A diet I heard about

[Coleman]

Hi

I read some stuff on a high protein diet which sounded really interesting. However this diet was different then the usual high protein diet. The author called it the meat, leaves and berries diet. It had you eating a lot of beef, chicken, pork and pretty well any other un processed lean meat. For breakfast he recommended steak and eggs or eggs and fruit salad. For lunch a tuna sandwich (on whole grain) and a big salad with chicken was recommended. For supper any meat with salad and veggies was recommended.

This diet was meant as a weight loss diet but I'm wondering that if you ate enough if you could gain off it. I'm not interested in making huge gains, I'm after functional strength. Is eating carbs necessary to gaining weight?

One last thing, is eating like that healthy? I personally don't see a problem with eating a lot of meat (especially if you get good cuts from the butcher) and salad, fruit and veggies never hurt anyone.

What do you guys think?

[Jane]

Well, here is a low-carb FAQ link:
http://www.solid.net/~homerc/

But if you're looking to gain mass, I don't really understand why you'd restrict your carbs so heavily. The general recommendation for a good massbuilding diet is above-maintenance calories at a ratio of something like 50% carbs, 30%protein, 20%fat, or 40/40/20...

The foods you've described (meats, veggies, fruits) are good, clean food but restricting other carbohydrates may limit your gains in strength and muscle mass.

[Tryska]

if you keep whole-grains in, and use sweet potatoes as well, you should be able to use it for a bulk. just make sure that the meat products you use are anit-biotic and hormone-free and that they are lof in fat.

[Mark]

The diet is OK. For strength all you need to do is to add a little more carbohydrate in on workout days, say oatmeal with skim milk for breakfast and a couple of small baked potatoes with lunch, maybe a protein drink and piece of fruit before your workout.

The deficiency in diets of this nature are EFAs (the good fats) as with even lean beef and pork there is a fair amount of saturated fat.

You'll also gain more functional strength and have more energy if you break down the 3 meals in to 5-6 small ones a day.

[Jane]

oh you're keeping whole grains in? Sorry, I must have misread. In that case, you should be ok.