Anabolic diet foods

There are diets that do not aim on the weight loss alone. Primary goal of some diets is to loose body fat and to gain muscle mass. These diets are targeted on bodybuilders.

One such diet was developed by former power-lifting world champion (1976 title winner) and medical director and drug program advisor for the World Wrestling Federation, NASCAR medical review officer, holder of a medical degree and honors in biological science, Dr. Mauro Dipasquale.

Bodybuilding by diet, is it possible?

The bodybuilder diet devised by Dr. Dipasquale, also known as the anabolic diet, is so unorthodox that it goes against everything what most people know about nutrition. It was devised as means to avoid use of drugs typically connected with bodybuilding, such as steroids. So this diet is not high protein high fat diet, nor is it the clone of Atkins' protein power plan. Its goal is to naturally evoke maximal production of anabolic hormones, such as testosterone and growth hormone in the body, as well as to maximize insulin levels.

Grounds on which this diet rests is carbohydrate depletion during weekdays and carbohydrate overload on weekends. In other words, this diet consists of five days of high protein, high fat, low carb meals and two days of high carb, medium fat and low protein meals. Such diet promotes abundance of mentioned hormones, which are related with high muscle growth with occasional burst of insulin levels triggered by a high carb diet.

Prejudice away

Most people will think that it is bad to eat fats if goal is to loose fat. Why add even more? This opinion is wrong on so many levels that it is almost unbelievable. It is actually the excess carbohydrates (that normally serve as primary muscle fuel, in form of glycogen) that are stored as fat. Virtually everybody consumes more carbohydrates than needed, hence all those obese people in a world of low fat fat-free food.

On the other hand, fat first needs to be digested (which costs some calories) and then reconstructed from base components obtained from digestion to become fat again (again, more calories are spent on this). It actually costs calories to make fat from fat.

In terms of metabolism, goal of this diet is to switch body from using carbs to using stored (and eaten( fats as energy source. This is achieved by planned carb/protein/fat intake ratio. Anabolic hormone level boost is another beneficial effect.

Anybody can use this diet in order to loose fat and gain muscle, not just bodybuilders. It should be noted that it is best to follow this diet with adequate exercises and training program in order to obtain desired results.