Love his blog or hate it, Jamie Lewis has clearly put a lot of time and effort into

his series on what he refers to as The Apex Predator Diet. On a number of occasions I have recommended that people take a look at it for some ideas on how to do a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, and have more than once been told that the information was good but the presentation of it was a bit too NSFW. In light of that, I took the time to essentially copy-paste what Jamie wrote (his blog can be found at chaosandpain.blogspot.com It is not safe for work.) into a presentation that shouldn't offend any but the most delicate sensibilities. --TheBraken

This is taken directly from the Chaos and Pain blog. Credit for writing and research goes to:
Chaos and Pain by Jamie Lewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at \\chaosandpain.blogspot.com.

The Apex Predator Diet, In Glorious Detail Part 1

In the event that you're not one of the readers hanging on my every word or who is new to the blog, this spinoff originally started with the Evolution Of My Diet series, which starts here. In it, I outlined the diet I'm currently following, which I've called the Apex Predator Diet due to the fact that it consists of little more than that which an apex predator would eat, supplemented with protein shakes because I'm much more inclined to hedge my bets with a protein sparing modified fast than place my faith in the clinically unsupported yet theoretically sound Intermittent Fasting approach. The following blogs will expand upon what I've previously explained.

An Overview of the Apex Predator Diet

The Apex Predator Diet is a at its core a cyclical ketogenic diet, not unlike those I've supported in the past. On this diet, you'll be keto dieting on 30 grams of carbohydrates or less per day for 5-6 days a week (or more, depending on your bodyfat levels). During the non-carb days, you'll be consuming 1-2 meals of fatty, preferably bone-in meat per day, supplemented by 5-7 low carbohydrate protein shakes. The other day or two are referred to as "Rampage" days, during which time you'll replenish your glycogen stores and satisfy your desire to wreck pizza and cookies. The reasoning behind this methodology of dieting is that I found protein-sparing modified fasts like

the Velocity Diet gave me just enough energy to put in a workout that would embarrass an undergraduate girl trying to drop her freshman 15 before going to the beach over the summer- I was truncating my workouts horribly. Thus, I did some research and discovered those diets are really only suited to the morbidly obese and people who suck at lifting weights, rather than people trying to be so superhuman they make Superman seem like a shiftless, weaksauce layabout by comparison. As such, I experimented with a variety of evening meals and finally settled upon beef ribs and bone in steaks, which are eminently satisfying, calorically dense, and restorative in ways you cannot possibly imagine. This diet, though similar to many you've likely seen, is vastly superior (if you're training hard 4+ times a week) to existing frameworks for a couple of reasons. 1. My macronutrient percentages are different. Conventional wisdom on CKDs is that 65-75% of your calories should come from fat. Fuck all that. According to my biggest fan on Earth, Lyle McDonald, "when subjects are told to limit carbohydrate intake but to consume "unlimited" quantities of protein and fat, they automatically limit caloric intake and consume between 1400 and 2100 calories."(Ketogenic Diet 101). I don't care who you are, that is not going to support heavy training. Not only is that a caloric intake suitable only to the Olson twins and 19th Century hunger artists, but at the macros suggested by the gurus, you're not getting nearly enough protein, either. 2100-1470=630/4=157.5 grams of protein. My protein shakes have more calories in them than that, and I mix them in water. The Predator Diet is much higher calorie (3000+), most days, with 50-60% of your calories coming from protein and the remainder from fat. 2. I cycle calories. For those of you who are not already incredibly lean, calorie cycling kicks in to keep your metabolism humming. I've not seen another CKD or TKD diet that tinkers with calories in this way to accelerate fatloss. 3. It's easy. One of the things I see people constantly blabbering on about with the IF diet is how easy it is to not eat for half the day. I guarantee you it takes no more time to make a shake than it does to make a cup of coffee, and those [folks] must be chugging coffee if they're not eating. As such, their argument's as stupid as the Predator Diet is anabolic. 4. It's anabolic. Though you're operating in a caloric deficit for the majority of the day, you're getting a constant influx of protein to stave off muscle catabolism, and the high fat meats at the end of the day provide saturated fat and cholesterol, both of which boost testosterone levels, which in turn increase aggression, which in turn makes you tear it up in the gym, making your system even more anabolic. Basically, you become a perpetual-motion machine of [awesome]. 5. You're not insane with hunger at all times. When hungry, "people tend to conserve energy rather than expend it."(Russell 148) That's definitively not a good thing if you're training hard, especially if you're dieting for a competition and/or training twice a day. I used this diet to cut for two meets and ended up on the underside of 7% bodyfat, making my water cut easier, increasing my strength to weight ratio, and allowing me to look amazing while lifting big weights. 6. You have planned, insane, gluttonous cheat meals. These serve a variety of purposes, and they match the occasional gorge of a predator nicely.

Because I realize experimentation is scary, and I've already done plenty of experimenting, I've got four basic permutations of this diet. The first three are fairly self- explanatory, and will be broken out by bodyfat percentage (see the chart below). The last is because I get a lot of emails from people whining about pre-and post-workout carbs. They're of the opinion that they're indispensable, though I would dispute that opinion. For those ladies out there who absolutely must have your carbs or you will turn into a raging ball of hormone-fueled fury, laying waste to everything in your path as you make for the counter at Auntie Annie's in the mall, this should suit your purposes nicely as well.

Components of the Apex Predator Diet

Before we get into the finer points of the diet, let's cover a couple of basics- food and supplement choices. The reason why I've christened this diet the Apex Predator Diet is due to the awesome food choices you'll be making. Nowhere will you find bland, tasteless, rubbery bullshit like chicken breasts and steamed broccoli. On this diet, you won't even need utensils, most of the time, because your food should come with a built-in handle- bone. Bone is an integral part of meat, and ripping an animal's flesh off its bones with your teeth is a primal, visceral, ethereal act that stands in stark defiance to modern life and harkens to a time when men were men and women appreciated real men, in addition to being tougher than most of the "men" you see waddling their sloppy asses around the mall these days. As such, it would stand to reason that if we want to regain that former glory, strength, and aggressive awesomeness we had in times past, we should eat like our forebears.

