Basically what we’re doing here is limiting carbs during the week. Then, all of a sudden, the
weekend hits and you’re stuffing yourself with them. Insulin levels will rise dramatically. In
fact, it’s been shown that the high fat diet, in concert with the carbs, will make the insulin response
even greater than it normally would be.6,7
The first thing your body does in response to this exaggerated carb loading is stuff the muscles
with glycogen (muscle glycogen also increases more than you’d find on a high carb diet). At the
same time, amino acids are driven into the cell AND AN EVEN GREATER ANABOLIC
EFFECT IS EXPERIENCED.
During the weekend you’ll find yourself rather relaxed and blasé because carbs will be forcing
a rise in serotonin.
Once you hit that gym on Monday, you’re going to get one of the best pumps of your life,
thanks to all that glycogen and water in the muscle cells. During Monday and Tuesday, your system
will be working, burning both all that increased glycogen and free fatty acids, and you’ll experience
the expected rise in fat burning and muscle growth. Then, Wednesday-Friday, with glycogen limited
again, you’ll switch back to a near exclusive fat burning metabolism to maximize your gains.
Needless to say, your body goes through a big transition weekly with this diet. That’s why
it’s important to know when to stop on the weekend. If you find that you have an unlimited
appetite on the weekend, that’s OK. You’ll kick the insulin into gear that much faster. But you
must be careful. You do not want to lay down tremendous amounts of bodyfat.
That’s why you have to be aware of the point at which you begin to feel puffy and bloated.
This point will vary greatly from person to person. Some people will feel hardly any response in
appetite from the increased insulin. Others, however, will experience wide insulin swings and
will find themselves hungry all the time. They can easily take in 10,000 calories a day.
Though we list 36–48 hours as the period during which you should carb load on the weekends,
this could be cut back to as low as 24 hours for people like this. The important thing is, experienced
bodybuilders can tell when they’ve had enough. They feel puffy and bloated and can even sense the
fat coming on. At that point it’s time to stop and go back to restricting the carbohydrates. This point
will vary widely from person to person.
Also, keep in mind that the percentages we listed above for fat, protein and carb consumption
are optimum numbers. If you’ve never done any real diet planning before, you may have a bit
of trouble reaching them at first. If so, don’t worry. By shooting for the 30 gram carbohydrate
limitation and a 40% minimum fat level in the diet during the early weeks, you’ll make the
“metabolic shift” necessary to the diet.
WHAT TO EAT
During the weekdays, there are plenty of options for high fat/high protein/low carb foods
available. Virtually any meat is OK, and you’ll focus on steak, hamburger, pork and other red
meats on the diet. But venison, fish (of great importance as we’ll see later), lamb, shrimp, lobster,
chicken, turkey, and any other white meat are also OK. So are canned sardines, tuna, shrimp,
herring and anchovies.
THE ANABOLIC DIET — HOW AND WHY IT WORKS 31