BF Question

[LiftHeavy123]

Over the past 20lbs 4% of it was BF. I am currently 208-210 and 19%BF. I'm 6'1. Is this normal? Or should I eat cleaner and put weight on slower?

 

[Cynical Simian]

Over the past 20lbs 4% of it was BF. I am currently 208-210 and 19%BF. I'm 6'1. Is this normal? Or should I eat cleaner and put weight on slower?

If you actually gained 96% muscle as the first statement implies, that would be awesome. But if what you actually mean is that you went from ~188 at 15% BF to ~208 at 19% BF, that means ~50% of the last 20 pounds was fat, in which case you might want to clean up your diet or decrease your caloric surplus.

 

[Protobuilder]

I was thinking the same thing. 4% of 20 pounds was fat? That's awesome lean gain.

CS: this is the 2d thread you've posted in re: eating clean. I just can't get my head around you being right. LoL I'd be interested in the basis for your belief re: partitioning. Not saying you're wrong. Just curious what makes you think what you do. Personal experience? Studies?

 

[Kabeetz]

I know with my body I just can't eat the way some of you guys advocate. I wish I could.. but I can't. Some people are just built differently I guess. I was raised on fast food and t.v. while my mom worked all day and night.. my body rejects that kind of eating now, needs clean food or the fat multiplies like cockaroaches. My fall bulk I gained 30 pounds, my core lifts all went up almost 50%, but I gained like 7+ inches on my waist WTF!!!!!. I'm cutting hard now and I hate it but I feel like if I get to say 12% bf my body will partition more cals towards muscle when I do next bulk (which I hope will be soon).

 

[Cynical Simian]

Most of it is just personal experience and preference. Once I got started monitoring my food intake (which actually happened about a year before I started lifting, when I was just doing bodyweight exercises and running), I never wanted to go back to worrying about "what's in food X" or "does this have too many/few calories?" Now that I'm consistently training, I could probably get away with loosening up my diet on occasion from a body comp perpective, but I just don't see any reason not to try to optimize what I'm doing, whether in training or eating. Also, I've read enough on physiology and nutrition that, frankly, I wouldn't enjoy eating something with, e.g., a bunch of trans fat anymore.

If anything, in my experience monitoring caloric intake has been invaluable for consistently gaining weight, so I'm always slightly irritated when clean eating is equated with undereating. The problem comes when, a la jkurz, people attach outside significance to numbers and become paranoid because "4500 calories is so much, there's no way my body needs that," even when the scale's lack of movement says otherwise.

In terms of nutrient partitioning, I'm really not very far from your/BiggT's position: what you do in the gym and other athletic activities (e.g., sprinting as HIIT or for a sport) are by far the biggest determinants of where the food you eat goes. The main advantage of "clean" eating or at least some attempt at nutrient timing for partitioning is, IMO, insulin management. So as long as you're spreading your calories out over the day and avoiding sugary/processed carbs, especially when insulin sensitivity is lowest, most other attempts at "cleaning up" a diet probably don't make much of a difference in body comp.

 

[Protobuilder]

Thanks, CS.

Kabeetz: I'm with you. I can't eat that way either. I wish I HAD when I COULD.