For those of you who are staring, incredulous, at that statement, consider the following: "The connection between flesh and bone is primordial and fundamental. Yet today, bones have fallen out of favor. We are all familiar with the expression, 'The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat,' but we demand everything precut and prepackaged, and that is, increasingly, all we can buy. Our world is full of recipes for boneless, skinless (and often tastless) pieces of meat, chicken, and fish, and we can scarcely recognize whole fish or birds. We have become so obsessed with ease of preparation and speed that we have lost touch with the visceral appeal of cooking with- and eating- bones." (20 McLagan)

"There is a universal understanding that bones and meat are inseparable. Yiddish: Bones without meat are possible, meat without bones is not possible. Hebrew: There is no such thing as boneless meat. Greek: Meat is sold with bones. Norwegian: He who buys the meat has to take the bone with it. English: Bones bring meat to town. He who eats the meat let him eat the bones. You buy the land you buy the stones: you buy the meat you buy the bones."(119 Bones) Eating boneless meat is thus not only effete, ridiculous, artificial, and offensive to the soul of the slaughtered animal, but it's stupid. Bone in meat tastes better and is healthier, as cooking it in that fashion "enables the bone nutrients to infuse into the meat, imparting wonderful flavors"(Shanahan) in addition to added nutrients. After you've cooked it that way, you eat it with your hands, as your primal ancestors did, using the bones as the handles for bearing meat to your mouth as they were intended. Eating becomes more satisfying because you're restoring the tactile sense in your hands to the process of eating. As such, it becomes a richer, more natural, more intimate experience and produces greater satiety as a result. As one [person] put it, "eating with your hands gives you a deeper sense of your food, because you are bringing more sense receptors to the table. Temperature and texture become more profound when you can feel them on your fingers first, and the experience of consumption is extended even longer for a more pleasurable process."(Urban) Worried about a mess on your hands? Buy some Wet Wipes and be glad you have fewer dishes to do. Additionally, you're going to be consuming a load of low-carb, blended source protein shakes, multivitamins, EFAs, and fatburners, and will try to mix in some offal if at all possible. I'll get into all of that in the next installment, however, leaving you with the fact that offal tastes awful, so I generally just take a load of multis. Sources for Part 1: McDonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Diet. McLagan, Jennifer. Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010. Russell, Sharmen Apt. Hunger: An Unnatural History. New York: Basic Books, 2005. Shanahan, Cate. http://drcate.com/deep-nutrition-the-ancient-science-of-human-engineering/thefour-pillars-of-world-cuisine/ Urban, Shiloh. "Eat With Your Hands." http://www.organicauthority.com/eco-chic-table/eat-withyour-hands.html

Apex Predator Diet, Part 2 - FF

It occurred to me over the weekend that this is going to be one long series, so I've decided to break it up into its component diets. Given that they've the furthest to go, I thought we'd start with our tubby compatriots - they need a head start shuffling towards whatever destination to which we send them, and ample breaks to catch their breath and shoot insulin and the like.

The FF Approach
I've actually not had to use this, as I have about the same ability to ignore the sensation of my abdominal fat sitting on my waistband when seated as those overly pretty people on the Bachelor have for admitting that they're actual prostitutes. As soon as I start feeling that sensation, I start dieting my butt off. Once lean, I freak out when I lose abdominal vascularity, much less my abs in general. As such, I've had to extrapolate from the diet I used to jump start my fat loss once I noticed that my abs were going the way of the the Kardashian family's collective personal pride. As with everything I do, this diet is hardly a hard and fast dietary regimen, but rather more like a broad outline with suggestions on what you can do with the finer points. Thus, you should experiment with a couple of different approaches to determine what works best for you. From there, you can carry what you've learned into the succeeding phases and have an even better handle on your diet. The Rundown Kick it off with a 10-14 day keto run (no Rampage for 10-14 days) Protein-sparing modified fast at least one day a week 5 days a week, one solid-food meal a day, with one of those days being a fairly low calorie meal low- but not no- carb one day a week, punctuated by a 3 hour cheat window that is at least moderately reasonable. This is not, then, a full on Rampage day, but more of a moderated eating spree. One day wherein you eat more than one solid-food no-carb meal a day Seems fairly simple, right? As I've said before, this is hardly brain surgery. The point in this phase is to get you looking at least decently while keeping your lifts up and not completely hating life. One of my main problems with the PSMF, as I've mentioned, is the fact that they leave you insanely hungry and can be a distraction from training. As such, I would recommend (based on personal experience) throwing that day in between your Rampage day and your higher calorie day. As I almost invariably have my cheat meal on Friday, that works out pretty nicely- keep the calories low on Saturday, drink a load of protein shakes (at least 6), and then grub on every meaty bit of deliciousness I can on Sunday. If you're concerned about calories, you will moderate your caloric intake according to your individual metabolism. I'm not talking about some low-brow, Easy Bake Oven BMR calculation- you will find your sweet spot through experimentation, because you're a mad scientist and only you can understand your own insanity. Additionally, my conception of a workout is considerably different than that of

most, so it would be completely disingenuous for me to suggest that I could tell you what caloric intake would result in the most fatloss and muscular gain. I can tell you that your body will tell you when it's had enough fatty meat. My sweet spot seems to be between 1 and 3.5 lbs of meat in a sitting, depending on the type, my level of activity, and where I am in a week. Luckily for you, "studies of ketogenic diets have found that when subjects are told to limit carbohydrate intake but to consume "unlimited" quanitites of protein and fat, they automatically limit caloric intake and consume between 1400-2100 calories." (Ketogenic Diet 101) That's a very cool biological cruise control you've got built in, and I can say that though I generally go a bit higher than that (2000-3000 calories) in my evening meal, I definitely hit a point where I can go no further, and it's not from being stuffed- my body just taps out and says and says "[screw] it, I'm done." The key here, especially for you tubby [folks], is to stop eating before you're full. Luckily, meat on the bone slows your eating considerably (I personally tend to scarf down my food like a wild, starving dog), so you'll have a better sense of where you stand in terms of fullness than you would otherwise. There is one unfortunate caveat for you people, however- years of overindulging have screwed you, and you can no longer fully trust your body's satiety signals. Leptin is the hormone made by fat cells that causes your brain to listen to signals of satiety, but overweight people, having much greater fat stores, have higher leptin levels and become resistant to the signal. As such, I would start toward the lower end of the caloric spectrum and increase as needed, using your level of energy in workouts as a guide. (Russell 22) One nice thing about the structure of this diet is that it will help to moderate the other side of the hormonal overeating coin- ghrelin. That's the hormone that tells your body you're hungry, and it's suppressed with high fat diets. As such, you'll likely find you're hungriest on your Rampage day, since you won't be eating such high fat foods throughout the day. Many of you, upon seeing some quick results, are going to come to the conclusion that you should skip your Rampage day to prolong your fat loss. If you choose to do so, I would add in another high calorie day (but not consecutive with another), and would not recommend that you go more than two weeks without a cheat meal, both for sanity and your metabolism's sake. The reason I start this phase with a 10-14 day keto run is that the fatter you are, the harder it is for your body to get into ketosis. Basically, if you think of your glycogen stores as a water glass, you filled [it] up years ago and kept dumping buckets of water on top of the full glass for years, while leaving it out in the rain. In Seattle. Your insulin receptors threw in the towel years ago, while you shoving Little Debbie snack cakes down your piehole and washing it down with a Coke. You're completely destroyed your body's ability to correctly recognize its own metabolic signals, so you're going to have to suffer a bit to undo the damage you've done. Additionally, Dan Duchaine was a big fan of starting ketogenic phases with 1014 day keto runs, and that makes good sense- fat people produce ketone bodies much more slowly than do lean people.(Russell 22) Thus, I can drop into ketosis inside a day right now, but the 308 lber trying to drop to 242 is going to take the better part of the week, for the reasons I outlined earlier in this paragraph. In regards to how much carbohydrate you should eat, which I'm sure many of you are wondering, you should shoot to keep your carbohydrates to 30 grams or less a day. "Although up to 100 grams of carbohydrate will allow ketosis to develop, it would be rare to see ketones excreted in the urine at this level of intake."(Ketogenic Diet 104) Because you've spent the last several years stuffing your face with all manner of crap, you might want to go ahead and forgo it for the time being so as to get your

