The Smarter Sculpted Physique: Training | Nutrition | Muscle Gain | Fat Loss

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♦ Cycle Diet Success Stor(ies): John Paul Bryce (Part II) ♦

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Scott is joined again by super-trainer John Paul Bryce, who talks about the actual diet days of the cycle diet; how he eats on a day-to-day basis along with his meal preferences. JP maintains a lean, ripped physique year-round following a whole food, plant-based diet, and consumes as many as 20,000 calories on his re-feed days.

♦ Metalbolism must be fed, not starved ♦

• Scott begins the show with a rant about “MDD”, Masculinity Deficit Disorder, a term he coined to describe to the overly "macho" attitudes seen in gyms today. There’s no need to project a bad attitude and scowl at people just because they may not be as jacked up as you.

• John Paul (JP) joins the webinar and begins describing his everyday meals. He eats a whole food, plant-based diet, which happens to have a vegan approach.

• His meals include ingredients like oatmeal, chia seeds, quinoa, chick peas, black beans, lentils, avocado, spinach, potatoes, peas and corn. He removed animal protein from his diet, but never ate much meat to begin with prior to going vegan.

• JP has always responded best to a high-carb diet; he tried keto and other fad diets, with no success. He said he felt obligated to try the various diets so he can advise his clients authoritatively. Cycle Diet works best and became his maintenance diet.

• All JP’s clients eat high-carb diets. He says clients initially have a huge fear factor toward eating carbs.

• As an ex-competitor on the bodybuilding world, JP observed that most things learned in the fitness world come through fear: fear of getting fat; fear of not making muscle gains; etc. Scott added that there’s a “sheeple” effect, where people follow vogue trends.

• Scott recounts his own exit from the professional bodybuilding world and his concern over losing his professional identity. “You can’t straddle doorways.” If you worry about losing something, you can’t open yourself up to new possibilities.

• Not many personal trainers make a great income. JP’s goal was to educate people and success followed.

• Scott and JP both note how vital listening to one’s own body is.

• External measurement has gotten out of control; hence very few know how to read their own biofeedback. “Fitness Freedom” means listening to your body and not to external cues or formulas.

• No diet strategy works quite like The Cycle Diet, which combines the discipline and sustainability of smaller, whole food meals and the enjoyment that comes with cheat days. http://thecycle.diet/

• The Cycle Diet isn’t an excuse to have cheat days or to justify binge eating.

**If you or someone you know struggles with food choices, check out the free resources at https://www.scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

♦ Find more about John Paul:

Website: http://www.johnpaulpt.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnpaulpt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnpaulpt/ or @johnpaulpt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JohnpaulPT

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Follow Coach Scott Abel

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

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https://www.instagram.com/coachscottabel

Twitter

https://twitter.com/CoachScottAbel

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♦ Cycle Diet Success Story: John Paul Bryce ♦

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Part 1 of a 2-part series. Scott is joined by Personal Trainer and Cycle Dieter John Paul Bryce, who maintains a ripped, muscular physique year-round, climbs mountains in his native Scotland for recreation, and devours a mountain of food on his cheat days.

♦ Enjoy food instead of fearing it ♦

• The Cycle Diet (http://thecycle.diet/) is all about when, why and how to use cheat days and cheat meals to optimize metabolism and stay lean year-round. It’s a lifestyle, not a diet per se that is begun and ended. It’s a sustainable, enjoyable way to eat.

• Every day, we program our metabolisms by the foods we eat.

• Your body is a smart/optimal machine, so ignoring negative bio-physiological feedback (biofeedback) isn’t a good thing. Example: “keto flu.”

• John Paul (JP) is 5'-9'', about 170Lbs, lives in the Scottish Highlands where he runs a very successful Personal Training business, and “walks” the Munro-class mountains (3000’+) for recreation.

• The Cycle Diet works for John Paul and fits well within his lifestyle.

• He divides his refeed day over two days to accommodate his Saturday’s work schedule. He eats a big cheat meal on Friday nights, then extends his refeed day through Saturday late afternoons. He returns to the healthy whole foods Saturday nights.

