The Rule: 6 Meals/Day

[quote]MattyXL wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]MattyXL wrote:
A handful of chocolate raisins spike, a shit beforehand, and I generally have a good squat day[/quote]

Matty…you are one of the more developed guys here. Did you gain most of that staying at or under 12% body fat? Was the body fat level your main priority or the strength and muscle?[/quote]

Up until recently I honestly never worried about body fa,t as my main goal has been strength and size. Admittedly I also believe I carry fat relatively well. I like you (not to that extreme) was on the small side in HS, about 130 skinny fat and loved me the green stuff.

For growth I made a point to eat…alot, but tried to be mindful of what I put in my gullet (not always successful) I do believe you have to eat a ton to grow especially if you are a hard gainer (which I am not) and if need be some of it may have to be “dirty” to get the job done.

Now I am very mindful what I eat…but could careless about visible abs, I have said repeatedly I like the full house “diesel fat look” I do not feel abs on a naturally lean guy is very impressive, nor do I think a 300lb guy squatting 500 is impressive.

To answer your question, I never gave fat percentage much thought I was always trying my best to get stronger and bigger, if I gained some fat so be it.

Call it bro-science I dont give a shit its what worked for me.

Edited for grammar[/quote]

I am just noticing trends when it comes to the people carrying the most muscle mass here in majority.

I don’t see leanness at the expense of size as being very impressive either. It isn’t that hard to be small and lean. The body isn’t in need of the additional food intake that it would be if that lean mass was multiplied by 1.5-2. It just seems like for the human body to even feel comfortable with that much muscle mass, there had better be a lot of calories coming in…or a lot of drugs to hold onto it.

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
After having done this for so many years, what foods, and what frequency, have you found works best for you?

Are we talking ground beef, or certain cuts of beef (I saw the steak thread), or chicken breasts, or what? Pastas? Cheeses? Sauces? Dairy? Eggs?[/quote]

Steak.

Real talk…beef if you want to be as big as a bull. Early on though, when someone is in their teens, perfect precision intake is not needed in many cases depending on metabolism and activity level. Overall it is simply an understanding that the human body is a machine that adapts and changes based on what you do to it.

[…]

I ate a lot of pasta, rice, eggs and beef (and even tons of lactose free milk in my shakes) once I started getting a better hold on my diet…and that led to the most growth long term alone with consistency.[/quote]

So if you were to go back and coach your 90lb self, how would you approach it food-wise? (And training-wise, for that matter.)

How many meals per day? A 16oz of steak a day? More, less?[/quote]

Get different parents?

Look, real talk, the choices I made early on were because that was all I had available. That is why I made no real progress until college…my parents didn’t cook for me to gain. I worked since the age of 15 so like most 15 year old kids, I ate what I thought was ok…which was mostly fast food outside of the house. My parents called the doctor one time because they found weight gain powder in my room. I was in college before I turned 17.

It isn’t like I had any guidance at all. Overall, I still got the basics down…which was make sure the calories are there and put your blood, sweat and tears in the weight room.

And frankly, that is why I see missing lately than anything else. Gyms are filled with people just posing on machines…in between net surfing on their iPhone.

Therefore, what would be the point of wishing I could tell myself to eat steaks that are $3 or more a pound? I was barely able to afford the dollar menu.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I don’t see leanness at the expense of size as being very impressive either.
[/quote]

So basically, smaller leaner guys don’t find bigger fatter guys impressive and bigger fatter guys don’t find smaller leaner guys impressive. So that leaves us to believe that the only
“universally impressive” guys are big AND lean. Which we used to have post on this site (waylander, dohcrazy, bonez)… until you drove them away.

Any other brilliant revelations you care to share with us, Doc?

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
After having done this for so many years, what foods, and what frequency, have you found works best for you?

Are we talking ground beef, or certain cuts of beef (I saw the steak thread), or chicken breasts, or what? Pastas? Cheeses? Sauces? Dairy? Eggs?[/quote]

Steak.

Real talk…beef if you want to be as big as a bull. Early on though, when someone is in their teens, perfect precision intake is not needed in many cases depending on metabolism and activity level. Overall it is simply an understanding that the human body is a machine that adapts and changes based on what you do to it.

