Adelfo Cerame - IIFYM Style: Making Your Diet More Flexible & More Effective. This is How it Works for Me!

Most previous rodent studies used the equivalent of several truckloads of aspartame to make sure the rodents would develop brain cancer. A recent study is different and although those three bottle may "fit your macros", you are probably reconsidering to consume this amount of Diet Coke on a daily basis after listening to today's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Carl Lanore's Super Human Radio (tune in live at 13PM EST). No wonder Adelfo did not switch from raw milk to Coke light, but favors water and other calorie-free beverages.

It's Thursday and I have already collected a couple of topic suggestions for today's SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio (tune in live at 13PM EST) including

• the latest and for the fist time relatively convincing scientific evidence for the real-world significance of the pro-carcinogenic effects of aspartame
• oats, beta glucans, sorghum and other things that could help you stay lean and healthy
• fermented black, green and olong tea and its effects on AKT, AMPK and blood glucose
• the direct estrogenic effects of DHEA and its metabolites (including 7-OXO)
• and much more

Don't forget, contrary to Adelfo Cerame's biweekly guestposts, the show airs each Thursday live at 13PM EST. Podcast and all news Carl Lanore and I could not discuss within the one hour show will be posted 24h after in the Suppversity Science Round Up Seconds...  

What? Oh, I see you are not really interested in my jabber? You are just here to read Adelfo Cerame's latest update? Ok, here you go...

Make your diet more flexible and reward yourself with less stress and better results

Comment Dr. Andro: "IIFYM" in the original sense means "if it fits your macros", a couple of people did however transform this into the "just eat whatever you want diet", which is clearly not what I would suggest you do. And even when Adelfo writes that he is now not sticking to "your typical bodybuilder foods", those broccoli + rice + chicken breast diets are bullocks anyways. It's just as he states "moderation" and "control" are key and when you are dieting and working out you can get away with almost everything, if you don't turn to pizza and french fries as you staple foods (I guess with an appropriate caloric deficit you could still lose body weight)

Yes, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and incorporated a IIFYM style diet into my nutritional regimen but to be honest I’ve always counted macros and I’m sure the majority has too, even before counting macros was tagged with the whole IIFYM acronym. Even though I’ve always counted my macros I still shied away from your so-called “non- bodybuilder” foods and stuck to your typical bodybuilder foods. Though my variety of food choices improved immensely from the typical chicken breast, broccoli and brown rice, with more variety of fruits and vegetables and getting over my phobia of carbs, I still feared that eating your so called “non bodybuilder” food from time to time (exception for re-feeds/cheat days) would hinder progress especially during contest prep. But I’m starting to learn more and more that all foods can be a “go” if moderation is used and if you are following daily macronutrient goals.

I’m not promoting overeating (chronic surplus of calories), or an excuse to eat whatever you want but I am promoting flexibility and sanity while at the same time still being able to achieve the lean physique you want. And it all goes back to the philosophy of dieting smarter than harder. 

Obviously it’s damn near impossible to hit your daily macronutrient goals while at the same time trying to get in your micronutrients eating foods such as pop-tarts, ice cream, and bagels… It’s not going to happen! So the majority of your foods are going to come from whole “nutrient dense” foods because micronutrients are just as important as hitting your macronutrient goals.
 
What I have found works well for me is this...

• My current macros: 200g/ 200g/ 40g = protein/ carbohydrates/ fat
• Fiber Intake: 25g-50g
• Fruits: At least 1 serving/day (but I eat more)
• Veggies: At least 1 serving/day (but I eat more)

Carbohydrates: Obviously this is the macronutrient where I’m able to have some flexibility with my sources but before even considering being able to squeeze in a beer or a cup of ice cream, my first priority is hitting my fiber intake (fruits & Veggies) – The way I hit my daily fiber intake is by eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and at the same time probably getting my daily intake of micronutrients since I am eating a variety of foods throughout the day (oops I mean once I break my fast).  After all these goals are met, then I can squeeze in treats like ice cream, beer, frozen yogurt, pancakes and still stay with my daily total kcal and macronutrient goals.

Protein: Again; I’m not going to hit all 200g of protein eating ice cream – the majority of my protein sources will come from animal meats, seafood, eggs, dairy, and supplementary protein (whey, casein supps). Fats: My Fat intake is pretty much on the low end but still 20% of my total kcal. So basically most of my fat intake is trace amounts coming from my protein (animal meats, eggs, dairy…) and carbohydrates that contain trace fats and I still fit in my coconut oil as much as I can  – Sometimes I will save the majority of my fat macros so I can have a bowl of ice cream at the end of the night to help me go to sleep ;-)

Illustration 1: The practical realization of this regimen could look like this (this is just and example day); for more details check out the table and text below

Pre-workout meals:     Sample A is my typical pre-workout “go-to” staple; Whey + Coconut oil. I usually have this during my higher volume days. I’ve been noticing that on higher volume days, my body really benefits from the fats from coconut oil    Sample B is Whey + pop-tarts, I’ve been experimenting more with low fat/ higher carb pre-workout meals during my heavy/strength days, I felt that it has really given me that extra push I need in the gym during my strength days.    Sample C is basically my “on-the-go” pre-workout meal. Beef jerky and rice cakes are non-perishable and are stored in the back of my trunk, so on the days when I have to go from work to the gym… I can whip me up a shake and grab my beef jerky and rice cakes in the trunk of my car. Immediate PWO meals: I usually just stick to my whey, banana, and RAW honey for my immediate PWO meal – I find the combination of both a great PWO treat.

