Supplements

49DegreesNorth

A friends of mine asks me the following question that I thought of sharing with all of you : "Hi there, I am currently out of supplements and about to go to the GNC but before I did I wanted to know if you had any recommendations - I have cut down my running cause of an injury and wanting focus on strength and bulk BUT no fat. Do have any suggestions of what I should purchase and from where ? "

There is no simple answer to he question. Mainly because it denotes a lack of basic information.

I was thinking of answering him: Because your are a friend I want to help you reach your goals and not just waste money, please bear with me while I bore you with some information.
For muscular hypertrophy to occur, two things have to have to happen: the first is the breakdown of muscle fiber and the second is the reconstruction with more fibers than what was broken down.
For muscle breakdown you need to work out with weights above 70% of your one rep max (known as 1RM) so very very heavy sessions and with fairly low repetitions. 3 sets of 5-8 reps usually works well and no more than 2 or 3 exercises per muscle group.
Now for muscle reconstruction you need rest from the heavyweight sessions, as this is when muscle grows, and you need to be in a caloric surplus. This is why you should not exercise a muscle group more than once a week, twice if you have great recovery.
Let's talk about caloric surplus. In order to determine your requirements you need first to know what is your daily caloric expenditure based on your body type, weight and lifestyle. There are many online free calculators
Here is one:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Once you have determined your caloric maintenance requirement, you add 500 calories for the surplus.
Now let's get into the final phase: macros.
For optimal muscle development you need about 0.8 - 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.
Each gram of protein is about 4 calories
Now let's look at healthy fats: you will need about 10% of your total calories in fats. Each gram of fat is 9 calories. The balance will be carbohydrates (also 4 cals per gram)
So for example if the calculator gives you 1,800 cals per day, + 500 surplus = 2,300
If you weigh 170 lbs x 0.8 = 136 gr protein x 4 = 544 cals
Fats 10% of 2,300 = 230 cals / 9 = 25 grams
For carbs 2,300 - 544 - 230 = 1,526 cals / 4 = 381 grams
Finally we are coming to the conclusion of this dissertation.
Now that you know what your macros breakdown should be we can start talking about nutrition and supplementation.
But what do supplements ... supplement? They are used to supplement an eventual lack of reaching your daily macros. So if you are not able through regular nutrition to reach these values you use supplements to help you meet these requirements. Read the labels for their macros and ingredients to find which one suits best.
Now understandably - unless totally committed - you are not going to weigh every single piece of food on a scale. It will take some practice. But with time you will be able to mentally calculate the macros of a plate just by looking at it.
If you are really motivated you can use www.myfitnesspal.com to log in your food and it returns calories and macros. It's a great place to start. I use their app everyday.
So let's get to the last part of the question: bulk without fat. In one word: impossible. What you can do is limit the amount of fat you put on. You can do cardio but too much cardio will hinder your bulking capabilities. And you must be weary of the risk of overtraining. You should be happy if you are gaining on average 0.5 lbs per week. (26 lbs per year) The ratio of fat to lean mass will probably range from 1 : 1 or less if you can (1 lbs fat for every lb of muscle). But not too much less: you goal is bulk. Potentially 12 / 13 lbs of lean muscle mass. (0.5 per week x 52 weeks / 2 as 50% will be fat) A great result. As your weight increases don't forget to recalculate your macros.
Shedding fat will not be a problem: once you have reached your weight goal, you gradually reduce you caloric intake (key word GRADUALLY ) which means -100 cals a week for a total of 500 cals deficit (-1000 from bulk)
Keep in mind you will burn fat more easily as you have more muscle mass that burns through calories and you will have increased your metabolic rate. While cutting you will also use higher (reps 3 x 10 or even 12 ) and slightly lighter weights
Also I am in my bulking phase: my body far went from 10% to 14%, but I'm not worrying, just keeping it slow and steady and in February will start cutting to trim to - possibly - 9% by July.

Take a look at www.bodybuilding.com
Other than a good source for integrators and supplements at good prices it gives you many insights and workout plans that are fun to follow. "

I know I will be prolix and probably am oversimplifying but I feel that some additional information is useful in helping to achieve his goals

What do you guys think? Anything that should be changed?

psuLemon

Here is my feedback:

1. I would question the volume as exercise. Generally, it is beneficial to train the same body parts every 48 hours.
2. Protein is .8-1g per lb of lean body mass
3. Fat generally is recommended to be around .4g per lb of lean body mass (at least according to the likes of AlanAragon, Lyle McDonald and several others I have read
4. Surplus... the question is, do you want to clean bulk or do a starndard bulk. There is some evidence that would suggest a surplus of 250 or 10% of over TDEE might improve the fat/muscle ratio
5. Cutting post bulk, yes, while muscle does burn fat, the claims are highly exaggerated. If you gain 12 lbs of muscle at max it would burn an extra 70 calories (~6calories per lb).

I do have links to back this up, but can't access my google drive at work.

49DegreesNorth

Great! thx for the feedback!

psuLemon

49DegreesNorth wrote: »

Great! thx for the feedback!

Oh if you want to know more specifically about supplements check out www.examine.com . Most are fairly ineffective.

And the one thing i did miss was went you are cutting you do not have to do higher reps. Your reps should be according to your goals. And in many cases noobs are recommended to try 3 full body workouts like SL, SS, NROL4W or Strong curves. But overall its about maximizing volume.