Velocity Diet - Opinions?

[Quick Start Test Smith]

I was reading an article on T-nation and finally decided to read the one about the V-Diet.

Here is a page about it: http://velocity.t-nation.com/free_onlin ... y-diet-3-0

And here is a list of the supplements used: http://velocity.t-nation.com/free_onlin ... are-to-win

Sorry but am I the only one thinking this diet just exists to sell all those products? I mean, the results are good for just 28 days (I guess) but the results better be good if you're taking all those supplements!! That's a ton of supplements!

What do you think?

[John Cook]

Patrick- I've never heard of this diet plan prior to your post... interesting to say the least! To begin, my sentiments mimick yours in regards to the embedded sales pitch I was subjected to when reading the article.

What stood out immediately to me was a line in the opening paragraph where the author says that he's 'never seen a single person make a dramatic visual change in his or her body using the slow, steady, and "sensible" approach'.... this makes me wonder what the author actually thinks constitutes a "sensible" approach to making "visual" improvements... From my personal experience the people who have achieved the most dramatic positive body composition changes that were maintainable have done so utilizing a slow, steady, and "sensible" approach.

As I read further the author gave examples of success stories with the diet... all of whom seemed to loose about 20lbs and 4-5 inches off their waist in 28 days and this 20lbs was assumed to consist of fat only. This follows along nicely with the purpose of the diet which is to invoke a dramatic "visual" change in ones body within 28 days. To help the process along the diet requires weighing in once a week and taking circumference measurements around the body to verify that indeed the numbers are retreating as one progresses through the program. The problem I have with this is that not once did the author emphasize the importance of a body COMPOSITION analysis (skinfold, DEXA, bio-electrical impedance) at the beginning and end of the 28 days so a person would know that they actually improved or screwed their muscle to fat ratio while dropping a hefty % of their bodyweight.

Other aspects of the program such as taking photos, informing friends and family of your intentions as a way to hold yourself accountable, the concept of NEPA (non-exercise physical activities), the high intensity workouts, and the decent whole food meal ideas seem good; its just that there are alot of ways the author could discount peoples "improper" results as simply failure to adhere to the "exact program". -cook

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Excellent points, JCOOK!

[John Cook]

HaHa... thanks! Diets like the Velocity Diet that involve some type of complete immersion into a system for a specified duration have the potential to provide results... however; I do believe that they dont allow the individual to understand on a fundamental level exactly HOW these programs affect their bodies. The provided dietary templates allows a person to pour themselves into a mold so to speak and this doesnt really take any initiative on their part to seek the knowledge and reasoning behind the dietary choices they are making... people see the advertised potential for positive results (if they follow the path) and are willing to go for it... but the path of least resistance isnt always the best path! We all bust our asses in the gym... tearin stuff up 3-4-5-6 days a week for an 1 1/2 - 2 hours a day isnt easy and we all devote alot of energy as well into developing a constructive workout plan that will allow us to progress.... but what about the other 22 hours of the day? A rhetorical question I know... but this has been something that I've paid alot of attention to in the past few years. The need to feel a synergy between diet, stimuli, and recovery has led me on a constant quest to dig deeper into the seemingly endless vat of information on the science behind the effect food has on our bodies.... and it is discouraging and overwhelming at times when there is SOOO much info out there... but each piece comes together like a puzzle and after awhile I believe I'll have a grasp of something tangible!!! - cook

[Joshua Naterman]

I was going to make many similar points.

There is no way to know how much lean mass is lost without dexa scans or 4-8 way bio-impedance.

The enormous amount of supplements required should be an alarm bell. It may work extremely well, but without knowing what the endocrine response and body comp changes are it is impossible to endorse.

It is certainly for sales, because there is no need for such a ridiculous protocol to achieve a good visual result. Perhaps it takes twice as long, but my god... that's a lot of money to spend for 28 days vs 70 days.

Suggesting that the hundreds of thousands of people who achieved results with Body for Life, Leangains, continuous energy balance, and who knows how many other systems don't exist is outrageous and is the biggest alarm bell. It seems to me that the staff at T-Nation has no ethical backbone whatsoever and a minimal regard for the safety of its consumers. I think they'd market steroids to their people if they became legal again, and I think they would admit to that. After all, every single one of these crazy products tries to reproduce the results people got with steroids!

It is basically a low calorie liquid-only diet. It's just a high protein version, with what must be some pretty strong chemicals to alter fasting nutrient partitioning.

Absolutely ridiculous thing #2:

This program is designed for short-term weight loss – it is not designed to be a lifestyle diet used for prolonged periods of time.

Translation: This is dangerous to your health.

Duh. We already know that. They use strong stimulants to mask CNS fatigue so that you can perform weight training and cause your body to preserve more lean mass (you keep more of what you use than of what you don't use when it comes to muscle during a fast, which is basically what this is). They have you consuming protein 5x per day. That's good enough to maximize protein utilization. They have some esoteric supplements in there that I don't know anything about.

It's basically an all liquid version of how you should be eating, combined with some stimulant chemicals to hide the negative effects you will experience without them.

You don't need the supplements, aside from hot rox. Low calorie diets shut down thyroid hormone and hot rox apparently elevates T3 levels to help keep your body "regulated." This would be the single most important supplement. You could totally do the rest with veggies and whole foods.

