The Bad Carb vs. Good Carb Debate

I have come to accept that whenever I talk about bad carbs being good, I’m soon in for a fight. Last year, I posted a diet of Troy Alves on an online forum and was bashed when people read the amount of carbs he was actually consuming. The chorus of internet gurus shouted to the hilltops that it was absolutely impossible for someone to become so lean while eating such ungodly carbs. It was ridiculous how quickly people responded with their uninformed disapproval. “Idiots”, was my thought. However, in lieu of setting off a war of the gurus, I didn’t respond.

There are as many ideologies when it comes to bodybuilding nutrition as there are in politics. You have the liberals, moderates, and conservatives. And depending upon the issue, liberals become more conservative and vice versa. On certain issues, it’s difficult to distinguish a conservative Democrat from a liberal Republican and everyone’s arguments descend into confusion. It’s the same when it comes to everyone’s opinions on carbohydrates. There’s the all-carbs-are-bad-when-you’re-dieting-so-don’t-ever-let-them-touch-your-lips-under-any-circumstance-approach , the no-carb high-fat approach or the low carb medium fat diet juxtaposed with the higher carb approach at the other end of the spectrum.

So where do I on stand on carbs? The fact is carbs can make you fat and can make you big. And contrary to what the draconian low carb purveyors claims that they are not anabolic, I disagree. They are totally anabolic. They may not be anabolic in the text book sense like proteins where amino acids are used for new structure. However, they are part of the process of getting big. They provide you with energy and create important support and drive for insulin which funnels nutrients into muscles; amino acids included to literally drive growth. To say they are not important is like saying, “Ok we are going to build a building. We have all the material we need-the cement, the steel the nuts and bolts. The only thing missing is the person to pound the nails, drill the holes, and cut the steel.” If you really want to grow, you need protein and carbs just as an actual building requires more than material. It requires human energy generated by the carbs to bring the quality materials (proteins) all together.

So it’s no secret that I like carbs. Having said that, people always ask me about “bad” carbs. They are usually referring to things like cold cereals, muffins, cake, cookies: the junky stuff. From a cutting perspective, I think they are okay with one caveat. You have to know when to eat them. The simple rule I follow is this; If the bodybuilder has been improving, that means dropping body fat and getting visibly leaner, I have absolutely no issue with him eating cake instead of oatmeal, or Lucky Charms instead of yams. This is acceptable because as you get leaner a few things occur. The first result is that storage reserves for carbohydrates called muscle glycogen fall. This in turn negates, to some degree, the idea that you have to stick to slow burning carbs (oatmeal, yams) because the lower the glycogen reserves (not none), the less insulin (from eating any carb) impacts fat storage. The other result is metabolic momentum. If your body has been consistently dropping body fat, substituting “bad carbs” for the yams or red potatoes will not slow fat loss unless you eat more or stay on “bad carbs” for more than a couple days.

The moral of the story is that a bad carb with good timing is all good.

Prepping for the Arizona Pro Show: Troy, Deshaun & Tarek

The Phoenix Pro Show is right around the corner and I will be there with three guys who are equally capable of winning- Grandpa Troy Alves, the deadly Tarek Elsetouhi, and Kiko Grimes better known as Deshaun. All three have completely different physiques and strengths that make either one a force to be reckoned with. One thing that I require of all the athletes I work with, is that they are disciplined, remain focused, honest, and trust me 100%. All of the trash talk and opinions in bodybuilding can ruin even the best athlete. Luckily for me, these three guys are good all around athletes that bodybuilding is more than a sport-it’s a mindset. Oh, and I like to trash talk too. Its fun. I just do it with these three in private.

Troy Alves, by all accounts is in the best shape of his life at the age of 44. When I met Troy back in 2005 he was coming off of a disaster 2004 Olympia defeat. I believe it was Victor Martinez who originally hooked us up. That was back when Vic was bringing it on big time with stellar mad conditioning at the Night of Champions, the GNC, and his impeccable condition for his first Mr. Olympia in 2004. Troy went on to give a good run to Gustavo Badell at the Ironman the last year before firing me. I felt really bad he took me off the payroll, but he put me back on for his comeback. According to him, his "last shot" was the 2009 Europa Pro in Orlando. Troy buckled it down and won it and went on to have a great year. He went on to prove that there was a lot left in him that had yet to be unleashed.

Tarek Elsetouhi who is deadly in any show he enters is now 261 pounds three weeks out. When he won the Arnold Amateur, he was only 220. Needless to say, he’s made crazy gains since then. We were introduced to each other by someone on the web a couple years ago. We got along from day one because he took his marching orders without deviation. Last year, he improved a whole lot but still struggled to place high. He was 6th in 2 pro shows and 8th in the third, but he's back and ready. Tarek was actually the first bodybuilder to ever stay at my home in preparation for a contest. Since his NY Pro show lockdown, the ProCard Hotel opened its doors to Troy before last year’s Atlantic City win. (Actually he got 3rd but I still joke around and call it his second pro win because that’s where I thought he should have placed. But we won’t get into politics).

