Dietary Rehab

Today's the third day off the diet. I'll only have one protein shake with flax today plus a Surge since today is training day. The rest will be solid meals. Carbs are around 100g per day on training days so far this week.

If you've been with T-Nation for a few years, you'll recognize this as sort of a T-Dawg 2.0 Diet. If I had to sum up this diet is one sentence it would be, "Eat no more than 100g of carbs per day, choose healthy foods, and have a cheat meal on the weekend."

I'm not sure I want a cheat meal. Psychologically, I just don't want to go there. I worry that I'd be like an alcoholic who decides to "have just one beer" and wakes up three days later in the gutter without his pants.

Seriously, I know I can handle it, but do I really need it? Of course not. These changes in tastes and cravings are pretty damn cool and I don't want to risk changing them back. Right now it feels like a total "cheat 'n treat" for me to go to a restaurant and eat grilled chicken, salad and steamed veggies. Why screw that up?

This also relates back to the "All or Nothing Personality Type" I wrote about in my Mental Muscle article. This isn't necessarily a positive paradigm to have, but if you do have it (like I do in most situations) then it's at least good to know about it and recognize it.

All that said, one thing is becoming very clear: I underestimated the powerful behavior changes this diet could induce. It's a bad habit killer. It can change the way you feel about food and your dietary behaviors. Cool.

I'm laughing as I write this, but it's kind of true: four weeks on the Velocity Diet is like spending four weeks in rehab. You come out changed. Oh, you can slip back faster than Scott Weiland at a Vegas blowout party, but you don't have to if you make the right choices.

Have I tried VD? Well, there was that one time in Mexico...

Well, the Velocity Diet is officially "on fire" as Dr. Evil says. It's so on fire that an abbreviation has developed: VD.

Um, no. That would be bad.

How about we abbreviate it "V-Diet"? Catchy, easy to spell, quick to write and doesn't put the words "It burns when I pee" in anyone's mind.

The V-Diet it is!

Customization vs. Ruining the Whole Damn Thing

Whenever anything is given to the public, it begins to be manipulated and tested and tweaked. This is good.

Look at the improvements made in cars and trucks. The designers do the best they can, then they send the vehicles to market. After millions of people get their paws on them, the car companies quickly learn what worked and what didn?t. The next year's model keeps the best stuff and improves all the other stuff. Or at least they should.

Diets and training programs are much the same. Most good coaches and diet gurus try the diet out first, research it the best they can, then toss it to the public. The public adopts it and plays around with it. If there was anything wrong, they'll find it pretty quickly. If they think of something that works better, that comes out too. All in all, experimentation and customization are good.

But not always.

Here are two good examples of V-Diets that have been tweaked to suit the needs of the individual:

* The solid meal a day option. Complicates thing to me, but helps many in the long term. Great! Try both and use what works best for you.

* The morning workout manipulation. Guy trains early in the morning, so workout drinks and protein shakes are manipulated to suit his needs.

Now for some bad examples of V-Diet alterations:

* Instead of the tactically chosen supplements I suggest, a person uses a straight whey with the quality of sawdust and a "fat burner" that consists of nothing but diuretics and caffeine. Sure enough, his results suck and he'll probably quit early.

* Instead of weight training, the person does Pilates or some wiener pseudo-training.

* Instead of sticking with the calorie ranges and carb guidelines, the person "wings it" and overeats. (We should call that the Atkins Syndrome.)

The bad part is, these people will then go tell everyone, "Yeah, I tried that Velocity Diet and it didn't work."

No. You screwed it up.

So, if you're on the V-Diet, just keep this stuff in mind. By all means, tweak it to fit your individual needs. But don't change it so much that it's no longer even the Velocity Diet!

Check-in: 6 Days Off

Today is my sixth day off the V-Diet. I've had great workouts all week. I never really had bad workouts while on the diet, but I can see now they weren't the best workouts.

I stayed on HOT-ROX all week and will through the weekend, but Monday I'll switch to Carbolin-19. (Yes, I'm a bastard and I've snagged a couple of pre-release bottles. Hate me.)

