@robstein - Thanks man. I had a great time and would be lying if I said I regretted it. Feeling a little guilty? Yes. Regretting it? No.
@oldbeancam - Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll definitely look him up. I appreciate the advice!
@Frank_C - Good luck and make sure to report back after you’ve given it a trial.
Worst case scenario my legs get bigger. I think I’ve had the best luck with leg hypertrophy on single leg leg press and reverse lunges. The lunges are what I used to build my glutes. It took years but it no longer looks like my erectors run straight to my hamstrings!
Hey man I had a question for you.
So I know you’ve done the Building the Monolith template so I wanted to know a few things. I’m trying to keep my food choices as simple as possibly because all my time constraints. I know Jim recommends I eat daily
12 eggs
1.5lbs beef (I’d probably do 80/20)
and whatever the hell else i want (rice, potatoes, bananas, broccoli, spinach, carrots)
I don’t want to the point where I’m putting on a ridiculous amount of fat. Any advice for me on that front? Should I just not even worry. I figure with the template, conditioning, and adding the strongman day I should put on some quality mass without worry about getting fat.
I think I probably have been under-eating the right stuff for sometime now that maybe I just feel like it could happen lol.
Also on a side note, did you do conditioning like Jim mentioned? How did you treat recovery?
I want to make sure this week is a great week and I get dialed in on everything!
I thought Jim’s nutritional recommendations were stupid… I mean, er, more power lifter-ish. Double your body weight in grams of protein? That’s a bit of overkill. And I’m not so sure you need to eat 1.5lbs of red meat every day. I agree with getting protein but there are multiple ways to do it without jacking up your saturated fat intake.
We’ll see how @littlesleeper did it but based on what I’ve seen in his nutrition I’d be surprised to see him eat like Jim recommends.
X2 on that. I definitely think Jim’s nutritional recommendations are less than great for anyone who cares even remotely about their physique. I’m not just talking about for BTM either.
So what would you guys say is a better way to eat for how I’m training? Building the Monolith + Strongman Saturday
So I’m 170lbs at 5’7. You can how I look currently in my most recent post in my training log.
I would for sure want to minimize fat gain while continuing to get stronger & bigger.
I was thinking of daily just have 3 meals (protein, rice, veggies) and then a shake that would have my fruits + fats + milk + spinach. I think this would be better approach? I ususally have 6 eggs at breakfast and then like 3/4lb of chicken thighs or salmon for lunch/dinner.
It’s tough for me to give you recommendations because we all approach nutrition a bit different. I don’t possess the ability to eat the right quantities without tracking my food with My Fitness Pal. I’m probably a little OCD about tracking my food and I know that that doesn’t work for everyone.
My approach would be to find your maintenance calories and increase just a bit from there. Check out @MarkKO’s log and go back a month or so and you’ll find some of his plans to add mass over the long haul. He’s cut from 225 to 180 in a year. Once his body becomes accustomed to his new weight he plans to make very subtle changes to add muscle mass and take his weight back up.
Unless you’re a complete novice you won’t add a ton of quality muscle mass quickly. For someone like me who’s been doing this awhile I’d be good to add a pound or two in a year. Not exactly exciting or motivating but it’s reality.
Following Jim’s nutritional advice will probably lead to the physique of a power lifter or bowling ball. You can’t just eat tons of meat and lift weights and get swole. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
I’m a numbers guy, I’d probably do this:
Your high end maintenance by bodyweight is 2900 calories. Assuming you’re somewhere around 15% bodyfat your high end maintenance by LBM is 2500 calories.
I would absolutely not go above about 3200 cal/day until you’re completely sure you need to. I’d probably start around 200 cal/day above what you are now. If you’re not adding the mass you want after a few weeks, add another 200 cal/day until you hit that high end 3200 cal/day.
How you split and time your macros will also be a factor I think. I don’t see why you would go too far from a high carb/medium-high protein/low-medium fat approach. Something like bodyweight in pounds in protein plus maybe an extra 20-30 grams, 30% calories from fats and the rest carbs. Make sure you get plenty of carbs and protein before, during and immediately after training. Something like Plazma would be highly beneficial.
What multiplier or calorie calculator do you use?
@isdatnutty - I also like keeping my food choices as simple as possible. I followed a similar, but dialed down nutrition approach. I was eating 1lb of ground beef and cut my egg consumption down to 8 eggs per day. I was also eating 1 bag of frozen veggies a day. I definitely put on SOME fat, but I wouldn’t say it was significant. It may not be ideal, but it is a way to ensure you are getting in some good cals and hitting your protein. I would do it again. I think I was sitting around 205-210lbs for the better part of 6 months, with no real progress. This pushed me up to 217. When I dieted back down to ~210, there was no doubt I was leaner at this weight, so I have to assume I put on some lean mass in the process.