PWO meal: I’ve just been eating a variety of foods. Basically whatever I’m feeling… Whether it’s homemade beef Thai salad, Homemade pizza, Homemade burger or French toast; I have it but I always make sure that I have my veggies and fruits to go with it. And notice that everything is homemade. By making everything at home I can control the macronutrients of each meal – If I want to make a burger, I’ll use 97% lean meat to control my fat macros. If I want a pizza, I’ll make sure all the meat is lean, add my veggies, and make sure to measure the dough out to hit the specific amount of grams of carbs I want. Bedtime nutrition: Since my fats are so low nowadays, I had to ditch my beloved RAW milk (Raw milk will have to take a seat back until’ offseason). Most of my meals before bedtime consist of low fat dairy products such as Greek frozen yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, and string cheese and protein supps. My last meal is usually my left over macros, so I just use my macros for whatever I can think of. Usually this will be one of those items I mentioned above.

 
Again… This is just what works for me. It's based on my N=1 experience and reflects the way I have been able to make my intermittent fasting (IF) regimen more flexible.

I’m not trying to promote overeating or a chronic overconsumption of junk food but I am promoting flexibility and sanity. In my opinion, it is actually a lot more challenging, because of all the calculating I must do to count every bit of food that enters my mouth. Even my re-feeds are controlled now, and no more need of cheat days since I don’t feel deprived of much and I think this will also give me the advantage in the long run especially after the post contest rebound where the window of binging usually occurs.  Since I am eating a variety of foods and not depriving myself of anything. In the end it will be a much smoother and less fat-filled transition into the off-season.

That's it for this week. Come back on November 22nd for my next update.

2.1kg Muscle From Fast Food Supplement; No Prolactin, No Fat; Oleic Acid Counters CLA's Inflammatory Effect; Spicy Marinades vs. Salmonella; Flaxseed, Estrogen & Penis Size; TTA in the Emergency Room; Alcohol & Binge Eating

Image 1: Scientifically proven muscle builder - 2.1kg lean mass in 3 months, no post-cycle therapy necessary!

I was just about to write another one of my artistic introductions, trying to incorporate all the exciting On Short Notice news I've piled up for you into a brief narrative, when I realized that you probably don't really appreciate those introductions (I guess, I would skip them myself, so don't worry, this is more of an objective assessment than an accusation). So, I listened to my gut and decided to skip this part of this series, today, and rather spend the time to edit another item I did actually not want to post today. It's the one on the "IIFYM slightly gone wrong fast food bulk" in the Hambre study, to be precise; and I would venture the guess that you won't mind taking that instead of a longer introduction, once you've read and digested the impossible: You cannot only gain muscle with "fast food supplements", you won't even get fatter than you would if you just used a classic whey protein... oh my, I see, you are already scrolling down: What I said, I would have been wasting my time, had I written a longer introduction. But dare you, if you don't at least read the other items, as well!

• 

  Figure 1: Food intake (top, lef) and energy expenditure (bottom, left) as well as body fat % (top, right) and body weight development of the normal vs. prolactin negative mice after 14 weeks on standard chow (SC) or high fat diet (HFD; Auffret. 2012); btw: taking super-doses of vit. B6 will induce nerve damage, not fat loss!

  Without prolactin mice can't get fat! If that is true for humans as well, this would mean that Julien Auffret and his colleagues would have made a very important finding that could help us solve at least part of the diabesity pandemic, if we found a way to mimick the effects the "beigening" (=making white adipose tissue behae similar to the fact burning brown adipose tissue) effect the genetic ablation of the prolactin receptor on the fat cells of the mice in the Auffret study had on their susceptibility to diet induced obesity (Auffret. 2012).
  In particular, the scientists found that the ablation of the prolactin receptor gene in the mice results in profound increases in the expression of master genes controlling brown adipocyte fate (PRDM16) and mitochondrial function (PGC1α, UCP1), which allow - and this is the actual caveat,, here - for an inrease in thermogenesis.
  The latter, in turn, allows the rodents to burn off a major part of the fat they would otherwise store and thus keeps them relatively lean despite HFD feeding. Aside from the fact that the hyperphagic rodents on the high fat diet were still fat (there is no debating that!), you may savely assume that the effects will be way less pronounced in human beings, where 9/10 "thermogenic" agents that have been successfully tested in rodents do nothing at all, anyway. Against that background the hunger-promoting effects of the prolactin recetor ablation would suggest that it is almost as likely that a drug that block prolactin completely would make obese individiuals even fatter, since that's usually what happens if you eat more - like the mice in the prolactin (-/-) group did (see figure figure 1), without burning more.

• 

  Figure 2: Comparison of MUFA : CLA ratios in steak and mince from grass fed or conventional beef and milk from mares, sows, women (human milk ;-), goats and cows (based on Dhiman. 1999; Jahreis. 1999; McAfee. 2011); higher values indicate more MUFA per unit of CLA, but more must not necessarily be better - in fact too much MUFA could completely block the fat loss effects of CLA and thus maybe explain why it rarely works in humans - our diets are pretty high in oleic acid and thus the ratio will be much lower, than in the high dose CLA rodent trials

  Conjugated linoleic acid needs oleic acid to work without side effects. That's the main take-home message from a recent study conducted by researchers at the at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who found that oleic acid, the mono-unsaturated fatty acid from olive oil & co, does prevent the expression of inflammatory genes in adipocytes treated with the "anti-fat fat CLA"..
  So, until my friends from the supplement industry read this post and come out with yet another SuppVersity science powered product with CLA in olive oil* you simply make sure to have a spoon of the liquid gold from time to time, when you feel that you need to take CLA to burn more fat. Unfortunately, this could not just mean that you can rid yourself of the nasty side-effects as discussed in "CLA Destroys Body Fat! But at Which Costs?", but also that the "body fat destruction" will at least be ameliorated if not totally absent :-(
  * I had hardly written this post, when I browsed the web and found that a certain newcomer and as of late very succesful "yellowish green" company has already a CLA + Olive Oil + Avocado Oil combination on the market, for them this would mean that they didn't even have to change their formula

• 

  Image 2: It's funny how so many things people (or at least chefs) have been doing forever, here marinating meats, simply make sense, isn't it?

