Adding Mass - Getting Nutrition Right

Diet and Nutrition
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Hi all,

Im a newbie in terms of posting on T-Nation however have been using it as a knowledge fountain for some time.
I am perhaps not the stereotypical T-Nation reader however I have learnt a heck of alot coming to the site and believe the rules of training/nutrition and achieving a body transformation apply to most goals, once tweaked.

I am 5’9 and weight 70kg (pic attached taken at this weight)

This is after leaning out (by way of self education) for two months on the below diet and mixing 3 x full body workouts (5x5 / 4x8 / 4x15) with cardio and core training on my ‘off’ days. My cardio has been before meal 1 only consuming BCAA’s and a green tea prior.

I now want to add some mass, whilst for the sake of my sport (boxing / 100m running) staying as lean as possible.

My current diet looks like this:

Training Days:
Kcals: 2051
Protein: 303
Carbs: 103
Fat: 45

Cardio/Core Days:
Kcals: 1494
Protein: 251
Carbs: 44
Fat: 63

The area Im looking for feedback on is to what your suggestions are in terms of tweaking the above (and significantly by how much) in order to add some mass whilst staying within a few % of my current BF%

Any advice is much appreciated.

DG

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To add mass, you would need to add about 1000 calories if not more (you would decide). Right now, your diet looks very low. 1500 calories is a “sit down and do nothing at home all day” for me.

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Whole eggs. Lots of them. I’d suggest choosing a way of cooking them such that the yolk is still runny so the nutrients aren’t destroyed. Prepare for a surge in your libido!

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Cheers both, looking for a slightly more granular approach in terms of increasing x amount of carbs etc
I’ve been playing around with it on my laptop though and have upped my carbs on my weights days pre and post training.
Im going to stick with that for two weeks and amend accordingly.
JFG, 1500 is very low, even for me, however I find having such low caloric days on non weights days has really helped keep my BF low.

What are peoples suggestions around this? Is this too low in carbs and overall calories the day after weights to get the best gains from the previous days training, or is this the most effective way of adding size (ie: ibcreasing my kcals/carbs on training days but not on non training days) yet keeping BF low.

Thanks anyone who responds!

DG

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Don’t take offense to this but you’re eating like a girl. If you want to gain weight, then eat like a man! At 155lb you will need to probably double your calories to gain some weight. Get in good fats and more carbs around your workouts, and eat just as much on off days than you do on workout days. You grow when you rest, not when you workout. In order to grow… you need nutrients to support growth. 1500 calories is way too low and so is 2000. Your protein intake is on point (1.5g per pound of LBM is plenty) but your fats and carbs need to be upped. Get most of your carbs around your workout and if you want to stay as lean as possible stop eating carbs several hours before bedtime.
Hope this helps a bit

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Also check out this article. If you look at the tables with the weight and kcals recommended… you fall under about 3000kcals daily to gain muscle and minimize fat.

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[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Also check out this article. If you look at the tables with the weight and kcals recommended… you fall under about 3000kcals daily to gain muscle and minimize fat.

Nice one, thank you for the link. Ill ignore the eating like a girl part :wink:

Those daily kcal tats were when I was cutting, I new i needed to drastically up these quantities but was questioning the amount. Just to calirify.

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[quote]DG831 wrote:

[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Also check out this article. If you look at the tables with the weight and kcals recommended… you fall under about 3000kcals daily to gain muscle and minimize fat.

Nice one, thank you for the link. Ill ignore the eating like a girl part :wink:

Those daily kcal tats were when I was cutting, I new i needed to drastically up these quantities but was questioning the amount. Just to calirify.
[/quote]

Sure, you’re welcome! Trust me, diet is definitely the hardest part of working out and trying to gain muscle. Experiment with your calories and stay consistent and figure out how much you need through trial and error… thats really the only way to go about it. Good Luck

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[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Don’t take offense to this but you’re eating like a girl. If you want to gain weight, then eat like a man! At 155lb you will need to probably double your calories to gain some weight. Get in good fats and more carbs around your workouts, and eat just as much on off days than you do on workout days. You grow when you rest, not when you workout. In order to grow… you need nutrients to support growth. 1500 calories is way too low and so is 2000. Your protein intake is on point (1.5g per pound of LBM is plenty) but your fats and carbs need to be upped. Get most of your carbs around your workout and if you want to stay as lean as possible stop eating carbs several hours before bedtime.
Hope this helps a bit[/quote]

what?

at a low bw wouldnt you need less calories to grow?

if you jump up to 5000 cals a day you will gain fat… theres no reason to do so

add in calories (carbs?) before/during/after your workout and see how your body reacts then adjust from there

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I agree with MAF14. Add 500 Kcal around training. See how that goes for 2 weeks. If you are still lean, then you can try 500 more.

As for macros, your protein is a little on the high side (I can’t believe I said that), I think the 200-250 range would work well. Carbs around 100g on off days and 200g on training days. Fat around 100g. That would be 2100 Kcal on off days and 2700 on training days. Basically set your diet to the off days and add 50g protein and 100g carbs around training. After 2 weeks, assess, and add 50g carbs to periworkout and meal 1 if you are still lean. I am assuming since you got cut, you know how to eat.

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[quote]MAF14 wrote:

[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Don’t take offense to this but you’re eating like a girl. If you want to gain weight, then eat like a man! At 155lb you will need to probably double your calories to gain some weight. Get in good fats and more carbs around your workouts, and eat just as much on off days than you do on workout days. You grow when you rest, not when you workout. In order to grow… you need nutrients to support growth. 1500 calories is way too low and so is 2000. Your protein intake is on point (1.5g per pound of LBM is plenty) but your fats and carbs need to be upped. Get most of your carbs around your workout and if you want to stay as lean as possible stop eating carbs several hours before bedtime.
Hope this helps a bit[/quote]

what?

at a low bw wouldnt you need less calories to grow?

if you jump up to 5000 cals a day you will gain fat… theres no reason to do so

add in calories (carbs?) before/during/after your workout and see how your body reacts then adjust from there[/quote]

I never suggested he jumps to 5,000 kcals a day. Read what I wrote.

