Anyone have any experience putting on muscle and weight on a high fat/high protein diet? I got from 190 to 230 in about year on about 4000 calories a day. 300 protein ,120 fat, 400-450 carbs. I put on some fat but an acceptable amount. Keeping training about constant going from 230 to 238 these last 2 months I put on more fat than muscle.
One reason I believe is because I tore my ACL and meniscus in September and I’m not as active. I also don’t think at this weight my body is handling the carbs as well.
My new plan that I’ve done over the last week is 350 protein, 200 fat, 200 or less carbs. Carbs only around the workout and whatever comes from the 2-3 daily pints of milk. It’s still 4,000 calories but I’ve lost 3 lbs. I know this is probably just water but its interesting how I used to gain 1 lb a week on 4,000 calories (high carb) and now I may be steadily losing weight on 4,000 cal (high fat). Show’s a calorie isn’t a calorie.
Back to my main question: Have any of you guys bulked and gained weight on diets consisting of less than 200 carbs. I’m interested in guy’s who already have a good amount of size (200+) as a 120 lb’er would gain on anything.
No. I have been able to maintain my weight and work on body recomp (which is slow as hell) by keeping carbs very low though. I am currently about the same weight I was this time last year but the difference in pictures is pretty noticeable to me now. Most of that year involved me alternating between all out gaining and long periods of eating lower carbs and higher protein.
[quote]Tatsu wrote:
Yup, an AD variant with two refeeds a week of 200g carbs.
What you could do is just time the carbs around breakfast and training. =)[/quote]
That’s basically when I’m taking them in right now but no refeeds. I was hoping to put on some more weight and get up to 250 but the torn knee fucked up my plans. I can’t do cardio now and won’t be able to do any for a while after my surgery in January. I’m hoping switching over from carbs to fat will compensate for the fact that I won’t be as active. At 235 and with a good amount of fat on me, I guess a recomp wouldn’t be so bad anyway.
Well, I gain weight fairly easily, but I’m gaining fine off of only about 110-120 g or so carbs every day, with the occasional re-feed. That being said, I gain weight from 2,700 or so calories a day.
[quote]SSC wrote:
Well, I gain weight fairly easily, but I’m gaining fine off of only about 110-120 g or so carbs every day, with the occasional re-feed. That being said, I gain weight from 2,700 or so calories a day.[/quote]
200 carbs a day seems to be a pretty good number for being able to maintain muscle mass and drop the fat slowly. I have been trying to keep carbs around 100-125 M-Sat and then do a small refeed of 600 carbs on Sundays and it has been doing wonders for maintaining and dropping some fat.
200 is a bit lower than you were before, but I don’t think you need a refeed at 200 carbs per day though. If things are working for you at 200, then stick with it. It’s also good to mix it up a bit from time to time and fluctuate your carb intake so the body won’t get used to the 200 every day. I also found that limiting my Carbs to breakfast and pre post workouts works better than consuming carbs with every meal.
Hi Sam, obviously you need a calorie surplus to grow effectively, we all know this, but the main factors will be eating the right amount of carbs for your body size currently and training volume.
Personally, now I’m speaking from experience of gaining and dieting with low/high and moderate carb approaches here, when trying to gain muscle mass specifcally, not strength, without a decent amount of carbs I can gain weight yes, but not a whole lot of muscle, unless I have specified carb refeed periods in some sort of cyclical fashion.
Reason being, a glycogen depleted state signals to your body to mobilize fuels. Saturated glycogen stores do the opposite. So, the real question would be can you maintain adequate glycogen stores with less than 200g of carbs daily? This would depend on how much muscle you have, and what your training volume is like.
That is not to say that you couldn’t gain muscle on a relatively low carb diet, people do, but in my opinion, FWIW, it isnt the best approach. The main factor is simply the amount of food you consume, if you eat enough you will grow. So, if this is the case, why not have a significant amount of carbs and maximise your gaining potential? The presence of a decent amounts of carbs prevents the breakdown of proteins and fats to an extent, all aiding muscle growth.
Carbs arent really the demon they’re made out to be.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
SSC wrote:
Well, I gain weight fairly easily, but I’m gaining fine off of only about 110-120 g or so carbs every day, with the occasional re-feed. That being said, I gain weight from 2,700 or so calories a day.
I’m losing 1 lb/wk off 2700 cals/day
[/quote]
And my roommate stays at 6’1", 150 eating 4-5,000+ cal per day. Not even quality shit… he could eat nothing but chips and cheese and stay the exact same. It’s so fucked up.
Also: Carb numbers may, in fact, be closer to about 150 g with fiber.
[quote]SSC wrote:
Well, I gain weight fairly easily, but I’m gaining fine off of only about 110-120 g or so carbs every day, with the occasional re-feed. That being said, I gain weight from 2,700 or so calories a day.[/quote]
Wow, thats pretty low in calories but at least I see its possible to gain on low carbs.
[quote]Dave Rogerson wrote:
That is not to say that you couldn’t gain muscle on a relatively low carb diet, people do, but in my opinion, FWIW, it isnt the best approach. The main factor is simply the amount of food you consume, if you eat enough you will grow. So, if this is the case, why not have a significant amount of carbs and maximise your gaining potential? The presence of a decent amounts of carbs prevents the breakdown of proteins and fats to an extent, all aiding muscle growth.
