how close do your macros REALLY have to be??

[startinfromscratch]

hi all, im making preparations at the mo for a proper 8 week, planned approach to bulk up. just finalising my diet, and im just wondering what you guys think of the diet im proposing for it. havent been to the gym for week and a half, stomach ulcer messed me up pretty good. changing gyms and moving house next weekend, so perfect time to start my bulk! will also be use crea mono, will load in first week of journal. this diet comes out to be approx p40c40f20, was hoping for more like 30/50/20 but i dont wanna drop the protein. my basics are age25, weight apporox74kg(havent weighed since being sick), bf around 13%, height 5ft10". ben lifting for about 4 months, im weak as diswater but im confident that being able to train in a more suitable gym should help..

0330 1cup oats, 1 serve whey, banana, multivitamin, glutamine

0630 1oog kumara, 3 whole eggs mashed/lite mayo

0930 burgen sandwich, 185g plain tuna with lite mayo,maybe with greens..

1200 1 cup wh/grain pasta, 200g chicken, seasonings(not salt)

0130 superpump supp, glutamine

workout around 2, when fin work.

postWO 40g dex, creatine, med tin paenapple, followed by whey shake

around 0500-0600 dinner 1oog kumara, 250g steak or chicken,most steak,

stirfry veges.

0800ish casein shake, tbsp flaxseed if dinner was chicken.

according to google sources, this is only about 2500 cals, is this really accurate? if so i will add a 500 cal mass gain shake in there somewhere, prob post w/out. the protein is WELL above the gram/pound mark, but better too much than not enough! just want my diet/ scedule all planned before i start!!

critiques????

[a_king_007]

you start your day at 3:30 in the morning, what job do you do man??? when do you sleep??

[startinfromscratch]

bakery manager.. and sleep is my biggest obstacle man. im up at 3, start at 4. try to be in bed by 9, bbut just doesnt always happen!

[Varven]

I can't say I am a fan of such a short "bulk".

Ive tried it in the past and I put on that much fat along with the muscle, I found it wasnt worth it.

[a_king_007]

Cool man, cause I was thinking that you were not getting enough rest, thats all!!!

[startinfromscratch]

I can't say I am a fan of such a short "bulk".

Ive tried it in the past and I put on that much fat along with the muscle, I found it wasnt worth it.

i dont disagree mate, but this is my first REAL attempt to put some size on - if im growing at a good rate(not too good tho!) i will keep on it for longer. its just my initial plan bro. theres so much conflicting info that i dont actually have a firm num for my maintenance/loading cals.. so itl be done by experimenting!

[Optimass]

I can't say I am a fan of such a short "bulk".

Ive tried it in the past and I put on that much fat along with the muscle, I found it wasnt worth it.

i dont disagree mate, but this is my first REAL attempt to put some size on - if im growing at a good rate(not too good tho!) i will keep on it for longer. its just my initial plan bro. theres so much conflicting info that i dont actually have a firm num for my maintenance/loading cals.. so itl be done by experimenting!

Slightly higher is not a bad thing when you increasing mass. Just drop it slightly if you feel you are too heavy. -- don't drop a low cal/carb day in though .. slight adjustments up and down will give you more consistant growth, as soon as you go low cal/carb your body will put the breaks on.

[Android]

Hope some of these points help.

I never count calories or % of protein/carbs/fat, or macro-micro nutrients. The only time I look them up is to post the details in my journal for those that do count them.

Okay, occasionally I look up a days food to see what it is, like one day in the middle of a good bulking phase I do it to see what it reaches, and in the middle of a cutting phase I also do the same.

I squeeze my fat rolls almost daily to see where I am at whether bulking or cutting. I squeeze the stomach, then my hips, and my back fat too.

For bulking up I eat as much as humanly possible and no less. Last night I ate so much I felt like I was going to burst and woke up not hungry at all but still had usual oats, protein shake, followed by 6 eggs for breakfast. Now it's time for rice and chicken soon. Last week I was 103.5kg, yesterday I was 104.5kg which is what I call bulking.

Don't hold back on food during bulking...

You can recover faster when you are loaded up on protein and carbs.

You can do more work and effort in the gym and with heavier weights.

Food is highly anabolic.

These side-effects mean you won't just balloon out to some crazy 20+% b/f unless you are already near that or if your training is slack and you don't walk away 'spent' from every workout.

Also I've learnt that you grow the most on rest days (it happened this week again).

I trained every bodypart last week with no rest (5 days in a row) and ate like a horse, didn't put on an ounze. Then 2 rest days and still eating lots and bamm! 1kg soaked up into my body, filled me out noticeable enough to feel I need new shorts soon. Muscles look fuller, didn't put on 1kg of bodyfat that's for sure. These holidays I've taken a granny nap (power nap) every day so far after a midday meal and this helps with your growth hormone levels I believe.

My best advice is don't be so hung up on numbers, just eat as much as you can of the food that you know the majority of bodybuilders eat.

There's no secrets to gaining lean muscle and if you hold back on food because you're scared of getting fat then you'll only hold back your potential weight gain and settle for something less.

Balls to the Wall! - to put it more eloquently.

Example: 100gm Kumara?

Dude, double that amount and try and eat it, better to leave a plate with food on it than eat everything when you are bulking.

Finally, shit hours man I don't envy you.

If I put myself in your shoes I'd find another job that's more suitable to growth, but that's just me.

Your last meal is too late, if you have to get up at 3am then you have to go to bed at 7pm, you need alot of sleep during bulking up.

