Home :: Lyle McDonald Q&A

Uncensored Q&A with Lyle McDonald

Lyle McDonald

Lyle McDonald is a physiologist and author who has spent over a decade obsessively finding ways to apply cutting-edge scientific research to sports nutrition, fat loss and muscle growth. In this uncensored Q&A, Lyle answers your most pressing questions about diet and exercise.

Q. What is the easiest way for a vegetarian to get ripped and build muscle without putting on much fat, considering that our diet is mainly carbohydrate with little protein? Is it even possible to work against our diet? Or should we just be happy with just a slightly lean but not ripped frame?

A. Much of the answer I'm going to give depends on what “flavour” of vegetarian you are. What I mean by that is that vegetarianism is a fairly wide umbrella that can mean different things to different people.

Some vegetarians allow fish or chicken and only avoid red meat. Others eat no animal flesh (no red meat, chicken or fish) but are okay with eggs or dairy. Vegans are the extremists of the vegetarian world and eat no animal source foods including honey.

As you move down the ranks, obtaining sufficient protein can become problematic. And while vegetarian diets tend to have certain health benefits, there are risks for certain deficiencies. Getting enough iron, B12 and zinc (all found in high amounts in red meat) can be problematic, and other deficiencies can occur.

If chicken and fish are acceptable, obtaining sufficient protein should be no real issue. Even with nothing but eggs and dairy, it shouldn't be too difficult to obtain sufficient protein, although getting enough protein from dairy means taking in a LOT of excess carbohydrates.

Vegans are pretty much screwed.

Protein powders, even the vegetarian sources such as soy protein isolate or pea protein powder (available from Kirklandlabs.com) can make obtaining sufficient protein without excessive calories fairly easy. So you had better get real proficient at making blender shakes. That will allow you to reduce total carbohydrate intake (if desired) to reach your goals.

There are successful vegetarian bodybuilders out there although they

• tend to allow chicken and fish
• use a lot of concentrated protein supplements to get sufficient protein.

There's even one on my forum who posts as “innermusic.” You might want to check out his site at vegetarianbodybuilder.com

Q. I am going to be turning 40 years of age soon. I am female weighing 130-132 pounds. My body fat percentage when last I had it done, which was some time last year, was around 14 percent. I have suddenly realised that trouble area - the lower stomach - is gathering fat, and there went my flat stomach I had for so many years. This seems to have happened overnight. I now have a little bulge in front there, which irks me when I look into the mirror. I exercise on a regular basis, and incorporate weight training, outdoor speed work, hill climbing, and a weekly hike averaging 5 hours. My diet is not that pristine, meaning I sometimes eat a couple of sweet snacks but in very small amounts, and I don't think I eat enough protein. What do you think is causing this? I forgot to mention, I do not do many abdominal exercises — but that has nothing to do with the fat that lies over the stomach, right? Or so I've read. I eagerly await your answer.

A. You won't like to hear this but, unless you have visible abdominals, it's unlikely that you are truly at 14% body fat — 12% is usually considered about the lower limit of healthy body fat levels for a female. Unless you are extremely lean, you simply aren't 14% (most likely, whoever measured you did it badly, or the equations they used were not appropriate).

That said, losing body fat is not some magical process, although doing ab work isn't the solution. A slight caloric deficit coupled with activity is what generates fat loss; you simply have to burn more calories than you're taking in.

However, as you get older, metabolic rate tends to slow and this can cause a gradual accumulation of body fat even if your activity does not change. Women can also show a shifting from lower body fat to upper body fat accumulation as they approach menopause.

You may want to find out exactly how much you are eating (most people are horrible at estimating it) and simply reduce that amount slightly (from either high sugar or high fat foods) to create a slight caloric deficit. With your high activity, the body fat should come off relatively easily.

Q. I am female, 29 years old, and I am considered very slim. However, I am definitely over fat and my goal is to lose fat without losing weight and to tone. I am lost as to which diet and exercise programs I should follow since 99% of programs are not geared towards my body type. I purchased The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook, but I am not sure if it is right for what I want to achieve since I fall into category 1, which you assume are either athletes or people who exercise obsessively, and I am neither one of those types of people. I am just a naturally slim person without doing much of any type of exercise. I also do not want to lose weight, just fat and your book lists both. So, again what do girls like me do when the goal is to change our body composition by losing mostly the extra fat we carry on certain body parts without having to lose weight that will make us look gaunt! And please do not mention that it is not possible to spot reduce fat on only certain parts of the body because I already know that, my question is what then is the solution?