[…]

I ate a lot of pasta, rice, eggs and beef (and even tons of lactose free milk in my shakes) once I started getting a better hold on my diet…and that led to the most growth long term alone with consistency.[/quote]

So if you were to go back and coach your 90lb self, how would you approach it food-wise? (And training-wise, for that matter.)

How many meals per day? A 16oz of steak a day? More, less?[/quote]

Get different parents?

Look, real talk, the choices I made early on were because that was all I had available. That is why I made no real progress until college…my parents didn’t cook for me to gain. I worked since the age of 15 so like most 15 year old kids, I ate what I thought was ok…which was mostly fast food outside of the house. My parents called the doctor one time because they found weight gain powder in my room. I was in college before I turned 17.

It isn’t like I had any guidance at all. Overall, I still got the basics down…which was make sure the calories are there and put your blood, sweat and tears in the weight room.

And frankly, that is why I see missing lately than anything else. Gyms are filled with people just posing on machines…in between net surfing on their iPhone.

Therefore, what would be the point of wishing I could tell myself to eat steaks that are $3 or more a pound? I was barely able to afford the dollar menu.

[/quote]

This is exactly why people think you’re about as helpful as a tomato plant.

He asked if you COULD change anything to what you did in the past and you told us your usual sob story about how you’ve accomplished so much with so little.

If you wouldn’t have changed anything, as unlikely as that is, then say that.

If you would have changed something, then tell us what you would have changed.

Just leave the over dramatic theatrics out of it.

You literally did not answer any of the questions he posed you.

LoRez gave you a “softball.” He just underhanded one right down the pipe for you to actually share your experience and you avoided answering it lol

Come on man. You say you care about these boards and discussing weightlifting… Why don’t you discuss it? I mean actually discuss anything that resembles specific information?

Be a helpful productive poster. I know its in there. Just let some information out.

Strange those photos are being posted as examples of big guys. Does anyone think Phil Heath goes by specific macro breakdowns or just make sure he eats a lot while having not one iota about caloric intake?

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I don’t see leanness at the expense of size as being very impressive either.
[/quote]

So basically, smaller leaner guys don’t find bigger fatter guys impressive and bigger fatter guys don’t find smaller leaner guys impressive. So that leaves us to believe that the only
“universally impressive” guys are big AND lean. Which we used to have post on this site (waylander, dohcrazy, bonez)… until you drove them away.

Any other brilliant revelations you care to share with us, Doc?[/quote]

Unfortunately ebomb left too.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
So if you were to go back and coach your 90lb self, how would you approach it food-wise? (And training-wise, for that matter.)

How many meals per day? A 16oz of steak a day? More, less?[/quote]

Look, real talk, the choices I made early on were because that was all I had available. That is why I made no real progress until college…my parents didn’t cook for me to gain. I worked since the age of 15 so like most 15 year old kids, I ate what I thought was ok…which was mostly fast food outside of the house.[/quote]

I get that. I mean, I was living on fast food and microwaveable dinners most of the time at that age. And then, later, I lived on rice and eggs at home, with the occasional double cheeseburgers and mcchickens. It’s not like I had money for steak outside of holidays.

I get that too.

But is that what you would do, if you could have? If you could have eaten well from the beginning, how would you have gone about doing it?

I’m assuming you’re still training with the blood, sweat and tears level intensity. I’m also assuming you made food choices back then that you’d do differently now, and training plans that you’d do differently now.

I’m only using “you” as the example here, because you actually know the training history, you know the diet history, you know what works for you and what doesn’t.

[quote]LoRez wrote:

I get that too.

But is that what you would do, if you could have? If you could have eaten well from the beginning, how would you have gone about doing it?

I’m assuming you’re still training with the blood, sweat and tears level intensity. I’m also assuming you made food choices back then that you’d do differently now, and training plans that you’d do differently now.

I’m only using “you” as the example here, because you actually know the training history, you know the diet history, you know what works for you and what doesn’t.[/quote]

I wouldn’t hand myself my current diet. I was 150lbs…actually way less before college. I wasn’t eating “poorly” in the sense that I was monitoring a weight gain. Aside from replacing “45 cent tacos” with prime rib, the way I went about it was ok for the time.

