My Experience On the Anabolic Diet Part II

Nutrition
1081

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks[/quote]

4000 sounds like more than enough to “gain”. At 150 that’s your body weight X 26.66. It seems like too much, but if you have a bad ass metabolism it might be what you need. The protein is too high but it shouldn’t matter. I have always read about 60-70% fat, so going up to that % would bring the protein number down a bit.

What are you eating like right now? What results are you seeing from it?

1082

You can have 65% fat with no problems. Protein “tops” out at about 2g/lb. Beyond that and its not going to help (unless AAS are involved).

Judging from your avatar, you’re quite lean. Try the trick of using a huge spike on Saturday. Shoot for 6000 cals, then back down to 4000 on Sunday. You may also “need” to go low CHO on Sunday if you smooth too much. But dont determine this by just looking at Sat and Sun. By Wednesday, you usually see the effects of what your load has done.

Get [quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks[/quote]

1083

actually, what has your intake been these 14 weeks?

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks[/quote]

1084

Give it a good 8 weeks and look for total body comp changes rather than scale changes necessarily. you may gain a few pounds or even stay the same, but you should be leaner, giving an overall increase in muscle.

DH

[quote]Anabolic Bob wrote:
pumped340 wrote:
Well if your not gaining weight thats just a matter of calories, how much are you eating during the weekdays?

I’m eating between 3500 and 4000 (very consistently) during the week. At 180, my 18x is 3240 and 25x is 4500. Even though I do Thib’s BCAA pulse para-workout, I’m going to try DH’s BCAA plan and see if I can gain with the calories I’m eating.

I’m not excessive with cardio either. For GPP I do hill sprints 0-2x a week, light BB complexes and recovery workout supersets (ab stability, light rowing, low back & hamstring work) 2x a week.

Over the past few months since I’ve been on the diet, my strength has been going up consistently, but I’m probably the same weight or a bit lighter than when I started.
[/quote]

1085

I was just thinking about my coming up carb load and I think DH’s post just needs to be reposted as it was definitely helpful:

[i]
I see your quandry so let me help you out.

  1. Determine how many cals you need to stay at present weight. use a log book for a few days if you don’t know this

  2. keep this caloric level and change your macros to fit the diet. I like a near 1:1 ratio of protein and fat grams. 200g pro and 200g fat for a 160-180lb guy for example. And keep CHO under 30g. Watch EVERY label of ANYTHING you put in your mouth. Trace carbs are everywhere.

  3. Keep your cals at this level during the load. So if you need 2500 cals per day during the week, then keep it the same during the load. For now anyway.

  4. Eat veggies/salad at EVERY meal. Fiber powder will do in a pinch too, but we’d like it to come from quality foods vs a container. But the container is fine too.

  5. Eat the veggies/salad FIRST at each meal. This will help reduce the total amount you eat and lower the glucose release rate of the rest of your meal.

  6. Eat quality CHO on the loads. Baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, rice, pasta, oatmeal, some of that brick like amish bread, and all the berries and fruits you want. The best choices are HIFWAC. High fat and water content. Melons, grapefruit, etc..

But its all good on the load. Then you can add in a treat. You wont have much room and consequently wont do much damage. Also, you wont find your cravings are out of control with the veggies and quality CHO in you already.

  1. Get 1-2g of EPA/DHA with each meal. Get a higher concentration formula so you won’t have to take so many capsules. This will help with insulin reponse and nutrient partitioning (<-- isn’t that a Met-Rx trademarked phrase. ha ha)

  2. Take 1-2tbsp of vinegar with each meal. This is strong stuff so chase it down with some water or tea. It will give a warm sensation in the throat and gut. It is slightly acidic and will assist with digestion as well as acid reflux problems. Because it is acidic, your body will secrete less endogenous HCL. Vineagar helps alkalize your system via a feeback loop of sorts.

  3. Drink only a few ounces of liquid with a meal. Drinking more makes many some people smooth out faster. You can drink all you want between meals and about 30 mins after the meal. Dont forget your lemond wedge. Its your friend. :wink:

  4. Add a large chunk of lemon to your water or tea or diet beverage on the loads. Lemon will drop the glycemic response to the meal much like vinegar. I poke a large lemon wedge with my spoon until the pulp is floating around my drink.

  5. Avoid sugary drinks. I may have one during a load, but I usually pay for it. It gives me a buzz then a crash. And if I’m really lucky, a special trip to the toilet as well.

  6. Avoid milk and much ice cream. Milk is notorious for making most people smooth out rapidly. And the bloating as well. Many people don’t have the enzymes to digest it well once they pass about 2 years of age.

