In the book, Better Than Steroids, Dr. Warren Wiley proposes that a natural trainer can actually achieve better results than a steroid user if the natural trainer follows a proper training and nutrition program.
In this article I will tell you whether the doctor delivers or if this book does not live up to the hype.
Dr. Wiley says one of the reasons steroid users get such great results is because you eat better and work harder when you’re taking steroids. On page 21 they claim…
“I’m going to teach you how to mimic anabolic steroids using diet and exercise!”
Next, he mentions a success story from one of these clients. No names are given, and no before-and-after pictures are presented. The client is listed simply as “LD”
In just 12 weeks, the LD went from 182 pounds at 16.1% body fat to 177 pounds at 5.5% body fat. Which means LD not only lost 19.56 pounds of fat, but also gained 14.57 pounds of muscle in the same amount of time!
Here’s the kicker: Dr. Wiley says that LD was 60 at the time of this study and that he has other clients who have gained 30 pounds of lean muscle while losing 60 pounds of fat by following the same principles.
Now at this point, I smell something funny. Smells like bull sh*t.
But let’s continue. The doctor talks about the importance of water and that food can actually be used as a medicine. I loved this part of the book because so often we forget how powerful food can be. Food can be used to increase or decrease insulin – just like a drug. And by timing your food intake (eating high-carbohydrate foods around the time of your workout and reducing carbs the rest of the day) you can take advantage of food’s drug-like properties. good stuff here.
Then Wiley talks about how to calculate your recommended daily calorie intake and even offers 4 different eating plans. The meal plan is as follows:
Isocaloric: Dividing your daily caloric intake evenly between fat, carbs and protein.
Keto Run: Eating ultra-low carbs for 7-14 days at a time.
Modified Carb Drop: Doing a keto run and then following it with a carb load.
Zig Zag: Eating high calories one day, then low calories the next.
Overall, nothing phenomenal here. In fact, I noticed many similarities between these recommendations and Dan Duchaine’s recommendations in his book Underground BodyOps. Both talk about using an isocaloric approach first, then a super low carb diet when losing weight and then adding weekend carb ups to allow you to gain muscle while stripping fat.
The next few chapters cover pre- and post-workout meals.
Then we come to Chapter 12: Glycogen Supercompensation.
For me, this is where the book breaks down.
Wiley begins with the following case study detailing the experiences of “CV” (Again, no full names or photos are shown.)
CV started at 200 pounds and 8.9% body fat. After this, he did super low carb dieting for 10 days and after that he did high carb eating for 48 hours.
He finished at 212 pounds and 8.0% body fat. On the surface, it looks impressive. And Dr. Warren Wiley said…
“There are no typos in the above chart! CV gained 12.8 pounds of muscle in 48 hours of load and actually lost some body fat!”
But this is absolutely wrong. He didn’t gain 12.8 pounds of muscle. He is just catching water. Because this is what happens when you cut carbs drastically and then flood your system with high doses of carbohydrates – your body tends to store excess water.
And that’s okay – sometimes that’s a good thing. But you can’t confuse shedding extra water with building muscle. Willie is a doctor – he must understand the difference between muscle and inflammation.
But apparently he doesn’t because he lists even more examples of successful customers. In each case, it’s clear what happens – the client retains excess water for a few days and Willie describes it as “muscle growth”.
but it’s not like that. You don’t gain 12 pounds of muscle in two days. No one does. Not even a steroid user.
From there, the rest of the book lays out some bodybuilding routines that sound like something out of a Joe Weider magazine – huge sets, super sets, 21, pre-exit training, etc.
Oddly enough, this style of bodybuilding training usually works better for steroid users than it does for natural trainers.
Overall – the book fails to deliver on its main promise: Wiley proves that by carb-loading you can hold on to excess water for a few days, but fails to prove that his strategies will help you gain muscle. and certainly fail to prove that these strategies can yield better results than steroids.
So I will save your money and skip this book. If you’d like more information on carb loading and glycogen super compensation, track down a copy of Dan Duchaine’s Underground BodyOps. The book is now 15 years old, but Duchenne does a better job of mapping out the principles behind glycogen super compensation.
