Cruise Caloric Guidance

[renman01]

i just finished my first Famine/Feast run. I am up ~6 lbs with BF holding steady at approx 10.5 - 11%. I am 45 yo/5'5" and now about 160# and have been in the game quite a while. I lost quite a bit of LBM after an initial diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis about 4 years ago that included "mandatory" abstention from the gym for a year. Love conventional medicine. I wound up losing about 15# of muscle while adding a ton of BF getting up to 196#. Finally, by using my own head and finding 'alternative' treatments, I got myself back to almost normality. I have since lost about 40# over the last 2 1/2 years with the Anabolic Solution Diet while getting back to lifting and gained about 5# of muscle back.

That leads me to today:

My confusion comes with transitioning to Cruise in re: diet. The BP 2.0 states 10X Bodyweight in cals, for me approx 1600/day, while the tracker indicates 'maintenance' at ~2500/day. With such a wide variance, it leaves too much gray area to make an educated choice. Some facts so far: I rose slightly in BF my first two weeks of Feast up about 1% and gradually came back down while still adding quality weight. I am unsure which track to take... Any help will be much appreciaed!! Thanks a ton, --Marty

[matter2003]

I lost quite a bit of LBM after an initial diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis about 4 years ago that included "mandatory" abstention from the gym for a year. Love conventional medicine. I wound up losing about 15# of muscle while adding a ton of BF getting up to 196#. Finally, by using my own head and finding 'alternative' treatments, I got myself back to almost normality.

Yes, I recently experienced that myself with a sprained ankle that swelled up pretty good...conventional treatment was to do nothing but RICE for 4-8 weeks...I chose to do H.E.M. treatments and was off crutches the next day and walking normally with very little pain...

As an aside about conventional medicine, my mother was in medical research for 50+ years, and worked extensively on cancer--specifically on isolating aromatase enzymes for crystallization to determine their structures which would allow drugs to be developed. About 3 years before they retired they finally crystallized the third and final important enzyme which gave them a pretty complete picture.

That is a little background info, perhaps unnecessary to the story, but whatever...Anyways, she and a bunch of her colleagues attended a "cancer retreat" sponsored by one of the most famous cancer research/treatment facilities in the world, Roswell Park Cancer Institute(RPCI). There, the head of the Chemotherapy department exasperatedly asked them(and this is a direct quote) "Don't you have any other treatments you can give me? All of my patients are dying from the chemo."

Just remember this the next time you or someone you love is put on chemotherapy...the director of one of the biggest and most well respected cancer institutes in the world exasperatedly told colleagues that "chemo is killing all his patients". It cannot be stated strongly enough that you cannot heal the body by poisoning it. The strategy to treat cancer makes no sense...as another doctor only half-jokingly said at the same meeting "It's a race to see what kills you first...the cancer or the chemo".

Bottom line is, doctors only know what the pharmaceutical companies want them to know. They are in the pharmaceutical companies pockets, given lavish gifts, lunches and trips as long as they follow their agenda of pushing their side effect laden and 95% of the time unnecessary drugs. If they fail to hit the quotas the pharmaceutical companies require of them, they lose their trips and gifts.

Remember, every drug made is a synthetic form of something that occurs naturally. Somehow the pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed the public into believing that their synthetic forms of the compounds are better than the natural forms they occur in. Unfortunately, they failed to let the human body in on the secret, as it refuses to play paddycake with them. I mean when commercial after commercial for these drugs talks about side effects being Thoughts of Suicide, Heart Attacks, Stroke and Death, who in their right mind would take them??

Dr. David Williams has stated that the pharmaceutical companies, doctors and medical associations seem to have the belief that:
"A healthy person is one who simply hasn't been diagnosed properly.", and that when not enough people are qualifying to take a drug based on the AMA guidelines, the pharmaceutical companies simply lobby the AMA to lower their healthy threshold, which far too often they go along with, allowing previously healthy people to now fall into the "at risk" category and qualify for taking their medication, which the doctors are all too happy to prescribe.

The moral of the story is to never trust a doctor to have your best interest at stake...the new prescription he just gave you might have just earned him an all expenses paid trip for 2 weeks to the Bahamas for him and his wife at the pharmaceutical companies expense for meeting his quota...pretty scary when you think about it like that isn't it?

[renman01]

I agree whole-heartedly. One of hte biggest helps was the SuperHuman Radio show that - as I am sure you can see coming - led me to the Bluprint via recent appearances by Rob Regish. At this point, I have declined all medication including some with very nasty side effects including the possibility of males creating birth defects should his partner become pregnant. The mildest drug they had me on - which I took at first out of fear and desperation to get back to 'my old self' - caused abnormalities in blood chemistry causing me to then have to see a Hematologist as well, who diagnosed me with pancytopenia (all blood cell counts too low) and subjected me to a bone marrow biopsy just to tell me I was fine in that regard and the counts being off was in fact due to the Plaquenil. Thanks for the $1,100 copay... Don't get me wrong, we hear of medical miracles every day, I just think we have to put ourselves out there and do our own homework and ask questions because there is no better advocate for you and your health then you, yourself.

So... how many calories do i take in during during Cruise???