  7. Cut the load off at 33 hours to start. Saturday at 8am - Sunday at 5pm. If you follow the above advice then you should be able to handle this duration well most likely. use a protein, fiber, moderate fat meal (say 10-15g) around 8pm on Sunday to allow your body to clear the glucose and reestablish fat burning sooner.

  8. Consider training on the loads. This is a good way to put the CHO to use and slow down any smoothing issues. I used to train on Sunday afternoon. You could try Sat,Sun - Tue, Wed or Sun, Mon - Wed, Thur. You can load better and longer with some training thrown in if smoothing out is a problem for you.

  9. If you train on the loads, then use a bit higher reps near the load. For example if you do a heavy/light rotation, then put your 10-15 rep days on the weekend, and your 4-8 days at mid week. Once you’ve fully adapted this is not an issue, but many people do well with this set up.

  10. If you have a hard time telling when you smooth out then try these spots: Fingers, and face. My fingers swell when I drink milk and sugary drinks and eat junk. This is the first place on my body to send me a bad signal.

For some its the face. Watch yourself and ask a friend or spouse to watch for signs as well. They can tell on your face faster than you can. Now if it happens after a few hours of loading, then its your choise of foods vs the duration. If this is the case then review the above and make sure you are following it all.

On the fat during loads issue, Doc is emphasizing that if you strip fat from the load, you will begin to use ingested protein for gluconeogenesis unless you keep a conveyor belt of CHO coming in. Is a worst case scenario example. Keep in fat moderate (25-35%) is best. Dont seek it out as you do during the week, but dont’ SHUN it during the load as so mamy others espouse.

Your body will use fat as the primary fuel for at least 24 hours during a load, while it fills the muscle and liver. After that, it used CHO and fat together and we are getting closer to topping out. But if you follow the rules above, you’ll likely do just fine.

Best,
DH [/i]

1086

One more:

[i]1. That is me rambling. Be glad my wife has trained me not to ramble like I did for years. :slight_smile:

  1. Always eat veggies. But my focus was how to help you load better and allow a longer, better load by keeping it buffered with these suggestions I gave.

  2. yeah, you can eat some goodies, but if you do the things I’ve listed it will help you significantly. And as you get leaner, you can enjoy more crap. BUT as is always emphasized, its about results.

  3. Any vinegar is fine.

  4. Well on smoothing with pop and milk, what this is telling you is that sucrose, lactose, and HFCS all work to fill fat stores EVEN THOUGH you’re muscle and liver are still depleted. These sugars will fill both, but quality CHO will have higher glucose content, which is better for filling muscle and liver. Its nutrient partitioning to a degree. Certain sugars do a better job of going toward muscle and others (percentage wise) fill fat stores faster. So, you see its not just about how much, but both how much and what kind.

  5. all days are at maintenance for at leat 30-60 days. You will be adjusted and can then begin to see which phase you will want or need. Mass, cutting, etc…

  6. Yeah, I don’t eat “alot” per se. Don’t confuse what I need with what YOU need, though. This is HIGHLY individual. I like slow steady moderate cardio (a nice walk) 2-3x per week for cardio health and circulation.

When I started, I took my weight x 15 and then broke the macros down. For example at 170:
170x15=2550 cals
200g Pro=800 cals
190g Fat=1710 cals
25g CHO=100 cals

Thats about 2600. Close enough.

Then on the loads, I kept it low moderate protein, moderate fat, and moderate high CHO:

100-125g Pro=500 cals about 15-20% or so
100g Fat= 900 cals about 25-35% or so
325-350g CHO= 1300 cals about 50-60% or so

Don’t get too hung up on my numbers. They are a good guideline and will help you know what works best for you.

Best,
DH [i]

1087

[quote]pumped340 wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

Your just starting your gaining phase now? What were you doing at 150lb. before this? As for how many calories to eat…if your not gaining you need to eat more, simple as that.

350g of protein is fine if thats how much you need as long as fat is high enough. Since you’ve been on it 14 weeks you could probably afford to drop fat to 50% although if you’re trying to gain I would keep it at 60%. This way you’ll be at 270g fat, 30g carbs, and 360g of protein. With higher fat you’ll have more fat you can take out when you eventually want to lean out. [/quote]

Well this is my fisrdt well planned gaining phase. I just came off of the get shredded diet last week and this week i did maintenance (2900 calories). See, my main goal here is to gain mass without smoothing out. Just these three past days (mon, tue, wed, and i dont look like i did in my avatar anymore)With the way i have it worked out now on excel. its 4180 calories with 58% fat and 34% protein. What should i do from there?