• Here’s what John Paul consumed on a recent cheat day:

+ Two large stuffed crust pizzas followed by a dozen doughnuts and four additional cakes with custard;

+ Eight large pancakes, 3 bananas, blueberries, maple syrup;

+ 500g ribeye steak, fries, macaroni, peas, cornflake ice cream sundae, two Argentinean pancakes with syrup and ice cream, and more mixed ice cream;

+ Small pizza and 200g box of chocolates.

• On Sundays, he heads straight to the mountain. The Munro climbing also provides a means to clear his mind and put things in perspective.

• Figuring out one’s own degree of tolerable hunger is important to the Cycle Diet.

• There are different levels of compensation mode. Some are deep into supercomp mode, like JP and Andy; others like Scott are not quite as deep.

• As a bodybuilder ex-competitor and prior to starting the Cycle Diet, JP tried all the fad diets: keto, carb cycling, IIFYM, low-carb, high-carb, and so on. All these have metabolic consequences.

• Success on the Cycle Diet does require discipline. With discipline comes freedom. Being disciplined with an eating strategy allows freedom to splurge wisely.

• John Paul eats a completely plant-based diet.

• Research continues to support a whole-food, plant dominant diet as a way to stay healthy and reduce disease.

**If you or someone you know struggles with food choices, check out the free resources at:

https://www.scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

♦ Find more about John Paul:

Website: http://www.johnpaulpt.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnpaulpt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnpaulpt/ or @johnpaulpt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JohnpaulPT

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Follow Coach Scott Abel Now

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/coachscottabel/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/CoachScottAbel

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♦ Carbs and Insulin ♦

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Scott celebrates his 100th SSP episode with a lecture on the relationship between insulin and carbs, and the success stories of two clients who’ve lost a combined 170 lbs, eating carbs-based diets and following his workouts.

Byron and Mike: real world people with real world results

• Client Byron chronicles how he has been able to lose 50 lbs. since January. Prior to hiring Scott, Byron (at 5’-11”) weighed 265 lbs. and had health problems, most notably clinically-diagnosed sleep apnea. He also tried the calorie-counting method before he sought Scott’s help.

• Scott eliminated cardio from Byron’s workout, who gets plenty of “cardio” from his job installing cabinets, and reports now having more energy. His sleep has improved since he began with Scott, and plans to have a second sleep study done to confirm his improvement.

• Byron continues to shed unwanted fat pounds. He will be back on a future episode as Scott believes Byron can be another JP, who maintains a year-round ripped physique after losing nearly 100 lbs. several years ago.

• Mike, another of Scott’s clients with a pre-diabetic background, also reports health improvements. Mike shared that after his 120 lb. weight loss, his doctor has taken him off his cholesterol medication, and his A1C has dropped below pre-diabetic levels.

About insulin and carbs:

• Insulin is an anabolic hormone, more anabolic than testosterone. It is a storage hormone – a storage hormone with “bias.”

• Insulin is not an “enemy hormone.” The body doesn't produce enemy hormones.

• Both diet and exercise have major effects on insulin sensitivity, but low-carb diet advocates promote low-carb diets to fitness enthusiasts as if they were morbidly obese.

• Research shows that: as the amount of dietary fat decreases, insulin performs better. Scott cites papers published in the Journal of Physiology, The Lancet, The American Journal of Medicine, and Diabetes.

• Like other leading modern-day ailments such as heart disease and high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes is one of the consequences of poor diet and lifestyle.

• Type 2 diabetes is almost always preventable, often treatable, and sometimes even reversible through diet and lifestyle changes alone.

• Greater than 90% of Type 2 diabetics are fat. High fat stores down-regulate insulin receptors, hence, “You aren’t overweight because you have Type 2 diabetes; you have Type 2 diabetes because you’re overweight.”

• Elevated blood sugar is a symptom from, not a cause of diabetes. Cutting carbs in attempts to reduce blood sugar is faulty logic. Scott’s client Mike lowered his A1C from 6.3 to 5.0 eating a high-carb diet, plus he lost weight.

• Insulin resistance, not insulin itself, contributes to vascular disease. “The insulin resistance syndrome together with hyperinsulinemia is likely to induce atherosclerotic changes through reduced rather than excessive actions of insulin.” Suzuki, M., et al, Diabetes 45, Suppl. 3, 1996.

• Research continues to support a whole-food, plant dominant diet as a way to stay healthy and reduce disease.

