This is my first “actual” bulk as opposed to the times I would indiscriminantly eat anything hoping to get bigger. I might be thinking too hard about this after all the articles I have read over the year.
I am 5’8, 165ish lbs, 8-9% bodyfat.
I eat roughly 1900 kcal
from 250P, 80-90 F, and only dark veggies so barely any carbs.
Is going into more food as quick as waking up and upping the macro nutrient amounts or should it be done gradually? I am a bit unsure if the carbs and protein need to be someone inversely porportional or if its okay if they both shoot up, and the frequency of such.
Just another bit of info if someone could critique…here was my old meal schedule
Waking - Meal 1: Whole Egg/Egg white blend with Fish Oil (40 p, 20 f)
+3-4 hours - Meal 2: Chicken Breast and olive oil salad or Shake with olive oil/heavy cream (40-50 p, 15-20 f)
+6-7 hours - Meal 3: " "
+9-10 hours - Meal 4: Chicken breast with almonds, spinach (40-50 p, 20 f)
+12-14 hours - Meal 5: Chicken breast spinach salad (40-50 p, 15 f)
I was thinking of adding 20-30 grams carbs in the first and second meal for every training day for the first week and adding 1 last carb meal of 20-30 for every training day on the 2nd week…
I wanted to cut some fat that I had on me. I was 175 but didn’t look big. I restricted my intake so I could benefit more from re-introducing foods back. Kind of an experiment. Thought if I wanted to try to get bigger I should experience the opposite side of the spectrum so it’s more familiar when I need to cut.
Yea I’m going to bump it up…not sure if It’s a waste of time to do it gradually or not. Someone told me to watch out for my thyroid…Just looking for clues.
Yea…Add carbs…if your bulking and you have no carbs your wasting your time and money! Also bulking requires a good and heavy weghtlifting plan…so make sure you have that down packed as well.
[quote]earthquake wrote:
Just another bit of info if someone could critique…here was my old meal schedule
Waking - Meal 1: Whole Egg/Egg white blend with Fish Oil (40 p, 20 f)
+3-4 hours - Meal 2: Chicken Breast and olive oil salad or Shake with olive oil/heavy cream (40-50 p, 15-20 f)
+6-7 hours - Meal 3: " "
+9-10 hours - Meal 4: Chicken breast with almonds, spinach (40-50 p, 20 f)
+12-14 hours - Meal 5: Chicken breast spinach salad (40-50 p, 15 f)
I was thinking of adding 20-30 grams carbs in the first and second meal for every training day for the first week and adding 1 last carb meal of 20-30 for every training day on the 2nd week…[/quote]
according to a online calculator your BMR is 1796 cals a day, so you should start with 500 above that a day and add in more cals as your progress slows down.
[quote]earthquake wrote:
Someone told me to watch out for my thyroid…Just looking for clues.[/quote]
WTF does that mean?
Are you hypo- or hyper-thyroid?[/quote]
I don’t think I am either of them.
I was told going out of a keto by introducing carbs too much and too soon can cause my thyrooid to ‘down’ regulate. I don’t known wtf that means but the implication was decreased LBM and fat gain.
[quote]earthquake wrote:
I don’t think I am either of them.
I was told going out of a keto by introducing carbs too much and too soon can cause my thyrooid to ‘down’ regulate. I don’t known wtf that means but the implication was decreased LBM and fat gain.
[/quote]
This right here? Forget about it, and anything else like it. I’m a biochem major, so I’m a firm believer in science, but worrying about this kind of shit right now is pointless.
Unless you are seriously obese (which clearly you are not), don’t worry about minutia. You need to eat a lot more than 1900 kcals a day if you want to gain any real muscle. And good lord, put some red meat in that diet. And some quality carbs - and some fish. Brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, yams, whole wheat pasta - just don’t be afraid to EAT!
I’m not advocating eating loads of garbage, but the occasional double cheesburger won’t kill you - especially if bulking is your goal.
I guarantee you should be eating at least twice that if you expect to gain.
Unless you are seriously obese (which clearly you are not), don’t worry about minutia. You need to eat a lot more than 1900 kcals a day if you want to gain any real muscle. And good lord, put some red meat in that diet. And some quality carbs - and some fish. Brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, yams, whole wheat pasta - just don’t be afraid to EAT!
I’m not advocating eating loads of garbage, but the occasional double cheesburger won’t kill you - especially if bulking is your goal.
I guarantee you should be eating at least twice that if you expect to gain. [/quote]
Thanks for the hearty reply.
I take it macronutrient allocations aren’t as big a deal when bulking as they are when leaning out(?)…I had some idea that if carbs went up protein had to go down.
Well, I mean just following a simple 40/30/30 split of macros or tweak it to whatever ratios you feel comfortable with. Figure out your minimum protein, carb and fat requirements - do the math and tweak it from there…
You are 160 - ok, so lets go with 2 grams of protein and 2 grams of carbs per lb of bodyweight - 2 x 160 = 320 gms protein@4 kcals per gram =1280 kcals
2 x 160 = 320 gms carbs@4 Kcals per gram = 1280 kcals
1x 160 = 160 grams fat@9 kcals per gram = 1440 kcals
1280 + 1280 + 1440 = 4000 kcals (this ratio isn’t exact, in fact it’s more like 40/40/20)
Now, that may wind up being too much for you in terms of fats, or carbs (but I wouldn’t fuck with the protein intake) but this will be an individual thing. It’s up to you to eat the right foods and train your ass off on at least a 4 day split (5 would be better) and if you don’t see gains we’ll send you to the mayo clinic to have your alien physiology tested…lol…
Seriously, you’ll have to decide what’s going to work best for you, and obviously if the above recommendation results in huge fat gains then you’ll need to modify it, but it is a good place to start. If you are really training right I would think that shouldn’t be an unreasonable amount of calories to get put to good use.
I wouldn’t think you’ll stay at 9% during this, but what you are willing to gain in terms of BF will be ultimately up to you. And of course, you do not need or should you gain HUGE amounts of bf in the process, but expect to gain some, and it’s up to you to tweak things based on your results…