Diet FAQ #4: I'm stuck. What can I do to pack on some lean muscle mass?

[Animal Rep]

Well first off you’ve got to eat. Get your diet in check. You can’t expect to gain muscle mass or weight for that matter if you ain’t feeding your body with sufficient calories. All the training in the world won’t help ya unless you sort out your diet. A general guideline for “hardgainers” is to take in roughly 20 calories per pound of bodyweight. Break this down into a balance of quality protein, carbs, and essential fats and you're well on your way to making gains.

[Chubby]

but you can also lift heavy, focusing on core strength training, like squats, deadlifts, and bench press...Take your body weight, if you can bench your body weight, you well on your way to strength gains, & then size will follow...deadlifts helps stimulate IGF-1 or Insulin like Growth Factor 1, and that can increase muscle mass...sprints can help pack on mass as well, as that stimulates IGF-1...Good luck & let us know where your at with gains...

[farmstrength]

i want to gain some lean muscle mass but im a powerlifter who would eat everything in sight and im getting into bodybuilding i want to gain muscle and loss fat, i train 3 times a week in powerlifting and cardio isnt helping at all. can anyone give some good diet plans.

[sanga]

Do a search on diet section, there is a shit load of stuff on there that will put you straight mate.

[stephensteffe]

I am in Iraq as part of the fighting force, my work out split is insane, I know that this comes down to diet. I have to stay with in a certian amount of body fat. So the question is can you gain massive weight with out gaining fat?

[C.Coronato]

100% you can brother just keep your diet clean. You dont need any weigth gainers or anything like that. Stick to chicken, lean meats, fish, tuna, oats, eggs, brown rice, sweet potatoes .. i know its hard out there but just keep it as clean as you can and you won't gain too much fat.

[Beast Mode]

Just starting a bulk brothers. All this information is really helping. I'm about 190 and want to build up quality mass so I'm looking at 4000 cal 300 - 350 protein 600 carbs and as much fat as I happen to eat (not trans or sat of course). Sound right to you?

[C.Coronato]

Just starting a bulk brothers. All this information is really helping. I'm about 190 and want to build up quality mass so I'm looking at 4000 cal 300 - 350 protein 600 carbs and as much fat as I happen to eat (not trans or sat of course). Sound right to you?

That looks solid to start off with. Monitor your weight weekly and make sure your growing, if you hit a plateau you need to add more.

[LOGISTIX]

i want to gain some lean muscle mass but im a powerlifter who would eat everything in sight and im getting into bodybuilding i want to gain muscle and loss fat, i train 3 times a week in powerlifting and cardio isnt helping at all. can anyone give some good diet plans.

2 years ago I went from 6'1" 177 to 205 in about 7 months and still had good vascularity and definition that you are looking to achieve. I was a hard gainer and knew my problem, fast/high metabolism. So, in addition to my normal breakfast, I also took 1 Animal Pak, 1/2 cup of almonds, 1/2 an avocado and 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) I also tried to do this routine before bed if possible along with Universal's Amino 2250.Your body isn't doing anything while you sleep other than repairing torn muscle tissue and secreting growth hormone, etc. so you want to keep it in an anabolic state and feed those muscles. I also stayed away from Saturated fat such as whole milk, cottage cheese and too much beef and dark meat. By doing this, you maximize hormone production (especially testosterone) your liver can regulate insulin better, digest protein more efficiently and absorb grams of carbohydrates much slower, instead of fast, that would turn into excess unwanted body fat. These EFA's and healthy fats also lubricate your joints so you can do heavy weight as I have listed below.

For the training side of things, I did heavy squats such as 315 x 6 for 3 sets, deadlift 315 x 6 for 3 sets and really make sure you work your largest muscle groups to produce the most growth hormone. Don't forget your back, hams and calves. I don't know what cardio you were doing, but I know that the brazilian jiu-jitsu I was doing helped me get carved out of wood. For our warm up, we did 50 leg lifts x 2 on our back, TONS of stretching (good for blood flow) and leg extensions with toes pointed forward about 4 inches off the ground to failure.

Finally, although the HCG diet is legal, safe and very popular now, I won't comment on that in this forum.

[yates]

Just starting a bulk brothers. All this information is really helping. I'm about 190 and want to build up quality mass so I'm looking at 4000 cal 300 - 350 protein 600 carbs and as much fat as I happen to eat (not trans or sat of course). Sound right to you?

remember everyone is different some people might gain easy at 400g carbs but others with fast metabolism might need 6-800g...monitor it weekly and u may need to increase ur carbs as weeks move forward. i wouldnt take ur calories from Fat so lightly fats are a improtant ingredient in any mass building program. i would make sure u are getting atleast 100g fat daily and im not talking about the fat in chicken breast etc.. talking about added fats to some of your meals. rememder gram for gram fat has more then 2x as many calories as protein or carbs. so if ur having a hard time getting in the calories fats will help kick ur numbers up fairly easy. stick to (almonds, walnuts, avacodo, fish oil, olive oil, coconut oil, whole egg's, Natural peanut butter). Personally when i am trying to slam calories i find fats do decrease my appetite because they slow down the digestion of your food i find having them with your first meal and last 2 meals of the day really benificial that way ur body is digesting your meals throughout the day faster and ready for the next one. good luck!