Last Updated on February 2, 2025
The anabolic diet is a diet that plays a vital role in muscle building and also helps reduce weight. The diet reduces carbs with high protein and high fat meals in week days and gains more carbohydrates on weekends.
During the course of the five-day low carbohydrate phase, the people following anabolic diet plan eat meals with higher protein and healthy fats while consuming very low amounts of carbs. This approach helps in fat burning and also boosts testosterone. In this phase, meals consist of protein and high fats like oils, fish, meats, and nuts.
During the high carb phase, which consists of two days, the anabolic diet plan lets you consume more carbs. This increment in carbohydrates boosts your energy stores, which helps you in tough workouts and also enhances muscle growth. During this time, you can eat anything like whole grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables which are not allowed during the low carb phase.
The main focus of the anabolic diet plan is to maintain the specific number of calories which promotes muscle growth and helps in losing fat. The purpose of this is which number of calories a person needs a day based on things like his weight, level of activity, and fitness targets. Protein is very important for our body, and the recommendation for protein intake per kilogram of our body weight is 1.6 to 2.2 grams each day to promote our muscle growth and also for improvement.
The anabolic diet has few similarities to some other dieting plans like cyclical ketogenic and carb cycling, but it’s unique in its macronutrient ratios and timing of carbs intake. People are confused about anabolic diets and steroid diets for cutting or bulking, but you should keep in mind that the anabolic diet is purely natural and doesn’t use the things that enhance performance.
If you wish the best results with this diet plan, you have to focus on meals rich in nutrients, that promote muscle growth. This involves foods with high quality proteins such as fish, lean meats, and eggs, in addition to sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, and olive oil. In the high carb phase, you should consume complex carbs such as whole grains and starchy veggies instead of consuming much sugars.
One thing to be noted is that the anabolic diet can be helpful for some people, however, it may not be fruitful for every person. If you are going to have a big change in your diet, its fruitful to ask a medical specialist or nutritionist before taking the anabolic diet, particularly if you suffer from any health problems or special dietary needs.
Main Rules for The Anabolic Diet
Definition and Origin
Dr. Mauro DiPasquale created a diet plan which is called anabolic diet, a way to enhance muscle building and also lose weight. Being a healthcare professional and expert powerlifter, DiPasquale designed a diet plan for people wishing much gain in their muscles by keeping low fat levels in their bodies. DiPasquale called it anabolic diet because he considers that carb cycling is similar in its effects to anabolic supplements.
What is Macronutrient Cycling?
The phenomenon in which anabolic diet switches to low carb and high carb phases is named as macronutrient cycling. In week days, people have the meals which are rich in fat and protein with the lowest amount of carbs but, in weekends they have an alternate diet that is high in carbs. This way of eating is very helpful to preserve muscle mass by also promoting weight loss.
The weekday phase means maintaining carbs consumption up to 30 grams a day, in which calories gain mostly come from fat and protein. Ideally, you should consume a diet in which level of fat is about 60-65%, protein 30-35%, and carbs just 5-10%. This way of low carbohydrate consumption boosts your testosterone building and moves your body towards fat burning more efficiently.
The weekends mean restoring your carbs. In the weekend phase, about 60-80% of calorie intake is from carbohydrates, while a smaller number of calories is from protein and fat which is about 10-20% from each. This increment in carbohydrates boost your glycogen, provides you more energy for high intensity workouts, and boosts your muscle gain.
Diet Phases
The anabolic diet plan has three different phases, and the purpose of each phase has a particular target:
1. Maintenance or Induction Phase: This is a first phase and normally consists of one to four weeks. If you want to know about your calorie consumption, multiply your body weight in pounds by 18. This phase makes your body used to the less carb diet while keeping your body’s energy level stable.
2. Bulk Phase: After the first phase, the 2nd phase is named as bulk phase, the aim of the bulk phase is basically to gain bulk weight. Bulk phase has no time limit, it doesn’t end until you achieve your goal. Dr DiPasquale advises taking your ideal body weight in pounds and then adding 15% to find your bulk weight goal.
3. Cutting Phase: This phase is a weight loss plan with low carb. Its purpose is to lower the number of calories from 500 to 1,000 calories from the calorie consumption of the maintenance phase. The cutting phase lasts as long as you achieve your set percentage of body fat, which is ideally below 10%.
During all three phases, the anabolic diet sustains its main rule of switching between low carb weekdays and high carb weekends. This strategy helps to maintain fat as a primary source of fuel, avoiding carbs burning and also aiding in energy restoration which is lost in intense workouts.
