For BG fitness fanatics, a question..

[Weiing]

@Lunato - it's hard to get more ripped. Do you want more muscle or muscle tone? Muscle = bulk + weight lifting and muscle tone = less body fat % to see the muscle. You should see how much you actually consume and how much you actually burn. Perhaps...add more lifting and meat? :D Let me tell you now: your breakfast looks like utter crap. (edit: sorry my response is short-- really tired, way past my bed time, and prepping for some wedding stuff. Hopefully I can get back to you with a better response in a few days, or someone else will help, but not Lovex)

@Amerie - Did you really have to find another thread to crap all over? Seriously, maintaining 2-5% body fat is really not possible, except for some extreme outliers if any. I'm so glad you're not my personal trainer... then again, I don't have a personal trainer because 99.9% of them are crap and underwent some questionable certification process. It's one thing to have a client who wishes to reach and maintain 2-5% bf, and another thing to educate them on what is actually possible/more feasible to do (read: HEALTHY 7-10% bf for men). I'm with meat - curious to see what you look like.

[Ryany]

A lot of the problem of the bodyfat debate is that some methods give lower numbers than what someone actually is and therefore people get a warped frame of reference. Someone might measure 3% with the calipers, but actually be 6 or 7%. Plus, I believe many of the methods get less accurate the further from the norm you get.

[sephir]

I'm sitting at 10%, and am extremely healthy for my age. Although I would ideally like to get down to 7%, but until I stop doing short-sport specific training, its pretty hard to get the time to lose weight.


Interval training = me raiding the cupboards.

[Tristam]

I'm a college student, so my meals have been rather lacking. I usually cook enough food for the week and since I'm asian, that means rice with whatever I feel like being able to tolerate for that week (unless there's a meeting where I can snag free food! Delicious pizza..)

But usually other than rice, it's:

Breakfast - Cinnamon Roll and Poptart
Lunch - Roast beef/Ham on All wheat sandwich or leftovers
Dinner - Whatever I cooked for the week, mostly asian food. (Some sort of beef or pork usually)

Not exactly the most healthy or conducive to bulking up, I know. I read that eating lots of fish (tuna?) or something like that every 2-3 hours is supposed to help, but I'm clueless about that stuff.

Do you snack before/after working out? Depending on how long/intense your workout is, getting some sugar back into your bloodstream right after a workout especially helps to quickly reestablish your insulin/glucagon ratio, which will help keep your metabolism under control, helping you get your weight up. A snack before the workout will also help keep your energy up if you find that's a problem. Obviously avoid high-fat snacks, but something sugary after a workout isn't a problem. Orange juice is magnificent. Try to do something similar with breakfast, I would guess that you're like me and need a sugar kick in the morning to get going. Again, fruit juice ftw.

[tyven]

archie you so sexy

[Lunato]

@Lunato - it's hard to get more ripped. Do you want more muscle or muscle tone? Muscle = bulk + weight lifting and muscle tone = less body fat % to see the muscle. You should see how much you actually consume and how much you actually burn. Perhaps...add more lifting and meat? Let me tell you now: your breakfast looks like utter crap. (edit: sorry my response is short-- really tired, way past my bed time, and prepping for some wedding stuff. Hopefully I can get back to you with a better response in a few days, or someone else will help, but not Lovex)

Yeah, my breakfast is really unhealthy at the moment, haha. It's something I can easily pick up at the store for cheap. Yay college life. I want a little bit more muscle though. As I am now, I'm pretty much a little muscle tone and that's probably due to my skinniness. I'll try adding more lifting and eating more meat during my meals and see how that goes. Is any kind of meat fine? OR should I stick to fish like tuna and meat like .. beef?

@Tristam

I do snack before and after my workouts. I usually got MWF from 11-12 so my breakfast is my pre-workout meal since I wake up around 10 and after workout is a Muscle Milk shake from Cyrosport. If this helps, I also play lots of intramural sports (Volleyball, soccer, flag football) usually every day of the week along with my workout.

[Meat]

I'm a college student, so my meals have been rather lacking. I usually cook enough food for the week and since I'm asian, that means rice with whatever I feel like being able to tolerate for that week (unless there's a meeting where I can snag free food! Delicious pizza..)

But usually other than rice, it's:

Breakfast - Cinnamon Roll and Poptart
Lunch - Roast beef/Ham on All wheat sandwich or leftovers
Dinner - Whatever I cooked for the week, mostly asian food. (Some sort of beef or pork usually)

Not exactly the most healthy or conducive to bulking up, I know. I read that eating lots of fish (tuna?) or something like that every 2-3 hours is supposed to help, but I'm clueless about that stuff.

3 meals a day isn't gonna cut it. You need more food. Protein in all your meals and definitely more carbs. The dinner is spot on, you need your meals to be in the same vein.

How are you with milk?

[Lunato]

@ Meat

So, is a meal every 3 hours more beneficial then. I'm more accustomed to the BIG meal @ breakfast, lunch, and dinner idea of a meal. For the every 3 hour meal, it's the same amount of food as something like a sandwich and a snack, correct (obviously with more meat and carbs)? Is a small bowl of pasta with some kind of meat a good idea for all of the meals during the day or should I switch it up a bit. I'm a noob to this method, forgive me haha.