body back to a state where it can better tolerate carbs. The nice thing about dieting is that the leaner you get and stay, the more leeway you end up having with it, and the more rapidly you can make physiological changes for the better. Think of fatloss like a massive freight train- it's a pain to get that thing moving, but once it's up to speed, nothing short of a nuke is stopping that thing from reaching its destination. Is this phase going to be fun? In spots. Eating every meal with your hands is awesome, in my opinion. There's less cleanup, you get to use wet wipes, and gnawing on a bone is a hell of a good way to avoid biting your fingernails. The days you're not eating real food, however, are going to blow. That's the price you pay for years of eating like crap, however, and if you want to be a beast, you're going to have to go hungry like one every now and again.

Sample Week Of The FF Approach

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday: 5-6 protein shakes throughout the day (and one overnight, which I'd leave on the toilet and chug while peeing). I usually had Monster Milk in the morning, and followed that with Muscle Infusion throughout the day. If I did a morning workout, it was a short workout (20 mins) usually consisting of one arm deadlifts, and I usually did not have a pre-workout shake. On two of these four days I typically substitute one shake at lunch with wings or other no-carb meat. 1500-2500 calories worth of meat, preferably on the bone, for your evening meal. If you're eating chicken, make sure you're eating the skin. You might want to think about a Protein Sparing Modified Fast (nothing but shakes) on Monday as well, especially if you want to accelerate fatloss. Wednesday: 5-6 protein shakes with a less calorically dense dinner. This is intended to rotate your calories and stimulate more fatloss. Friday: Watered-down Rampage day. Keep you carbs reasonable, and focus on getting lean proteins throughout the day. To give you an idea of how I did this to into single digit bodyfat, most Rampage days consisted of 94% lean meat tacos on low carb shells. For my cheat meals, I went bananas, but I'd suggest that while you definitely want to make sure you eat a considerable amount of carbs, you should keep your calories in check until you're starting to see decent progress. This is for two reasonsyou need to learn dietary discipline and because your body still has massive fat stores on which to draw, so massive cheats are unnecessary. I'll cover the Rampage Day in depth in an upcoming post, but for now I'd say eat lean and low-to-moderate carb throughout the day and cap the day with a carbohydrate bonanza the likes of which you've likely not seen since you saw undergraduate college students descend on a table of free bagels. In terms of amounts, I'll agree with Dave Palumbo and say your initial Rampage day should be in the neighborhood of 400 grams of carbohydrates. If you don't lose more weight the following week, reduce that number. If you lost plenty, you can adjust it up. For you guys, however, I'd suggest you go easy, since you've mangled your insulin sensitivity.

Saturday: Protein Sparing Modified Fast. Nothing but shakes in water today. Quite frankly, you're likely going to want to skip the gym today and just occupy yourself otherwise, but if you do plan on training, be prepared for it to suck, so don't plan to hit PRs. Sunday: Keto day, but eat two meals today- one smaller and one larger. Make sure you train on this day- your lift will be awesome.

What You Will Need For This Diet

A good multi-vitamin. I cannot bring myself to eat offal, so this is a necessity for me. If you like eating liver and kidneys and sundry other items, feel free to skip the multi. I'm back on the Animal Pak bandwagon, and I'm fairly certain you could cure cancer with it. Omega 3 fatty acids. I'm not paying eleventy billion dollars for grass-fed beef. I've not got the money for that silliness, and likely nor have you. Pop Omega 3s like candy and you're gold. Some permutation of the ECA/ECY stack. I don't [care] how you combine them- just do it. Neanderthals were huge fans of ephedrine, and so should you be.(Doweiko 88) I've written about why you should love it here. I use Stimerex or Lipodrene. A good blended protein. I've used Matrix 5.0, Muscle Infusion, Monster Milk, and Pro Blend 55 to good effect. Just make sure that the carbs in [it] are LOW- that means no Muscle Milk, no Syntha 6, no weight gainers. A Note About Women And This Diet Assuming you're a woman or have ever met one, you're aware that women regard carbohydrates like the last life boat on the titanic. There's actually a psychochemical reason for this- women appear to either have chronically low seratonin and tryptophan levels or are just addicted to high levels of the two chemicals. This is especially true around their period, at which time the production of both chemicals in the brain is suppressed. Additionally, seratonin reduces anxiety and tryptophan is the amino-acid precursor to seratonin, so it contributes to anxiety suppression as well. (Sayegh et all, Christie) Guess what kinds of foods stimulate the production of those chemicals? Carbohydrates. Protein-rich foods increase dopamine and norepinephrine, which means eating a lot of protein will make you more alert and energetic. The reason why I'm including this is because women need a priest qualified for an exorcism and a psychiatrist far more than they need this diet. I'm not saying you necessarily can't do it, but it'll likely make you miserable for a couple of weeks. Men with high estrogen levels and might have this problem too, but that's just speculation. The original sound guy for the Grateful Dead is apparently 100% carnivorous and had this to say about chicks and keto diets: "The female hormones seem cause a strong craving for carbs, as the female body isn't fertile without a layer of fat. This makes this diet very hard for women to follow. Traditionally the women are the gatherers of fruits and (starchy) roots, while the men are

the hunters. This is shown today in the different ways men and women go about buying things. The gals "shop" which is a trip through the entire store or mall in search of things to buy. They may not actually buy (gather) anything. The guys on the other hand know what they are after, and then seek it out (hunts it down) and buys it, usually then taking it home right away."(Stanley) If you do decide to try it, I did a quick google search to see which kinds of cheese might work for this diet. I'll say right off I know [nothing] about cheese and despise it. Thus, I'm making recommendations on macronutrient ratios: Gruyere Cheese- This seems to be about as close to beef ribs as you can get in a cheese. If you want to sit down to a pound of this a day, have at it. 40g of protein and 42g of fat per cup with <1g carbs Limburger Cheese- Damn near as good for you as Gruyere, provided you can tolerate the smell. Goat Cheese, Hard Type Brie Cheese Edam Cheese Monterrey Chesse Muenster Cheese Camembert Cheese Up next, NTFF and the Rampage explained fully and completely. Sources for Part 2: Christie, Catherine. Mood-Food Relationships. http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Met-Obe/Mood-FoodRelationships.html#b Doweiko, Harold E. Concepts of Chemical Dependency. Macdonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Diet. Russell, Sharmen Apt. Hunger: An Unnatural History. Sayegh R, Schiff I, Wurtman J, Spiers P, McDermott J, Wurtman R. The effect of a carbohydrate-rich beverage on mood, appetite, and cognitive function in women with premenstrual syndrome. Obstet Gynecol. 1995 Oct;86(4 Pt 1):520-8. http://web.mit.edu/dick/www/pdf/909.pdf Stanley, Owsley. Diet and Exercise. http://thebear.org/essays1.html#anchor496162

Apex Predator Diet, Part 3- You're Getting Less Fat. Congratulations.

