What Does DEFoW do for Men?

After I understood the concept of how carbs (all of which is converted into blood sugar or glucose) affects the body I realised that creating periods where my body was able to turn on “fat burning mode” was possible… Essentially this meant giving myself the precise amounts of carbs I need for every task… I could eat my fill of everything else and once I looked after the carb aspect of my diet the weight literally melted off.

Background: The brain burns about 420 calories of sugar per day, and the body, if sedentary burns about the same again (maybe even a little less) because it prefers to burn fat at rest (the purest fat burning aerobic state and it burns it slowly).  This means that our requirement for calories from carbs, if say working at a desk, is <800 a day so as part of the proverbial 2000 calorie diet that’s about 40% of the diet (if you’re active or go to the gym more will probably be required).  The rest of the diet should be split roughly 50/50 between fat and protein, but be aware there are 9 calories per gram of fat and only 4 per gram of protein.
After 4 years of training, winning international championships and working my ass off I still had a lot of body fat and my muscle tone was OK (see pic on left) but I wondered what I had to do to get in the shape you’d see guys in on TV.  The problem was my diet.  It was good, I was eating naturally at that stage but I had a few little things wrong.

I then used the method I came up with in the DEFoW diet and lived by it for a few weeks, separating foods, timing foods, precise carbs and fueling training right by bookending with protein and the right carbs for the job at hand before and after.

This meant I kept my muscles primed with glycogen pre-session and restored it after.  Kept my protein levels up to ensure muscle protein synthesis occurred long after training to repair my body.  I couldn’t believe the difference…

With about 8 weeks of doing this I went from someone in relatively OK shape to a stage where my best friend said “you looked like someone from hollywood” and another person who I shall not name said “I looked like a Cavin Klein model. I have to mention, I did not train for aesthetics, I’m not a bodybuilder or training for that sake.  I just want to eat right to support my training, but it is very nice to receive such wonderful compliments at the same time.

Enough about me, my best friend David Burke (41), wanted to try the diet after seeing my results, but he wanted to come at it from a different angle, he was already slender build but wanted to bulk up a bit.  I didn’t realise how effective it would be for him.  His bench went from 60kg to 95kg and he packed on muscle and is over the moon with the progress.  He tells me that he feels like he could burst through a concrete wall he feels so strong…  Here’s what David had to say about it…

 “I was always fit but I could never put on muscle, and if I did, I’d loose muscle getting rid of body fat, after doing the Don’t Eat for Winter diet I gained more muscle quicker than ever without starving myself and amazingly I’m even getting a six pack…”

Now the guinea pig phase is over.  My naturally thin friend tried it and he bulked up and he’s getting compliments from his family and friends. I’ve tried it on myself, someone prone to putting on weight and it stripped me down and allowed me to build muscle and I can’t even fully absorb the compliments I get regularly, probably because of where I came from…

 

 

 

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Cian Foley is a Software Engineer from Waterford, Ireland and also a 2 time European, pan-American and World amateur kettlebell champion. Cian was a 115kg (256lb) obese 35 year old and has completely transformed into to a fit and healthy 78kg athlete through his 8 year journey of discovery around nutrition and exercise. He now competes as a natural bodybuilder at the age of 43 to prove that it is never too late to get into great shape without the use of steroids.