I just finished off a mass/lean cycle and things went great. my current stats are 179lbs@7%. i do have a bit of a query though. i was actually able to grow quite well on between 2600-3000 kcals/day and while leaning i dropped down to 1500 kcals/day at times. i cycled my calories up and down in relation to my cardio duration/volume to help stave off a metabolic downshift. i appear to have been successful (assuming that i was running a peak effieicncy in the first place).
generally speaking, these are very modest numbers by t-men standards especially when compared to my caloric requirements determined by the massive eating guidelines. i don’t recall exactly what the massive eating calorie requirements were at the moment, but i believe they were somewhere around 4500 or so. i couldn’t even image eating this much food without getting way fat even with all the activities i do. i realize that the p+c and p+f meals eaten at the right times will minimize fat gain while keeping you anabolic, but i am still a bit hesitant to simply jump right.
what methods have you guys utilized to determine whether or not your metabolism was running a top speed or not and if it wasn’t what can be done to get it going again (besides the obvious increasing of muscle mass)? i think i remember someone mentioning a guy named parillo who had a book that described this process? i would hate to think that i have a self-induced chronically slow metabolism that needs to be corrected before i can tap into my full potential. any ideas would be appreciated. kevo
When I eat according to Massive Eating, I get really fat, really quick. My calculations come out to just over 4000 cal, but I need to stay around 3000 to gain muscle, but not too much fat. When dropping fat, I stay around 2300 cals. Of course all of my calculations are based on my current weight and bodyfat, so don’t quote me on that.
Kevo, only one way to be sure if you are going to get fat or not on the massive eating diet…try it! i have been on this diet for a month and a half right now, and it’s going great for me. a good idea is to take a body fat measurement and weigh yourself right before starting the diet. then compare the results after a couple of weeks, and decide if it’s worth it to you to put on a couple of lbs. of fat to gain some muscle faster! tis the season to get bulky!!
Kevo I imagine you are in the same boat with a lot of other people. Those massive eating calculations do seem a bit high for all those except for the ones with a naturally high metabolic rate. One thing you have to realize is that the longer you’ve been doing a certain type of exercise the more efficient your body will become at performing this exercise…so in the long term your exercise will burn less calories. If you’re currently doing a lot of activity other than just weight training you could in fact be slowing your metabolic rate down. If you’ve been on any type of fat burner or if you drink excessive amounts of caffeine long term this would probably slow metabolic rate as well. Duchaine wrote quite a bit on optimizing metabolic rate. I’ve found an easy way to do it is to take your body temperature first thing in the morning upon rising. If it’s in between 97.3-98.1 than your metabolic rate is optimal. Less than that and you have other issues to consider such as: adrenal burnout from stimulants, overtraining, not enough calories, carbs, or protein in diet…or one other consideration is you may not be eating the right foods for your metabolic type. Hope this helps
In terms of the caloric intake nessecary for the massive eating diet, I too shared your reservations. However, what I would suggest is upping your calories by about 500 a day (to start) from your previous bulking dietary guide lines, but sticking to the nutrient rations per meal outlined in “massive eating”. See how this works for you for about a month before going full fledged into the increadible caloric intake that is called for. I will say this from personal experience, you do get hungry for that much food after a while once your body gets used to taking in that much food, that often, and in those macronutrient ratios.
thanks for sharing your experience fellas! last saturday i basically decided to hit another cycle and have kicked the mass phase back into gear again.
i started it off at 3000cals/day (which was the top end of what i used last time). every saturday i will bump my intake up by 500 cals/day until i hit my mark of 4500 (thanks greg) and take it day by day while carefully monitoring my weight and bf%. i have dumped all stimulants and cut back on the cardio as well to help eliminate extra variables. so far so good although i am retaining massive amounts of water and feel a bit lethargic.
i read about the taking of your morning waking temperature as a measure of metabolic/thyroid activity on a T2 thread from a while back (thanks for the reminder kelly) and started that up on sunday morning and have been getting readings in the mid to high 96’s. so it sounds like i might have an underlying problem to address. this could possibly iron itself out, but i will keep close tabs and deal with that as i go.
i don’t like to go above 12%bf, but in order to gain maximum muscle mass i may have to consume an amount of calories that would put me there in a hurry. if this is the case i will prolly try shorter cycles where i bounce myself between 7% - 12% everytime while notching up the muscle mass each successive cycle. have any of you guys tried this approach? if so what kind of cycles did you arrive at? thanks again for the tips. kevo