Today was my first day on the Metabolic Surge nutrition program.  It calls for me to limit my carbs at 30 to 50 grams each day. The recommendation (rightly so) is to aim for the 30 so you can make sure not to exceed the 50.  It is a tough thing to do. 

I started my hypertrophy workout today and it felt great.  The feeling of pushing that heavy weight was just awesome and I loved every minute of it.   The log is posted below.

I had internet problems yesterday that prevented me from publishing this blog entry.  I am happy to be able to publish it now.

This past week I asked a question about Metabolic Surge and a ccomment regarding protein storage.  In Mission 1, Day 32: Protein storage…what? I questioned the concept that author Nick Nilsson seemingly put forth regarding protein storage.  I took Lilla's advice and emailed Nick.  He graciously responded and agreed to let me post his answer in this post.  My question to Nick was as follows:

Question about Metabolic Surge comment. In the eBook you make the following statement: “Your body uses up its protein stores and, just like carb-loading, this creates an urgent need in your body to store the missing nutrient when it gets it again.” This sounds like you are saying the body can be deprived of protein and it will then, when given protein again, store up what it was missing. However, everything I read says that protein is not stored in the body like fat and carbs. The body only uses the precise amount of protein it needs and the rest is eliminated in the urine. So, my question is this—are you saying that protein can be stored in the body like carbs and fat or is this statement saying something different?

Nick's reply to me clears up the matter nicely:

Hi Michael, I should definitely clarify that. Basically, what the zero-protein day does is increase that “need” in the body for that protein. When you do zero-protein, your body uses up it's store of free amino acids (these free aminos are found in the bloodstream – the equivalent of about 80 grams of protein or so). The body has to start pulling it from the muscle tissue to try and replenish that, which is similar to what happens when the body uses blood sugar and uses glycogen from the muscles to try and maintain blood sugar. And just like with glycogen, when the stores of aminos are reduced in the muscles and bloodstream, when you add in protein in great quantities after that deprivation, there is a supercompensation effect. So basically, when you do zero protein, it removes protein from the muscles. When you add it back in, your body pulls aminos back into the muscles and ends up pulling in MORE than were there before. It IS a temporary situation (just like when the body overcompensates with carbs) but that presence of more amoino acids makes for a highly anabolic environment in the cells, leading to easier muscle growth in the short term. Hopefully that makes sense!

Best regards,

Nick Nilsson
Vice-President BetterU, Inc. 
http://www.fitstep.com 
http://www.powerfultrainingsecrets.com

What Nick says is the exact same understanding of have of protein depravation from Optimum Anabolics.  The idea is when you deprive your body of a macronutrient and then reintroduce that macronutrient into your diet, your body sucks up everything it can from that macronutrient and uses it accordingly.  If you deprive your body of protein, when you finally reintroduce it, your body will eat it up in the form of muscle growth.  As Nick says, it is a temporary situation.  In fact, Optimum Anabolics recommends 3 weeks of a protein depravation cycle.  During that cycle you only consume 30 grams of protein daily and that is only right after your workout.  By the end of that time period, you slowly reintroduce protein to your body and it sucks it up like a starving child.  It was a weird thing to experience, but it really did spur on muscle growth at the time that I tried it.

On another note, I asked Nick about using the Metabolic Surge nutrition plan combined with my New Rules of Lifting weight lifting program and he said it would be fine.  In fact, he's interested in what kind of results I get using that combination. Consequently, I am starting the Metabolic Surge nutrition plan on Sunday, December 2, 2007.  I have created a special category called “Nutrition – Metabolic Surge” to track the 36 day period in which I will be experimenting with this approach.  I plan to turn my body into a true fat burning machine during this time period.

I'm extremely excited that tomorrow (Sunday) will be my first day back to pushing the weights again.  I felt so lazy this week and yet I had a cardio session every single day (except today, which was a rest day). 

I just finished up writing the talking points for the podcast and will record it later today.  I will upload it on Sunday.  I look forward to your comments on it.

Until tomorrow…

Today I did a different sort of HIIT session.  I warmed up for 3 minutes and then I did 30 seconds at 8.5 mph and 30 seconds at 4.5 mph.  I continued this for 20 minutes (20 intervals) and then cooled down for 5 minutes for a total of 28 minutes of HIIT.  My heart rate monitor had me burning 387 calories.  Two days ago I did HIIT that lasted 28 minutes with longer intervals.  My heart rate monitor had me burning 298 calories on that day.  Thus, the shorter intervals (probably the shorter rest period) had me working harder and burning more fat.

I need to do something to kickstart my metabolism.  I am not sure why I'm so concerned because I've been getting consistent results for over a month now, but I am thinking ahead.  I know I will plateau eventually and I want to avoid it because I have some very specific goals I want to meet.  Failure is not an option here.  I know many of you might think I should just relax and make a move if the results slow down and you are probably right.  Adam says that I should do Surge along with the training, but I like the results I'm getting from The New Rules of Lifting and I'm not ready to stop that program yet.  I guess that means I just need to be very (extremely) strict about my nutrition.  I also need to play some games with the carbs because I honestly think I'm a little carb sensitive.

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments you've been leaving.  I will be recording my podcast this weekend. I  had originally planned to release it on Saturday, but I'm thinking Sunday is going to be the day.  If I can find the time tomorrow, I will release it then, but Sunday at the very latest.  Please check back for that!

Until tomorrow…

Today was a long day at work.  I had to run around to various places and deal with issues I didn't really want to deal with.  I got in my cardio session again today.  As has been my habit the past few days, I changed it up again.  It feels good to keep my body guessing.

I've been toying with doing just the nutrtition portion of Metabolic Surge to help myself burn the fat faster.  At the same time, I've started to re-read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto to assist me in my planning in that area.  I just keep feeling that my body could use a kickstart like the one Metabolic Surge gives.  I'm up in the air on this decision. 

I start Hypertrophy 1 on Sunday and I can't wait!  I miss the feeling of lifting really heavy weights.  It pumps me up just thinking about it.

I really don't have alot to say today.  Life is just pretty amazing.  Even when things look bad, there's something good waiting around the corner.

Not what we give,
But what we share,
For the gift
without the giver
is bare.
–James Russell Lowell

Until tomorrow…