Summer Nutrition and Dieting

My first blog outside of myspace. Exciting. I can't think of a better way to start of my blog here with something that I am super passionate about, which is fitness and nutrition. For most of my life, I have been the chubby kid, and after years and years of working out and trying new things, I fianlly got my sh*t together and decided to dedicate this year to understanding my body.

In order to get this out, I've decided to do a diet review. From April 2009-July 2009, I followed a pretty strict, gradual calorie depleting diet. And during the month of September, I followed a diet very similar to the Ketogenic diet, Anabolic diet, or Palumbo Diet. Of course, I made a few necessary tweaks to it, and followed that instead. On with the reviews.

Gradual Depletion:
Start Weight/BF% - ~190lbs, 13%
End Weight/BF% - ~172lbs, 7%

This diet was pretty easy to follow for me. You basically start at a maintenance level of calories (15kcal per lb) based on your body weight, and decrease by about 2-3kcal per lb every 3 weeks, until you are at 10kcal per lb.
Although I was constantly starving on the tail end of this diet, I saw that as a good thing because it meant my metabolism was not slowing down at all. The fat dropped off very well, and I was able to maintain almost all of my muscle.
If I did not overtrain during the last week of my diet, due to the approach of my deadline, I would have been much more successful on this diet. I also believe that if I stuck with phase 3 of my diet for another 3-4 weeks, I would have been in contest like condition by the end of it.
I should probably also mention that I used BSN's Atro-Phex during these 12 weeks. It is a very good fat burner with no major side effects that I can remember.

Overall Rating - 4/5

Ketogenic/Palumbo/Anabolic-Type Diet
Starting Weight/BF% - 182, ~12%
Ending Weight/BF% - 181, ~10%

This diet was pretty hard to follow at first, but once you are accustomed to it, it is very easy to follow. The diets listed above pretty much say you can eat whatever type of fat you like, meaning cheese, heavy cream, etc. are all fair game. Being a health nut, I kept all of my fats healthy, so it was mainly oils, peanut butter, almonds, eggs and some avocado.
For this diet, you mainly eat nothing but fat and protein for 5 days, and have a refeed day of high carbs every 6th day.
I did this diet as an experiment to how my body would react to a high fat diet, as opposed to the typical balanced diet. I decided not to weigh myself for an entire month, so I could be a fair critic of the diet. I mainly used the mirror as my guideline.
In the end, my midsection was clearly a lot tighter and more defined, yet my weight did not drop. That meant that I was able to retain and gain more mass, while not really putting on too much fat. I was very impressed and surprised by my results. I was almost sure that I would have lost a few pounds, but I did not, and that was very pleasing.
I should mention that prior to this diet, I was consuming the same exact amount of calories, but following a 30% carb, 30% fat, and 40% protein diet. Clearly, the 60% fat and 40% protein diet was more successful in keeping me tight, but I also felt a little bit deflated.
There are days on this diet where I felt pretty lethargic, and would have insane cravings for carbs (mainly breakfast items). So mentally, this diet is pretty challenging.

Overall Score: 4/5