This is what I used when I was between 12% and 8% bodyfat. I could see two abs clearly and two a bit hazily at the beginning of this diet, and I followed this fairly strictly for about two months. Once I started getting into single digits, I noticed myself getting hungrier and hungrier, and had to start eating more to maintain my bodyweight. Additionally, once you get into the single digits (or middle double digits for chicks) you'll find that your metabolism resembles the Israeli Killdozer- it crushes damn near anything in its path provided you have someone competent behind the wheel. As such, this approach

is going to alter slightly as you get leaner (should you wish to alter it). I realize that some of you react like Luddites at a robotics convention when faced with changing a workout or diet if its still yielding results, and if you fall into that category stick with the more draconian approach until you hit the next stage of the diet. For those of you who have less resolve, I recommend setting a hard start and stop point on the evolution of this phase of the diet to ensure that you make the progress you should. This stage is not too much different than the previous one, except that I recommend only one day of Protein Sparing Modified Fasts and your Rampage day kicks in harder. After youve made it to single digits, you may choose to drop the day of protein sparing modified fasts to ensure you dont leave weight on the platform on training days and that you continue to make forward progress with your physique. At some point, youll get lean enough that youll notice a very pronounced loss of aggression in the gym due to those days. Additionally, once you hit single digits, I recommend adding a smaller second food meal midday. This will help you stabilize your weight as you bring the diet home.

The Basics of the NTFBNTS Phase

Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday: 5-6 protein shakes throughout the day (and one overnight, which I'd leave on the toilet and chug while peeing) comprised of 40-60 grams of protein. On two of these four days I typically substitute one shake at lunch with wings or other no-carb meat. Once you hit single digit bodyfat, you can make this a four day affair. On one of these days, try to fit in a protein sparing modified fast (i.e. consume nothing but protein shakes) until you hit single digits. I recommend placing this day on Saturday, in between your Rampage and high-calorie keto days, so as to keep your metabolism stimulated and reap the benefits of alternate-day fasting. 1500-3000 calories of fatty meat, preferably on the bone, in the evening. Wednesday: 5-6 protein shakes throughout the day (and one overnight). Less calorically dense meat for dinner (t-bone, ribeye, or NY Strip steak, leaving the fattiest bits behind. This is to ensure that youre still cycling your calories, even if youre skipping the protein sparing modified fast day. Friday (Rampage Day): Today is going to be characterized by medium- to low- (but not no-) carb meals throughout the day. Restrict your meals to 50 grams of carbohydrates or less per meal, and keep your fat low to ensure carbohydrate reuptake. This is the polar opposite of your typical day, so just bear in mind that your carbohydrates and fat should be inversely proportional at all but the Rampage meal. Rampage! This is going to be a three hour cheat window that Ill detail in the next installment. Sunday: Higher calorie keto day. Ensure that you eat two solid food meals on this day, preferably of

fattier meat on the bone- think wings, ribs, chops, etc. 5-6 protein shakes throughout the day (and one overnight). During this phase, you should be making [great] progress, though you might benefit from the following: Avoid doing cardio. Though utilizing a CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic Diet) as opposed to a TKD should forestall muscle catabolism brought on by high volumes of work in the gym, aerobic exercise taxes your anaerobic substrates too heavily.(Duchaine 132) Since this could lead to muscle loss, Id avoid it. For the forty three thousand rugby athletes whove emailed me about this diet (Christ a lot of you like wearing striped shirts), youll want to follow the WB permutation of this diet, which is forthcoming. Supplement with Chromium Polynicotinate or Vanadyl Sulfate. Both minerals work to regulate your blood sugar and insulin levels, and might aid in training and recomposition as a result.(Duchaine 131) Dont skip or skimp on your Rampage day. I cannot imagine a person actually doing so, but based on the emails I get, a lot of you do some tremendously stupid [stuff]. Dont be one of those guys- Rampage like your name is King Kong once a week. If youre curious as to why, theres a good reason- you cannot sustain high intensity training indefinitely in the total absence of dietary carbohydrates and expect to make continued progress. You do have some glycogen resynthesis that naturally occurs as a result of weight training, though its relatively small.(McDonald KD 122) As such, you need to hit the Rampage once a week to ensure you replenish glycogen stores. Skipping or postponing your Rampage in this stage will, at best, make you miserable, and at worst, reduce or eliminate your gains. Since this diet is all about being awesome, reducing your potential for awesome is counter-intuitive. Consume stimulants. Theyll fuel your workouts and they help establish and deepen your levels of ketosis.(McDonald KD 116) Additionally, amphetamines have been shown in recent studies to increase the effect of dopamine on your brain, which increases motivation for both physical and mental activities.(Ito) Happily for us, ephedrine is an amphetamine, so feel free to make use of the wonderful bounty that is ephedrine and all of its amphetaminy goodness. You'll be focused you hit the gym, find dieting easier, and generally be more awesome. For those of you with heart problems, moral issues, religious issues, or simply think youre better than the rest of us, feel free to abstain. Stimulants, while not necessary on this diet, definitely help. Drink if you want. Though by no means necessary, and done to excess will [screw] up your gains, drinking can actually help you deepen your levels of ketosis.(McDonald 115) Alcohol itself gets converted to ketones in the absence of dietary carbohydrates, which means that it wont [screw] up your diet beyond replacing the ketones your body would produce from the conversion of stored bodyfat. Thus, it can slow fat loss if done to excess, but will not [screw] up your ketogenesis. This is, of course, assuming you stick to non-carbohydrate laden alcohol like vodka, gin, tequila, Everclear, etc. Additionally, Robb Wolff recommends you drink as early as possible to allow the alcohol to clear your system before bedtime to avoid completely shutting down GH release overnight. One of the best things you can consume, alcohol wise, on this diet is the disgusting old-timey gin and tonic, garnished with lime. The lime juice blunts

insulin release while the tonic water acts as a non-polar solvent that delivers the alchol into your system faster.(Wolff 138) Wolff actually recommends the Crossfitters drink of choice, the NorCal Margarita, but it occurred to me as I wrote this that the drink of choice in the period of British Colonialism will do the job just as well, while additionally conferring resistance to malaria. Thus, feel free to show up to your local gin bar rocking a monocle and a comically undersized safari outfit to cover all of your bases. At the very least, youll annoy the hipsters drinking that vile [concoction], which makes it a victory no matter what. Up next- a detailed description of your Rampage. Sources for Part 3: Duchaine, Dan. Underground Bodyopus. Ito R, Hayen A. Opposing Roles of Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell Dopamine in the Modulation of Limbic Information Processing.J Neuroscience. 2011 31(16):6001-6007 McDonald, Lyle. Rapid Fat Loss. McDonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Diet.

