October 17, 2012

• What is the velocity diet and why?

  So the velocity diet is something that a supplement company called Biotest came up with to sell their supplements (in essence).  I know this and accept it.  Why?  Because it works, it’s simple, it’s sound and because I’ve done it before and know I can do it.  The principles of the diet are based on something called a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF).  Lyle Mcdonald has a book called Rapid Fat Loss that describes what I’m doing much better than I can but in essence it’s a diet that keeps protein and workouts in it so that your body will keep more lean body mass (LBM).  This is sound because muscle is the basis of your metabolism and when you transition off your diet and keep most of your muscle then your metabolism won’t be so wrecked as it is with many other crash diets (which is what leads to yo yo dieting).  Another reason why this is sound is because you are giving your body a reason to keep muscle (thru protein and workouts) you are essentially forcing it to find energy from your own fat stores.  Lyle McDonald points this out as the difference between weight loss and fat loss.  Simple works because while I do poorly when I’m giving a lot of choice I seem to do better when a program says do this and only this.  My only focus then is on doing that one thing… not trying to decide a bunch of things.

  A few major bonus of the velocity diet as I outlined in my Sunday experience is that after a whole week of eating shakes you start to crave solid food.  This is when you start to train your body to eat all the things that are good for you but you don’t eat (like veggies).  The other thing it does is it helps you eat slowly because you don’t want to scarf down your only meal of the week.  Trust me, you’ll really want to savor it.  Eating slowly is one of those things that improved satiety and digestion.  In a world where there’s a lot of conflicting information, this is one of those things that is universally thought of as a good thing. 

  Now a limitation (and a major one at that) of the velocity diet is that it doesn’t do such a good job of teaching you how to eat after the diet is over.  That’s where my experience with precision nutrition comes in with it’s simple program principles of sensible eating (eat veggies with every meal, avoid carbs except around workouts, plan your cheat days, cook your own meals, etc).  I’ve tried both programs but unfortunately I ended the vdiet with no real plan or experience with Precision Nutrition and I tried Precision Nutrition without the self control I learned from the velocity diet.  I know I might eat my words later on but I’m planning on being successful this time around.  After the 4 week strict phase there is a two week transition and I’m targeting basically breakfast and lunch as the two meals to focus on making PN compliant.  My thinking is that if I can get those two meals set up right, any mistakes I make with dinner could be covered by my workouts and if I eat right during the day then most likely I will continue that momentum into the evening. 

  This diet isn’t for everyone but I’m not doing this as a template for every person, I’m doing this for me.  I know my limitations and when my self control exhibits itself most clearly. 

  • 12:12 am
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