**If you or someone you know struggles with food choices, check out the free resources at:

https://www.scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

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Follow Coach Scott Abel

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

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https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

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https://www.instagram.com/coachscottabel/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/CoachScottAbel

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♦ The Training Model and Program Design ♦

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The Coach covers the basics of workout Program Design using principles taken from his book, The Abel Approach: Effort, Training Strategy, Workload Capacity, Recovery Capacity and Internal Hormonal and Biochemical Environment.

♦ True expertise is in short supply today. Popularity doesn’t equate to expertise ♦

• The Training Model is a tool used by professionals to illustrate where the building blocks for individual performance lie.

• There’s an art and science to Program Design. A collection of exercises does not make a workout; and a collection of workouts doesn’t make an effective program.

• Assessing the trainee and then designing a program for their needs is both art and science. If you aren’t assessing, you’re guessing.

• Program Design writing begins with the theme or purpose, then moves on to the structure, then the context, then whether or not (or how) to use planned performance training* or periodization. Then from that point he can determine the strategy and tactics, and finally, the elements of the program that will be variable or constant.

• Effort can be misapplied. An analogy for misapplied effort would be driving north when traveling from Canada to Florida, similar to using cardio as a warm-up for a weight-lifting workout.

• Training Strategy needs to be related to goals. "Strategy" and "Tactics" are not the same thing.

• Workload Capacity relates to how much work a trainee can benefit from, with no assessment of a client’s individual needs.

• Law of Least Eligibility: the less fit person receives the most adoptive stimulus; the most fit person receives the least adoptive stimulus.

• The SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) says that a trainee adapts to their training. So, doing fitness "bootcamp" classes conditions trainees to do bootcamp classes.

• Recovery Capacity is important, especially for the unconditioned trainee or the older trainee. Scott’s Hardgainer Solution (HGS) strongly considers recovery capacity and builds it into the program.

• Internal Hormonal and Biochemical Environment determines how a trainee will respond to training. Conditions a client might have, such as diabetes or age, factor into Program Design.

• A lack of knowledge of exercise physiology or the Training Model makes someone susceptible to falling for vogue exercise trends.

• Scott’s Hardgainer Solution uses the five principles of Program Design to target a specific type of trainee: the person who trains hard but who is slow to see gains.

Get the formatted printable workouts free at:

http://hardgainersolution.com/free/

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Follow Coach Scott Abel Now

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

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Twitter

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♦ I've Gone Vegan, You Haven't, and This Is Why That's Fine ♦

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The Coach presents reams of research supporting the health benefits of a plant-based diet and shares his own adoption of a completely plant-based eating strategy.

♦ Diet labels/memberships shouldn't define who people are. A diet is a lifestyle ♦

• Diets with labels are used to create tribalism with strict rules to follow.

• Diet lifestyle shouldn’t be a religion; nor should it define a person.

• Scott declares that he’s “Breaking Vegan,” meaning he’s eating a generally vegan diet, such as substituting black beans for chicken in one of his regular meals.

• His goal is not being lean or getting leaner -time will tell if he indeed does get leaner-, but his goal with this recent switch is rather to be as healthy as possible.

• He’s not necessarily suggesting his clients switch to his eating strategy.

• Public health organizations' position papers support vegetarian diets as healthy, as well as vegan, adding that B12 supplementation is needed for vegan diets.

• Plant-based diets help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, certain forms of cancer, obesity, and diabetes, among other diseases.

• Scott’s not ruling out eating eggs, meat or fish on cheat days. For right now, he’s content to stay with plant-based.

• By coincidence, Scott’s mentee, fitness model Andy Sinclair, has also “gone vegan.”

• Vegetarian diets are also economical. Andy shared that his grocery bill has gone down; he buys chick peas for $.88 CAD.

[Reference]

Melina, V. “Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets.” J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016 Dec;116(12):1970-1980. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.025.

http://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(16)31192-3/fulltext

**Think you or someone you know may be using a diet “label” to cover up a food or eating problem? Check out the free resources at:

https://www.scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

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Follow Coach Scott Abel Now

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/coachscottabel

Twitter

https://twitter.com/CoachScottAbel

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♦ Bad News for Fitbit and Other Calorie Trackers ♦

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The Coach shares a widely publicized recent study on weight gain, genotype patterns and insulin response that supports things he's been preaching for years about calorie counting and nutrition. The research was published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by nutritionist experts, including renowned specialist Christopher Gardner.

