My Mass Gain Plan with some questions

[Troy Archie]

Originally Posted by Robb Wolf

2-Seat-o-your pants low carb may be the way to go. Protein at every meal. Protein and carbs post workout. Protein and fat all other meals. If you hate eating you MIGHT be eating enough.

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

Go with the protein every 2-3 hours, take in at least 1-1.5g/lb of bodyweight. I'd say CHO intake is good probably at 1g/lb of bodyweight with 75% being PWO (from immediate to 2-3hours after). Beradi has the P+C for 2 meals after the workout and all others P+F. DJ said it best too....Fiber with every meal. (whether it be in a shake, veggies, or flaxseeds on the food).

Do you guy's even take into account the carbs in veggies (cabbage, lettuce, celery, tomatos...) or are they pretty much nothing? Save yams, sweet potatoes and such...You mention getting 75% carbs PWO but yet having a fiber with every meal...

[Mike ODonnell]

I'd ditch the high fiber veg and stick with more high density carbs like the sweet pot and like, just for the pwo part if that is your goal on carb loading....plus you are probably having enough of the fiberous veg all day long anyways...I keep it simple with either meals being:
P+F+V (protein + fat + veg)
P+C (protein + carbs)

The P+C are usually only pwo (or AM if I feel like eating some fruit....as I put fruit in the C group too....)

[Troy Archie]

Well yeah, sans the PWO feed do you even consider the carbs in the fiberous veggies into account? You say all other meals are P+F so in my mind I picture someone eating a chicken breast and a pile of nuts and calling it a meal. I'm assuming you'd throw the chicken and nuts with a couple tomatos, some lettuce and a cuccumber when you say you'd be eating fiberous carbs all day...

[Ben Moskowitz]

This looks like a great thread with a ton of good info...
For mass gain, do I want to eat a few hundred calories over caloric expenditure, or an absolute crap-load to clean bulk the best?
Do I ramp up to crap-load, fearing-the-sight-of-food level or am I just wasting my time if I don't eat everything I can get my hands on?

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Ben Moskowitz

This looks like a great thread with a ton of good info...
For mass gain, do I want to eat a few hundred calories over caloric expenditure, or an absolute crap-load to clean bulk the best?
Do I ramp up to crap-load, fearing-the-sight-of-food level or am I just wasting my time if I don't eat everything I can get my hands on?

Eat as clean as you can. You are what you eat (seriously). And eating cleaner is better for performance which leads to better gains.

[Mike ODonnell]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Eat as clean as you can. You are what you eat (seriously). And eating cleaner is better for performance which leads to better gains.

Like Steven said...eat clean...a ton of protein...healthy fats....veggies...cycle in fruits and more complex paleo carbs.....lift heavy....quit all the other metabolic stuff....you will get real muscle.....not that 20lbs in 1 month stuff that people claim which is more glycogen/water retention and fat.....gaining 1lb of real muscle a month is alot...you can always carb and water load later to get the additional 10lbs...add in creatine and you get 15....

[Ben Moskowitz]

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

Like Steven said...eat clean...a ton of protein...healthy fats....veggies...cycle in fruits and more complex paleo carbs...

Cycle in the fruits and carbs like.. PWO? Training day? I think I have the idea, I just want to make sure.
And, should I eat 200-500 cals over expenditure, or thousands? Base 15 block Zone was putting me at... 1700 cals? Supposed expenditure is 2300-2500, and now I'm eating 2800-3000 cals... Good/bad?

I know I just need to do it, but I love all the technical junk.

[Steven Low]

Carbs PWO I would say. Unless you're an ecto and/or asian you probably can't tolerate the carbs giving you insulin spikes a lot. It's good after workouts, obviously, to stop catabolism.

I'd say more or less about 500. 500 cals is about one pound a week although some of it might be fat. If you really wanted to be stingy then go with like the 200-300 and probably most/all of it will be muscle.

[Ben Moskowitz]

oh man, I just thought of one more thing:
So I was told no more gymnastics or extra training. Big bar lifts, in, out, eat. Obviously I won't be doing 100 pullups for time unless it's called for. What about things I would consider skills, like handstands and pistols? Will GTGing hinder growth? I mean, probably skills I'm more strength deficient in like HSPUs and pullups (OAC..hahaha) are out the window. Right now I'm on break, and I feel like I have a little time on my hands. Of course, probably the thing I most should GTG is stretching, cuz I'm really sore (and inflexible)...

Stephen, I guess your workouts are much more (advanced) skill-based than mine, but how does that play a factor in your programming?

[Steven Low]

Er? Who canceled all your extra training? Why can't you do whatever you want?

GTG will take away a chain of movement. For example, if you're doing GTG dips you won't really be able to do GTG pushups or handstand pushups or anything pushing-wise really without hindering yourself. Also, pushing exercises in your workout will suffer too.

I do skill work before working out... which happens to be working towards one arm handstands at the moment. As for programming it doesn't affect it.