What If People Tell You The Anabolic Diet Is Not Healthy?

Sep 12th, 2007 by Mehdi

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Bacon & Cheese

With all the fat myths going around, you’ll get remarks sooner or later. “That much fat is not healthy”, ” You’ll get heart diseases”, “Your cholesterol will raise”. I heared them all, you will too. Here are some tips to deal with family & friends.

Shut Up. I don’t talk about the Anabolic Diet. When someone asks what my nutrition looks like, I answer lots of meats, eggs, veggies & healthy fats. Which sums up my Anabolic Diet Menu.

Even if they are into strength training & diet, I don’t talk about it. The Anabolic Diet is different to what most do. The idea of eating high fat is weird. Someone wants nutritional advice? I give them a normal diet, not the Anabolic Diet.

Ignore. Makes your life easier. You don’t need to answer everything. Especially remarks like “you’ll get fat of all that fat”. It’s ignorance. Don’t answer. They ask you why, joke about it. I’m crazy, you’re crazy, they’re crazy. It doesn’t matter.

Explain. Only if they’re open minded & really want to know. Otherwise you’re losing your time. Explain how the Anabolic Diet works & why it’s healthy. Explain why cholesterol is good.

In my experience open minded people are a minority. But if you meet one: explain it. You could help him find a diet on which he feels better.

The Book. The Anabolic Diet is backed up by plenty of research. Give them your copy of the Anabolic Diet or Metabolic Diet. Let them read it & make up their own mind. They might even want to give it a try themselves.

Google. If you don’t have the book or can’t miss it. There’s plenty of information about the Anabolic Diet on Google. Close-minded people auto-reject the info or won’t google it. Others get intrigued. Depends on who you’re dealing with.

30 Days. For those who just start out. Tell them you want to give the Anabolic Diet a try for 30 days. You read the book. You want to see if it works by testing the diet for 1 or 2 months. It’s only food: you won’t die from it.

Bloodtests. Best thing for the non-believers. Have your doctor perform a bloodtest before you start & 2 months later. Show it to them. You’ll probably have better cholesterol levels than before. Hard evidence the diet is healthy.

Quit. Parents can be stubborn when you try things radically different to what they do. If you live under their authority, your only solution might be to quit the Anabolic Diet. Give it a try when you have your own place.

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22 Responses to “What If People Tell You The Anabolic Diet Is Not Healthy?”

on 12 Sep 2007 at 7:31 pm1Lucas

I think one reason people have a negative gut reaction to the Anabolic Diet is that, on the surface, it looks a lot like the Atkins diet. Both have high fat and protein intake, and rely on lots of meat and low carb intake. It’s hard to explain the differences without getting into more detail than people usually want to mess with.

I don’t adhere to the Anabolic diet. I eat high protein, low fat, whole grains, veggies and fruits, and I generally eat less meat than the Anabolic diet would advise. But that’s not to say I think the diet is a bad idea or that people shouldn’t try it — I’ve just decided that it’s not for me.
on 12 Sep 2007 at 7:33 pm2Dave

I love the Anabolic Diet. I’d recommend it to everyone and anyone. Wish I had a fiber supplement, though
on 12 Sep 2007 at 7:53 pm3ClickerTrainer

That’s true of almost any subject. Once you become a bit of an expert on anything (in my case, dog training, but I have a sideline interest in bodybuilding), folks will ask you for advice. Usually they don’t want to hear anything that is (1) hard (2) controversial or (3) that will change their lifestyle. I just smile and ask them what they think. I never evangelize. You can tell by looking in their eyes if they really want to know or are just making conversation.
on 12 Sep 2007 at 9:27 pm4Kyle

I have some questions..

Whole wheat contains essential amino acids and fiber which we need daily. Would the very low amounts of these present in this diet be sufficient in the long run?

From my (limited) research: There are certain saturated fats which are bad, such as the kind that are molecularly unstable and turn into ‘bad fat’ when exposed to heat or oxidation. Pasteurized milk and anything from it (cheese, yogurt) is saturated fat/cholesterol. Butter is very stable and is safe when heated. Olive oil shouldn’t be heated too long. Corn oil is bad. Well done meat is bad. etc.. are you saying these are all myths and that ANY saturated fat is good? and what about HDL vs LDL?

Normally, eggs contain a good ratio of omega6 to omega3, 1:1 — but eggs from chickens given steroids and chemicals have a 20:1 omega6:omega3 ration.. so too many non-organic (”cage free”) eggs a day is bad in the long run, as high levels of omega 6 does cause many problems.. I don’t know if that’s balanced out by something else in the diet, or do you imply that we eat cage free eggs?

What about regular (not abusive) use of caffeine, alcohol and other drugs? Should people using these and other drugs alter the diet?

Thanks.
on 12 Sep 2007 at 11:21 pm5Mehdi

The Anabolic Diet indeed looks like Atkins. Many think that they are both the same with a different name.

The main difference between the Anabolic Diet & the Atkins diet is that you end up in ketosis on Atkins. Ketosis is very catabolic (muscle burning). You’ll lose muscle mass on atkins. Bad. The 30g carbs limit & weekend carbups on the Anabolic Diet avoids ketosis.
on 12 Sep 2007 at 11:22 pm6Mehdi

Have you tried Flax Seeds Dave?
on 12 Sep 2007 at 11:22 pm7Mehdi

Totally agree ClickerTrainer. You can tell by people’s eyes. Better to use your time to help those who want to get helped.
on 12 Sep 2007 at 11:29 pm8Mehdi

Kyle. High protein intake takes care of all essential amino acids. Fiber you get out of green veggies & flax seeds. If you still have doubts: you get 48hours of whole wheat in the weekend anyway. If you devide your weekend carb intake by 7 days, you don’t end up far of what you’d eat on a different diet.