Apex Predator Diet, Part 4- Every Apex Predator Goes On An Occasional Rampage
A hulking figure appeared in the doorway, cloaked in an aura so intense that he barely seemed capable of doing aught but great violence to anything within his reach. As he stepped heavily into the room, the onlookers noticed that every sinew, every muscle, and every vein stood in stark relief beneath his paper thin skin, which threatened to burst like the skin on a sausage left too long on the grill. His t-shirt, loose at the waist, grew tighter as the eye moved upward until it appeared to be strangling him, so tightly was it stretched over his bull-like neck and shoulders. Shouldering aside illclad, scrawny hipsters, the brute made his way to the front of the establishment and spoke. "Bring me a pizza adorned with every conceivable type of meat, as many breadsticks as you can fit into a garbage bag, and a half gallon of whiskey, or I swear by all of the gods that I shall reduce this building to rubble, lay waste to the surrounding areas, carry off your women, and drink all of your liquor. You have fifteen minutes to comply." It was, clearly, Rampage Day. Though you might be thinking that skipping your Rampage day might be a good way to accelerate fat loss, this is not so. In the initial phase of this diet, you might stretch your keto runs to acclimatize yourself to the diet and undo the massive damage you've wrecked upon your internal system. As such, you might be inclined to continue to stretch the no-carb phase of this diet to ten to fourteen days, which can have some very positive metabolic effects. Once you've re-entered the realm of human physiques, however, you should rethink that policy, as this diet's not about not being fat- it's about being awesome. If you're going to be awesome, you're going to need to lift continually heavier weights and get more muscular, and the Rampage is a critical component in that, especially given the fact that some studies have shown that long-term ketogenic diets inhibit muscle growth when the

dieter is in a hypocaloric state, which you'll likely be in for at least part of the week if you're doing one or more days of Protein Sparing Modified Fasts.(McDaniel) If you're doing PSMFs and breaking your [self] in the gym, it's highly likely that until you engage in a gastronomic catastrophe like the Rampage, you're going to be in a hypocaloric state over the balance of the week. That simply cannot be allowed to stand, as your workouts will suffer and you could lose some of the muscle you've broken your [self] inside out to get. Thus, you should regard a refeed day as sacrosanct. The Rampage Day is essential for getting insanely strong and lean, as a day in which you deliberately overeat carbohydrates is utterly necessary for muscular hypertrophy, strength gains, and overall recomposition. Essentially, the Rampage Day stimulates your metabolism,(Matsumoto) replenishes your glycogen stores for heavy training, (Bowden) increases your thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormones,(Poehlman) provides sundry mental health benefits through a forced break from clean eating,(Westrate) and helps normalize most, if not all, of the hormones [involved in] metabolic slowdown: leptin, ghrelin, insulin, etc.(McDonald RFD 46) You will, however, have to do the refeed correctly in order to reap its benefits. Unless you're where you want to be in terms of bodyfat, however, this isnt going to be a fucking free-for-all day, as youre hardly out of the water yet. Instead, the Rampage is a combination of a structured refeed (like youd do for a glycogen supercompensation) and a cheat meal. If youre still worried that youll grow your disgusting fatbody back in your first Rampage, fear notthere are at least two studies that suggest that the body continues to use bodyfat for fuel during the first 24 hours of carbohydrate loading, so provided you stick to the plan, youll be well on your way to getting the striated buttocks of which youve always dreamed.(McDonald KD 135) At least one study has shown that short breaks from high fat diets will not have an adverse effect on lipolytic activity, and lipolytic activity in people who take high carb breaks from high fat diets are actually higher than those who are on a high carbohydrate diet, meaning you'll burn more fat if you cheat a bit once a week. (Saitoh) Additionally, fellow low-carbohydrate dieting advocate, Dave Palumbo, stated that if "you use a keto-diet, you'll need to have a cheat meal (to spike insulin) at least once per week to keep the thyroid functioning normally." For anyone who's ever met a grossly obese person, they [often] claim that their thyroid's at fault. Best to keep your distance from [them] and keep that thyroid humming.

Get Rampagin'!
On your Rampage Day, you're going to plan on consuming 3.5-4.5 grams per pound of gross bodyweight. Thus, a 154 lb. person should consume 600 grams of total carbohydrates on Rampage Day, whereas a 200 lb person would consume around 800. The timing of the carbohydrates is not as important as the amount, though I prefer to keep myself in a caloric deficit until the cheat window to milk every bit of stimulus I can out of the massive influx of food. Additionally, predators in the wild invariably have a marked circadian rhythm and their hunting motivation is influenced by the activity of endogenous clocks(McFarland 463) Though you might be skeptical of the application of this fact to you, humans are universally considered to be apex predators, so it is in our nature to eat in a particular rhythm. This might be why I find this diet so easy to follow- it has a nice flow. Additionally, my body seems primed for the influx of calories in the evening, which leads me to believe that youll utilize the majority of the calories you ingest if your Rampage is synchronous with

your largest meal during the week. Is there science to support that? No, but it makes sense, so Im sticking with it. You dont need to walk around with a notepad and calculator all day long, either- the key to the refeed is how many carbs and which kinds, rather than the pace at which you eat them.. For the first couple of Rampages, you might want to plan them a bit so youre shooting for the right carbohydrate levels. This will give you a benchmark and allow you the opportunity to fine tune your intake as you go. Others of you might want to go my route and keep your carbs under 200 grams for the duration of the day, so that no matter how nuts you go come cheat time you cannot overshoot your mark. I found this particularly helpful in the early stages, but as I got leaner it went from unnecessary to possibly counterproductive. Multiple sources Ive read virtually scream that you should avoid fructose during glycogen recomposition, as it simply replenishes liver stores and can actually be stored as bodyfat. Though vegans will scream bloody murder this isn't true, science does not appear to have their back."Fructose is more lipogenic than glucose or starches, and usually causes greater elevations in triglycerides and sometimes in cholesterol than other carbohydrates. Dietary fructose has resulted in increases in blood pressure, uric acid, and lactic acid." To add insult to injury, "added fructose seems to provide little advantage over other caloric sweetners and compares unfavorably to complex carbohydrates in susceptible segments of the population."(Hallfrisch) Thus, Id avoid fruit for the most part. Additionally, overdoing the sucrose can lead to some being stored as bodyfat. If youre eating either, try to restrict them to 50 grams and 100 grams, respectively, to avoid reducing the efficacy of the refeed.(McDonald RFL 46-7) Thats not to say that you should underdo it, however. The Minnesota Experiment showed that the utilization of the minimum necessary calories in a refeed will lead to decreased enthusiasm for the diet and training, no matter the macronutrient composition.(Russell 129) Thus, youll Rampage as intelligently and aggressively as you should do everything.

