Help with Famine

WinskiG · Post by **WinskiG** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 3:22 pm

So I'm gearing up for my first BP run this month and am concerned about dialing in an appropriate Famine diet.

May I ask what's worked best for people regarding macros?
I understand that protein is to be kept low but what sort of threshold is ideal?
Are starchy carbs and fat limited in any particular manner beyond just keeping an overall caloric deficit?

Thanks so much!

wtmarcus · Post by **wtmarcus** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:55 am

I took a peek at the .xls from my last famine.

For this last one I was rolling at 1200-1500kcal total / day.
~10-40g protein. All the protein coming from "carb sources".
~10-50g fats. Mostly oils for my various salads.

For carb sources I go with (sweet) potatoes, fruits (I like raisins, melons, and berries), popcorn, rice, oatmeal, leafy greens.

I feel that mostly the caloric deficit and keeping the protein low is key. A guesstimate for protein is 0.4g/kg bodyweight (0.8 is RDI minimum so that would be too much I reckon so I pick half).

third famine strength workout suuuuuucks.

WinskiG · Post by **WinskiG** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:30 am

Thanks, man. Getting something of a template helps. I wasn't sure if it was a purely fruit/veg affair or if some fats and grains could join the mix.

Do you time your meals around your workout in any particular manner or just get the food in throughout the day the best you can?

wtmarcus · Post by **wtmarcus** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:33 am

WinskiG wrote:Thanks, man. Getting something of a template helps. I wasn't sure if it was a purely fruit/veg affair or if some fats and grains could join the mix.

Do you time your meals around your workout in any particular manner or just get the food in throughout the day the best you can?

I've tried doing only fruits&vegs but I haven't seen any benefit of it compared to hitting grains or whatever floats your boat. It seems to me that going low cal and low protein is key. Going waaaay low on fat wrecks me badly day 4 and 5 though, why I add some fats of some sort.

I don't bother with timing anything. Only thing I normally bother with is to make sure I have some aminos in my amino acid pool when I actually hit the gym (by eating 2-3 hrs before gym, or hitting some EAAs), and that I down my 20g protein after. But on famine these two are out the door so I just eat whenever. The gym workouts are pretty short so I get by without even bothering with making sure I'm carbed up for those.

Going on famine in 2 weeks time here .. loookin' forward to it.

WinskiG · Post by **WinskiG** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 12:30 pm

Excellent, much appreciated breakdown as always. I'll be very curious to see how my body fares as I've never ever gone a day without reasonably high protein since I started lifting.