Nice post this supports the old Dan Duchane Body Opus program.
I use a modified BodyOpus diet and workout program and it works for me. This is the only diet I have done where I can maintain muscle mass and loose (a lot) fat.
This is what I do and it works great. I usually get to about 245 in the winter (no cardio and lax on the diet), then I use this to get ready for summer or a show. Usually end up around 225 @ 6% BF and takes me about 10 to 12 weeks. If I would just stay leaner in the off season I wouldn’t have to diet as hard.
Monday –
Diet 1600 cals a day (60% Fat/ 39% Prot/ 1% carb Ratio), 130 grams fat, 160 grams protein, less than 10 grams carbs (so only trace carbs from cheese and cream in my coffee)
Training – Half my upper body. 3 – 4 exercises for majors and 2 – 3 for minors muscle groups. All muscle groups get at least one exercise that is heavy and low rep, then the rest are mid to high rep. Cardio on this day is 30 min run.
Tuesday –
Diet - Same as Monday.
Training – Leg Day. 3 – 4 exercises for quads and 2 – 3 for hams and calves. Again all muscle groups get at least one exercise that is heavy and low rep, then the rest are mid to high rep. Cardio on this day is 30 min run.
Wednesday – I do a urine ketone check when I get out of bed. If I’m not in ketosis I use the same diet as Monday and Tuesday. If I am in Ketosis I drop some of the fat, keep protein the same and add in just a few fresh greens like broccoli, or asparagus or a roman salad.
Diet 1600 cals a day (50% Fat/ 39% Prot/ 11% carb Ratio), 88 grams fat, 160 grams protein, less than 50 grams carbs and only green veggies.
Training – The other half of my upper body. 3 – 4 exercises for majors and 2 – 3 for minors muscle groups. All muscle groups get at least one exercise that is heavy and low rep, then the rest are mid to high rep. Cardio on this day is 30 min run.
Thursday & Friday
Diet Same as the Wednesday diet.
Training – Abs and Cardio 40 to 60 min run.
Saturday (Train hard in the morning then eat carbs all day .)
Diet – 1 hour before training have about 40 to 50 grams of carbs to boot you out of ketosis. This will switch you back to running on carbs again for just a few hours so you can squeeze the last of the glycogen out of your muscle bellies. I like to have apples.
Training (first thing in the am) – Total body workout. Every body part gets high rep for 4 to 5 sets. I used to get in a rotation at the gym using every pin selector machine (like most gyms they have a machine for every body part) do one set then move to next machine with as little rest in-between as you can handle. It will take about 2 hours and you will feel like crap. Now days I have been training Strongman equipment for my total body workout. It is hard, takes about 3 hours and it is very entertaining.
Diet, Re-feed or Carb-up plan. This will start around 10 or 11 am as soon as you are done with your workout, even before you shower. Eat every 1 to 2 hours. High simple carbs but avoid fructose. The reason we avoid fructose is because it stores in the liver AND on Monday when you go back to 0 carbs you don’t want that stored in your liver as that will slow your decent into ketosis.
Meals 1 thru 4 – Simple liquid carbs (glucose) with just a bit of whey mixed in every hour. Each drink should be 1 gram of carbs for every pound of lean muscle tissue you have. So for example if you are 225 & 10% bf you will have about 202.5 lbs of lean tissue therefore these drinks should be around 200 grams of carbs, 10 to 15 grams of protein and 0 fat. So in 4 hours you are taking in 800 grams of simple carbs. Now this isn’t a ton of fun because you are getting carbs but you are not chewing anything yet. LOL! To be honest with you I NEED to chew on something so I will buy a fat free angle food cake eat just a bit of it with every drink.
Meals 5 thru 8 (every 1.5 hours) – switch to simple carb solid foods, fat free, and low in fructose & sucrose. Each meal should be about 0.75 grams of carbs for each lb of lean body mass. So using our example above each meal will be about 150 grams of carbs 15 grams protein and 0 fat if you can.
Meals 9 thru 12 (every 1.5 hours, meals 11 & 12 may end up being mid-night snacks depending on when you go to bed) Keep eating simple carb solid foods, fat free, and low in fructose & sucrose. Each meal should be about 0.5 grams of carbs for each lb of lean body mass. So now we are looking at about 100 grams of carbs 15 grams protein and 0 fat if you can.
If you add it all up for me that about 1800 grams of carbs (7200 cals) it looks like a lot and it is but it works as long as you have done the work during the week and got into ketosis. I got qualified for nationals in 1998, (wow that was 10 years ago how did that happen) using this diet. I was 228 at 5’11”. In the last few weeks I was doing about double the cardio listed above but still on conventional low fat low carb high protein diets I had to do two 90 min cardio sessions a day to get contest ready. Plus the best I could do before this diet was 215 to 220 on stage.
Sunday
Training – None
Diet – Eat a clean balanced diet of complex carbs, medium protein and low fat. Eat 6 to 7 meals. Should be around your old maintenance cals but don’t get to hung up on this day, just avoid high fat and try not to eat any sucrose or fructose. So old style dieting here works great, oatmeal, brown rice, whole grain pasta, ect
Try to have your last meal done by 6 pm, then just before bed have a simple carb drink of about 50 grams of simple (glucose) carbs. This will spike your insulin levels and start to drive out all those happy carbs from the blood stream.
This works for me, maybe it will work for you.