BodyOpus FAQ - Lyle McDonald

[Armando]

Lyle McDonald BodyOpus FAQ

Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996



So, here are some of the common questions I'm having to field about
the diet. It's strange, I write 10 weeks worth of diaries and all of a
sudden I'm the Bodyopus guru. Ah, well, I guess it saves Dan from
having to answer all this mail.

1. What's the best workout schedule you found for Bodyopus?
After much experimentation with both my own training and that of
my ex-girlfriend (who makes an easy control), I've decided on the following
in terms of training, sets, reps, etc. I'll present the exact workouts
I used with the ex-girlfriend as they consistently put her in ketosis
by morning of day 3 without the use of any glucose disposal agents.

*All work sets are presumed to failure. Time in parentheses is rest
interval between work sets.*
Mon: legs, back, biceps, abs
Warmup 5-10' on bike.
Squats: 2 warmups, 2 sets of 6-8 (2')
Leg curl: 1 warmup, 1 set of 6-8 (2')
Calf raise: 1 warmup, 1 set of 6-8 (2')
Assisted chins: 2 warmups, 2 sets 6-8 (2')
Seated wide grip row: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Barbell curl: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Abs: varies week to week
Cool down 5' on bike.

After all heavy work is finished, I then take her through a circuit
of one set of each of the above exercises. She uses 50% of the
weight used for the sets of 6-8 for a set of 20-25 with 1' rest
between exercises.

Tue: chest, delts, tris
Warm-up 5-10' on bike.
Assisted dips: 2 warmups, 2 sets 6-8
Incline DB bench: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Shoulder press: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Lateral raise: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Tricep pushdown: 1 warmup, 2 sets 6-8
Cool down 5-10' on bike although she'll likely start doing 20-30'
of easy cardio afterwards to hasten fat loss.

As with Monday, I have her do one set of each exercise for 20-25
reps in a circuit format after all the heavy work is done and before
cardio. She's never failed to get into ketosis by Wednesday morning
with this scheme. If she could train in the mornings, I bet she'd be
in ketosis early Tuesday. The key is a relatively high volume
of training on Mon and Tue (if you use a different split or split
across three days, make sure to get the large muscles: legs,
chest, and back on Mon and Tue) and I think the high rep backoff
set really helps as far as burning lots of glycogen/glucose.

Wed: 30'+ of cardio
Thu: 30'+ of cardio
Fri: the depletion workout.
Done in a giant loop format. A typical workout is:
Squat, incline bench, chins, leg curl, shoulder press, seated
row, calf raise, tricep pushdown, bicep curl, abs. Pant, pant.
1' rest between each sets using the same weights as for
the sets of 20-25 on Mon/Tue. Typically 4 or more total
loops are done. Depends on when we get started (gym closes
at 8pm and she works until 6:30 pm) and how quickly she gets
bored. I had to bribe her with treating for pizza tonight to get
a 4th loop out of her. No telling what I'd of had to offer to get
a 5th. Actually, I've got a pretty good idea but this is supposed
to be family entertainment. ;-)

Sat: off
Sun: off


The next three questions relate to the glucose disposal agents
vanadyl sulfate, chromium picolinate, and magnesium. I thought
Dan adressed this adequately in the book but it is a recurring
question so I'll answer it one more time here.

2. What doses of each should I use?

Vanadyl: up to 120 mg per day in divided doses. At some point
when I have the time, I'd like to really quantify what's the best
dosing schedule for vanadyl as far as lowering blood glucose
to ketone land. For now, I suggest 20mg six times per day or 30 mg
4 times per day. I was doing 50mg twice per day (morning and
evening) but I'm not sure that was the best choice.

Chromium: 800 mcg per day (most capsules are 200 mcg so 4).
Again, divided doses taken with the vanadyl.

Magnesium: 1000 mg/day (my capsules are 250 mg/cap so 4)
Divided doses taken with vanadyl and chromium.

3. Should they be used on low carb days?

Only until ketosis is established. Glucose disposal agents either act
like (vanadyl) or help along (chromium) insulin to do it's job. Once
you're in ketosis, there's almost no insulin present so taking these
substances is a waste of money.

4. Should they be used during recarb?

Of course, of course, of course. Use the same dosing schedule as
outlined above.

To summarize these three questions, here's a typical weeks dosing
schedule for me:

Mon: 120 mg vanadyl (20mgX6), 800 mcg chromium (200mcgX4),
1000 mg magnesium (250mgX4)
Tue: same as Monday
Wed: if ketosis established, discontinue use
Thursday: none
Friday: begin taking all three agents with carb meals. I typically
take 20 mg vanadyl, 200 mcg chromium, and 250 mg magnesium
with every other meal.
Saturday: continue with same dosing schedule.
Sunday: continue with same dosing schedule.