I also had one semi-cheat meal this week. Went to one of those family-style buffets on all-you-can-eat steak night and had my fill of medium-rare sirloin and spinach salad. Meat and veggies, as much as you want; they should call it "caveman heaven" night. Or maybe just "Fuck Vegetarians Night." The food was healthy but I'm sure the calories were much higher than normal after my third trip to the steak bar.

This morning I felt it was time for a weigh-in. I'm up one pound after six days off the diet.

Panic!

Riot!

Spontaneous combustion!

Prozac and bad, egocentric poetry!

. . . um, no. A pound or two of weight gain was expected and it's a positive thing.

Remember, the first week on the V-Diet I dropped a rapid 6 or 7 pounds. Like all low or reduced carbohydrate diets, much of that was fluid weight (water, glycogen.) Now that my diet is back to normal and the carb intake is up a little, some of that water weight is coming back. And that's exactly why I had such good workouts this week, including huge muscle pumps!

In fact, I'm looking bigger and fuller all over. Obviously I didn't gain several pounds of muscle in 6 days; the restored fluids are just "filling" me out. Cool.

So remember, if you come off this diet and weigh a couple of pounds more in the few days that follow, don't panic. It's not fat.

And try not to stand in front of the mirror flexing all day either. That's just gay. Instead, do like I did and stand in front of the mirror all day systematically evaluating your progress from a visual perspective in varying light conditions and body positions.

That's, like, totally different.

"Hey Chris, how come I'm gaining muscle?"

A few brave souls out there started the V-Diet soon after the first article was published. I'm starting to get a lot of feedback from them and some of it is surprising. A few are reporting noticeable muscle gains -- not exactly expected on a low calorie, reduced carb diet.

How's that possible? Well, it probably isn't for most people and they should be satisfied with muscle retention, an achievement in and of itself. But the same thing happened when TC and I wrote the T-Dawg 2.0 diet. Here's how some people could gain muscle on the V-Diet:

Those who experience muscle gain. . .

1) ...may have needed more protein in their diets originally. Although the calories and carbs are reduced, the V-Diet is pretty high in protein. Maybe they filled this gap in their diets?

2) ...may have been getting inadequate fats which could've affected their Testosterone levels. The V-Diet adds healthy fats which some don't get with their normal diets, especially those still stuck in the "dietary fat is evil" phase.

3) ...may be new to weight training or may be coming back after time away from the iron. Newbies and those coming back from layoffs are going to gain muscle, even on a low carb plan.

4) ...may be new to post-workout nutrition. Some doing the V-Diet have never used proper post-training nutrition, so they get on this diet and start using Surge and their progress in the gym kicks up a notch.

5) ...may be getting the results from the HOT-ROX. Unlike most fat burners (which are mostly filled with nothing but caffeine and diuretics these days) HOT-ROX can help you retain and maybe even build muscle. I'd be satisfied with muscle retention (after all, some people actually use steroids for that purpose when dieting), but if you get hypertrophy too, that's great!

6) ... a combination of all of the above.

7) And finally, the person may be gaining no muscle at all. However, as the fat comes off, the muscle he or she already has becomes more visible. I lost around 16 pounds on this diet and some ask me what I've been doing for my arms because they look bigger. I think it's simply because they're leaner.

Cool stuff.

Of Penises and Pull-Ups

It would be rather crude of me to mention that when a person's waist gets smaller and the gut disappears, it makes his tallywacker look much larger. Looks like an army tank's cannon mounted on a high performance speed boat. But since I'm certainly not crude, I won't dare mention it.

Something else that surprised me but really shouldn't have is the boost I've seen in performance. Sprints, stadium runs, bodyweight work like dips and pull-ups, gymnastic rings, you name it. I never thought 16 pounds would make that big of a difference. Losing it makes me feel like I'm walking on the moon.

But if you think about it, that's what fat is: nonfunctional useless mass. Sure, maybe an NFL offensive lineman can find a use for his fat (namely, building a wall with it) but for the rest of us, it's always better to dump it. And did you catch that episode of HBO's Real Sports where they did a story on what happens to these fat football players after their careers end? Sad.

Fat is so over.

11 Days Out

Eleven days into the transition phase now. I'm only using one protein shake per day plus a post-workout drink on weight training days. The rest are all regular, healthy meals. I still haven't had a real cheat meal and still really don't desire one. The behavioral changes seem to be "sticking."

