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st8grad
New member
There has been a ton of great advice on diets lately here from people like Tatyana and Holy G Money - and of course others. But many guys still have problems with cholesterol numbers and this is especially true on cycle.
The first thing everyone rushes to ask is what can I take to help lower the bad cholesterol (LDL) or raise the good (HDL).
The biggest problem we all have is asking "what can I take to fix it?" I am just as guilty as anyone here of doing that. The problem as I see it is actually what all of us understand as the key to success in not only bodybuilding but athletic performance and health in general - Diet.
The typical bber diet that 99% of this community holds as gospel, super high protein, high to moderate high carbs, and low fat is also mainly responsible for terrible lipid numbers while on cycle. Even more so than drugs that notoriously hurt those numbers like Stanozolol and the anti-estrogens.
I'm not going to post studies or articles to back up my comments. We are doing our bodies a huge disservice by following the long held - and false - belief that fat and saturated fat are bad for us and are not as necessary for muscle growth or athletic performance.
There is a great article in this month's issue of Men's Health - What If Bad Fat Is Actually Good For You - that does a great job of exploring the issue at least on a surface level.
Also the work by Dr Jeff Volek at UCONN is proving that athletic performance on lower or even low carb diets is comparable to, or better than, that of high carb diets.
Atkins, South Beach Diet, and Zone diet - plus many others - have shown that body composition, lipids, testosterone levels, many hormonal processes, and health and sense of well being are all improved on lower or low carb diets.
Charles Poliquin, Johnny Bowden, Casandra Forsythe, Dave Barr, and many others have also championed lower to low carb diets to improve all the above mentioned.
Athletes like NFL players, elite marathon runners, cyclists, or top NHL, NBA, or MLS players may need more carbohydrates than the average athlete, bodybuilder, or powerlifter AND much more than the sedentary individual. But that doesn't mean that we all need 300-500 grams of carbs to achieve our goals and stay healthy.
The average dude that works his ass of 4-5 days a week in the gym can EASILY get 250 grams of carbs or less per day by making sure most of that intake is early in the morning and around workout time and have PLENTY of energy and carbs for growth. 250 would even be at the high end of the spectrum.
Many guys go really low carb for a couple weeks, say they feel like shit, and then stop. But what they don't do is increase their fat to substitute for the lowered carbs nor do they give their bodies a chance to adapt to the change.
If bodybuilders are on the cutting edge of supplementation, lifting techniques, and body manipulation, they are stuck in the dark ages of nutrition. At least the dark ages that label fat as the enemy.
Take from this what you will. But anytime you see a commercial that says "when diet and exercise are not enough, talk to you doctor about Lipitor," then you really need to ask yourself, how can diet and exercise not be enough?
It's because those people are still cutting fat in hopes of cutting cholesterol.
Last February I cut my total cholesterol from 229 to 139 in two months. Triglycerides from 449 to 40! Also my HDL went from 41 to 51. All of this was due to lowering carbs - no more than 100 per day - and upping my fat to over 100g per day.
All of you that keep your fat grams to under 40 per day are fucking yourselves over for the long term.
Do the research for yourselves and keep an open mind. The proof is out there. Eat right on your cycle and we won't see anymore threads about Garlic, Pycogenol, high dose Niacin or whatever because bros HDL has dropped to ZERO.
The first thing everyone rushes to ask is what can I take to help lower the bad cholesterol (LDL) or raise the good (HDL).
The biggest problem we all have is asking "what can I take to fix it?" I am just as guilty as anyone here of doing that. The problem as I see it is actually what all of us understand as the key to success in not only bodybuilding but athletic performance and health in general - Diet.
The typical bber diet that 99% of this community holds as gospel, super high protein, high to moderate high carbs, and low fat is also mainly responsible for terrible lipid numbers while on cycle. Even more so than drugs that notoriously hurt those numbers like Stanozolol and the anti-estrogens.
I'm not going to post studies or articles to back up my comments. We are doing our bodies a huge disservice by following the long held - and false - belief that fat and saturated fat are bad for us and are not as necessary for muscle growth or athletic performance.
There is a great article in this month's issue of Men's Health - What If Bad Fat Is Actually Good For You - that does a great job of exploring the issue at least on a surface level.
Also the work by Dr Jeff Volek at UCONN is proving that athletic performance on lower or even low carb diets is comparable to, or better than, that of high carb diets.
Atkins, South Beach Diet, and Zone diet - plus many others - have shown that body composition, lipids, testosterone levels, many hormonal processes, and health and sense of well being are all improved on lower or low carb diets.
Charles Poliquin, Johnny Bowden, Casandra Forsythe, Dave Barr, and many others have also championed lower to low carb diets to improve all the above mentioned.
Athletes like NFL players, elite marathon runners, cyclists, or top NHL, NBA, or MLS players may need more carbohydrates than the average athlete, bodybuilder, or powerlifter AND much more than the sedentary individual. But that doesn't mean that we all need 300-500 grams of carbs to achieve our goals and stay healthy.
The average dude that works his ass of 4-5 days a week in the gym can EASILY get 250 grams of carbs or less per day by making sure most of that intake is early in the morning and around workout time and have PLENTY of energy and carbs for growth. 250 would even be at the high end of the spectrum.
Many guys go really low carb for a couple weeks, say they feel like shit, and then stop. But what they don't do is increase their fat to substitute for the lowered carbs nor do they give their bodies a chance to adapt to the change.
If bodybuilders are on the cutting edge of supplementation, lifting techniques, and body manipulation, they are stuck in the dark ages of nutrition. At least the dark ages that label fat as the enemy.
Take from this what you will. But anytime you see a commercial that says "when diet and exercise are not enough, talk to you doctor about Lipitor," then you really need to ask yourself, how can diet and exercise not be enough?
It's because those people are still cutting fat in hopes of cutting cholesterol.
Last February I cut my total cholesterol from 229 to 139 in two months. Triglycerides from 449 to 40! Also my HDL went from 41 to 51. All of this was due to lowering carbs - no more than 100 per day - and upping my fat to over 100g per day.
All of you that keep your fat grams to under 40 per day are fucking yourselves over for the long term.
Do the research for yourselves and keep an open mind. The proof is out there. Eat right on your cycle and we won't see anymore threads about Garlic, Pycogenol, high dose Niacin or whatever because bros HDL has dropped to ZERO.
