grams per day and slowly inch up every week to see where you feel best and where the optimum
level of carb consumption is for you.
Fat levels may also be experimented with to some degree. Some may find optimum growth
from going as low as 40 percent fat on the diet, but you must beware. You can’t go too low.
One recent bodybuilder I counseled found himself getting fat while on a conventional low fat
diet and went to an all protein diet. He began doing the egg whites thing and, while he ended up
cutting his fat to nothing, he lost muscle mass like you wouldn’t believe. He looked awful. Your
body will burn fat as it’s given to it, so don’t worry. You can make some adjustment, but be careful.
If you don’t give the body enough fat, it will burn muscle, which is exactly what you don’t want.
The same principle is involved during the carb loading phase of the diet. You still need fat.
If you don’t give it fat, protein will get eaten up as energy. You also have to remember that the
body will try to transform any fat available to storage fat if you limit fat. It says basically, “I’m
not going to get rid of this stuff because I may need it down the road.” You limit fat in your
diet, and your body wants to lay it on as a way of keeping it around. You end up cutting dietary
fat but not bodyfat.
This may sound like nonsense, but it’s not. Give the body fat and it will use that fat and burn
off bodyfat. The more fat you give it, the freer it will be with enzymes for fat breakdown, and
the more bodyfat you’ll lose. You basically lose fat by eating it.^8
But one of the good things about this diet is that you don’t have to become paranoid to get
that proper amount of fat in your diet. In fact, if you’re diligent about eating your red meat and
other animal food—bacon, ham, steak, burger, fish, etc.—you shouldn’t have to worry about
hitting that 40 percent fat and 20–26 percent protein ratio listed above. It will naturally happen.
Again, it’s important to realize that individual experimentation will play a large role in aspects
of the Anabolic Diet. The diet should be varied to provide the optimum level of performance and
success for the individual. We’re all different to some degree according to body chemistry and needs.
No two human beings are alike. No two human beings will execute this diet entirely alike, either.
We’ll cover some other important variations to help the individual fine tune the diet later in
this book in the “Special Modifications” section.
ENDURANCE EFFECTS
Again, there’s been a lot of criticism of high fat diets from people who claim that you can’t exert
as much energy per contraction on a high fat diet as a high carb diet. Others have said that endurance
also greatly decreases on the high fat diet. This criticism does not apply to the Anabolic Diet.
First off, it’s clear that fat has been vastly underrated for its endurance and muscle-contraction
capabilities. One recent study showed that decreasing free fatty acids and glycerol (a compound
resulting from the hydrolysis of fats and oils) in the blood can reduce fat availability for exercise,
place increased demands on carbohydrates, and actually lessen endurance.^9 On the other hand,
an increase in the amount of fat metabolized by the body during exercise has a glycogen-sparing
effect and improves endurance.^10
THE ANABOLIC DIET — HOW AND WHY IT WORKS 35