Note: In no uncertain terms, I want to say that it is stupid to screw with your thyroid hormone levels with a pill. Your T3 levels will actually increase significantly through long term continuous energy balance, which will lead to a visibly leaner body that is resistant to fat gain from occasional poor eating binges, all without the hormonal issues and supplements. It helps to have the liquid protein before, during and after the workout but we already know that.

The Surge Recovery is just protein and carbs with some extra leucine and phenylalanine.

The Superfood is just blended, dried fruits and veggies. The advertising for this is also ridiculous and should probably be illegal. "who's got time to eat the right amount of fruit and veggies each day" lol... and then on the V-diet page they assure you that you are going to be able to do just that after the diet... even though they tell you no one has that ability. Fuck these T-nation people, they are straight up dirtbags when it comes to their advertising. THEN they tell you that they give you 10x the amount of antioxidants you need per meal, based on what you can get from natural foods. This is the exact shit that increases your risk factors for chronic diseases. Again, should be illegal and definitely is unethical. They don't even tell you the vitamin or mineral values on their label. Again, DIRTBAGS. Of course, if you take 1/10th the recommended serving it becomes a great supplement, as long as you don't take it with any meal that contains real fruits or veggies, but don't tell them that because they they can't make money off of you and you won't go broke trying to pay for this stuff.

Flameout might actually be a decent omega 3 supplement, but they try to act like it's the nuclear bomb in your arsenal and it's more like a .22 pistol. It is also really expensive, and tries desperately to cling to "anti-cancer" properties of omega 3 fatty acids, which are more properly attributed to a diet that is low in processed foods. Sure, they help some, but it's mostly just NOT getting all the excess omega 6 fatty acids. You also only need a 4-6:1 omega 6:omega 3 to be in ideal health, which happens to be what the ratio is in walnuts. Walnuts, therefore, are your ideal nut to snack on. Just a useful tidbit to make up for the rolling port-a-potty of misinformation on T-nation.

It is legit to add leucine to your protein pre and post workout. That is a good supplement.

And, obviously, we know protein is good. I think that's been covered.

So, in answer to you Patrick:

V-diet will work, but is expensive and can be done with far less hassle than they want you to believe. You are too lean, in my opinion, to really benefit much from this. You can try it, but I'd recommend making the modifications and just using the hot rox extreme and continuing to eat great food. Just run a 300-400 calorie deficit and try to stay around there all day, bouncing from -400 to 0 or so, with an overall deficit of 300-400 calories over the course of the 24 hours. You do that, get your pre and post workout nutrition, and eat your veggies and carbs and you'll be better than great.

You are also, by the way, way too active to really do the V-diet unless you stick to their volume limits, which will eliminate about 80% of what you do. T-nation is smart enough to realize that any serious athlete in real training is going to be destroyed by this diet, you have to be fairly inactive outside of brief workouts. Way too much potential for lean mass catabolism. The above method is much preferred for you if you're looking for rapid fat loss.

[John Cook]

I remember an instance awhile back when I was meandering through the aisles in a local GNC and a high school age kid came in and gravitated toward the Muscletech products... the ones with the shiny colorful labels and high def pictures of Jay Cutler lovingly cradling said product all flexed out to the max. I could almost see the wheels spinning in this kid's mind resulting in me imagining the little cartoon balloon above his head as he thought to himself- 'if I take this... could I look like THIS??" Truth be told there are alot of uninformed people out there willing to do anything to have that quick fix. I can empathize because nobody wants to intentionally cause themselves harm; decisions are based on the desire to help themselves achieve a goal.... and there are marketing strategists, consumer psychology experts, and apparently the fine people at T-Nation waiting for those people to pick up the bait.... it is unfortunate that I seem to notice more and more people subscribing to the more is better, faster is better, and more expensive must mean its better ideology... and fewer and fewer people actually wanting to put in the work and time to understand how to let the human body do what its supposed to do to achieve the results that we want. Maybe its hard for some people to grasp just how well the body functions when your approach is simplified to the basics.... without all the extraneous supplements and gimicks.

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Haha, it's getting pretty serious in here. lol

Thank you, Joshua, I was never considering this diet. I figured right off the bat that it wouldn't fit with any semblance of athletic training, especially not the amount that I'm doing!!

Besides, I'm dedicated to getting my NT stuff worked out for the long run not going on a 28 day spike. The only supplements outside of amino acids, protein, and carbs that I'm willing to take are herbs that help keep me a guy in this estrogen world. I'm sure I can even get better aesthetic results than this by sticking to a simple NT plan that I'm working on.

And after reading that NT tutorial you're working on. (right? :wink: )

[Joshua Naterman]

Haha, it's getting pretty serious in here. lol

Thank you, Joshua, I was never considering this diet. I figured right off the bat that it wouldn't fit with any semblance of athletic training, especially not the amount that I'm doing!!

Besides, I'm dedicated to getting my NT stuff worked out for the long run not going on a 28 day spike. The only supplements outside of amino acids, protein, and carbs that I'm willing to take are herbs that help keep me a guy in this estrogen world. I'm sure I can even get better aesthetic results than this by sticking to a simple NT plan that I'm working on.

And after reading that NT tutorial you're working on. (right? :wink: )

Hehehe, you guys never let me slack off

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Of course not

[Julian Aldag]

Like a lot of things, im sure it works in the short term.

But, I would rather spend my money on positive lifestyle alterations (= long term change), and going to the movies.

Jules

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Me too, Jules