PSMF diet

[Oltmann]

There has been some talk on here about how you shouldn't go below X calories on a diet, and I was researching trying to figure out what X is.

Then I stumbled on the PSMF diet. Protein sparing modified fast.

You eat 1.5g protein per kg of lean body mass, some non-starchy vegetables, vitamins, fish oils, and nothing else. This adds up to 800 calories at most.

This diet was created for and proven on the bed-ridden morbidly obese. Active people may need to up the protein number a bit.

This diet may impossible to follow, but it will burn fat like nothing else. Who wants to try?

 

[bigbadbuff]

It's nothing different than a crash diet- short term results at best, and 800 calories a day is insane to try to live on (no offense).

You would have to work out like a fiend to not have all that protein turn into extra pounds- and you can't do that on a low calorie diet, as your enery will be nil.

Sorry bro, can't agree this is a good thing.

 

[Oltmann]

You don't live on 800 calories a day. You live on your body fat, that is the idea. Of course you discontinue the diet after you lose the weight, and you will have to adopt a new diet to maintain your weight. The subject is weight loss diets though.

Your second statement...you will have to restate it. I don't understand.

People seem to have the idea that if you cut calories too low, you will lose a lot of lean body mass. Particularly for overweight people, this simply is not true and it has been tested many times with PSMF diets. Do a PubMed search on PSMF if you don't believe me.

A commercial protein sparing modified fast (PSMF) preparation has been evaluated for the protein sparing effects in 15 morbidly obese patients. During a 500 kcal preparation, given during a 6-week period, mean body weight and BMI decreased significantly. Total body fat decreased from 55.8 to 41.4 kg and lean body mass and arm muscle circumference (AMC) remained unchanged. Using indirect calorimetry and under the same degree of energy expenditure, carbohydrate metabolic consumption was significantly diminished (166 to 61 g/24 hr; p less than 0.001) but fat consumption was increased (116 to 155 g/24 hr; p less than 0.05) while the metabolic turn-over of protein was unchanged. This new presented PSMF preparation seems to present the typical properties of a protein sparing modified fast.

 

[gospastic]

hello,

i am on a diet somewhat similar to this. it is a carbohydrate cycling diet, which has much of the same effect in that i am able to lose fat while losing minimal muscle.

i basically eat half or a little bit more than half of my maintenance calories for 3 days (about 1700), which consists of lean meats, healthy fats and fibrous vegetables. i then eat my maintenance calories or a bit above for 3 days (about 3000), consisting again of lean meats, but lots of starchy carbs. each cycle therefore is 6 days. each 6 day period i still have a net calorie deficit of about 3000 calories, which puts me at a net loss of about 1 lb per week.

i have been on the diet for about 3 weeks now and it is working well.

 

[Oltmann]

I have started a diet like that recently too. It is called Ultimate Diet 2.0 by Lyle McDonald.

 

[PHV]

hello,

i am on a diet somewhat similar to this.  it is a carbohydrate cycling diet, which has much of the same effect in that i am able to lose fat while losing minimal muscle.

i basically eat half or a little bit more than half of my maintenance calories for 3 days (about 1700), which consists of lean meats, healthy fats and fibrous vegetables. i then eat my maintenance calories or a bit above for 3 days (about 3000), consisting again of lean meats, but lots of starchy carbs.  each cycle therefore is 6 days. each 6 day period i still have a net calorie deficit of about 3000 calories, which puts me at a net loss of about 1 lb per week.

i have been on the diet for about 3 weeks now and it is working well.

That diet sounds kind of pointless given that you can lose 2lbs a week without eating anything crazy and good exercise.

 

[Oltmann]

I am a vanity dieter. I want single digit body fat. Normal diets don't work for this.

Here is an excerpt from Lyle McDonalds book:

"For obese folks just trying to lose weight, pretty much any non-marsupialed diet will work. The main issues to deal with there have more to do with anxiety and the issues involved in changing long-term eating and activity patterns. And even though some readers might disagree, getting a male to 12-15% bodyfat or a female into the 18-22% range usually isn't that difficult. Basic food control, adequate protein and exercise will usually get it done without too much trouble. This book isn't aimed at either group.


By the time folks get to the 12-15% (18-22% for women) range, anxiety, food control and changing habits usually aren't the problem. For bodybuilders and athletes meticulous food control and training is part of the lifestyle. It's when folks start trying to achieve the lower extremes of bodyfat percentage that other problems start to occur. Ravenous hunger, severe muscle loss, metabolic slowdown and screwed up hormones are a few of the usual problems. Women and some men have an additional problem mobilizing and getting rid of stubborn fat (hip/thigh area for women, ab/low-back fat for men)."

