2 More Weeks in Hyp II -Slight Gains - Eatting Issues

[tall_drinka_h20]

I have struggled with my diet through Hyp II, I should be eatting over 4000 calories and am off 500 continuously. I have managed to add 2 lbs in 6 weeks (I have lost fat as well) and have increased my weights and feel stronger, but feel frustrated by my lack of size. I am supposed to be bulking and I am looking more ripped than anything.
I hate rice, potatoes, pasta and bread - never liked it, never craved it, never will... I force myself to eat them, but just can't get the quantities I know my body wants without forcing it down. I feel like I have a psychological barrier with unclean food that is keeping me from the size I want to be. Being an ectomorph sucks! Should I repeat Hypertrophy after this and hit the food harder, or move on to Strength as I had planned?

[tcoy777]

Move on. You will still be able to add a lot of muscle if you eat during Strength 1.

[tall_drinka_h20]

Thanks. Looking forward to the change... sometimes I think I should just eat and work out and not think about what I am doing so much, might get better results. lol.

[flagmonkey]

I got the same problems with my diet, most of the time I eat crap from the books garbage list, i also don't eat regular. Sometimes the first thing I eat ist at 2 p.m after beeing awake for 8 hours.

Hope that will get better with the workouts, because they already make me very hungry.

[qirin]

eating right is probably the second biggest challenge a weightlifter faces. human nutrition is a poorly understood science at best, and you really have to play it by ear. however, if you don't eat enough, you aren't going to grow. it's that simple. your body needs calories in order to produce muscle, so if you are losing weight you are in caloric deficit and you are not going to substantially increase lean body mass.

you can see small increases in mass and still lose weight. some people see dramatic increases in mass along with fat loss when they start surfing and stuff. but that is usually only the case if they have never exercised before.

you will see an exponential increase in your rate of muscular development once your caloric intake becomes positive. you will be able to gain as much muscle in a week as you did in a month before. but you have to eat, and you have to eat a lot. probably a lot more than you realize.

say you weigh 200 pounds. that means you have a base metabolic rate of 2200 calories. you probably burn another 300 getting cokes from the fridge and standing in line at the ATM. if you work out, you probably burn another 500. and if you want to build muscle, you need to add another 500 or so for that. so right there, that's 3500 calories. that's your baseline. but to trigger your metabolism to grow, you need to eat a little more than that, so that brings it up to 3600. but then, as is explained in NROL, if you lift and if you are eating a lot, your BMR goes up. so to be safe, you probably need to eat around 4000 calories.

that's twice what the government recommends.

the thing is, it doesn't need to be 4000 quality calories. I know it is sacrilege to say this, but I remember seeing some pretty built hockey players when I was in college eating, literally, two breakfasts. eggs, sausage, bacon, waffles, toast. piled high.

people talk about caloric ratios. you know, like the zone diet says 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. the USDA recommendation is 60% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fat, and as you probably know, that turns out to be a whole lot of carbs.

the truth is, the average american who isn't counting calories gets about 60% of their calories from fat. if you cant stomach huge bowls of oatmeal, you might have to do the same.

so remember those big hockey players I mentioned? well, they weren't fat. they were built. they could eat all those calories because their bodies needed them.

the problem is, they still face the same long term repercussions as anyone does for eating that kind of food: heart disease, colon cancer, high cholesterol, etc. but that's if you eat like that your whole life. no one says you have to. it's pretty easy to retain muscle once you have it. it's a lot harder to grow it. so my advice to you is forget about trying to be healthy until you pack some weight on.

if you dont like normal carbs, even the crap kind (like waffles and so on), then eat beans. beans are full of carbs. eat cliff bars and corn chips or whatever. but you have to eat, you have to eat breakfast and you have to eat frequently. and most importantly, eat after you work out.

the more crap you eat the more likely that any caloric excess you have going on is going to turn into fat. but if that's what it takes to build muscle, then maybe that's what you need. you can lose the fat later.

[flagmonkey]

Originally Posted by qirin

if you dont like normal carbs, even the crap kind (like waffles and so on), then eat beans. beans are full of carbs. eat cliff bars and corn chips or whatever. but you have to eat, you have to eat breakfast and you have to eat frequently. and most importantly, eat after you work out.

I think eating enough and the right things will be the hardest part for me, harder than every workout. I just hate breakfast. Don't know why, just know I always did. Today I forced myself to eat fifteen pieces of cereals with milk. I guess you have to start somewhere and learn how to eat, even when you're 29.

[Moveon]

I find that getting those last 500 or so carbs are easier for me if I use fruit juices. It's more liquid. It's not as filling. Apple, grape, cranberry--any juice that's naturally sweet. Check the lablel and stay AWAY from the High-frutose corn syrup stuff. 100% juice. Three or four glasses a day will add on those marginal calories that are so important.

[allenkt]

Holy cow...4000 calories. Really? I am a 39 year old male that weighs 177 lbs and I have a very hard time getting over 3000. I only have one workout left in Hypertrophy 1 and I've been able to keep my weights going up and have seen some decent gains. I guess it's just hard for me to eat that much because I seem to put on fat very easily so I'm always afraid I'm just going to put on more fat. I probably average 2500 calories a day. But you guys are saying that if I upped it by 1000 calories or so I could put on muscle and not just carry around more fat??

[tall_drinka_h20]

Guess it depends on your body type - I have a hard time adding weight unless I drink a 6 pack of beer every day and sit on my ass. My eatting habits have always been quite clean, and I am on my feet all day at work too, so I fight the 'eternal skinny man' thing.