The Rampage Itself

In the past, I covered cheat windows fairly in-depth and mentioned that there are a couple of ways to skin this proverbial cat. The Rampage will utilize none of those, and will instead rely on a single 3 hour cheat window on the heels of the aforementioned carbohydrate refeed. During the cheat window, I encourage you to eat like you're at an all-you-can-eat buffet and gorge yourself. I usually pick foods on which I can graze, as I've shrunken my stomach and haven't got any interest in putting myself in physical pain during my weekly three hour holiday. There's no metabolic reasoning for grazing, however- it's just what I like to do. For those of you who are about to throw Lyle McDonald in my face, relax, I've read the same [things]. His contention is that during these structured refeeds, you should definitely not "use the concept as an excuse to eat yourself sick or eat three times what youd normally eat."(McDonald, 34) I'll tell you this from experience- the farther you get in a given diet, the less you can consume in three hours- it's a matter of pure biology. Thus, at the beginning of your diet, you'll be able to eat more during your cheats, which will likely slow your progress. Should you notice this, you can moderate future Rampages to forestall that slowdown, though as you get leaner, you'll notice you can get away with a lot more in the way of craziness and lapses. Additionally, once start seeing definition you'd never seen before, or veins you never thought you'd ever see, you're going to naturally restrict yourself on your cheats to prevent any backsliding, at least until you've stayed lean

for a considerable period of time and find yourself nearly insane with hunger by Friday night.

Timing:

I usually choose to Rampage at night. From a insulin standpoint this is probably not ideal, but from a lifestyle standpoint, I don't care. There's not enough of a difference in hormone levels between morning and night to justify worrying about my insulin levels, and I find that it's awesome to go to bed full to bursting and have the night to digest and bomb out my place in peace, rather than force myself to eat a meal when it's inconvenient. Some nutritionists believe that pre-workout is the best time for a scheduled cheat window. Anytime I've tried to schedule a cheat meal early in a day and train later, however, I find that my lift's a disaster, and I spend the majority of the time acting like I've got some horrible stomach flu. The kind of flu wherein you know you're going to paint the bathroom one color or another because everything wants out all at once. I chose wrong once, and my mom had to clean the bathroom after, as I passed out with my head hanging over the toilet, pants around my ankles, shit covering every square inch of the bathroom. This has made Mother's Day expensive since I was 6. I don't wish to repeat that event, so I don't cheat pre-workout. Two supplements that will increase the effectiveness of your cheat meal are: ECA stack- It increases your thermogenesis anyway, but "ephedrine alone can increase the thermic effect of a meal by 30%"(Berardi). As such, make sure you whack that back prior to the initiation of your feeding frenzy to ensure that you're getting the optimal metabolic response to your overfeeding. Digestive enzymes- Before, during, and after. Trust me, they'll help. If you've been eating clean, your body's going to have something to say about what you're eating, and it's going to let everyone in the room know what it thinks about it. [Also], it'll increase the absorption of the nutrients you'd so rudely and crudely stuffed down your ravenous gullet, increasing the positive effects of that meal and hopefully negating any of the negative ones. One last word on this, for you fatties- don't include these feeding frenzies if you're not already lean. If you're a fatass, you don't deserve them from a mental standpoint and cannot really utilize them from a metabolic one. As such, you'd be wise to steer clear until you can see some abs. For guys, this means under 15%, tops. For girls, that means... whatever the female equivalent of 15% is. We'll call it 25-27%. If you can see abs, have at it- otherwise, wait until you can. Additionally, if you find that cheat meals are either not helping, or they're actually hurting, monkey with the timing, duration, and what you're actually eating. Should you find yourself in the aforementioned fatass category, limit yourself a bit in your Rampage- you've been on a years-long Rampage and it's high time you exercised some self control. Make sure you get your carbs, but keep the fats below 25% of your total calories while doing so. Kill a couple of bags of Baked Lays and hit up Fuddruckers for a couple of Buffalo Burgers, maybe. Remember- eye on the prize. The rest of you... get ready. Tomorrow we Rampage. Sources for Part 4:

Arnold, Patrick. A Steroid for Flu Prevention. Muscular Development, 2/10/10, p. 276. Berardi, John. "Q & A with John Berardi." Iron Magazine. http://www.ironmagazine.com/article466.html Bowden VL and McMurray RG. Effects of training status on the metabolic responses to high carbohydrate and high fat meals. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2000 Mar;10(1):16-27. Faigin, Rob. Natural Hormonal Enhancement. Cedar Mountain: Extique, 2000. Hallfrisch J. Metabolic effects of dietary fructose. FASEB. 1990; 4:2652-2660. Matsumoto T, et al. Comparison of thermogenic sympathetic response to food intake between obese and non-obese young women. Obes Res 2001 Feb;9(2):78-85 McDaniel SS, Rensing NR, et al. Epilepsis 2011;52:3(30), e7-11. McDonald, Lyle. A Guide to Flexible Dieting. Taylorsville: McDonald, 2005. McDonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Dieting. McDonald, Lyle. Rapid Fat Loss. Palumbo, David. "Q&A with Dave Palumbo." http://www.rxmuscle.com/articles/qadave/590-qaawith-dave-palumbo-august-6-2009.html Poehlman ET, et al. Genotype dependency of the thermic effect of a meal and associated hormonal changes following short-term overfeeding. Metabolism 1986 Jan;35(1):30-6. Saitoh S, Matsuo T, Tagami K, Chang K, Tokuyama K, and Masashige Suzuki. Effects of short-term dietary change from high fat to high carbohydrate diets on the storage and utilization of glycogen and triacylglycerol in untrained rats. EUR J APP PHYS OCC PHYS; 74 (1-2):13-22 Sarkola T, Ericksson TJP. Testosterone increases in men after a low dose of alcohol. AL Clin Exper Res; 27 (4): 682-5. Westrate JA, Hautvast JG. The effects of short-term carbohydrate overfeeding and prior exercise on resting metabolic rate and diet-induced thermogenesis. Metabolism. 1990. Dec;39(12):1232-9. Willey, Warren. Better Than Steroids. Trafford: Pocatello, 2007.