Then there's Deshaun. We started working together after an odd chain of events. During the Tampa Pro Show, Tarek saw Deshaun on the bus we were taking from the airport to the hotel. He asked me if I knew that “big guy” who was on the bus with his wife. Tarek was a bit disappointed when I said that I did not know him. I was wondering why and he told me, "he just seemed like an honest guy. I can tell from his demeanor”, Tarek said. It turned out that Deshaun was in the show and Tarek met him backstage. Tarek said, “He’s a really decent guy with his head on straight. I think if you helped him he could be good." At the following show in Dallas Deshaun looked really good. I was speaking with George Farah about the show and I told him, "This Deshaun is dangerous as hell!" George agreed and should have known cause he has been Deshaun’s main go-to guru who has played a big role in helping Deshaun get to the top. In a month or so, I got an email from Deshaun asking for me to give him some guidance. I told him that I was too busy. However, the more I got thinking about it, my mind kept on going back to Tarek saying he "can tell" when people have a good head on their shoulders. That’s a treasure when you can find that combo. I asked a few people about Deshaun and the response was the same. Everyone said, " Great guy." Not that cliche type answer but the praise seemed to come with conviction and authenticity. So about 12 weeks out I e-mailed him to see if he was still game.

Contest Preperation

Ok the preps. Troy's prep is off the charts and so is Deshaun's . Tarek's is just right. Troy has been on, compared to most bodybuilders, a very high carb diet of about 350 grams a day with little to no cardio. He has been in shape since last year. It took a long time to get in shape which means he never did anything too radical to get that way. The benefit; when you take your time, don't rush things and really listen to your body, the metabolism does not crash and you don't get a rebound after a show where you look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy 3 weeks after a show. As an overview he has been on cardio only for the final 6 weeks and only 20 minutes a day. His diet is typically something like this:


Meal 1
3 or 4 packets of grits
10 egg whites, sometimes 13

Meal 2
Carb drink with 75 grams
protein powder with 50 grams. Once in a while 75 grams

Meal 3

10 oz turkey
1-2 cups rice


Meal 4
10 oz fish
large yam


Meal 5
50 gram protein shake


Meal 6
12 egg whites

Deshaun is on the other end of the spectrum - hard diet, hard cardio, hard everything. His typical day is about 8 meals with egg whites (15) and a small bowl of oatmeal at meal 1 , 8-12 oz chicken or fish at 5 with 2 to 350 gram protein shakes. He does 45 minutes of cardio after training and again after an afternoon training session. Sometimes, he will have another 50-70 grams of carbs in the afternoon. For all you "you gotta have a cheat day" fanatics. I have tried that. He gains 20 pounds. Worse, he continues to gain after coming back onto his diet. Working with Kiko is like watching a stock. It’s up and you are making money. Now it’s down and you are losing. Now its having unbelievable returns and you are planning when to plan the summer vacation on Riviera. Now it’s crashing and you wish you had sold while it was way up. That’s his body. One day he's large and in charge. The next day, he looks like he's ready to ship out to a drought stricken country. Two weeks to go. Yesterday he was off the charts. Posted a crunch shot on a web site. Today he's off. Not from training. Just off- flat and watery. He’s by far the most baffling bodybuilder I have ever worked with, but He’s been a welcome challenge.

Tarek has taken the "build the fat off approach." Babies continue to eat, pound for pound, more food than at any time in the human life cycle. What happens to their fat? They grow and it goes away. Tarek had been off from training for several months when he started his prep but was pretty lean. I didn't see any real wisdom in dieting an already lean body for the show so I figured it would be better to grow into the show. As he has filled out, he has gotten harder and harder week to week especially the final 6 weeks. His diet is typically something like this:

Meal 1
70-100 grams carbs from oats
50 gr protein shake

Train

Meal 2
300 grams chicken
200 grams potato

Meal 3
300 grams chicken
200 grams potatoe

train and 30 to 45 minutes cardio

Meal 4
60 grams ECDY N7

Meal 5
8 oz fish
salad

Meal 6
12 egg whites of 40 grams ECDY N7


The take away message and a reminder for myself, is that no two bodies are alike. Sometimes I look at Troy's plan and laugh. When he was doing no cardio I used to call him and make fun, "Troy you need two 40 minute nap sessions today!" It was my way to jokingly mock most of the other competitors who were likely killing themselves on cardio. On the other hand, I look at Deshaun torturing himself with two cardio sessions, hard ones and comparatively almost a no carb diet. The bottom line: You have to do what you have to do to get in shape. There are no cutting corners.

Patrick Bernard: Three Times a Charm?

For the past few years now, I have attended the Canadian Championships. I have been working with a few guys in preparation for the Championships and have been impressed with the level of talent that I’ve seen. However, for some reason, it seems that when a Canadian finally gets that elusive pro card, they disappear.

