The Push to Get Over 200lbs

Diet and Nutrition
1

Finally deciding to make a significant push to pass the 200 lb mark for the first time in my life. Currently in the low 180’s after about 2.5 years of training. Did physical therapy this entire summer to deal with a partial shoulder i had from boxing and chronic inflamation that stemmed from it, and have come back stronger then ever.

Right now doing Chad’s total body training program and have a bunch of supplements at my disposal and am looking for the best way to stack them and if i should leave anything out.

i Have:
creatine
Muscle Milk
Metabolic Drive
Fish oil
Flax seed oil
Alpha Male
Spike

Ive never taken Alpha Male before and am a little hesistant since i am only 20 years old…

Ive read enough on this site to know these supplements dont mean a dam thing if my diet is shit. So i am consuming around 3000-3500 calories a day with intent to increase through the supps. Diet is about 85% clean, a lot of lean chicken turkey, complex carbs, healthy fats etc.

Just looking for some advice from some of the more experienced members. cause if theres one thing i learned spending all my time reading articles on here its that when your young the best thing u can do is listen to the older more experienced people.

2

Food (a consistent kcal surplus) will be the most important part of reaching your goal – you must eat more than you burn everyday. Lifting hard and heavy (be smart though) is next on the list, so you can make sure that the extra weight you’re gain isn’t all fat. From your list, I would count the Metabolic Drive, Muscle Milk and fish/flax oils and prob even creatine as food.

The Alpha Male and Spike are excellent supplements that are always nice to have around, but reaching your goals will be much more about food and training and sleeping.

3

Leave either the Muscle Milk or Metabolic Drive (personally I would leave the Muscle Milk) as there is to much overlap with the two.

If you’re taking the Fish Oil, leave out the Flax Seed Oil as there is more benefit from the Fish Oil. Try Flameout for the fish oil if you haven’t tried it already.

The final thing I would do if I were you would be to add something for post workout. You’ll want it high in protein at the very least and some simple carbs would be great. Something like a whey protein or Surge will fill the bill nicely.

So, this is just my opinion, go with:

Creatine
Metabolic Drive
Fish Oil (Flameout maybe)
Spike
Surge

4

[quote]chillain wrote:
Food (a consistent kcal surplus) will be the most important part of reaching your goal – you must eat more than you burn everyday. Lifting hard and heavy (be smart though) is next on the list, so you can make sure that the extra weight you’re gain isn’t all fat. From your list, I would count the Metabolic Drive, Muscle Milk and fish/flax oils and prob even creatine as food.

The Alpha Male and Spike are excellent supplements that are always nice to have around, but reaching your goals will be much more about food and training and sleeping.
[/quote]

Solid post. I wouldn’t count creatine as food (calories) though and when gaining, unless taking huge amounts the EFA’s probably won’t make a substantial dent.

5

Just lift with intensity and eat enough man, don’t rely on your Metabolic Drive or muscle milk instead of food, use it for extra calories and protein if eating gets tough (IE: have a shake with milk right before bed, etc) 3,500 is a good start but you might need more calories, I was consuming around 5,200 calories when I finally broke 200lbs

6

Every day, or at least every day you exercise. Ideally put it in the PWO drink.

nah

Don’t forget it’s not food, but food SUPPLEMENT. Fix your diet first, then use MD to fill in the gaps.

every day

Some people say it’s bad if you take very large doses for a very long time - something to do with the prostate.
Just take a little bit every day.

Not needed at 20.

As with any stimulant, use it only when you really need it. It’s the “nuclear option”, it definitely does the job but it’s not an every day thing.

I rarely use Spike, but when I do it might be on a Friday, or after a night when I didn’t get enough sleep. Or I save it for driving hundreds of miles when I’d rather chill out or sleep. You get the idea.

Caffeine-Free Spike is best for purely mental work (studying for an exam) and/or when I need to go to sleep immediately after accomplishing whatever task I happen to deal with (you can take a Caffeine-Free Spike and fall asleep soon afterwards, but your mind will stay focused all the time, which can be pretty weird).
Regular Spike tablets are good for those tough workouts when my batteries are empty.