 

[Panzeraxe]

I am a vanity dieter. I want single digit body fat. Normal diets don't work for this. Here is an excerpt from Lyle McDonalds book: "For obese folks just trying to lose weight, pretty much any non-marsupialed diet will work. The main issues to deal with there have more to do with anxiety and the issues involved in changing long-term eating and activity patterns. And even though some readers might disagree, getting a male to 12-15% bodyfat or a female into the 18-22% range usually isn't that difficult. Basic food control, adequate protein and exercise will usually get it done without too much trouble. This book isn't aimed at either group. By the time folks get to the 12-15% (18-22% for women) range, anxiety, food control and changing habits usually aren't the problem. For bodybuilders and athletes meticulous food control and training is part of the lifestyle. It's when folks start trying to achieve the lower extremes of bodyfat percentage that other problems start to occur. Ravenous hunger, severe muscle loss, metabolic slowdown and screwed up hormones are a few of the usual problems. Women and some men have an additional problem mobilizing and getting rid of stubborn fat (hip/thigh area for women, ab/low-back fat for men)."

Yep - I did similar diet in college and was ripped beyonmd belief - go on www.t-nation.com and search for the Velocity Diet - its very good and a little more precise than the one you outlined. Panzer

 

[Panzeraxe]

I should point out that such a diet is not specially healthy nor is it meant for long-term fat loss - its mainly a quick fix to get you ripped for a special event.

Panzer

 

[gospastic]

Quote:

(gospastic @ May 11 2005,23:52) hello, i am on a diet somewhat similar to this. it is a carbohydrate cycling diet, which has much of the same effect in that i am able to lose fat while losing minimal muscle. i basically eat half or a little bit more than half of my maintenance calories for 3 days (about 1700), which consists of lean meats, healthy fats and fibrous vegetables. i then eat my maintenance calories or a bit above for 3 days (about 3000), consisting again of lean meats, but lots of starchy carbs. each cycle therefore is 6 days. each 6 day period i still have a net calorie deficit of about 3000 calories, which puts me at a net loss of about 1 lb per week. i have been on the diet for about 3 weeks now and it is working well.
That diet sounds kind of pointless given that you can lose 2lbs a week without eating anything crazy and good exercise.
actually, i wouldn't consider losing 2lbs a week to be very healthy. in addition as was already outlined if you want to reach single digit body fat percentage normal diets really don't work. i've tried them. i'm losing extremely slowly, i'm actually gaining some muscle surprisingly. far from pointless. please try not to be so rude next time.

 

[nashelto]

I was 330 lbs and a doctor told me that a really low calorie, really low fat diet was the way to go, over a span of about 6 months of eating less than 800 calories a day and less than 15 grams a fat a day (on the diet 6 days off 1, on the diet six days off 1 rotation) I got down to 230....

I was still very flabby and had lost a lot of muscle, but over the last year and a half I've been working to transform, I went from 230 about 30% bodyfat to 225 about 17% bodyfat and a lot more lean muscle......that was up until about a month ago, when I started the velocity diet....

Velocity Diet Specs:
Protein Shakes (at least 1g per lb)
Flax
Fish Oil
MultiVitamin

I'm getting around 1400-1500 calories a day, about 1100-1200 from protein at about 250g protein a day.

I'm now 21 days into the diet and weigh 199....that's right 25 lbs down...now I would deffinately say 7 or so of it was water that I released when coming off of creatine, but man do I look good, and what's good about the diet is that since you're getting so much protein, and you lift HEAVY!!! your muscles don't deplete as much as they would on a lower calorie/heavy cardio diet.....it's worth looking into....

I have a day by day V-diet blog on http://blog.bodybuilding.com/Coltsfan46202

it's a day by day recount of what I've been feeling, things like that....my strength has gone down some....but not as much as if I had took a longer route to losing 25 lbs......supposedly most of the weigth I'm losing is pure fat too.....I dunno....

Just thought I would throw that out there.....later on.
-Nick

 

[lefty]

Originally Posted by Panzeraxe

Yep - I did similar diet in college and was ripped beyonmd belief - go on www.t-nation.com and search for the Velocity Diet - its very good and a little more precise than the one you outlined.

Panzer

Shugart's regurgitated V Diet is hardly more precise than McDonald's UD 2 or RFL.

If you're going to do a PSMF make sure you follow the program as written with proper refeeds.

I would drop the $40 for the book and sign up for McDonald's newsletter which is filled with actual info and not just a plea for sales like so many other trainer's sites.

lefty

 

[sweep]

I've been on several of these so-called "crash diets" (oooo, scary) and have never experienced any fatigue, even while maintaining heavy lifting workouts at least 3x a week. To reiterate what others have said, read Lyle McDonald's stuff - he knows his stuff. The PSMF book gives you all the guidelines you need to know, and he's very accessible on his forums.

 

[manofstyle]

I'm not happy with my fat loss progress - I'm probably in the high teens right now - so I'm going to go hardcore.

4 cans of tuna a day + multivitamins + the odd glass of fruit juice. I'll aim to not to over 1k calories a day, and keep this up for 9 days.

 

[wahwho11]

thought it said PMS diet. why don't you just stick to a regular diet with a small calorie deficit instead of fad diets.