  Antibacterial marinades for your meat! Don't worry this is not yet another dysfunctional functional food that's going to make you sick, but an all-natural mixture of green tea, lemon and turmeric you will have to smear onto your chicken meat if you want to make sure to get rid of the C. jejuni and S. enteritidis it may be contaminated with.
  All it takes are 24h of "incubation", but that's nothing else than leaving your meat lying in the marinade in your fridge and thus something you would do anyway, right? That's what I would call a convenient, effective and above all totally natural and healthy way of gettting rid of Samonella and Campylobacter :-)
• Tons Flaxseed flour in your diet will increase estrogen, but won't decrease the size of your penis, well at least not visible ;-) That's probably the most straight-forward summary of the results, Ludmila Ferreira Medeiros de França Cardozo and her colleagues present in the latest issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology after analyzing the effect of a flaxseed flour containing diet on the expression of hormone levels and penis morphology of male rats (de Franca. 2012)

  

  Image 3: Flaxseed bread won't turn you into an hermaphrodite overnight, don't worry.

  While the rats that were maintained on a diet containing 25g of flaxseed flour per 100g for 250days had significantly elevated estrogen levels in the blood 39.5 vs. 32.5 pg/mL (+22%), the minor drop in testosterone did not reach statistical significance and the reduced diameter of the corpus spongiosum, which helps to maintain the urethea as a viable channel for the ejaculation was obviously no problem for the fertility, either - at least the scientist don't mention anything in this regard; unfortunately, they did not really test it, either, as the poor male Wistar rats that were abused in this experiment were bachelors against their will.
  In view of the fact that flaxseed ain't the best source of omega-3s, anyway, and there appears no other good reason (for men and women!) why you would eat them in large quantities (I am not talking about the occasional tablespoon of flaxseed, here), I would still suggest to stay away from it.

• 

  Image 4: In farm-raised salmon chronic TTA administration has been shown to improve cardiac function and immune activity; it does however also lead to cardiac growth during viral infections, so that the benefits of chronic administration are still by no means certain (Grammes. 2012a & 2012b); long-term human studies, on the other hand, are not yet available.

  Acute TTA administration soothes the flames and keeps the coronary vessel open You will unquestionably remember my previous posts about the fat burning fatty acid tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA) and how it's ability to accumulate in various tissues of your body could potentially become problematic. In the short term however, it's anti-inflammatory effects can come very handy. So handy, in fact, that the a recently published study by Pettersen et al. would suggest that we are soon going to see TTA balloons being inserted into coronary vessel walls, in order to deliver the sulfur-containing fatty acid right to an obstructed vessel that's being operated on, in order to suppress the local expression of inflammatory cytokines, as well as the subsequent macrophage infiltration and the unwanted collagen formation, which would precipitate restenosis (=further clogging) of the very heart vessel that has only just been opened operatively.
  You may now rightly ask yourself what this has got to do with you? Well, if it works locally, it could work similarly systemically and other studies such as Bjørndal (2012) do confirm just that: 0.4% TTA reduce TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in an experimental model of colitis and render the rodents guts more of less bullet..., ah, pardon, dextran sulfate sodium (DSS; a chemical used to induce cholitis) proof. The long-term effects of the continous consumption of ~3g of TTA, which would be the human equavalent of those 0.4% TTA in the rodent diets is yet still not fully established (re-read: "TTA & Fish Oil" and "TTA & Fish Oil - Revisited").

• 

  Figure 3: Alcohol overrides the inhibitory control over food intake (Chapman. 2012)

  Of TV watching, sleep deprivation and alcohol consumption, booze has the most pronounced negative effect on reward saliency and inhibitory control of food intake! That's the conclusion Colin Daniel Chapman, Christian Benedict, Samantha Jane Brooks, and Helgi Birgir Schiöth mkae based on their latest meta-review of pertinent studies from pubmed (N=23). With an impact factor of 1.03 on a scale from -4 to 4, alcohol is by far the worst the greatest effect on food intake and shows the highest correlation with obesity (Chapman. 2012).
  Compared to booze, both sleep deprivation (50% less) and TV watching (20% less) appear almost harmless. Their contribution in the non-drinking part of the population may yet still not be underestimated, also because the urge to do the latter, i.e. watch TV, when you ought tho sleep, precipitates the former and subsequent derangements in the circadian rhythm (suggested read: "The SuppVersity Circadian Rhythm Series").
• IIFYM was yesterday, ROWFYM is today, but what's going to be tomorrow? If that's all Greek to you, let me first bring you in the loop on the acronyms. While IIFYM designates "If It Fits Your Macros", implies (in the most extreme case) that you give a sh*t about what you eat, as long as you hit your macronutrient ratios for the day ("Carbs? Gimme that pizza!") and is getting increasingly popular among those who are fed up with broccoli and chicken breast and either unwilling or unable to see that those are not the only, and I would say, by far not the most healthy foods you can eat, ROWFYM is my own invention, means "Regardless Of Whether It Fits Your Macros" and would probably end up for way too many trainees in a protocol similar to the one 12 of the 24 subjects in a recent study from the Linköping University in Sweden were following for 12 weeks (Hambre. 2012).

