On Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:38:03 -0600, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I haven't read the Faigin book. Could you summarize the key points? Is 
> Faigin leery of saturated fats?

It's pretty hard to summarize a book so chock-full of ideas. He
self-published to avoid editorial evisceration of his ideas. I'd
strongly recommend his book. "Natural Hormonal Enhancement"

Saturated Fat:
He considers saturated fat healthy IF you are not out-of-kilter
with your insulin-glucagon balance. In other words, if you're insulin
resistant and eating loads of carbs, he considers saturated fat
harmful. In fact, he calls the high-carb high-fat meal a
"fat conveyor belt" taking that fat directly to storage because
insulin is high.

He considers monosaturated and omega 3 fats healthful for
everyone, and considers low-fat dieting harmful for
everyone.   (He's also against calorie-counting
semi-starvation diets.)

Food Choices:
He favors the paleo approach in his chapter "You Can Learn
A Lot From An Ancient Warrior".

Carb Cycling:
Down-cycle (low-carb) days:
15-50 gr protein per meal (depending on body size, activity level, etc.)
"moderate" fat, both monosaturated and saturated
30-60 gr carbs per day, not more than 25 gr in any meal, and avoid
  sugars in favor of starches and some high-fiber high-water-content
  fruits (HIFWAC) such as apples, berries, peaches, etc.

Carb-load days:
Before the carb-load meal, which is always the last meal of the day:
15-50 gr protein per meal
"moderate" fat both monosaturated and saturated
< 30 gr carbs

The carb-load meal itself:
< 20 gr protein
< 20 gr fat
> 60 gr carbs (men), > 40 gr carbs (women); you can have more as you wish.
  Carbs should be at least 70% starches, the rest as HIFWAC fruits, avoiding
   sugars.

For body builders, the change is that their down-cycle days are a max of
30 gr carbs, and their carb loads are in excess of 100 grams. Body
builders can use the last two meals of the day if necessary to get enough
carbs in.

Cycling:
The carb-load meals should come on days 3 and 7, i.e. 3 days, then 4 days
between. Carb-load is NOT a license to eat whatever you like: i.e. not
ice cream, not pizza, not cookies, which are all high-carb and high-fat, in
other words the "fat conveyor belt". Carb-load is a careful meal, high in
carbs, low in fat and protein.  If you're in the habit of buttering all
your starchy carbs, you need to watch out.

People who are "sugar-burners" (whose diet is high in carbs, high insulin,
etc.) should go through an induction week of very low carbs, then start
the cycling. Meat, fat, non-starchy veggies only. You'll feel like....,
well, you know if you've done it. But it passes in a few days, and
you are converting to being a "fat-burner". Being a "sugar-burner
deprived of sugar" is a very uncomfortable state, and you want to get
past that as quickly as possible.

If you fall off the wagon and eat carbs day after day after day, then
you may need to go through the induction phase again to get back to
being a fat-burner.

He's got another book on exercise: "Hormonally Intellingent Exercise".

This is just the barest introduction to his ideas.  I hope I have
represented them fairly.

Lynnet