>Todd Moody wrote: >The basic idea is to overfeed for about two weeks, then restrict >calories for two weeks, thus doing a rapid cycle "yo-yo" diet. >The theory is that during the anabolic phase you gain muscle and >fat, and during the catabolic phase you lose muscle and fat. But >by limiting each phase to two weeks the net result is gaining a >bit more muscle than you lose and losing a bit more fat than you >gain. The cumulative result after a series of cycles is an >increase in one's muscle:fat ratio. It's one of those ideas that just doesn't work. It sounds great on paper, but it rarely works in real life. The idea to use shorter 2 week cycles of massing alternated with 2 week cutting cycles has been around for a long time. Bill Phillips made it famous by creating his own personal variation in his b.s. supplement review guide. The people who love this sort of diet are the supplement manufacturers. It allows them to suggest a 2 week massing phase where the trainee would be requirred to take whey protein, creatine, meal replacement shakes, glutamine, androstendione, creatine, etc. In the cutting phase, they would suggest thryoid products, thermogenic formulas, among others. John Parillo also has written about weight cycling. For natural trainees, this is a horrible idea. Lyle McDonald found that out when he porked up heavily and then cut back down - in his website, he refers to it as "how to waste a year." The only people who weight cycle and can add and drop weight easily are those using performance enhancing drugs. Q: Why did Lyle lose so much muscle when he had to diet for a long period of time to cut-up? A: B/c he trained naturally. Why does Ronnie Coleman (the current Mr. Olympia) not lose muscle when dieting? A: B/c he increases his doses of steroids and hGH by about 30% when dieting. The added anabolism cancels out the catabolism produced by reduced calories and excessive cardio. This just isn't an option for the average natural trainee though. >That's the theory anyway. I don't know if it works, and I >haven't tried it myself. It doesn't work, and it would spell disaster for natural trainees. If anyone says they got results from such an unorthodox, unscientific program, then they were either doing something seriously wrong before or they're a liar. Usually it's the latter - performance enhancing supplement manufactures are compulsive liars. Don't get me wrong, some of the supplements are good: multis, flax oil, cod liver oil, creatine, but 99% of them are a waste of money. >Anyway, tweaking this into a paleo format, it seems to me that >one might do high-carb paleo during the anabolic phase, along >with high-intensity strength training; then do strict ketosis >during the catabolic phase, along with low-intensity aerobic >exercise. I think the evidence suggests that the 2-week rule is >a ceiling value, but one could make the cycles shorter. That is, >supposedly after two weeks of overfeeding one is gaining mostly >fat and little muscle; after two weeks of underfeeding one is >losing more muscle than fat. It sounds good, but it just won't work. I've seen countless bodybulders (both chemical users and naturals - and I mean the ~real~ naturals) and countless dieting strategies. If we're talking about dieting naturally, then this just isn't going to work. Plus it's going to be difficult to grow accustomed to eating so much food, and then have to eat so little for 2 weeks. Going back and forth from eating large amounts to small amounts of food is very hard to do. That's why most naturals just eat maintenance calories and they add muscle w/o adding fat. Some of the expert bodybuilding writers explain that muscle can't be added w/o above maintenace calories, and that simply isn't true for natural trainees. On a side note, I recently visited Lyle McDonald's website. Has anyone else noticed how his views have changed?! For the first time in his life, he looks pretty damn good. For a natural guy with average genetics he's built a respectable body. Q: How did he do it? A: He threw out the book on the "expert" approach and found what works for him to get cut. Justin Hasselman