The first two Canadians I ever worked with were Dave Fischer and Bruce Patterson. Dave Fischer really shocked the crowd at the first North American he did way back in what I believe was 1991. He was truly striated from head to toe. I mean, totally! The other Canadian, Bruce Patterson, got his pro card at around 21 years old. I was working with him around the same time I began working with a very young Jay Cutler. In comparison, Bruce had the mental focus to train hard and achieve great conditioning but Jay had the added feature of sheer determination- something you can't train for but just comes from an internal desire to compete. If there was a way to put Jay’s rock solid determination into Bruce’s psyche, there is no doubt in my mind that he would be fighting for IFBB pro wins today.

Patrick Bernard, of Quebec City, is another bodybuilder with that rock solid determination like Jay’s. I met him through a mutual friend, Sam Zebib, who has one of the freakiest physiques ever. Sam, who knows I love to work with workaholics and intensely disciplined athletes, told me that Patrick was exactly that type and that I should work with him. .Shortly afterwards, I started devising a nutrition plan for Patrick for the 2007 Canada show. After prejudging that year, I told Patrick, “You are either going to win the class and the overall or there will be someone who will beat you in the class and he will win the overall." The outcome: Patrick got second in his class and the class winner took the overall.

In 2008, Patrick came back to take the class but not the overall. This year going into the 2009 show, he’s more determined than ever with better balance and ability to retain his rock hard quality that should give him a very strong edge. I work with Patrick year round, so to say that I have a pulse on where his body is at, is an understatement. One thing that I demand of all of my clients is that they 1) Follow the exact plan that I provide with no deviation 2) Don’t pay attention to the pre and post contest peanut gallery 3) Always trust that everything I do for them is sound and 4) Always strive to elevate the sport. Patrick does all of these. I have no doubt from the level of sheer determination and discipline that he has shown that he will accomplish exactly what he’s set out for.

The Pics: The pic in the top left corner is Patrick in off season condition. The second and third pics were taken a month out from the show, so there is still a considerable amount of time for improvement. He looks denser than ever. His weight here is just 189 pounds so he is only two pounds away from the class limit. I’d like to be a servant and say “Patrick this year you can take the overall.” However, as I mentioned there are a lot of great bodybuilders in Canada and I am sure, from seeing how hard many of them train, anything can happen and the show is totally wide open.

George Asmus Chases USA

Give me someone with drive, determination and an overall strong desire to succeed and I'll give you ripped-to-the-bone conditioning. I get to work with a lot of talented bodybuilders and have brought them into their lifetime best shape; Jay Cutler at the 2001 Mr. Olympia and Victor Martinez at the 2003 Night of Champions come to mind. However, what I really enjoy is helping the "good" bodybuilder take his physique to the next level. One such guy is George Assmus from Illinois. The Illinois State Champion and GNC Champion recently cracked the top ten at the USA in Vegas but by all accounts he sported all the trademark highlights that make you sit back and say "wow!" Striated pecs, a super detailed back, glutes and hams you'd expect on a seasoned pro.

How did George do it? He used the diet system that I commonly use with many clients; one that is moderate in carbs, low in fat, but most important uses technical analysis to break through sticking points where the body tries to "fight back" against a calorie controlled diet by lowering its metabolic rate. While dieting works, after a while the body tries to fight you by slowing the metabolism into a lower gear. In short, over time diets no longer work and its at that point where your body fails to continue to change.

The critical edge is knowing at what point to adjust the diet to make sure the body does not slow its metabolic rate. One way around a slow down is to "let up" on calorie expenditure. When I saw George was no longer getting leaner (even though he was dieting and hitting the cardio) I would have him drop out the cardio. Yes, drop it out. The results; his body started getting leaner! Why? When you push the body and try to continue to force fat off the body the internal hormones that help burn fat in the body either can't lock up with their target area (body fat) or their activity in the body plummets. When you pull the cardio out, the hormones that help burn body fat when calories are low can more readily do their intended job -melting off the fat.

This is where proper spplementation is critical. Nordrenalean HSL, a supplement I developed with this potential roadblock in mind, interferes with the metabolic adpatation seen with dieting. In George's case, he was able to continue to stay on a diet much longer than typically one would expect without hitting the dreaded plateaus. He was able to move right thru those stubborn and frustating barriers using a powerful combination of nutrients that allow the fat burning hormones to remain high even when calories are low.

Throughout George's preparation for the 2009 USA, several adjustments were made to ensure his physique was fine tuned at the critical moment. On occasion, I instructed him to take a break from his diet for a day or two to allow his calories to increase and avoid the loss of muscle mass. At other times protein intake was increased when it appeared that he was starting to lose muscle in his upper pecs or shoulders.

As a testament to his determination, George tore his tricep badly 14 days from the show and was still able to achieve the level of conditioning that is allusive to a typical national competitor. His discipline, determination, and the ability to work through intense pain was (he is set for surgery only three days after the show that will immobolize his arm for two months) is indeed a sign of a love and passion for the sport. Despite the urging of his doctor to pull out from the show, he didn't. His very long, hard and well planned prep period was so well tuned that despite this setback and his virtual immobility, he never complained. He took it one day at a time and hit the stage in his best shape ever due to the contest prep he endured.