Implementation of Low Carb in Weekdays
One of the important parts of the anabolic diet is low carb weekdays. The purpose of this phase is to burn fat and build up testosterone. By following this phase, people should eat a certain diet, focus on their meal planning, and add specific supplements to their routine.
Food Suggestions
For the low carb phase, which consists of five days, people following the anabolic diet plan should eat the diet that has high quality of protein and healthy fats by keeping minimum carbs consumption. The purpose of this strategy is to reduce carbohydrates level less than 30 grams a day. The meal formation for this phase should have a high quantity of protein and healthy fats.
Suggested meals are:
1. Healthy meats like pork, beef, chicken, and turkey
2. Eggs (egg whites, complete eggs, and yolks also)
3. Fish, preferably healthy fats category such as tuna and salmon
4. Seeds and Nuts, like walnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, and chia seeds
5. Dairy products, especially high in fats such as butter, cheese and heavy cream
6. Non-starchy veggies, especially having green leaves like broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower
7. Fatty oils, like coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado oil
One important thing in this phase is that people should prevent eating foods that are higher in carbs like fruits, starchy veggies, legumes, and whole grains.
Tips for meal planning
To get the best results from low carb weekdays, it’s crucial to plan your meals. There are some suggestions here for you:
1. Figure out your calorie requirements per day based on some things like your body weight, level of activity, and fitness aims.
2. Set a target for a macronutrient breakdown to maintain 60-65% fat, 30-35% protein, and 5-10% carbohydrates.
3. Make sure that you have low carb meal choices in advance for a whole week.
4. Add different options of protein in your meals to avoid monotony and make sure that you take all the nutrients that you need.
5. Combine non-starchy vegetables in your meal to get more fiber and essential nutrients.
6. Mix your meal with herbs and spices to make it tasty but without increasing the carb level.
Addition of Supplements
By adding specific supplements in your diet, the individuals following the low carb period of the anabolic diet can get more better results in muscle building and their general health. Here are some supplements to consider:
1. Whey protein: It supports to get protein needs and helps in protein-muscle combination.
2. Creatine: This can increase muscle strength and boost power during intense workouts.
3. Omega-3 fatty acids: They can help in your heart health and minimize inflammation.
4. Multivitamins: They can support maintaining micronutrient levels particularly when you are cutting back on specific foods.
5. Electrolytes: These help you to balance your diet that has been disturbed in the first stage of low carb intake.
Talk to your medical professional or nutritionist when you start taking new supplements, particularly before making certain changes in your diet.
Best Results of High Carb Weekends
This is an important part of anabolic diet; high carb weekends aim to restore glycogen and help in growing muscle. To get maximum results from these carb loading, it’s crucial to stick to certain approaches while using good carb sources.
Techniques for Carb Loading
During 36-48 hours, which is called high carb phase, aim to get 60-80% calories from carbs. This rapid increment in carbohydrates influence your hormones, boosting muscle building and recovery.
To get the maximum from this period, it’s best to split it into three different periods:
1. First 6 hours: During this time period you can take different types of carbs, also with higher glycemic.
2. 12 to 18 hour glycogen super-compensation period: In this period you should focus on complex carbohydrates to get maximum storage of muscle glycogen.
3. 4 to 6 hour transition time: You should consume more fiber with a little increase in fats to easy come back to the low carb phase.
Suitable sources of Carbohydrate
For maximum results of the high carb weekends, it’s essential to choosethe best carbohydrate sources. Although, you have more flexibility in this phase as compared to the low carb period, preferring a diet rich in nutrients is still crucial. Some great options are:
1. Starchy vegetables have complex carbs such as White potatoes and Sweet potatoes.
2. Fruits like Apples, Berries, and Bananas give natural sugars and antioxidants.
3. Whole grains area big source of fiber and nutrients as Oats, Buckwheat, and Quinoa.
4. Legumes such as Kidney beans and Chickpeas give carbohydrates as well as protein.
Preventing common mistakes
If you want to ensure muscle gain by the high carb weekends instead of gaining unnecessary body weight, you have to prevent these common mistakes:
1. Overeating: Although the high carb phase permits to have more carbohydrates, it doesn’t mean overconsuming junk food.
2. Ignoring protein: You should not cut off from protein diets completely, you should take the appropriate amount of protein to help muscle protein growth.
3. Ignoring timing: Try to take carbohydrates at the end of the day to support good sleep and to keep hormone balance.
4. Workout intensity adjustment failure: During the high carb phase, you should minimize your workout intensity to enhance glycogen levels.