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Again, your off days is when you grow. You shouldn’t be eating less on your off days, because that is counter-productive to “growing.” Rather than eating less calories, substitute some of the carbs you eat on off days with fat, but make sure you still get enough kcals to gain. I promise if you eat 2,100 kcals like Peter Orban suggested, you won’t get anywhere.

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[quote]Dlouda wrote:

[quote]MAF14 wrote:

[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Don’t take offense to this but you’re eating like a girl. If you want to gain weight, then eat like a man! At 155lb you will need to probably double your calories to gain some weight. Get in good fats and more carbs around your workouts, and eat just as much on off days than you do on workout days. You grow when you rest, not when you workout. In order to grow… you need nutrients to support growth. 1500 calories is way too low and so is 2000. Your protein intake is on point (1.5g per pound of LBM is plenty) but your fats and carbs need to be upped. Get most of your carbs around your workout and if you want to stay as lean as possible stop eating carbs several hours before bedtime.
Hope this helps a bit[/quote]

what?

at a low bw wouldnt you need less calories to grow?

if you jump up to 5000 cals a day you will gain fat… theres no reason to do so

add in calories (carbs?) before/during/after your workout and see how your body reacts then adjust from there[/quote]

I never suggested he jumps to 5,000 kcals a day. Read what I wrote.[/quote]

you never brought up 5000 cals… i did.

you said he should double his calories and i completely disagree.

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give Shelby’s article from today a read…

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[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Again, your off days is when you grow. You shouldn’t be eating less on your off days, because that is counter-productive to “growing.” Rather than eating less calories, substitute some of the carbs you eat on off days with fat, but make sure you still get enough kcals to gain. I promise if you eat 2,100 kcals like Peter Orban suggested, you won’t get anywhere.[/quote]

Learn how to read.

I suggested a base of 2100 Kcal on non-training days, and 2700 on lifting days, and then after two weeks adding 400 Kcal on lifting days and 200 on off days. This fits the way a high level coach would have him progress out of the diet and allow him to make adjustments based on feedback, something he seems quite well at doing. I am pretty sure he can use this construct effectively.

As for your guarantee, it isn’t worth shit, I have seen people his size and slightly bigger gain on that much and I do this for a living seeing 20-40 clients every two weeks, a good fraction of which are in the same boat.

@DG831: as MAF14 suggests, check out Shelby’s article:

and this one too:

They fit your situation (you said you want to limit fat gain) and leave room for future tweaking allowing you to make feedback based decisions which you seem to have demonstrated the ability to do.

As for my recommendation for a possible step after the 4 week progression I recommend, 25g per other meals and possibly upping fat a bit are your next options. If you choose to do this feel free to PM me at that time if you want to briefly discus your next move.

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hey i was woundering if you can help me i got some pills that i was told where winstrol tabs but i have never seen them they are yellow and round they have a score on one side and the other side says efp or thats what it looks like anyways the letters are hard tomake out hope you can help

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[quote]paule tex wrote:
hey i was woundering if you can help me i got some pills that i was told where winstrol tabs but i have never seen them they are yellow and round they have a score on one side and the other side says efp or thats what it looks like anyways the letters are hard tomake out hope you can help
[/quote]

anabolics ARE NOT supplements. it sounds like you have no idea what you are doing.

even a winny-only cycle will shut down your body’s own testosterone production.

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oh and btw insinuating that you only “grow on your off days” is absolutely ridiculous

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[quote]Peter Orban wrote:

[quote]Dlouda wrote:
Again, your off days is when you grow. You shouldn’t be eating less on your off days, because that is counter-productive to “growing.” Rather than eating less calories, substitute some of the carbs you eat on off days with fat, but make sure you still get enough kcals to gain. I promise if you eat 2,100 kcals like Peter Orban suggested, you won’t get anywhere.[/quote]

Learn how to read.

I suggested a base of 2100 Kcal on non-training days, and 2700 on lifting days, and then after two weeks adding 400 Kcal on lifting days and 200 on off days. This fits the way a high level coach would have him progress out of the diet and allow him to make adjustments based on feedback, something he seems quite well at doing. I am pretty sure he can use this construct effectively.

As for your guarantee, it isn’t worth shit, I have seen people his size and slightly bigger gain on that much and I do this for a living seeing 20-40 clients every two weeks, a good fraction of which are in the same boat.

@DG831: as MAF14 suggests, check out Shelby’s article:

and this one too:

They fit your situation (you said you want to limit fat gain) and leave room for future tweaking allowing you to make feedback based decisions which you seem to have demonstrated the ability to do.

As for my recommendation for a possible step after the 4 week progression I recommend, 25g per other meals and possibly upping fat a bit are your next options. If you choose to do this feel free to PM me at that time if you want to briefly discus your next move.[/quote]

Not trying to get into an argument over the internet. I read your post fine, and replied to it fine. Perhaps you misunderstood. Nonetheless, that is my 2 cents.

If you do this for a living, working with clients… why are you “coaching” him on here for free? Ha

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[quote]MAF14 wrote:
oh and btw insinuating that you only “grow on your off days” is absolutely ridiculous[/quote]

Again, your reading capabilities are amusing. Never stated that you “ONLY grow on your off days”
You grow when you rest … such as when sleeping… and off days happen to be low activity, resting days, during which you recover from exercise, and grow. If you believe that is ridiculous, well then, that is your problem.