Look, I was reading muscle mags like religious texts so I wasn’t completely clueless. I was shooting for about 3lbs of weight gain a month give or take and watching my strength increases. I wasn’t just shooting in the dark.

Also, many of those “mistakes” are how I learned quickly…so if asked what I would change…if anything, get a gourmet cook. I am not sure if that is what you want to hear or not.

What do you think I should have told myself? I am actually glad I did many of the things I did early on.

[quote]gregron wrote:
You literally did not answer any of the questions he posed you.

LoRez gave you a “softball.” He just underhanded one right down the pipe for you to actually share your experience and you avoided answering it lol

Come on man. You say you care about these boards and discussing weightlifting… Why don’t you discuss it? I mean actually discuss anything that resembles specific information?

Be a helpful productive poster. I know its in there. Just let some information out.[/quote]

This is a joke, right? This entire thread has “specific information” in it. What specific information do you think is missing?

If I wasn’t a helpful and productive poster, this wouldn’t be a thread filled with information and contributions from founders of the website.

I assume going over studies about insulin isn’t specific enough for you…

[quote]Professor X wrote:
It isn’t like I had any guidance at all.
[/quote]

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Look, I was reading muscle mags like religious texts so I wasn’t completely clueless.
[/quote]

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

I get that too.

But is that what you would do, if you could have? If you could have eaten well from the beginning, how would you have gone about doing it?

I’m assuming you’re still training with the blood, sweat and tears level intensity. I’m also assuming you made food choices back then that you’d do differently now, and training plans that you’d do differently now.

I’m only using “you” as the example here, because you actually know the training history, you know the diet history, you know what works for you and what doesn’t.[/quote]

I wouldn’t hand myself my current diet. I was 150lbs…actually way less before college. I wasn’t eating “poorly” in the sense that I was monitoring a weight gain. Aside from replacing “45 cent tacos” with prime rib, the way I went about it was ok for the time.

Look, I was reading muscle mags like religious texts so I wasn’t completely clueless. I was shooting for about 3lbs of weight gain a month give or take and watching my strength increases. I wasn’t just shooting in the dark.

Also, many of those “mistakes” are how I learned quickly…so if asked what I would change…if anything, get a gourmet cook. I am not sure if that is what you want to hear or not.

What do you think I should have told myself? I am actually glad I did many of the things I did early on.[/quote]

In that case, what were you doing early on? What was your diet like back then, that worked for you (of course, now redone with higher quality ingredients)? How often were you eating? Were all your meals the same size, or was it built around primary meals and snacks?

Based on the couple replies you’ve given me so far, it sounds like your diet was… ground beef + carbs from pasta/burritos/rice, with some occasional eggs. Was most of that refined flour or whole grains? Based on your implied financial situation, I’m guessing it was all refined grains.

Other than switching out from ground beef to steak/prime rib, what else would you have done differently? Is the “gourmet cook” suggestion because your food choices got old over time?

Numbers-wise, if you’d bumped your calories to gain ~3lbs of bodyweight a month, that puts an average surplus of ~350 calories a day over maintenance. I didn’t see any numbers protein-wise, but based on your reading of the muscle mags, I’d assume you were getting 200-250 grams of protein in a day at 150, and then went up from there. Is that accurate?

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Anyone have meals they eat for specific training?

On my deadlift days, I always have a great day if I eat Taco Bell beforehand. And not just some tacos. I usually go something like Nachos Bel Grande, Chicken quesadilla and Taco Supreme.

Basically, if the engine is hot enough, it’ll burn anything.[/quote]
I like to get an XXL grilled stuffed steak burrito, a 1/2lb beef and potato burrito, and a chicken and rice burrito. Taco Bell is great.[/quote]

Damn wish I could do that. I have to save almost all my eating after lifting otherwise it feels like I am gonna pop or shit myself

[quote]BrickHead wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I don’t see leanness at the expense of size as being very impressive either.
[/quote]

So basically, smaller leaner guys don’t find bigger fatter guys impressive and bigger fatter guys don’t find smaller leaner guys impressive. So that leaves us to believe that the only
“universally impressive” guys are big AND lean. Which we used to have post on this site (waylander, dohcrazy, bonez)… until you drove them away.