  

  Image 5: "WTF do you want, I am doing ROWIFYM, here! That's serious bulking, man. Scientifically validated." If you want to follow his example, go ahead... but 3 months really is the absolute max and only if you are still healthy - regardless of whether the blood markers return to normal in the course of your next diet.

  While those lucky (?) twelve healthy young men (aged 19–32 years) in what I will from now on call the "fast-food arm" of the study had to add a delicious (???) fast food menu (1350 kcal, 41 g protein) on top of their diets, the other twelve participants had to contend themselves with a blatant protein shake (33g of whey) as their bulking supplement of choice. The reasoning behind this at first sight unquestionably highly questionable experiment was that the Swedish scientists wanted to elucidate, whether it would really make a difference whether you are eating "clean" (=adding a whey protein shake) or simply stuffing yourself with the next best, allegedly protein-laden fast food you can find during a 3-months bulking cycle (at least three lifting sessions per week) and the results were, ... well, let's say surprising.
  As you would expect, subjects in both groups managed to gain some weight. The first surprise is that subjects in both groups gained identical amounts of weight, namely 3.6kg. That's not all, however. Even the lean mass increases 2.1kg did not differ between the groups (measure by DEXA scans) and the sophisticated (compared to a similar calories in vs. calories out calculation) measurement of the resting metabolic rate, the scientists had conducted yielded that both groups had compensated for the overeating by a statistically highly significant (p < 0.0001!) + 10% increase in resting metabolic rate!

  

  Figure 4: Kaplan-Meier plots indicating the percentage of patients that made it to time-point X (see horizontal axes) without adverse event after their first coronary event - patients w/ (thin line) vs. w/out (bold line) metabolic syndrome (top), patients with high (thin line) vs. low (bold line) ApoB leves (bottom; based on Corsetti. 2005); ApoB turns out to be a way better risk predictor than having metabolic syndrome

  Before you do now jump into your car and head for the next drive-in "restaurant" with a big yellow "M" in front of it, you may want to take into consideration that this extended ROWIFYM version of the IIFYM approach, where you may hit the protein but overshoot on the carbs and fats (and certainly not  the good ones), did lead to statistically significant increases in fasting insulin and ApoB, a building block of LDL that has been associated with increased risk of arterial plaque formation (Gebel. 2008), compared to the "clean bulk" (= whey only) group. And while those changes (as well as the increase in RMR) were reversed on the 12 months follow-up, I am not sure if especially those people, who are most fond of bulking approaches like that, i.e. men (and very rarely women) who have been following a junk food diet for way too long already, should take the results of this study as an incentive to do a 3-month fast food bulk during the winter. After all, it could be that one additional LDL molecule that nests in the already existent arterial plaque which will eventually break the camel's, no your neck - or for those who like it more explicitly, which won't let the next mini blood clot pass by and causes a stroke, which could, in the worst case, end deadly!

That's it as far as the official On Short Notice items go, for today. If you don't have enough yet, I suggest you take a glance at the 6-10 news-items I've piled up on the SuppVersity Facebook Wall for you to review. Maybe you've read that sleeping with wife and children in a room would decrease your testosterone levels? False! Maybe it decreases the intellectual capacity of the reporter who wrote the respective news-item you may have read, but what really happens, is an increase in the amplitude of the circadian pattern with higher morning and lower evening testosterone levels (click here to read more). And if you neither have or plan to have children or don't care about your or your significant other's testosterone levels, you may be interested in a study that debunks the use of a "slim belt" for weight loss purposes, the idiotic idea to counter BPA toxicity with soy, the way working out can make depressed old people happy again, and more... ah, I almost forgot, there will also be an exercise special of On Short Notice very soon - and I am not talking about next Saturday, here - so stay tuned, it could be published anytime (Tip: If you subscribe to the SuppVersity Facebook Page you won't miss it ;-)

 References:

