High Fat & the Anabolic Response: In Depth look at High Fat Diet Plans!
( Smart Strategies for Dieting for Results - fitFlex Articles - Learn, Share and Discover! ) ..
Mauro Di Pasquale, M.D., makes a good case for a high-fat eating regimen in his book The Anabolic Diet, and a lot of people have gotten good results
with it. The diet can force your body to start burning more fat as fuel-both the fat you eat and bodyfat-simply because fat is the predominant
macronutrient. In most cases your body will burn what's plentiful. Using a high-fat diet for four to six weeks is one way to train your metabolism to
start converting more fat into energy, and that can be a real asset to those who have a difficult time burning bodyfat. Even so, I think the main reason
the high-fat diet is effective is its high protein content. It's almost impossible to eat high fat without eating significantly more protein.
One reason high-protein diets are so effective is that you always have amino acids available for growth and energy. That's especially important when
your calories are low. When most people diet, their protein intake drops significantly along with the calories. When that happens, your body will burn
muscle for energy if there aren't enough energy substrates in the bloodstream. Remember, the body burns what's most plentiful, and that means muscle.
If you make a concerted effort to keep your protein intake high, however, the muscle-burning effect will be thwarted. Your body will have plenty of amino
acids available, so it won't have to go to the trouble of converting muscle. Carbohydrates are a good substitute, and they also have this muscle-sparing
effect; however, a higher carb intake has a tendency to cause insulin surges, which can cause more bodyfat deposition.
Because of this, I tend to favor a high- protein diet with a little less fat and medium carbohydrates-usually 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrates
and 20 percent fat. Once again, while Di Pasquale makes a good case for a higher- fat intake, I believe it's the high-protein characteristic of the diet
that makes it so effective, not the fat. Plus, the research on the debilitating effects of saturated fat is too overwhelming to ignore.
Many people make the argument that a high-fat diet is exactly the way primitive man ate, so it's more conducive to health. Primitive man, however, spent
almost every day of his life on his feet walking, running and jumping, as he was constantly hunting for food. How many hours in the day do you spend chasing
antelope, stalking wildebeests or running from sabertooths?
Your diet should reflect your lifestyle and goals. If you have a manual labor job, teach aerobics or are simply very active every day, you can get away with
eating more fat-say, up to 35 percent of your total calories-and even tolerate a high- fat eating regimen for longer periods of time. IL on the other hand,
you sit at a desk all day and the only exercise you get is your weight-training workout three to five days a week and walking back and forth to the restroom,
you'll probably do best keeping your fat intake below 30 percent of your total calories. That's sufficient to trigger the fat-burning mechanism, as long as
you eat a meal every three hours with the proper macronutrient percentages: 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrates and 20 percent fat. Notice that the
emphasis here is on getting plenty of protein and carbohydrates for growth and recovery from your anaerobic weight-training workouts.
If you're an ectomorph, a.k.a. a hardgainer, you'll do better by upping your carbs so that your percentages factor out to 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate, 25
to 30 percent protein and 15 percent fat. A high-carb diet helps suppress cortisol, a stress hormone that can cannibalize muscle tissue. High-strung
individuals usually have an overabundance of this hormone, so a high-carb diet and over-the-counter cortisol suppressors can help facilitate the muscle-building
process. As I said above, a high-carb diet can cause the deposition of more bodyfat due to the stimulation of insulin production, but ectomorphs don't need to
worry about that. In fact, adding a little bodyfat helps fill out a skinny frame, and the muscle-boosting effects of a hi-carb, cortisol-suppressing diet will
make a little more bodyfat almost imperceptible.
If you're one of those individuals who have a tough time dropping bodyfat- endomorphs and some mesomorphs- you can try the high-fat eating regimen as outlined
in The Anabolic Diet for a few weeks to get your body on the fat-burning track. After that I suggest you switch over to a 40-40-20 approach, with five to seven
small meals a day, and a training schedule that has you working out five days a week, if possible, to stimulate your metabolism. With that strategy you'll make
great muscle gains as bodyfat melts away, and you'll be healthier and more energetic as well.
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