Any other brilliant revelations you care to share with us, Doc?[/quote]

Unfortunately ebomb left too.
[/quote]

All big dude all never bulked. Zraw. Big guy never bulked. Weird!!!

[quote]LoRez wrote:

In that case, what were you doing early on? What was your diet like back then, that worked for you (of course, now redone with higher quality ingredients)? How often were you eating? Were all your meals the same size, or was it built around primary meals and snacks?[/quote]

Have you read this:

I mean, no offense, but I have gone into all of that in so much detail, rewriting it every time someone asks isn’t going to help me much.

[quote]
Numbers-wise, if you’d bumped your calories to gain ~3lbs of bodyweight a month, that puts an average surplus of ~350 calories a day over maintenance. I didn’t see any numbers protein-wise, but based on your reading of the muscle mags, I’d assume you were getting 200-250 grams of protein in a day at 150, and then went up from there. Is that accurate?[/quote]

No, I was getting about 1gr of protein for every pound of body weight. I have done more than that in the past up to 2gr.

Overall, I spent most of the time getting 1-1.5gr.

This is pointless lol

One thing I would tell myself is to avoid “specific macro breakdowns” and have more of a general feel for food and the amounts…because the body is not a calculator and adapts even to the food you feed it and the amounts especially at younger ages. I would tell myself to understand in general how many calories I was taking in and protein and to shoot for a monitored weight increase…but to NOT get caught up in exact numbers to the point that I spend less time paying attention to the progress made.

I knew about how many calories I was taking in but was not counting them daily. I had a very different take on how the body functioned and understood that variability and the body’s ability to adapt. I focused more on the weight increase and strength increase…much like Matty wrote before.

I think that worked best for getting me to build that solid base and is why I made progress as fast as I did.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
One thing I would tell myself is to avoid “specific macro breakdowns” and have more of a general feel for food and the amounts…because the body is not a calculator and adapts even to the food you feed it and the amounts especially at younger ages. I would tell myself to understand in general how many calories I was taking in and protein and to shoot for a monitored weight increase…but to NOT get caught up in exact numbers to the point that I spend less time paying attention to the progress made.

I knew about how many calories I was taking in but was not counting them daily. I had a very different take on how the body functioned and understood that variability and the body’s ability to adapt. I focused more on the weight increase and strength increase…much like Matty wrote before.

I think that worked best for getting me to build that solid base and is why I made progress as fast as I did.[/quote]

Do you think you could have fine tuned your results more easily follow a macro breakdown?

Why would someone initially claim they didn’t start training seriously 'til their sophomore year of college, then 8 years later claim they started so early in hs their parents called the doctor 'cause they found weight gain powder in their room?

Here’s every single nutrition post from that other thread. I might have missed one or two.

At this point, I don’t really think I have any questions.

[quote][quote]peck191 wrote:
How many meals do you eat each day? Did it take you a while to get used to eating that much food every day, or did it come easily for you? I’m at about 4,000 daily right now, and working my way up.[/quote]

I was eating six times a day from the first time I saw it in a FLEX mag. They just weren’t decent “meals” until I hit college where I finally had enough food available to actually grow off of. My metabolism was pretty fast from the start so if I expected to grow, I had to eat more than the average person. Many times I was forcing food down. To me it was a necessary evil to reach my goals. I never made that big a deal of it as I see many doing on this site. I knew I would adjust over time and I did.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=5

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=7

[quote][quote]ab_power wrote:
X, I was wondering if I could get a snapshot of what your eating habits/diet were like back when you were 170-180lbs. Just wanna know what you did during that time, since you were probably at university and didn’t have access to a endless supply of ultra-zen pure clean bulking foods.[/quote]

I ate what was available…which included several trips through the line in the cafeteria, waking up early so I could fix a big ass waffle on Saturday mornings before they ran out, way too many bags of Raman Noodles, and even a quick trip through Mc Donald’s dollar menu.

Would I do the same right now? Of course not because I have alternatives, but when you are a flat broke college student with a goal of hitting 200lbs before the start of the following year, you eat what is available and ask for seconds. You work out hard enough so that food goes where I want it to…which itself seems to be a concept hard for some to follow.