Enhance Workout to Get more Muscle Gain
Exercise Intensity and Frequency
To get the best results of muscle gain on the anabolic diet, it’s important to focus on exercise frequency and intensity. Compound weight-lifting exercises are believed to be the best form of anabolic workouts. These workouts engage different muscles and joints at the same time, engaging more muscle fibers and driving the central nervous system more efficiently than single joint exercises. Exercises such as presses, deadlifts, squats, and pull-ups provoke anabolic training and lead to higher protein synthesis.
Hard exercises involving heavy weights and short rest periods enhance metabolism and boost muscle building hormones with decreasing the fabrication of catabolic hormones. However, it’s essential to note that lengthy workouts can lead to a more catabolic position. To sustain an anabolic state, set a target for workouts lasting no more than 45 minutes to prevent an increment in cortisol, a stress hormone that encourages catabolism.
Choosing Workout for Maximum Anabolism
Choosing the right exercises is important for placing your body in an anabolic state for muscle building. Barbell and dumbbell workouts are usually the tools of choice to maximize muscle growth. These exercises are designed for progressive overload, which is crucial for constant muscle growth.
By enhancing anabolic training, stick to workouts that apply stress to the muscle and lead to muscle tissue breakdown. This overload rule is key to generating protein synthesis and building muscle mass. Incorporating workouts for different muscle groups boost the anabolic response. This helps in maximizing muscle growth.
Recovery strategies
Recovery plays an important role in enhancing your workout for muscle growth. After a hard workout, the body is usually in a catabolic condition releasing hormones that pull energy from the liver, fat, and muscles. To stop this breakdown and promote an anabolic state, use a mixture of carbohydrates and protein in 30 to 60 minutes after exercise.
Through active recovery, your body can heal faster and also helpful in repairing muscles. Doing simple exercises like walking, cycling, or swimming at thirty to sixty percent of your max heart rate may boost blood flow, which supports your muscle repair. Massage is also helpful in easing muscle soreness while minimizing stiffness.
Proper sleep is very important to recover faster and bring back glycogen. Set a goal for seven to nine hours of sleep, particularly when you do a hard workout. Sleep deprivation can lower muscle glycogen levels by about 25%, certainly influencing your struggle for muscle building.
Applying these techniques for workout frequency, exercise selection, and recovery strategies, you can get maximum from your workout routine to meet your target muscle gain by consuming the anabolic diet.
Summary
The purpose of the anabolic diet is to boost muscle building by losing fat through cycling macronutrients. This process switches between the low carb phase and the high carb phase to help in muscle growth along with burning fat of the body. You can achieve your fitness goals by eating foods rich in nutrients, with appropriate meal planning, and also taking supplements. Making a combination of diet with suitable training like compound exercises and recovery strategies, this diet plan makes significant changes in your body.
In conclusion, the anabolic diet plan gives a unique nutritional way for people wishing for muscle growth and loss of fat. Although it’s a great approach for followers, one thing you have to keep in mind is that it’s not beneficial for everyone. You should ask for a medical professional when you are going to make big changes in your diet. By learning and properly implementing these principles of anabolic diet, people can cash its potential to achieve their fitness goals and overall health.
FAQS
What are the principles that should be followed for the anabolic diet?
The anabolic diet advises its followers to consume 60 to 65% fats, 30 to 35% proteins, and 5 to 10% carbs. The two phases of anabolic diet are the low carb phase which consists of five weekdays in which your diet has minimum carbohydrates, and the second is the high carb phase which consists of weekends in which you can eat maximum carbohydrates to restore your energy.
What is a good diet for muscle growth?
To maximize muscle gain, you should follow a clean bulk diet plan, It suggests a balanced diet that consists of carbohydrates, healthy fats, and protein. Perfect foods are eggs, salmon, chicken, quinoa, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and different fruits.
Which food is believed to be most anabolic?
Foods that have complex carbohydrates, high quality protein, and healthy fats, play a vital role in muscle building. These foods include fish, lean meats, seeds, nuts, beans, and whole grains. Moreover, green leaf veggies and different fruits give important nutrients to help muscle gain.
What about stages of the anabolic diet?
This diet plan has three phases: the induction phase, the bulk phase, and the cutting phase. You can achieve your fitness goals by following these three phases properly.
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Author
Annika K
Hey I’m Annika K., MPH. I’m a public health professional who loves fitness and writing. With a Master’s in Public Health and experience working with the CDC and WHO I’ve spent years taking complex medical research and breaking it down into simple, actionable advice. I love being active and healthy and want to help others live their best life – whether that’s understanding a medical condition or finding fitness tips that work.