Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0

Does anyone have any experience with Lyle McDonald’s Ultimate Diet 2.0? It is, in short, a carb cycling diet ranging from large calorie deficits to large calorie surplus refeeds. I plan on using it for fat loss, to finish up what has been a long successful cut. My fat loss has been slowing down considerably these past few weeks and I’ve really been fighting and grinding to get rid of these last few pounds.

I’m currently just over 170 (I’ve seen 168 real dry) at 8-9%. I want to drop another 5 pounds which should bring me to 5%. Im thinking switching to something like this might be what I need.

i’ve done it. it was the first diet that ever got me ripped, and i started at higher than recommended body fat percentage. i probably started at around 16-17% and got down to atleast 10-12%. check out my photos and you can see what 8 weeks did.

going back to low carb/calories after carbing up is pretty tough in my opinion. i also feel like the carb ups can sometimes turn into a junk fest if you’re not careful.

i really loved those carb ups though. i love eating so getting that weekly carbup was really fun. i dont think im very carb tolerant and i’d stuff my face with breads and pastas until i couldn’t eat anymore and i kept losing fat/ maintaining strength and muscle.

only problem with this was that it kind of reinforced eating alot of crap, so make sure the carbups stay clean. i’d grab some R-ALA for your carb ups to help with insulin sensitivity. the depletion workouts suck too.

oh yeah, i recommend trying some waxy maize starch for the “tension workout” (the workout that you are allowed to start introducing carbs).

take about 20gs of waxy before you’re workout, maybe some powdered bcaa if you have it and you should swell up as you workout. i got really vascular during this period. after the tension workout i would slam a big ass shake of waxy maize, later followed my high quality whey. veins popped everywhere. as soon as i introduce some sucrose i start to bloat a bit.

Thanks for the reply. I plan on having only pasta, rice, potatoes, oats and some ezekiel bread for my carb sources (I have no desire for junk right now). Im afraid that the re-feed day’s recommended carb/calorie intake is too high. Did you stay towards the higher end of the recommended intake or the lower end? How was your water intake? The waxy maize sounds like a good idea.

Hmm, I’ve looked at this before and I do love Lyle’s stuff, what’s the price tag on the book?

About $40, although theres probably cheaper ways to get it.

Elusive, in your last post, if I recal correctly, you said you where having trouble breaking you current plateau! Did you have any luck with the carb cycling at all that the boys seggested? or did you try that yet!

This program sounds lke it could be just the blitz to get you moving again tho! What are the numbers like calorie wise for the High and low days?

With a weekly carb day I managed to drop from 180-172ish. Im very lean right now, but Im not satisifed. If I can get leaner, why not. Im on day 2 of the UD2. Heres what my schedule looks like:
Mon - Tues - Wed
1,400 cals/low carb
Thur AM
1,000 cals/low carb
Thur PM - Fri PM
aprox. 6,000 cals/High Carb/low fat
Sat
2,400 cals/moderate carbs
Sun
2,100 cals/low-moderate carbs

The carb choices aren’t limited per say, but there are recommended things to avoid. Theres also specific training sessions for each day to make the diet more effective.
I’ll definitly post my progress.

Alright cool! That looks like a good program!

All the best! Im sure if you stay strick youl see the results your looking for!

Whats the cardio looking like? Is there any? Or are you just following the glycogen depleting workouts?

Cardio is not required but certain times of low intensity sessions can be benefitical and help progress. Im planning on only doing cardio thursday mornings and possibly saturday pwo.

i was on the super high end. i was taking in way more calories/ carbs than i should have been and the weight was coming off at a good rate.

if i were you i would do short low intensity cardio sessions (30 min elip or something similar) following your monday/ tuesday depletion.

i would also have a moderate cardio session on sunday to jumpstart the depletion process (i did a 30-40 minute jog)

my cals were always alot higher than they should have been on my power workout day (saturday). i wouldn’t do cardio this day, you want to maintain your strength.

get this power session earlier in the day so your calories aren’t so limited. i made sure to get really good nutrient timing this day. i even set a PR on squat.