On any given day, I NEVER missed one of the three meals offered in the cafeteria. What was hard was trying to find food after that to tide me over from about 6pm to 6am the next morning. I couldn’t afford protein shakes…or hell, even a blender to mix them in. I literally had no supplements at all until my senior year…and I still gained enough size for people to ask me if I was on something.

I ate eggs (the powdered ones) whenever they had them to serve. I ate those dry ass hamburgers. I drank that powdered milk they served as much as possible (in spite of lactose intolerance) and simply dealt with the shits afterwards.

There was no measuring. There was no data overloaded flow chart where my body fat was tracked down the tenth of a point.

My focus was on simply eating enough food to gain weight and lifting enough weight to make that food turn into muscle. It was not perfect. It was trial and error and everything I learned at that time helped me from that point forward.

Sorry that wasn’t as analytical as you may have hoped…but remember, I was a biology major good enough to tutor other people in the classes I was taking while I was taking them. I wasn’t clueless and I had a plan.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=8

[quote][quote]wicked08 wrote:
X,

I know your not a big fan of Surge.

What exactly you take post-workout? [/quote]

I try to get some form of carbohydrates in me. It does not matter that much where those carbs come from. The most important factor is that you simply fuel your own body. It is NOT as important that what you eat is 55% this or 80% that. What will help you reach your goal is being consistent enough to get SOMETHING in you that has simple carbs. Anything else is “extra credit”.

That is coming from someone doing this long enough to observe that there are too many people who seem to be under the impression that if they aren’t using “Supplement A” or trying to be absolutely perfect, that they might as well not try…and that’s just plain stupidity.

The basic concept is to get SOMETHING in you. That alone is more important than anything else.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=9

[quote][quote]ktennies wrote:
prof. x,

i apologize if you have already answered this before as it has been awhile since i read through this thread, but,

how do you feel about getting some food in during the middle of the night? do you ever wake up to eat (or to use the restroom and eat since you are up), or do you aim for uninterrupted sleep?[/quote]

I did that once…in high school. It didn’t make a difference because overall daily calories are STILL the primary factor. At that time, several bodybuilders were all claiming to wake up at night to get another protein shake down or a whole meal. I guess that sounds like a great idea when your job is literally to simply make sure you sleep 8-10 hours a night and lift weights.

For the rest of us who have less time and are barely getting even 8 hrs a night, that sleep is more important. I would recommend increasing overall daily calories before worrying about waking up in the middle of the night just to eat.

Eat before you got to sleep unless you are specifically dieting down and then eat when you wake up. Decrease the amount of time you go in a day without something either going into your stomach or on its way out.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=9

[quote][quote]SteelyD wrote:
PX -

Getting back on track–

How’s the diet-down going? At least the last I read you started / were-considering dieting down some.

  1. How have you changed your diet
  2. How is your strength
  3. How are you holding your size (ie arm/leg size)?[/quote]

I was holding my weight for the past few months. The only big changes in my diet lately has simply been the addition of a hell of a lot of steak and a decrease in my carbohydrate intake. I was trying to see if I could achieve some level of body comp change without changing my body weight much…because I like being this size.

My strength has increased slightly.

Yes, I am holding my size. I am adding two cardio sessions in and attempting to keep my food intake exactly where it is just to see what happens. I am avoiding doing what I’ve done in the past when I have dropped my caloric intake really low.

In years past, I had to drop weight every year in the military for the pt test. That meant I held onto less muscle than I could if I held my heaviest weight for longer periods of time. Now I get to see if holding that weight for longer makes a difference. From what I can tell, it makes a HUGE difference.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=13

[quote][quote]Goodfellow wrote:
What does your average daily food intake look like?

Did you ever do cardio or lower your calories if you noticed you were putting on too much fat?

I’d imagine you know what you need to do now to manage everything, but I am curious how you handled it in your earlier years.[/quote]

Today, my intake has been and will be:
-12 whole eggs
-protein shake
-protein shake
-1lb of beef/rice (even though I often don’t have time for the rice)
-protein shake

…after that I leave work so I can finally eat more. If I’m not worried about losing body fat, I may eat a triple meat Whataburger when I get home.

-1lbs of beef/potatoes
-.5lbs of beef/potatoes
then I go lift.

