bumping fat instead of carbs?

[musclestack]

It seems like, when bulking, the general rule of thumb is to stay somewhere close to a 40/40/20 split. Why is this? What if I wanted to consume more calories but just can't stomach any more food? Assuming I'm getting plenty of complex carbs (420 grams), and I would like to get more cals, would it be okay to add 2-3 tbsp of EVOO or PB?? Would it be just as effective as far as adding mass goes?

By the way, I'm 5'9", 185lbs, 27yo, about 15%bf

[musclestack]

Hypothetically, let's look as a drastic example: What if I were around a 40/25/35 split?

[Back In Black]

Do you wanna list your proposed diet including macro's. How many cals are you planning on consuming, bearing in mind your maintenance is 2600 per day?

Also not sure I'd bulk at 15% and may wanna get down to about 12. Are you stopping your 'prime' early?

[gbrice75]

It simply depends on how you respond to the macro nutrients. Some people do better with higher carbs, some with higher fats. We're all different. Generally, I like to keep fats around 15%, and not over 20%. Fat intake simply doesn't need to be higher in most cases. Also bear in mind that fat is the most probable of the macro nutrients to be stored as fat... go figure. I'm not anti-fat btw, I just like keeping it in check.

Agree with Stem - I wouldn't bulk at 15%. I have in the past and wasn't happy with the result.

[musclestack]

Thanks guys!

Stem-No, I will be continuing my prime for another 2 weeks as planned. I'm just getting my up and coming bulk all fine tuned so I'm prepared. I'm really not too disappointed with my bodyfat right now, to be honest. By the way, I'm still holding quite a bit of water, so I'm probably not quite 15%. If I could figure out how to post a pic, I would. Regardless, as far as posting my proposed diet, that's what I'm working on right now. I just want to get an idea of where to place carbs and fats. My protein will be around 320g. My carbs somewhere around 400 and fats somewhere around 100, although I'm still working out carbs/fats.

Gbrice-Thanks for the input. I guess it will be more of a guess-and-check. As you may know, and as Stem already mentioned, I am "priming" right now, keeping carbs (and obviously cals) really low (about 120g per day). The idea is to ramp up cals in a hurry when I start to bulk again to take advantage of a (hopefully) anabolic state. Furthermore, my goals for the entire year of 2011 have been to put on as much size as possible, then I will follow it in Jan/Feb with a 14 week cut.

Thanks to both of you for the input. I will most likely start my cals just above where I left off on my bulk before I started priming and go from there. I will post up the official bulking diet sometime next week when I get it all sorted out before I start bulking again for you to critique.

[Back In Black]

A very quick calculation and you will be consuming 3700ish cals? 1000 over maintenance?

A 40/40/20 is a classic split. But as gb says, 20% is more than enough fat espesh if you are close to 4000cals. Your 100g of fat stated will provide about 25% total cals on a 3700cal diet. 45/40/15 is my preferred split which gives me a fairly lean bulk. You can be a little 'looser' with your carbs on a bulk adding some fruits at the right time, milk etc.

Interested to see your diet draft when you finalise it.

Have you had your bf checked, most people tend to underestimate where their levels are. Or post a pic.

[musclestack]

Yea, Stem, when I was bulking about 5 weeks ago, I was eating right at 3,700. Okay, so I'm leaning towards keeping fats at 100grams and adding a bit more carbs if needed.

Will definitely get that proposed diet plan to you sometime next week!