Modern bulking with aged training

[roguemedic]

Yo guys, *first post*

Im 150lbs, up from 127 about 4 years ago and I want to pack on some beef over the next year. Im seeing a lot of people suggesting macros as high as 400-600 carbs, 300-400 protein, 150-200 fats. My god, I cant imagine eating this much (explains why im 150 lol) Should I taper up to these higher amounts or just go for it? Im eating about 3000cal a day in 3 meals.

Also, 3 meals a day really works for me. My metabolism is retarded high and with the amount of food I eat now, im on the verge of insanity by the time my next meal comes which makes it easy to go right to pound town every meal. I would like to pair my uptake in calories with a 3 day/week full body routine...sounds fun and really challenging. Is it worth it? Or should I be sticking to basic 5x5 style lifting? Im also wondering if carb cycling would help out or if I should just go mental for full effect. Im not worried about being lean, I wanna get as much power and bulk on while im still young.

Side note* Will an increase in overall calorie intake help me recover? Im eating a lot compared to how I used to but the weights im putting up make me feel like Ive been hit by a train the next day, even though they are not impressive weights. I have my vitamins/minerals/fiber/fish oils on lock, but that does not seem to help. I also keep my form as good as I know how.

I know theres a bit of scatter brain stuff on here, but im really trying to get this right. TBH its no secret how I ended up here, but in doing my due diligence ive realized I have some natty diet work to improve upon. Thanks guys,

RM

[Damienm05]

See below excerpt from my info packet first:

"Stats – BMR and TDEE are the two figures that can tell us a lot about how we should be
eating based on our goals.
Let’s start with BMR. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. AKA – how many calories you
burn each day by just sitting on your ass. In order to figure out your BMR, you need to
know what your lean body mass is. In turn, you need to know what your body fat
percentage is.
If you don’t know your body fat percentage, remind me to test it for you before we
proceed. If you’d rather not do a caliper test, just tell me and I’ll give you a pretty good
visual estimate. Generally, men have a “6-pack” at around 12% body fat and under but
anything under 18% is “fit” compared to the average person. For women, Shakira and
Beyonce are examples of what 20% body fat looks like – so don’t go thinking you want
to hit anything below 15% (most female bodybuilders take stage at just below that).
Remember, body fat percentage is everything, not weight. From this point forward, when
we meet to discuss training/nutrition, don’t talk to me about weight… we’re talking about
bettering the way you look and feel and that often means gaining weight, while losing
body fat because muscle weighs more. Anyway, we’ll get into all that later.
With your bf % in hand, here’s the formula:
BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)
Total weight x bf % in decimal form = total bf weight
Total weight - total bf weight = total lean body mass
For example:
I am 6'1 210 lbs at 10% body fat... so I would multiply 210 by .10 (converted from
percent to decimal) = 21 lbs
210 – 21 = 189 lbs lean body weight
189 / 2.2 = 86.0 lean mass in kg
370 + (21.6 x 86) = 2227.6 BMR (this is high for the average person)

Now that we have a BMR figure, we can move on to TDEE. Total Daily Energy
Expenditure. This is how many calories we actually use during the day via our BMR and
activities such as work, exercise and various tasks. We can figure this number out with
simple math but be honest because this figure is to be the cornerstone of your diet and
healthy lifestyle. We need to determine your activity level. We’ll choose from a few
levels:
 If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie - Calculation = BMR x 1.2
 If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation =
BMR x 1.375
 If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): Calorie-
Calculation = BMR x 1.55
 If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation =
BMR x 1.725
 If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training):
Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
For example:
I train with weights 5 days for 90 minutes per week. I play hockey three times per week
for 90 minutes. I do 60 minutes of cardio training 5 times per week as well. I also practice
my sport 3 times per week for 90 minutes. Either via skating or puck/shooting drills. All
are high-intensity. I am between very and extra active. Let’s say BMR x 1.8. My TDEE is
4010.
This is how many calories you can eat and still break even. To lose weight, we must eat
below this number. To gain, we must eat above it. 1000 calories below your TDEE daily,
will result in negative 7000 calories per week. Remember, 3500 calories is one pound of
fat loss; so you’re losing two pounds per week. And that’s with just diet alone. Now, let’s
factor in additional caloric deficit via cardio. Say, you also run for 45 minutes in the
morning and burn 600 calories in the process. That puts you at negative 1600 calories per
day. Now we’re talking four pounds per week. Imagine (and I don’t recommend this) if
you ate 1500 below your TDEE and ran for 2 hours per day, burning 1600 calories in the
process, putting you at negative 3200 calories daily. Now we’re talking about a pound per
day. You could be at your goal weight in a matter of weeks. However, this would destroy
your BMR and make you gain weight back quickly if you started eating normally again
without a gradual increase in calories over several months. Please, don’t do yourself a
disservice by overestimating your activity level – the worst thing you can do is set your
calories too high because you think that playing ping-pong and doing a few pull-ups a
couple times per week counts as a lot of activity."

