Q&A with Chris "The Technician" Aceto, master guru

**Chris Aceto** · 03-25-2009, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by davidyes

Chris,
What are your thoughts regarding diet sodas during contest preparation?

Overall they are ok...not bad and should not interfere with getting leaner. However, the one caveat; they may have the ability to interfere with you getting lean if you naturally have a tougher time getting cut up. That's because as they say "perception equals reality." Although no calorie sweetenres found in diet soda does not provide any calories/energy, they might stimulate insulin secretion which can interfere with fat loss. The body can "see" splenda, equal and the like as "sugar" in that they both appear to be sweet....in turn signalling the body to either increase insulin production, or to "get ready" to make body fat. Thats one role of insulin; its preps the body to make/store and build up body fat.

**Chris Aceto** · 03-25-2009, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by Daniel

Chris, are you working with Troy Alves in the offseason also?If so maybe could you post his typical offseason diet?

No I have only been working with that wuss for this comming show; will be about 14 weeks or so..?

**Chris Aceto** · 03-25-2009, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by JW

Chris,

Sorry if my last post was a bit on the long side I guess the gist of what I was asking you was how someone like me (slow metabolism, sensitive to carbs, low volume HIT-type trainer) can eat the carbs they need (I believe you recommended 2g per lb?) to maximize their training efforts yet avoid excessive fat gain if cardio isn’t what you’d recommend?

Thanks again for taking the time to post here…..

You have to put more carbs in where they wont make you fat; out of bed at meal one where blood sugar is lower And before and after training. However, dont get too caught up in numbers. Maybe it would be best if you hit 2 grams per pound just 3 days out of every 10 then 1.5 grams per pound on the other days.

**Chris Aceto** · 03-25-2009, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by mk2525

Chris,
I am a natural competitor and i think i have just been killing by body through the years and i think my growth has hindered from that. How many set do you recommend for big body parts and small including legs? Is it different for a natural? thank you

If you are not growing and you feel you are training hard, the rest assured, you are likley over doing it. The best bet would likely be to train less frequently. OR, continue to train the way you do, but sometimes just go in there (the gym) and work for an easy pump. Being natural (hell not being natural) you cant go in there and train like Rocky everytime. You just can't. Your body will shut down. Instead of responding to the stimulus of training, it will rebel against it. My gut always tells me the person is right. In other words, if you are telling me you think you have been over doing it, you are probably right. Set wise, you do not say how many you are doing so I cant make a recomendation as too how many you need to cut back to. Set total is somewhat relative. Whats a lot for one person may not be lot for another. Its sort of like calories. Some people can eat a lot and not get fat and others simply cant.

**mk2525** · 03-25-2009, 04:50 PM

chris, as a natural my total sets were like 20 for upper body and like 25 for legs

JW · 03-25-2009, 05:06 PM

Thanks for the input chris; cycling my carb intake around sounds like a great idea!

One last thing; non-nutrition related!!

If i'm not mistaken you used to work with Michael Francois; my all-time fav bodybuilder, just wondering if you could tell us how you came to work together; any stories or funny tells would be great!!

Thanks again for your help and taking the time to answer our questions!!!

**Chris Aceto** · 03-25-2009, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by mk2525

chris, as a natural my total sets were like 20 for upper body and like 25 for legs

Ok, its too much try 14-15 for upper body and 20 for legs. Give it 3 weeks. It will take that long to see how your body responds. Keep this in mind, if 20 is not working you have a couple options

1) Double your sets to 40
2) Cut them in half to 10.
I know for sure you would drive your body into the ground with option 1. With option 2, you would recover, grow, and maybe (maybe not) add some body fat. So in the grand scope of things, the better action is to decrease the total number of sets you are doing.

**AJ SIMS** · 03-25-2009, 06:07 PM

Hey Chris , I posted above maybe you missed it hopefully its not a dumb question

... For off-season mass in your opinion do you feel there are superior carb sources out there or is it just as simple as keeping them low glycemic throughout the day except for maybe post-workout ? Also do you prefer whole foods post workout ( sweet potato and egg whites for example ) over something like a high GI carb and a whey isolate shake ? Thanks again Chris really appreciate your time on here !

Aj

**Biggie973** · 03-25-2009, 10:10 PM

What's the best advice you can give someone for getting ready for their 1st show?

**Chris Aceto** · 03-26-2009, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Biggie973

What's the best advice you can give someone for getting ready for their 1st show?