That would allow me to mostly maintain my body weight. If I wanted to gain more, I would have to eat more than that. I eat more fruits on the weekends but mostly center my meals around protein and fats lately more because I have very limited time to eat during the day right now. It is a struggle just to get this down.

As far as cardio, that was usually held for periods where the goal was to specifically drop weight (like around 20lbs). This is the first time I am adding it to hold near the same weight just to see what happens.

Long term the plan is to be much leaner than I am now but I am in no rush since I’m not exactly obese right now to start with. I know what I want to look like and if I feel I am not there yet (in order to hit my goal weight in that condition) then I will keep gaining.

Being super lean alone is not my top priority.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=14

[quote][quote]MMAniac wrote:
Hey X I was wondering what your thoughts are on a clean bulk. I was thinking of eating above my maintenance level of calories but not by too much (like 500 cals). I know eating all clean it will be too difficult so some junkier food is necessary.[/quote]

Why are you more concerned with “clean” than whether you are eating enough to grow? I don’t care how “clean” you eat. That term means nothing to me anyway. You can find food that isn’t filled with sugar and saturated fat even at Mc Donald’s so what foods are “unclean” to you?

Pizza? Gee, yeah a pizza a day might just be a bad move…UNLESS you have a very fast metabolism and the rest of your diet is filling in any gaps in nutrition.

How “clean” you eat shouldn’t even be your 3rd or 4th priority. Your concern should be whether you are:
-eating enough food to gain anything
-eating enough protein to help build some muscle
-eating enough carbs to fuel your workouts and help get the calories in
-eating enough fat for reasons from hormone balance to even slowing down digestion in some cases.

If you can do all of this with “chicken breasts” more power to you but I hope you realize that it would take a shit load of chicken breasts to meet a high caloric need.

“Clean”? I’ll be sure to wash the next steak I grill…with soap[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=17

[quote]I rarely drink alcohol unless I am with friends…and even then it is rare. I don’t eat candy, cookies or cake aside from very rare occasions. I can, however, knock out a triple Whopper in about 5 min and still eat again in 2 hours.

Some of these terms need to die. I haven’t seen anyone here tell someone to eat more candy. [/quote]
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[quote][quote]pumped340 wrote:
The more I read the more reasonable I see your thinking is X lol

What is your opinion of a keto-type diet for someone trying to gain muscle but gains fat very easily? Like say we know they genetically just store fat at an above average rate, would you approve of something like a cyclical keto diet, just lower carbs overall, timed carbs just around workouts, or what?[/quote]

Any diet is completely individual as far as what works best for you. I can’t stand keto diets. I did one to get into the military and I lost a ton of muscle and relatively MUCH less fat as a result…on top of feeling like shit most of the day.

My body seems to need at least some minimal carbs even if I cut them out the majority of the day.

That doesn’t mean it will not work for you, but I have doubts as to it working better than other strategies for those who do have above average genetics for gaining muscle mass.[/quote]
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request?id=651079&pageNo=18

[quote][quote]trav123456 wrote:
hey Prof, maybe I missed it but what foods make up your carb intake while bulking? Do you like to have carbs fairly high when gaining or do you mostly depend on fats/protein? Are you cutting carbs alot for this cut?[/quote]

My carbs are very low all day long until I get home right now. I either have rice or potatoes for two meals and almost zero carbs the rest of the day (aside from Thursday night and Sunday all day). My protein intake is higher right now than…ever.

When gaining I am not that strict with my food intake. That may change after I drop more if I plan to stay leaner, but that won’t stop me from the occasional angus bacon cheeseburger.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]Needmassquick wrote:
Would that be the new angus bacon cheeseburger from McDonalds? Thats next on my list to try :slight_smile: unfortunately it has 2g of transfat for each one which is a lot when it comes to trans fat :frowning:

What are your calories/macros at now and how does that compare to when you were trying to pack on size?[/quote]

I don’t count calories. I estimate. The difference between now and then is the lack of fast food and a decrease in carbs along with an increase in protein. I think this is the most protein I’ve ever eaten in a day getting at least 400gr if not more with about 160gr coming from protein shakes alone.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]tomkade wrote:
Thanks X, I will be downloading these tonight.

