<copied from his forum www.bodyrecomposition.com without permission, but I
wrote it, so, screw 'em!>
To recap, Part 1 recounted my one month drop from 250s/30% body fat to the
220s/20% BF. Part 2 described the extraordinary improvement in vital signs
and blood lipid values.
It's now been two months. I'm down to about 210 pounds and 17% body fat. The
rate of weight loss has slowed, as expected, since my maintenance caloric
requirement is much less at over 40 pounds lighter. To keep the same weight
loss rate, I'd have to eat less or exercise more. Eating less would affect
the protein sparing aspect of the Lyle McDonald Modified Protein Sparing
Modified Fast (LMMPSMF). I don't have the time or desire to increase
exercise right now.
As a side note, I HIGHLY recommend mountain hiking on a diet. Las Vegas is
at about 2000 feet elevation. The trails in the nearby mountains range from
9000-12000 feet. This high altitude hiking burns glycogen after a carb load
FAST, and the improvement in cardiovascular conditioning has been
remarkable. Peaks or destinations that used to take a full day slog, often
failing to get there, now take 45 minutes or so. Just amazing 🙂
As I understand it, the LMMPSMF has two goals: 1) lose a lot of fat fast
while 2) maintaining muscle mass. My extremely accurate digital scale, and
my fairly accurate calipers (I've been doing caliper measurements for many
years, and my inexpensive Slim Guides have a reputation for accuracy),
indicate that, so far, through my large loss of weight over two months, my
lean body mass (LBM) has remained at about 175 pounds...no loss of muscle
mass. So, the diet has met both goals.
A word about 5 hour carb loads. I keep very close track of weight and body
fat, and plot them on a graph. I have done carb loads only when the rate of
weight loss begins to plateau. The first month I didn't do any. I've done
three of them during the second month.
The first was ineffective. Looking back, it's obvious that I was
psychologically inhibited from eating enough. Didn't want to screw up the
diet, even though I knew I wasn't going to. I gained only one pound the
morning after the carb load. I'm 6'1" and lean at 200 pounds, so, I have a
fairly above average amount of muscle mass, with corresponding glycogen
storage capacity, so one pound gain was clearly not a full glycogen reload.
And, as expected, my rate of weight loss did not improve.
The second carb load included 15 Promax bars, a pound of cheese crackers, a
half pound of cheese-covered popcorn, and 2 quarts of Gatorade. I gained 4
pounds the next morning, burnt it off in a day, and my rate of weight loss
improved.
This past weekend's 5 hour carb load included a large box of Captain Crunch,
2 large cans of fruit cocktail, 8 corn dogs, 2 pounds of cheese crackers, 2
quarts of Gatorade, and whatever other food failed to find a safe hiding
spot. I gained 11 pounds by the next morning, but was able to burn it off in
2 days, so, it was virtually all gylcogen and water. Now THAT is an
effective carb up! And my rate of weight loss has improved, again. So, my
advice for carb loads: EAT A LOT OF CARBS!! LOTS!!!
Finally, though I, fairly, I believe, refer to it as the Lyle McDonald
Modified PSMF, I include thanks to those who contributed to the concepts
involved, in particular, Elzi Volk.
David