1088

[quote]plasticglock wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

4000 sounds like more than enough to “gain”. At 150 that’s your body weight X 26.66. It seems like too much, but if you have a bad ass metabolism it might be what you need. The protein is too high but it shouldn’t matter. I have always read about 60-70% fat, so going up to that % would bring the protein number down a bit.

What are you eating like right now? What results are you seeing from it?[/quote]

Well i just came off the get shredded diet and was eatin maintenance calories (2900)this week but have already smoothed out, Gained fat maybe?..i dont kno…but it sucks. I ate 1500 damn calories for two weeks and have already lost my results

1089

[quote]DH wrote:
You can have 65% fat with no problems. Protein “tops” out at about 2g/lb. Beyond that and its not going to help (unless AAS are involved).

Judging from your avatar, you’re quite lean. Try the trick of using a huge spike on Saturday. Shoot for 6000 cals, then back down to 4000 on Sunday. You may also “need” to go low CHO on Sunday if you smooth too much. But dont determine this by just looking at Sat and Sun. By Wednesday, you usually see the effects of what your load has done.

Get GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

[/quote]

Thats the thing. I dont look like that anymore. That picture was taken last saturday before my carb up and i have been eating maintenance calories this week thus far (2900). How would i get 4000 calories with 300 grams tops? Would that not shoot my fat way up

1090

[quote]DH wrote:
actually, what has your intake been these 14 weeks?

GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

[/quote]

well I was kind of going at it blind the first few weeks (just watchin my carbs) but then i started plain with the calories and %s (short cutting phases and bulking) just to see how my body reacts. But i thouight this recent fat gain was due to the poor quality meats i was eating (Bacon, sausage, ground beef) All from walmart. But this up coming week i will be eating top sirloin and chicken from a local market. You think this will have any effects? I can post my excel spreaed sheet if anybody wants

1091

GramboUSMC88, you only did the GSD for 2 weeks? And if your already gaining weight and smoothing out why would you think you need 4000 calories to gain?

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
pumped340 wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

Your just starting your gaining phase now? What were you doing at 150lb. before this? As for how many calories to eat…if your not gaining you need to eat more, simple as that.

350g of protein is fine if thats how much you need as long as fat is high enough. Since you’ve been on it 14 weeks you could probably afford to drop fat to 50% although if you’re trying to gain I would keep it at 60%. This way you’ll be at 270g fat, 30g carbs, and 360g of protein. With higher fat you’ll have more fat you can take out when you eventually want to lean out.

Well this is my fisrdt well planned gaining phase. I just came off of the get shredded diet last week and this week i did maintenance (2900 calories). See, my main goal here is to gain mass without smoothing out. Just these three past days (mon, tue, wed, and i dont look like i did in my avatar anymore)With the way i have it worked out now on excel. its 4180 calories with 58% fat and 34% protein. What should i do from there?[/quote]

What do you mean what should you do? Eat…

1092

[quote]pumped340 wrote:
GramboUSMC88, you only did the GSD for 2 weeks? And if your already gaining weight and smoothing out why would you think you need 4000 calories to gain?

GramboUSMC88 wrote:
pumped340 wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

Your just starting your gaining phase now? What were you doing at 150lb. before this? As for how many calories to eat…if your not gaining you need to eat more, simple as that.

350g of protein is fine if thats how much you need as long as fat is high enough. Since you’ve been on it 14 weeks you could probably afford to drop fat to 50% although if you’re trying to gain I would keep it at 60%. This way you’ll be at 270g fat, 30g carbs, and 360g of protein. With higher fat you’ll have more fat you can take out when you eventually want to lean out.

Well this is my fisrdt well planned gaining phase. I just came off of the get shredded diet last week and this week i did maintenance (2900 calories). See, my main goal here is to gain mass without smoothing out. Just these three past days (mon, tue, wed, and i dont look like i did in my avatar anymore)With the way i have it worked out now on excel. its 4180 calories with 58% fat and 34% protein. What should i do from there?

What do you mean what should you do? Eat…
[/quote]

I mean like…what should i change?, I gain fat really easily and am trying to gain as much muscle as i can with as little fat as possible. I want to look like i lift everyday (which i do but i dont look like it)

1093

First of all Grambo… You say you gain fat easily and you also say you just finished a diet so your metabolism will be slow. My adice is do NOT jump right into 4000 cals a day from 2900. You will gain fat. Add 200 cals a day (1400 a week) the first week. Then another 200 cals a day the second week etc. If you are gaining weight off of that then hold it.

