What would be wrong with a low carb bulking diet? Could you just shoot back some olive/coconut/flax for the extra calories and put on lean mass or do you need insulin going 24/7? The volume is alot easier to get down since its calorie dense. I feel like I could easily get down 4k calories while taking appetite supressants just by chugging some oil here and there. It would make things simple too: Eat meat, drink shakes, pound olive oil.
And if I hear about carbs in the morning and post workout again, my head is going to explode. Yes, I know how wonderful they are and I wrote low carb, not no carb. I would not want to remove those carbs, just keep the total at like 150g or so. Im just wondering aloud here.
I will never understand the current extreme hatred of insulin. Insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones in your body. I personally feel that if you want maximize growth, limiting carbohydrates that low is the LAST thing you would want to do. While there can be much debate abouit “nutrient timing”, carbohydrates are not an enemy when gaining. They will help keep protein in storage instead of being used as a primary energy source which is exactly what will happen if most of your diet is fats and protein. The rest is dependant on your individual metabolism.
this question is hypothetical, im just trying to learn here.
This question is definately a result of the “demonization of insulin.” Its the hormone that drags stuff into cells but it seems to have a bad rap even though thats the essence of bodybuilding. Insulin can force amino acids into cells - but is it necessary to optimize protein synthesis when they are screaming for AAs anyways? I guess thats the latent question here.
What Im doing right now is nothing like what i proposed, and the apetite supressant thing was just to illustrate how easy it would be to drink 4000 cals of fat.
Insulin can force amino acids into cells - but is it necessary to optimize protein synthesis when they are screaming for AAs anyways? I guess thats the latent question here. [/quote]
Yes insulin is necessary. “Optimize” is my new favorite word.
In my experience,carbs are VERY important for both strength gains and bulking up.Your muscles are over 70% water.About 22% of muscle tissue is protein mostly consisting of millions of strands of Actin, a thin protein and Myosin, a thick protein.
You need to get water into those muscles. Carbohydrates help.
Your overall calorie intake is important,but carbohydrates are just as important as protein when it comes to bulking.
It’s sad when I see these guys bulking on low carb diets because they’re too afraid to mess up their "perfect grade A " ab defenition.
I think they’re missing out on some of the best gains.
The real question here is why low carb, not whether or not it will work. If you are that afraid to gain weight while bulking, don’t bulk. Or just bulk slowly. Shugs wrote an article on bulking slowly I think. Maybe upping your cals on by 500 or so above maintenance. You’ll bulk slower, but will be less likely to gain fat.