High Protein / Very Low Carb Diet Plan

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

High Protein / Very Low Carb Diet Plan - 7 Day Overview

Now that the Holidays are behind us and 2010 is well under way, it's time to implement an effective diet gameplan to reach our fat loss and body transformation goals. Like many people, I have experienced great success in the past with a High Protein / Very Low Carb (HPVLC) diet plan but found some pitfalls along the way. The great part is: you get results QUICK and can see meaningful changes right away. The pitfalls: well, there's a few we'll touch upon today and I'll also explain the modifications I'm making to avoid them this time around.

Here's the plan:

I'm basing this particular plan largely on the recommendations from Rob Faigin's book 'Natural Hormonal Enhancement'. While I have followed similar plans in the past, I believe I didn't take adavantage of a key component that can help accelerate fat loss and retain muscle.

My goal for the first seven days is to keep total daily calories in the 2,100 - 2,300 range.
Protein will be held in the 50% - 55% range of total daily calories.
Fat will be held in the 40%- 45% range of total daily calories.
Carbs will be held in the 5% range of total daily calories.

The purpose, as outlined in 'Natural Hormonal Enhancement' as well as other low carb diet plans is to eat in a manner that forces your body to change it's primary fuel source. Our bodies like to function off of two primary fuel sources: sugar (carbs) or fat. Sugar and/or carbs are the easiest (and in our present day diet) most readily available source of energy and therefore has become the preeminent fuel our bodies use. Fat, while also readily available, is more difficult to convert to energy (but also more efficient at providing energy) and therefore takes a back seat to carbs when they're both introduced into the body.
Essentially, due to our normal high carb dietary habits, our bodies are in a constant state of utilizing carbs/sugar for energy and we tend to store excess calories from carbs and fat as bodyfat for 'emergency' purposes (i.e.: periods of famine or starvation).

By removing and/or highly restricting the amount of carbs we consume on a daily basis, our bodies begin to adapt by first acknowledging the reduction in dietary carb intake, second by notifying us via various means that 'Hey, we could use more carbs here!' and third, once it realizes that no more carbs are coming in dietarily it's time to switch to the next best fuel source - dietary and stored fat!
In the past, I have found this process to take effect with me after about four full days of restricting carbs. Once you get past that point, you begin to settle in and get quite used to your new eating plan. In the past, I've just kept going on this type of plan and found that I got great, fast acting results - rapid scale weight loss and quickly decreasing body fat percentage. As you'll note from above, this time around I mentioned only seven days.

The component I missed out on in the past to help accelerate fat loss and retain muscle is what is referred to as a 'carb reload'. While I kept carbs restricted and continued to rapidly lose weight, I didn't stick to a true, planned carb reloading to insure that I retained as much muscle as possible. In effect, my rapid weight loss was a combination of both fat and muscle due to my long term restriction of carbs, inadequate intake of dietary fat and low overall daily caloric intake. While I did reintroduce carbs back into my diet periodically, it was not planned in any certain way and was largely based on how I felt. If I was absolutely wiped out from low calories, a recent hard workout and lots of cardio, I'd take a day to add carbs back into my diet. I usually felt better soon and then went right back to my low carb regimen. This time around, I'll be running the very low carb portion for the first seven days, then on day eight, I'll introduce the carb reload. From that point forward, the low carb phase will be cycled over three and four day periods each culminating in a carb reload.
A structured and pre-planned carb reload can replenish glycogen stores (essentially a muscular energy source) to keep you on top of your game physically without compromising your efforts to get your body into a predominantly fat burning mode. We'll cover the low carb cycling and carb reload in greater detail in a couple days.

I have already begun this HPVLC diet plan and will post a report for each day covering the following:
- scale weight
- foods eaten throughout the day
- caloric and macronutrient breakdowns of those foods
- how I feel physically and mentally
- general overview of any workout performed

It may be cold outside now, but it won't be long before the warm weather is here again and you can enjoy getting outside with your Better Than Average body!