What about when you were lifting free weights? Before you got to this level, do you remember how you got through a difficult “plateau”? [/quote]

I never believed in “plateaus”. That either meant I needed more food, or if I was already too fat, that I needed to drop some fat and then eat more food. I can’t remember one time while gaining the last 140lbs that some mystical reason besides food intake or amount of rest kept me from gaining.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]Goodfellow wrote:
Hey prof,

Do you ever get weeks where you hardly have any energy or appetite? If so, what do you do to get things back to normal?[/quote]

When I was in training for the military I felt like that…because I wasn’t eating enough or resting enough yet was in uniform all day long in the heat doing obstacle courses and other training.

What was explained to you in the other thread is that feeling like that indicates something is wrong. It means you are not doing SOMETHING enough, whether that be eating, resting, or organizing your routine effectively.

No, I do not feel that way unless something is affecting my ability to recover.

Trying to drop weight to get into the military by eating no carbs and doing over an hour of cardio a day while also studying for board exams made me feel like that as well.

If that happened without these other factors then I would clearly be doing something WRONG.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]tomkade wrote:
What supplements if any do you recommend for the majority of the people that are not at the elite level yet? [/quote]

Beginners:
Learn how to eat. Leave most of the supplements you think you need alone until you understand how to grow by simply lifting heavy shit and eating more. Nothing will help you if you can’t even get this down or gain an initial inch on your arms without a magic feather.

Beginner to Intermediate:
Protein supplements can become more important especially if you get beyond 200lbs in body weight. Getting as much as possible from food sources should be the goal but clearly the bigger you get, the more food you need so use food supplements as needed.

There is also nothing wrong with creatine, fish oils, peri-workout energy drinks or thermogenic supplements, however, hopefully by this stage you understand that YOU are what creates the results you see and not some specific supplement.

Intermediate: Yay, you are no longer a small fucker so no one cares if you experiment with whatever you think can help.

Advanced: These people don’t need to be told what they should focus on because they can make that judgment themselves. These people would also be most likely to make the most of some extreme attention to supplement use since they know their own bodies better than any of the other lifters and have reached a level of development where the difference would even be noticeable.[/quote]
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[quote]I drank milk despite being intolerant because the benefits outweighed the negatives AT THE TIME (I don’t drink milk much at all now because I have alternatives). It was cheap and filled with calories, both issues I needed addressed.

I took the lactaid pills as well as bought lactose free milk and that erased most of the issues. The lactose free milk is obviously the most reliable.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]Elite0423 wrote:
Proff X, Im a newb. Been training for approximatively a month and gained about 15 pounds. Im about 175 right now and Im sure I can up my weight with more calories. My part time summer job manager keeps nagging at me about eating every 2 hours and with respect to him Im trying to cut it out.

Do you think their is anything wrong with eating perhaps 3 meals a day say breakfast, lunch, and dinner as whole meals and 4 meals with protein and pb shakes with maybe some oatmeal bars or something? I really want to hit 190 by the end of September. Do you think this approach is valid or are more solid meals going to be necessary? [/quote]

What job do you have? Hell, kid, I have eaten in class and not had anyone say anything to me but that may be because I didn’t make a display of it. Then again, I was a lot bigger than you at the time. Someone your size does not NEED to eat every 2 hours or “six meals a day”. I eat that much because it is hard to get in all of those calories without me getting some food down abut every 3-4 hours.

In other words, there is nothing wrong with eating those three meals and then compensating when you get off work…but this is all assuming you actually have the genetics to gain that much weight and have most of it be muscle mass. Judging by what I see on this forum often, you will have to pardon me for being skeptical.

Eating all of the time is a lot easier when you look the part. I used to eat in meetings in the military all of the time and no one ever said anything. Why is your boss giving you a hard time? Are you being discreet at all?

I can down protein shakes in the bathroom and no one will ever know about it.[/quote]

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[quote][quote]Elite0423 wrote:
Hey X. I know this is stupid but do you mind PMing me what your diet looked like trying to break 200lbs. I know everyone is different and some people require more food then others but I just need to get a picture of the volume of food I might need to break that barrier.[/quote]

You don’t want my diet when I was 200lbs…because my diet was pure crap and fast food. I didn’t know how to eat and didn’t have the MONEY to do so any better than I was. I ate what was available in college…and then hit fast food joints in the afternoon. I also had a fast metabolism, rode a bike and worked out daily so a lot of that gain was muscle despite that.

