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Dieting For Your Neurotype Part 2: Type 1B Nutritional Approach

Stéphane Aubé

Articles, Neurotyping, Nutrition & Supplementation

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Dieting For Your Neurotype Part 2: Type 1B Nutritional Approach

Dieting For Your Neurotype Part 2: Type 1B Nutritional Approach

If you are an avid follower of Thibarmy, you already know about Neurotyping and how it can impact your training. You’ve learned to structure your workouts to optimize your performance and recovery based on your neurological profile. If you have registered for the BATI online certification you also learned how to determine your clients’ Neurotype, their strengths and weaknesses. You’ve probably even started to evaluate the people around you! That makes you a better people reader and helps you better communicate with, while also making you better at helping them reach their goal.

In the first part of this series, I presented the best nutritional approach for Type 1A. Understand that nothing is set in stone, but the approaches I recommend are the optimal way of eating and supplementing for these Neurotypes. Some variation is possible depending on the goals and needs, but there are the basic rules that apply for each Neurotype.

Without waiting any longer, here is the optimal nutritional approach for Type 1B Neurotype.

Food And Personality Connection

Just like their fellow Type 1A, Type 1B are also goal-driven individuals. They share a lot of properties with their 1A counterpart, after all, they are both Type 1. The major difference is in their evolution on a timeline. The Type 1B live life at a faster pace than most people. 10 minutes looks and feels like 20 minutes for them. They live life in an accelerated mode. So, you can’t think of bringing long term goals to the table, because they will lose motivation and find other things to accomplish sooner.

The best way to get to an objective with a Type 1B is to plan multiple short-term goals. Reaching shorter-term goals step-by-step allows them to put a checkmark on the to-do list and increases their satisfaction. The more they accomplish, the better they become. I usually use blocks of 3 weeks that contain short and realistic objectives. For example, planning to lose ‘’x’’ amount of fat in 3 weeks. This is short enough to make them hold on and reaching the goal doesn’t look like it will never come. This way you can build a 2-speed plan. 3 hard and intense weeks followed by 1 maintenance week, and so on…

They are the kind of people who can’t stay seated for a long time, they just can’t stay in place and are impatient. Therefore, they are very busy people and are always doing something. As with Type 1A, you must use a diet that is time-efficient, not only in terms of a number of meals per day but also in terms of food prep. Food prep is a waste of time for them, so include simple meals that are quickly and easily prepared. But don’t misunderstand me, they love to eat! Food must be a pleasure for them and if they are to stick to their diet you need to use meals that they will enjoy.

Contrary to Type 1A, I’d say that Type 1B are better on a diet that contains frequent and small meals. We must understand here that their keyword is ‘’frequency’’. Not only they need a frequent workout, they also need to eat frequently but in small quantities, so it doesn’t take too much of their precious time. Type 1b frequently eats while doing other things and you can be sure they will do the same things with any meal plan.

Their mind is on the go and they often have trouble sleeping due to an overactive mind. If you are a Type 1B or have a client that is Type 1B, it is necessary to calm their mind before they go to sleep. No TV shows, work or things that get their brain stimulated. Some calming supplements can be of good use here, we’ll see that later.

Type 1B do not play for fun, they play to be the first and the best at what they do. They love action and are ready to take the challenge. They don’t do things halfway, they do it or they don’t. Expect them to follow your plan to a ‘’T’’ but make sure you write everything as they are very well organized, logical people and like to make things clear. Your plan must include everything they need to know, so they will plan accordingly. Do not leave anything unclear.

They are naturally low dopamine producers, so they need a higher amount of proteins (the amino acids tyrosine found in animal meat is needed to produce dopamine) in their diets. But on the other hand, they have very high acetylcholine levels, this makes them very good at multitasking and they can handle different kinds of more complex food planning (carbs cycles, for example).

One of the strong points of Type 1B is their low production of cortisol. They can tolerate stress to a much higher level than Type 2 or 3. This comes from the fact that they have high serotonin. But when we talk about hormones, nothing is only good or bad. Having low cortisol production can decrease bile production. When we are hungry, cortisol is released from the adrenal glands. Upon reaching the liver, glucocorticoid receptors are activated, and the gallbladder prepares for the imminent food intake. After a meal, bile is released from the gallbladder into the intestine. Bile acids contained in bile are critical for fat digestion and Type 1B will clearly benefit from added supplements to support bile production.

Tendencies / Bad Habits

Type 1B live a fast life and don’t like to waste their time prepping foods and stuff like that, they prefer to live the action, the adventure. But as with every human being, if someone’s goal is body composition, food becomes a priority. If the goal is not related to food, they will easily rely on shakes and protein bars, even fast foods. In fact, they don’t really care if it’s good or bad, they will eat what they like.