• Auffret J, Viengchareun S, Carré N, Denis RG, Magnan C, Marie PY, Muscat A, Fève B, Lombès M, Binart N. Beige differentiation of adipose depots in mice lacking prolactin receptor protects against high-fat-diet-induced obesity. FASEB J. 2012 Sep;26(9):3728-37. 
• Bjørndal B, Grimstad T, Cacabelos D, Nylund K, Aasprong OG, Omdal R, Portero-Otin M, Pamplona R, Lied GA, Hausken T, Berge RK. Tetradecylthioacetic Acid Attenuates Inflammation and Has Antioxidative Potential During Experimental Colitis in Rats. Dig Dis Sci. 2012 Aug 2.
• Chapman CD, Benedict C, Brooks SJ, Birgir Schiöth H. Lifestyle determinants of the drive to eat: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Sep;96(3):492-7. Epub 2012 Jul 25.  
• Corsetti JP, Zareba W, Moss AJ, Sparks CE. Apolipoprotein B determines risk for recurrent coronary events in postinfarction patients with metabolic syndrome. Atherosclerosis. 2004 Dec;177(2):367-73.
• de França Cardozo LF, Boaventura GT, Brant LH, Pereira VA, Velarde LG, Chagas MA. Prolonged consumption of flaxseed flour increases the 17β-estradiol hormone without causing adverse effects on the histomorphology of Wistar rats' penis. Food Chem Toxicol. 2012 Aug 25.
• Dhiman TR, Anand GR, Satter LD, Pariza MW. Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets. J Dairy Sci. 1999 Oct;82(10):2146-56.
• Gebel E. Meet LDL's partner in plaque. ApoB puts the "bad" in bad cholesterol. Diabetes Forecast. 2008 May;61(5):39-40.
• Grammes F, Rørvik KA, Takle H. Tetradecylthioacetic acid modulates cardiac transcription in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., suffering heart and skeletalmuscle inflammation. J Fish Dis. 2012a Feb;35(2):109-17. 
• Grammes F, Rørvik KA, Thomassen MS, Berge RK, Takle H. Genome wide response to dietary tetradecylthioacetic acid supplementation in the heart of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.). BMC Genomics. 2012n May 11;13(1):180.
• Hambre D, Vergara M, Lood Y, Bachrach-Lindström M, Lindström T, Nystrom FH. A randomized trial of protein supplementation compared with extra fast food on the effects of resistance training to increase metabolism. Scand J Clin Lab Invest. 2012 Aug 30.
• Jahreis G, Fritsche J, Möckel P, Schöne F, Möller U, Steinhart H. The potential anticarcinogenic conjugated linoleic acid, cis-9,trans-11 C18:2, in milk of different species: Cow, goat, ewe, sow, mare, woman. Nutrition Research. October 1999; 19:10. 1541–1549.
• McAfee AJ, McSorley EM, Cuskelly GJ, Fearon AM, Moss BW, Beattie JA, Wallace JM, Bonham MP, Strain JJ. Red meat from animals offered a grass diet increases plasma and platelet n-3 PUFA in healthy consumers. Br J Nutr. 2011 Jan;105(1):80-9.
• Murali N, Kumar-Phillips NS, Rath NC, Marcy J, Slavik MF. Effect of Marinating Chicken Meat with Lemon, Green Tea and Turmeric Against Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens.International Journal of Poultry Science. 2012; 11(5): 326-332.
• Pettersen RJ, Salem M, Rotevatn S, Kuiper KK, Larsen TH, Bohov P, Berge RK, Nordrehaug JE. Effects of local delivery of Tetradecylthioacetic acid within the injured coronary vessel wall. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2012 Aug 30.
• Reardon M, Gobern S, Martinez K, Shen W, Reid T, McIntosh M. Oleic Acid Attenuates trans-10,cis-12 Conjugated Linoleic Acid-Mediated Inflammatory Gene Expression in Human Adipocytes. Lipids. 2012 Sep 2.

Adelfo Cerame: Simple Recipes to Go With a Sensible Diet. A Practical Follow Up on the "Beach Ready Program"

Adelfo's latest pictures... believe it or not - after the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger ;-)

With the last installment of his blogpost series here at the SuppVersity in the back of your heads, you should actually have a decent idea of how to train and split your macros to get "beach ready" in time. There is yet one thing of enormous practical importance that did remain somewhat in the dark. Where do you get those macros from? As Adelfo did of course point out, you are supposed to put a primer on whole foods, but I guess few of you will be happy with eating everything raw out of bag you carried with yourself home when you did your groceries at the farmer's market, supermarket or wherever you like to buy your foods... Are you the gal/guy who still feels that "healthy eating" equals downing blunt chicken breast, tuna and rice an nibbling on rice cakes as a "cheat"?!

Then today's follow up on Adelfo's highly popular "Adelfo Cerame's Beach Ready Program: A Blueprint to Shed The Winterfat in Time. Sample Workout + Diet Guide" from April, 18 2012 is for you and there is little for me (=Adel) to do, but lean back and have you enjoy Adelfo Cerame's cookery & nutrition class ;-)

Simple recipes to go with a sensible diet…

Now that you've got an idea of your daily overall energy requirements (depending on your goals) and the corresponding macronutrient goals, that you have internalized that you are supposed to prioritize protein and fiber in all of your meals and have - hopefully - finally realized that all foods are “OK” to eat - including those that contain carbohydrates! You don’t have to deprive yourself any more of certain foods because they are deemed evil.

My off-season macros

• Kcal: 2570
• Fats: 45-55g
• Carbohydrates: 250-300g
• Protein: 190-220g
• Fiber: 25-55g

Vegetables + fruits: At least 1 serving of both per day (and that doesn’t mean one cherry tomato!)

My current goals: Packing on lean muscle (off-season)

If you approach your nutrition with balance, moderation and consistency, you will be succeed - whatever your goals may be and no matter how long it takes!

I will take my own current dietary intake as an example to illustrate how to put all these important principles into practice. A sensible and above all flexible approach to what is - in my case - an off season diet.

I have outlined my current macro-nutrient intake as well as a handful of stats and my current goal in the infobox on the right hand side of this paragraph. It's advisable that you write a similar "primer" for yourself, especially when this is the first time you are dieting this way. This help you stay accountable and combine foods in a way that will allow you to "hit your macros" and grow, lose fat and/or increase your performance (or whatever other goals you had in mind, when you came up with the "rules") - for me the net result of this process looked like that:

• This was my food log from yesterday
  
  Meal 1 – Pre-Workout Meal/ Macros: 24g fat/ 51g carbs/ 44g protein/ 5g fiber
  
  
  
  I was out meeting with a client at a local coffee shop and by the time it was over I realized that it was time for me to train in an hour or so. So I knew that I would be caught for time and wouldn’t have time to cook, so I stopped by the nearest fast food spot and grabbed myself a jr. bacon cheeseburger that I knew would fit within my macronutrient goals for the day… went home and made myself a quick protein shake and grabbed an apple to go with that as well, along with my multivitamins, fish oil and vitamin D3, so still prioritizing protein and fiber and getting in my serving of fruit when breaking my fast. (don’t let the cheeseburger fool ya!) And it’s off to train I go!
  
