Today we return to T-Nation and a really important subject, a subject their Chris Shugart manages to turn into a full-blown retarded advertisement. Still, with more than 20+ active years as a high-level coach within the fitness and sports industry, this is something I worked a lot with, so let’s see what Chris has to say about the hormonal damage from strict ‘starvation’ diets.
“Famine is fairly rare in today’s world, but that wasn’t the case during World War II due to widespread food shortages. Researchers at the time wanted to learn what happens to the human body during starvation so they could help victims recover.”
That depends on how you define ‘famine.’ Most people today are overfed on macronutrients (fat, protein, and “carbohydrates,”) but underfed on the most important animal fats and micronutrients (real ‘vitamins,’ minerals, and trace elements, as only found in animals.)
This means that the majority of our population have no idea of how it feels to be truly alive, healthy, and thriving. They are used to feeling a bit tired and drained, even lethargic at times, experiencing brain fog, and they need coffee to ‘wake up,’ which in itself should tell you how obviously unhealthy you are. And that is also why people who go on a traditional strict diet, as in eating less, can really damage their bodies. They are already starving for nutrients and their bodies are struggling, then they remove even more nutrients — really putting their bodies into starvation.
“Professor Ancel Keys recruited 36 volunteers, conscientious objectors to the war, to study starvation and recovery. For 12 weeks, the volunteers consumed 3,200 calories daily to establish baseline health data. Then, for 24 weeks, calories were dropped to about 1,500 per day. They ate mostly the kinds of foods that were available in worn-torn Europe: potatoes, turnips, and bread.”
First off, Ancel Keys turned into a puppet, a charlatan that cherry picked his data and twisted everything he touched to fit the agenda of the food industry and the governing elite. So, while this study from 1946 was somewhat legit, everything Ancel did afterwards was complete and utter propaganda, as in the debunked ‘seven country study’ and his bastardized work on the ‘Mediterranean Diet.’ So, simply mentioning his name without a big disclaimer makes you look like a complete idiot that knows absolutely nothing about the bought and paid for “nutritional science.”
“The volunteers experienced significant weight loss (25% of body weight), a reduction in basal metabolic rate (BMR), decreased strength and endurance, and health issues like muscle wasting. Most were depressed, irritable, and couldn’t concentrate. Some withdrew socially and developed obsessive behaviors related to food. During the refeeding process, Keys found that it took longer than expected to get everyone healthy again.”
While 1,500 “kilo-calories” a day is nowhere near what would be called starvation or famine, as I’ve seen retarded coaches having competing fitness women on 800 kcal a day, these poor people only consumed complete slave foods, such as oats, bread, macaroni, root vegetables, and potatoes for 24 weeks. Foodstuffs that are totally void of animal fats, animal protein, and most micronutrients. They simply got carbohydrates, as in sugars, which is extremely toxic as it elevates blood glucose above normal stable levels which is toxic to our soft tissues and does great damage, especially if you are malnourished and your body can’t produce hormones and heal itself. So, the people in this “Minnesota Starvation Experiment” were not only lacking all essential nutrients in their diet, they were also poisoned by carbohydrates daily.
Also, if you read the study, the initial “control period” consisted of bread, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and only limited amounts of meat, which means that they slowly got depleted of nutrients during this first preparation phase — as animal products, such as meat, is the only source of bioavailable nutrients for humans. Likely, many of the participants already had nutrient deficiencies when they were put on the semistarvation phase for 6 months. So, in that regard, it is similar to what we actually see today as most people live on processed plant-based crap that is void of nutrients, and most people thus have minor nutrient deficiencies although they consume a lot of food and are overweight. Again, as I say, overfed but undernourished.