[Linkiroth]

I agree whole-heartedly. One of hte biggest helps was the SuperHuman Radio show that - as I am sure you can see coming - led me to the Bluprint via recent appearances by Rob Regish. At this point, I have declined all medication including some with very nasty side effects including the possibility of males creating birth defects should his partner become pregnant. The mildest drug they had me on - which I took at first out of fear and desperation to get back to 'my old self' - caused abnormalities in blood chemistry causing me to then have to see a Hematologist as well, who diagnosed me with pancytopenia (all blood cell counts too low) and subjected me to a bone marrow biopsy just to tell me I was fine in that regard and the counts being off was in fact due to the Plaquenil. Thanks for the $1,100 copay... Don't get me wrong, we hear of medical miracles every day, I just think we have to put ourselves out there and do our own homework and ask questions because there is no better advocate for you and your health then you, yourself.

So... how many calories do i take in during during Cruise???

Haha. Very interesting stories indeed.

Now, I'm only on my first run of the BP and have not experienced Cruise but let me give you the sage advice that many men have given before:

It depends on you.

As you're a bit older, you may want to stay on the lower end. This also depends on your somatype. As I'm a natural endo/meso, I tend to stay on the lower end, but above the very low end of caloric intake.
Me, personally, I've never been much for the body weight multiplier for any sort of caloric calculations as this overestimates calories for people with a very high BF% and underestimates them for those with a very low BF%.
Shelby Starnes has a proclivity to suggest starting at the high end and adjusting downward as necessary. If I were you, I'd start with 2500 as recommended by the tracker (newer information is generally more accurate information, 3.0 vs. 2.0) and take inventory a week later. If you're still "cruising", continuing around the weight that you are at, then there is nothing to change. If you're gaining or (in my opinion, worse) losing weight at an unacceptable rate, simply adjust your calories down or up accordingly. Almost nobody gets it correct right off the bat and most people still get it wrong after two or three tries.

tl;dr: Start at 2500. Adjust up or down if you are losing or gaining weight too fast.

[RobRegish]

I agree whole-heartedly. One of hte biggest helps was the SuperHuman Radio show that - as I am sure you can see coming - led me to the Bluprint via recent appearances by Rob Regish. At this point, I have declined all medication including some with very nasty side effects including the possibility of males creating birth defects should his partner become pregnant. The mildest drug they had me on - which I took at first out of fear and desperation to get back to 'my old self' - caused abnormalities in blood chemistry causing me to then have to see a Hematologist as well, who diagnosed me with pancytopenia (all blood cell counts too low) and subjected me to a bone marrow biopsy just to tell me I was fine in that regard and the counts being off was in fact due to the Plaquenil. Thanks for the $1,100 copay... Don't get me wrong, we hear of medical miracles every day, I just think we have to put ourselves out there and do our own homework and ask questions because there is no better advocate for you and your health then you, yourself.

So... how many calories do i take in during during Cruise???

Haha. Very interesting stories indeed.

Now, I'm only on my first run of the BP and have not experienced Cruise but let me give you the sage advice that many men have given before:

It depends on you.

As you're a bit older, you may want to stay on the lower end. This also depends on your somatype. As I'm a natural endo/meso, I tend to stay on the lower end, but above the very low end of caloric intake.
Me, personally, I've never been much for the body weight multiplier for any sort of caloric calculations as this overestimates calories for people with a very high BF% and underestimates them for those with a very low BF%.
Shelby Starnes has a proclivity to suggest starting at the high end and adjusting downward as necessary. If I were you, I'd start with 2500 as recommended by the tracker (newer information is generally more accurate information, 3.0 vs. 2.0) and take inventory a week later. If you're still "cruising", continuing around the weight that you are at, then there is nothing to change. If you're gaining or (in my opinion, worse) losing weight at an unacceptable rate, simply adjust your calories down or up accordingly. Almost nobody gets it correct right off the bat and most people still get it wrong after two or three tries.

tl;dr: Start at 2500. Adjust up or down if you are losing or gaining weight too fast.

Right here..

Linkiroth, NAILED it!!!

[renman01]

Thanks for great the input.

My initial question was really regarding the correct jumping off point. I am well practiced at experimenting at finding the right 'groove' for my body and individual physiology, but as this is a new program and the parameters for this phase were somewhat discordant between the two sources, I wanted to get 'expert' guidance of where to begin before doing the experimentation. Basically, I want to follow the program as designed for maximum benefit. For example, had I been left to my own devices I would have NEVER started Feast off with 2500 cals, normally considering this way too high for my personal situation, but low and behold here I am all the better off for following the program to the T. My goal during this phase is the same as the others - (again) follow the program as designed until a deviation is supported by lack of desired results.

Thanks again for all the help.

[RobRegish]

Thanks for great the input.

My initial question was really regarding the correct jumping off point. I am well practiced at experimenting at finding the right 'groove' for my body and individual physiology, but as this is a new program and the parameters for this phase were somewhat discordant between the two sources, I wanted to get 'expert' guidance of where to begin before doing the experimentation. Basically, I want to follow the program as designed for maximum benefit. For example, had I been left to my own devices I would have NEVER started Feast off with 2500 cals, normally considering this way too high for my personal situation, but low and behold here I am all the better off for following the program to the T. My goal during this phase is the same as the others - (again) follow the program as designed until a deviation is supported by lack of desired results.

Thanks again for all the help.

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