Apex Predator Diet For Athletes and Italians (APD + Carbs)

When I first posted about my concept for the Apex Predator Diet, I received a spate of emails asking me about pre-, peri-, and post-workout carbohydrates. As I've stated more than once before, I think that the current infatuation with those three facets of one's nutrition are perhaps the most absurdly overblown distraction from critical points of training and nutrition one could have. It's like a leper colony appealing to the UN for condoms and zit cream. People obsessed with peri-workout nutrition come in exactly one form- people who have no clue what a real workout is, clad in whatever the trendy workout gear of the moment is, making a production of making a shake midworkout and getting in my way when I'm trying to get water in between sets. That's right- if you're focused with laser-like intensity on your mid-workout nutrition, you're [doing it wrong]. When you're lifting, you should be concerned with weights, not Biotest supplements and waxy maize. As for the pre- and post-workout nutrition guys, they're certainly a lesser form of evil, probably duped into thinking that [it] is of critical importance through the constant barrage of marketing that pervades every corner of life. For every person who states that pre- and post-workout nutrition is of critical importance if you want to gain mass and strength, I've got 100 people to name who did it without

either. That's not to say, however, that there's no benefit to be gained from either, but rather that their combined importance is still far less than that of the workout itself. Given the fact that you're reading this, it's highly likely that you know this, so I'll be happy to impart a bit of knowledge on the subject of pre- and post- workout carbohydrate meals and their utility in the Apex Predator Diet. That stated, I'll address the athletes who've expressed their concerns about consuming a ketogenic diet while participating in a sport that involved more than simply grunting and picking up heavy [things]. I personally have followed a ketogenic diet while wrestling and found I had no problem with energy provided that I kept my calories relatively high. At that time, I was wrestling at 134 pounds and my diet consisted, as I recall, of pork sausage patties for breakfast and about a dozen hamburger patties throughout the rest of the day, in addition to the very occasional protein shake. At the time, I hadn't really jumped onto the supplementation bandwagon, so I really didn't consume much in the way of supplements outside of my favorite ephedrine-filled supplements ever- Metaform Heat and Ultimate Orange. For those of you too young to know about either of these supplements, they had so much caffeine and ephedrine in them that meth addicts were scared to take them. Both of them tasted like fruit flavored cat shit, but they got you going. As such, I'll reassert my support for the consumption of stimulants, especially for those of you who need extra energy for running around and the like. Once more, they're not necessary, but they're helpful, just as the inclusion of carbohydrates might be if you're not as genetically well-suited to ketogenic dieting as I am.

Tinkering with the Apex Predator Diet

I've stated time and time again that it's imperative that you experiment with anything and everything you try in order to maximize your personal benefit. Doing so would generally necessitate a fair amount of research, but give my penchant for research, I've tried to do a fair amount of the legwork for you. One concern some people have had with the Apex Predator Diet is that they experience a tremendous amount of lethargy a couple of days into the low carbohydrate phase of the APD. Given the amazing array of biochemical makeups one could have, this should come as no surprise- I've never suggested that anything I do is "one size fits all." In my still unfinished Metabolic Typing series, I outlined various metabolic typing methodologies, but the current trend is to divide people into Protein, Carb, or Mixed types. It's possible to transition from one to the other, according to some authors, so making that attempt might be worthwhile. As I mentioned in the ATA about the diet, Lyle McDonald and Dan Duchaine both suggested the use of an Isocaloric diet if one is shifting from a traditional high carb, low fat diet into a ketogenic diet. An interesting study by Stephen Phinney examined the initial investigations into ketogenic diets for endurance energy, and his study uncovered exactly what Duchaine and McDonald alluded to- the body often requires at least a two week acclimation period to wean athletes off their carbohydrate diet.(Phinney) Thus, your "carb crash" might be mitigated by the gradual transition. Something like the Zone Diet might help people who would be considered Carb-Types according to a Metabolic Typing test transition to a Protein Type. A month of Zone Dieting, however, might not be enough to complete the transition, and you might experience the crash Phinney noted. The Inuit, according to Phinney, dealt with energy lags by greatly increasing their consumption of fat and decreasing their protein intake accordingly, while other authors have suggested that fat could be decreased and carbs could be increased accordingly. The key, then, is to determine what works best for you. That is, of

course, the entire purpose of the Apex Predator Diet- to allow one to shed fat while gaining muscle and strength. Luckily for me, I'm well-suited to ketogenic dieting. For those of you who aren't, or feel as though you need more quick energy to facilitate sporting competition or just to fuel your workouts, there is hope for you yet.

A Historical Aside

Before you delve into the following bits about the utilization of carbohydrates to spur greater athletic performance, I'll go ahead and make a quick aside- a quick study of the entirety of human history will lead to one inevitable conclusion. Humans do not require carbohydrates to perform at a high level. The history of agriculture is essentially the history of human collectives in areas of high population densities- carbohydrates provide a cheap, easy way to feed a large population in a small area. Put another way, carbohydrates are the fare of plebians and slaves, as crops were grown to feed the menial workers cheaply and to keep them alive while they built absurd buildings like ziggurats and pyramids. As I've shown before, humans were larger and more muscular in the paleolithic era than the neolithic, and those peoples credited with being the strongest and most muscular in recorded history were all nearly entirely carnivorous. The peoples considered to be the scourges of Europe were always nomads, championing animal husbandry and looking down upon agrarian societies as prey- the Huns, Goths, Mongols, Scythians and Sarmatians all ate similar diets that consisted of little more than meat and milk. Of the Goths, Tacitus noted that "Feasts and entertainments, which, though inelegant, are plentifully furnished, are their only pay. The means of this bounty come from war and rapine. Nor are they as easily persuaded to plough the earth and to wait for the year's produce as to challenge an enemy and earn the honour of wounds. Nay, they actually think it tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what they might win by their blood."(Tacitus) Though the latter two tribes eventually adopted agriculture, their agricultural products were the fare of those who remained behind with the villages, rather than those who rode into battle. The Huns and the Mongols took this even further, eating little more than horse and game meat, and drank mare's milk and horse blood to supplement their nutrition. This diet hardly hamstrung them- it enabled them to conquer vast territories while constantly outnumbered, and fueled legends of their incredible ferocity.(Turnbull 30) looming on horseback 8 ft above the ground, screaming maniacally, capable of unleashing repetitive and deadly fights of triple-edged arrows, they must have seemed the very embodiment of horror to those who had to stand and fight them. Nor were such fears unwarranted, for Scythian warriors regularly beheaded their enemies and sometimes even skinned them whole. If an enemy were known personally, his skull might receive a special treatment: sawn through below the eyes, it would be cleaned and painstakingly fashioned into richly appointed drinking vessel. Not surprisingly, Scythian ceremonies especially royal funerals, were drenched in blood: sometimes these drinking vessels were filled with enemy blood, mixed wine and after arrowheads were dipped into it, the concoction was imbibed by the Scythian chieftain."(Mann 4) Contrast these diets of these lean, mean killing machines with that of the gladiators. Gladiators in the Roman era were generally captives obtained from battles with neighboring tribes, all of whom generally subsisted on meat. As such, they were generally described in accounts by ancient authors as