With that said, it’s extremely important to acknowledge that it’s not the “1,500 kcal” that made these people depressed, irritable, or made them withdraw from society; it was the lack of nutrients because of the food they consumed. That is a big difference. If they would have consumed “1,500 kcal” from animal-based foods, as in fatty meat and some organ meats, they would have thrived. Also, keep in mind that our body can absorb about 95% of all animal-based foods, while it will only absorb 60 to 75% from a mixed diet due to the damaging fiber and anti-nutrients. Thus, 1,500 kcal on an animal-based diet is equivalent to 1,800 to 2,000 kcal on a mixed diet. And again, our body does not respond to “calories” which is a man-made concept of physics, a ‘heat measurement,’ and has nothing to do with how our body interprets energy or nutrients.
And although the participants got a whopping “4,000 kcal” worth of “food” for 3 months during the ‘recovery phase,’ including some dairy and a little more meat, they recovered slowly and not all of them did within that 3 month period. And that goes to show how much damage you actually can do by consuming mostly plant-based crap. The participants’ diet during the “semi-starvation” phase was very similar to a vegan diet, which is the worst and most unhealthy thing ever imaginable.
The Newer Study
“This study focused on weight-lifting females: 27 amateur competitors preparing for shows. Seventeen were bikini competitors, nine were figure competitors, and one was in the fitness division.
The researchers wanted to find out what happens health-wise during the four-month pre-competition period, along with how well they recover from the strict dieting and increased training. After dozens of lab tests, the participants did what they always do: reduced calories, lowered carbs, kept protein high, lifted weights, and increased cardio or HIIT.”
Actually, if you look at the study, they ate a shit-ton of carbohydrates, which is extremely misguided and stupid. While protein was high, which will help to preserve muscle mass, their fat-intake was very low, which is another huge mistake as animal fats are crucial for hormone production and cell function. On average, the women only consumed 52.8 grams of fat daily, mostly from toxic and useless seed/vegetable oils, while they got 127.8 grams of toxic carbohydrates and 184.7 grams of protein. This is how misguided and retarded the fitness industry is, and especially the “coaches.”
The Results
“Most saw a 35 to 50 percent decrease in fat mass – they got ripped. Muscle size was either maintained or only slightly decreased. Weight training plus a higher protein diet allowed them to keep all or most of their muscle, the researchers concluded. That’s all good, but it wrecked their hormonal systems. “Leptin, T3, testosterone, and estradiol decreased,” researchers noted.”
It wrecked their hormonal systems — you don’t say! And again, this has absolutely nothing to do with the “calories” or the “energy intake,” it has all to do with nutrients, as in the choice of foodstuffs. They did not get enough micronutrients, saturated fats, and cholesterol to keep a normal hormone production and metabolism. It’s that simple. If these women would have followed our species-appropriate diet of animal-based foods, they would have been perfectly fine. Although there are much better ways to drop body fat weight and get ripped than a strict energy and nutrient-reduced diet.
“After their shows, the subjects kept lifting, decreased their cardio, and brought their calories and carbs back up to normal. In 3-4 months, hormone concentrations returned to baseline. Well, most of them. “T3 and testosterone were still slightly decreased compared to pre-diet,” researchers noted.”
Again, this has very little to do with increasing the energy intake, or what idiots wrongfully label as “calories,” and it has absolutely nothing to do with carbohydrates, which are toxic, you moron.
By simply eating more, they got a little more micronutrients (especially iodine, zinc, selenium, iron, and B vitamins) and especially saturated fat in their diet, just enough to slowly bring hormone production back up, at least a bit. According to the study data tables, the women increased their fat intake from about 52.8 grams on average to 59.7 grams after the competition. Still way too little and very idiotic. But, likely, they ate a little more meat and perhaps even eggs and dairy, so that the ratio between the healthy and life-sustaining saturated fats increased compared to the toxic and totally unnecessary unsaturated fats.
And this is also why some of them recovered within that time frame, and some did not. They all ate a lot more food, as in the misguided “calories,” but those who recovered more quickly simply got more essential nutrients from better food choices than those who recovered more slowly.