Okay, now once you are armed with your TDEE, you'll want to set your calories above that number instead of arbitrarily picking your macros based on what others have told you. 500-800 calories over TDEE is a nice bulk if you're not prone to gaining fat, just please monitor closely with pictures and/or bodyfat testing and adjust accordingly.

I can pretty much guarantee that at your size anything over 250g protein/day is major overkill. Hell, at my size anything over 250g is overkill. I'd also say 100g of fat is perfectly sufficient. That's 1900 calories right there -- fill in the difference with complex carbs (fruit, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, etc). So using 3900 calories as a sample, that's 500g of carbs. If getting all that food down is a problem for you (I wish I had that problem, lol), just try to deal with it and eventually your body will adjust. If you're finding it too hard, maybe look into some sort of weight-gainer shake. Just be advised these are not a true substitute for good whole food.

P.S. YES -- provided you're getting enough rest and training properly, tons of quality calories will have the single biggest impact on your recovery speed and the quality of gains. Probably even moreso than a low-dose test cycle.

[Windex]

You need to be in control of your own body and find out what works best for you. There are general guidelines (for example damian gave great food suggestions) but someone else's macros or caloric intake is completely irrelevant to you.

3 Meals isn't really enough. Preworkout + Postworkout is 2 meals. plus first meal of day. You should organize a way to have 4-6 meals per day. Also, eating a huge amount of calories in a single meal representing a large % of your daily caloric intake is not healthy.

Everything has a ceiling and a floor, so this is where education and common sense come in. Obviously, only 20 grams of protein per day is not sufficient (floor) and 350 grams of protein is overkill (ceiling)

Like Damien mentioned, step one is calculating the TDEE/BMR.

You should also read all the sticky threads and invest some time in nutrition education. Something as simple as 10-20 minutes of reading per day will take you a long way.

Understand the differences between fat types, learning about digestion, discovering what micronutrients do what in your body will take you a lot farther and give a much higher success then blindly following information.

Beyond reading, you can also listen to lectures, podcasts, and seminars. Make sure of the quality of the material. Well referenced is key.

Give a man a fish, he's full for one meal. teach a man to fish, he is never hungry again.

[AlphaMindz]

You've gotten some very valuable info from these guys.

I have a few things to add that will help you as well.

Don't focus on calories, focus on macros. Figure out gradually how much of each macro you need to get results. A good starting point is 1.5-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, 2 grams of carbs, and .75 grams of fat....Once you're consistently taking that in then you will quickly see if you need to increase or decrease a particular macro....and which macro you decide to adjust will be based on how you look and feel. If you feel kind of flat then def up your carbs first, if still flat then also increase fats. Protein shouldn't go higher than 2 grams per pound of body weight.

[roguemedic]

Thank you guys for the great info! It wont go to waste, Ive got the tools I need. I also read Windex's HUGE article on nutrition and all my questions have been answered. Thanks again guys

[roguemedic]

Okay so, 150lb and approx 15%bf (great 6 pack in good lighting) equals 58kg lean mass, put into the BMR formula Im at 1,622.8. Moderate-active TDEE (1.55) puts me at 2515.34. Because I dont put on fat easily im going with the upper end bulk calories (will monitor mirror and adjust accordingly.) 3300cal a day. Im missing out on 300 extra calories a day! Plus getting whole foods in there is gonna increase the volume im eating as well. Taking in Windex's advice about pre/post nutrition I can forsure make that happen (oatmeal/whey pre, gatorade/whey post.) All of my other meals will be solid/whole foods. If I start to maintain a certain weight well start tapering up 500cal/day so an extra 3500cal surplus/week. I respond super well to carbs, so im guessing the pre workout nutrition im getting in is going to help a ton. Thank you guys!

Paired with full body 3x/week I think this is gonna be right where I need to be.