ringholm
April 23rd, 2004, 04:33 PM
If you arrived at this thread, and havent read the abcde post, this is the link:
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=3514&page=2
During the discussion here, I made references to a Norwegian website, whose article I have now translated.
Here's the article, translated from Norwegian. English is my second language, so you'll just have to bear with my inevitable translation errors:
[EDIT: This is a quoted article, and does not necessarily reflect my meanings about exercise and nutrition, so it's unnecessary to point out anything you might not agree with.]
MY EXPERIENCES WITH THE ABCDE DIET
Last year, I searched the net to find information about exercise and nutrition etc. After a while, I ended up at the predecessor of iform.no, "trenhardt [exercise hard]". There I found an article about the abcde method. I found this very exciting: Here I was with the opportunity to bulk at least 5 kgs [11 pounds] [NOTE: all metrics as of here converted to imperial] in a few weeks. At last, I too would put on some meat. Since that time, I've read a lot about exercise and nutrition, and I see that I was a bit naive to believe everything I was told about the abcde method. 11 lbs in a couple of weeks was much harder than I thought. But, I'm not saying that the abcde method is ineffective, in fact I thought it worked well even though I didn't gain as much as promised.
One usually starts with a 12 day bulk. Here, you're supposed to consume calories equal to (bodyweight * 11) + 1500. In my case that amounted to a daily 3230 calories. The macronutrient breakdown of these calories is of no significance, according to Akerfeldt, the creator of abcde. For me, this meant a very high intake of junkfood and gainer. 3230 calories may not sound very high for many, but I felt constantly stuffed, and was sick to death of food after 12 days.
Day 13: The cut, which is a twelve day starvation. Multiply your bodyweight with 7 to find your daily calories, which in my case amounted to 1150. This was extremely hard for periods. My mouth watered with desire for food at the smallest of temptations, and the McDonalds commercials were torture. I ate a lot of whole-wheat bread and fruits during this period, and I could feel my waist shrinking inside my pants. My abs were also gaining noticeable visibility, which was extremely motivating!
I experienced the real change during my second bulk. My body wanted every piece of nutrition it could get, and the scale reflected this. My muscles gained visible size over the course of a few days, I gained a lot of strength, and my motivation to continue skyrocketed. In fact, it felt as though I had a constant muscle pump. Great!
According to Akerfeldt, shocking the body in ths way will increase the production of testosterone and insulin. Originally I was a bit skeptic as to whether this theory was in fact correct, but after a few weeks of abcde I was a believer. In fact, I noticed that my pubertal acne returned and my chest gained some fatty deposits, both typical pubertal problems. I am now 23 years old.
During the bulking phases I usually ate 5-6 meals a day. The weight training was done in the evening. I trained hard, with 4-8 reps, and 2-3 sets on each exercise. I did 2-3 exercises for each muscle group. On
Monday, I did chest, triceps and shoulders. Thursdays were legs and abs day, and on Wednesdays i did biceps and back. I always keep the duration of my workouts below 1 hour. This is because after about 1 hour, you will not be able to utilize glycogen deposits anymore, as they will be empty. What's important is therefore to refill with quick carbs immediately following workouts. Lots of people use glucose, but I use gainer carbs. This is not only true for abcde, but for any kind of weight training regime.
During the cutting phases I tried to eat lots of small meals, even though they were miniscule in size, but this becomes a habit over time. Before breakfast I always went for a walk or jog. I did it before breakfast because then, the body's glycogen deposits will be empty and the body will use fat reserves for energy. But, be careful not to train too hard, as the body will turn to your muscles for energy. I preferred 1 hour walks at an 110-120 bpm [heart] pace. 30 minutes after the morning exercise I ate breakfast. It doesn't matter if the breakfast is a little big, as it's the day's most important meal after all. In the evenings, I did some light weight training. A lot of people would probably not recommend cardio and weight on the same day, but I found it to work well for me.
Supplement-wise, gainer was most used. It was mainly used during the bulk as an intermediate meal, and immediately following workouts. I tried creatine as well, but to be honest I'm a little bit disappointed with this supplement, as I've never really had any great results with it. Lots of food seems to be the only thing helping me. During the cutting I didn't use any supplements in particular, but I used a little caffeine in the morning to burn a little extra fat. It actually worked. You can either buy caffeine pills at a pharmacy or drink a cup of black coffee. Both work equally well! I also know that lots of people use a little whey mixed with water before the morning exercise. This is to prevent muscle loss. It's probably not a bad idea, but I didn't try it, so I can't really tell.
I logged my abcde phases, and this is how it looks. You'll have to take the bf percentage with a pinch of salt, because it's measured with a formula which uses abdominal width and weight. I've measured my bf with calipers later on, and it seems to be a good match with the table, but not 100%. This is how my log looks:
END OF TRANSLATION
Here is the table column description again, from left to right:
Date
Calorie intake
Calories burned in exercise
Weight (in kilograms, multiply by ~2.2 to get lbs)
Left arm circumference (in centimeters, multiply by ~0.4 to get inches)
Right arm circumference (centimeters)
Left leg circumference (centimeters)
Right leg circumference (centimeters)
Chest circumference (centimeters)
Abdominal circumference (centimeters)
Body fat percentage
It took a while to translate, so I really hope this proves useful!
