Since developing a working understanding of the way the body processes foods and stores fat (which is more than most professionals and fad dieters by far) I found a new challenge to tackle: how to eat well for my goals. My goals being increase lean muscle mass as much as possible without adding an appreciable amount of fat, preferably none at all. It is said that the body is operating always in one of three states, anabolic (building), homeostasis (maintenance), or catabolic (breaking down). When you are in an anabolic state, the state in which muscle is built, your body is also building everything else, bone density, organ tissue, and even fat. And therein lies the problem.
My first attempt to incorporate this information came in the form of counting calories. About this experience, I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that the process of counting calories is thousands of times easier than most people expect it to be. Just the phrase, "counting calories," strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of dieters, but in fact, I found it to be extraordinarily simple. You keep the calories low, do some basic elementary-level math, and drink a lot of water to stifle cravings.
The bad news is that counting calories to ensure your body is operating in a calorie deficit keeps your body in a catabolic state, which can be a good thing for people who have a LOT of fat to lose, but it still dangerous because in this state, the body not only consumes stored fat, but also muscle tissue, bone mass, and organ tissue. Also, some studies suggest that operating under a calorie deficit for too long will promote the "starvation response" in the body, which causes excess fat storage to prepare for future bouts of deficits.
So, yes, I did lose some fat, but I also got irritable, had a few symptoms of hormonal imbalance, and lost some of my precious muscle density and size, which, for me, is absolutely unacceptable.
Observations from that experiment led me to conclude that, in order to remain healthy, I need to operate within a calorie surplus at least half the time. From a scientific perspective, and in line with a lot of current theories, is the idea that the body flourishes in a roller-coaster pattern of calorie intake. For example, two weeks of a surplus, followed by two weeks of a deficit, will essentially boil down to two steps forward, one step back, and leave you with more muscle and less fat than when you started. This makes intuitive sense, but there have been few conclusive pieces of evidence. It warrants experimentation in the future.
My specific goals, hypertrophy (muscle growth0 with no fat, demand my body to be in an anabolic state, which under scrutiny adds up, since every extra pound of muscle added to the body increases the basal metabolic rate by up to 50 kilocalories at rest.
The real dilemma then, is the ideal diet composition, not quantity. This is understandable since during the paleolithic era, there is evidence that humans ate up 12,000 kilocalories (Calories) a day of just meat and berries, and they were ripped up, athletic, mastadon-wrestling people.
My next try-out was Jamie Lewis' (I talk about this dude a lot, right? You'd think he was my hero of something.) Apex Predator Diet. He continued the paleolithic rationale another step forward, and speculated that not only were we eating the foods available to us during that era, but that we were eating foods specific to our place on the food chain, which is right at the very fucking top.
This diet is cyclically ketogenic, which means you spend several days in ketosis, taking in 30g of carbohydrates a day or less, and then have a carbohydrate re-feed, lovingly dubbed "the rampage" that lasts three hours to replenish the body's stores of nutrients and energy and to boost the metabolism. Besides a simple ketosis-inducing meal, Jamie recommends that we eat meat mostly off the bone and organic, ensuring its healthfulness and similarity to the way we ate in that time period. He, of course, has allotted several protein shakes a day since the guy spends like four hours a day in the gym, just wrecking shit.
This diet was, by far, the most fun eating program I have ever tried. I responded very well in my workouts and programs, getting big when I wanted to, and leaning out when I wanted to, but, since at that time, I was working on the road mostly, I ate in restaurants 2-3 times a day, and no matter how manly you are, you can only handle wingstop so many times before you get ready for a change, I had begun to neglect a complete nutrient profile. I was at the whim of the road and whatever bumfuck Texas town I happened to be in. I certainly could have made this diet a lifestyle if I prepared my own food more of the time, but I hadn't yet.
And then it came time to start the Brodyssey, and I had to try something extreme, that would not only meet my nutrition and fitness goals, but also keep me healthy, and change my life for the positive.
And then I heard about Stew-roids.
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