When you stall out, add another 200 cals a day and see how that goes. The massive jumps in cals end up putting the cals in the wrong place. Especially in your situation. DH from what i have read recomends this kind of approach rather then jumping into 25 cals X bodyweight etc.

1094

Oh… and Grambo… I did just fine with 65% fat just as the book sugests. Once you top out on protein, just make up the difference in fat.

1095

Hello,

I’m confused about protein:fat:carbs ratio seen on this topic. An example from above :

Do we have to calculate the % from the grams, or from the calories ? That gives completely opposite results.

Example from above, % based on calories (rounded)
234.35g proteins = 937.4 cals = 35%
33.8g carbs = 135.2 cals = 5%
181.55g fats = 1633.95 cals = 60%
449g total = 2694.5 calories = 100%

Example from above, % based on nutrients weight :
234.35g proteins = 52.2%
33.8g carbs = 7.52%
181.55g fats = 40%
449g total = 100%

If we count like this, the fat ratio fall, for the same amount, from 60% to the lower limit 40%.

EDIT : I’ve just read one page from Anabolic Solution, and it seems it would be the % from calories, if I understand it right. I’ve always dones like that, but recently I had big doubts.

Thanks in advance.
Guillaume.

1096

[quote]DJS wrote:
First of all Grambo… You say you gain fat easily and you also say you just finished a diet so your metabolism will be slow. My adice is do NOT jump right into 4000 cals a day from 2900. You will gain fat. Add 200 cals a day (1400 a week) the first week. Then another 200 cals a day the second week etc. If you are gaining weight off of that then hold it.

When you stall out, add another 200 cals a day and see how that goes. The massive jumps in cals end up putting the cals in the wrong place. Especially in your situation. DH from what i have read recomends this kind of approach rather then jumping into 25 cals X bodyweight etc.[/quote]

Thanks DJS…Do you think this fat gain ive had was from jumping from 1500 to 2900? well the carb up i had was probly close to 6000 calories…so maybe that was the fat gain. What im looking at doing now, starting next week, is starting at 3000 and adding 200 calories every lifting day but going back to maintenance on off days. How does that look to you? And what calories and macros do you recommend for my carb up? thanks for your help

1097

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
plasticglock wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

4000 sounds like more than enough to “gain”. At 150 that’s your body weight X 26.66. It seems like too much, but if you have a bad ass metabolism it might be what you need. The protein is too high but it shouldn’t matter. I have always read about 60-70% fat, so going up to that % would bring the protein number down a bit.

What are you eating like right now? What results are you seeing from it?

Well i just came off the get shredded diet and was eatin maintenance calories (2900)this week but have already smoothed out, Gained fat maybe?..i dont kno…but it sucks. I ate 1500 damn calories for two weeks and have already lost my results[/quote]

So, just to be sure, you used the get shredded diet for 2 weeks, and ate 1500 calories a day for that time, right? That’s not a very long time, what was your diet like before that? It’s very easy to gain fat if you jump up right after a low calorie period.

1098

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
DJS wrote:
First of all Grambo… You say you gain fat easily and you also say you just finished a diet so your metabolism will be slow. My adice is do NOT jump right into 4000 cals a day from 2900. You will gain fat. Add 200 cals a day (1400 a week) the first week. Then another 200 cals a day the second week etc. If you are gaining weight off of that then hold it.

When you stall out, add another 200 cals a day and see how that goes. The massive jumps in cals end up putting the cals in the wrong place. Especially in your situation. DH from what i have read recomends this kind of approach rather then jumping into 25 cals X bodyweight etc.

Thanks DJS…Do you think this fat gain ive had was from jumping from 1500 to 2900? well the carb up i had was probly close to 6000 calories…so maybe that was the fat gain. What im looking at doing now, starting next week, is starting at 3000 and adding 200 calories every lifting day but going back to maintenance on off days. How does that look to you? And what calories and macros do you recommend for my carb up? thanks for your help[/quote]

I don’t know if you are new to carb cycling or low carb diets but when you cut your carbs you loose a lot of water weight. You will see this in the scale and you will see it on your body. When you carb up again, you gain pounds of water back and this will make you feel like you are gaining a ton of weight and could blur definition etc. In other words, I’m sure most of what you gained was water. Don’t sweat it. I didn’t do the diet with strict calories on the weekend. I ate whatever i wanted to. So someone else can help you with that. I’d just follow the book though. Lower your protein and fat and up your carbs.