The Spike shooters are best for driving long hours (take two sips, put it down, drive 30 minutes, take two more sips, put it down, drive 30 more minutes, repeat). Also good for workouts, but the mental focus is not as sharp as with the tablets.

bingo

7

Don’t even bother with the Alpha Male, your young…testosterone levels are at its highest right now

8

more tips:
gets AMPLE sleep, younger people need more sleep

dont drink, i know ur young, so am i, u just gotta say no, and if u cant, moderation is key.

lift with someone bigger and older than you are

go up to 4,000 cals. some people can burn 1,000 cals during a workout on top of the usual 2500 or so calories that they burn throughout the day. if ur putting on too much fat, mess with carb/protein/fats ratios.

good luck man, i totally went through the exact same thing, that 200 barrier was fucking hard, but it will come. just eat like a horse, or my ex-girlfriend, same thing.

9

i agree with youngguns… sleep is absolutely key! you understand a good diet is key. well, a good diet is useful for the energy as well as recouperation. sleep is no different. if you want to recover, these two are musts! going along with the recovery subject, eating a high protein loaded snack within 15 minutes of your workout, along with amino acid supplements, and your mulitvitamin (i take it after workout because its proven that your body needs these essential vitamins after strenuous work.

yes! this includes working out!) will help recovery time alot! as far as how many calories you actually should eat? id have to agree that there isnt a set number of calories you have to eat to gain. i have a friend who eats 3000 calories daily and can gain with ease. as for me, when im bulking, i will eat up to 9000 calories just to keep up with him. you know your body better than any of us. but ultimately, yes, increase your caloric intake.

i agree with youngguns again about drinking. alcohol is your worst enemy! when you drink, your natural testosterone levels decrease tremendously. and it takes 48 hours (2 effin days!!) to get back to normal.

if you want to increase your size/strength/weight, you cant settle for normal testosterone levels. you need the highest of high levels as much as you can! think about this- 2 days… you drink on saturday night, that alcohol isnt fully out of your system (depending on how much is consumed) until midday sunday. which means your testosterone levels will be below normal saturday, sunday, monday, and wont get back to normal until midday tuesday.

if you only workout mon-fri, that leave wednesday, thursday, and friday for peak testosterone levels (at best). if youre only working out 5 days a week, youre relying on saturday and sunday for recovery… recovery depends greatly on sleep, food, and testosterone. well… youve ruined your sleep, your testosterone levels are rock bottom, and depending on whether your a light weight and ralph at the end of your night, youve thrown up all your food. so, the 3 days you worked out with decent hormone levels were a waste. make sense? :slight_smile: i knew it would.

as a last bit of advice… there will be several people that will tell you that if your intensity isnt at its highest no matter what every single day, then your doing something wrong. thats not accurate at all. everyone has their highs and lows. for people with goals, it seems that the lows outweight the highs so often. dont beat yourself up over it. as my bit of advice… if you begin struggling 3,4,5 days in a row… take time off. its the hardest thing to do when you’re so dedicated, but often taking a solid week off to regroup and get your bearing back, can be SOOO beneficial!!!

if during that break, you eat right, clean, ALOT, and get rest, and enjoy yourself, then you can do a lot of good for yourself. you will see a difference in the gym. your muscles will feel fresh, and you will be in a better place mentally. lifting is a mental sport. dont go insane reaching your goal. good luck kidd-o!

10

[quote]Big Daddy Diesel wrote:
Don’t even bother with the Alpha Male, your young…testosterone levels are at its highest right now[/quote]

I’m not sure where this line of thought developed, but it’s not right. The point of using Alpha Male is to increase T levels over baseline. Joey Antonio even did a study on the effects of such supplements (TRIBEX) on college-aged males at the University of Nebraska.

Besides, I’m pretty sure that it’s been shown that 20 year olds today have significantly lower Testosterone levels than their counterparts 20 to 30 years ago. It makes sense to me that one would want to overcome this “deficiency.”

It’s a gross generalization that everyone of this age has high T levels.

11

^ No kidding. Especially when soy is running around in almost everything we eat.