Modern Dieting - The Use of Dietary Fat
by Cabel McElderry 1998

This year when I dieted for the Provincial Bodybuilding Championships I decided to experiment with a different dietary regimen then the normal 10% fat diet that has become world famous over these last years. This year I decided to try a higher fat diet! And now many of my clients follow a similar, but a little less strict, regimen and are having great success! So with that I thought I would try to write an article that may help others overcome their fears of eating more fat to lose fat.

I was quite ignorant as to the benefits of essential fatty acids and the inner mechanics of a high fat diet before this year, but I've always been an avid student as to learning ways to further control insulin levels in the body. I discovered early that this seemed to be the key element in successful dieting.

I began by reading a lot of the material in Muscle Media magazine. As my interest grew and my contest diet approached I realized I had a lot to learn. I then picked up a copy of Dan Duchaine's BODYOPUS. I'm a rather large Duchaine fan, though I certainly do not advocate all of his ideas for attaining the perfect body, I do, however, admire his straightforwardness. BODYOPUS was very informative and I began to employ much of what I had learned but there were some problems-that I will discuss later-so in a hunt for more information I also decided to read "Enter the Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears. It was the combination of these two books that has formed the diet strategy that I will continue to refine in my future contest endeavors and is being successfully employed by the majority of my clients.

Before I dive into the actual diet I would also like to mention another book I have found invaluable, and that is Bill Phillips, "3rd Annual Natural Supplement Review ". I use many of the vitamin recommendations from the supplement review. But I think the Multi-Vitamin, B complex, Vitamin E, and Vitamin C recommendations are especially important.

Now for the fun part!

Ok I started off following the recommendations of Dan Duchaine's "Isocaloric Diet" I split my dietary intake up as follows:

1/3 Protein, 1/3 Carbohydrates, 1/3 Fat

In his cardio recommendations he says that men only need a total of 10% of total calories of cardio work per day and women should do 20% of total calories per day. After a few weeks dieting this was the first thing I changed. On this low amount of aerobics I was making progress but it was just too slow so I then increased my aerobic activity to 2 30-minute sessions per day, 5-6 days per week.

Q: What is the most powerful hormone in our bodies? A: Insulin! Why? Because insulin determines many things, but for the moment the two that concern us the most are 1) how much muscle we build, and more importantly 2) how much fat is stored.

What happens when we eat carbohydrates? Blood sugar rises providing a new source of energy, but look a little deeper. What is the main storage places in the body for sugar/glucose? There are only two main ones, the muscles and the liver, and they don't hold a lot.

Now think of your muscles and liver kind of like the gas tank in your car, and your body as the engine. If your car's engine gets too much fuel all at once what happens? It floods right? Well our body is not that different if you give it more glucose than the muscles and liver can hold at one time then it floods too, or rather stores the excess as fat. Now wouldn't it be nice if we could have a steady supply of glucose to the muscles constantly filling them to capacity without storing any fat? Well guess what we can, and you can have more energy and be healthier and stronger. What a bargain eh?

So how do we stop our blood sugar from rising quickly when we eat carbohydrates? Well there are a few ways; some are more fun than others.

1) The easiest thing would be to eat carbohydrates that digest slower or have a lower glycemic rating, but this is not a lot of fun and not totally effective either. I don't know about you but I tire rather quickly of lentils and vegetables.
2) You might try reducing your total number of carbohydrates, which we will do to meet the 1/3 recommendation, but less carbs means less energy right? So how do we keep energy levels up?
3) You can increase your protein intake, which again we will do to achieve the 1/3 recommendation. Since protein takes longer to digest when mixed with carbs in the stomach it will slow the entry of glucose into the blood stream, but if we are going to reduce our carbohydrate intake is this still not going to leave us energy starved?
4) Uh oh, here it comes. Lastly we will bring up our fat intake to the 1/3 of total calories recommendation. How does this help us? Fat is even better than protein for slowing the entry of glucose into the blood stream, so when all three are combined we can rest assured that we are going to have the steadiest blood sugar levels possible throughout the day. Fat also solves our energy problem, as we all know, fat has 9 calories per gram as compared to 4 per gram of carbohydrates. So it should be an even better energy source, and will be once we teach our body to see it that way. The other nice thing about this diet is that when your fat intake is this high you do not need to be overly concerned where it comes form. Obviously the better your fat choices the better off you are but this way we can squeeze in some treats like: butter, peanut butter, or some oil based dressings. Heavens those aren't diet foods, are they? :

So now you know the basics of controlling insulin in your body, the above should give you a much deeper understanding of what it means to have a balanced diet. The next step is combining things in the right ratios and choosing your protein sources.

Now Duchaine's recommendations are 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 but in my own experiences I found that only 1/3 carbohydrates was just a little too low to be at all enjoyable. So this is where I adapted "the zone diet" to my plan. I adjusted my ratios to roughly:

30% Protein
40% Carbohydrates
20-30% Fat

In accordance to the zone diet, but more exactly what I used was my own adjusted scale of Barry Sears's block system. In the book "Enter the Zone" he states that you can break your meals up into a number of "nutritional blocks" a block being:

1 Block = 7g Protein, 9g Carbohydrates, 3g Fat

I adjusted this scale to:

1 Block = 7-9g Protein, 9-12g Carbohydrates, 1 ½ - 3g Fat

By adjusting the scale slightly I have found for myself and others that it provides a bit more variety and is a little easier to adapt long term.

Now the easiest way to explain how this fit's into your daily nutritional regimen is to show you an example so here goes.

The following is an example of what my nutritional profile might look like.

Total Daily Caloric Intake: 3000 Calories

Protein 30% 900 Calories 225g 33 Blocks
Carbohydrates 40% 1200 Calories 300g 33 Blocks
Fat 30% 900 Calories 100g 33 Blocks
" Remember these numbers vary as I assume a Block = 7-9g Pro, 9-12g Carbs, 1 ½-3g Fat.

So now I split my caloric intake up evenly into 6 meals 2-2 ½ hours apart. So following the block system I will have three 6 block meals and three 5 block meals for a total of 33 blocks.

Now the hardest part is to actually set up a meal plan. You will need a very descriptive nutritional value food guide and some measuring cups, or some references that are designed for this system. Once you get used to it you will see that it is very easy to estimate how much of certain foods will equal 1 block. Of course this is an advantage my clients have as they can draw from my experience and use the references I suggest to make this task easier.

The nicest thing about this system is it also eliminates the need to count calories or grams, after a while you will be able to keep track of your nutrient intake in your head. The hardest part is likely the switch from a high carb diet to a low carb diet, often our body's are not so crazy about this idea at first. What I have found works well with my clients is to have them incorporate the first and last meal during the first week and add one to two meals each following week until they have made the complete transition to the new system. I have found that this relieves some cravings and is just generally easier for them to make a long-term commitment.

In all if you are willing to give it a try you will find that you will have much more stable energy levels after a few weeks, you will likely get stronger and no doubt will get somewhat leaner whether you do additional cardio or not. :

In all this diet works simply because it tries to bring us all to an even playing field. Everyone has a certain glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, these two things play a big part in how your body develops new muscle and stores body fat. T high fat diet attempts to minimize these shortcomings by lowering insulin secretions and limiting blood sugar spikes to ensure we are only replacing the energy that we use and force our body to shift to fat as a more desirable energy source.

In all this is only a brief overview of a high fat diet and how it can help you lose body fat faster. There are many details that I have not discussed I am sure but just like you I am still, just learning.

Note: I no longer use this method of dieting, it has continued to evolve and become more efficient and effective, but none the less some of the things I have written here may still be useful to many people trying to find their own successful methods.