About 6 months ago, I finally got back to weight training on a regular basis after being away from it for some time. This time, my goal wasn't just to get stronger for sport performance, but to get bigger as well. I've been really skinny my entire life, and I just felt like getting bigger and wanted to see if I could effectively build a noticeable amount of muscle as a vegan who's naturally so lean. As of today, I've gained 30 pounds while eating 4000 calories per day. A small of amount of that is definitely fat, but most of it is muscle. No drugs, no supplements (with the exception of b12, which I strongly suggest all vegans take), no bullshit. A lot of people, especially fellow vegans, have asked a lot of questions about how my eating habits had to change and what kind of weight training program I follow. This first post will focus on the diet aspect of bulking, and the second will focus on the training.
Note: I'm writing this with natural lifters like myself in mind. If you're taking steroids, none of this really applies to you. You can get away with eating like crap and training sub-optimally while still gaining muscle. If you feel like getting on the gear, go ahead. But there WILL be long-term effects on your health as a result. Also, enjoy your uncontrollable acne and testicular atrophy.
First off, in order to gain weight (muscle and/or fat. It's impossible to gain significant muscle without putting on a little bit of fat unless you're using), you need to eat at a caloric surplus. If the calories you take in are more than the calories you burn, you WILL gain either muscle or fat depending on how active you are and what kind of exercise you're engaging in. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about, and probably has a PhD in bro science. Different people will have different caloric needs because of their size, body type etc. But it all comes down to calories in versus calories out. Of course, some people may have conditions that make it much harder to either gain or lose weight (thyroid conditions, etc.). But they are the exception to the rule. The average healthy person can manipulate their weight as they desire. Notice that I said you must eat at a calorie surplus, not a protein surplus. I can't begin to estimate how many times I've spoken to guys trying to bulk who basically function solely on protein shakes/bars and expect to gain weight. It doesn't work that way. You can have an IV pumping whey protein into your bloodstream all day, but if you are not eating actual food that contains significant amounts of calories and other nutrients, you will not get bigger. Macronutrients are important for sure, but you can't just take in isolated protein, carbs or fats and expect to gain weight or be healthy. Taking protein powders all day is like eating table sugar straight-up by itself all day; it just doesn't make sense. This is the part where people come out of the woodwork with anecdotal bullshit about their friend who was at a caloric deficit, just drank protein shakes all day, and got totally fuckin jacked brah, etc. I don't doubt that their friend looked good, but I also don't doubt that they started out fat rather than skinny. Odds are that they built very little muscle; they simply lost the fat because they were eating at a caloric deficit and their muscularity became more visible. They also probably took a ton of supplements including a pre-workout that allowed them to exercise without taking in lots of carbs and fats to fuel them. In the long run, they will lose the muscle if they're not eating frequent large meals of actual food. I'm not saying a protein powder mixed into your morning smoothie won't help at all, but supplements cannot be focused on nearly as much as real, solid food. It's right there in the name; those products are meant to SUPPLEMENT your diet. You don't need a protein powder, but if you feel like it as a convenience, just keep it within reason. One more thing about eating enought calories: estimating is not good enough. You need to measure and count everything you eat, and actually know how many calories you are taking in, rather than roughly estimating. Skinny guys will eat less than they think they are unless they strictly count their calories, guaranteed.
The next thing that must be considered is spacing out your calories throughout the day. You can't eat the typical 3 meals per day while bulking. It would require you to eat incredibly massive meals, and you would gain more fat than you should. 5 or 6 meals per day will probably be necessary to meet your calorie needs while eating reasonably sized meals. I know it's probably inconvenient, but it's what has to be done. So what to eat for those 6 meals every day?
My staple calorie-heavy foods: rice, quinoa, pasta, oatmeal, potatoes, ramen (organic ramen without the MSG, preservatives, and whatever other shit is usually in the common brands), bread, nuts/nut butters.
Other foods that aren't as calorie-heavy, but good for you: fruit, vegetables (especially leafy greens)
Notice something about my staples? With the exception of nuts and vegetables, everything I eat is high in carbohydrates. I get maybe 400 calories per day from nuts and vegetables combined, and the other 3600 or so mainly from various sources of carbs. But aren't carbs are the enemy, and you'll get fat!? WRONG. Fact: every muscle fiber in the human body is fueled by sugar. If there is no sugar to be used, the body then turns to other substances that it has available, and that process is wasteful and inefficient. If you have celiac disease, you can still eat several of the foods I mentioned; they're gluten-free. If carbs made you fat, the majority of vegans would be fat. Why aren't they?
My macro ratios are something like this:
70% carbs
15% fats
15% protein
My rant about low-carb diets:
I 100% guarantee that anyone who eats low-carb either doesn't work out, works out lightly while eating few calories and is nowhere near any decent level of fitness (there is a difference between being thin and being fit), or is fit and operates on stimulants, usually caffeine. Why are carbs better than stimulants? Because you can use them as a regular fuel source without eventually getting adrenal exhaustion. You need carbs, and plenty of them. The idea that sugar should be considered a drug that's just as bad for you as cocaine is some of the most euphoric fedora-tipping bullshit I've ever heard in my life.
All of the low-carb gurus:
1. do not have a PhD in nutritional science, so why the fuck would you listen to a word they say about diet when there are more qualified individuals to listen to?
2. have no significant data to support their claims
3. are the vocal minority in the scientific community. Everyone truly qualified to give their opinion on diet unanimously disagrees with them.
4. are not fit. There are a couple of exceptions, but the vast majority of them are out of shape. The ones who are fit are not actually eating the diet they claim. Atkins, the original king of low-carb, had a history of hypertension and heart disease, and was fat as fuck when he died.
5. ARE FUCKING HYPOCRITES. They go on and on about how low-carb is natural. "Cavemen ate low-carb! Grains are poison! Processed foods of any kind are bad for you! .....but buy our whey protein and other assorted supplements, which are obviously processed but they're different because we said so." Follow the money.
By the way, the best available evidence shows that ancient humans ate tiger nuts (which contain lots of STARCH) as a main calorie source. http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/10/real-caveman-diet-research-shows-ancient-man-feasted-mainly-on-tiger-nuts/ (fuck Fox news, but it was the first result of a google search)
Now that I got that rant out of the way.....that's pretty much it for diet. Next, I'll go into some detail about the how's and why's of the weight training program I use.
No comments:
Post a Comment