Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty
It doesn't matter what you eat, it's how much you eat. That's what calories are; a measure of the energy in foods.
To build muscle you need adequate protein. 1.8g / kg of body weight is likely the ceiling for protein, so if you weigh 200 pounds, you would need 160g of protein a day. Excess protein is converted into glucose and used as energy; if not, it's stored as fat.
If you're jumping into a resistance training program you need more calories no doubt. You need to replenish your glycogen stores or after a few workouts you'll be too fatigued to continue. The best way to do this is a high GI recovery drink within 30 minutes of exercise, and a high (complex) carb meal within 2 hours. Your diet should consist of at moderate (55%) or higher carbohydrates. If it does, you will not need substantially more calories to build muscle and gain strength. All more calories do is add fat.
I'm assuming that since you're eating so much fat most of it is coming from really crappy food. I'm willing to bet a lot of it is saturated fat. You would have been much better off keeping the calories lower and shifting more focus onto carbs. Yea, maybe you're a lucky obesity-resistant person and didn't gain weight, but you likely had/have a disgusting blood lipid profile with that diet.
You don't need to gain fat to gain muscle!
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If it doesn't matter what I eat, I should be able to eat crappy food...no?
I thought this thread was about starting strength by Mark Rippetoe...
Also, be careful with your assumptions!
It definitely matters what you eat...I would have put on a ton of fat if I had fries/pizzas sodas etc. at the same caloric intake.
All calories are not equal. Our bodies our hormonal and react differently to different foods.
The fat breakdown was roughly even between mono, poly and sat.
Fat sources were nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado, coconut, butter whatever breakdown the meat I was eating contained (which is mostly grassfed naturally raised pork, beef and chicken)
I eat almost 100% primal/paleo. If you want more info on that:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
You can definitely gain strength without putting on weight, you can also gain muscle slowly without eating a ton...it all depends on your goals. But I have yet to see a better way to put on lean mucsle mass quickly with
minimal fat gain than eating smart/healthy paleo style diet (add milk if you tolerate it because it does help) coupled with starting strength. Do your research on it and draw your own conclusions.
If I had more time, I could go into more detail and explain my experiences further.
What program would you recommend to the original poster that would be better than starting strength?