It's a TOUGH diet. And it isn't for everyone (dependent on what they do for work, lifestyle, and what not). But........this diet DOES WORK. And can be especially (good for the right person) wanting to get extremely lean--from being lean (say 10 to 12 percent for males).
I thought you tried UD2 before?
Sure looks like it's difficult. But difficult isn't an issue for me
if it works. I've done a couple rounds of The Velocity Diet that were of indeterminate effectiveness. Certainly not offering the dramatic results promised. Given the difficulty and inconvenience of liquid diets I've concluded they're basically just a test of short-term discipline. One I've passed twice in my long up-and-down journey from 280 and 50%? bodyfat to 190 and 15%'ish.
Weren't you running extremely low calories (like 600 to 800) and adjoining low carbohydrates? This isn't UD2...so there isn't a misunderstanding on persons reading, but does have some nutritional elements in it. How did this turn out for you?
The only other modes I've stuck with for more than a couple weeks at a time are Berardi-style and regular keto. That and the referenced "protein-sparing fast" which was really just a more extreme version of velocity (my second round, there). I wanted to see if Velocity would "do better for me" if I really dropped it very low on calories. This, for anyone in the audience getting ideas, was a very dumb thing to do for many reasons, and more importantly,
less effective than regular Velocity partly because the calories were just too low and also because at the time I was exercising 3+ hours per day at 65-80% mhr levels. Recipe for motivational disaster!
In terms of fat loss, Velocity has been the more useful. I consider all of this speculation to a degree as, for anyone who's not aware, my process has in the past (until about 6 months ago) been one of a couple months of kicking ass and strict adherence to diet and training and then a couple months of sitting around eating whatever, but Berardi-style and keto both I think provide too constant a supply of energy for my wonderfully adaptive body to use up stores rather than just "downshift" into a more efficient use of nutrients. I feel great on Berardi-style and perform very well but my progress slows considerably, so much so that I would call it "maintenance", even in what ought be a small, medium or large deficit. On regular keto I was having fun eating a carnivore's diet but it was roughly the same as Berardi-style in that I think my body got used to it after just a little while. On Velocity or similar "keto with pwo carbs" I lack mental energy and am easily fatigued and noticably weaker. The tradeoff for which is some appreciable gains, by caliper assessment. I got all tiffy about not being able to see it in the mirror yet but I was still at 19.5% bodyfat, so, that was me being irrational.
I could go on at length about the clues pointing to an "Anabolic Diet" style approach, but in short it seems to me the sensible thing to try next. I'm sure I can improve on Velocity a great deal by better targeting my glycogen depletion with the right sort of training and then really taking advantage of that anabolic shift (in both rounds of velocity I made the majority of my progress in the first 10 or so days.. and I'm quite convinced this was due to not having a "reset" of sorts for a true cycle effect).
Partner you brain function between two things. What do you want? Looking satisfactorily in the mirror or the personal satisfaction (and some physical benefits) associated with training for and performing a form of iron man or a complete iron man?
I do not object to neither. But, I personally believe you do not "object" (key) to the "wants" (from fitness/health) of the self. Which points to the one that is objectively more satisfying.
Which is it?
Wise words, thank you. Most of the people whose assessments I respect say something similar. Some of them rather less.. courteously, heh heh.
Coming from this background of ups and downs (though the trend has certainly been up overall, as above!) and being so preoccupied with metacognition as a rule, my concern for the past couple of months has been whether I'm saying, "Okay, this plan sucks" because I'm trying to find a way to avoid sticking with it or because it actually does suck with regard to achieving my true desires. More and more I'm leaning towards the conclusion that I simply lost sight of the real goal (which is that of body composition - health and performance are excellent too yes but I am
already very healthy and in the past few months have certainly made it to moderately fit if I wasn't already) as I got caught up in the novelty of this runbikeswim stuff. The truth I've been forcing under the rug I think is that while I quite enjoy these things, I have no interest at all in competing in them and very little in doing them at great length day in and day out in order to do so.
Hours of the stuff a day gets monotonous and what does it get me except forcing me to use the ineffective (for me!) Berardi-style nutritional plan and less energy for strength training not to mention leisure time. While on paper I'm committed to a half Ironman (and am
still wondering just what exactly that $250 fee is supposed to be for haha) in my heart it's to finally making it to the body composition goals I set years ago. I feel it's such a waste to put all this drive and determination toward something that just doesn't interest me much. I feel I've already proven to myself that I could kick my ass all the way to doing this thing in August (despite being too out of shape to run a block what half a year ago?) but not at all that it actually benefits me at all to pursue it at this time. I have a strong intuition I will want to do it later but right now, I don't want to wait to say "I did the thing I set out to do and need to do," just so I can say, "Hey I did this thing some people think is fun but doesnt really do it for me at the expense of my body composition goals".