Dave Tate, a well-known Type 1B, also famous for his questionable food habits, is a good example. About 10 years ago, when he hired John Berardi to help him clean up his diet, John published an article on T-nation that gave some insight into Dave’s original diet. Just reading Dave’s food log made me gain 5 pounds of fat! Well, after John’s intervention, Dave committed to his diet, got impressive results and became shredded to bones. The moral of the story is that for a Type 1B, if the goal is related to food, they can take their diet seriously, but you need to make this quick, simple and easy. Don’t count on long and progressive improvement. Jump right into it.

Type 1B can also do good on intermittent fasting since this will allow them to eat once they can be home and relax and have no other things to do. If their goal is more towards muscle building, I suggest adding more calories, and methods like carbs cycling can be efficient.

To avoid the trap of sudden hunger, identify some restaurant options and foods on the go (good foods of course) they can use. Do not let them find something by themselves, they don’t want to search, and they will take the first thing they have in mind. Make sure they know what to do in those situations. For example my wife is a Type 1B and works on the road often. When she needs to go out for lunch with coworkers or clients, I make sure she knows what she can eat and where to go: ‘’go to this place, they sell grilled chicken salad with olive oil’’, for example. Having a busy Type 1B prepare a week’s worth of food in advance (on Sunday for example) can also be a good option.

Best Foods

Carbs:

Type 1 generally have a strong CNS (Type 1A & 1B). As for Type 1A, their need for carbs is much lower than most other neurotypes. They also don’t produce a lot of cortisol, so recovery and catabolism do not affect them even if carbs are low. But since they have higher acetyl choline than Type 1A, they can tolerate and will benefit from a higher volume of work and in this case, carbs can be useful to assist in performance under strenuous and voluminous workout.

They will benefit from the same kind of carbs than Type 1A, those who contain the highest amount of tyrosine. They will also benefit from starting the day with no carbs to help set up an ideal neurotransmitter profile. If they work out in the morning, add carbs into the workouts but not before. They are already high serotine individual, so in order to keep the mind focus, better let the dopamine higher before the workout and introduce carbs once the workout has started. I’d say to wait 15-20 minutes once the workout has started. In this case, use easily absorbed glucose polymer sources like dextrose, waxy maize or high branched cyclic dextrin. Intra workout carbs can be modified according to the volume of the workout.

Best vegetables: artichokes, broccoli, mushrooms, brussels, red beets

Best fruits: Berries, apple, bananas

Best starch, legumes and grains: oats, black beans, lentils

Best intra workout carbs: Dextrin, waxy maize, high branched cyclic dextrin (HBCD)

Proteins:

Like the Type 1A, they have a high sensitivity to dopamine and their baseline level is low. Animal proteins is a must to make sure they get all of what they need to build enough dopamine. Their acetylcholine level makes them very well suited for power and explosive workouts. They are usually pretty good athletes and are good at acquiring new skills. But if their goal is muscle building, the protein intake itself can be useful to trigger protein synthesis which will be necessary in their case because they will rarely use bodybuilding methods to build muscle and are more ‘’momentum’’ than ‘’static’’ or ‘’time under tension’’.  Basically, they need a higher protein intake to trigger protein synthesis because the workout style that fits their type does not maximize protein synthesis. This kind of training is not the best suited for muscle building but is well suited for gaining power, athletics skills and general performance. But because they can handle a high volume of work, they will generally build muscle faster than Type 1A. I say ‘’generally’’ because muscle building is also ruled by a lot of genetic factors.

Best animal proteins: Beef, chicken, turkey, eggs, liver

Fats:

Type 1B don’t produce a lot of cortisol, therefore they have low bile production and will benefits from adding bile support supplements. Digesting a lot of fat can be quite hard for the liver if bile production is not efficient. On the other hand, they need to eat fat to support their cardiovascular system.

The best way to plan their fat intake is to use the same scheme use with a carb cycle. Establish days of lower carbs and higher fat and days with lower fats and higher carbs. This way you can give the liver a break when on lower fat days.

Best fats: Almonds, walnuts, avocado, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds

Best Macros Ratio

Depending on the main goal, Type 1B can benefit from different diet strategies. If the goal is fat loss, they can use two completely opposite methods. The busy Type 1B who seeks absolute fat loss can benefit from intermittent fasting. This can work as they can focus on their activity and schedule all day long and eat later in the evening when the day is done. Since they don’t produce that much cortisol, fasting is not an issue for them and they will release more growth hormones and glucagon, mobilizing more stored fat. Their overactive mind can also be put into relaxation/rest & recover mode by ingesting more food in the evening.