huge framed, broad shouldered, muscular, and wild eyed,(Tacitus, Jordanes, Turnbull) and were chosen to be warriors for their stature and ferocity. Once placed into the arena, however, their diet was changed to a nearly vegetarian diet, and not because the gladiators needed the extra energy. "The vegetarian diet had nothing to do with poverty or animal rights. Gladiators, it seems, were fat. Consuming a lot of simple carbohydrates, such as barley, and legumes, like beans, was designed for survival in the arena. Packing in the carbs also packed on the pounds. 'Gladiators needed subcutaneous fat," Grossschmidt explains. "A fat cushion protects you from cut wounds and shields nerves and blood vessels in a fight.' Not only would a lean gladiator have been dead meat, he would have made for a bad show. Surface wounds "look more spectacular," says Grossschmidt. 'If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on," he adds. "It doesn't hurt much, and it looks great for the spectators.'"(Curry) So, high carbohydrate diets are awesome for getting fat, and but are they necessary for maintaining cardiovascular endurance? Nope. The aforementioned study by Phinney cited two stillunrefuted studies in which endurance athletes were switched to a ketogenic diet. In both studies, their performance improved considerably after their acclimatization period. Neither group consumed supplementary calories, but rather increased their fat intake to accommodate their increased energy needs. Thus, you might consider altering your macronutrient profile simply by adjusting your fat intake prior to attempting the inclusion of carbs. Were I to do so, I'd consider adding heavy cream to my protein shakes and possibly rubbing my ribs with olive oil.

Upping Your Carbs Pre- and Post Workout

If you're not interested in increasing your fat intake or have already tried it and found it didn't do what you'd wanted, there's always upping your carbs. In the Anabolic Diet, Mauro Di Pasquale mentions that certain people will have a tremendous amount of difficulty maintaining progress on a ketogenic diet consisting of 30 grams of carbohydrate a day. As such, he recommends that one complete at least the initial 10-14 day keto run and then begin experimenting with increases in their carbohydrate levels until an optimal balance between performance and body recomposition is struck. Following this line of thought, he tailored a diet for Gozilla's second cousin, Bob Sapp, so that it lowered the fats somewhat and increased the carbohydrates.(Di Pasquale, Bob Sapp 11) He did mention, however, in the Anabolic Solution for Powerlifters, that people who are excellent fat oxidizers (like myself) can easily train on 20 grams of carbohydrates a day, so experimentation is absolutely critical- don't just decide what you need at the outset.(ADFP 21) Ol' Mauro claims that the timing of one's carbohydrates is fairly insignificant, but does note that eating pre-workout carbohydrates will decrease IGF-1 and GH.(ASBB 70) Thus, he recommends eating 50-100 grams of carbohydrates postworkout, for a total carbohydrate intake of .5-1gram of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight a day. This, of course, would necessitate a concordant drop in fat intake. On the flip side of the coin, Lyle McDonald's Targeted Ketogenic Diet is actually based on the utilization of mostly pre-workout carbohydrates, which he feels are necessary to fuel high intensity exercise. He recommends 25-50 grams of carbohydrate pre-workout, and claims that the type of carbohydrate and the glycemic index thereof is insignificant. This would, of course, still preclude the use of fructose, as the goal is to replenish muscular glycogen stores rather than the glycogen stores of

the liver. According o McDonald, pre-workout carbohydrates will likely not affect either your insulin levels nor your ketosis (though they might throw you out of ketosis for the duration of your workout), and are thus fair game for just about everyone. Conversely, post workout carbohydrates may negatively affect ketosis, so he encourages experimentation with those.(Ketogenic Diet 125) As for the type of carbohydrates, I have a suggestion from novelist and paleo internet guru J. Stanton, who told me that he's been using a modified version of the APD for a while with great success. If you're unfamiliar with his stuff, Stanton does a bunch of wacky [things] outdoors that I'm inclined to call cardio, but he insists it's just "doing epic [stuff] outdoors", like climbing mountains while fasted and all sorts of other [stuff] that doesn't involve picking things up and putting them down. He did, however, recently start lifting and noted the APD is [awesome], with a couple of his own variations: "Here's an advanced-level Predator Diet variant: you may get more mileage out of your protein shake if you eat several grams of dextrose with it. Reasoning: the protein causes some insulin release, which (if the protein is eaten solo) requires some glucose to be released from the liver in order to maintain blood sugar levels. Then your liver will signal "NEED MORE GLUCOSE" and there will be a cortisol spike, whereupon your liver will suck up some of the protein and convert it via gluconeogenesis. Also cortisol is catabolic. So the additional dextrose basically gives the inevitable insulin something to chew on, and as a bonus, causes a bit of extra insulin release which will help drive protein into muscles. (Note that "weight gainer" shakes have an assload of sugar because it's cheaper than protein. Too much, no good. I'm working on about a 4:1 protein/glucose ratio, but that's a guess and open to refinement. And it includes whatever sugar's already in your protein powder.) You can buy a big bag of dextrose at the brewery supply store...but the easier way is to just eat a few Bottle Caps or Sweet Tarts candies. Believe it or not, they're basically 100% dextrose: no sucrose or HFCS. So my routine during protein loading days is: glass of unflavored whey isolate + 4-5 Bottle Caps, every few hours. Note: add Runts and Spree to the list of "glucose with impurities": like Bottle Caps and Sweet Tarts, they're just dextrose, maltodextrin, and flavoring."(Stanton)

The Gist

As you can see, there's a bit of debate on the optimal timing of one's carbs if you're adding them to the Apex Predator Diet, but if you feel you need them, there are methods to try. Experimentation is the name of the game, so get out your chemistry set and make something awesome happen. Just remember, however- the baddest [dudes] ever to walk the Earth didn't need bread to help them stomp the piss out of a bunch of bagel-chomping [people], and it's likely you don't either. Sources: Bodybuilding.com. Stan Efferding 6500 calories diet. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=138848513&page=1

Curry, Andrew. The gladiator diet. Archaeology. http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/gladiator.html Di Pasquale, Mauro. Anabolic Diet. Di Pasquale, Mauro. Anabolic Solution for Bodybuilders. Mauro Di Pasquale: 2002. Di Pasquale, Mauro. Anabolic Solution for Powerlifters. Mauro Di Pasquale: 2002. Di Pasquale, Mauro. Bob Sapp (The Beast) Training and Nutrition Secrets. Published as pdf. Jordanes. An account of the person of Attila. Mann, Nirmil. The Life and Times of Pakher Singh Gill. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing, 2005. McDonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Diet. 1998 Phinney, Stephen D. Ketogenic diets and physical performance. Nut Metab 2004, 1:2. http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/2 Tacitus. Germania. Turnbull, Stephen and Wayne Reynolds. Mongol Warrior 1200-1350. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003.