I just finished reading the Massive Eating articles and had a couple questions.
I weigh ~167 lbs and calculated required caloric intake to be about 3730 cal/day. Assuming I have moderate insulin sensitivity, I’m supposed to be getting my calories from 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats.
Carbs and proteins both contain 4 cal/g and fats have 9 cal/g (right?), so that comes out to be 2.2g of protein per pound of body weight. From other articles that I’ve read on here, 2.2g protein per pound of body weight is a little excessive.
Did I do some calculations wrong or is this really what I should be eating?
I think macros are somewhat important for dieting, but for gaining, I wouldn’t stress it. I’d just aim for getting at least 1g protein per lb of body weight and fill the rest of your cals as needed.
There is a large level of debate as to the ‘optimal’ level of nutrition you need to grow. Don’t go there. Pick something and do it.
Your massive eating calculations serve as a great starting point. Create a meal plan using that diet plan and follow it. In a month, after you have a baseline level of results, tweak it in ways to make it cheaper, easier, more efficient… whatever you need to.
As a side note, there’s nothing wrong with 2.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight. You may be able to skirt by with the industry standard 1g per pound of bodyweight, but the real gold is in doing something, and finding out if it works for you.
Just as Otep suggested, the most important thing is to stop over analyzing things like the proper amount of protein to body weight. Just try and keep it simple.
I’m not going to say you’re choosing the wrong protocol here or anything with your eating. But, why not just ditch the whole idea of macronutrient percentages and just make sure you have a protein source at every meal, some veggies and some fruit. Hell even have some taco bell or mcdonalds from time to time…
If you find that you’re not gaining any weight buy a huge back of almonds and add a small handful of almonds to each meal. Still not gaining weight? Why not try larger portions of meat and more almonds?
Speaking of which, buy almonds in bulk. At ~7 USD/lb, its hard to buy from a local store. I paid 150 USD for 30 lbs (210 USD value) from a bulk store. A nice heavy box of almonds, long time supply for 5 USD/lb. Good luck.