Comments on: Calorie Partitioning: Part 2

By: Carlos

Carlos — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:24:52 +0000

Excellent article! This clarified the doubts I had with calorie/carb cycling.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:47:35 +0000

So then would it be more advantageous to select 7 days of 10% deficit for a static .5lb fat loss or choose 5 days of 15% and 2 days at maintenance/refeed for metabolism.

Situation A seems like it would put less stress on the body and less metabolic slowdown would occur; however, situation B seems like the refeeds would counter any potential harm from the slightly larger deficit.

I know both of these are small, but I think you understand the crux of my question. Does the concept of increasing calories one or two days cancel out any potential benefit, simply because a larger deficit must be created on other days to make up for it?

Thanks.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:27:05 +0000

Ah, okay thanks, that clears it up.

By: lylemcd

lylemcd — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:55:26 +0000

Jack,

GH does go up when you underfeed as shown in the charge above (GH is listed as increased for both over and underfeeding)

But the effect is not anabolic. Rather, GH goes up to mobilize fuels (fatty acids) and this occurs to spare lean body mass loss. But in a low insulin state, this is not anabolic in the least.

And if I recall, the studies showing that carbs lowered testosterone were probably because it was increasing testosterone clearance into tissues.

Lyle

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:27:39 +0000

A few times in the article you mention that lowering insulin will increase the binding of testosterone, and also that overfeeding will increase growth hormone and vice versa. I’ve seen studies (which I’m probably misinterpreting) that conclude that growth hormone tends to increase when your UNDERfed and will decrease with rising insulin. A recent study concluded that doses of glucose significantly lowered testosterone, up to 25%.

I’m getting cognitive dissonance here.

By: Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Hello. I love the amount of detail you’ve put into these Mini articles. That said: Please elaborate on the following- “There’s a lag time of several days between the drop in leptin and the drop in metabolic rate (nervous system output) for example; I’d be surprised if a mere 12 or 24 hours was sufficient to reverse this. Rather, I’d expect it to take a similar amount of time for the reversal to occur. The reasons I feel this way are sort of beyond the scope of this book, send me an email if you really must know.”