First post (Your opinion is apprec.)

[solkor]

Hey,

My name is JD. After years of neglect, I am now taking my bodybuilding very seriously. Cycling is in my future, but def not yet.I am looking to make up for lost time, and hit a serious clean bulk. Minimal fat gain of course, but it's cool if I have a bit. I want maximum muscle gain. I would appreciate your opinion
on my question at the bottom of this thread.

Stats.

Sex: M
Age: 26
Height: 5,10
Weight: 165
BF %: 16

Training program: 6 days/week, 3 day split. 30 min slow cardio 5 times per week. Arnolds basic 3 day core split from the encyclopedia.

After years of neglect, I am getting back into training. I believe my body is very receptive to the workouts. Looking for 20-30lbs first year lean muscle gains.

RMR: about 1837
BMR: 1806 x 1.55 = 2799

*Question*

How many daily calories would you reccomend for maximum muscle gain?

g of carbs/day?
g of protein/day?
g of fat/day?

I am familiar, and confident in food pairings (low glycemic, pwo, ppwo, and the such)
Just, not the most confident on the total calories, and carb levels.

Thanks,

JD.

[Rugger02]

Looks like you'll be sitting somewhere around 4k calories per day. Maybe a tad less.

450g carbs = 1800 calories
320g protein = 1280 calories
102g fat = 918 calories

IMO this would be a good place to start. I would normally suggest a 40 40 20 for you to start off and adjust from there, but I think 400 grams of protein a day is overdoing it a bit, so I compensated by upping your fats and carbs, If this doesn't give you the results you're looking for you could tweak the ratios a little and see how you respond to a higher protein intake.

Lets see some other opinions on this.

BTW good first post and I wish you the best of luck getting back on track. Keep us posted.

[solkor]

Looks like you'll be sitting somewhere around 4k calories per day. Maybe a tad less.

450g carbs = 1800 calories
320g protein = 1280 calories
102g fat = 918 calories

IMO this would be a good place to start. I would normally suggest a 40 40 20 for you to start off and adjust from there, but I think 400 grams of protein a day is overdoing it a bit, so I compensated by upping your fats and carbs, If this doesn't give you the results you're looking for you could tweak the ratios a little and see how you respond to a higher protein intake.

Lets see some other opinions on this.

BTW good first post and I wish you the best of luck getting back on track. Keep us posted.

I appreciate it man, thanks.

I am drop dead serious, and not "fad serious". A real commitment, and whatever it takes approach. I am not just lifting some weights, but I am now
a student of bodybuilding, and a new regular on this forum. (although I will be mooching, and sucking the marrow from the wise for the first while)

Thanks for the input, and am a little sketchy on the 300+ protein per day.
Milo, and many others are dead set on blasting the prot, and old schoolers like Arnold, and such reccomend only 1g per lb. Mentzer even preaches a ridiculously lower amount than 1g.

But, through a bunch of calculations, I am pretty sure I will be up to 4k as well, the prot seems high, but I am also aware of the need for a proper ratio.

Thanks again Rugger,

JD.

[Rugger02]

I agree on your hesitation on the protein, but honestly I wouldn't want to bring you much higher than what I wrote out above in carbs or fat either. I am currently lean bulking (my first real bulk actually) and I put my calories just barely above maintenance. Between that and my carb up day on Sundays, I ended up with an exceptional bulk. And for the first time in I can't remember how long I actually dropped below 10% bf. This is at the same time as adding 6lbs of muscle.

Your dedication in this matter will definately pay off. If you stay completely consistent in what you eat each day, it's 1000% easier to correct the structure of your diet. If you change what you eat and your caloric intake daily, and then if you do end up making a change to your percentages, you won't know with any degree of certainty why your results changed.

Before my bulk, my diet had been the same for almost a year. Then I eliminated all shakes. I found that just by doing that I increased my vascularity, it was noticable in just under 3 weeks. Without knowing how I was responding to the diet I was on, I would have never found those results. So stick with it and keep a close eye on appearances and BF%.

I'm sure that just from reading on here you already know a lot of the guys that know their stuff in the diet forum. All I have to say is use them. There's not a better place to learn how to diet than right here.

[FallenWyvern]

You are correct that protein amount is debatable but where should you get the extra calories from? 30%pro 40%carbs 30%fats is about as low as I would go for protein.

I think Ruggers advise is very good. That is what I would do.

Good first post.

[solkor]

Hey,

Just wanted to add a few pics to this thread, and maybe a few of you will have some other ideas, or thoughts on my diet, and possibly what body type I am for sure. This body is the result of a horrible diet.

Any muscle groups that you think would require extra attention, or am I pretty much good to just blast away at my body evenly?