LHM Diet Cycle working well for me(Endo/Meso-65/35)
Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:05 pm
I decided to post this here because I am following a diet that has been working very well for me. Nothing I invented, just something I got from Elliott Hulse from Lean Hybrid Muscle(LHM). I am pretty interested in a lot of his stuff because we have almost identical body types and we have a lot of the same issues. I thought this might be helpful for others who have similar endomorphic body types, as this is starting to see serious results(I should be under 200 lbs within a few weeks).
Basically, you run a 7 day cycle where on certain days you eat certain things and on other days you eat other things. Let's take a week starting on Sunday.
Sunday/Monday:"Catabolic Days", with High Protein/Low Fat/Low Carbs. Carb intake is between 30-80g max on these days. Lots of green veggies and lean meats(chicken/turkey/tuna, etc). Calorie intake will likely be in the 1900-2000 range because it is so hard to eat more than this. I try and get a breakdown of 80% Protein/10% Fat/ 10% Carbs which leads to about 380g protein, 34 g fat and 80 g carbs.
Tuesday: 24 hour fast, Eat, Stop, Eat style. 24 hours from your last meal on Monday night, you eat nothing until the same time the following night. You then eat a normal meal, can have some carbs to replenish stores a bit. I do however sip on about 20-30g of BCAA's throughout the day to make sure muscle loss doesn't occur...
-This fasting helps to flip on the "Growth Hormone" switch in your body where you will have up to 6 times the normal amounts of growth hormone floating around, which leads into...
Wednesday/Thursday/Friday: "Anabolic Days", with High Protein/High Fat/Low Carbs. Again carb intake is 30-80g max, and your focus is on taking in more calories(around maintenance for me, but depending on what you are wanting to do, you could have surplus calories), focusing on "good fats" like Olive Oil, but including lots of saturated fats like egg yolks, cheese, whole milk, real butter(saturated fats are a pre-cursor to producing Testosterone...). I usually go through about a dozen eggs and a few glasses of whole milk on these days. I try to get a breakdown of roughly 50% Protein/40% Fat/10 % Carbs, which leads me to about 375g of protein, 125 g of fat and 80g of carbs.
Saturday: "Reload Day" , which features lots of complex carbs, moderate amounts of protein and low fat. Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, etc are main focus. I take in about 3500 calories, and look for about 70% Carb, 25% Protein, 5% Fat, which results in about 620g of carbs, 219 g of protein and 20 g of fat.
-This helps flip the IGF-1 switch on in your body, which is one of the most anabolic genes in the body.
Elliott explains a little bit more in detail in this video, but I thought I would give my own explanation and implementation of it as well, as he doesn't really go into a lot of detail regarding that in the video, more of what and why approach. You'll notice that there is an extra "Anabolic Day" in what I am doing versus what he has on the board, and that the Anabolic and Catabolic days are switched but this was an adjustment that was made in the program after the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gicPn3nAPQ
I also follow a Lean Gains style fasting on pretty much every day other than Reload Day and Fasting Day, which is fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8. I usually eat 3 times a day, starting around 3 pm and lasting til 11pm.
Basically, you run a 7 day cycle where on certain days you eat certain things and on other days you eat other things. Let's take a week starting on Sunday.
Sunday/Monday:"Catabolic Days", with High Protein/Low Fat/Low Carbs. Carb intake is between 30-80g max on these days. Lots of green veggies and lean meats(chicken/turkey/tuna, etc). Calorie intake will likely be in the 1900-2000 range because it is so hard to eat more than this. I try and get a breakdown of 80% Protein/10% Fat/ 10% Carbs which leads to about 380g protein, 34 g fat and 80 g carbs.
Tuesday: 24 hour fast, Eat, Stop, Eat style. 24 hours from your last meal on Monday night, you eat nothing until the same time the following night. You then eat a normal meal, can have some carbs to replenish stores a bit. I do however sip on about 20-30g of BCAA's throughout the day to make sure muscle loss doesn't occur...
-This fasting helps to flip on the "Growth Hormone" switch in your body where you will have up to 6 times the normal amounts of growth hormone floating around, which leads into...
Wednesday/Thursday/Friday: "Anabolic Days", with High Protein/High Fat/Low Carbs. Again carb intake is 30-80g max, and your focus is on taking in more calories(around maintenance for me, but depending on what you are wanting to do, you could have surplus calories), focusing on "good fats" like Olive Oil, but including lots of saturated fats like egg yolks, cheese, whole milk, real butter(saturated fats are a pre-cursor to producing Testosterone...). I usually go through about a dozen eggs and a few glasses of whole milk on these days. I try to get a breakdown of roughly 50% Protein/40% Fat/10 % Carbs, which leads me to about 375g of protein, 125 g of fat and 80g of carbs.
Saturday: "Reload Day" , which features lots of complex carbs, moderate amounts of protein and low fat. Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, etc are main focus. I take in about 3500 calories, and look for about 70% Carb, 25% Protein, 5% Fat, which results in about 620g of carbs, 219 g of protein and 20 g of fat.
-This helps flip the IGF-1 switch on in your body, which is one of the most anabolic genes in the body.
Elliott explains a little bit more in detail in this video, but I thought I would give my own explanation and implementation of it as well, as he doesn't really go into a lot of detail regarding that in the video, more of what and why approach. You'll notice that there is an extra "Anabolic Day" in what I am doing versus what he has on the board, and that the Anabolic and Catabolic days are switched but this was an adjustment that was made in the program after the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gicPn3nAPQ
I also follow a Lean Gains style fasting on pretty much every day other than Reload Day and Fasting Day, which is fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8. I usually eat 3 times a day, starting around 3 pm and lasting til 11pm.