Good luck!

[startinfromscratch]

android,

yea my job sucks, it was never a problem till i got all healthy! :pfft:

but i do aspire to get a job this year that is more lifestyle friendly.

as for your advice, as always very thorough! i will try my best to eat more, may take some getting used to for me but will do it. i was intending to eat the same on my 3 rest days, except for the 500cal m.gain shake. do u think i should just keep it in on rest days aswell then?

H

[Android]

android,

yea my job sucks, it was never a problem till i got all healthy! :pfft:

but i do aspire to get a job this year that is more lifestyle friendly.

as for your advice, as always very thorough! i will try my best to eat more, may take some getting used to for me but will do it. i was intending to eat the same on my 3 rest days, except for the 500cal m.gain shake. do u think i should just keep it in on rest days aswell then?

H

I would.

The sooner you reach a bigger size then you can back off the expensive gainers and maintain and enjoy your new size. The body is always trying to replace cells with smaller more efficient ones so there is no slow way to get big imo.

Get Big fast, buy new clothes that fit, and enjoy it for a while :-) ... before repeating - that's bodybuilding!

[soundsgood]

So you dont recommend a continous bulk Android? Bulk for a few months, then sit at that weight for a while, then bulk again?

[Android]

Yes bulk up in cycles or time frames.

Even if you could get the body to continuously add muscle, it's so difficult to update your lifestyle all the time to accommodate the changes.

Also, I think new muscle is easier to lose than muscle you've had for a while. This becomes important when you get a cold or illness. Have you ever bulked up and then got sick and lost a heap of kgs? Your body falls back to its base-size, the size it's been used to.

Also, from bulking you're jamming as much food down your gullet as possible every day and it gets too much after a while. As your weight goes up so does your base-line intake so you have to eat even more. This is where bulking gets difficult, eating more and more is hard work, eating more is ok, but eating more than yesterday is not easy for long.

So I recommend doing it in cycles where you eat more than usual, gain the weight, and then get used to the new diet intake. That becomes your new base-line intake and to gain again you have to eat more than that.

It's a habit and lifestyle change to eat more meat and carbs every day and your body will get used to that new weight and likely to keep it for longer.

If I get sick now, I would drop the last 5kg in a flash, but will fall back to 99kg which I've held for a while. A year or 2 ago I bulked up to 99kg and now it becomes a weight my body will fall back to. So I hope in a years time the 105kg mark will be my new base weight...and so on up and up the weight.

[musclenz]

Hope some of these points help.

I never count calories or % of protein/carbs/fat, or macro-micro nutrients. The only time I look them up is to post the details in my journal for those that do count them.

Okay, occasionally I look up a days food to see what it is, like one day in the middle of a good bulking phase I do it to see what it reaches, and in the middle of a cutting phase I also do the same.

I squeeze my fat rolls almost daily to see where I am at whether bulking or cutting. I squeeze the stomach, then my hips, and my back fat too.

For bulking up I eat as much as humanly possible and no less. Last night I ate so much I felt like I was going to burst and woke up not hungry at all but still had usual oats, protein shake, followed by 6 eggs for breakfast. Now it's time for rice and chicken soon. Last week I was 103.5kg, yesterday I was 104.5kg which is what I call bulking.

Don't hold back on food during bulking...

You can recover faster when you are loaded up on protein and carbs.

You can do more work and effort in the gym and with heavier weights.

Food is highly anabolic.

These side-effects mean you won't just balloon out to some crazy 20+% b/f unless you are already near that or if your training is slack and you don't walk away 'spent' from every workout.

Also I've learnt that you grow the most on rest days (it happened this week again).

I trained every bodypart last week with no rest (5 days in a row) and ate like a horse, didn't put on an ounze. Then 2 rest days and still eating lots and bamm! 1kg soaked up into my body, filled me out noticeable enough to feel I need new shorts soon. Muscles look fuller, didn't put on 1kg of bodyfat that's for sure. These holidays I've taken a granny nap (power nap) every day so far after a midday meal and this helps with your growth hormone levels I believe.

My best advice is don't be so hung up on numbers, just eat as much as you can of the food that you know the majority of bodybuilders eat.

There's no secrets to gaining lean muscle and if you hold back on food because you're scared of getting fat then you'll only hold back your potential weight gain and settle for something less.

Balls to the Wall! - to put it more eloquently.

Example: 100gm Kumara?

Dude, double that amount and try and eat it, better to leave a plate with food on it than eat everything when you are bulking.

Finally, shit hours man I don't envy you.

If I put myself in your shoes I'd find another job that's more suitable to growth, but that's just me.

Your last meal is too late, if you have to get up at 3am then you have to go to bed at 7pm, you need alot of sleep during bulking up.

Good luck!

You have made some very good points Android. Bbers can get very pedantic about macros, complex carbs, simple carbs, good fats, bad fats etc. In the end on a bulking phase its all about calories in vs energy expended in daily life & in the gym. Its very hard for most guys to get in 4-5000cals ED which is close to where you need to be if you are around the 90+kg mark & trying to gain body mass & training 4-6 days hard out.

[Optimass]

So you dont recommend a continous bulk Android? Bulk for a few months, then sit at that weight for a while, then bulk again?

It's the same principle when cycling gear .... the longer you stay on the more results you keep. Your body has a memory and builds a tolerance to being a specific size.

it's taken me about 3 years to maintain an off season weight of 110-115kg where as in the past my body would hold a bit of excess and like to stay around the 120 - 125kg mark.