Fitness update: Back to bulking

Heading back into a bulking cycle after having tried a Cyclic Ketogenic Diet for 2 months, which worked: I lost 5 lbs. (composed of 90% bodyfat) and my lift weight went up by about 5% across the board.  Impressive diet, I'll use it again on my next cutting cycle.  But afterwards I went off the rails with travel for a month and busted ass to get back to a regular 4-day gym routine.  My last big bulking cycle gained 20 lbs. and too much fat, so this time I'm cutting out Cytogainer as my meal replacement (it claims it's made of complex carbs, but it's not: maltodextrin has a GI north of 100 (some say 137, almost pure table sugar)), so I've moved to 40 grams of protein powder with 1 cup of dried thick-rolled oatmeal blended in water (2-3x/day) plus 3 whole food meals (complex carbs 40%, lean proteins 40%, good fats 20%).  This will cut out the sugars and lower the insulin spike while jacking total caloric intake about 500/day.  If all goes well I should gain about 1 lb. of lean body mass/week.

Comments

[Steve]

Hi, We've never met and I hope it is ok to comment here. Let me introduce myself, I'm Steve from Seattle. I am a longtime integral naked (and institute) member. Unlike most folks involved with I-I, I am extraordinarily ordinary. Just quietly doing my ilp and soaking up all things integral while raising a family in suburban America.

Anyway, I have a really good tip for you. For your protein powder have you considered Full Strength from Shawn Phillips? I'm a regular customer and just love the stuff. I would drink it whether I was working out or not. It tastes wonderful and I get amazing energy after drinking it. The stuff is a work of art.

Keep up the great work at Integral Life. Can't wait to see the new site.

[Robb Smith]

Hi Steve, I have used Full Strength, which is the only reason I felt comfortable recommending it to the Integral Life community. Shawn Phillips and Full Strength are partners of ours, though we don't benefit in any way from recommending their stuff. I love what Shawn has done because F/S is actually formulated as a super food MRP, not just a supplement. It also has the exact composition I look for, 40 grams of high quality protein/serving (whey isolate, casein, and glutamine), and most importantly stable long-chain carbs. The question I have, which I'll ask Rob McNamara about, is whether they've tested the GI profile on their blend. My only criticism of F/S is that it's too thick, probably from the same ingredients that makes Myoplex thick (wondering if Shawn took a cue from his EAS background?).

F/S is going to make a great MRP throughout the day and prior to a workout. If you're lifting with intensity (and why bother if you're not?) you may want to add some pure sugar to your F/S shake immediately post-workout. The insulin spike from the sugar will drive the protein right to the4 muscles while also restoring muscle glycogen.

[Ahnuld]

Sounds like you are really committed to your transformative wellness! Yet, bear in mind that "ketogenic" programs really do a lot of additional damage to your liver, kidney and excretion systems,even in the short run. You toxify your body with nitrogen waste and slow down your body's ability to deal with electrochemical regulation (light-body anyone?), while also increasing allergenic responses and wreaking general havoc on your immnue system. You may burn some body fat but you do so in an abusive manner to your overall health (surgery could work the same magic, aye?). I'd add that they are "partial" in their view of the living 'bodymind' holon - addressing merely one subsystem (the role of glycogen transport and metabolism in the Krebs cycle - bioreductionism my friend in the LR).

You may want to consider adding lots and lots of "Ormus" - look it up - into your body (initially therapeutically then as maintenance - oh and stay away from all thos bulking powders as well; the additives alone are a nightmare not to mention that the aspartame and/or sucralose many of them have are a total 'excitotoxic' nightmare - see the book *Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills*):

http://www.thebestdayever.com/bde-david-wolfe.html

[Robb Smith]

Ahnuld - I actually have read "Excitotoxins." I didn't find any evidence that Sucralose (Splenda) has any negative impact. Most of its composition (99%) is actually maltodextrin.

On the ketogenic diet impact, similarly I have not found any evidence to suggest the negative impacts you cite. Please provide references and I'll take a look.

[Best Weight Loss Pill]

Gaining 1 lb of mass a week for how long, exactly? What happens when you hit that goal, do you just go back to a normal diet to maintain the mass you've gained?

-Scott Chambers