More Than Anything Else...

[Nelson Montana]

In retropect...

When preparing for the NPC this spring, I think if there was ONE thing that made the biggest difference, it's wasn't the drugs, it wasn't the training. It was the diet.

You can train super hard and hit a plateau. You can take 2 grams a week and wonder why you aren't growing. (I see it all the time on the boards). But the diet...that's what makes the radical change.

Funny thing is, I'm naturally thin so you;d think just cleaning up my diet would get me ripped. Nope. Nothing. Smooth. The body adapts. And just as I can get a little sloppy and still look good, I can eat clean and not look much better.

Moral of the story -- if you want the most dramatic change, you have to be SERIOUS about your diet. I laugh when I see guys talking about eating oatmeal and brown rice. That shit is garbage. I pretty much lived on steak, salad, eggs, chicken, shredded wheat, fish and yogurt. And the lowest amount of calories I could handle. Most people eat way too much food.

It takes a lot of commitment.

I'm heading down south for the winter for a few weeks. I'll be at the beach a lot and it'll be good incentive to get serious again about food choices. If you really want to look your best, there's no getting around it.

 

[EZ_E]

Well said....it took me 39 years to realize I was over eating

 

[stevesmi]

a good rule of thumb if you go out to a restaurant is eat half what they give you and take the rest home.. people eat way too much individual portions.. start looking around and noticing the people around you and its scary how many people are overweight.. its horrible

 

[buddhabuilder]

^^^Yes^^^This year I have used the scale and the mirror to guide my carb and calorie intake, and I haven't smoothed out as much as in the past when it was just the scale.

 

[Stevewc1]

I agree with the over eating. But to say that oatmeal and brown rice is shit is in correct. I did the LA and the Excaliber and got my body fat to 4-5% and consumed 2 cups of brown rice and 2 10 oz yams a day up until the final 2 weeks before the show.
Pro body builder Paul Jean Guillaime consumed up to 5-10 cups of white rice for his Olympia prep. Flex Wheeler would eat 5 apex bars for his Olympia prep during the early 90's.
Individual genetics is the main thing here. Some guys can shred with a good amount of carbs others can not. Also factor in your age. It's a lot easier to shred up in your 30-40's than in your later 50's and 60's. skin texture alone changes and is not as tight as it once was.
There is no question people over eat, but others are blessed with better genetics and can handle carbs better than others.

 

[Nelson Montana]

I agree with the over eating. But to say that oatmeal and brown rice is shit is in correct. I did the LA and the Excaliber and got my body fat to 4-5% and consumed 2 cups of brown rice and 2 10 oz yams a day up until the final 2 weeks before the show.
Pro body builder Paul Jean Guillaime consumed up to 5-10 cups of white rice for his Olympia prep. Flex Wheeler would eat 5 apex bars for his Olympia prep during the early 90's.
Individual genetics is the main thing here. Some guys can shred with a good amount of carbs others can not. Also factor in your age. It's a lot easier to shred up in your 30-40's than in your later 50's and 60's. skin texture alone changes and is not as tight as it once was.
There is no question people over eat, but others are blessed with better genetics and can handle carbs better than others.

Irrelevant. You can eat lard and lose weight. But there's no way you can claim a starchy high glycemic nutrient vacant food is going to help lower bodyfat.

 

[Nelson Montana]

My regular bodyweight is around 195. At the show, I was at about 7% bf and I was 187. That's not a tremendous loss of weight but it made all the difference.

 

[Redam]

Thanks Montana, your post always gives all of us young guys on the boards good tips and information. Much appreciated brotha

 

[Bigal75]

I have always agreed with Nelson's philosophy on carbs. However I read an interesting article that made me think again. It makes some sense, read below:

I want to focus on the importance of carbs, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) when planning your diet.

Eating low carb or what I call “too clean” can exert the same effect on your body as fasting. This has proved to be an effective way of reducing body fat, but when trying to put on muscle, there are metabolic adaptations to chronic low-carb intake that directly interfere with muscle growth. I’m speaking specifically of a negative regulator of muscle growth called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).

Now I’m going to use a bit of scientific jargon here, but try to stay with me. The primary purpose of a bodybuilder’s diet is to facilitate if not stimulate muscle growth. Staying lean is of secondary importance to gaining muscle mass. This is accomplished
 not only by eating quality proteins, but also by supplying the body with enough carbohydrate that anabolic activity is unrestricted. Here’s how it works. With sufficient carb intake you will increase insulin levels. Increased insulin levels lead to an increase of free IGF-1 and a decrease in sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).

Decreases in SHBG increase the level of free testosterone. Binding of insulin and IGF-1 to their receptors on muscle cells activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). Further downstream, PI3K signaling causes activation of the serine/threonine kinase Akt. Akt activates mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a critical regulator of muscle growth. Carbohydrates “unrestrict” growth by suppressing AMPK activity and enhance muscle growth through this IGF-1/insulin receptor/PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. When you don’t eat enough carbs or do too much cardio, you increase the activity of AMPK within muscle cells, which directly inhibits mTOR, putting the kibosh on muscle growth.

In simplest terms, eating sufficient carbs is not just about replenishing glycogen stores. Eating carbs is mandatory for optimizing the anabolic environment within muscle tissue if you want to see real gains in size and strength.