1099

[quote]plasticglock wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
plasticglock wrote:
GramboUSMC88 wrote:
I have been on the AD for 14 weeks now. I am starting my gaining phase but i am still stumped at how many calories and what macros i Should eat. 4000+ calories per day was recommended for my body weight (150 lbs), but when i write it all out i get 350+ grams of protein. Isn’t that too much? And going by CT’s advice, having fat at around 50% of total calories, that causes my protein to shoot up even more. What macros should i use? Any advice or tips or anything…let me know
thanks

4000 sounds like more than enough to “gain”. At 150 that’s your body weight X 26.66. It seems like too much, but if you have a bad ass metabolism it might be what you need. The protein is too high but it shouldn’t matter. I have always read about 60-70% fat, so going up to that % would bring the protein number down a bit.

What are you eating like right now? What results are you seeing from it?

Well i just came off the get shredded diet and was eatin maintenance calories (2900)this week but have already smoothed out, Gained fat maybe?..i dont kno…but it sucks. I ate 1500 damn calories for two weeks and have already lost my results

So, just to be sure, you used the get shredded diet for 2 weeks, and ate 1500 calories a day for that time, right? That’s not a very long time, what was your diet like before that? It’s very easy to gain fat if you jump up right after a low calorie period.[/quote]

I know. It wasn’t very long. I was tired of wasting my time getting leaner and wanted to gain mass while staying as lean as i was. Well right before i went on the get shredded diet i was on a eat everything i could handle (watching carbs eating less than 25 a day) and keeping all the %s right. but, i gained alot of fat and went on the get shredded diet to get lean before i started my bulk again. But here i am again in the same place i was before i started the get shredded diet

1100

[quote]guillaume76 wrote:
Hello,

I’m confused about protein:fat:carbs ratio seen on this topic. An example from above :

TOTALS: 2694.5 calories, 234.35g protein, 59(33.8)g carbs, 181.55g fat 2694.55
34.79% protein 4.57% carbs 60.64% fat

Do we have to calculate the % from the grams, or from the calories ? That gives completely opposite results.

Example from above, % based on calories (rounded)
234.35g proteins = 937.4 cals = 35%
33.8g carbs = 135.2 cals = 5%
181.55g fats = 1633.95 cals = 60%
449g total = 2694.5 calories = 100%

Example from above, % based on nutrients weight :
234.35g proteins = 52.2%
33.8g carbs = 7.52%
181.55g fats = 40%
449g total = 100%

If we count like this, the fat ratio fall, for the same amount, from 60% to the lower limit 40%.

EDIT : I’ve just read one page from Anabolic Solution, and it seems it would be the % from calories, if I understand it right. I’ve always dones like that, but recently I had big doubts.

Thanks in advance.
Guillaume.

[/quote]

% from calories

[quote]GramboUSMC88 wrote:
Thanks DJS…Do you think this fat gain ive had was from jumping from 1500 to 2900? well the carb up i had was probly close to 6000 calories…so maybe that was the fat gain. What im looking at doing now, starting next week, is starting at 3000 and adding 200 calories every lifting day but going back to maintenance on off days. How does that look to you? And what calories and macros do you recommend for my carb up? thanks for your help[/quote]

Don’t take this the wrong way but you really make me understand what people say when they call some teens OCD. You keep asking the same questions over and over and then asking people how your plans sound, then repeat over and over. I’m all for asking questions and I do it a lot but not the same ones over and over. You have to be confident in the plan your following. Obviously when you come off a really low carb diet your water is going to fluctuate more and sudden weight gain is possible. If you gain fat easily I don’t know why you would go on an “eat everything you possible could” diet. Just because carbs are low doesn’t mean you won’t gain fat.

Just follow the advice for a few weeks, and adjust in small increments as necessary.

[quote]DJS wrote:
First of all Grambo… You say you gain fat easily and you also say you just finished a diet so your metabolism will be slow. My adice is do NOT jump right into 4000 cals a day from 2900. You will gain fat. Add 200 cals a day (1400 a week) the first week. Then another 200 cals a day the second week etc. If you are gaining weight off of that then hold it.

When you stall out, add another 200 cals a day and see how that goes. The massive jumps in cals end up putting the cals in the wrong place. Especially in your situation. DH from what i have read recomends this kind of approach rather then jumping into 25 cals X bodyweight etc.[/quote]

Just echoing this, but I completely agree. As I said I don’t know why you feel you need 4000 calories or where you even got that number from if your just getting off the GSD. Add a few hundred each week.

DJS, mind sharing your experiences with the AD? (how long you’ve been on it, progress, etc…)