Too much anything from GOMAD?

[Briks42]

Hey John,

I was wondering if you think there are any risks inherent in doing GOMAD along with the novice Starting Strength program. I don't mean on a body composition level, I just mean health risks. Too much calcium, too much cholesterol, too much anything else?

[Johnny Pain]

Simple answer, Nope.

No one, including Rip, recommends the GOMAD approach forever. It is a tool used for the short term, and when applicable it can be very effective.

There does however come a time when one should discontinue the GOMAD and look at other options nutritionally to accomplish their evolving goals.

This topic among others will be covered in depth in my upcoming DVD entitled "Beyond GOMAD" which will be out later this year.

[JayvH]

Hello John,
first of all I appreciate you're willingness to run a Q&A and you're kind posting style. I hope you're not getting bitter soon over all the upcoming and recurring questions. I will add my question here because it's concerning GOMAD and the risks.

I started with SS in the summer of last year but my technique was worse than I thought. I got a little fat with half GOMAD, so I went for a cut and got back on SS with better technique but still not sufficent (still more fat than muscle).

Than with sufficent form I finally reached a point where half GOMAD was not enough. I did full GOMAD and got over 80kg in squats (I know not great). But another cut is necessary as I'm approaching 25% of BF.

Well long story short, over 6 months I consumed 2 litres of milk a day and now 3 weeks 4 litres of milk a day. After the cut to maybe 10 or 12% BF I was thinking of doing another cycle of SS. But will I risk my health going on GOMAD again?

[Johnny Pain]

Hello John,
Well long story short, over 6 months I consumed 2 litres of milk a day and now 3 weeks 4 litres of milk a day. After the cut to maybe 10 or 12% BF I was thinking of doing another cycle of SS. But will I risk my health going on GOMAD again?

No. You will be fine health wise. I don't feel it's necessary however to have to keep doing these "cuts" that you speak of. I am a fan of setting up the diet to minimize the fat accumulation (though there will be some) so that you don't waste valuable training time, that could be spent getting bigger and stronger, having to diet a ton of excess fat away.

[JayvH]

Alright, I can say I was carried away by the 70sbig concept and their diet advice considering that a fast strength gain on SS with linear progression doing GOMAD (Rip is claiming that it's almost mandatory for the program) and then loose the fat with a radical diet.

But as I see you are not a big fan of this approach and it's better to gain mass without linear progression and a smaller surplus.

[Johnny Pain]

Alright, I can say I was carried away by the 70sbig concept and their diet advice considering that a fast strength gain on SS with linear progression doing GOMAD (Rip is claiming that it's almost mandatory for the program) and then loose the fat with a radical diet.

But as I see you are not a big fan of this approach and it's better to gain mass without linear progression and a smaller surplus.

This isn't true. For starters, I gained my initial weight doing exactly that, Starting Strength plus the Milk, plus lots of food.

Linear Progression is absolutely the way to go. As for the diet, I still recommend the milk to a large percentage of the people I deal with who fit the mold of someone who needs to do this sort of program. I however prefer to educate them on how to minimize the fat accumulation during that type of program, and deal with cleaning up the diets of a lot who took it a bit overboard.

[ion]

Well long story short, over 6 months I consumed 2 litres of milk a day and now 3 weeks 4 litres of milk a day. After the cut to maybe 10 or 12% BF I was thinking of doing another cycle of SS. But will I risk my health going on GOMAD again?

Risk your health? Dude, sounds like you're worrying too much. I've been downing 1 - 2 litres of milk every single day of my life, basically since I learned to open the fridge door myself. :D

[JayvH]

I however prefer to educate them on how to minimize the fat accumulation during that type of program, and deal with cleaning up the diets of a lot who took it a bit overboard.
OK, there is a way to minimize the fat accumulation while someone is on GOMAD (plus an unknown amount of extra food)? Maybe you could give a hint or even put this in a sticky of the board. This may be interesting for most of the users here, although many here are not interested in aesthetics.

[Johnny Pain]

OK, there is a way to minimize the fat accumulation while someone is on GOMAD (plus an unknown amount of extra food)?

Of course there is. The first step is to pay attention to the "unknown amount of food" make sure it is stuff that is conducive to building a strong body, not a shitload of empty calories.

This is why the milk works so well in the first place, because it is 2400 relatively good, quality calories that people won't eat otherwise. It seems that many on here are under the belief that milk is somehow the most anabolic substance on the planet. It's not. Milk is not testosterone, it's not A50, or Tren, you don't "cycle" milk. Consistency plus heavy weights is extremely anabolic, it's "the secret". Knowing that a gallon of milk has to be consumed every day as the base of the "diet" establishes some sort of consistency, hence progress. Assuming the person eats another 2500 calories or so of food, they're getting 5000 roughly every day of the week, something that most who are candidates for that sort of plan just flat out won't do if it means eating chicken breasts and rice all day. People take this to extremes and get obsessed with watching the scale go up more than the training weights and end up on here saying they did SS for four months, gained 40lbs and are now squatting 245 for 3x5, and of course, then it is time to take the fat off. This is bullshit I don't like to see. That is the mark of a person who chased scale PR's and ate ice cream and pizza to get calories while drinking their GOMAD and half assing it in the gym.

OK I'm back from my tangent. Like I said, pay attention to the foods from the start. Don't chase scale PR's at the expense of everything else. Oh, and get your gallon out of the way by mid afternoon, and eat a protein only meal before bed.

Sorry to get so far off topic from the original post, but this is something that has been bothering me.

Actually, I take that back, this is my board and I'll get off topic if I want to :P

[Namleips1]

Very good post Johnny...this answers pretty much my next set of questions for ya...

Don't worry about the tangents...they will be bound to help someone!!!

Jason

[JayvH]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will correct my failures by doing a full diet for a few weeks and bring my bodyfat to lower levels (~10 to 12%) and then try again with another SS cylce and GOMAD bearing your tips in mind.
I always drank more than 50% of my GOMAD in the evening -sometimes when I came home from the workout - so I started at 9 PM with the 3rd liter.
But this was not only done because of low thermos capacity but a thought that milk is a good post workout nutrition with a positive effect on the regeneration.