  Meal #2 Post-Workout meal/ 20g fat/ 142g carbs/ 68g protein/ 11g fiber 
  
  
  
  After my workout, I was having the urge for some loco moco (it’s a Hawaiian dish) it’s pretty simple to make but can be pretty fattening if you order from a restaurant, so I made my own so to make sure that I would stay within my fat intake for the day. Your traditional loco moco dish uses white rice, burger patties, whole eggs and brown gravy – the only adjustments I made was using a leaner burger patty (96/4 extra lean) and used brown rice instead of white because more fiber in brown rice (again… prioritizing fiber!) I also threw in 200g of mixed greens on the side so I can get my serving of vegetables for the day as well ;-)
  
  Meal #3 before bed/ 7g fat/ 104g carbs/ 78g protein/ 22g fiber
  
  
  
  By the end of the night, I pretty much hit my goals for getting at least one serving of fruit, at least one serving of veggies and the majority of the 25-55g of fiber listed in the info-box a couple of paragraphs above.
  
  The only thing I had left to hit was my protein intake and that’s usually pretty easy - if nothing else, you just grab a protein shake or quest bar.
  
  Once I hit my goals for the day I usually use the rest of my energy allotment for the day to eat I have left in the fats and carbs department from whatever I feel like on a given day.
  

So at first glance, especially with the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger I ate pre-workout…. You’re probably thinking ...

"WTF?! He eats like shit!!!"

An overview of my macronutrient intake for the day - de facto intake vs. goals.

But hold on there kemosabe… If you look below at my totals I stayed well within my macronutrient goals and hit more than enough fiber for the day.

In the end you will have to concide that "my approach" definitely has it's beauty, right? After all, I ate the foods I wanted, just as long as I stayed within my goals for the day.

Ah, and in case you're asking yourselves "What happened to the intermittent fasting? Didn't Adelfo follow an IF routine so successfully?" I still incorporate an intermittent fasting meal protocol into my regimen, because I love having my big Viking style feasts!

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Bonus: Adelfo's recipe of the week

Before signing off, I leave you with the recipe to one of my favorite post-workout meals. I call it the “Ahi Tuna Bacon Sashimi Bowl” – don't worry it sounds complicated, but is in fact very simple to make:

Healthy food does not have to taste blatant, it does not have to be difficult to prepare and it does not have to consist of chicken, broccoli and rice only. Adelfo's Ahi Tuna Bacon Sashimi Bowl is an excellent example, but by no means the only delicious and healthy food you can prepare in no time even if you are no Michelin-starred chef.

Ingredients (*):

• 10 oz. sashimi grade wild caught Ahi Tuna
• 1 strip of center cut bacon
• 400g of mixed greens (romaine, spinach, herb, slaw…)
• 2 (85g) baby beets
• 100g of sliced roma tomatoes
• rice wine vinegar, Ponzu sauce, Sriracha sauce
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil, sesame seeds

• Directions: (1) Throw in all your greens in bowl (2) Pour some rice wine vinegar and ponzu sauce with the mix and toss (3) Layer the baby beets and diced tomatoes on top of the greens (4) Layer the sliced and diced ahi tuna next (5) Sprinkle the bacon that you fried and cut into pieces (6) Pour your tbsp. of sesame oil on top of everything (7) Top it off with sriracha hot sauce and sesame seeds (8) Eat (9) Wash it down with a shot of sake and a cold Sapporo ;-)

*These portions are based on my macronutrient goals for the day, so measure accordingly to yours… and shot of sake and glass of Sapporo is optional ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - 11 Days Out & Looking Back: 2012 vs. 2013, Things I Made Different & Things That Made a Difference

2013 ain't 2012: Different diet, different training, different macros, different physique... different placing!?

I am not sure if all of you read yesterday's SuppVersity Exercise Science Quickie, but those who did have probably already told their boss that they don't need an extended lunch-break today to listen to the "Thursdaily" 1PM EST installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio. My voice did recover somewhat within the last 24h, but after a hefty dose of NAC I am now sniffin' and snortin' 24/7 - probably not exactly what you want to hear, I guess.

What you want (at least I'd suspect so) to read, however, is Adelfo's last blogpost before he is making his third and imho by far best-conditioned and thus promising attempt on winning his pro-card at the NPC Wheelchair Nationals on March 16, 2013... ah, I guess, I'd better let him tell the story... enjoy!

Roughly 11 days out & looking back

I am approximately 11 days out from CJ’s NPC Sunshine Classic & Wheelchair Nationals in Palm Beach, Florida, where I will try to make another attempt at trying to win the overall and possibly earn my IFBB pro card for the wheelchair division. So far I feel great! My food intake is high, my energy is up and I’m very confident that I have made all the right moves, adjustments and improvements this year to put myself in the best possible position to take it all down this year ;-) I joined a great team in 3DMJ, and am being mentored by a great coach in Alberto Nunez, who is a seasoned and experienced bodybuilder.

So, let's recap a couple of key features of this to previous ones....

As I reflect on this years contest prep/ bodybuilding season, I thought it would be interesting to compare notes from last years season to this year.  

Nutritional Regimen - Which "diet" have I been following?

• 2012 = IF (Leangains)

• 2013 = IF (Leangains) + IIFYM (flexible dieting)

From a physiological perspective,  125g of carbs per day shouldn't be a problem for any non-diabetic - even if he/she does not work out (learn more)

In 2012 I followed an intermittent fasting meal protocol using a 16h to 8h fasting vs. feeding window. This year I used the same IF meal protocol (since I found success with it last year and it’s a protocol that works with my daily life schedules) but combined it with a flexible style of dieting that is also known as the acronym IIFYM "If It Fits Your Macros".

