Originally Posted by
I have received several PM's about diet lately.
A while ago, I posted the following information in a thread, but it got burried among other things. Therefore, I'm reposting it here as a separate thread, so people can now easily find it, comment on it, and add to it.
This post has a few calculations in it. If you go through it slowly, you'll understand it very easily.
Here's the PM I received that originally sparked this post:
Here's my response:
Yes that is correct. For the sake of demonstration, let's say you weigh 85 lbs and you want to gain 15 lbs on your first cycle, then you would use 100lbs (85lbs + 15lbs) as your weight when calculating any food consumption. The traditional way to do this is to use 1.5 times your weight. So 1.5 x 100= 150 grams of protein per day.
Now we know that 1 gram of protein = 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories (in other words protein and carbohydrates both yeild 4 calories per gram). We also know that fat yeilds 9 calories per gram).
There's one more piece that's missing before you do the rest: You have to determine what your maintenance calorie intake is. I'm about to tell you the quick and dirty way. You have to have to keep track of your calories and determine at what level of calories you start loosing weight (Bad! Not eating enough); at what level of calories you maintain your weight--neither growing nor losing weight (Okay. But the point is to grow); at what level of calories you start gaining muscle weight steadily (Excellent! That's what we're after); and what weight you gain muscle but a lot of fat (Bad! We want to look good).
Once you determine your maintenance weight ("Okay"), you add several calories to it until you find your growth level ("Excellent").
Let's assume you've done all the experimenting and keeping track of your food intake. You find find that at 2000 cal, you maintain; at 3000 cal, you grow; and at 4000, you put on too much fat. So, you have determined that the amount of calories you want to eat per day is 3000.
Now, back to the calculations:
Generally your fat should be 10-15% of diet calories, the protein is determined by the calculations above and your carbohydrates should be the rest. You've determined that you need 150 grams of protein per day. So 150 grams of protein X 4 calories per gram = 600 calories of protien. So 3000 calories (your daily calorie intake determined above) - 600 = 2400. 10% of fat = 3000 X 0.10 = 300 fat calories (300/9 = approximately 33 grams of fat per day) and the rest is carbohydrate calories (3000 total daily calories - 600 protein calories - 300 fat calories = 2100 carbohydrate calories). 2100/4 = approximately 525 grams of carbohydrates. Remember these numbers are skewed terribly because we originally assumed you were only 85 lbs trying to add 15 lbs. Your numbers will look different when you do the actual calculations for your true weight and goals.
So to go from 85lbs to a huge 100lbs of total body weight you would need to eat the following:
3000 cal per day consisting of:
a. 33 grams of fat per day = 300 calories (approximately)
b. 150 grams of protein per day = 600 calories
c. 525 grams of carbs per day = 2100 calories
If you are getting to fat or not gaining enough, add or subtract calories by adjusting only your carbs.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Best of luck. Lift hard.
P.S.
You have to adjust your calories and use cardio to get cut. Since this is your first cycle, I would focus on bulking first and cutting later. It's very hard to do both at the same time. Your first cycle, if done correctly, will probably yeild your biggest gains you'll ever get on any cycle (lasting for the same amount of time as your first).
So, yes, your protein intake should remain the same. Just adjust your carbs as noted above.
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