ISSA Trainers - Atkins vs. Pritikin: The Debate Rages On!

[webmaster]

The battle lines have been drawn and everyone has taken sides. It is by far the most heated subject in nutrition, and self-proclaimed gurus have crawled out of the woodwork to weigh in with their opinions on the high carb diet vs. low carb diet debate.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa20.htm

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This article is very "typical" of what you'll find in the "body building" community today, following very closely to the mainstream nutritional dogma that is commonly accepted by bodybuilders. In other words, it has very little relevance to what he is supposed to be writing about! The field of nutrition is dominated by "trained nutritionists", and as far as I can tell 99% of them have been thoroughly and completely programmed into the "you must eat a balanced diet" dogma, which means they would never be able to recommend a "low-carb" diet, for example. The nutritionists that support low-carb eating are the ones who have actually tried it themselves and seen the results. 100% of the time, when you see someone say "low-carb doesn't work", it is because they have a pre-ingrained prejudice against it, ie know little about it and have never tried it, or have only tried Atkins, only tried "phase 1", and only done it less than 3 weeks. I don't know why bodybuilders continue to stubbornly stick to the "low carb=ketogenic diet" idea, but for those of you who actually want to try it, do this: don't eat 20 grams of carbs per day, eat 70. It makes all the difference in the world. Don't believe the hype, try if for yourself!

[cutlerfan]

I think that is a very good article although I am not fond of one approach more then another as the "only" dieting methods available. Bodybuilders tend to use high carb/low carb days and I believe that is what works the best. You can't eliminate carbs and expect to have energy to get through life but you can't continually eat high carbs and expect results. If the dieter has high carb/ low carb days then they should be fine. Another thing I have found to be effective are carb placement diets. This is where you mainly eat a high protein/ low carb diet but only eat carbs when they are detrimental to building muscle. I may eat an oatmeal in the morning maybe a half hour or so before my workout and then a few rice cakes after my workout. The carbs are being burned but at the same time you aren't gasping for energy.