Why do you need to eat a carb-based diet to gain mass?

[JJFigure]

According to Rob Faigin, author of Natural Hormonal Enhancement, and Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, author of The Anabolic Diet re-engineered as The Metabolic Diet, cyclical low carb diets boost your natural hormonal levels, putting your body in a more anabolic state. Both authors highly recommend this type of diet for both mass and cutting phases.

 

[MS]

I dunno why you're asking this question because I suspect you prolly already know the answer! Our ancestors did OK without any high GI carbs, and some on very low overall carb diets. I think the answer lies in what kind of carbs you eat and when. It is now recognized that even the most hard-core low carbers (such as the Inuit) got a significant amount of glycogen and vitamin C from the livers of the seals, whales, polar bears and fish that they ate (RAW). Others of our ancestors that lived in more temporate climates had long hard winters as well, and hung out like crazy for the fruits of summer and autumn as well as going to incredible lengths to get stuff like honey from bee hives. To fill in their empty stomachs they ate vegetation. Overall it appears that carbs have always been sought by our ancestors, especially sugars, but these were rare and hard to get a lot of except dring short periods of plenty when we no doubt 'fattened up' to ensure reproduction and survival through the next hard time. Carb cycling used sensibly (low GI, low insulogenic ones) will no doubt be close to what our ancestors thrived on. Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, etc....seem to be addressing the hormonal benefits from a male perspective (please correct me if I'm wrong) and also use some form of carb cycling. As far as I know, women's hormonal response to a very low carb diet is different to mens. It cannot increase natural testosterone production in the same way, and will more likely increase female hormones (estrogen, progesterone etc..).

High carb/high GI diets are very tightly linked to female hormonal disorders such as PCOS, acne, hirsutism and other conditions that are directly linked to insulin's ability to increase TESTOSTERONE levels (in males AND females). Unfortunately most women (and men) also get pretty fat when their test AND estrogen levels are high. So if you want to try a high carb diet for gaining mass, I recommend some kind of antiestrogen.

 

[Manu]

MS, and what's your opinion about r-Ala?

 

[JJFigure]

I keep seeing carb-based diets offered up as recommendations for mass phases, and was wondering why...

Rob Faigin and Dr. DiPasquale didn't specifically mention the impact of cyclical low carb diets on women's hormones. I may need to send some emails to ask they address this topic in the future.

 

[MS]

Good idea to shoot them an email and get their thoughts on it. From a purely biological point of view, I would think that any diet that increased a man's natural test levels would, through the exact same mecahnisms, lead to an increase of ESTROGEN in females. From a purely evolutioanry point of view this also makes sense.....no point having all the men running around fertile if the women are not ready to fall preganant at the drop of a hat. Any changes to the HPT axis in a man that increase test will change the HPO(O=ovarian) axis in a woman. Testes produce testosterone (mainly), ovaries produce estrogen (mainly).

There are still a few traditional/primitive tribes people left on the planet. It is interesting to note many of them, such as the Hunzas, will increase a woman's rations of fats....dairy, meat, nuts etc...to prepare her for her wedding. This is to increase her fertility so that she will hopefully fall pregnant on her wedding night. They do not increase her carbs to make her fertile!

I have not had much noticeable results with r-ALA (other than dehydration). I still think it's more use for people who are already insulin resistant or who eat lots of high GI carbs (including folks on CKDs). But everyone is different so you really need to test it for yourself.

 

[Manu]

Thanks MS.