This is a method of dieting that is nothing new per se, but with social media showcasing millions of people’s opinions, views, and regurgitated dogma it can be difficult to siphon through what is “good” information and “bad” information.
This is a method used by myself to do a few positive things :
1.) Detox the body after chronic force feeding (for individuals in “bulking mode”)
2.) Reset an individual's insulin secreting efficiency
3.) Reignite ghrelin release and hunger hormones
4.) Lose bodyfat to make body more receptive to higher calories and hormones
Offseason to most Bodybuilders or gym rats mean it’s a time where you somewhat disregard abdominal definition and vascularity, and focus on pounding copious amounts of high calorie meals in order to accrue appreciable lean mass. While this mindset is almost correct, it has some critical flaws.
Flaw #1 Never disregard bodyfat accumulation unless you are gifted genetically where you simply don’t ever pile on fat (think Michael Lockett)
Flaw #2 Copious amounts of food is fine for some people, but controlled amounts of food is better for the majority meaning calculated macronutrients.
Here is the deal even people who are taking pharmaceuticals such as pharmacy grade growth hormone, pharmacy grade anabolics, and have the chemistry aspect nailed down, they still have subpar genetics for eating at liberty like the “Michael Locketts” of the world. (Sorry Mike, but you are the best gifted example). You guys need to know and understand you simply need to diet 365 days a year.
I am not saying pre contest type calories and cardio, but be in control of what goes into your mouth. Once bodyfat inevitably creeps up and hunger signals diminish, that is your red light to put the fork down and opt for a minidieting phase. If you force this issue, then I will warn you firsthand that ONLY body fat will accumulate from this point on regardless of gear intake.
To be quite frank you dive right in. You will jack protein intake high. If say you were intaking
300g previously, I would have you go to 400g or a higher for this abrupt phase.
1.) Place them at 50g pre training & 50g posttraining using high insulin spiking carbs here. Think white rice, cream of wheat, bagels.
OR
2.) Spread them out in 20-25g amounts over 4-5 meals to keep the total glycemic load and response lower. You would use nutrient dense carbs with fiber if you did smaller portions like this ezekiel bread products, groats, quinoa, sweet potatoes.
For cardio I’d have you double the duration and times per week than what you are currently doing. For example: If you are currently doing 30 minutes treadmill 3x’s a week, I would have you do 60 minutes treadmill 6x a week.
If you can handle it a beta-2 agonist like clenbuterol, albuterol, ephedrine. I would have you take EAA’s (essential amino acids) pulsed in between meals with 3g leucine per pulse to ignite mTOR, and keep muscle breakdown minimized. Injectable L-carnitine with your pre workout 50g carb meal (1000 mgs Lcarn) MPA VasoBurn would be employed twice a day upon rising and after evening shower over abs and love handles. MPA Cortisolve would be taken at 1 scoop pretraining to minimize elevated cortisol levels from this high-stress environment.
Drop down to a therapeutic dose of testosterone, and perhaps add something like oxandrolone to the HRT regimen and save yourself for when calories get cranked up again.