HCB's Journal, 02 June 2017

My understanding about the losing muscle problem is as long as you are eating enough protein to sustain your lean muscle mass, you can go low in calories. I ate enough protein but only 20g fat, 20g carbs and lost fat.  

Rckc - thanks! That is helpful 

OMAD sounds like starvation. This is America not South Sudan. You will never get any gains at the gym using this method and most likely pass out due to lack of glucose in your body because your body WILL eat your muscles to feed your brain since its not getting enough from a food source, especially if your working out. Your brain uses nothing else but glucose to keep itself alive. When you do not get enough glucose you get hypoglycemic and pass out. A spike in insulin is also the number one way a serious weight lifter keeps muscle on after workouts is by drinking a Dextrose / sucrose or maltodextrin laden drink. Without food you get neither insulin or calories, Ask any anorexic. As for your gym time don't expect any gains without eating, it takes a heap of calories to gain muscle and trying to do strength training with endurance training is like trying to tow a 26' travel trailer with a Honda car. They are opposite ends of the spectrum. Anyone who strength trains does little if any endurance training as calorie loss is muscle loss. Hormones or lack thereof is a direct response to weight gain, men in the gut followed by moobs and women in the hips. Get a hormone check and get that taken care of, muscle will be built easier and fat will fall off faster. Ask any 20yr old guy who goes to the gym a few times a week, does a half arse workout and looks like he lives there and eats hamburgers and fries all day.  

You are wrong about glucose and the brain, Euro-trash, read any book that has been published in the last two years - FAT is what our brain runs on. And, you do NOT know me or my history. Read, "Grain Brain" by Dr. Perlmutter, or "The Obesity Code" by Dr. Fung. I do a ketogenic approach and get all my energy from fats. I lift darn heavy for a 62 year old woman, too - look at my previous journals and see MY trainer. I trust him more than you. 

Scientists also said earth was flat, we "evolved" , and fats, coffee and chocolate was bad for us as well.. all busted. SO your on KETO or OMAD Two different spectrums as well. . You asked about OMAD, Insulin and carbs. asking questions you should know already if your subjecting your body to it. As for your history I'm responding on what you posted. Doctors beliefs change with the wind, and their all still "practicing" on us. As for your trainer he will tell you what you want to hear since your paying him.  

This is my veiw. Don't count calories and do these routines where you starve yourself. Instead, count where your calories come from. Some days, I eat more than 6000 calories, but they come from a balanced source of healthy fats, protien, and complex carbs. I actually think it's better to eat more because it means that is possible to fit in all the nutrients you need. I used to do calorie cpunting, and I acutally gained weight. Once I switched to what I'm doing now (eating whenever I'm hungry but examining the quality of my food), I dropped thriteen pounds. Also, you shouldn't do the 60%-70% fat and 10% carbs. Carbs get a bad rep, but the truth is that 60% of your diet should come from carbs (roughly 20% from fat and 20% from protien, but I do around 25% protien and 15% fat because of my personal needs). It's the KIND of cabrs you have. Complex carbs, such as fiber, are beneifcial for your body, while simple carbs, like monosacarides (sugar and other carbs) aren't nutritous. Remeber: whenever you eat a high-carb food (bread, pasta, etc.), follow the 1-to-10 rule, whiche means for every tme grams of fiber there are in the food, there should be (at the very least) one gram of fiber. Good luck! 

Yay! The world has different people with different needs, and we try different stuff to see what works. Thanks everyone for trying different things! If we all did the same thing, we'd never learn anything about ourselves or the world. I may not be doing the same diet as all of you, but I wish you all success in your own diet-journey.  

HCB, pre-apologizing for the long post :-) I'm almost always doing some form of IF...OMAD works great on days I know I'm going to have a big evening meal due to social obligations or other reasons. My target calorie range is a 2300/day average, with a daily 21 to 24% protein macro goal....fat and carbs I don't worry about...they seem to sort themselves out. As you also know I am pretty active and more often than not do fasted workouts (resistance training, fat burning and HIIT). My workout and eating habits fly directly opposite to some of the comments above but seem to work for me and have allowed me to reach several personal bests last September and one in March while also maintaining a reasonable BF%... :-). I also read Brad Pilon's "Eat, Stop Eat" about a year ago and while I don't follow his 5/2 IF protocol, it really opened my eyes to the potential benefits of IF. The reason I'm telling you this is so that you aren't afraid of giving it a go, I'm pretty sure unless you are running a big calorie deficit or low protein macro, your lean muscles should be protected...especially if you have fat to burn. I wouldn't get too dogmatic about OMAD though unless it really clicks with you...then by all means keep'r rolling!! Good luck HCB, hope it works out!! 

Oh ya, our goals are also identical...keep the muscle, burn the fat. 

I eat one meal a day, and I fast between dinners, even though I personally to not eat for keto. I don't really time my eating window, but it's probably close to 22:2. I really love eating this way. I also recommend Brad Pylon's Eat STOP Eat. My understanding is that IF reduces insulin spikes as well as reduces calorie intake. The experts I have read say that low caloric intake will not burn muscle as long as you are resistance-training, as the training sends a signal to your body to conserve / increase muscle.  

Have you ever checked out the group Ketogains on facebook? As a lifter you might be interested in what they have to say. They are a group that adheres to the science of weight loss/muscle preserve and building. There is a ton of info in the faq's you might find interesting. I have found them very useful for some general "tweaking" of my diet even tho I don't lift heavy! 

3 years ago, I was told by all doctors involved in my stroke care that my brain needed carbs to heal. Told them of my cravings, which were insane. I took full advantage of that and now kick myself for listening but you think they know what they're talking about. Then found out a few years later, the brain desperately needs fats not carbs for healing. Who do you listen to?  

Thank you, my followers! Good information. As for Euro-trash and Thomas Puhl, thank you for your opinions but I respectfully disagree. In fact, TIME magazine dated June 5, 2017, just did an article on how NO diet works for EVERYONE so you do what works for you while I do what works for me!