If you want the theory behind the diet, read the book. It has all the reasearch you need. Really. The rest is experimenting. Plenty of people are on the Anabolic Diet. Their cholesterol is fine. You want proof: try it yourself for 2 months. Do before/after blood tests. There you’ll have it.

Remember. Fat is energy on the Anabolic Diet. You’re eating a lot of omega 6, saturated fat, whatever. But that fat is used as fuel. The take home message: don’t pay attention to the cholesterol/saturated fat/omega 6, you’re burning it away.

But again Kyle: try it. Best proof you can get. For evern better proof: before/after bloodtest.
on 13 Sep 2007 at 3:12 am9IrishJay

*reads as I eat my fresh packed burgers with no buns*
on 13 Sep 2007 at 7:45 am10Mehdi

No buns
on 13 Sep 2007 at 11:38 am11J

Hmm. Isn’t ketosis what helps keep fat levels down? Or are you simply saying the carbs on weekends are supposed to alleviate the muscle loss due to ketosis?
on 13 Sep 2007 at 11:50 am12Mehdi

Ketosis means you’re not using fat for energy optimally & it’s very catabolic. Take a look at atkins people they’re always skinny.

DiPasquale’s own words:

These days, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ketosis, but it’s all pretty useless. Staying in a ketogenic state basically means that you haven’t adapted to the diet. If ketones are being excreted in the urine (which is how you determine ketosis) by using “keto-sticks,” then you’re not utilizing ketones for energy very efficiently. Someone who is optimally using fat for fuel should not have ketones in their urine.

Ketosis is very catabolic! First of all, the Anabolic Diet keeps you at 30 grams of carbs a day, five days a week. That keeps you out of ketosis, but the body begins to adapt to using fat for fuel. On the weekend, you can eat as many carbs as you like. That’s the anabolic phase, but the body is still in a fatburning mode. Once there’s a spillover of carb calories to fat storage, after no more than 48 hours, you go back to 30 carbohydrate grams a day. Basically, this is meant to be a diet that can be followed easily. Who wants to wake up at night to eat or spend each hour of the day watching exactly how many calories you eat? What’s interesting is that I’ve found that triglyceride levels rise on the days when high carbs are ingested.

Source: Interview with DrDipasquale.
on 14 Sep 2007 at 10:19 am13galapogos

Just wondering. I’ve been on a relatively high protein(1.5-2g/bodyweight in lbs day), relatively low carb, and medium fat diet, except around workout, where I ingest all my fast acting carbs.

If I takeaway the workout period (and the 2-3 small meals that accompany it, I will usually only end up eating about less than 50g of carbs a day, mainly from 0.5-1bowl of white rice(I’m Asian, so sue me), 1-2 slices of bread, milk, and fruits/vegetables.

I’ve read the Anabolic diet and maybe I’m missing something out, but it doesn’t seem to advocate an insulin spike during training. Doesn’t this increase the uptake of protein, something that’s desirable?
on 14 Sep 2007 at 10:24 am14galapogos

Got cut off again! What’s wrong with this?
on 14 Sep 2007 at 10:38 am15Mehdi

Fixed your comments. What browser are you using? I guess it happens when you’re hitting for a new line using the enter key. This might enable the “add comment” button at the bottom. Browser + Version + OS & I’ll take a look at it galapogos.
on 14 Sep 2007 at 10:46 am16Mehdi

That’s what I did before I got on the anabolic diet & what I’d do if I quit it: only carbs post & post post workout, rest of the day high protein & medium fat to get to the total amount of calories.

Check the post on post workout nutrition on Anabolic Diet. There’s indeed no insuline spike post training. You get one giant insuline spike in the weekend which will increase uptake of nutritients/protein to your blood.

Rules are different on the Anabolic Diet. You got a try it to believe it.
on 14 Sep 2007 at 3:54 pm17galapogos

I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.6 on XP. I think it’s because I use the “less than” sign. My 1st 2 posts had that and got truncated, the 3rd post didn’t and went through fine. Maybe it thinks I’m trying to use HTML code or something.
on 14 Sep 2007 at 4:01 pm18Mehdi

Yeah that’s it indeed galapogos, blog thinks you’re using html.
on 18 Sep 2007 at 9:56 pm19max

research on how high fat diet starves cancer cells
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1662484,00.html
on 19 Sep 2007 at 7:36 am20Mehdi

Interesting. Thanks for sharing Max.
on 20 Dec 2007 at 8:08 pm21peter

Hey Mehdi ..Whoa your from Belgium huh thats really faraway..I am from the United STATES.. ever since I started the Anabolic diet all I ate 6 times a day are whole eggs with butter/ext virgin olive oil, 205fat ground beef with butter, cheese and CREAM CHEESE (BY THE TABLESPOOn!!)and some iceberg lettuce with each meals.. I went through the induction phase pretty neatly since I have an idea of how low card diet is like but I still got a little flu like symptom for a a day or two.. Now I am all energized…especially after I have eaten a a fatty steak or whole eggs.. Funny thing IS my waist satys the same at 291/2 inches and I just ate all kind aof fatty food outthere while keeping my vcarbs at 30gram or lower on weekdays.. I did my first week of carbup last week consist of white rice, oatmeals, pancakes, beigium waffle, and french toast with maple syrup, pllus 4 or 5 pieces godiva chocalate. I did feel tired and lethargy the next day but the symptoms gone once I swithced back to high fat/ high protein diet.. Soo i think so far the diet is good to go in my boook…
on 20 Dec 2007 at 9:41 pm22Mehdi

You quickly get used to it indeed Peter. You’ll be amazed of the fat loss on this diet after 4-6 weeks. It proves (saturated) fat doesn’t cause obesitas: mixing fat + carbs does.

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