In desperate need of some HELP! Ahhh

[bignate73]

maybe i missed it, but how many calories does your daily intake add up to? you can eat piles of clean food, and get fat, likewise you can eat very little crap food and lose weight. its all about determining your daily caloric needs and then adding in the food from there. if you are 500 cals under, eating clean as can be, chances are your body doesnt have the nutrients necessary to spare on growing, it needs it for functioning or you lose your metabolism. your metabolism adjusts so thats now your new maintenance. the whole "this is what I'm eating" doesnt mean a thing until you know how many ounces of meat you ate, what each piece of bread gives you in calories, etc.

 

[UA_Iron]

maybe i missed it, but how many calories does your daily intake add up to? you can eat piles of clean food, and get fat, likewise you can eat very little crap food and lose weight. its all about determining your daily caloric needs and then adding in the food from there. if you are 500 cals under, eating clean as can be, chances are your body doesnt have the nutrients necessary to spare on growing, it needs it for functioning or you lose your metabolism. your metabolism adjusts so thats now your new maintenance. the whole "this is what I'm eating" doesnt mean a thing until you know how many ounces of meat you ate, what each piece of bread gives you in calories, etc.

I agree - perhaps a visit to the diet board after getting clear goals would be a more productive way of going about it?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

You can certainly add muscle while losing fat. The process will be a slow one, and you will need to track your calories, weight, and bodyfat carefully in the beginning. Once you determine just how much you can get away with in terms of caloric excess without adding bodyfat, stick to that amount. Frequency is such a wonderful thing when it comes to hypertrophy, but this is often overlooked. Training 6x a week, with an AM/PM split is probably ideal for hypertrophy.

This may sound ludicrous, but frequency is slowly creeping up as being a prime driver in adding mass. I'm talking 15-20 minute AM/PM splits, that break down to only 60 total sets a week.

In the end, it's about tracking calories, and training properly.

 

[casualbb]

biggest misconception ever! this only happens in people who are fat or on roids.

the problem is this: the body doesn't distinguish between anabolism in different tissue

The state of bulking that makes your muscles grow is ALSO anabolic to FAT tissue!

The only way it really happens is if you're very detrained and have significant amounts of fat. So there really is a reason pro BB's separate their phases. It's either all growing or all shrinking, and the skinnier you are, the more of the shrinkage is muscle.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

What's this? I actually disagree with casual for once?

I know of a good deal of people over on the HST boards that have lost fat and gained mass at the same time. One particular individual went from 170 lbs. to 185 lbs. and dropped from 18% to 9% bodyfat over a two year period, by eating 300 calories or so above his maintenance level and recompositioning his body by eating about 75% of his total calories from good fats and proteins, the rest from carbs and unavoidable bad fats.

Now, even though it very much opposes popular belief, I see it as viable. You just must do so slowly. You don't need to be extremely obese to see this process work, but it will be difficult to notice it over the short term.

 

[casualbb]

well tom what i've said is true on a systemic level

however it is possible on a micro level to have muscle anabolism in a state of overall catabolism. but this is only possible if you're fairly far below your natural limit, and/or drug it up.

but there's a reason that it took that guy 2 years to do it. he probably could have done it in 6 months with proper phases

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Maybe he could have, but he's also 60 years old. I think you might know who I'm talking about. In any case, studies have shown that yo-yo dieting has an adverse affect on internal organs. To what degree, I'm not entirely sure. All I know is, if you're not in any rush, then going the slower route may be better for overall longevity.

I found it more interesting than anything. I probably wouldn't follow in his footsteps, simply because I'm impaitent, and I'd lose interest if I didn't see any sort've progress over the short term.

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

Ahhh...the ever elusive goal of fat loss, lean mass gain - au naturel.

I've worked with a few 'natural' BB competitors who wanted to put on size each year in-between shows. Its possible, but there does have to be a 'period' of increased food intake. I would usually provide them a increased calorie diet about 20 weeks out down to 12 weeks out. Thats a good couple months of growth. If you are training properly and are pretty active in addition (cardio, outdoor activity) then your main concern is diet/nutrition. If they felt a bit 'fat' - we would just do a day or two of low carbs then a carb-up meal as a metabolism shocker.

I looked at your pictures and whether you're flexing hard or not - your still a lean guy. Its tough to gain size as an active guy. You really do have to take a good hard look at what you are eating and go from there. Some questions to ask yourself may be:

- Am I spacing meals 3-4 hrs apart?
- Am I performing high-intensity, short-duration cardio (20mins balls-out) instead of long, muscle-eating cardio sessions?
- Am I drinking enough water daily (~ 1gal per 100lbs bodyweight)
- What is my caloric intake daily?
- Am I eating nutritionally empty meals?
- Am I increasing the poundages on exercises during my training if I am able to rep out 10 reps per exercise?

I know how you feel in your quest for lean mass gain. It took me 3 years of training & dieting to realize I was about 1500 cals/day deficient. Once I fixed my nutrition things turned around for me. It really doesn't have to be all that complex. Need help - let me know. Take care.
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Mythicwrld

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