I know that some of the clients involved in the last experiment have already posted results in a couple threads but I wanted to get a thread up and explain what I saw throughout this last experiment in my own words.
First, the experiment was pretty simple in that I wanted to play with two things:
1. adding fat into the Skipload
2. using a reverse pyramid type of approach to the dieting
Most that know me, or have followed what I have had to say for a while now, will know that I always like to play with new ideas and experiment or try out new approaches to things. For the last show I did over the summer I did both of these things and they worked very well so I wanted to see if it was just me or if it would work for others, as well.
For starters, I got the point early on in my prep that I was running an all day Skipload and I didn't really want to start the night before with the load at something like 15 weeks out. I just felt that was too far out and wasn't comfortable losing that one day of weight recording (my weight would be up due to starting the load the night before). So, I decided to add in some fat to the load and it not only kept my load inside of one day for many more weeks but it seemed to not only work just as well but possibly was working even better as the weeks progressed. I was seen by a fellow prep guy at a popular burger restaurant 3 weeks out and while he was talking to me in the parking lot after I had killed 3 burgers, he kept looking at my legs and arms wondering why I had worms all over me. lol He didn't ask if I was competing because ... well ... he just saw me kill off 3 very large burgers and he knew the show was only 3 weeks later. When he saw me backstage at the show we all got a good laugh and his exact words were "only Skip could pull off something like this".
Second, I did something that I really didn't plan on doing at least consciously. I started the diet very low in calories and not eating any vegetables, at all. The only real reason that I did this was because I just couldn't stomach the meals at first and was absolutely stuffed and the vegetables made me gassy. So, I started at only about 3 or 4 meals and added calories as I got hungry as the weeks passed.
So, I thought I would try to start the calories low and build into them over the weeks like I did because it worked very well. I pretty much increased calories to the point that I was eating about 3 times as many calories at the end of the prep as the start and I was easily Skiploading with 3 times as much food and probably even more than that. This is called feeding the metabolism. Yes, I increased cardio but this prep I only did about 1/4 of the cardio that I have done in the past though I did use cardio cycling.
So, this was the approach that I used for the experiment. How did it work?
Mixed reviews. I mean, it worked across the board but to different degrees. Some had stellar results and others had great results and some had so-so results. I would say that by and large most people had great or stellar results but I couldn't put my finger on why some had only average or so so results, either. I can't say that everyone should have had incredible results because it won't usually work that way but it bothers the shit out of me when I can't put my finger on why, when it doesn't work as well as I would like it to.
Clearly, there are issues of execution that can play into it and there are metabolic issues that could have been in play before I even started working with a few of these clients but in the end, if I am being honest, there were a few people that got only average results.
The hardest part of this for the client? The scale weight not moving much. This REALLY was a tough issue for some because when most people diet they want to see the weight go down and it really didn't go down much. What was happening was that they were changing their body composition which is great but ... our brains still like the black and white of the numbers changing and when they aren't, it isn't easy when you hear your nutritionist say that everything is fine and you are still progressing when you can't see the black and white numbers changing.
After time, most came around to understand it and accept it after they saw obvious changes about 2 months into it. The changes for some of them were just too obvious to deny.
I think the only catch to doing this type of approach is you have to be good in your head with the scale not moving much and you have to use other ways to gauge progress like calipers and tape measurements in addition to pics and the scale. If you only rely on the pics and the scale, good luck.
If any of the experiment clients want to chime in, feel free. I had a good time working with the bunch that joined in for this experiment and it is always great to get that feedback that what I thought would happen, actually did happen and was consistent for the majority of the others.
Skip
First, the experiment was pretty simple in that I wanted to play with two things:
1. adding fat into the Skipload
2. using a reverse pyramid type of approach to the dieting
Most that know me, or have followed what I have had to say for a while now, will know that I always like to play with new ideas and experiment or try out new approaches to things. For the last show I did over the summer I did both of these things and they worked very well so I wanted to see if it was just me or if it would work for others, as well.
For starters, I got the point early on in my prep that I was running an all day Skipload and I didn't really want to start the night before with the load at something like 15 weeks out. I just felt that was too far out and wasn't comfortable losing that one day of weight recording (my weight would be up due to starting the load the night before). So, I decided to add in some fat to the load and it not only kept my load inside of one day for many more weeks but it seemed to not only work just as well but possibly was working even better as the weeks progressed. I was seen by a fellow prep guy at a popular burger restaurant 3 weeks out and while he was talking to me in the parking lot after I had killed 3 burgers, he kept looking at my legs and arms wondering why I had worms all over me. lol He didn't ask if I was competing because ... well ... he just saw me kill off 3 very large burgers and he knew the show was only 3 weeks later. When he saw me backstage at the show we all got a good laugh and his exact words were "only Skip could pull off something like this".
Second, I did something that I really didn't plan on doing at least consciously. I started the diet very low in calories and not eating any vegetables, at all. The only real reason that I did this was because I just couldn't stomach the meals at first and was absolutely stuffed and the vegetables made me gassy. So, I started at only about 3 or 4 meals and added calories as I got hungry as the weeks passed.
So, I thought I would try to start the calories low and build into them over the weeks like I did because it worked very well. I pretty much increased calories to the point that I was eating about 3 times as many calories at the end of the prep as the start and I was easily Skiploading with 3 times as much food and probably even more than that. This is called feeding the metabolism. Yes, I increased cardio but this prep I only did about 1/4 of the cardio that I have done in the past though I did use cardio cycling.
So, this was the approach that I used for the experiment. How did it work?
Mixed reviews. I mean, it worked across the board but to different degrees. Some had stellar results and others had great results and some had so-so results. I would say that by and large most people had great or stellar results but I couldn't put my finger on why some had only average or so so results, either. I can't say that everyone should have had incredible results because it won't usually work that way but it bothers the shit out of me when I can't put my finger on why, when it doesn't work as well as I would like it to.
Clearly, there are issues of execution that can play into it and there are metabolic issues that could have been in play before I even started working with a few of these clients but in the end, if I am being honest, there were a few people that got only average results.
The hardest part of this for the client? The scale weight not moving much. This REALLY was a tough issue for some because when most people diet they want to see the weight go down and it really didn't go down much. What was happening was that they were changing their body composition which is great but ... our brains still like the black and white of the numbers changing and when they aren't, it isn't easy when you hear your nutritionist say that everything is fine and you are still progressing when you can't see the black and white numbers changing.
After time, most came around to understand it and accept it after they saw obvious changes about 2 months into it. The changes for some of them were just too obvious to deny.
I think the only catch to doing this type of approach is you have to be good in your head with the scale not moving much and you have to use other ways to gauge progress like calipers and tape measurements in addition to pics and the scale. If you only rely on the pics and the scale, good luck.
If any of the experiment clients want to chime in, feel free. I had a good time working with the bunch that joined in for this experiment and it is always great to get that feedback that what I thought would happen, actually did happen and was consistent for the majority of the others.
Skip
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