As I mentioned in previous posts, I don't abuse the IIFYM paradigm to stuff myself with all sorts of junkfood, my diet is still mostly clean, but the leeway it gives you is refreshing and takes away a lot of stress related to picking, preparing, packaging etc. foods (see next point, i.e. Food Choices, as well).

Food Choices - What type of foods have I been eating?

• 2012 = Stuck to your so called “clean foods”  

• 2013 = I am not depriving myself of any type of foods; I’m eating what I want but use a 80/20 to 90/10 ratio of whole “nutrient dense” foods to processed foods, or what you would call “junk” food but I don’t like the word junk so I call it “fun” foods ;-)

Last year; even though I started to veer away from the whole “eating chicken breast and broccoli and brown rice” mentality and began to broaden my horizons in eating more variety of whole foods, I still basically stuck to your so called "clean foods" and I was just in the beginning phases of getting over my phobia of carbohydrates since I consider myself coming from a high fat/ low carb camp for almost 2 years on a dietary regimen that was more or less identical to the "anabolic solution diet".

So yes, even though I was eating a greater variety of lean meats, fruits, veggies, fats and whole food carb starches like tubers, I still deprived myself of foods like bread, oatmeal, grains, cereal because I still believed that they were evil, when it came to a body composition standpoint or even just when it came to general health.

Believe it or not, but the quote on the left, is actually from Adefo's very first post, here at the SuppVersity.

However, as you all know if you’ve ever read my very first Blog here on Suppversity and I’ll quote from it:

"My diet and training methods have evolved and will continue to keep evolving, because of my willingness to keep an open mind and apply and experiment with new strategies, methods and philosophies to my diet and training" - me

(Yes! I just quoted myself! Hahaha!)  And that’s exactly what I did, I kept an open mind and gave IIFYM a shot just like I gave “IF” a chance last year, and guess what?

It all worked out for the greater good because the combination of an IF meal protocol combined with a flexible method of dieting has really taken me a step closer to that goal of finding a perfect diet that I can convert into a lifestyle and do long-term. Like I mentioned before… A diet should be able to synergistically co-exist with your daily life and social schedules, and is something that you can convert into a lifestyle and do long-term  - that's fundamentally different from a "dietary intervention", under which you can easily subsume all the fad, single-sided and unflexible dietary regimen that work in the short run, but have you plateau before you even see your abs.

Training - Which type, how much and how intense was my training regimen?

• 2012 = Low volume/ high intensity – cardio was non-existent

• 2013 = hypertrophy/ strength split using an RPE scale – cardio was all throughout prep

Last year the majority of my training was very low volume/ heavy weight. My training consisted of 5x5 and EDT’s and reverse pyramids. The highest rep range I ever flirted with was 6-8. This year, I’m doing a split between hypertrophy and strength training using an RPE scale, and I would say the majority of my workouts would fall into the high volume category by common standards.

Does rest matter? Study finds 7-9% greater increase in muscle size w/ decreasing rest periods (learn more).

The main difference this year was the frequency of hitting the muscles and using just a handful of exercises as my staple and improving on them.

Last year I barely did any cardio except for probably the last 4 weeks of my prep to try to expend a little bit more energy but that was it. This year I incorporated a cardio regimen all throughout my prep... but to be honest: it was very easy – I started the first 2 to 3 weeks with none, then Alberto eventually prescribed 2x cardio session per week for 9 laps each session around a track. I completed those at a self-chosen until a couple o weeks ago, when he reduced the volume by 50%

As you may imagine this type of cardio regimen really wasn't a big issue... nothing compared o my previous HIIT sessions, for sure. I still feel that the additional laps on the track allowed me to keep my food high via carbohydrates -- and if I've learned one thing from this prep, then it is that the higher you can keep your carbs up while dieting the more beneficial it is for your physique.

Calories/ Macros - How much did I eat at the beginning of the prep?

Caloric zigzagging? (Re-)Read Adelfo's guest post "How I Break My Fast, Plan & Time My Macros and Use Caloric Zigzagging & Re-Feeds on a LeanGains Inspired IF Regimen" and learn more!

• 2012 = eeehhhh…??? around 1700/ 2000 kcal. (non-training/ training); 55-7g5 fat/ 150-200g carbs/ 150-200g protein (non-training-training) – skiploading style re-feed (basically eat as much high GI carbs as you can while keeping fat intake as low as possible.

• 2013 = 1960 kcal w/ a re-feed day 1x/ week;  40g fat/ 200g carbs/ 200g protein – 300g carb re-feed

Last year I experimented with caloric zigzagging, so my calories were higher on training days with a higher carb/ low fat intake and my calories were lower on non-training days with a higher fat/ low carb intake. And I didn’t start incorporating refeeds till later towards my prep or until I got lean enough to feel comfortable doing refeeds. This year I stayed consistent with my numbers and just had one re-feed day – so I had low days and one high day

Calories/ Macros - How much did I eat towards the end?

Adelfo has already written about the beneficial effects of a higher carb intake on your physique in a previous post onThursday, January 31, 2013: "Intermittent Carbohydrate Modulation as a Stepping Stone Towards an Anatomy Chart Physique"(read up on the article)

• 2012 = 1300/ 1600 kcal (non-training/ training days)
  50-60g fat/ 50-100g carbs/ 150-190 protein (non-training-training day) – skiploading style re-feed

• 2013 = 2305 kcal w/ a re-feed day 1x/week
  50g fat/ 240g carbs/ 200g protein – 325g carb re-feed

Last year I floated around sub 100g of carbohydrates for about the last 11 weeks of my prep and this year I started to gradually increase my food intakes 5-6 weeks out. I used weekly 25g increments (I’ll explain the process of how I started to bring my food later before I wrap up my blog)

With regards to my re-feeds; it was a bit more controlled this year compared to last years Sunday carb feasts I use to have. My fats this year were also on the lower end but still 20% of my total calories and I feel that this was another of the decisive factors that contributed to the clear improvements in my physique - with the low(ish) fat intake, I simply had way more room for carbs in my diet.