I haven’t done the diet, but have known McDonald’s stuff for years - since the lowcarb-l days. (You either get the reference or you don’t.) He is a pioneer and I learned tons of stuff from the guy.

He is one of the few people who actually knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fat loss. The guy is tops. And if I needed a diet, he’s one of the first guys I’d go to.

Yeah, let’s find a way to cheat the guy out of his money.

Scum bag.

Its one of the best diet/ nutrition books I’ve ever read.

Do exactly what it says and I cant see how you wont get results.

It details every aspect of what to eat and how to train leaving almost nothing to chance or question.

Worth whatever he’s currently charging for it which I imagine is more than reasonable enough that you wont need to steal from him.

Just my $.02 though

Just stating the obvious. I just finished day two and the depletion workouts are HELL. Im looking forward to relaxing tomorrow.

Its Saturday morning, which means I had my refeed yesterday. I consumed 1,290 grams of carbs through out this period (30 more than I was supposed to). I don’t feel leaner today, like I read I might, I actually feel like I might be retaining a little water, im not sure. I feel “fatter”. Im going to stick to schedule and do todays workouts, taper down my carbs/calories until monday. I’ll see in a few days after I lose all this “extra weight” if my first cycle was effective.
EDIT: I’ll post some carb loaded pics in my profile.

so basically this is just a ckd right?

[quote]Dolce wrote:
i’ve done it. it was the first diet that ever got me ripped, and i started at higher than recommended body fat percentage. i probably started at around 16-17% and got down to atleast 10-12%. check out my photos and you can see what 8 weeks did.

going back to low carb/calories after carbing up is pretty tough in my opinion. i also feel like the carb ups can sometimes turn into a junk fest if you’re not careful.

i really loved those carb ups though. i love eating so getting that weekly carbup was really fun. i dont think im very carb tolerant and i’d stuff my face with breads and pastas until i couldn’t eat anymore and i kept losing fat/ maintaining strength and muscle.

only problem with this was that it kind of reinforced eating alot of crap, so make sure the carbups stay clean. i’d grab some R-ALA for your carb ups to help with insulin sensitivity. the depletion workouts suck too. [/quote]

just checked out ur pics, nice work. what workouts did u follow while on the ckd?

[quote]elusive wrote:
Its Saturday morning, which means I had my refeed yesterday. I consumed 1,290 grams of carbs through out this period (30 more than I was supposed to). I don’t feel leaner today, like I read I might, I actually feel like I might be retaining a little water, im not sure. I feel “fatter”. Im going to stick to schedule and do todays workouts, taper down my carbs/calories until monday. I’ll see in a few days after I lose all this “extra weight” if my first cycle was effective.
EDIT: I’ll post some carb loaded pics in my profile.[/quote]

to tell you the truth, i never looked my leanest after the initial carb load. i always looked the leanest right after my “tension workout” and the introductory carbs, ESPECIALLY after getting some waxy maize starch.

i would feel a bit bloated after consuming so many carbs. this also has alot to do with how much water you take in. lyle recommends taking in a decent amount of water because glycogen holds water. if you cut back your water intake, then you will look more shredded after the carbs. however, this will have a negative impact on your “power workout” because your muscles will not be sufficiently hydrated.

if you wanted to experiment, i would try cutting back your water intake on one of the last weeks of your diet, so you can see the difference.

[quote]David1991 wrote:
so basically this is just a ckd right?

just checked out ur pics, nice work. what workouts did u follow while on the ckd?[/quote]

it is a cycling ketogenic diet. lyle delves into very specific metabolic processes that occur and how to better manipulate them to achieve a lower body fat percentage. without getting too specific, my workouts were all full body. 2 glycogen depleting workouts that consisted of very high reps. 1 “tension” workout with moderate weight that is used to assist in super compensating glycogen stores, and finally a “power” workout that requires low reps and high intensity. i was actually able to get STRONGER while achieving a low body fat percentage. i may have been over trained before hand and only doing 1-2 days of near maximal weight helped, but this is just speculation.