5. What foods do you eat during the week? Don't you get bored?
The 5 days of no carbs is the easy part of the week food wise.
Just about anything is fair game as long as three criteria are met:

a. fat intake must be at least 1.5 grams of fat for each gram of
protein/carbs. If you want a rationale, use Dejanews and track down
my discussion of the ketogenic ratios. If you want to try to
get into ketosis on less fat, it's your funeral. It will happen
but it will take much longer and not work as well. Please, please,
please trust me on this one. I've gotten far too much mail from
people who can't get into ketosis until day 4 or 5 of the week
because they are not eating enough fat on the diet. And, one day
in ketosis won't cut it for fat loss. With the proper combination of
ketogenic ratio, training (see last week's FAQ) and use of glucose
disposal agents (see last week's FAQ), you should hit ketosis
by late Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning at the latest.
That gives you almost 3 full days in ketosis.

b. Caloric intake is not too high. Calories should be set at
maintenance or 90% of maintenance for optimal fat loss. If you
don't know your maintenance value, shame on you. Dan explicitly
said to determine your maintenance calories before starting the
diet. Of course, I didn't either. IAE, if you don't know your
maintenance intake calorie level, use 10-12 calories per pound
of bodyweight (or 11 calories per pound of lean body mass) as a
starting point. Stay there for a week and see what happens.
If you don't lose sufficient fat, lower calorie intake a bit further.
If you're losing more than 2 lbs per week, increase calories a bit
as you will lose too much muscle losing fat that quickly.

c. You don't eat any freaking carbs. Or at least less than 30 grams per
day. This is really the most important of the three criteria
as even this few carbs (and they hide everywhere) is enough to
keep most people out of ketosis. Some may need to go as low as
10-20 grams and some seem to handle as many as 40 but don't
push your luck on this. Personally, I strive for as close to zero
grams of carbs as I can during the low carb phase.
(Which brings up another question I got: Is eating too few carbs
during the week a bad idea? Not that I can see. Ketosis is ketosis
whether you eat zero grams carbs or 10 grams carbs. However,
some carbs (I like cucumber with salt on it) may help psychologically.
A lower carb intake might lead to deeper levels of ketosis but
there's no way to know if this is indicative of greater fat loss or not.
Atkins thinks it is but Dan says maybe.)

This is one of the more common questions I get and I do not know
what the problem is. Anything is fair game as long as there aren't
carbs in it. That means: any meat, most cheeses, heavy cream,
any vegetable oil, etc, etc. No, not a particularly varied diet
but quit bitching. Dieting isn't really supposed to be fun and you
can eat for variety on the weekends. Note that many foods (hot
dogs for example) do not have nutrition labels. And, companies put
carbs in everything these days. If a food doesn't have a label, I
recommend you DO NOT eat it just to be safe. Look, go get a copy
of Corrinne Netzer's "Complete Book of Food Counts" and carry it
around with you. Memorize it if you have to. It has listings for just
about every food you might come across. Just don't eat carbs.

Some have asked me if it's ok to have a smidgen of peanut butter
or something like that. Again, as long as you're below 30 grams
carbs per day, it's fine. However, you have to be very careful
doing this. I'm the kind of person who, once I get the taste of
carbs in my mouth, I'm history. Give me a touch of peanut butter
and I'm likely to eat the whole jar, go buy another one, and eat that
too. Might even smear some of it all over my body just for the sheer
unadulterated hell of it. I basically shoot for zero grams of carbs
per day during the week and save my carbing for the weekend.
I'd rather not tease myself with a measly teaspoon of peanut butter.
I'd rather wait and have three peanut butter sandwiches on the weekend.
Preferably with very high GI grape jelly on some chewy wheat bread.
Whoops, better stop there before I get too hungry.

6. They say that caffeine raises insulin levels, can I still use the
ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin (ECA) stack?

I'm supremely tired of arguing the caffeine and insulin debate. Look,
the studies people are referring to find that, in some individuals,
caffeine intake will lead to greater insulin release if carbs are
eaten. Caffeine by itself DOES NOT RAISE INSULIN at least not
through any possible mechanism I can find. So please quit
asking. The ECA stack will definitely improve your results on this
diet. I took it and never had a problem. So has everyone else I've
talked to or coached on the diet. Yes, Atkins says no caffeine but
here's what I think happened: Some individuals are sensitive
to the citric acid (and/or Nutrasweet) in diet sodas. I think
some early Atkins dieters were drinking lots of diet soda and
couldn't get into ketosis. Atkins concluded that caffeine was the
problem when the real culprit was something else in the soda (again,
citric acid and nutrasweet seem to keep some people out of ketosis).
If you are having trouble getting into ketosis and are consuming lots
of Nutrasweet (Equal) or diet soda to stay happy, try dropping it
and doing just protein, fat and water and see what happens. You
may simply be sensitive to one or more of these compounds.

*On a similar note, someone asked me about smoking and insulin
release. Without getting preachy about any athlete who smokes,
all I can say is I think that smoking may be like caffeine in that,
if you eat carbs, you may get more insulin released than if you didn't
eat carbs. But, having not really looked into it, I can't say for sure.*

7. What doses of ECA did you take?
This was spelled out directly in the book but I'll answer it again here.
The research suggests a dose of 20 mg ephedrine, 200 mg caffeine,
and some amount of aspirin (hard to quantify just how much you need
but I've seen anywhere from 20 mg to 300 mg suggested). Dan suggests
50 mg ephedrine, 200 mg caffeine, and 81 mg of aspirin (a baby aspirin)
three times per day which is what I used. I tried taking 400 mg of
caffeine as well but didn't notice a big difference. Other than having
to buy caffeine pills (I use Vivarin) twice as frequently.

Note: Daniel Mowery, in his book "Fat Management: The Thermogenic
Factor" suggests cycling ECA 5 days on 2 days off which fits in well
with this diet. The rationale is that the adrenal glands need a break
from the stimulation of ECA. Also, clenbuterol has been shown to
lower insulin sensitivity which would affect the recarb and ephedrine
may do the same thing (being a related but weaker compound). So,
taking the weekends off of ECA isn't a bad idea. Also, ECA blunts
hunger which is definitely what you don't want when you have to eat
every 2 hours during recomposition.

->

[Lihualee]

Bump! thx !