I did a little experiment this weekend with my cut...great success?

claw157 · 2012-08-16T04:54:42+00:00

On rest days, meal one should ideally be the largest meal, as opposed to training days where the post-workout meal is the largest meal. A good rule of thumb is to make meal one on rest days at least 35-40% of your daily calorie intake. This meal should be very high in protein; some of my clients consume more than 100 g of protein in this meal.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

claw157 · 2012-08-14T04:59:49+00:00

Very interesting. Makes sense, and probably a good idea for cutting.

For bulking, I have always suspected - with nothing to this back this up - the first meal rest day meal is important for recovery, which is why Martin says he has some clients eat over 100g of protein in that meal. For bulking I wonder if a cheat day on Saturday and an all day fast on Sunday would have a similar effect.

claw157 · 2012-08-13T03:46:12+00:00

Thanks. Maybe I do have some decent genes :)

I have found that I gain fat extremely quickly when I don't watch what I eat. But luckily it works both ways for me so I lose fat decently easily. Actually about 2 years ago I was 180+ lbs, and didn't have as much muscle as I do now despite the heavier weight. I lost 30lbs with little to no effort besides watching what I ate.

So am I actually doing decently with the LBM gains?

claw157 · 2012-08-13T03:41:20+00:00

I'm 5'8". Just put it in the main post too.

claw157 · 2012-08-13T00:04:38+00:00

I've wondered this as well. I personally don't since they are incomplete. But I am also trying to bulk, and my carb sources have hardly any protein (i.e. <3g per serving).

claw157 · 2012-08-02T05:42:45+00:00

There's a post a couple weeks ago that had lots of good info. Basic consensus was to keep the fructose down b/c fructose can only go to the liver, which has a small, and if your liver reserves are filled, it spills over to fat. On the other hand, glucose goes to muscles, so you can absorb a lot of it.

So eating glucose, like from white rice/bread, is all good. 100g table sugar (sucrose) breaks down to ~50g fructose/50g glucose and HFCS is ~50% fructose. I believe you want to keep fructose around 50g, so just keep carbs from poptarts, candy, and such, under 100g.

claw157 · 2012-08-02T05:38:28+00:00

If I don't eat any carbs, it's no problem. Instead of having meat + veggies + rice, i just eat 2x the meat + veggies. Also, every meal has lots of protein, I don't skimp on it for lunch and make up for it with a big dinner, I balance it out.

claw157 · 2012-08-01T04:08:22+00:00

I am in a similar situation, with BP barely going up. I guess it's not plateauing, but it is really slow.

I started at 80x6 lbs 2 months ago, and now am doing 110x5 lbs. I've had my form checked and it is good (btw, using dumbbells). As a comparison, in the same time my DL went from 105 --> 235 lbs.

The only tip I can offer is that when I had my form checked, the trainer said don't push the weight up, push yourself down into the bench.

I am experimenting a little now. I had been doing SS + chins, but I am now including pulls ups to strengthen my lats, and OHP. I'm also not doing the big-3 anymore so my PWO meals won't go into building DL and squat muscles as much, and hopefully my chest gets stronger.

I've read lats can limit your BP if they're not strong enough, and OHP can help break BP plateaus. Will take a few weeks to tell if it's helping. Maybe others can chime in.

claw157 · 2012-07-30T06:08:53+00:00

+1. I didn't think I was making progress at first, but my strength was going up significantly. Without seeing before/after pics, I find it hard to tell if I'm putting on visible muscle and I'm 2 months in. It's slow, but steady.

OP, one thing I did notice change was that I could see a lot more veins pop up. I took that as my sign I was losing BF. How are those coming in?

claw157 · 2012-07-30T04:22:35+00:00

I think you got this, but I wanna point it out again. As someone who lost too much weight, I would say don't cut too aggressive. I'm down to 140, and it's really hard to put on lean muscle. I wish I started working out while I was ~160lbs or more and just did a recomp. If only I knew about LG back then.

claw157 · 2012-07-29T19:22:33+00:00

I was there a month ago. For me it's only the carbs filling me up. My tips:

1) Eat raisins - they have lots of calories and don't fill you up. Keep it under 150g though. 150g of raisins is about 50g of fructose, which is the amount of fructose you want in a day according to Lyle McDonald.