A. Okay, if you’re over fat, then you can't be in category 1 by definition, since that's for lean (in terms of body fat percentage) individuals.

Secondly, fat has mass (i.e. it weighs something). The only way to lose fat without losing weight is to gain an identical amount of muscle (i.e. lose one pound of fat and gain one pound of muscle). But since fat has mass, if you lose fat, you will lose weight.

What you need is what most people need, to couple a basic weight-training program with moderate amounts of cardiovascular activity and probably some dietary changes (including adequate protein).

If you're a total beginner, you can gain some muscle while losing fat. After your initial newbie gain phase (which can last a few months at least), you'll need to either focus on gaining muscle (while keeping fat gain to a minimum) or losing fat (while maintaining muscle mass).

Q. I was interested by Lyle's comments about how difficult it is for women to lose fat from the hips and thighs. He recommended yohimbe to boost circulation - but yohimbe is VERY controversial. There are way too many warnings about its danger for me to risk taking it. Are there safer ways to boost circulation enough to affect the thighs?

A. My next book project is going to address (in full) the issue of stubborn body fat and how to get rid of it. If you can't or won't use yohimbe, another option is to reduce carbohydrates to about 20% of maximum.

After 3-4 days of a low-carbohydrate intake, the receptors (alpha-2 adrenoceptors) that make losing lower body fat so stubborn become inhibited naturally (this is how yohimbe works) making mobilization easier.

Q. I have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). The main triggers for me are red meat, poultry and dairy products (with the possible exception of low fat yogurt), oils, fats and insoluble fiber. Can you make any suggestions regarding diet besides becoming a vegan weight lifter?

A. You might try either soy protein isolate or pea protein powder, neither of which contain gluten or casein and may not aggravate your IBS. Some people have found that high intakes of the amino acid L-glutamine can help with IBS as it is used preferentially by the gut for fuel (and possibly healing). Colostrum, which is very expensive at effective doses (20-60 grams per day) mind you, may also have some role in healing a damaged gut.

Books by Lyle McDonald

The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook
Maybe you need to drop weight fast for a special event, like a class reunion or a wedding. Perhaps you want to look good in a bathing suit and didn't start your diet and exercise program early enough... or you might just want to get your diet over as quickly as possible. If so, the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook will reveal the fastest, most effective way to shed both weight and fat in the shortest time possible.

The Protein Book covers everything you need to know about protein and muscle growth, fat loss and athletic performance. Referencing over 500 scientific studies, the book is the ultimate reference on all aspects of optimal protein nutrition for anyone who's serious about building a better body.

The Ultimate Diet 2.0 (UD2)
The UD2 is possibly the most comprehensive and complete guide to losing stubborn body fat ever written. Inside, you'll discover the secrets of calorie partitioning, how to control where the calories go when you overeat, and where they come from when you diet... the hidden metabolic advantages that elite athletes have, and how to duplicate them to improve your results... why stubborn fat is so stubborn and how to get rid of it... how muscle grows and why so many different training systems can all be right... and much, much more!

A Guide to Flexible Dieting
A Guide to Flexible Dieting reveals how being less strict with your diet can actually make it work better. You'll discover how deliberately breaking your diet (in a controlled fashion) can make it work better in the long run. Free meals, structured re-feeds and even a full diet break are all discussed and explained in detail.

The Ketogenic Diet
The Ketogenic Diet is the first and only book to examine in-depth the scientific evidence regarding low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets. At 325 pages and containing over 600 scientific references, this will be your complete reference for ketogenic diets. It's unlike any other book on low-carbohydrate diets that you have ever read or seen.

Bromocriptine: An Old Drug with New Uses
The problem of getting very lean or simply losing fat and keeping it off is not a new one. New research is finally explaining the reasons and physiology behind dieting failure and it turns out that many of the problems are in your brain. Bromocriptine: An Old Drug with New Uses explains the physiological reasons behind dieting failures, along with discussing a potential fix: a very old drug called Bromocriptine.