Comparison of Adelfo's pre-contest physique 2012 vs. 2013 (photos (c) Adelfo Cerame. 2012-13)

Well that’s all I got for today! I hope you enjoyed the notes PrimalKid ;-) but before I sign off, as I said I would; here’s a brief overview of how I started to gradually bring my food up to where it’s at now.

At about 6-5 weeks out is when coach Alberto started to gradually bring food back up via carbs but prior to that I was on about a  2 ½  week intensive dig of 100g/ day, then we increased 25g (125g) for about a week and a half, then increased another 25 the next (150g), then increased by 50g (200), then increased by just 25g last week (225g)  and now increased by 15g this week (240g)… Oh and fat got increased by 10 somewhere during that week. lol.

But yeah… Coach Alberto felt that my body was lean enough for carbohydrates to start having a positive stimulating effect on my physique, and that my body was more capable of partitioning carbohydrates much more efficiently now that I am leaner.

Adelfo Cerame - After the Holidays: Energy Intake, Macros, Supplement & Training Regimen +Science Round-Up Preview

Neither the "high" carb intake nor the holidays did any harm to Adelfo's physique - on the contrary!

Things always seem to happen, when you least expect them. Actually I had today's SuppVersity post - a follow up on yesterday's post on the "anabolic" response to cardio before and after workouts almost ready, when "the bell rang" and Thunderbird told me that I had a new email from nobody else, but "Your's Truly" Adelfo Cerame Jr and if you were not already staring in awe on his "post Christmas" conditioning in the image on the right, I guess his would be the moment to write: "I can tell you folks you will be amazed about what you are about to see" ;-)

Since you are already seeing, I will briefly squeeze in the obligatory preview on the Thursdaily SuppVersity Science Round-Up which is going to start - as usual - on 1PM EST (live on Super Human Radio).

Even scientists go on holiday (or is it just the publishers?)

Unfortunately the week in between Christmas and New Year saw even less interesting publications, so that this is actually the first time, I did not have to throw out 50% of the potential news... but I guess that's not really of interest to you, so let's see what we've got

• Our weekly caffeine news: A closer look at MOA of the fat loss effects of caffeine
• Ghrelin the hunger hormone? Who would have thought that it's anticatabolic?
• More on exercise and hunger: There is no way - Taubes was/is/will be wrong.
• Building muscle in the sauna? Heat, stress & muscle hypertrophy
• Exercise and BCAA complement each other

If my estimations are correct there will, at best, enough time to discuss some more general things about protein supplementation and answer important questions such as how much protein can you absorb from meats, eggs, shakes and so on in an hour and how will that affect your net gains?

But enough of the previews, now: Let's hear and see what Adelfo Cerame Jr has to tell and show you after his intermittent "SuppVersity guest post fasting". On a side note: Just in case you belong to those people who still believe that Adelfo = Adel (this is me) = one person <= this is not the case, everything that follows is, if anything, edited and put int the right format by me, but it's written by Adelfo. On he other hand, everything else except Adelfo's now bi-weekly guestposts is penned by one and the same author, which is me - alright? Alright ;-)

Happy belated Christmas and Happy New Year’s SuppVersity readers. 

I know I have been missing in action for a while and I probably will be for the next 3 weeks, until I finish my final term for school, then I’m finally done! So I’m going to keep this short and sweet and give you guys a brief update on how contest prep has been going…

13 weeks down, and 11 more to go!

So far my prep has been going great, even better than last year. I feel I am very much ahead of schedule compared to last year. My body has responded well to the higher amount of carbs I’ve been taking in this year. The response is in fact so fabulous that I have even had to go below 150g of carbs, yet. Coach Alberto has been fluctuating me from 150g-200g, and he only drops them to 150g when he wants to dig deep for a few; and then bring them back up. Or as he would say, throw deep for a few plays, and then go back to playing conservative again.

Adelfo looks the way others would love to look "pre-contest", only days after Christmas and New Years Eve.

My training also has made a big difference in my physique. The higher volume, workload and frequency of my muscles being trained has really brought up my physique especially in my problem area - the lower back, where I can really start to see the muscles come out and start forming a Christmas (very timely, isn't it?). This is the depth in my back that I’ve been wanting to achieve for a while, so I’m hoping for it to really start coming out within the next month or so.

As for my diet…

Just in case you are wondering what my numbers are looking like…

Diet protocol:  IF + IIFYM (intermittent fasting + if it fits your macros)

• Macros - Regular days:
  Fats: 40g / Carbohydrates: 150-200g / Protein: 200g
• Macros - High days (refeeds):
  Fats: 40g / Carbohydrates: 225-300g / Protein: 200g

• Fiber: 25-55g/day Fluids: 2.5 liters/day

Supplements: Multivitamins, fish oil, vitamin D3, Creatine, and BCAA’s
maybe a pre-workout supp from time to time

...no major changes to my training regimen as of yet

Hypertrophy + Strength training split (kind of like P.H.A.T.) using an RPE scale

You can read up on the details of the RPE plan in my previous blogpost "Complete New Routine + RPE Training Principles Explained".

Otherwise, that's it for today. Just as I said, it was going to be brief but once school is over I will be able to focus and contribute more to my Thursday blogs ;-)