Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Is muscluar development feasible on the IBS diet?

Hello again

I am a tad impatient. I've ordered Heather's book, "Eating for IBS" to accompany "The First Year" I have just bought, so I may be jumping the gun. Here goes anyway: -

I was on a fitness programme where the principal aim was to lose fat and maintain lean body mass. The programme advocated attempting to lose no more than 1 to 2lbs per week or around 0.5% to 1% in body fat. Maintaining muscle mass was crucial. The programme was devised in the following way to achieve this aim:-
1. You were encouraged to eat around 5 times a day taking a with macro-nutrient ratio of 55-50% carbs, 30% protein and 15-20% fat. With each meal you were supposed to have a complex carb and some protein.
The nutrition side of the programme emphasised unrefined food i.e. anything that came out of the ground or off a tree and had not been processed. Think shredded wheat, brown bread, brown rice, chicken, salmon, and then plenty fibrous carbs.
For this to be done conservatively and to prevent invoking the starvation response the idea was to eat around 10-15% less of what your body required. For me that was around 2200Kcal.

2. Rather than try to "starve" the fat off you would eat normally and exercise heavily. For me that was around 40 minutes per day on a cross trainer at 70% max heart rate 5 days a week.

3. Finally to maintain muscle mass you would weight train heavily for about 45 miutes 3 times a week. The protein consumed would provide the "building blocks" for keeping your muscle intact.

It was a very sound and methodical programme. Well since I got "The First Year" yesterday my whole diet has been shaken to the core. Things that were on the banned list on the old programme (white bread primarily) are back on and all those unrefined foods are off well, some to be consumed later anyway after the consumption of soluble fibre.

The question is this. Is it possible to achieve the goals set out on in my programme, mainly to lose body fat and maintain muscle mass and if I want in the future build muscle mass by going into a calorie surplus?

When it comes to the crunch, I'd rather be contented-that is IBS free or IBS under control than have a body that would shame Adonis but if I could have both that would be good.

The nutrition aspect of the programme has definitely worsened my IBS. For instance to ensure I was getting the protein intake I would substiute "real" protein like salmon and chicken for whey powder and I realise now from reading Heather's book that this is a recipe for disaster.

Just a few thoughts.

I would appreciate and welcome your responses.

Kind regards in anticipation

Tim

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