[/quote]
Th reason I’m not planning on a significant amount carbs right now, is because I was putting on too much fat using that approach lately. My waist went up to about 41" (unluckily this is where I seem to store all of my fat). Trust me, I LOVE carbs and on 400+ a day I was doing good. But that was before I fucked my knee up. I’d hike, play b-ball, do 200 yard sprints and walk alot. I’d do one of these activities at least twice a week. I was very active so the carbs were being burnt off IMO.
The plus side of this lower carb diet is that I’m getting more protein in because now matter how much I eat, I’m still fuckin hungry. I used to be satisfied on 4,000 calories. Now, I feel hungry even after getting as high as 4500 and I’ve already lost weight.
I usually feel pretty satisfied on a high pro/fat diet. Although I tolerate fat really well avg 150g of fat per day and staying lean. I’d take a good hard look at dropping the 2-3 pints of milk a day and find a way to get some solid food or protein shake to replace the calories.
Th reason I’m not planning on a significant amount carbs right now, is because I was putting on too much fat using that approach lately. My waist went up to about 41" (unluckily this is where I seem to store all of my fat). Trust me, I LOVE carbs and on 400+ a day I was doing good. But that was before I fucked my knee up. I’d hike, play b-ball, do 200 yard sprints and walk alot. I’d do one of these activities at least twice a week. I was very active so the carbs were being burnt off IMO.
The plus side of this lower carb diet is that I’m getting more protein in because now matter how much I eat, I’m still fuckin hungry. I used to be satisfied on 4,000 calories. Now, I feel hungry even after getting as high as 4500 and I’ve already lost weight.
[/quote]
Well, in your situation with a reduction of total daily activity, and considering that you were beginning to gain too much around the midsection, a total reduction in calories is probabaly a good idea. If you keep your calories equal and reduce your carbs, and replace them with another nutrient, you will probably drop a few pounds of fluid, but most likely not bodyfat.
What I would have done is to keep protein and fat probably equal and simply reduce the total calories down slightly, from the carbs. If you are not expending as much energy during bouts of activity throughout the day, you probably wouldnt need them in there.
[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
SSC wrote:
Well, I gain weight fairly easily, but I’m gaining fine off of only about 110-120 g or so carbs every day, with the occasional re-feed. That being said, I gain weight from 2,700 or so calories a day.
Wow, thats pretty low in calories but at least I see its possible to gain on low carbs.[/quote]
Yeah definitely. I think it just all depends on your individual body. I just have a crazy slow metabolism. Listen to your body closely! (Though I know you know that by now.)
I was on the anabolic diet for lets say 4 months and i went up from 82Kg to 85Kg with almost no fat gains(eating only 30Gr carbs on weekdays).
Problem is, you have to eat a lot of eggs (10+ a day) and a lot of meat, and that is kind of hard to you stomach and liver. Thats tha main reasong im getting of this diet and going back to carbs.
The thing is, it is possible to gain muscle you just have to increase the amount of calories in order to have a calorie surplus and stick to the 60%Fat , 35% Prots, and 5% carbs, with weekends carb loading.
[quote]Pilosox wrote:
Problem is, you have to eat a lot of eggs (10+ a day) and a lot of meat, and that is kind of hard to you stomach and liver. Thats tha main reasong im getting of this diet and going back to carbs.
[/quote]
How is eating meat and eggs hard on the stomach or liver?
Do you have a disease that makes it difficult to digest fat?
No man, and i have bloodwork done regulary and not even cholesterol went up. Its pretty healthy.
What i mean with hard is actually hard to DIGEST, so if you grap a diarrea or something beacuse you ate something bad then it is impossible to get better with this diet, and sometimes eating so much of meat and eggs got me full all day and it was impossible to reach the caloric need (with fat and protein in the ratio i posted above)and i felt like a bag full of stones, like the feeling of my stomach working all the time.
But i did this diet like 5-6 months until this sintoms began. I know how to listen to my body so i stopped it for some time and then maybe ill go back to it. I made pretty good gains from it anyway, and my health was OK, so ill recomed it to everybody until your body says STOP!.
Cheers
[quote]Pilosox wrote:
No man, and i have bloodwork done regulary and not even cholesterol went up. Its pretty healthy.
What i mean with hard is actually hard to DIGEST, so if you grap a diarrea or something beacuse you ate something bad then it is impossible to get better with this diet, and sometimes eating so much of meat and eggs got me full all day and it was impossible to reach the caloric need (with fat and protein in the ratio i posted above)and i felt like a bag full of stones, like the feeling of my stomach working all the time.
But i did this diet like 5-6 months until this sintoms began. I know how to listen to my body so i stopped it for some time and then maybe ill go back to it. I made pretty good gains from it anyway, and my health was OK, so ill recomed it to everybody until your body says STOP!.
Cheers[/quote]
Then why did you claim that such a diet is hard on the liver?
Btw, you should replace “hard to digest” with “slower to digest” in your prior posts. Simply because something digests slower doesn’t mean that it’s difficult to digest.
