Hi all,

Thought you might be interested in my progress...

7/28/2002
Weight: 191
Boday Fat: 13.8%
Lbs of fat based on 13.8%: 26.358
Lbs of LBM based on 13.8%: 164.642

8/2/2002
Weight: 187.8
Boday Fat :12%
Lbs of fat based on 12.0%: 22.536
Lbs of LBM based on 12.0%: 165.264

However I think the gym scale is slightly low (still it's a good ego boost :-) ) - Caliper measurements put me at around 13.0 (although I'm still learning on how to best use them)

Good progress though.

On a different note - does anyone feel guilt on the carb up days? Like "I've worked so hard all week and now I'm screwing it up?"

Ok,

Question about supplements -

Vanadyl - Lyle McDonald mention that he takes this on Sunday and Monday to dorp blood glucose levels - Zeus mentions taking it during the carb up?

Am I correct in my understanding that vanadyl moves glycogen and body sugars FROM the blood TO the muscles? Thus on high carb up it would be supplying them with the continuous carbs u are eating? And when entering low carb it removes the rest of the blood sugar to cause ketosis?

And what does ALA do?

I bought some ripped fuel extreme as well - as the hydroxycut seemed to be interfering with things last week....

Thanks your responses,
Steve

I feel you on the guilt thing, I have this creepy guilt cluttering the back of my head. I cant help but think I am just throwing away all the hard work

Although I will say that after about 24 hours of carbing (6 ultra fuels and some pancakes) I do feel... well.. huge :-) In a good way. My arms are like friggin tree trunks.

Although I will say that forunately for myself I've never really been a huge carb eater. Pasta was never really my thing, I've always liked meat better. Which of cours makes the week easier. Although I do like toast for breakfast - Ah well eggs are fine and bacon rules!

Anyone care to comment on my carb up so far?

After workut yesterday... 1 Ultra fuel immediately after workout

BTW The ultra fuel has 400 cals and 100 g carbs

Another one an hour or so later mixed w/ protein. 1/2 a bottle 2 hours later.

some pasta in a red sauce. The other 1/2 of the bottle.

That was it last night.

Today: Pancakes (Low-fat) with maple syrup. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with whole grain bread. 2 Ultra fuel (One mixed with protein).

I took Vanadyl and ALA today - Should I be mixing these?

Tonight I will have 2 more ultra fuel and some pasta. Tomorrow morning some rasin bran in the morning and then back to Low carb after that (I don't wanna have fat spillover in the first weak, rather slowly increase the amount of carb up time than overdo it the first week and get discouraged).

Vanadyl and ALA help cells absorb glucose from blood, yes. There are quite a few papers you can find on Medline on this. Personally for me they never helped getting into ketosis faster, but ALA in particular helped during the carbup - minimizes water retention and fills the muscles better. However, it took me quite a bit of it to see that effect - circa 2 g/day split into 400-500mg dosages 30-min before meals. Also note that at the time I was carbing with all sorts of rubbish and now I seem to do just as well without ALA on better carbs (dextrose).

I'm very interested to see if you find any differences in how quickly you get into ketosis by using Ripped Fuel Extreme. The added ingredient is forskolin, and apparently helps inducing ketosis if all other conditions are right (i.e., no liver glycogen, etc). I have a very hard time getting into ketosis to any detectable degree, but a dose of RFE can make them show up. It may very well be that it's just a false reaction of the sticks to forskolin or it's metabolite, but anyways, interesting stuff...

Vanadyl sulfate and chromium are both practically worthless. Alpha Lipoic Acid is the only 'carb-load' supplement even worthwhile. Maybe 'HCA' ... (I'm not completely 'anti-HCA') ... for certain (specific) reasons.