♦ "Stop counting calories. Stop the nonsense!" ♦

• In the study, people who ate lots of vegetables and whole foods, rather than processed ones, lost weight without worrying about calories or portion size.

• People who cut back on processed foods but instead ate healthy whole foods and didn’t count calories, lost weight.

• Weight loss success in the study wasn’t linked to people’s genetics or insulin response to carbs.

• The study suggests that diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose weight.

• Low-fat brownies and low-carb chips are still brownies and chips. Calling them low-fat and low-carb is just “gaming the system.”

• Fitbit calorie tracking and "If It Fits Your Macros" calculators; genotype (DNA) patterns, blood type and hair analysis diets, are misleading consumers by subjecting them to obey numbers and non-relevant traits.

• Health authorities should shift away from focus on calories and instead emphasize avoidance of processed foods.

• “It’s time for US and other national policies to stop focusing on calories and calorie counting.” – Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, Dean of Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

• The study didn’t set caloric limits. The subjects were encouraged to eat only as much as they needed to avoid feeling hungry; they consumed fewer calories without counting calories and were simply unaware they were eating less [due to eating whole instead of processed foods.]

• “The unique thing is that we didn’t ever set a calories or macro unit number for them to follow.” - Christopher Gardner, PhD., Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and a professor of medicine at Stanford University.

• Gardner said that the people who lost the most weight reported that the study had “changed their relationship with food.”

• Scott has long said, “[you] don’t have a problem with food and weight; you have a thinking and feeling problem about food and weight.”

[Reference]

Gardner, Christoper D., et al. "Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion." JAMA. 2018;319(7):667-679. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2673150?redirect=true

**Think you or someone you know has a thinking issue about food? Check out the free resources at:

https://www.scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

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Follow Coach Scott Abel Now!

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Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

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https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

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https://www.instagram.com/coachscottabel/

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https://twitter.com/CoachScottAbel

So, what's up with all that sugar in fruit? The Coach provides some facts to counter the hype and nonsense that fruit can make you fat.

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♦ Q&A – Ask Me Anything Session ♦

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The Coach opens the floor and takes questions from the audience about a variety of topics on physique, fitness training, diet and metabolism.

Don't be fooled by unimportant factors overstated by the industry! Well-funded research and common sense often debunk these industry misconceptions that create mass confusion.

♦ Fitness, Nutrition, Diet Strategies, Zen Mentality, and More ♦

• Scott opens with a rant about misinformation spread online about diet.

• Sometimes a good coach doesn’t change what the client is doing, if what they’re doing can’t be substantively improved.

• Scott reads two letters from listeners who answered his last week’s question: “what’s the attraction for women to compete.”

On to the Q&A

• Lower levels of consciousness are marked by need for stimulation, validation, and attention.

• Higher levels of consciousness are marked by autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

• Credible, long-term, academic research provides overwhelming evidence that a plant-based diet is healthiest.

• Aerobic activity does have health benefits, just not cosmetic benefits.

• All training is cardiovascular…not all training is aerobic.

• Functional imbalance is contextual. For instance, a right-handed tennis player will be right side dominant. Imbalances aren’t the same as side-dominance.

• Putting a child on a diet puts them on a path to a future eating disorder.

• Heart rate monitors have no value while working out (Excludes those under medical supervision, as in cardiac rehab).

• Scott discusses the research on long-term results of keto dieting and its unfavorable long-term health results.

• Unlearning is the highest form of learning (attributed to Einstein). Being objective is difficult.

• Slow-controlled reps as with tempo training misunderstands the concept of time under tension. Tempo training attempts to externally control an internal physiologic process (i.e. muscle overload).

• Diets have to be sustainable to work. Having to do a diet twice proves the point.

• Keto causes loss of lean mass.

• What are the benefits of fruit? What aren’t the benefits of fruit.

• Losing yourself in the gym is a form of meditation. Put away the cell phone and immediate distractors.

• Complex routines are [probably] nonsense. Einstein said things should be as simple as possible.

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LINKS & RESOURCES

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Get a free starter pack of resources and exercises to deal with emotional eating issues right now:

http://scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

• Follow Coach Scott Abel Now:

Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

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♦ Important Letters to the Coach Re: Competing ♦

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The Coach shares a letter from a former female figure competitor who details her struggles with weight gain and metabolic damage after trying physique competition.

