My Diet mainly consists of Carbohydrates these days, making them almost 60% of
my overall caloric intake.

I used to experiement with low carb dieting but felt that It left me feeling
sluggish and looking flat (I did loose fat, but also too much muscle).

Mike used to tell me, "you can eat a pound of pure sugar everyday, as long as you
keep your calories below maintainance, you WILL loose fat!" - I did not try that -grin

However, Mike was right (as always). The last show that I did (MM2002) involved a diet
that mainly consisted of carbs (white rice, potatos, oats,fruit and some Veggies), the
protein content (chicken, GEN'S HumanPro, Eggwhites) was rather low in compare
to my "old-time" diets (250-300gr Protein!) - my protein intake roughly made it to
120gr-150gr!!! (no muscle tissue was lost at all!)

Of course, being a HIT trainer (Training brief and Intense) is part of the reason
too. Any other program (Volume, high sets) would've probably destroyed my lean
muscle tissue and left me with less size and therefore less active tissue to
burn fat in order to achieve the ultra-ripped condition that I ended up being in.

So after years (15!) of changing from what I originally believed was right (60/30/10)
to eating only fat and proteins over to eating low carbs and whatever else
the Fitness industry came up within that period of time, I ended up going
back to the "old school" approach - EATING BALANCED!

C,mon guys - THINK! - Muscles need carbohydrates to operate.

Mike always used to say, " Fat burns in the flame of Carbohydrates." - He was
saying that by eating them (carbs) someone would actually get a metabolic advantage.

Sort of like throwing dry wood into a fire, the flames will rise - He refered
to proteins like using wet wood instead, the flame would have a difficult time.

To come to a conclusion on how to burn fat and gain muscle, we need to understand the basic
concept of calories IN versus. calories OUT.

It is rather simple (the fitness industry just made it look complex in order to sell more worthless supplements.)

Your body operates on the concept of "Need" - you need a certain amount of
daily calories to maintain your bodyweight as well as "Need" some extra calories
to fuel the workouts and have enough "caloric back-up" to grow that little
extra tissue on a weekly basis. (No "Need" for "Insane High Calorie Diets!)

So go ahead and write down all your calories for the next 5 days. Make sure to
weigh yourself on the first day, then do it again on the last.

This pretty much should give you a total intake over 5 days which you would then
divide thru 5 to get your daily average.

Check you weight on the 5th day and see wether you gained some, maintained or increased.

If you gained some = Make sure that it is not more then 2lbs. Maintain Caloric Intake.

If you maintained = Increase your daily calories by 300kcal (more will turn into fat!)

If you lost = Increase your daily calories by 500-1000kcal (start with 500kcal)


Calories are not like water - you don't piss them out! (grin)

I hope I made myself clear as far as the concept of "Need" goes...you eat too much
you WILL get fat! (Muscles don't grow by eating more - Try intelligent Training!)

I like to tell a story here (this is getting longer the I thought) that I had
listend to while driving thru the desert the other day. The story is from
one of Mike's tape lectures that was published a few years back in MD magazine.

Here it goes.

Mike was talking about the issue of nutrition related to Training. He advised
a guy on his diet program to loose fat, but the guy ended up following the
advise of another big bodybuilder that told him the following:

"you must eat more to burn more - the more calories you eat, the higher your
metabolism will be, which will then finally make you a fat-burning machine"

So the poor guy ended up stuffing himself with over 5000 calories a day in the
hope of finally getting that ultra-ripped look like the Pro's.

After 3-4 weeks of doing so, he finally returned to Mike (on the phone) and
complained about the shape he was now in - the shape of a powerlifter after
winning a month supply of "Krispy Creme" Donuts -grin

Mike replied, " what did you think would happen Tom?" - " do you think that
for some magical reason, this would actually work?" 

Mike further said, "Let me ask you, If someone has to eat more to loose, what does
someone have to do in order to gain? - the guy had no answer.


Of course, It appears to be rather obvious (to the rational thinker) that there
has to be a limit to how much someone can eat before he puts on bodyfat.

However, It still seems that there are plenty of people out there that would
do anything (including ignoring the laws of Nature) to get to the "next level".



So, to give you guys my final advice.

1.Eat a balanced diet (60% carbs/30% protein/10% fat)

2.Find out your own individual caloric requirement (use the above example)

3.Divide your meals into small portions spread thru the day (4-5 meals)

4.Take a good Multivitamin/Mineral daily (I will also outline some more on
Supplements later on a different page)

5.Drink plenty of water (8-10 cups daily)