I recently hired a coach from Instagram who said I should not be eating chicken and only red meat because “you can’t put on size eating chicken”. He said red meat should be used for bulks and chicken should be used for cutting and his source was a screenshot from the google search ai. Has anyone heard this that chicken was not good for bulking and building size. I hope I haven’t been doing this wrong the whole time. Thanks
Coaches qualification ?
His reasoning?
He has been lifting for 8 years and is really big and lean. His reasoning was the micronutrients in the red meat. He said you can’t gain mass off of chicken because it isn’t a nutrient rich and because red meat has more calories.
He’s right, beef is for sure Better. He’s not the only guy to say that.
And beef to gain with chicken to cut seems like a pretty solid strategy.
But “Can’t” is a strong word, and is always going to generate controversy.
I’m sure plenty of dudes have gained muscle eating chicken too.
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You can gain mass from anything as long as protein is adequate, calories are roughly 300-500 over maintenance, and you’re lifting hard enough and recovering.
I just condensed 25+ years of experience, research, and expertise into a sentence. You’re welcome. Stop paying for silly advice from an inexperienced IG coach.
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Come on Chris his coach got it from a screen shoot!
Stop paying that guy. He doesn’t know anything.
saying you can’t gain on chicken is true… that’s why human beings eat more food than just plain chicken breast.
And yeah beef has more micros and more calories but that doesn’t mean you will gain any better than just eating chicken for dinner instead of beef. 8oz chicken breast is 225 cals 50g protein, 8oz 93/7 beef is 340 cals 45g protein (if you keep all the fat and don’t drain it). 80/20 beef is probably like 450 cals due to more fat. So at best you get like 200 more calories. You can eat an extra 2 bananas and make that up.
And you want to go lean on the beef because saturated fat is the number one thing that gives you heart disease. What I do is drain 93/7 ground beef and add fat back in with olive oil (unsaturated fat which is healthy). So I get the micros, iron etc. and I leave behind the saturated fat.
Out of curiosity, who?
Of course if cals is part of the issue one can eat the dark meat with the skin on it… just saying.
Not the healthiest… but hey.
I say the opposite because chicken isn’t as filling so you will get hungry for your next meal faster. Dr. Todd Lee MD (my first and only coach) once said, when you’re bulking, eat chicken and rice, when you’re cutting, eat beef and potatoes. Really makes a lot of sense.
People differ enough that one should always be cautious when extreme words are thrown around: can’t, never, always, the only one, this is the best thing for all people, etc.
I think lifters should enjoy chicken, beef, fish, nuts, legumes and other sources of protein that have complete essential amino acids when considered in summation. This certainly includes most meats. In my view, difference between meats is small potato thinking; more important to also ensure enough vegetables and fibre.