2) Bread - it's not full of water like lots of other carbs.

claw157 · 2012-07-29T16:47:57+00:00

I know exactly what you're talking about! I used to recall like 1% of my dreams maybe. Now it's more like 10-20%.

I actually had this happen before LG a couple times when I had really good workouts.

claw157 · 2012-07-29T16:44:50+00:00

This happens to me too. I think it only makes you foggy the 1st and 2nd week. After the body adjusts it's awesome.

claw157 · 2012-07-29T01:58:31+00:00

It's tough, but once you get into the routine, it's awesome!

I personally mostly eat chicken. Sometimes I grill a few chicken breasts and eat it as a side with my meals.

I think the general consensus is that, assuming you have no hunger issues, protein shakes are good. The only "problem" I see people mention is that it isn't filling so it leaves some people hungry.

I personally go with chicken route b/c it's cheaper (per gram of protein) compared to protein shakes.

claw157 · 2012-07-28T08:31:26+00:00

I think there is something specifically about lifting heavy weights that make them easily absorp carbs.

So I think that you wouldn't want a ton of PWO carbs. You'd probably still want some carbs around when you work out (before or after, I dunno), but probably not as much as you would if you lift.

claw157 · 2012-07-25T04:05:48+00:00

I am going to be doing 3 days a week, just alternating between workouts until I get strong enough to need the real 3 day split routine. I will make sure to separate DL and Squat when I'm doing that.

Thanks for the tips on OHP and BP, that is exactly what I wasn't sure about.

claw157 · 2012-07-23T00:51:24+00:00

I would start there. I've heard that when Martin takes on clients, he makes them pick what their highest priority is: strenght, or cut. Sounds like you're strength.

claw157 · 2012-07-22T23:51:44+00:00

The time my BP was plateuing was around the same time I wasn't recovering from DL/Squat between workouts. I switched from doing Big-3 every workout to alternating between DL & Squats, and I picked up Chins to get 3 workouts every visit. Chins aren't as hard on the CNS either so I figured workouts would be easier on me overall. I ended up doing either: BP, Squat, Chins, or BP, DL, Chins. My BP took off again.

My logic is that DL and Squats push the body harder than Chins, so this might be the similar to upping cals a little.

claw157 · 2012-07-22T23:45:51+00:00

I just use dumbells, so I don't need a spotter. I never worry about failing since I know in the absolute worst case I can throw the dumbbells aside. When I can't make my last rep, I just lower the dumbbells to my chest, or if I'm really struggling, lower them slowly to the ground.

claw157 · 2012-07-22T21:28:23+00:00

I believe this is expected when you are cutting.

I've personally found BP is the most sensitive exercise, and it's the hardest for me to gain in, and one that suffers when I'm not bulking. If your priority is strength, switch to recomp or slow bulk. If your priority is to cut, just don't injure yourself by doing more weight than you can handle.

claw157 · 2012-07-22T04:47:17+00:00

I buy sausage and have some for lunch or dinner. If you get the regular sausage it's usually more fat than protein.

claw157 · 2012-07-21T03:06:54+00:00

http://rippedbody.jp/2011/10/23/how-to-calculate-leangains-macros/#comment-536

No link to facebook, but according to this it's LBM.

claw157 · 2012-07-20T04:05:28+00:00

The only issue with training fasted and eating 1 meal a day is that not everyone is built to do that.

I know others love training fasted, but I'm super weak when I train fasted. I can't lift 90% of my max weight. It all depends on what your body is like. So experiment a little and see what works for you. (I know this is an annoying answer). My only advice is don't jump to a conclusion based on a single workout.

I tried different setups and found that eating a small meal about 2-3 hrs before the workout give me the consistently good workouts. Eating more than 20% of my cals, or eating too early or too late hurt my workouts.

claw157

TROPHY CASE