I can’t remember if I followed his conditioning perfectly or not. I did do weighted vest walks, and made sure to do Agile 8 nearly every day. Sleep was probably a weakness of mine though. Let me know if you have any other questions!
@Frank_C - It was awhile ago when I ran the program. I still eat a significant amount of eggs regularly (less so now in my cut). But I can eat 1lb of ground beef at a sitting without blinking. I think the 1lb of ground beef and 8 eggs a day can still be beneficial for people who are struggling to add mass. As long as you’re drinking lots of water, getting some other healthy fats and getting enough veggies I don’t think you’re putting your health in jeopardy.
@MarkKO - I think Jim just throws that nutrition info out there because he hears multiple times a day how people are “hard gainers” or how “no matter what they do they can’t get bigger/stronger”. You WILL get bigger/stronger eating like this, almost guaranteed. Will you put on a bit of fat? Likely. Does this play into the whole bulking/cutting approach which is frowned upon? Yea, if you want to dial down to a lean BF%.
But this takes the excuse away from “hard gainers”. Until you find out for yourself what it actually takes to put on mass, you could rely on the crutch of calling yourself a hard gainer. If you just take his suggestions at face-value, ya it is a less than perfect diet plan. If you want to make sure you grow and recover and aren’t scared of a few bonus pounds of fat, then I think it does its job quite nicely.
I’m all for eating red meat–just not that much. I get chicken breasts for $2 a pound. That’s a much cheaper approach and it lets me eat more. I think your plan with the eggs, meat, and bag of veggies every day is a pretty good one. Most of us probably fall short on veggies. I don’t think they do much for lifting (not like starchy carbs and protein), but I think they have a lot of nutrients that the body needs. I try to eat something green every day. I feel a bit guilty if I don’t.
Thanks man appreciate the feedback! I only get 6 hours a sleep a night, I can’t change that lol. But I do get quality sleep, so even though it’s only 6 I’ve never woken up tired.
Nail on the head.
This, for me.
Also, that is very cheap for chicken. On a smoking sale I pay twice that. Regular price is $6/lb or more.
I wish I could say I do it every meal… but I fail. Breakfast today was two egg sandwiches which came out great for my macros for a pre-workout meal. Other common meals I eat include various pasta (except spaghetti noodles) with meat sauce. That’s enough calories without adding anything. And then there’s chicken and rice… See? I suck at adding in the greens. I usually take a container of broccoli or mixed veggies to work but that’s all I can manage.
Great advice here. @isdatnutty, if you want to maximize LBM while minimizing fat, your total caloric and macro breakdown will play the biggest role in that, the foods you eat and how many meals a day is completely up to you.
IMO the best combo for strength/performance/muscle gain while minimizing fat would be to find your maintenance first. If you’re not sure, google “TDEE” calculator, plug in the info, and see what comes up. Put protein at 1.1-1.2g per pound of bodyweight, fats at 30% of your total calories, and fill the rest with carbs. I’d recommend running your maintenance calories for a week or two FIRST before going into a surplus, and see how it goes. If the scale is moving up slightly and your appearance is acceptable to you, you can then move into a surplus, start with 10-15%, keep that for a couple weeks and see how it goes. The scale should creep up slowly. Similar with a diet, how you know you’re losing muscle if you’re losing more than about 2lbs a week, with gaining, I’d say if you’re gaining more than a pound a week you’re definitely gaining more fat than muscle.
To really gain mass properly without adding excess fat is a very slow and very steady process and requires rigid consistency with the diet to ensure you’re eating just enough to keep gaining mass without fat, it doesn’t take much.
EDIT: I missed @MarkKOs post where he pretty much said all of this exactly, sorry for beating a dead horse! Great stuff @MarkKO.
It still makes us all feel a bit better about our knowledge base when a true competitor reinforces our nutritional advice!
And how! Thanks @robstein
@Frank_C and @MarkKO thanks guys, always happy and eager to help, not many folks on here like you guys and @littlesleeper and the others in the training section who really dig in, work hard and are very consistent in their pursuits. I’m learning a lot reading these logs, awesome to be along for the ride and watch the progress!
Thanks @robstein, very happy to have you poking around in here.
That being said, I’m in a bit of a low…training-wise. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I couldn’t work up the energy to hit the gym. I got home late from work, was running off fumes from a poor sleep the night before, sipped 1/2 serving of Plazma…and called it off.
I woke up this morning to get the workout in but only managed to get in my main work (deadlift) and the strength was NOT there.
My knee is still bothering me, but slowly getting better.
Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5 ← This wasn’t flying up like usual, and grip felt weak which is often an indicator of how my DL is going to go
405 x 5 ← Harder than I care to admit.
455 x 3 ← Quit at 3 to attempt to leave some in the tank for my TM set.
510 x 1 ← bailed on the second rep as I could feel my shoulders drifting forward, and nothing was grooving this morning.
No additional work, I’ll get in a PM workout for my assistance.
F***.