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=3514&page=2
During the discussion here, I made references to a Norwegian website, whose article I have now translated.
Here's the article, translated from Norwegian. English is my second language, so you'll just have to bear with my inevitable translation errors:
[EDIT: This is a quoted article, and does not necessarily reflect my meanings about exercise and nutrition, so it's unnecessary to point out anything you might not agree with.]
MY EXPERIENCES WITH THE ABCDE DIET
Last year, I searched the net to find information about exercise and nutrition etc. After a while, I ended up at the predecessor of iform.no, "trenhardt [exercise hard]". There I found an article about the abcde method. I found this very exciting: Here I was with the opportunity to bulk at least 5 kgs [11 pounds] [NOTE: all metrics as of here converted to imperial] in a few weeks. At last, I too would put on some meat. Since that time, I've read a lot about exercise and nutrition, and I see that I was a bit naive to believe everything I was told about the abcde method. 11 lbs in a couple of weeks was much harder than I thought. But, I'm not saying that the abcde method is ineffective, in fact I thought it worked well even though I didn't gain as much as promised.
One usually starts with a 12 day bulk. Here, you're supposed to consume calories equal to (bodyweight * 11) + 1500. In my case that amounted to a daily 3230 calories. The macronutrient breakdown of these calories is of no significance, according to Akerfeldt, the creator of abcde. For me, this meant a very high intake of junkfood and gainer. 3230 calories may not sound very high for many, but I felt constantly stuffed, and was sick to death of food after 12 days.
Day 13: The cut, which is a twelve day starvation. Multiply your bodyweight with 7 to find your daily calories, which in my case amounted to 1150. This was extremely hard for periods. My mouth watered with desire for food at the smallest of temptations, and the McDonalds commercials were torture. I ate a lot of whole-wheat bread and fruits during this period, and I could feel my waist shrinking inside my pants. My abs were also gaining noticeable visibility, which was extremely motivating!
I experienced the real change during my second bulk. My body wanted every piece of nutrition it could get, and the scale reflected this. My muscles gained visible size over the course of a few days, I gained a lot of strength, and my motivation to continue skyrocketed. In fact, it felt as though I had a constant muscle pump. Great!
According to Akerfeldt, shocking the body in ths way will increase the production of testosterone and insulin. Originally I was a bit skeptic as to whether this theory was in fact correct, but after a few weeks of abcde I was a believer. In fact, I noticed that my pubertal acne returned and my chest gained some fatty deposits, both typical pubertal problems. I am now 23 years old.
During the bulking phases I usually ate 5-6 meals a day. The weight training was done in the evening. I trained hard, with 4-8 reps, and 2-3 sets on each exercise. I did 2-3 exercises for each muscle group. On
Monday, I did chest, triceps and shoulders. Thursdays were legs and abs day, and on Wednesdays i did biceps and back. I always keep the duration of my workouts below 1 hour. This is because after about 1 hour, you will not be able to utilize glycogen deposits anymore, as they will be empty. What's important is therefore to refill with quick carbs immediately following workouts. Lots of people use glucose, but I use gainer carbs. This is not only true for abcde, but for any kind of weight training regime.
During the cutting phases I tried to eat lots of small meals, even though they were miniscule in size, but this becomes a habit over time. Before breakfast I always went for a walk or jog. I did it before breakfast because then, the body's glycogen deposits will be empty and the body will use fat reserves for energy. But, be careful not to train too hard, as the body will turn to your muscles for energy. I preferred 1 hour walks at an 110-120 bpm [heart] pace. 30 minutes after the morning exercise I ate breakfast. It doesn't matter if the breakfast is a little big, as it's the day's most important meal after all. In the evenings, I did some light weight training. A lot of people would probably not recommend cardio and weight on the same day, but I found it to work well for me.
Supplement-wise, gainer was most used. It was mainly used during the bulk as an intermediate meal, and immediately following workouts. I tried creatine as well, but to be honest I'm a little bit disappointed with this supplement, as I've never really had any great results with it. Lots of food seems to be the only thing helping me. During the cutting I didn't use any supplements in particular, but I used a little caffeine in the morning to burn a little extra fat. It actually worked. You can either buy caffeine pills at a pharmacy or drink a cup of black coffee. Both work equally well! I also know that lots of people use a little whey mixed with water before the morning exercise. This is to prevent muscle loss. It's probably not a bad idea, but I didn't try it, so I can't really tell.
I logged my abcde phases, and this is how it looks. You'll have to take the bf percentage with a pinch of salt, because it's measured with a formula which uses abdominal width and weight. I've measured my bf with calipers later on, and it seems to be a good match with the table, but not 100%. This is how my log looks:
END OF TRANSLATION
Here is the table column description again, from left to right:
Date
Calorie intake
Calories burned in exercise
Weight (in kilograms, multiply by ~2.2 to get lbs)
Left arm circumference (in centimeters, multiply by ~0.4 to get inches)
Right arm circumference (centimeters)
Left leg circumference (centimeters)
Right leg circumference (centimeters)
Chest circumference (centimeters)
Abdominal circumference (centimeters)
Body fat percentage
It took a while to translate, so I really hope this proves useful!