic it is based on is slightly flawed I think.

I agree that as a man you want to prevent the influx of estrogen that comes from the cessation of you testosterone "therapy". No doubt about it! But estrogen isnt the main enemy to your new muscle, you should be equally concerned with the cortisol rise that accompanies it!

Im not going to get into this topic too much, since most of use know about aminothiaglutamide and either use it or find it to be cost restrictive. SO lets just say youve done whatever you do (or dont do) to deal with cortisol and move on. So that leads me to my point (I do have one... I SWEAR!) Once the water weight is gone, why do we still lose so many gains???

Lets look at this reasonably.

When you put on muscle, your body isnt too happy, the body systems enjoy things staying the same! A status quo in your body alows it to strike a balance and let the systems run at a set pace and just stick to the "same old same old". Unfortunatly it can be a fat unhealthy one or a lean healthy one, it doesnt care, as long as nothing trys to change.
So when you add new muscle on, the body is forced to build a larger "support system" to accomidate this new tissue, and return to a new staus quo. But much like a child being served liver and brussel sprouts for dinner, there WILL be a struggle and a lot of resistance!

The support system is basically a bunch of new veins, capillaries, and nerves and that sort of stuff. Its a slow process that the body does (much the the above mentioned child) because its being forced to, not because it wants to.
Until these systems are in place, you are faced with not being able to support the new muscle, and having the body try to break it back down into amino acids and sending it back into the blood stream as fuel (f**k that!).

--Before I go further, lets remember to adjust our calories up to accomidate the new lean tissue (feed the machine).--

So what do we do?

Well, in the battle against cortisol, it helps to stimulate the metabolism. This works toward flushing the cortisol from your system and lets the support sytem construction go without that hinderance. Also, this is the absolute worst time to diet down. The reduction in calories while coming off cycle is murder! Save that for when youve recovered from the cycle, then go for it, be it clean or an AS cutting cycle. So lets get to the heart of the matter!
(Hmm, I guess I havent made my point yet after all)


If you already have body fat, or gained some while bulking, then your body has been working to support that fat too. This is a good thing! Plus, the fat you already had will have the support systems in place already, and you can take advantage of that situation [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

How? Easy. (ok, easily said at least)
Lets take a basic look at gaiuning and losing, to make sure we're on the same page here...

We wont get into individual macronutrient breakdowns so as to keep confusion to a minimum. Just the basics.

To gain:
You must eat morew calories than you expend, not forgeting to factor in non-gym physical activities you engage in.

To lose:
You take in less calories than you use, and try to make your body use its own stores for fuel.

What we want to focus on is neither of those two. Since you dont want to put your post-cycle body through the strain of dieting just yet, you need to figure out your new maintainance caloris and stay at or slightly above that level. I perfer to go more protien heavy at this point, and avoid sugars and starchy carbs for all but post workout and meals that are in the immediate "recovery" zone. Complex carbs in the AM, fiborous in the PM. Keep your lean mass fed, and if any fat comes off, good, but dont push it...

and now may I present (drum roll please) MY POINT!

Your body can and will adapt the support systems from the fat over to the muscle that needs it. Thats a painfully inadaquate explaination, but I guess it will do.
Once youve 100% recovered from the cycle, you start to diet. As the fat your body has been supporting is gone, your body 9in an effort to keep a status quo) says "Ehh, six of one, half dozen of the other", and uses some of the fat support systems to support your newly aqquired lean muslce tissue (hooray for you!)
(Again, there is more scientific explainations to how this process works, but my brain is kind of in and out, so I wont try to go into it [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img])

So now we see how the bodybuilders of oldmade such good gains while having poor supplements and using mild cycles of AS. They ate whole eggs, whole milk, and werent afraid to put a little fat on. As a result they could make great gains (I dont know if they realized it, or it was just the way thigs were always done, but it worked).

Lee Priest (who claims to spend a good portion of the year clean) is known for getting fat in the off season, and he has an Olympia quality physique every year (politics and mabye his height work against him).

That reenforces the notion of fat being beneficial for gains. For me and the people I work with, the best gains come from a bulking menu of whole eggs, whey, fruit, potatoes, (cheesburgers for me... shhhh, dont tell them), and peanut butter.
For me, a diet of egg whites and tuna leaves my muscle bellies flat and lifeless. Almost as if they were morning the loss of the foods they love so dear [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

So getting a little fat is nothing to fear. Its an effective tool in gaining quality muscle, and the enjoyable diet gives you something to close your eyes and reminice about during precontest dieting...

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Well, thats my thoughts for the day... its time to eat!

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"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy"

"My existance is a ripple through time"

[retropump]

Hey Monster, are you sure you haven't been 'drinking' as well as eating??

You'll get no arguement from me about your conclusions though. Especially if you not using AS. Muscle gain without fat gain just ain't gonna happen. All you should aim to do is maximize muscle gain. A well planned and executed cutting cycle will eventually take care of the added fat.

[Monster]

Ive been know to tip a pint of Guinness or two...

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"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy"

"My existance is a ripple through time"