I have written all of this in this thread already though.

For a picture of the volume of food, imagine the most food you’ve eaten…and double it.

Than add 4.[/quote]

[quote]
That is why I gained so fast. Cedric McMillan wrote in MD that his diet was pretty much the same early on and that is why he grew so fast. But that isn’t what people want to hear. They want to hear that you can get fucking huge by being extremely restrictive with the diet. That may work for some people with great genetics for lean mass gains but some of us make better gains by not doing that.

I would not eat the same now but that is how I went from 150 to over 200lbs in the time I did. If was to do it again, I would cut out some of that crap because it was overdone at times, but those mistakes helped me only learn more about my body.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]hlss09 wrote:
How many kcals are you trying to hit (ballpark) a day?[/quote]

I don’t count calories. I never have and don’t worry about getting that specific.[/quote]

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[quote][quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
X, at what point did force feeding become easy? I to do not count calories but do you think it
would be a good idea to count to see what 3,000 actually looks and takes to eat?[/quote]

LOL. I don’t think it became “easy” until about 4 years ago after I hit my heaviest body weight. After that, it seemed as if it didn’t take as much for me to maintain the same weight.

Let me put it like this…in junior high and high school, I was one of those kids who would get nauseated even thinking about eating breakfast. I literally had to force myself to start eating better (or at all) at that time of day with my only inspiration for it being what I read in Flex magazine. That was when I started eating “6 meals a day” even though back then, I had no clue what those “6 meals” should be.

Eating all day was never easy for me until I got much bigger overall. I was uncomfortable most of the time. Protein shakes back then were shit and I had to deal with the lactose intolerance from most of them if I used them.

You are asking me if YOU should count calories. That is up to you. I personally understand how variable all of those factors are that go into what maintains your body weight through out a day so I don’t see the point or the need…but then, I can get a general picture of how much I am eating by looking at a calorie panel. Also, if you aren’t gaining weight, you need to eat MORE. Getting caught up in the specific number isn’t always the best idea.[/quote]
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[quote][quote]titleist55 wrote:
Prof, I really enjoy reading what you have to post. I’m looking for a little advice about gaining! I have a good grip of your approach… And would love to be able to do it your way but am worried as was over weight up to 3 years ago! Lost close to fourthy pounds and then started bodybuilding training! I’m 19! Would you recommend someone like me to try eat as much as possible or is that a recipe for disaster?[/quote]

Why would you or anyone else do it “my way”? My way was done out of necessity…out of trying to fit lifting seriously in with every other goal I had.

That is what you need to remember about the people you go to for advice. The guy who works as a personal trainer will no doubt take a different course of action in building large amounts of size than the guy going to medical/dental school. It HELPED ME to eat more to compensate for many other issues…like less sleep, several hours spent studying, spending most of time at school or in a gross anatomy lab.

Had I not taken that approach, it is very doubtful I would look anything like I do now.

My advice is usually for people who:

  1. are trying to make very large changes in how they look
  2. do not have a hard time losing body fat
  3. have trouble getting enough calories in
  4. understand what the word intensity means.
  5. Is starting well UNDER the age of 35 and isn’t some guy in his 40’s thinking he can pack on 100lbs like someone much younger and go from skinny to huge.

if this does not describe you, then you are not who I would reccommend follows any example I have put forth.

I understood in junior high that the guys who seemed to be “husky” when younger seemed to have an easier time getting “swole” once they hit high school age. I learned about the sarcoplsmic sheeth covering muscles and came to the conclusion that bulking up would help attain more muscle size in the long run by allowing more of a stretch around the muscle due to greater water retention, glycogen and even fat.

Most people who got huge have that in common. It is very rare to not see it.

Therefore, if you have good genetics for this and your goal is to make that type of progress, you will likely have to take that route at some point.

If you clearly do not have the genetics for this and gain fat easily and find it hard to lose, then obviously you shouldn’t follow this path.[/quote]
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