5 Disadvantages of the Anabolic Diet
Oct 3rd, 2007 by Mehdi Tags: Anabolic Diet, Nutrition
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You know the benefits of the Anabolic Diet by now. But like any other diet, the Anabolic Diet has also disadvantages. Here are some of the things I don’t like about the Anabolic Diet or things you could struggle with.
Time Consuming. Veggies take longer to prepare than carbs. Longer to cook, more preparation involved, etc. With all the veggies you need to eat on the Anabolic Diet to fill your stomach this gets time consuming.
If you’re used to eat rice, oats & pasta, switching to the Anabolic Diet will be hard at first. You’ll need to learn how to prepare veggies to make them taste good. And learning how to cook takes time.
Junk Food Carb Loadings. Your first carb loadings will turn into junk fests. This is a common error on the Anabolic Diet: you’ll overcompensate for the absence of carbs during the week.
You’ll quickly learn to lose this habit. Junk food will make you unproductive & lazy. And if you’re goal is to lose fat or lose weight, eating junk food during the weekend is very counterproductive. Keep it clean.
Hard to Gain Weight. One reader’s experience on the Anabolic Diet:
“I like the Anabolic Diet, but I struggle to get 3800kcal daily. I average 3000kcal. I don’t mind this as my goal is not to gain weight. But I was low on energy last Thursday & Friday. Right now I feel better & look forward to the carb loading”
Fat satiates which makes it much harder to gain weight on the Anabolic Diet. I think the Anabolic Diet is more for people who want to maintain or lose weight. But you can gain weight if you want, you just need to get your mind over it.
Food Allergies. Wheat, yeast, dairy, eggs, etc. These are known to trigger food allergies. If you’re allergic to wheat & yeast: try low carb. If you have allergies to cheese, consider the Anabolic Diet without cheese.
Food allergies are individual. Some can’t drink milk, others can’t eat eggs or fatty meats. Test what your body reacts to & adapt your diet accordingly. A good book on the topic is “Healing Skin Disorders” by Andrew Gaeddert.
Vitamin Deficiency. You’ll eat plenty of veggies, meats & eggs on the Anabolic Diet, which are great sources of vitamins. But the absence of fruit can cause vitamin deficiencies. Eat fruits in the weekend & take a multivitamin if necessary.
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Less Convenience - Today’s market doesn’t exactly appeal to an Anabolic Dieter, so it is more difficult to get in your snacks and protein. This is especially difficult in a country where about 70% of products are made from carbs (Asian countries, to be specific). You have to depend on nuts and jerky, IMO easiest to get ahold of.
Sugar Cravings: VERY hard, especially if you are losing weight/cutting. A tip I read somewhere is to have some sugar-free Jell-O with sugar-free Cream for some nice fat and a no-carb satisfier.
I’m going to back up Mehdi on the Junk Food Fest. Was a big mistake for me to junk up, especially since my goal is to lose weight. I think the worst junk food I eat now is candy and chocolate, and that is low. Not how I used to scarf them down everyday.
Junk food isn’t bad. It’s the portions of said junk food that mess you up and are counter-productive.
Would you count this as a disadvantage: High saturated fat levels increase blood cholesterol?
I don’t know if that is true on the Anabolic diet, but certainly on a more tradititional 40/30/30 carb/protein/fat diet it is.
Read “The Anabolic Diet”, please.
Great addition David. Especially the less convenience: it’s true that finding snacks isn’t easy on the Anabolic Diet.
Dietary cholesterol doesn’t influence blood cholesterol. The Anabolic Diet is known to decrease cholesterol levels. It’s one of its benefits.
Dietary cholestrol doesnt, but saturated fat does.
I can produce the studies if you like. I have not read the diet though as David said so it’s more of a question than a criticism.
I’m sure this wasn’t meant as a critique by David, David.
Rules are different on the Anabolic Diet. Saturated fat won’t increase cholesterol levels when you’re on the Anabolic Diet, because your body is using the saturated fat for energy (no carb intake forces your body to use fat for fuel).
Btw: on any diet, saturated fat is good, as long as you don’t overdo it. Everything becomes poison when taken in excess, saturated fat included. It has many benefits & shouldn’t be neglected, but should also not be overdone.