Am I Doing This Right?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hi guys.
4 weeks ago I undertook a training and nutrition regime with a view to increase my weight and lean muscle mass.

I have stuck religiously to a training programme that involves 5 gym sessions every seven days, focussing on all major body parts including various influences from CT’s Chest specialization article, the ‘Armed for Combat’ article and other articles on T-Nation.

Alongside my gym routines, after reading about energy balance, I have calculated that I need to take in 4000 calories a day, of ‘healthy’ calories, which again I have stuck to (boiled eggs, chicken, tuna, ham, steamed veggies, fruit etc) and eat at least every 3 hours.

In these first 4 weeks I have seen noticeable strength gains and a slight improvement in my physique, and in the last 15 days I have put on exactly 5 pounds.

I have a worry though that maybe this is too much of an increase in weight over a short time, and subsequently, despite keeping to a strict ‘clean’ diet, I am becoming paranoid about a slight ‘belly’ forming.

I know there have been recent posts on here that have received a few (shall we say) light hearted responses, but this is starting to concern me.

Am I eating too much too quickly?

I had my body fat taken last week and I’m currently at 23% (5’11, 92,5kgs)

Thanks for any help and advice.

2

Dont be paranoid, 5lbs in 15days insn’t anything major, but having said that how did you calculate you need 4000 caloires?

It may simply be water retention, or carb sensitivity. List your diet and what times you eat your meals

3

dom74,

What I’m about to propose to you isn’t necessarily something you will want to hear because:

  • It will be more time consuming in the short term.

  • It will force you to think and make decisions.

On the bright side it will:

-Save you tons of time in the long term

-Make you learn about yourself

Enough with the disclaimer.

Now I see you’ve already done some research and have come across some sort of Calorie Formula (or calculator) to determine your calorie intake and possibly even macro breakdown. That’s fine. However after you’ve learned a bit about the basics of nutrition, exercise and program design you have to develop:

  • self awareness to see if what you are doing is bringing you closer to your ultimate goal

  • confidence to make the necessary adjustments despite some gurus, studies and formulas claiming otherwise.

Please note that I have nothing against “gurus, studies and formulas” as I think they are a great starting point, but ultimately YOUR body and how it responds to the stimulus dictates what kind of adjustments you need to make (in this case we are talking about your calorie intake).

So to answer your question, regarding the 5 lbs gain in 15 days, it all depends on the composition of that new weight. My opinion is:

  • If it’s almost entirely fat then you are gaining too quickly.

  • If it’s mostly muscle then you are fine.

There is no “specific ratio” to follow. Just use your judgement to decide what is an acceptable amount you are willing to tolerate .

And on a final note, if you were wondering, some fat gain is inevitable when trying to optimize muscle gain. How much? That’s for you to decide! :^)

Good luck!

4

I am not sure what the consensus on T-Nation is, but I don’t think someone at 23% bodyfat should be bulking, at least if they are knew to weightlifting. IF they are really are a new they should be able to lose fat and gain muscle for at least a month or two. While it is impossible for the adapted to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, that usually isn’t the case for novices.

5

Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, as I was contemplating my post, I started thinking about where I maybe going wrong (if I am wrong.)

The worry I have is, I hope, just paranoia and I fully take on board the point about putting on weight is invariably going to lead to a certain amount of weight in unwanted areas.

I calculated my necessary calorie intake using John Berardi’s formula in Massive Eating #1:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=460331

I may try cutting down my bread intake (which isn’t huge - maybe 4 slices of wholegrain a day), and also maybe my milk intake (500ml per day)… and see if that has any improved results.

My daily routine is looking something like:

6.30am
50g protein, 25g cmplx carbs, cup of oats, 300ml milk into the blender

8.30am PWO shake (50g protein - 50g Cmplx carbs)

9.30am Portion of fruit, Pint of water

11.30am Portion of veg and fruit, glass of milk

1.30pm Portion of protein (tuna/salmon/chicken) on wholemeal bread, portion of fruit, pint of water

4pm. Portion of protein (Cottage cheese/tuna), portion of fruit

7pm. Eve meal. (Boiled/jack potato, fresh steamed veg, chicken, tuna or steak.) piece of fruit. pint of water.

10pm. 50g Protein shake before bed.

6

[quote]anoddparadigm wrote:
I am not sure what the consensus on T-Nation is, but I don’t think someone at 23% bodyfat should be bulking, at least if they are knew to weightlifting. IF they are really are a new they should be able to lose fat and gain muscle for at least a month or two. While it is impossible for the adapted to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, that usually isn’t the case for novices.[/quote]

Hi, i post in here because I’m relatively new to the ‘science’ of working out, and the science of nutrition.

I have been training in the gym for around 4-5 years and have what I would describe as a basic grounding of working out.

Because I have retired from competitive rugby, I now have a new focus which is learning more about weight training in order to successfully put on lean mass. This goal is purely to see if I can do it, I’m almost taking it up as an interest, to make me feel better and I’m intrigued to see if I can change the shape of my body for the better.

So, I’m not really a beginner from scratch. Hope this helps.

7

The only real main offender in your diet is the jacket potato, try brown rice instead

There are a few options you can take to sort this out:

  1. Cut back to 3,500 calories
  2. Do cardio on your off days
  3. Restrict carb intake to breakfast & before and after workouts
  4. Keep milk and bread intake to a minimum

Whatever you choose good luck

8

[quote]anoddparadigm wrote:
I am not sure what the consensus on T-Nation is, but I don’t think someone at 23% bodyfat should be bulking, at least if they are knew to weightlifting. IF they are really are a new they should be able to lose fat and gain muscle for at least a month or two. While it is impossible for the adapted to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, that usually isn’t the case for novices.[/quote]

I am around 25% body fat now
started about 3 months ago in the 30s dont remember exact number off hand.but was and am still 290

I am not new to lifting just got lazy a bit but anyways yes its possible to lose fat and gain muscle same time.
while I am not “bulking” I am eating alot more than I used to its just alot more meat.

I had a choice either diet down cause I had muscle just alot of fat or to build more muscle I chose the later which is making me smaller also.

I would say if you eat at your maintance maybe a little more than you will actually loose fat by lifting heavy
I surely wouldnt think about bulking just worry about lifting heavier every day.
my .02 anyways

I do exactly what rayjay said above me
watch beans,grains and starches.
do cardio on off days it helps with muscle sorness also by getting the blood moving

eat around 3000-3500 cals
I am eating 2000 and I am shrinking like a drug addict