REFERENCES : 1. S. Klein and R.R. Wolfe, Am J Physiol., 262:e631–36, 1992; 2. D.M. Thomson and s.e. Gordon, J. Appl. Physiol. 98:557–64, 2005; 3. d.m. selva et al., J Clin Invest., 117(12):3979–87, 2007; 4. R. Mounier et al., FASEB J., 23(7):2264–73, 2009.








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stevewc1]

Agreed bigal75. If you monitor your diet properly there is absolutely nothing wrong with brown rice, oatmeal and yams. It's protein sparing. I'm not saying each meal should include this when dieting, but you can have a one cup serving of oatmeal for breakfast along with protein and a one cup serving of brown rice with protein for lunch and and get shredded for a show. I've done it so I know this to be a fact. Of course you may want to deplete a week out from your show and then carb up if necessary. But brown rice, oatmeal and yams for 8 weeks of diet prep is definitely ok.

 

[Nelson Montana]

I have always agreed with Nelson's philosophy on carbs. However I read an interesting article that made me think again. It makes some sense, read below:

I want to focus on the importance of carbs, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) when planning your diet.

Eating low carb or what I call “too clean” can exert the same effect on your body as fasting. This has proved to be an effective way of reducing body fat, but when trying to put on muscle, there are metabolic adaptations to chronic low-carb intake that directly interfere with muscle growth. I’m speaking specifically of a negative regulator of muscle growth called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).

Now I’m going to use a bit of scientific jargon here, but try to stay with me. The primary purpose of a bodybuilder’s diet is to facilitate if not stimulate muscle growth. Staying lean is of secondary importance to gaining muscle mass. This is accomplished
 not only by eating quality proteins, but also by supplying the body with enough carbohydrate that anabolic activity is unrestricted. Here’s how it works. With sufficient carb intake you will increase insulin levels. Increased insulin levels lead to an increase of free IGF-1 and a decrease in sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).

Decreases in SHBG increase the level of free testosterone. Binding of insulin and IGF-1 to their receptors on muscle cells activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). Further downstream, PI3K signaling causes activation of the serine/threonine kinase Akt. Akt activates mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a critical regulator of muscle growth. Carbohydrates “unrestrict” growth by suppressing AMPK activity and enhance muscle growth through this IGF-1/insulin receptor/PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. When you don’t eat enough carbs or do too much cardio, you increase the activity of AMPK within muscle cells, which directly inhibits mTOR, putting the kibosh on muscle growth.

In simplest terms, eating sufficient carbs is not just about replenishing glycogen stores. Eating carbs is mandatory for optimizing the anabolic environment within muscle tissue if you want to see real gains in size and strength.

REFERENCES : 1. S. Klein and R.R. Wolfe, Am J Physiol., 262:e631–36, 1992; 2. D.M. Thomson and s.e. Gordon, J. Appl. Physiol. 98:557–64, 2005; 3. d.m. selva et al., J Clin Invest., 117(12):3979–87, 2007; 4. R. Mounier et al., FASEB J., 23(7):2264–73, 2009.








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I never advocated no carbs and have dismissed the ketogenic diet for that reason.
And gaining size or improving performance are separate from getting lean and cut.

 

[RickRock13]

Different people will have different a sensitivities to carbs and insulin, and everyone will require different dieting strategies. The best way for me to get lean personally is to do a high protein, moderate carb, and low fat diet. My carb sources almost entirely consist of low GI sources like sweet potatoes, brown rice, and oatmeal. I had no problem hitting 4.5% for my show with 200g carbs per day. Some may have to consume less, and some more. You just have to know your body, but I believe in pushing as many carbs as you can while still maintaining the desired rate of fat loss.

 

[Stevewc1]

Completely agree with you RickRock. Nothing wrong with low glycemic carbs, especially at 200 grams. Do you cruise this way up until your show or do you still deplete for about a week and then carb up? Just curious because some guys screw up the depleting portion and can't carb up enough and find themselves flat for the show.

 

[Nelson Montana]

Except that brown rice is not low GI. I hate to keep making a point of this, but the facts are the facts.

White rice is around 65 and brown rice is around 60 -- almost comparable to potatoes bread and pasta.

Hey, anybody can eat whatever they want, and if you can get away with it...great! But that just means you can get away with it. It doesn't mean it's good or helpful . That's what I meant.

The thing is...problems start when people think that because someone else can get away with something, they can too. Vince Taylor used to drink Coca Cola when in training. Does that mean the more Coke we drink the more we'll look like HIM? lol

I know I can get away with eating sweets and would make someone else get a gut in no time. But when it comes to getting as lean as possible, the starchy carbs should be the first to go. Not entirely -- but as much as possible.

 

[EZ_E]

Except that brown rice is not low GI. I hate to keep making a point of this, but the facts are the facts.

White rice is around 65 and brown rice is around 60 -- almost comparable to potatoes bread and pasta.

Hey, anybody can eat whatever they want, and if you can get away with it...great! But that just means you can get away with it. It doesn't mean it's good or helpful . That's what I meant.

The thing is...problems start when people think that because someone else can get away with something, they can too. Vince Taylor used to drink Coca Cola when in training. Does that mean the more Coke we drink the more we'll look like HIM? lol

I know I can get away with eating sweets and would make someone else get a gut in no time. But when it comes to getting as lean as possible, the starchy carbs should be the first to go. Not entirely -- but as much as possible.

This worked wonders for me as well...