This showoff event isn't for everyone; it requires some "genetic luck" to be able to sustain high levels of body abuse and often leads to serious metabolic problems.

♦ The story of a former competing woman ♦

Letter comes from a mother of three, who says she’s struggled with weight her entire life, and attended Weight Watchers religiously for 18 years. At 5’3”, started doing triathlons after her third child but couldn’t get weight to drop below 132 lbs. In addition to WW, spent two hours in gym daily. Even though she works out two hours a day and does cardio seven days a week, she continues to gain weight, even though she only eats 1400 calories a day.

A friend who competed suggested she try her trainer and competing. Personal trainers and nutritionists suggested high protein, low-carb/no-carb diets, carb cycling, and fasted cardio, tactics which led to metabolic slowdown and more serious health consequences. At one point, she was near kidney and liver failure. A doctor broke the news that her body was reacting to starvation and the solution would take a long, long time.

She never had issues losing weight until she started running then doing competitions. Scott opens the floor for discussion with his audience: What's the attraction for women to compete in figure and bodybuilding?

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LINKS & RESOURCES

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• Scott’s Featured e-Books:

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/metabolic-damage/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/understanding-metabolism/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/beyond-metabolism/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/anti-diet-approach/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/cycle-diet/

• Courses and Programs:

The Cycle Diet Program

http://thecycle.diet/

The Hardgainer Solution Program

http://hardgainersolution.com/

Great Glutes Circuit Protocol

https://scottabelfitness.com/greatglutes/

The Busy Woman’s Tighten and Tone At Home Program

http://busywoman.fitness/

• Follow Coach Scott Abel:

Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching

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• More Diet and Fitness Industry Nonsense •

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The food industry leverages diet fads to boost sales of ordinary products. This episode discusses how buzzwords and misconceptions are used to promote ordinary foods as extraordinary, and unhealthy “favorite” foods as healthy.

• “Keto” is a physiologic state, and not a type of foodstuff. •

• One of Scott’s clients sent him a photo of a bag of coffee branded as “keto”, which got him thinking.

• “Ketosis is a state of illness.” - Dr. Michael Greger. Carb-deprivation can lead to ketosis. Certain foods can contribute to ketosis, but there are no “ketogenic” foods.

Example: coffee works at burning fat by burning fatty acids and allowing for greater exertion during physical activity due to its hormonal and adrenal effects. Coffee itself doesn’t induce ketosis.

• “Keto” is just Atkins rebranded.

• Using industry logic, products like eggs, cabbage and water could also be branded as “ketogenic”.

On to diet foods...

• Diet brands frequently promote ‘the foods you love to eat’, including cookies, cake, and pasta dishes.

• Scott cites Michael Pollan, who said that, when buying packaged foods, look for fewer than four ingredients with single syllables.

Example: almonds, salt, etc.

• Fitness industry "Diet foods" have long lists of ingredients with chemical names, many of which are fillers, binders and types of sugar. It’s inconsistent for diet foods to include ingredients that make people fat to begin with.

• “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” –Michael Pollan

• Scott shares a YouTube video that argues plant-based diets promote health and that no-carb/low-carb diets harm people. The video points out promoters of no-carb/low-carb diets who are overweight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dj-Wmmt0FE (7:23 onwards)

Scott is offering free content on food and eating issues. Follow this link for starter materials:

http://scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

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LINKS & RESOURCES

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FREE content on food and eating issues:

http://scottabelfitness.com/foodissues

• Scott’s Featured e-Books:

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/hardgainer-solution/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/cycle-diet/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/understanding-metabolism/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/beyond-metabolism/

https://scottabelfitness.com/ebooks/metabolic-damage/

• Courses and Programs:

The Cycle Diet Program

http://thecycle.diet/

The Hardgainer Solution Program

http://hardgainersolution.com/

Great Glutes Circuit Protocol

https://scottabelfitness.com/greatglutes/

The Busy Woman’s Tighten and Tone At Home Program

http://busywoman.fitness/

• Follow Coach Scott Abel:

Main Website

https://scottabelfitness.com/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CoachScottAbel/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottabelcoaching