What Diet For Lean Gains?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a diet for putting on pure muscle. There are so many articles to look at on here I get swamped w/ all the different routines. I’m 16 years old, 6 foot, 180lbs. I cut really good for about 4 months and went form 206 to 180 and lost no muscle at all. I’m now alittle more loose about my diet but im still at 180lbs. My body is very good IMO right now, im lean and I really want to start putting on some serious muscle but im very, very hesitant b/c of spring break so soon. I don’t want to put any fat on around my mid section after working so hard.

I’m thinking i need a diet w/ high calories and low carbs. I take about 3 Low-Carb Grow! shakes a day.

If you guys have any ideas it would really be great, thanks.

Jared

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[quote]naughtybox wrote:
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a diet for putting on pure muscle. There are so many articles to look at on here I get swamped w/ all the different routines. I’m 16 years old, 6 foot, 180lbs. I cut really good for about 4 months and went form 206 to 180 and lost no muscle at all. I’m now alittle more loose about my diet but im still at 180lbs. My body is very good IMO right now, im lean and I really want to start putting on some serious muscle but im very, very hesitant b/c of spring break so soon. I don’t want to put any fat on around my mid section after working so hard.

I’m thinking i need a diet w/ high calories and low carbs. I take about 3 Low-Carb Grow shakes a day.

If you guys have any ideas it would really be great, thanks.

Jared[/quote]

Hmm wow I’m kinda for a lost at what to say.I mean this stuff has been covered so many times I don’t really know where to start but here we go.Is it possible to gain LBM while on a low carb diet?Yes it is,as CT has shown with both his Beast Evolves abd Mutation Series diets.With that being said the LBM you gain isn’t going to be an extreme amount,or as you put a serious amount.The most I’ve gained while cutting was a few pounds here and there and that was following OVT and getting 350-425g of protein a day.Unfortunatley unless you’ve got some freakish genes you have to decide…if you want to put on muscle you have to follow the old saying “to get big you gotta eat big”.If ya wanna gain muscle ya gotta eat!

Honestly if it was that simple to just gain LBM without putting on any fat we’d all be 245 pounds and have 6% body fat.

3

I am currently trying to cut, and am using a particular diet that has ended up giving me some muscle even though I have lost a noticable amount of fat.

I weighed 215 for starters. I set 2500 calories to loose 1 1/2 to two pounds a week and set as guidelines to average NO MORE than 200 grams of carbs and NO LESS than 200 grams of protein a day AVERAGE over the course of a week. Basically 3 protein based meals, workout, Surge, protein based meal, protein based meal, and perhaps 1 more protein based meal if I go to bed late. Each meal about 350-400 cals and 35-40% protein (something like 2 cups 2% milk and 2 Low-Carb Grow!, or 1 1/2 cup cottage cheese and 1/2 piece of fruit, or 1/2 pound lean meat or fish and a big bowl of veggies).

Low-Carb Grow! first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, 90 minutes before workout and 90 minutes after workout (or another meal option like I described).

THEN, considering your age and relative leanness gradually add in a small amount more carbs like an extra packet of oatmeal to a meal (except the last one before bed) or use regular Grow! Continue adding this to another meal a day each week as long as you seem to be on track, cut out from one meal a day if you seem to have added noticeable fat.

YOU HAVE TO TRACK WHAT YOU EAT, but focus on the weekly average, and try to HIT the goal average, not beat it by being under the calorie goal.

As far as bodyweight gain, the neat thing is that you will probably look better. 5 pounds of real muscle will go a long way (5 pounds is like 10 CUPS of muscle, so imagine adding 10 cupfulls of muscle tissue to your body.

1 pound a week would be ideal, but if you cut carbs, you may lose 5 pounds off the bat, so don’t worry about tracking weight until week two.

Of course, we would need to know your currect calorie intake to give real accurate numbers.

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By the way, just a theory, but I think if you go up to the 350-400 grams of protein level, you are teaching your body to turn them into carbs-break them down for energy, and you become dependent on that level. I know others will disagree, but I think 200 grams or a little more is fine for someone floating near 200, maybe 250 grams TOPS. The real key with protein is to spread it out. I have not approached the level of some though, so judge accordingly.

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Wait 'til the kind Professor reads this. This is like serving up a hanging curve to Barry Bonds.

No offense, guy - but you’re very likely to get hammered over this post.

With that said, if you are a relative newbie, you will put on muscle easily. Read Berardi’s Seven Habits. Keep the carbs relatively low, and make sure you get plenty of healthy fats - salmon oil, or flax seed oil.

Most of all, don’t get paralyzed by thinking about it too much. Doing something always puts on more size than thinking about doing something.

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RJ, I disagree with this thread becoming a big argument. He followed PX’s basic rules: First, he admitted that 180 was nothing special and second he didn’t post worthless pics at this stage of development.

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No but he wants to add lean muscle. Me and Prof X have already had it out over this very subject.

Granted, it won’t be the same rant as he gives when a 135 pound waif gets on here, posts some pics, and then asks if he should cut - but he will chastize our friend for being afraid of putting on some fat.

He probably won’t post shit now, just so he can show me up - but I know he’s thinking it.

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Plus, he did say he was planning on eating big calories, just low carbs.

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You’d do well to buy Berardi’s DVD set. I have made better lean mass gains with the diet and plan(s) for mass gain outlined on that DVD than with just about anything I’ve tried.

However, you need to find what works for you. I am moderate-high with carb sensitivity, so it probably works much better for me than for someone with low carb sensitivity.

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Sorry if we scared off Proff X, RJ. I’ll make it up to you and do my best impersonation.

You have to be joking! To even imply that spring break wouldn’t be as productive if you added ANY fat to your waist…you are obviously too young to understand the Womanfolk.
If you lost 26 pounds without losing any muscle at all, then long term you shouldn’t be afraid of gaining 20-30 pounds of fat, and this might be the the years of your life when you can actually get away with that and put on some impressive amounts of muscle.

So RJ, Proff doesn’t sound too far off on this one.

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[quote]rainjack wrote:
He probably won’t post shit now, just so he can show me up - but I know he’s thinking it.[/quote]

I was thinking it…before anyone else posted in this thread. However, I wasn’t quite sure how to get this kid to understand how inefficient it will be to try to ONLY gain lean body mass. No one has ever written that this is impossible. However, to make that a GOAL means you are setting your body up for extremely slow gains and possibly stagnation.

Your body doesn’t grow in a linear fashion, ie. a gain of .2lbs everyday. It just doesn’t work like that, at least not from what I have seen or experienced. I have had bursts of growth where I may gain 3-4lbs over the course of 2 or 3 days and then my weight will level off again, despite eating like crazy. You have to be there giving your body what it needs for those times that it is ready to grow the most. Someone being overly restrictive with their food intake won’t be able to do that.

For the slow people, that doesn’t mean anyone has told this guy to become a fat ass. It means focus on ONE goal, make that the priority, eat enough to gain, don’t get out of control, and let growth happen. The average person on the planet does not have the genetics to ONLY gain lean body tissue efficiently from an increased food intake.

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IMO, try out different methods, high carb, low carb, high fat, balanced diets.

I like the T-dawg diet for basically any time- it is a good base.

I myself work well with low carbs and mostly protein and fat.

I think also the best question to ask is how to gain the most LBM with the least fat- I probably could have gained the same amount of muscle when i bulked this fall with half as much carbs.

Find what works and do it.

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shut up and lift.

now.

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I think an element of this comes down to a psych/mind hurdle also, particularly for ‘newer’ trainees. In my experiences, people who are determined not to add any fat at any cost, whilst adding LBM, really end up beating there skull against a brick wall until exhaustion and then what they see as, ultimately, failure.
I am only stating this in reference to experiences I have had with people harbouring that mentality.
Not stating this as a general concept, many do add LBM without much fat and do it well. But generally (oh how I hate using that word), they are the exceptional ones, ones that would be considered ‘genetic outliers’.