“The researchers looked at these results positively since muscle was mostly maintained and hormone levels returned to normal, or close to it, in the four months after the show. But four months is a long time to be hormonally hamstrung, especially regarding thyroid and testosterone. And many competitors do more than one show in a season. What happens when you end one competition prep and jump into a new one soon after?”
The “researchers” are morons. Your hormone levels should never drop to begin with. That is an indicator that your diet sucks, and that it sucks really bad, as in ‘your coach should be in jail for abuse’ bad.
And yes, four months is a long time. I’ve helped many women who had hormonally crashed after a fitness- or bodybuilding competition. And while some responded within 1 to 3 months, a few needed more than 6 months to recover, even on an animal-based ketogenic diet.
What We Can Learn
“With a high protein intake and weight training, muscle loss can be minimized or avoided, even during an extreme diet. The women in this study consumed 3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. That means a 140-pound woman consumed around 190 grams of protein daily. Most of the women in the study used protein powder to hit those numbers.”
Protein should always be above 2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. 3 grams is a bit much and mostly for those abusing anabolic androgenic steroids, as they have an unnatural high protein turnover. And no need to advertise your protein powders. Keep to real food. Meat and eggs, as that will actually provide all the essential micronutrients as well.
You should always think in the way of nutrients, of ‘nutrient density,’ as in what foods provide the most bioavailable nutrients while providing the protein and fat you need.
And remember, fat, as in animal fat, is just as important as protein. The only macronutrient that humans do not need, and that is actually toxic, is carbohydrates. And as we can manufacture all the glucose we would ever need, and at a really high pace through gluconeogenesis (faster than you can digest and get glucose from carbohydrates,) there is no need for carbohydrates ever in any kind of diet. And by cutting them out, you have a lot of room for real nutritious food, and hitting your protein requirements will be extremely easy.
“The damage done by a competition diet can be repaired, but it takes 3-4 months, maybe longer. Female competitors (and anyone going on a super-strict diet) should be aware of the hormonal changes, especially thyroid and testosterone. Back-to-back shows seem like a pretty terrible idea.”
If you for some reason love to compete and want to put your body through that kind of abuse several times a year, you could simply focus on nutrient-dense foods, as I explained above.
How to Minimize the Risks
“Certain supplements can help both men and women on a strict fat-loss diet, like a specific form of forskolin.”
And here it comes, the full-blown retarded supplement plug. A toxic supplement that stresses the thyroid to make more thyroid hormones will not help you in any way. It will likely “fuck you up” even more, as it is an unnatural stressor and extremely toxic to the body. You need to address the food you consume. It’s all about the nutrients, as I explained in detail above.
As for the approach to fat loss, in the past, during the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I used to start my clients on a ketogenic diet with the lowest possible energy-intake for their lean body mass, focusing on animal-based products. Then, every other week we increased the energy intake, while simultaneously adding in a little more work in the gym. For example, a fitness competitor could start her diet on 1,400 kcal while only doing strength training four times a week. And towards the end of the diet, she would be consuming close to 2,000 kcal, doing six sessions at the gym and two sessions of interval sprinting. That kind of reverse dieting stimulated their metabolism and worked a lot better than a retarded strict diet. Still, the key was the ketogenic diet that was high in animal fats, giving them all the nutrients needed for maximizing their hormone production.
With that said, around 2008 I started using days of fasting instead, while keeping food intake rather high during the rest of the week — or a combination of both approaches. Using fasting, which is muscle sparing, works just as well, if not better, and is also safer and easier to do. Kind of depends on your mentality. I’ve described that approach in detail in my fat loss articles.
So, to summarize, it’s not about “calories,” it’s all about nutrients. And as humans are obligate hyper carnivores, we can only get those nutrients from animal-based sources. If you cut them out during a diet, you are digging your own grave, causing all these hormonal and metabolic problems.
If you need help or have questions concerning fat loss or any health related problems, or if you need help with transitioning to our natural species-appropriate carnivorous way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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