Diet, Nutrition and SupplementationPost here for supplement reviews or nutritional advice. If you're trying to get "ripped abz" THIS is where you should be.
Is it necessary to count cals while gaining? I want to make sure I get enough cals and keep my macros in check, but I have really come to despise recording everything. I, of course, want to limit my fat gain as well. I've read about Adam's Diet, which appears to be more of a cutting diet. But, could it be used for gaining with minimal fat gain, if I just make sure to increase consumption and eat more total cals?
Well, other than when I was on StB, these days I use my past experience of counting cals to make an educated guess as to how many I take in. So I don't count every day. I have a very good sense of how much and how often I should be eating for gaining, maintaining, etc. Every 3 weeks or so I track on Fitday for a couple days just to see if I'm in still in line.
I think you can definitely do it without counting if #1 - You have experience and #2 - You are following the general guidelines of something like Adam's Diet.
you could easily do it without counting...but it'd be more effective (less fat gain) if you do.
Adamn's diet can work for gaining (in one of the threads a fella was gaining weight under it). Adam said that naturally most people will consume less calories eating under that style but not everyone [img]smile.gif[/img]
If you've been counting for some time, you've got a good idea of calories and macros.
When i dont count, i think about how many hours im awake - how many hours i can be eating.
To gain, I'd eat about 3200 cal per day, lets say. And sleeping 8 hours leaves me 16 hours to eat that. PWO i have a shake (350cal), which leaves me with 2850 calories to divide between about 16 hours of the day. Eat about every 3 hours, and you can fit in 5 meals. 2850/5 = 570 cal per meal. So id aim for atleast 500-550 cal per meal. about 600 for breakfast, and 600 for pwo meal - just estimating per meal (so you dont have to think numbers concerning the entire day every time)!
Im a nerd, and I wouldn't have it any other way
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Don't know how valid it is, but in one of JB's audio programs, he says that bulking on a low carb diet isn't a good idea. That you need the insulin response to build muscle.
He didn't say you needed a P+C/P+F diet, but just that the insulin response, protein, and lifting, creates the anabolic environment that's needed to build muscle. He claims that a low carb diet can add mass, but you'd get a high percentage of fat added.
That being said, if you did Adam's Diet, but bumped up the workout drinks and maybe had 1 or 2 higher carb meals after your workouts, that could do it.
That's close to the theory behind some of the "nutrient timing" diets that have been posted around lately. You keep at or below maint (and lower carb) on off days and before workouts. Then higher carbs after workouts, then back to low cal, low carb.
Of course, you'd have to subscribe to the theory that you can add muscle mass using only the post workout window of a few hours. I'm not sure that I do.
According to some of those articles, people have stayed lean (or even lost fat) while putting on muscle. But, who's to say that they wouldn't have done similarly well just on a regular bulking diet? A lot of people say that your muscles grow on off days, at night, etc. Who know? Both may be correct.
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