High protein, high fat, low carb diets were the norm of the bodybuilding world up until the 1980s, when anti-fat stigmas took hold in the United States, high-carbohydrate diets coming into fashion as a result.
The Anabolic Diet is just another take on these high protein, high fat diets. It features the same foods, in the same ratios, in the same amounts, with just a few tweaks here and there, like the idea of weekend carb loading.
I want to present to you another take on this type of dieting, that of Vince Gironda. When entering a muscle gain phase — NOT a “bulking” phase, which most people associate with gaining lots of fat as well — Gironda would recommend a diet very similar to what we know as the Anabolic Diet.
Vince Gironda’s trainees would have 24 to 36 eggs a day — usually all raw eggs in shake form — mixed with heavy cream and protein powder. This was his Hormone Precursor Shake, and it was consumed all throughout the day. For whole meals, one would consume a pound or two of beef, totaling two or three pounds for the day.
Every fourth day, a trainee would have one very big carbohydrate meal to replenish glycogen. Then the cycle continued. Trainees would follow this for about six to eight weeks, then back off it for a while.
If you do the math on those foods listed above, this comes out to roughly the Anabolic Diet’s recommended 55/45 ratio of fat to protein.
This is simply to show that the Anabolic Diet is not the ONLY way to diet when one is sensitive to carbs. It is just one of many ways to eat high protein and low carb. Experiment and find what works best for your body.
