triple wrote:...somewhere on the forums there's a thread about how cheese can act as an anti-anabolic (it also tends to have hidden carbs).
To be clear, I'm the one responsible for that rumor, and I've apologized for it. Cheese is fine for anabolism, particularly if it's hard, aged, and of the really fatty variety. The time it's anti-anabolic is if you have an existing Candida overgrowth (very common in the obese) or if it's a softer cheese and you are lactose or casein-intolerant, and in that situation it can be anti-anabolic and also dramatically slow fat loss. I'm lactose-intolerant, and hard cheese are the only ones I can eat without discomfort. Being hunched over your toilet shitting your brains out is no fun, and certainly doesn't lend itself to wanting to do squats and deadlifts, as well as depressing your metabolism because you're so sick and not absorbing nutrients as you should.
Basic rule is that you need to go by what's right for your body. Eliminating cheese for a month or two, for many people, is a great plateau-busting technique when trying to prune away more fat. Why not hold that technique in reserve for when you go for 2-3 weeks with no fat loss?
The trans-fats aren't as big of a deal if you're eating low-carb, it seems that most of the problems come from having it with carbs.
To clarify: the effect of trans fats on your lipid profile is statistical noise compared to the HUGE improvement going low-carb will make to the triglyceride, small LDL, and HDL ratios in your blood. My opinion (I'm not a doctor) is because going low-carb makes such an enormous improvement to your lipid profile, the effect of trans-fats with their little 2%-3% difference can be largely ignored. If, however, you're trying to optimize your blood profile (I'm in the bodybuilding game for my health and not to get freakishly large), that extra 2%-3% might be worth fighting for. But the fact is, if you eliminate the crap foods from your diet, the small amount of trans fats you'll eat from frying and searing your meats really won't matter to your overall chance of mortality and heart disease.
Obviously you don't want to be drinking fried grease, but I don't think they're something to be overly worried about on the MANS diet unless you have a LOT of them.
To the contrary, I've started saving my beef tallow to cook other foods in. The more fat I eat, the easier it seems to be for me to stay on-plan, losing fat, and gaining muscle (or at least LOOKING like I'm gaining muscle)...
--Matt B.
... chuck steaks, and cheeses, and butter, and and....oh god now im hungry...guess its time for a salad
(although I can't just keep the carbs low and maintain on tons of fat, I actually have to keep my calories in check too... double whammy of being a woman I guess.
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