I'm ... iffy with milk. I usually just drink it with my shake after workout and a glass during dinner occasionally. Water is my go-to drink though.

[Atreides]

the rule of thumb while bulking is to eat everything in sight and then once you're painfully full, to eat some more. 4000 calories a day is not easy to do even if you're eating calorie-dense foods, unless you're a competitive eater or something

[BerenTebogo]

I eat at least 4 meals a day, all of which consist of high protein values, while coming in just under stasis value. If you're only eating 3 meals a day you're gonna be shooting yourself in the foot.

I don't even go out of my way to really eat that healthy either. Right now I'm eating a chicken tendergrill from burger king on ciabatta bread (according to their nutrition fact builder thing ~380 calories ~50g protein) and I'll eat another in about 3 hours with a cup of beef stew or something.

If you're looking to bulk you need more calories over more meals in smaller portions and if you're looking to be lean you need at or under the calories you burn daily in smaller portions over more meals.

I'm also just coming off burning about ~700 calories at the gym over about ~100-110 minutes so I'll be able to take in between 200-250g of protein today (which is good because I'm sore as fuck Q_Q) while coming in ~100-150 calories under maintenance unless I get stupid hungry later and cave in to a giant bowl of pasta or huge pb sandwich.

Edit: My stasis value for my height / weight is ~1880-1950 cal per day. There's some good info around in how to accurately calculate for your body weight you just have to remember to recalculate every few pounds you put on or take off since the value will change.

Edit 2: And I saw you mentioned breakfast, that's good. Always eat breakfast. I get up at fucking 6:15AM every day just so I have time to eat a real breakfast and not some snack bar shit.

Edit33333333333333333: I'm at ~12% body fat at the moment. Hopefully will be down to 9-10 in a few weeks. Still trying to fully recover from the years of FFXI abuse

[Omnipotent]

^@ atr, if you do that, won't you get fat? You will get bigger arms / legs etc, but as far as your stomach goes won't it get bigger?

[BerenTebogo]

^@ atr, if you do that, won't you get fat? You will get bigger arms / legs etc, but as far as your stomach goes won't it get bigger?

At 4000 cal a day, unless you're training for the olympics, the answer is "probably". If you look at a lot of the guys in gyms you'll see a decent percentage of them fit that exact model.

[Meat]

^@ atr, if you do that, won't you get fat? You will get bigger arms / legs etc, but as far as your stomach goes won't it get bigger?

That's the price of bulking tough, but the guy's 6'2 150, I've seen meatier Holocaust survivors.

[Darlantan]

^@ atr, if you do that, won't you get fat? You will get bigger arms / legs etc, but as far as your stomach goes won't it get bigger?

Yeah. However, its generally accepted its faster and more effective to eat a lot to bulk (even if as you say, you get fat because of the calories surplus) and then cut it, than to gradually and slowly make muscle while keeping %fat and weight under control.

Also, as I see it, if you know really well your body and can monitor your calorie intake you can just make sure you get a surplus enough for whatever workout you are doing, and gain very little as most will be used to recover from it.

Basically, its better to eat an excess of food and have plenty of calories for your body to completely recover and gain strenght/volume, and then later burn that excess, than to try to gain muscle at around maintenance calorie intake, which while you will easily maintain your %body fat, the muscle growth will be really slow.

[Darlantan]

Ummm... that is, unless you are really worried about your general appearance and cant stand being at a 3 or 4% body fat over your ideal mark for a few months in order to save about those many.

[Atreides]

^@ atr, if you do that, won't you get fat? You will get bigger arms / legs etc, but as far as your stomach goes won't it get bigger?

yeah fat gain is unavoidable, but as darlantan said the idea is to make sure you have a constant supply of calories for muscle growth. It's considered easier to eat a lot and just deal with the excess fat gain, rather than eat too little and not gain muscle at a faster rate.

I mean, personally I'd rather feel chubby for 2-3 months but know I was doing everything humanly possibly to maximize my gains while bulking. Plus, I can shed fat pretty easily so I know that any flab I do gain I can just burn off in a few weeks.

edit: plus it is really fun to go to IHOP and order multiple meals lol

[Atreides]

but obviously this all hinges on having a good workout plan, which is why a lot of people go with the olympic compound lifts (deadlift, squat) and try to add weight to the bar every time they go to the gym. If you're eating 4000 calories but not adequately challenging your muscles you'll just get fat. That's part of the reason why adequate rest is important too, I guess.

[Meat]

I like to be nice and lean come pumpkin pie, eggnog and latkes season.

[Atreides]

I had pumpkin cheesecake and red velvet cheesecake from cheesecake factory last week, both were really disappointing

[archibaldcrane]

My bench press has totally fucking plateaued, 3 workouts from the end of my Muscle Media routine.

I guess I'll work on cutting now and just try to maintain strength as best I can.

archie you so sexy

I forgive you for ditching me in DC.