1) Start early
You will enevitably either screw up or get stuck along the way so you need the value of time on your side to get back on track
2) Dont over cardio yourself intot he ground. When given the choice of going overboard with the diet or with cardio I would say going overboard with cardio is worse
3) Don't use steroids. You need to be able to learn how to get ready the real way; so that you can master training diet and thirdly cardio...how the process works. If you throw in steroids, you obviously will look better then had you not used them but, frankly, you will not learn the fundamentals. When all is said and done, you have to know how to access and make use of the fundamentals.

**Chris Aceto** · 03-26-2009, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by AJ SIMS

Hey Chris , I posted above maybe you missed it hopefully its not a dumb question

... For off-season mass in your opinion do you feel there are superior carb sources out there or is it just as simple as keeping them low glycemic throughout the day except for maybe post-workout ? Also do you prefer whole foods post workout ( sweet potato and egg whites for example ) over something like a high GI carb and a whey isolate shake ? Thanks again Chris really appreciate your time on here !

Aj

I prefer whey and fast carbs post workout. I have a great whey based powder with lots of BCAA added that is better then reg wheys. If you are lean, I am totally fine and actually prefer faster acting carbs. I think (if you are lean) you will grow better from fast acting carbs. However, if you are not lean, or have a hard time staying lean, then outside of meal 1 and the meal after you train, you should stick to lower glycemic carbs.

**Northman** · 03-26-2009, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Chris Aceto

I like the plan where you train 2 days in a row then rest for a day. Just seems like you can recover best on this type of plan. Sets per bodypart; as a ballpark 9-12 for smaller stuff 14-18 for larger bodyparts. BUT, and this is a big but, if you can get a good pump and maintain it say on set #12, then you should always try to push the envelope and do set 13,14 even 15. If your body is responding (ie getting and maintaining a pump) then do more sets then I describe here. On the other hand, if your body is struggling to respond, say you are supposed to be doing 9-12 sets and by set 7 your body is not maintaining a pump, then screw it; stop right there. As far as failure goes, I think every set should be taken close to failure

So your saying if I have a pump...I should keep going because my body is still responding? If this is true then HIT training really isn't the best...

**njhardcore3** · 03-26-2009, 12:36 PM

Hello Chris,

I have had Championship Bodybuilding since college and I must say it has really helped my knowledge of the diet side of bodybuilding. Your moderate carb/low fat approach seems to work well for me as I'm tall at 6'5, 270lbs and when I go low carb, I seem to get stringy and flat. In any case, I had a few minor questions that maybe you could answer for me.

1. I run my baseline diet for 3 weeks after bulking to get back to start before my cut diet. When I build my baseline diet, I figure in 1lb of protein per lb of lean body mass which is around 230 for me. When my first stage of cutting starts, I drop my carbs 25% to invoke a caloric deficit but I also bump up my protein a tiny bit to 1.2g per lb of lean body mass. Also when I make my second drop of 25% more carbs, I bump up my protein again to 1.5g per lb. It seems to me that by adding this extra protein I am taking away from the caloric deficit I am making by dropping carbs. Is this how it is supposed to be or should I be readjusting my diet to incorporate these extra calories from the addition of more protein?

2. I do not start my cardio until 2 weeks or so after my first carb drop in my cutting diet and then build it up slowly from 30mins/ 3x week to 45mins/5x week. The problem seems is in the past I don't adjust my cardio jumps well. In your experience, where in a cutting diet like I am following would you say is where the bodybuilder usually hits the maximum amount of cardio? For example, in a 16 week diet....8weeks? 10 weeks? etc.

3. I am not training for a competition, although I do find it interesting to follow a competition cutting diet pretty closely (minus beer) and see how ripped I can get without the water restriction, depleting, etc. After a cutting diet of 12 or 16 weeks, I dont often start bulking again till after summer. How would you say is the best method for holding my lean/ripped condition for any extended amount of time after I complete my cutting diet? Is it as easy as rebuilding a baseline diet for my new physique and following it?

Thank you for any help you can give Chris and keep up the sharing of knowledge.

**jjorr** · 03-26-2009, 02:14 PM

Chris,

When did you first meet Laura and when did you start working with her? Laura had such great genetics, was she drug free under your guidance? What are your thoughts on women and AAS?

**fitiron** · 03-26-2009, 03:51 PM

First, I have enjoyed reading the journal so far, it's very informative.

1. BCAA's, what is your take on them. Some think the CALORIES from BCAA's make them not really worth taking as long as you are taking in a good whey protein.
What do you think???

When would YOU recommend to be the best way to use them, before or after training???

2. WMS pre/post workouts? Thoughts here too!!?? I workout about 4am, so I really have no time to eat a regular meal.

Thanks in advance...