As I already mentioned, they need quick results. A good starting strategy is to create a 40% deficit off compared to their maintenance calories for 3 weeks in a row. Add some small refeed every 3 to 5 days to make sure they have adequate glycogen stores to fuel their workout. Then lighten the deficit or come back completely to a maintenance level for 1 week by increasing carbs which will be replenishing their glycogen stores and prevent a leptin drop. After that week they would go back to a fast fat loss phase of 3 weeks, then 1 week of maintenance, until their goal is achieved.

If they need to build muscle, improve performance, or use a high volume of work in their training, a more supportive diet would be a better choice. Use frequent small meals. Target carbs mostly after the workouts and keep carbs out of the breakfast and pre-workout meal. This is a nice way for them to improve cognition and focus. As I said, they already have high serotine and low dopamine so they don’t need to include as many carbs pre-workout to limit cortisol output.

Ideal Macros To Start With

Proteins = 40-50%

Fat = 35-40% & 20-25% (fat cycle)

Carbs = 10-20% & 30-40% (carbs cycle)

If aiming for hypertrophy, favor more high carbs days in the week. If fat loss is the priority goal, favor more low carbs days. Here’s a typical carbs cycle for Type 1B:

Fat Loss

Monday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Tuesday = 30% fat / 20% carbs

Wednesday = 20% fat / 30% carbs

Thursday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Friday = 30% fat / 20% carbs

Saturday = 20% fat / 30% carbs

Sunday = Assess energy level and body composition (weight, bodyfat, look)

If energy is good and workouts are productive, go back to the 40% fat / 10% carbs split and continue from there.

If energy is low and workouts are suffering too much, or if the body has been really responsive to the diet, you can fit a 20% fat / 40% carbs with slightly fewer proteins for this day as carbs have proteins sparing effect.

Hypertrophy / Performance / High Volume

Monday = 20% fat / 40% carbs

Tuesday = 40% fat / 20% carbs

Wednesday = 20% fat / 40% carbs

Thursday = 40% fat / 20% carbs

Friday = 20% fat / 40% carbs

Saturday = 40% fat / 20% carbs

Sunday = Assess weight, performance of the week, etc…

If recovery is good and workouts are productive, keep the same set up until you feel a drop in performance. Then, add a refeed day that is dominant in carbohydrates.

What About Refeeding

As for Type 1A, 1B can function and perform on a large caloric deficit. But they will also need to refeed frequently. The refeed is a necessary part of their diet since it will regulate leptin and dopamine activity, which are their Achilles heel when dieting.

In the case of Type 1A, I suggested refeeding after a max effort session once they use most of their dopamine. For Type 1B, placing a refeed day after a high-volume day is the best way to avoid workout hangover. They can handle a lot of volumes, but considering they have enough fuel and frequent dopamine back up. If they crash because of too much dopamine depletion, they can become very frustrated and enter a cycle of negative vision towards their training.

Type 1B are prone to anger outbursts and must avoid dopamine crash to stay positive and rational. They also need to keep refeeding with clean food for the same reason that they are super responsive to dopamine and can become easily addicted to pleasure food. They are prone to diet break up after a cheat meal. They will have a hard time getting back on track. Favor clean foods.

Using the same schedule as we saw earlier, here’s how you could implement refeed for a Type 1B in an aggressive fat loss plan:

Monday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Tuesday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Wednesday = 10-20% fat / 30-40% carbs (light to moderate refeed)

Thursday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Friday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Saturday = 10-20% fat / 40-50% carbs (moderate to heavy refeed if energy level & mood is low)

Sunday = Assess body composition (weight, body fat, look). If there is an improvement, keep going on this way. If non-responsive, push off the refeed day. Here’s how a second progression could look:

Monday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Tuesday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Wednesday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Thursday = 10% fat / 40% carbs (light to moderate refeed)

Friday = 20% fat / 20% carbs

Saturday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Sunday = 40% fat / 10% carbs

Monday = 10% fat / 40-50% carbs (moderate to heavy refeed)

Tuesday = Assess body composition (weight, bodyfat, look)

To recap, a Type 1B who want to get lean should:

1) Use a major deficit to create as many results as possible in a short-term approach (use blocks of 3 weeks deficit for 1-week maintenance)

2) Refeed frequently to regulate glycogen and dopamine level. Start with a 3 to 5-day approach and work from there (see Chris’s article to know the proper type of refeed to use: https://thibarmy.com/the-cheating-manifesto/).

3) Type 1B can do good on intermittent fasting if performance and hypertrophy is not an issue. Otherwise, use frequent small meals that are fast and easy to prepare.

