I haven't seen any evidence supporting the benefits of a PSMF, except for the obese. Could you show me any, Built (or anyone else)?
The benefits?
Define the metric.
Benefits compared to a 'regular' low calorie diet with 1g/lb of protein, essential fats and carbs or fat to make up for the rest of your calories, especially considering you'd need a shorter refeeding period on a standard diet.
I'm also particularly worried about the negative effects of a PSMF on a not-overweight person. I don't have any data on this.
In short, I know a PSMF is an excellent diet for overweight people and I guess it could be used as a crash diet to make weight (easy to combine with cutting water weight), but that's about it.
New data could change my take on the subject of course.
Um, I eat a lot more than a gram of protein per pound lean mass when I'm cuttingâ???¦ and I'd hardly consider making water weight the same thing as running a PSMF.
Witchblade, have you read Lyle's book?
You're evading my question.
I'm not evading it - I'm trying to answer the right thing. If you haven't read the book, you're coming from a different position than those of us who have. I need to know how to address your concerns. If you've read it, but still don't see the utility, we can discuss that. If you haven't read it, I can offer you a Cole's Notes version so you can clarify your thoughts.
Well, you may not be around now and I may not be around later, so I'll try to answer this from two possible angles.
If you have not read the bookâ???¦
The diet we are talking about here is Lyle McDonald's "The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook - A Scientific Approach to Crash Dieting". It is Lyle's take on the Protein Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF) which has been used medically to induce rapid fat loss in morbidly obese undergoing medically supervised rapid fat loss. Lyle has modified this with the strength athlete in mind, with three different categories (depending upon percent bodyfat) which come with different guidelines for duration, free meals, and refeeds. The protocol is outlined in detail (it's a very good read), and he discusses the need for full diet breaks and exit strategies. He sells it on his site if you're interested.
If you HAVE read the bookâ???¦
You will certainly know that this isn't a lifestyle - Lyle is quite clear on this fact.
My personal opinion on it is that it is a valid modality to use under a variety of circumstances for the non-obese who are looking to drop bodyfat - IF the person using it already knows how to set up a maintenance diet to maintain the weight-loss. This (coupled with muscle-loss from low-protein, super-low calorie dieting with too much activity) is where most people fail miserably under conventional crash-dieting paradigms.
For an individual who already knows how to diet properly, a few weeks of PSMF at the beginning of a cut is a nice way to get a kick-start going, particularly if coming back from a layoff or travelling abroad where diet may have gotten away. While you are at your "juiciest", you aren't going to risk metabolic shut down. Neither will you risk much - if any - LBM in a two-week crash diet with very high protein and almost no training.
Many of us use these periods as a combination of "layoff from intensive periods of training" with a fat-loss kick-start. I learned the value of this earlier this year and it's been invaluable to me.
Another perk to Lyle's plan is that a lot of people in this sport find maintenance (at ANY weight) a lot easier than slow, micromanaged dieting. For people who prefer this, dieting can become a series of somewhat discrete quanta instead of a slow, steady trickle of losses: say, two weeks PSMF, two weeks maintenance, repeatâ???¦
See? Not evading. The question you asked was more than one simple thing to answer.
Witch is just looking out for me. What a nice chap.... Never knew he cared....
