OK so my conclusion, thoughts and mistakes/ lessons learned thus far:
I have undoubtably gained some fat, some muscle and some strength. Mist importantly in my eyes; this is the leanest I’ve been at this bodyweight and, probably, the strongest too (I haven’t actually worked up to a 1RM on anything except the bench.
My target weight before beginning this phase was 81kg and I’ve landed right on top of that; so I’m please in this regard.
Training was extremely fun; after being on super low carb diets or Tim Ferris’ ‘slow’ carb diet the comparative intensity I could bring to my workouts was incredible for me.
Eating was fun ( although at times down right disgusting). The main reason this plan sells: eat junk and don’t get fat…
Well like I said and like you can see - I did in fact gain some fat. But considering I back loaded every night of the week save one; and considering some of the content of my back loads…
One eg. Would be 400g royal blue potatoes, ~300g kangaroo steak, 8 (fairly large) chocolate chip cookies and 1 litre of ice cream. All of this on top of a pwo shake with ~100g carbs/ 50g protein (60g dextrose and a large banana)
…I think the fat gain really is minimal, I truly did not hold back on that pwo binge.
One thing I did make sure to do was have all of carbs in one meal. I have quite an ability to just keep eating, this at least put a limit on how much I could consume.
On my off day back loads I would aim to get in some ‘healthy’ carbs, lots of fibre; pumpkin, sprouts, brocoli , cauliflower along with a load of sweet potatoes. Whether this had a negative affect on my results or not I do not know. Its just what I decided to do.
Fat intake was largely pre workout and sourced from animal fats: butter bacon, cheese even, heavy cream, and coconut oil. I did not make any special effort to avoid fats in the post workout binge. I believe this may have been one of my biggest mistakes - simply causing me to take in too many calories to keep the fat off…
Hmmm what else ( I should have planned this out before beginning to type - something else I have learned for future posts). During the first half/ ULC (‘ultra low carb’) part of the day I would always hold of eating for at least 3 hours and solely consume the recommended coffee w/ cream or coffee with small amount of whey and CO. Mist of the time I would not be eating for 5-6 hours after waking. Then I would have 1 or 2 meals depending on how I felt.
Anyway, I’m on a short hiatus currently, but when I’m back in my own territory I plan on continuing to follow the programme and keep better photo documentation.
I will also be experimenting with trying to change a few things around and see how my body responds. Namely bringing back some more clean carbs some how - the cookies and ice cream are great but my skin has got considerably worse from all the junk.
I will add any notes that I’ve forgotten as they pop into my head. But please ask any questions you may have. Although don’t expect a very scientific response. What you will get is an in biased, honest opinion of how it has all worked for me.
Maj