Supplements

Having a low dopamine baseline level makes them super responsive to dopamine boosting supplements like tyrosine, macuna puriens and theanine. Adding those supplements can be a good way to ensure they have sufficient levels of dopamine.

Suggested use of dopamine boosting supplement:

1-2gr tyrosine upon wakening

500-1000mg macuna purients 45-60 min pre-workout (increase LDOPA, a precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine)

This combo is a really efficient and energizing stack for Type 1B. The reason is essentially the fact that L-DOPA is made via biosynthesis of the amino acid L-tyrosine that will have been boosted in the morning by consuming 1-2gr upon wakening. Those two supplements can act synergistically and help in regulating mood and improving workout performance.

Avoid any stimulants or caffeine supplements as they can get easily addicted to these and get a heavy response from them. Like their counterpart 1A, they can crash easily from stimulant use by producing too much adrenaline and depleting dopamine at a faster rate. It is not surprising to see a Type 1B with a coffee in their hand 3 to 4 times a day. They become easily addicted to this practice and can ruin their neurotransmitter balance with this habit.

Contrary to Type 1A, they have high acetylcholine. This is one of the reasons they can tolerate that much volume in their workout. This is also why they are good at using the stretch reflex and prefer explosive exercises. For example, they will be far more efficient at performing banded speed back squat than performing a top half supramaximal back squat. In simple terms, they will benefit more from working with explosive exercises than grinding their reps. This doesn’t mean they can’t lift heavy, they are pretty strong lifters, but their lifting strategy is to try to use momentum to overcome the sticking point. A Type 1A will like to grind his lift like a powerlifter. A Type 1B will lift the weight with more acceleration.

In their case, support for acetylcholine would be useless. One of the major issues with Type 1B is their lack of bile production due to low cortisol. I can’t stress enough the importance of supporting liver function by adding supplements like dandelion roots, taurine and turmeric spices (curcumin). They will help increase bile production and this will have many consequences on their body composition by improving the absorption of glucose, digestion of fats and absorption of all fat-soluble vitamins. Many studies involve the gut in the regulation of thyroid hormones activity. In fact, efficient levels of bile could increase the conversion of T4 to T3. This is an important point to consider for optimal health especially if body composition is the goal.

Improving bile production will also help in the transport of toxins out of the body, this will support the natural immune response.

Suggested stack for bile production improvement:

-2gr of dandelion roots upon wakening with water

-1gr of taurine 3 times a day with a meal (also good to use post-workout as it may help to synthesize glycogen)

-1gr to 4gr of Curcumin (can be spread over the day, start low and increase the dose to assess tolerance). The choleretic effect of curcumin has been shown to increase bile production by up to 62%. This is something to consider.

Like the Type 1A, Type 1B should consume a high amount of animal proteins in their diet. Supporting the digestive process by adding HCL and digestive enzymes will help in the complete absorption of food. An effective way to increase HCL naturally is to drink 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar upon waking.

Diet Model Type

As I said earlier, Type 1B will do well on frequent small meals with high proteins and alternate low and moderate fat days. Their carbs consumption should be low and refeeds frequent. They can also be good on intermittent fasting if they seek absolute fat loss. The example below proposes a 2500-calorie diet with foods naturally high in tyrosine and phenylalanine.

*Upon wakening drink 1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar in water + take 1-2gr tyrosine

Meal 1

3 whole eggs (cage-free)

1/2 cup egg white

2 tsp coconut oil

1-2 cup kale/spinach

*Add dandelion roots and taurine

Meal 2

150gr salmon, trout, mackerel

1-2 cups cauliflowers, broccoli

15-20gr pumpkin seeds

*Add curcumin

Meal 3

150gr chicken, turkey

1-2 cup brussel sprouts

15-20gr almonds, walnuts

*Add curcumin

Pre workout meal (+/- 60-90 min before workout)

150gr lean beef or liver

1-2 cup spinach

2 tsp coconut oil

*Add macuna purients here

Intra workout

20gr EAA (type 1b should not consume BCAA, it alters the tyrosine uptake by the brain and their subsequent conversion to serotonin and catecholamines)

*If working with high volume, add 25-45gr of carbs 15-20 minutes into the workout. Use glucose polymer sources like dextrose, waxy maize or highly branched cyclic dextrin (HBCD)

Post workout

1.5 scoops whey or beef proteins

*If carbs were not used in the workout, add carbs here in the post workout shake.

*Add taurine

Meal 4 (post workout zone)

150gr chicken, turkey

5oz sweet potato

1/2 cup pineapple

1 cup asparagus

Meal 5 (post workout zone)

150gr white fish

1 cup basmati rice

1-2 cup cauliflowers, broccoli

*Add taurine and curcumin

-SA