I'll probably add one more entry to this blog thread and end it there. That will be the two week update which is coming up here in a few days. I was also thinking about doing a V-Diet FAQ, but there really aren't that many common questions. Questions are all over the map.
I doubt I'll take this transition log past the two week point. After that time period, too many variables will change according to the individuals goals. Also, it becomes trickier to measure progress. For example, I've only gained one pound back so far (water weight). I actually expect to gain one or two more. However, I've also ramped up my training and have begun taking the "mystery supplement," Carbolin-19. So any gains from this point on will likely be muscular. Hey, I want to see the scale number rise again; I just want those gains to be 99.9% muscle.

My solution for this is to do weekly waist measurements. Actually, the best area is the love handle area (thank God this area is hard to find on me now!) I prefer using a Myotape, wrapping it all the way around the bellybutton line. If I gain there, I know it's time to tighten up the diet, maybe do a few days of V-Dieting to nip any fat gain in the bud, or increase activity level. Between that and the mirror, I'll be able to stay lean and mean all through summer.

V-Diet Surprises

Reading through the various Velocity Diet threads and article feedback, it's amazing to see the behavioral changes people are experiencing: losing their cravings for bad foods, developing a taste for healthy foods they never liked before, going through a complete paradigm shift when it comes to nutritional discipline, etc.

Too bad this was such an unexpected benefit. I could've marketed and "sold" the diet better if I'd known such things were possible!

I'm also surprised by the number of athletes interested in this. I advised many of them to choose another T-Nation diet. But the message I'm getting is, "Sorry, Chris. I'm doing it anyway!" Well, okay.

Drinking healthy protein shakes all day with good fats and adequate fiber is certainly better for athletes than what I've seen many do to get to their ideal playing weights: starve and perform excess, catabolic cardio. I do suggest that athletes choose the solid-daily-meal option and bring up the carbs a little.

I'll post my final two-week transition results soon.

Final Update

I fucking love this. Why didn't I get this lean and stay this lean years ago? Although it was just 16 pounds, I feel like an anvil has been taken off my ass. Although I'll keep trying to bring my muscle weight and strength up, I'll never gain unnecessary amounts of fat again. Uh uh. I'm lean for life. Single digits rule.

I've been off the diet for two weeks now. My waist is still the same size and scale weight has gone up only one pound. Since my muscles feel full and pumped again, I know it wasn't fat gain, just a little water weight coming back.

Honestly, I expected 2-3 pounds more fluid to come back as I raised carb intake, but it didn't happen. That means I lost more fat that I thought I did. (I guess I was being conservative when I said this diet tripled the normal rate of fat loss.) In Part II of the V-Diet article I subtracted three pounds and called it "water loss" but I've only gained one pound back, despite higher carb intake for 14 days. I don't get it, but I'll take it.

Today I tried on a pair of size 32 khaki pants and they fell off me. The 31's were just right. I'd crept into a size 34 before the V-Diet. Four weeks later and 32's fall off me. Pair that with a set of lats sticking out like never before, a full six-pack and striated shoulders. Oh yeah. Transition phase: successful.

During the last few days I've transitioned off MS HOT-ROX and onto Carbolin-19. I've also stopped logging my food intake. I kept the food log the first week off the diet and I advise you to do it too. It's a powerful tool. I'll use it again if I think I'm gaining any fat. Keeps me check. Keeps me sharp. If you've never used one, then you need to start. Here's an old article I wrote about how to start a food log: The Missing Ingredient

Still no cheat meals for me. The only thing I want is pizza and I'm not going to waste a planned cheat on just any pizza. Nope, I'll pop a few preemptive strike HOT-ROX caps and go to BJ's in Dallas, a joint where Waterbury and I once drew a crowd with our dietary display of a properly planned cheat. But I won't do it yet. The days of every-weekend cheats are over for me. Now I'm saving them for something special, maybe once every 4-5 weeks tops. The V-Diet has changed that bad behavior. It's imbued me with new discipline.

The V-Diet worked out better than I ever thought. The ol' Fat Fast really does shine when you polish it up with modern supplements and dietary wisdom.

Remember, your body is your laboratory. Experiment. Play. Have fun.

Coming next: The Velocity Vixen. The V-Diet goes co-ed.