I gain very easily, and I have a monstrous appetite. I pretty much have to eat very clean and restricted, or my gut is going to grow…and fast…and I will end up cutting half of the year. That’s what happened to me in my first year of training, even though I did put on 30-40lbs of solid muscle mass in spite of muscle destroying cutting diets…
That being said, I think the most important factor is training.
[quote]goldin wrote:
Calorie intake by far.
While sleep is important I seemed to have inherited a strange metabolism that adjusts very quickly to caloric intake. I would eat 3500 calories and no change in weight. Then 4500 and no change. It took me to 6000 to get a good change going on, and I had to sleep less in order to eat it all.
So I sacrificed sleep to eat, but hopefully not everyone has to choose bewteen the two.[/quote]
Holy shit! How much do you weigh, man? On training days I eat 3000-3500 kcals, and I find it hard to squeeze them in. I can’t even begin to fathom 6000…
How many donuts is that?
Anyway, my answer is definitely FOOD. I am not ashamed to admit that until I started reading T-Nation (e.g. John Berardi) I didn’t eat enough, even though I thought I did. Strangely, I gain less fat now that I eat more calories, but of better quality, than I used to before. I guess it’s true that a calorie is not a calorie, after all.
It is not a one thing only.
Think of it as a three legged stool. If one leg is bad you fall off.
The three legs.
1-Food
2-Workout
3-Recovery
All aspects of each must be up to par or you fall. It is like each leg has multiple parts that all have to be in order or it fails.
[quote]ChrisKing wrote:
Very interesting!
I think I was fortunate to stumble onto this by sheer luck and trial and error.
I think the pendulum has almost swung too far with many forum members just telling people they need to eat more and not paying enough attention to training specifics when it comes to gaining size.
[/quote]
I think this is in part due to the site we are on. There are literally hundreds of effective Programs and articles on how to structure a program that training right shouldnt be an issue. I know when I first found this site years ago I literally spent hours on end reading all the different articles and it really changed the way I trained.
step #1- Read all you can stand plus some
step #2- eat alot of clean food
step #3- apply your new training knowledge or start using one of the routines from the site
step #4- grow
I’m with the majority of people here and believe the number one mistake for most is not eating enough.
I think it’s wrong to think of what is most important in these terms. What is most important is whatever you are doing wrong. For me, it used to be workout. Once I fixed my workout, I grew a lot for a while, and then stopped. At this point, diet was my biggest problem. I fixed that, and just put on 3 pounds in a week with no change in bf%.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
I think it’s wrong to think of what is most important in these terms. What is most important is whatever you are doing wrong. For me, it used to be workout. Once I fixed my workout, I grew a lot for a while, and then stopped. At this point, diet was my biggest problem. I fixed that, and just put on 3 pounds in a week with no change in bf%.[/quote]
Very good post. And very true. I don’t think people are saying what’s most important though. I do think the biggest mistake most lifters who are not gaining mass make is not eating enough. Especially beginning lifters. Of course there are many others. Charles Staley made some very good and interesting points.
[quote]samsmarts wrote:
Calorie intake by far. [/quote]
yup
Even though I haven’t gone on a bulk cycle yet. From waht I have experience I know I will grow enourmously huge once I am able to get enough food for a bulk cycle to get me around 5000 cals a day, it may be upgraded dependign on the type of sprint training I’m doing. Then with alot of cals EDT will surely work very well.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
jsbrook wrote:
geekboy wrote:
jsbrook wrote:
T-Quinn wrote:
Calories by far. If you think you’re eating enough, eat twice as much basically.
Not really. I was eating 4000 calories when bulking. I thought I was eating plenty. I don’t think I should’ve been eating 8000.
Take it easy jsbrook, T-Quinn’s opinion is more towards people who have not idea about their energy intake but just feel/think they have eaten enough.
Geek boy
I know, I know. And I wasn’t trying to come across like I was snapping. Just don’t want some skinny newbie to read this thread and double their calories and wonder why they got fat and decide eating big is not for them. lol
For most of the people who are describing their food intake on this forum, I don’t think it would be a negative at all for many to double their intake…or at least their perception of it. There are way too many guys loggin on claiming 130lbs body weights who are eating yogurt and string cheese.[/quote]
Hey professorx
I enjoy your posts and ive been applying your principles about training and diet. Since i have got my b/w up to 192lbs from 182 lbs, but my goal once again is to get to 220lbs, do you mind posting the current eating plan that you do on a day of the week, this would be much helpful. Im eating 4500 cals a day maybe for me to get to 220lbs i will need to get in 6000 calories.
Thanks.
Not eating enough and not training properly
I was in the same boat as Misere for a while. My daily activity level made it such that any day less than 6000 was a step in the wrong direction. One easy method was to flush down a steak and egg salad with 2 scoops of protein powder in 16 oz. of whole milk. Have a couple of those a day.